If you had been reading news about certain flops with noticeable exceptions from Square Enix, regarding all their western studios, it should not come to a surprise that the japanese veteran needed to clean the house.
We woke up today with the news that Square Enix has decided to sell Crystal Dynamics, Eidos Montreal and Square Enix Montreal, including its 1,100 employees and 8 offices to Embracer Group.
Embracer Group is a Swedan conglomerate already known for its investment and owning many current companies like Dark Horse Comics, THQ Nordic, Koch Media, Coffee Stain, Amplifier Game Invest, Saber Interactive, DECA Games, Gearbox Entertainment, Easybrain and Asmodee.
Inevitably, this new purchase will grant Embracer IPs like Tomb Raider, Deus Ex and current gaming licenses from Marvel like Marvel’s Avengers and Marvel’ Guardians Of The Galaxy.
It is a big contrast when Square Enix originally bought all the mentioned studios back in 2009 and created Square Enix Montreal in 2011, tasking them to bring all the best AAA games to the mobile market.
Important to note that while HITMAN was originally an Eidos IPs, their developers decided to leave the Square Enix umbrella and that is how IO Interactive took form in 2017.
Square Enix confirmed that it still retains the partnership with the studios behind Just Cause, Life Is Strange and Outriders being respectively Avalanche Studios, Dontnod Entertainment and People Can Fly.
Both Embracer and Square Enix expected that, after regulatory approvals, the $300 million acquisition is set to be finalized between July and September of this year.