SquareEnix ditches the West.

[Steevy Maximus]

SquareEnix has decided that instead of being a game company, they want to invest in things like Blockchain, AI and "the cloud". To further that direction, they've decided to sell a significant chunk of their western studios and properties.

Embracer Group spent a paltry $300 million to acquire Crystal Dynamics, Eidos, and SE Montreal and with them; the properties of Deux Ex, Thief and Legacy of Kain. Also, this little property called TOMB RAIDER, including all legacy and in-development material for all the prior properties as well. These franchises have "notable" in that, despite what would otherwise be strong sales, have routinely been cited by SquareEnix as "under performing", despite selling MILLIONS of copies in under a year.

Arguably, it's not the sale that surprises me as much as the amount paid. Sony dropped over 3 BILLION on Bungie, alone. It baffles me someone let this purchase slide through at that amount. Tomb Raider alone is probably worth more than $300 million, much less the value in the other properties and the value of the PEOPLE Embracer snagged here.

Tomb Raider publisher sells iconic video game franchise to invest in blockchain

Japan's Square Enix is selling the Tomb Raider franchise to Sweden's Embracer Group in a $300 million deal.

www.cnbc.com

 

[Pocket]

Man, what is it with Japanese game studios deciding they just straight-up don't want to make games anymore? I guess it's better they sell off their IPs than twist them into gatcha games and pachinko machines, but still. Yeah, how the hell was Embracer not outbid? And how many more things will they be allowed to buy up before the EU's no-doubt-much-stricter-than-America's antitrust laws catch up with them? They already own an absurd number of studios, albeit ones I'm mostly not familiar with.

 

[Tm_Silverclaw]

But remember, 5hey have to westernized Final Fantasy 16 and Deagon Quest 12...

 

[Steevy Maximus]

Man, what is it with Japanese game studios deciding they just straight-up don't want to make games anymore? I guess it's better they sell off their IPs than twist them into gatcha games and pachinko machines, but still. Yeah, how the hell was Embracer not outbid? And how many more things will they be allowed to buy up before the EU's no-doubt-much-stricter-than-America's antitrust laws catch up with them? They already own an absurd number of studios, albeit ones I'm mostly not familiar with.

To be fair, they’ve bought a lot, but they aren‘t a HUGE player in any one market. I mean, if nobody has put up much of a fight against Microsoft’s Activision purchase or Disney’s purchase of Fox…Embracer is pretty small potatoes in that regard. Embracer has been buying a lot of little things to build itself into a bigger company.
Relative to their prior purchases, this is easily the highest profile.

 

[Caldwin]

Reading it I was like...300...not terrible . Wait...MILLION?!?!? That's peanuts! I hope that's not indicative of the quality we can expect from these franchises going forward. I'm not familiar with Embracer at all. But if $300 Million is all they see these companies being worth combined, I fear for how much quality they'll be willing to put into the franchises.

Also, I guess that means yet another Tomb Raider reboot.

 

[Tm_Silverclaw]

If I'm not mistaken, Embraer got us Darksiders 3.

 

[Caldwin]

*Googles*

Oh! Formerly known as THQ Nordic. Well, at least that's a name I recognize, even if I can't immediately recall what their library looks like.

 

[wonko the sane?]

THQ nordic used to make some pretty fun games: keyword being USED to. Some of their titles are high notes in popular culture (like darksiders and destroy all humans.) but a lot of them are what most would consider "filler" games, or stuff that should have been bigger but just weren't done very well (like recore, which was a very neat concept but not very well implemented or designed.).

Kinda seems like of late, they aren't developers themselves, simply publishers, which is fine by me.

 

[ZakuConvoy]

To be fair, this might be caused by Avengers flopping, and Guardians of the Galaxy under-performing (due to Avengers flopping).

Square Enix Reportedly Lost $200 Million on Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy

gamingbolt.com

Tomb Raider IS a big IP to lose, though.

 

[Tm_Silverclaw]

Nah Square kept bitching that Tomb Raider didn't meet expectations.

 

[Steevy Maximus]

Nah Square kept bitching that western games didn't meet expectations.

Fixed that for ya

ALL of the franchises cited in the sale had relatively high profile reboots over the past decade, and all were cited as "failing to meet expectations". Despite selling several million units each. I'm sure their screw up with the Marvel IP was a factor, but SquareEnix never seemed too hip on the western market to begin with.

 

[Tm_Silverclaw]

And yet... "DUR HUR! GOTTA WESTERIZE FINAL FANTASY AND DRAGON QUEST!"

 

[Pocket]

I don't know what that means, but it's probably no coincidence that Square's own games started getting decent PC ports shortly after the company bought out a publisher known for being focused on the PC as its primary market. I wonder if those people will be sticking around.

 

[Spin-Out]

dragon quest 12 is gonna be the DMC: devil may cry of the dragon quest franchise, isn't it

 

[Tm_Silverclaw]

dragon quest 12 is gonna be the DMC: devil may cry of the dragon quest franchise, isn't it

Probably... Then because it didn't meet Squares "Expectations" they kill the franchise.

 

[Spin-Out]

they aren't going to kill dragon quest lmfao. dragon quest is the biggest video game franchise ever in japan, one underselling game won't kill it, it'll just mean dragon quest 13 will go back to being what everyone loves about the series

 

[Ironbite4]

I think there's a law about Dragon Quest.

 

[Caldwin]

Just one?

 

[Daith]

I think there's a law about Dragon Quest.

I believe they are unable to release it on a weekday in Japan. It tends to make half the workforce and school kids call in sick and the Government got wise to what was happening
Square-Enix and Nintendo got the message and moved all releases to Saturdays for the franchise. There is no actual law. That's an Urban Myth that is given some credability by what SE has done in years since.

But I'm not surprised by this move with Square-Enix. I hate to say it but with how they've acted in the last decade and a half it's definately less about making good games then it is about making more Yen/Dollars. Avengers was the easiest way to see it but take a look at any of their merch too and it's an arm and a leg for stuff that should cost half the price it should be if not less.

 

[MEDdMI]

Oh, come on, this figure is a perfectly reasonable price!