The Japanese gaming Square Enix struck a deal with Embracer Group to sell its multiple famous franchises, including Tomb Raider, Thief, Deus Ex, and Legacy of Kain, as well as the developers that make them. These developers are Crystal Dynamics and Guardians of the Galaxy maker Eidos Montreal. The deal will close between July and September.
They’ve all been sold to Embracer Group for $300 million. The Swedish media giant Embracer Group has been buying up games and other companies for years, including THQ Nordic, Gearbox, Koch Media, Entertainment, and many other studios.
As per Square Enix, the amount will be used to make investments in fields including blockchain, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and the cloud.
They’ve been talking about their interest in NFTs for quite some time, even their fans hoped it was just them trying to appear fashionable to investors since they’ve never previously given any hint to sell their Western IPs and developers.
It’s not bad news as Embracer Group has mentioned that the acquisition will bring a compelling pipeline of new installments from beloved franchises and original IPs, including a new Tomb Raider game.
After acquiring Eidos Interactive in 2009, Square Enix, best known for its popular Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, and Kingdom Hearts titles, acquired ownership of the Tomb Raider series.
Square Enix will continue to publish some western games, but they mentioned in the announcement that the two franchises Outriders and Life is Strange are both by external developers that they don’t own.
According to the company, the development function will comprise its studios in Japan, Square Enix External Studios, and Square Enix Collective. Some fans undoubtedly are pleased that this seems to refocus Square Enix primarily on Japanese-made games.
The company intends to do the same in terms of blockchain games, and the other buzzwords still hold ambiguity. Although not well known by most gamers, Embracer is worth about $10 billion and owns 115 separate games studios.
Phil Rogers, soon-to-be-ex Square Enix American, and Europe CEO said – “Embracer is the best-kept secret in gaming: a decentralized collection of entrepreneurs whom we are thrilled to become a part of today.”
While Square Enix is planning to invest in blockchain games, Metaverse Game development company Chain x Game, Revoland is already in line to release its chain game, becoming the first chain game built on Huawei Cloud.
