Square Enix to sell many of its western franchises and studios to Embracer Group

Embracer Group has entered an agreement with Square Enix to acquire much of the latter’s western business arm, including intellectual property like Tomb Raider, Deus Ex and over 50 back-catalogue games. 

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Announced today (May 2), the deal will be worth around £240million ($300million USD) and include Square Enix studios Crystal Dynamics, Square Enix Montréal and Eidos. The deal also includes the Thief and Legacy Of Kain franchises.

Embracer’s own press release focuses on the upcoming Tomb Raider game, although no commitment is made by the company to any other franchises as of yet. The deal is set to go through between July and September of this year.

Square Enix says it made the deal as it “enables the launch of new businesses by moving forward with investments in fields including blockchain, AI and the cloud”. Overseas franchises Just Cause, Outriders and Life Is Strange will remain at Square Enix.

It also appears as though the downsizing has been done in an effort to help Square Enix better manage its development studios, as the company adds that “the transaction will also provide an opportunity to better align our overseas publishing function with our organisation in Tokyo.”

At present, what Embracer calls the “50 back-catalogue games” have not been defined, or exactly how the company will be using them. Many are calling for a sequel to 2012’s Sleeping Dogs.

Crystal Dynamics will still be working with Xbox studio The Initiative on the Perfect Dark Reboot, as the latter studio said “we will be continuing this work with them in their next chapter.”

Square Enix’s decision to sell its western development studios follows a lack of desired performance over the years. Earlier this year the company made it clear that Eidos-Montréal’s Marvel’s Guardians Of The Galaxy underperformed, even if retention did improve when the title came to Xbox Game Pass.

In other news, the upcoming story DLC and updates for Dying Light 2 have been detailed by developer Techland.

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