The Japanese games developer Square Enix have decided to sell all their foreign IPs and studios to the Embracer Group for the rather meagre amount of $425 million in order to invest in other fields such as the blockchain, AI and the cloud.
The agreement will include Crystal Dynamics, Eidos Montreal and several of their most popular IPs such as Tomb Raider, Thief, and Deus Ex with the transfer of the data set to be concluded by the start of September at the latest.
Embracer Group, formerly known as Nordic Games Licensing and THQ Nordic, are a Swedish company with a long history in the industry and already have ten groups as their subsidiaries, such as Gearbox and Saber Interactive.
SQUARE ENIX HOLDINGS CO., LTD. enters into an agreement with Embracer Group for the acquisition of Crystal Dynamics, Eidos-Montréal, Square Enix Montréal, and IP.
Press Release: https://t.co/ooOYacp4PW pic.twitter.com/2PmQE967gk
— Square Enix (@SquareEnix) May 2, 2022
The deal is part of Square Enix’s marketing strategy to invest more heavily on the metaverse and NFTs, which according to company CEO Yosuke Matsuda is considered to be the direction that the industry seems to be heading towards, in an attempt to stay ahead of their competition.
It’s worth noting that although some of these IPs are well-known inside the industry, they failed to meet the company’s expectations, with only the Tomb Raider franchise managing to sell over 35 million copies.
The deal also involves the move of over 1,100 employees from Square Enix to Embracer and an entire catalogue of titles which belong to the franchises that will be changing ownership.
Within the statement it is noted that Square Enix will maintain ownership of a few of their western titles such as Just Cause and Life Is Strange.
