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The Embracer Group is acquiring a bunch of Square Enix assets including the Tomb Raider series & its studio, Crystal Dynamics.
The group announced over the bank holiday that it had bought a huge chunk of Square Enix’s North American operation. For around $300 million USD, Embracer has snapped up Crystal Dynamics, Eidos Montreal and the Square Enix Montreal development studios. In addition, the company has picked up over 50 IPs in the sale. These include Tomb Raider, and the currently in-development next instalment. The company has also nabbed Deus Ex, Thief and The Legacy of Kain series.
Embracer CEO Lars Wingefors offered a statement on the deal. “We are thrilled to welcome these studios into the Embracer Group,” he says. “We recognize the fantastic IP, world class creative talent, and track record of excellence that have been demonstrated time and again over the past decades.” He added “It has been a great pleasure meeting the leadership teams and discussing future plans for how they can realize their ambitions and become a great part of Embracer.”
Following the announcement, Square Enix disclosed its own motivations for the sale. They claimed it would enable “the launch of new businesses by moving forward with investments in fields including blockchain, AI, and the cloud”. In addition, they also clarified a number of Western IPs that will remain with Square Enix. Specifically, Just Cause, Life is Strange and Outriders are all among several others staying with Square Enix.
Meanwhile over on Twitter, The Initiative addressed Crystal Dynamics’ work on the upcoming Perfect Dark reboot. “We’re excited to see Crystal Dynamics take these next steps with their studio. Our teams have made great progress in building Perfect Dark together as co-development partners, and we will be continuing this work with them in their next chapter.”
According to the announcement, Embracer Group expects the sale of Tomb Raider et al to conclude in the second quarter of their financial year 22/23. That’s at some point between July to September of this year. The company has previously bought Gearbox, Cryptic and is the parent of Deep Silver and THQ Nordic.
Today we have entered into agreement to welcome over 1000 new colleagues through the acquisition of @CrystalDynamics, @EidosMontreal, and @SquareEnixMtl with a fantastic catalog of IPs such as Tomb Raider and Deux Ex, to be part of our ecosystem.https://t.co/NqELDQKTGe
— Embracer Group (@embracergroup) May 2, 2022
