Deus Ex and Tomb Raider Acquired

https://embracer.com/release/embrac...nd-square-enix-montreal-amongst-other-assets/
Embracer Group AB (”Embracer”) has entered into an agreement to acquire the development studios Crystal Dynamics, Eidos-Montréal, Square Enix Montréal, and a catalogue of IPs including Tomb Raider, Deus Ex, Thief, Legacy of Kain and more than 50 back-catalogue games from SQUARE ENIX HOLDINGS CO., LTD. (“Square Enix Holdings”). In total, the acquisition includes ~1,100 employees across three studios and eight global locations. The total purchase price amounts to USD 300 million on a cash and debt free basis, to be paid in full at closing.

good news because fuck square enix

Holy shit, that could actually be great news. Fuck Square Enix.

Please god let them work on the sequel to Mankind Divided. And maybe have one of their studios work on something proper within Legacy of Kain.

I hope we get some news about what they're doing.

Also, I just checked and the same group owns THQ Nordic, Gearbox and others. Centralizations is happening as we speak.

Interesting for sure, it'll be something to watch and see how it all pans out for customers in the future.

Embracer ? Never heard that name before. And it sounds like squeezing to me …

Edit : Oh, it's axtually a group we already know :

Embracer Group was formerly known as THQ Nordic AB. One of the subsidiaries; THQ Nordic GmbH shared the same name and trademark as the parent company, THQ Nordic AB (publ). The subsidiary was originally the original operating company but is currently one of several divisions. To avoid confusion and to clarify group structure, THQ Nordic AB became Embracer Group AB in September 2019. The THQ Nordic GmbH brand and company will continue to operate as a global video game publisher and developer.

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Yea, they just changed their corporation name.
(who knows why, THQ Nordic games was a great name, but whatever)

Arkadia7 said:

Yea, they just changed their corporation name.
(who knows why, THQ Nordic games was a great name, but whatever)

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Hope the new name is not a referrence to "embrace and extinguish"

Anyway, I really hope they don't do as Square did, and just sit on most of these IPs.

And while it's criminal that no one has worked on a Legacy of Kain game, the degree of difficulty of working on something like that makes me think we're never getting anything in that universe. No one no one wants to tackle it, seeing as how particular those games were. And how much of their majesty is due to the script and fantastic voice actors, which gradually are dying off. So, it's likely a dead and buried series as far as new games. But the least they could do is do a remaster for modern systems, and fix the god-damn console controls. That alone one be magnificent and save these gems.

Too bad that a remaster would likely not pull them out of obscurity and the cult status that they have garnered. Today's audience probably won't accept the old graphics. But if Blade of Darkness managed to pull off a remaster, I still refuse to believe it's impossible to do it for these ones.

Oh, and I just realized that I want both a PC version of Bloodborne, and remasters of the LoK games, equally as much. I can't really pick one. But if I really have to, I guess I'd go with the LoK games, since BB can still be played decently on a console.

I'll stop rambling now.

I'd kill for more Deus Ex (done properly) - but I'm not holding my breath.

These things are all about business - and I'm not convinced a proper Deus Ex is good business.

For whatever reason, immersive sims tend to do terribly in the AAA market.

Arkadia7 said:

Yea, they just changed their corporation name.
(who knows why, THQ Nordic games was a great name, but whatever)

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They changed a few years ago to have different names and avoid confusion between the publisher and the holding companies. The publisher THQ Nordic (Gmbh) is still with the same name, they haven't changed.

DArtagnan said:

I'd kill for more Deus Ex (done properly) - but I'm not holding my breath.

These things are all about business - and I'm not convinced a proper Deus Ex is good business.

For whatever reason, immersive sims tend to do terribly in the AAA market.

Click to expand...

Indeed. I was recently bemoaning the lack of success Prey had. I would have loved a sequel to that. Maybe even more than Deus Ex at this point.

It was the last good immersive sim unless I'm forgetting one.

I think a new Legacy of Kain game could be at least decent if the team that worked on the TR games would handle it. Unfortunately, that's probably only gonna start in a few years, at the earliest. Since now they're busy with TR in UE5.

And unfortunately the voice actors are very old already, or some of them even dead. The worst situation is with Tony Jay, who voiced the Elder God. I'm not sure anyone could take his job. I'd be interested to hear some imitators try it.

Is that number really right? It sounds far too high. It would mean Embracer has doubled their money in such a short window and have acquired a bunch of IP for free i.e. Deus Ex, legacy of kain etc.

Square must be slapping themselves silly and I guess if gives shareholders ammunition for a lawsuit as clearly the directors have not operated in their best interests.

Well, there goes that IP down the toilet...

That, to me, seems an extreme amount of cash to spend on something that's....minimal and niche, imo. Then again, Amazon has oodles to spend, so who am I to fling shade their way.

Amazon likely purchased the full rights to Tomb Raider as they are working on a tv series:

It's unlikely Embracer would be selling their arguably most valuable IP. It sounds more like the 600M$ are Amazon's complete investment in a Tomb Raider movie, show and game. They'll license the IP from Embracer and contract their studio Crystal Dynamics to develop the game.