Embracer Group To Acquire Crystal Dynamics, Square Enix Montréal, Eidos-Montréal, Plus IPs For $300 Million

Righty then. Someone else going to reboot Tomb Raider again and do nothing with Legacy of Kain.

Geez, this is a lot to unpack. I'm still trying to process what this means. So, they didn't buy out Square Enix entirely, just a few of its divisions, correct? I'm not sure whether this is a good thing or a bad thing. I know a lot of consumers strongly dislike large-scale acquisitions like this, but I think there are situations where they can definitely be a positive thing. For example--when an IP holder is just sitting on the rights to a property and making either poor or no use of it. Or, in the obvious case of Activision, when someone with better workplace ethics and customer loyalty can swoop in and repair their seemingly irredeemable public relations.

I wonder if this might increase the likelihood of franchises like Tomb Raider finally coming to the Switch. That'd be really cool to see. But, I guess only time will tell. THQ was a great company that unfortunately went bankrupt, so I was very glad to see them reopen their doors when they merged with Nordic. They've been doing pretty well for themselves since then. Very excited for SpongeBob: The Cosmic Shake. I hope we can expect something similar here.

Gotta love that Square mentioned blockchain here too. I hate them so much it’s unreal

Not that Nintendo gamers saw a lot of these games over the time.
At least, there was Deus Ex on Wii U, which almost no one bought. And Tomb Raider Legend on GC and Anniversary and Underworld on Wii.

I hope they do something with the legacy of Kain IP. Even re releasing the old games would be nice.

@moodycat Next thing you know, they sell Hudson. Which would actually be amazing since they don't do anything with it anyways most of the time besides an online Bomberman and a mixed Bomberman reboot also mobile games that'll never exist to me.

Doubling down on Japanese business I suppose. I haven't played much of the mentioned studios games but it always felt a bit strange that the Final Fantasy guys had Tomb Raider, etc

Not good… not good man.

So a better chance at Gex remakes, if I'm not mistaken? And I guess another Tomb Raider reboot which I wouldn't mind entirely.

So will Tomb Raider start actually being good now? Had enough of psycho NuLara Crap.

Square Enix states in its press release that "the Transaction enables the launch of new businesses by moving forward with investments in fields including blockchain, AI, and the cloud."

So Square Enix sold all of their western development studios...to fund blockchain (and presumably NFTs)?

What is wrong with Square Enix???

@moodycat

Maybe they want to do the Konami Way, with Pachinko and NFTs

This means basically nothing to me. I played the first Tomb Raider reboot and messed around a little with Deus Ex back on the 360, but I largely ignore anything from them that's not an RPG.

So they’re selling a load of their Western studios from their previous attempt to follow the trend of more Western games during the 7th Gen and now moving into the current supposed “trend” of blockchain and stuff.

Somehow I have a feeling things may not go entirely to plan.

And yet the Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters stayed tied to phones & PCs.

Considering the prices paid for Activision and, more to the point, Bungie (with its one game), does this seem cheap? Destiny for $3.6bn or all of those Eidos games for $300m? Square must have really wanted to drop these studios.

@westman98 How did you make that little quote box in your comment? I've never seen that before.

Embracer Group has been growing so rapidly the past few years, that I have no idea how this is going to affect things.
It will certainly be a large and diverse family these studios enter.

Embracer recently acquired Gearbox, who bought the Duke Nukem franchise -and- SlipGate Ironworks, who bought the 3D Realms name and back catalog.

For what it's worth, Embracer is amassing and reuniting a lot of old IP and development houses.

@BloodyMurder

Oh yeah, i couldn't stand her at all, the old one was just overall cool and badass.
That Teenie Stuff wasn't just for me, also, the Quick Time Events are bugged on the PC, what a Mess.
Nah, i have more Fun playing the old ones with their very oldish Control Scheme.

To the Topic again:

Square Enix wasn't satisfied with the Sales of the Games, they have way to high Expectations, no Wonder they sell it off.

@OorWullie
NintendoLife comment sections uses BBCode. Look that up on Wikipedia for more info.

I think this just shows Square Enix are confident in making fun Japanese style games and pricing and marketing them, but are holding their hands up and saying the triple A western market hasn’t been a success for them. Sensible business strategy.

Square Enix owning Eidos never felt quite right (Like Daimler Chrysler)

Sounds like good news to me, Square Enix doesn't seem to want to do anything with most of those franchises.

Here's hoping for a Legacy of Kain game and a Deus Ex which isn't rushed for a release date?

Square is absolutely not the same quality company it once was.

And the acquisition train continues. An interesting piece of news to wake up to.

@NotArmani if Konami is acquired then Hudson probably still won’t show up much, if at all. If Hudson IP is acquired from Konami that may change the situation for the better. But I’m not sure Hudson IP is proving enough modern value for a big buy like that. So probably just licensing by smaller, interested studios, or if Konami decides to do something itself for some modest profit is the most likely way we see more Hudson.

I was NEVER happy with Eidos IP wearing the Squenix brand, so I have no problem with this at all. The buyout was during their "Westernization" phase. As Squenix slowly remembers that ALL their fans want good JAPANESE games, they don't need this stuff anymore.

Need the Tomb Raiders on Switch. Should be doable

300 million seems almost too little for those studios and IP.

In a way this is a good thing. It means Squeenix can focus on making Final Fantasy games and not be perpetually disappointed when Tomb Raider or Deux Ex doesn’t sell eleventy billion copies.

It sounds a lot like Squeenix are retreating back to their traditional space and are abandoning Western game development altogether.

£300 million? That's a absolute steal anf I have to wonder why Sony or nintendo didn't buy them for that cheap.

On the bright side at least those devs games will remain multi platform.

But it does seem like the embracer group are building a portfolio ready for their own streaming platform similar to EA access.

Another positive is that it seems to me like square enix want to go back to fully focusing on JRPG's with no western games under their belt to do now. This means more resources on games like dragon quest, final fantasy, valkyrie profile, star ocean etc meaning faster releases

So that's literally 30% of Square Enix which is their western half of the company. I just hope that whatever they do with those IPs and studios that they treats those better than Square Enix. The Square Enix of today ain't the same as the Square Enix of 10 years ago

Here's hoping THQ Nordic releases all five Legacy of Kain games for current consoles. Lets go!

In February 2009 Square Enix bought Eidos Interactive for GB£84.3 million, so $300 million probably isn't to far off considering SE get to keep Just Cause (also an old Eidos IP).

Edit: And sold IO Interactive (Hitman) to the management a few years ago.

@ecco6t9 You probably didn't know the history between Eidos and Square Enix. Eidos had been in a good partnership with both Square and Enix back in the 90s. They help Squaresoft with the PC ports of Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VIII during the pre-Steam days and also help Enix published their Dragon Warrior Monsters games for the west when Enix's western branch closed in the late 90s so when Eidos is hitting rock bottom in the mid 2000s it's rightful that Square Enix would return the favor and acquired them so their good partnership last. Squaresoft also published a few of Eidos games in Japan before they acquired Eidos.

Holy crap! We might get a tomb raider on switch after all!

Very disappointing that Square Enix are still fooled by the scam.

I don't care who owns what as long as we get more Deus Ex

@NotArmani

Bomberman is owned by Konami.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bomberman

@everynowandben after the Cyberpunk disaster the Deus Ex brand might really deserve another chance.
Human Evolution and Mankind Divided were both brilliant. Not as great as the very first one, but still very good games.

This is good news for the IPs. Not really sure if Switch support will improve under new ownership but based off experience from THQ Nordic and Saber, there is possibility that it will indeed. It also seems like a better ownership/developer fit.

Well this is a surprise, and a decent purchase.

I don't know much about Embracer Group/THQ Nordic, so I can't say what the likelihood of mass layoffs would be here... but I hope the governments of Québec and Canada are paying attention here. The last thing Montréal needs to lose is development expertise like this.

THQ would low key assign the Battle for Bikini Bottom to a Gex game

Man this feels just like the Cell phone network consolidation in USA recently. Only 3 networks now and everyone has to ride one of them. Mega-corps everywhere.

Well at least the world got the reboot Tomb Raider out of Squeenix’s attempt. I enjoyed them overall.

Maybe they'll finally bring tomb raider to switch now?

Well, at least it wasn't a platform holder this time. Square-Enix doubling down on Japanese games would be a good thing.

With that said, the low quoted price and blurb about blockchain worries me.

$300 milions seen too low for such important franchises as Deus Ex, Tomb Raider e Hitman

@NinChocolate That's definitely a plan. Small licensing would work for certain Hudson IPs especially Bomberman. At least it would help give us a new Bonk for all the boys in need... Or Bomberman idk

I really really hope this means we'll get properly ported versions of all the old Tomb Raiders (including all the extra levels from the Gold versions, the Times Exclusive level, and the DLC for Underworld and such) to modern PCs and consoles!

Does this also include Blood Omen? I'd love to see the same done with the full Blood Omen/Legacy of Kain games, people need ways to play these without faffing around trying to get them to work properly.

I don't want them to be "remastered" or whatever, I just want all of these to be available and easily playable...

Hrrmmm don't get my hopes up now

There's always good indie games at deep discounts, and the backlog. Most SE games didn't come to Switch before, so I'm in no way worried, let the companies consume each other and release whatever fecal matter remains after processing, burying the entire big budget industry in it, across many forms of media. The talent will seek creative freedom, the people punching the clock and collecting paychecks will go down with their masters and drown first, sadly for the people. That's all I know. Everything else is a 'reality' show, pr propaganda, speculation for investors... Not where good, affordable games come from.

I think this is only positive? Square Enix has kinda sucked (with the exception of some legacy/legacy adjacent releases) and these types of properties feel at home in the Embracer catalog.
I'm optimistic

Welp, there goes Gex

@Nintendo4Sonic
I got Deus ex and loved it !!

@cammers1995 I would not mind a good port of the anniversary version on the switch.

@Royalblues I think Sony will eventually acquire Square Enix but unsure whether it'll be before or after Square Enix makes a fool of themselves with the new strategy. I remember on Push Square discussion about how GT7's microtransactions is setup in such a way that Sony may share a common goal as Square Enix.

Tbh(NORDIC) I think this means we will see remakes of a lot of old games. If the THQ gets their hands on some of these IPs I would expect at the very least some ports, but I wouldn't rule out full on remakes.

These are the people who remade Battle for Bikini Bottom... The people who added DLC to Kingdoms of Amalur. They ported Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy! They love older franchises

@RupeeClock Embracer group is the parent holding company behind THQ Nordic. They're massive. THQ Nordic, JoWood (became Nordic), Deep Silver, Kotch. They also own Gearbox now, and Dark Horse Comics, and now all the Western assets formerly of S-E (though S-E bought those all in the past 15 years and just sold them off.)

@Giancarlothomaz I'm assuming the low price has less to do with asset value and more to do with the package including enormous amounts of debt that offset the asset value. I assume Square did a housing-bubble bond thing and found a way to bundle much of their outstanding monumental debt into their western division and sell it off almost at-value to an eager buyer willing to absorb unsustainable amounts of debt in turn for more assets. Which Embracer has been doing regularly, and I kind of worry Embracer is going to capsize under the weight of the unimaginable debt they've been purchasing.

@Ralizah Squeenix being Squeenix, I don't see them really doubling down on JP games. I see them doubling down on mobile and monetization schemes using beloved franchises, and also making FF and DQ (and adding more monetization schemes to them.) I think they're going full-Asia-gatcha now. I don't really want Sony to buy them either because I think they'd just become an FF factory, but I think that's mostly all they'll be, to us, anyway. At least Switch can get some stuff from the Japanese mobile side (with monetization) if Sony doesn't buy them. And they're swan diving into fintech, so there goes gaming focus.

You often find that when companies buy sections of companies or entire companies themselves, they change the terms and conditions of contracts making it impossible for a fair few staff to stay. Those staff are often not replaced. It happens in my line of work for various companies I have worked with over the years (I am self employed). I hope that doesn't happen here.

As for Square Enix themselves, this has an air of inevitability about it.

I wanted Microsoft to buy them :c I don't like Embracer group AA model.

Damn...Crystal Dynamics was put on the chopping block. I guess the Avengers situation really was that bad for SE. Saddest part is that it's a pretty decent game now on PS5 and Series X (great visuals and runs smooth)

"The Transaction enables the launch of new businesses by moving forward with investments in fields including blockchain, AI, and the cloud."

That entire sentence perfectly describes how tone deaf and self-servicing Square-Enix has become. The large majority of gamers (Myself Included) don't want anything to do with NFTs, Blockchain, AI and Cloud none of us asked for that or even wanted it.

This reeks of exploitation which given what we have now with cut content being sold as DLC, Loot Boxes, Micro-Transactions, Roadmaps, Gold, Silver, Platinum, Limited, Collector's Editions. Do they honestly think we believe the BS there shilling about this being developed for our benefit!?

@Royalblues I doubt that. They spent 3.9 Billion JUST for Bungie.

@JakobU nice. I got it last year for a pretty good price. I bought a few Wii U games for my final collection, like Deus Ex, Devils Third, Turbo Stunt Squad or Hot Wheels before they get really rare

Is it me or that seems low?

@Qwertyninty Considering it includes the Tomb Raider,, Hitman and Just Cause IPs, yes. SE must have been desperate to dump them.

@Bizzyb glad it wasn’t just me. I know this has been beaten to death but at that price I really wish Nintendo would have at least tried.

looks like square enix is going to do what they do best focus on japanese rpg games..maybe the new owners of these games the acquired from square..might revive tomb raider or legacy of kain..

from what i read square enix has zero intention of being sold..this deal they made also got embracer to acquire square debt..

Square Enix throwing away their western division so they can focus on NFTs despite acknowledging that people who "play to have fun" don't want them. Good to know.

Can't tell if this is good or bad for Lara Croft, but at least it will provide the series a chance for a fresh start. Hopefully one that returns to the roots.

@johnedwin They probably looked at their cost VS profit ratio on Nintendo Switch and compared it to their PS4/5 and Xbox efforts and realized that most of their Western games were either middling or complete flops.

If you focus solely on their Switch efforts they are doing absolutely great (outside of that KH fiasco). SE also realizes this, hence the wholesale of their Western studios/IP.

@Bizzyb Square-Enix will continue publishing Just Cause itself through the Outside Studios, and the sale does not include Hitman (or IO Interactive). IOI bought themselves out from S-E years ago, and were allowed to retain the Hitman IP, so S-E has nothing to do with Hitman, or IOI's Bond game. IOI is a very large "indie."

This is a bargain when you look at Sony buying destiny for 3.6 billion

@Krull yeah wouldve loved Sony to have gotten tomb raider because I know theyd've some something great with it like uncharted but they decided to buy bungie for the live service crap

Nice to see them doubling down on their Japanese development/IPs, but the focus on blockchain is concerning.

Hopefully this means they're less likely to sell now. Would suck to see them get bought by Sony.

@Entrr_username
Really feels like things are teetering on the edge, the industry is just waiting for one of them like Square to make the first move in full scale forcing of this BS so they can all go all-in on it. It will either just evaporate while potentially sinking studios or we get the NFT equivalent to Genshin Impact and Fortnite that has this tidal wave of a ripple effect on this medium.

Please let them remaster the Legacy of Kain games

I am just glad the Chinese government wasn't involved. Hopefully this means more jrpgs from Square Enix. A paper mario style Tomb Raider would be interesting though.

Um is this a good thing? oh I mean what will this mean to their portoflio diversity? and just how far is a Tomb Raider game from the modern trilogy to come to Switch now?