Eidos, Crystal Dynamics and SE Montreal Sold for $300M USD

[Magical_Isopod]

The Deets:
- Square-Enix selling the three studios for $300M USD to Swedish holdings corporation Embracer Group.
- Square-Enix using the capital to invest in blockchain technology (LOL).
- Includes all associated IP, with Tomb Raider, Deus Ex, Thief and Legacy of Kain all being explicitly name-dropped.
- On a conference call, Eidos Montreal studio head announced that production on a new Deus Ex game is starting immediately.
- Previously announced Tomb Raider game continuing production.
- 1100 staff are being retained, though it appears QA and IT jobs may be cut or sunset.

Link:
https://t.co/MBpinIrfNf

So WOW there's a lot worthy of discussion here. Don't quote me on this, but I believe this means the end of Square-Enix's western investment? IO Interactive split off, and now these studios have been sold. IIRC, all that's left at Square-Enix is Square, Enix and Taito. Maybe some mobile game dreck too.

That Square-Enix is doubling down on blockchain and cloud technology is an absolute joke to me. The people steering this ship are utterly clueless.

And the price... Embracer paid $1.3B for JUST Gearbox. And let's be real, Gearbox is kind of mediocre. $300M for two legendary studios and a rare high-quality mobile game dev? And all associated IP? Mental.

What you guys think? Excited for the future? Will we finally see Gex 4?

[Scrustle]

I find this news kind of concerning. The progress of Embracer buying up such a huge number of companies so quickly has put them in a spot where they already own a huge chunk of the middle tier of the industry. They show no sign of slowing down, and this sale is perhaps a sign of them ramping up even further, basically buying an entire AAA publisher. This side of Square Enix used to be Eidos after all. It's gone past the point where their level of dominance in the industry is looking a bit scary. I used to be rooting for the company somewhat, as they started out picking up all the leftovers of THQ, and gave Darksiders another lease on life. But now they worry me.

Yet I can see something of a silver lining. For a long time I've been wishing that Deus Ex would come back, and hated how SE treated that series. And since playing through the old Legacy of Kain games a part of me wishes that series could have continued too, even getting in to it so many years after it was relevant. This gives some hope they might actually get a revival. Yet I'm pretty sceptical about such a thing happening too. Can they really pick up Deus Ex right where they left off at this point? How many of the main people behind those Eidos Montreal games are even still at the studio? The situation around LoK is even more stark. That team separated a very long time ago, and a huge part of what made those games special is the specific vision they had for it. If you were to bring it back, you would need Amy Hennig at the very least. Even if you did that, would is really make sense to just pick right up from that cliffhanger from Defiance? Would she even still be in to the idea?

Also apparently the news that they have already started a new Deus Ex is not true after all.
https://twitter.com/Nibellion/status/15 ... MjNSA&s=19

[Truk_Kurt]

It seems to me like Embracer are embracing (pardon the pun) and recognising the demand for single player games to still exist. All their purchases seem to be focused around IPs which are traditionally single player ventures. I can't think of any examples of IPs they have bought which are predominantly multiplayer based.

[Magical_Isopod]

It seems to me like Embracer are embracing (pardon the pun) and recognising the demand for single player games to still exist. All their purchases seem to be focused around IPs which are traditionally single player ventures. I can't think of any examples of IPs they have bought which are predominantly multiplayer based.

Yeah, they strike me as like a bigger Focus or Koch Media in this regard. Which I'm not complaining about one bit. Sony and Square-Enix and the like want to double down on live services, so I'll happily take my business elsewhere. I would much rather buy the likes of Technomancer and Elex over Babylon's Fall and Destiny.