Kinda strange that nobody is posting about SquareEnix selling off their western studios and IP

[Remij 4,670]

Embracer Group bought Eidos, Crystal Dynamics, SE Montreal, and a whole bunch of IP including Tomb Raider, The Legacy of Kain, Deus Ex, and Thief among many others, and a back catalog of 50 games.

 

They paid... just $300M...  Holy shit, that's honestly the steal of the century.  Those IPs are all heavy hitters if done properly.  

 

 

This is honestly for the best IMO.  Those franchises were stagnating with SquareEnix, and SE never was going to give them the proper shot they deserved.  They were always essentially set up to fail, IMO.

 

The most exciting thing is The Legacy of Kain IP, IMO.  I have no doubt we'll be seeing a new LOK title in the future.

 

 

I feel like SquareEnix are streamlining themselves for an eventual merger with Sony.  Essentially trimming the western fat, and joining Sony to bolster their Japanese output.

 

Probably for the best if that's how it works out.  SquareEnix are trash these days and the only good thing I'm looking forward to that's new is DQ12.

Edited May 2, 2022 by Remij

[jehurey 3,227]

damn, that honestly sucks for Eidos Montreal and the future of the Deus Ex series.

 

You see, these are actual studios who could use a western money-daddy to buy them up and just provide them with money and resources.

 

Surprised Microsoft didn't buy this.

 

I would presume Square-Enix ran this by Nintendo and Sony first in Japan, and neither of them bit.

[Twinblade★ 3,891]

I've never even heard of Embracer Group before but apparently they own a bunch of big publishers including Deep Silver and THQ Nordic.

[Remij 4,670]

9 minutes ago, Twinblade said:

I've never even heard of Embracer Group before but apparently they own a bunch of big publishers including Deep Silver and THQ Nordic.

They're massive.  They ain't some small thing anymore.  This is best for those studios for sure.  They'll actually be supported by their publisher and not sent to die and used as a scapegoat.

 

Those franchises can only get better from this.

[Hot Sauce 2,727]

7 minutes ago, Twinblade said:

I've never even heard of Embracer Group before but apparently they own a bunch of big publishers including Deep Silver and THQ Nordic.

 

They are THQ Nordic. They changed the company name a couple years back because it was the name of the parent company as well as the publishing arm of the business.

[madmaltese★ 2,549]

Absolute steal of a purchase. Hard to judge how this move will turn out though because Embracer have just been buying and buying and haven't really released anything from their million studios yet but hopefully a new lease on life for some IPs.

[jehurey 3,227]

dude, they could probably release mobile ports of old Tomb Raider games, have them play terrible, and probably make up a good chunk of that $300 million that they spent.

 

Damn, Square Enix has absolutely disdain for western developers. They've already talked shit about the Deus Ex and Tomb Raider studios, and have outright called them disappointments.

[lostfool 680]

Square Enix is dying.  What a shit show of a company

[-GD-X★ 7,729]

tomb raider and legacy of kain

[Remij 4,670]

2 hours ago, -GD-X said:

tomb raider and legacy of kain

They bought the back catalogues to those series as well, so I would not be surprised if we see "remasters" of those games while new titles are created.

 

In the case of Kain, that would be awesome.  Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain was relatively recently released on GOG.com, and I played through it, and it was awesome..  but it would be awesome to have a re-release or remaster of that game for modern platforms.

 

A remake of Soul Reaver 1 and 2 would be incredible.

 

Anyway, the possibilities are endless now.  I have no doubt Embracer will do something with this IP... and that's better than what SquareEnix was doing with it..

[Voidler 1,675]

Avengers was a shit show. Not sure how you fuck up such a sure thing to make money

[-GD-X★ 7,729]

3 hours ago, Remij said:

They bought the back catalogues to those series as well, so I would not be surprised if we see "remasters" of those games while new titles are created.

 

In the case of Kain, that would be awesome.  Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain was relatively recently released on GOG.com, and I played through it, and it was awesome..  but it would be awesome to have a re-release or remaster of that game for modern platforms.

 

A remake of Soul Reaver 1 and 2 would be incredible.

 

Anyway, the possibilities are endless now.  I have no doubt Embracer will do something with this IP... and that's better than what SquareEnix was doing with it..

Soul reaver 1 and 2 are two of my favorite games, back when puzzles in action-adventure titles were actually great. 

[Remij 4,670]

11 minutes ago, -GD-X said:

Soul reaver 1 and 2 are two of my favorite games, back when puzzles in action-adventure titles were actually great. 

They were incredible on every level.

 

For the time the visuals, the gameplay, the puzzles, the technology... were all top in class.  They pushed the FUCK out of the PS1.  And we can't forget the incredible voice acting work.  Still holds up and demolishes a lot of games today.  Sadly some of the cast have passed away, since they were old even back then, but damn was the work incredible.

 

Amy Hennig has blessed us with so many great games.   IMO Sony owes her everything.. because without Uncharted, and that series specifically pushing Naughty Dog in the direction they headed, the PS3 generation would have been disastrous for them.  Uncharted kicked off Sony's push into the mega blockbuster, high production value single player game.

 

But yea, I'd love to see a new Kain game.  

[-GD-X★ 7,729]

7 minutes ago, Remij said:

They were incredible on every level.

 

For the time the visuals, the gameplay, the puzzles, the technology... were all top in class.  They pushed the FUCK out of the PS1.  And we can't forget the incredible voice acting work.  Still holds up and demolishes a lot of games today.  Sadly some of the cast have passed away, since they were old even back then, but damn was the work incredible.

 

Amy Hennig has blessed us with so many great games.   IMO Sony owes her everything.. because without Uncharted, and that series specifically pushing Naughty Dog in the direction they headed, the PS3 generation would have been disastrous for them.  Uncharted kicked off Sony's push into the mega blockbuster, high production value single player game.

 

But yea, I'd love to see a new Kain game.  

The fucking truth! I loved soul reaver so much on ps1, that I played it again on dc. It was 60 fps with better graphics and anti-aliasing. I think I played soul reaver 2 on Xbox. (Can’t remember). But yeah, Amy Hennig is one of the GOATs! Uncharted 2 was ps3’s killer app. That Nepal E3 demo blew my fucking mind! 

[Sabo 442]

Still boggles my mind that SE considered TR and Hitman commercial failures despite both games selling millions (TR sold like 10 million). What kind of unrealistic expectations did they have for those games?

 

 

Edited May 4, 2022 by Sabo

[Mr. House 3,371]

3 minutes ago, Sabo said:

Still boggles my mind that SE considered TR and Hitman commercial failures despite both games selling millions (TR sold like 10 million). What kind of unrealistic expectations did they have for those games?

 

 

I always imagined that when they finance western studios for hundreds of million of dollars they like to compare to what they would get out of a homemade Japanese production with the same budget. Let's face it, most Japanese games are lucky to have 1/10 of that budget. Even the big ones sometimes I wonder how much they actually invest into them, my guess is no where near close what you expect out of a big AAA in the west. 

 

Just a guess though but yeah you're absolutely right. No wonder I-O Interactive bought back their own IP and just kept making basically the same game as the first Hitman reboot. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. lol 

 

Or maybe they just swindle the royalties out of the western devs with the excuse that the games sold below their ridiculous expectations despite being massively profitable.

[madmaltese★ 2,549]

Well they reported lost 200m with the Marvel games and while The Avengers was shit it still sold an absolute fuckton. So there is clearly something wrong with their western management and strategy. They had critically accalimed games that sold well and still didn't meet expectations (TR), they had massive brands like Avengers/Marvel and lost tremendous amounts and they couldn't do anything significant with Ips like Deus Ex, etc even though the games were great. 

 

This is best for all. Square can focus on where they are successful (Japanese games) and the other talented studios and excellent Ips can hopefully flourish elsewhere. 

 

Sony picking up this lean, Japanese central Square now would be a friggin amazing fill for the Japanese studios they shut down and possibly has been the plan all along. 

[jehurey 3,227]

so, did the Deus Ex IP get sold along with Eidos Montreal?

[Remij 4,670]

15 minutes ago, jehurey said:

so, did the Deus Ex IP get sold along with Eidos Montreal?

It's right there in my OP.  Yes they got Deus Ex too.