Embracer Group completes acquisition of Crystal Dynamics, Eidos Montreal, and Square Enix Montreal and more

[Kane99]

Well it looks like this sale is complete, as Embracer Group now owns Crystal Dynamics, Eidos-Montreal, Square Enix-Montreal, and possibly more assets to come. You may have heard a while back that Embracer was attempting to purchase all of these studios. I don't know what Square Enix Montreal does, but I imagine it's not all of Square Enix correct? Eidos Montreal I believe made Hitman for example. It's said to include 50 other back catalog games, so we might be seeing some old titles from these studios making a comeback. Would be cool. 

Here's their press release on this: 

https://embracer.com/release/embracer-group-completes-acquisition-of-crystal-dynamics-eidos-montreal-square-enix-montreal-amongst-other-assets/ 

[Withywarlock]

Swift action that will see the developers hopefully doing projects with intellectual properties that Square Enix couldn't be bothered to capitalise on. That's the sort of acquisition I like to see. They appear to be a no-nonsense company: I'm not impressed with THQ Nordic's output but they do have other companies that pull their weight and get content out quickly. Here's hoping Eidos et al are given enough time and management to make the most out of their titles.

Put it this way, they can't do much worse than under Square Enix's woefully mismanaged tenure. Thanks for sharing this article with us.

[Kane99]

8 hours ago, Withywarlock said:

Swift action that will see the developers hopefully doing projects with intellectual properties that Square Enix couldn't be bothered to capitalise on. That's the sort of acquisition I like to see. They appear to be a no-nonsense company: I'm not impressed with THQ Nordic's output but they do have other companies that pull their weight and get content out quickly. Here's hoping Eidos et al are given enough time and management to make the most out of their titles.

Put it this way, they can't do much worse than under Square Enix's woefully mismanaged tenure. Thanks for sharing this article with us.

True, and Embracer group seems to be serious about working on a lot of these old ips. Tomb Raider was mentioned in their press release. I they mentioned a few others. But I think that also gets them Hitman. I hope they continue to make that series or add to it. 

[Yaramaki]

8 hours ago, Withywarlock said:

Swift action that will see the developers hopefully doing projects with intellectual properties that Square Enix couldn't be bothered to capitalise on. That's the sort of acquisition I like to see. They appear to be a no-nonsense company: I'm not impressed with THQ Nordic's output but they do have other companies that pull their weight and get content out quickly. Here's hoping Eidos et al are given enough time and management to make the most out of their titles.

Put it this way, they can't do much worse than under Square Enix's woefully mismanaged tenure. Thanks for sharing this article with us.

I feel like the embracer group has been a breath of fresh air in the gaming industry, like a big company that is still willing to take a gamble on a new ip or a franchise that has been considered long dead by many. Wheter or not their games are good let's leave that in between but they put out a variety of stuff under their different publisher labels (deep silver/thq nordic/etc) it's kinda hard not to like them as a company from a neutral standpoint. 

[Kane99]

8 minutes ago, Yaramaki said:

I feel like the embracer group has been a breath of fresh air in the gaming industry, like a big company that is still willing to take a gamble on a new ip or a franchise that has been considered long dead by many. Wheter or not their games are good let's leave that in between but they put out a variety of stuff under their different publisher labels (deep silver/thq nordic/etc) it's kinda hard not to like them as a company from a neutral standpoint. 

I hope that's what they're like. I still worry about big companies like this and how they run things. But if they can do good on protection for workers and allow due time for development to happen. 

As well, they said there was 50 other ips they got in the purchase, so if they start to produce content from some long gone series, I'm all for that. Just don't be an EA, Ubisoft, Activision, Blizzard, Rockstar just to name a few. Lol

[Heatman]

At one point, I felt like they weren't serious about acquiring those studios because it seemed at a time they cooled off their interests in them but I'm glad it wasn't as I had thought. If they don't decide to follow the same precedent of Square Enix, we are going to in for a good long ride. 

[Empire]

The last I read, Embracer was interested in doing a remaster or remake of the Legacy of Kain series, which I would buy in a heartbeat. I just got Soul Reaver 2 to work on my PC after years of trying, and even then, if I try to play it with the audio set to headphones, it crashes my computer. It barely works on modern systems, and even the PS2 emulator has audio issues. It sucks that this is one of my favorite games/series ever and it's almost impossible to play.

[Heatman]

20 hours ago, Kane99 said:

True, and Embracer group seems to be serious about working on a lot of these old ips. Tomb Raider was mentioned in their press release. I they mentioned a few others. But I think that also gets them Hitman. I hope they continue to make that series or add to it. 

With the way Embracer group is going, they are going to have a lot of old games ips to work on. I just hope that they don't gubble up so much than they can be able to handle adequately which would have them start making a whole new mess on their own. 

[Kane99]

8 hours ago, Empire said:

The last I read, Embracer was interested in doing a remaster or remake of the Legacy of Kain series, which I would buy in a heartbeat. I just got Soul Reaver 2 to work on my PC after years of trying, and even then, if I try to play it with the audio set to headphones, it crashes my computer. It barely works on modern systems, and even the PS2 emulator has audio issues. It sucks that this is one of my favorite games/series ever and it's almost impossible to play.

There's a lot they can work on. I hope they do that and do a lot of the other ips that have long stayed dormant for years now. And of course I'm always ready for more tomb raider and hitman games. 

[killamch89]

On 8/27/2022 at 11:26 AM, Yaramaki said:

I feel like the embracer group has been a breath of fresh air in the gaming industry, like a big company that is still willing to take a gamble on a new ip or a franchise that has been considered long dead by many. Wheter or not their games are good let's leave that in between but they put out a variety of stuff under their different publisher labels (deep silver/thq nordic/etc) it's kinda hard not to like them as a company from a neutral standpoint. 

There was also a rumor about them being interested in the Silent Hill, Metal Gear and Castlevania IPs from Konami which I hope Konami sells them.

[Heatman]

20 minutes ago, killamch89 said:

There was also a rumor about them being interested in the Silent Hill, Metal Gear and Castlevania IPs from Konami which I hope Konami sells them.

I'm very much interested in the Castlevania and Silent Hill IPs. I wouldn't be that much thrilled about Metal Gear. If they can get especially Castlevania worked on again, it's going breath in a good fresh air into the game's franchise. 

[Kane99]

5 hours ago, killamch89 said:

There was also a rumor about them being interested in the Silent Hill, Metal Gear and Castlevania IPs from Konami which I hope Konami sells them.

Ooh, I don't know. Lets wait and see  if Embracer does these games justice first. If anything Konami should be making more games in these series. Or outright rebooting them all again and starting from a new storyline. 

Then again, maybe it's a good idea to ship these IPs off to a studio that may be interested in making these games a reality again. And sooner rather than later. 

[Lamarr the strelok]

I think these studios are relieved they're not with Square Enix anymore. It seems SE is going full on with NFT and blockchain BS. I'd be very worried if I was a fan of Square Enix. Hopefully the new tomb raider won't have always online requirements for their new game.

[Heatman]

2 hours ago, Lamarr the strelok said:

I think these studios are relieved they're not with Square Enix anymore. It seems SE is going full on with NFT and blockchain BS. I'd be very worried if I was a fan of Square Enix. Hopefully the new tomb raider won't have always online requirements for their new game.

It's not just Square Enix only that trying to move everything to NFTs and it's not a good sight for us gamers to see them go down that path. We are going to be the one's suffering it for a long period of time while they make their cool money off of us. Ubisoft is pushing for the same thing with NFTs too. 

[killamch89]

7 hours ago, Lamarr the strelok said:

I think these studios are relieved they're not with Square Enix anymore. It seems SE is going full on with NFT and blockchain BS. I'd be very worried if I was a fan of Square Enix. Hopefully the new tomb raider won't have always online requirements for their new game.

Yeah - I think we did discuss this in another thread if I remember correctly. Square Enix like a lot of other formerly great developers have chosen greed over satisfying their core audience and a decision that will soon come back to haunt them.