Square Enix Sells Deus Ex and Tomb Raider IPs, Eidos Montreal, Crystal Dynamics, and More to Embracer Group
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Comments
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Monday, May 02, 2022 @ 09:00 AM
Sad news cause I thought they did a fantastic job on both franchises.
…could be a slippery slope for both now, only time will tell I guess.Monday, May 02, 2022 @ 09:37 AM
I have two hopes with this
1) They dont immediately lay-off 90% of the workers forced into this aquisition
2) We finally get a new Deus Ex, or ground-up remakes of the og gamesMonday, May 02, 2022 @ 09:43 AM
I’m honestly a bit surprised they didn’t try to sell the Avengers IP (perhaps they can’t?)Monday, May 02, 2022 @ 10:37 AM
Considering Square Enix’s unrealistic expectations for every single game they’ve made in the last decade, and how seemingly every one of them has “under-performed” in their eyes, I’m hoping that Embracer do right by the employees, the franchises and the fans, because they sure as shit can’t do worse than Squeenix.Monday, May 02, 2022 @ 10:54 AM
I'm quite worried the next step is that the rest of it gets snapped up by Sony and we never see any more JRPGs on Xbox. I mean, it's already hit or miss now, and with FF16 and FF7R it seems inevitable.Monday, May 02, 2022 @ 01:04 PM
Oh, wow. TR and Deus Ex.Monday, May 02, 2022 @ 02:00 PM
One thing is, CD and EM did draw a profit... but it was very small in comparison to SE as a whole (like I think the stat floating around is CD had a 3% profit margin, Montreal was less than 1%, and SE as a whole had a 14% margin).
The TR games are massively expensive, hundred million dollar plus projects. The fact that they sell millions, and the fact that they still don't sell what SE wanted is not mutually exclusive. One thing is that CD is in San Francisco--basically the most expensive place in the US to live/work, which drives up all the costs that go into these games.
Not helping is the mishandling of the Marvel Licenses, which were terrible and hurt both CD and EM more than the rest of the company.Monday, May 02, 2022 @ 02:19 PM
I was saddened by this as I thought cd would have been a great pick up by Xbox. And they seemed to really like working with them. My Twitter has been being blown up all day with people saying now Xbox can just buy the embracer group. And yea they could. Would only cost them 13-18B which they could afford. But rn they can’t do much one way or another. If time passes and they do acquire embracer I hope that they keep most of their games multiplatform.Monday, May 02, 2022 @ 05:18 PM
@OG T800 A remake of the original DE in a new engine would be fantastic. I'd even take an Invisible War remake. I know that game was panned by fans, but I enjoyed it; especially how nutty the final level got if you pitted everyone against each other.
I would have preferred MS acquiring these IPs though. Just think about what Arkane could do with that Deus Ex license...Monday, May 02, 2022 @ 06:52 PM
With SE going hard on NFTs & blockchain nonsense, how long till they take a page from Konami and piss all over their history, making some unholy pachinko & NFT mash up.Tuesday, May 03, 2022 @ 09:26 AM
Like the Pants Party said I am very worried that they are looking for Sony to acquire them (it is rumored a lot now). SE is the company that I play more games then anyone in my life.
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Monday, May 02, 2022
Embracer Group, the sprawling mega company who owns THQ Nordic, Saber Interactive, and Gearbox Software, to name but a few, have entered an agreement with Square Enix to acquire a whole bunch of IP, and their corresponding studios. Among the franchises set to be acquired by Embracer, are Tomb Raider, Deus Ex, and Thief.
More than 50 other IPs will also come are part of the $300 million deal, which will be on a “cash and debt-free basis, to be paid in full at closing,” and see Embracer Group expanding by approximately 1,100 employees. Deus Ex developer Eidos Montréal and Tomb Raider studio Crystal Dynamics will be included in the agreement.
The acquisition is set to close during Embracer's 2022-23 fiscal year, which lands between July and September 2022. It means that the upcoming new Tomb Raider title, developed using Unreal Engine 5, will release under the Embracer umbrella. Square Enix, meanwhile, attributes the sale to “changes underway in the global business environment".
Square Enix added: “In addition, the transaction enables the launch of new business by moving forward with investments in fields such as blockchain, AI, and the cloud.” The company will continue to release games from its studios in Japan, as well as external studios, and Square Enix Collective label, and “publish franchises such as Just Cause, Outriders, and Life is Strange.”
“We are thrilled to welcome these studios into the Embracer Group,” Embracer Group co-founder and CEO Lars Wingefor commented. “We recognise the fantastic IP, world-class creative talent, and track record of excellence that have been demonstrated time and again over the past decades. It has been a great pleasure meeting with leadership teams and discussing future plans for how they can realise their ambitions and become a great part of Embracer."
Embracer currently has over 230 game IPs and more than 30 AAA games under its belt, with in excess of 14,000 employees, 10,000 game developers, and 124 internal studios. “This acquisition will bring additional scale to Embracer’s current AAA segment, and Embracer will have one of the largest pipelines of PC/Console games content across the industry, across all genres,” Wingefors added.