Embracer Group has entered into an agreement to acquire Crystal Dynamics, Eidos-Montréal, Square Enix Montréal (~1,100 employees) and a catalogue of IPs including Tomb Raider, Deus Ex, etc (total up $300M)

[TheBrightestSun]

@profjjj

We keep talking about Amazon, Netflix, etc wanting into this space

Because the games Eidos and CD are too expensive to make. And big money will enter the market with a splash as even Amazon showed that just having studios (1 or 2) is not enough. Let’s say Netflix were to buy CD and Eidos. How they are gonna return the money? Just having Tomb Raider is not enough.

[mcolt]

@Capybara

This also seems like squaresoft is looking to sell to Sony by trimming the fat and making themselves look more appetizing

If this acquisition is such a bargain, how does losing it makes SE “more appetizing” to Sony?

It should be the other way around.

SE should be more appetizing to Sony if it had many more great studios and IPs with “just” an extra $300M.

[TheBrightestSun]

@mcolt

If this acquisition is such a bargain, how does losing it makes SE “more appetizing” to Sony?

Because they sold off the money pit? Nobody wanted to deal with Avengers GaaS Also Sony has Uncharted, why would they want Tomb Raider?

[Vivir]

Netflix and Apple aren’t entering the gaming sphere to create single player games. they want live services and games with a long tail in terms of engagements and monetization spending.

I’m not surprised they didn’t make a bid for it.

[mcolt]

@TheBrightestSun

Because they sold off the money pit? Nobody wanted to deal with Avengers GaaS Also Sony has Uncharted, why would they want Tomb Raider?

If it’s a money pit, then that makes sense.

But if that’s the case, then we shouldn’t assume that MS and the others have interest in money pits

[TheBrightestSun]

@mcolt

But if that’s the case, then we shouldn’t assume that MS and the others have interest in money pits

What I meant is that Avengers is a dead weight essentially.

[Searsy82]

@profjjj

…ios combined had less than $200 million in revenue and roughly 1,000 employees. That is revenue per employee of less than $200,000, which is pretty awful when you have a highly skilled, highly paid workforce. Given all the above, it looks like Square was eager to get these developers off their books. It looks like they basically sold the IP and threw in the studios for free. The more interesting question is why someone with deeper pockets than Square or Embracer wasn’t willing to pay more than $300 million for them. We keep talking about Amazon, Netflix, etc wanting into this space. Tomb Raider seems like a perfect entry point for either of them. They could launch a new streaming series and a game from that IP alone. It’s starting to look like neither of them may be a real threat after all.

This kind of sensible analysis sustains me. Id like to subscribe to your newsletter.

[saintsflow20]

@Capybara

This also seems like squaresoft is looking to sell to Sony by trimming the fat and making themselves look more appetizing

I always thought Square West would be the more enticing part for Sony. I think they look even less appetizing now.

[Sparda3g]

So it seems like Square is embracing the “future” as in NFTs, GaaS, and whatever makes fans rage. That’s the impression I’m getting as of late.

[BlessedbyHorus]

@Jorge_Alexander_Acos

So you would have preferred xbox and pc to get no more games from them, got it.

Or you haven’t been paying attention to how current Sony has been moving lol. More of their games are on PC. Heck even with Bungie Destiny is still on Xbox.

[CryOn]

@Sparda3g

So it seems like Square is embracing the “future” as in NFTs, GaaS, and whatever makes fans rage. That’s the impression I’m getting as of late.

More like “please acquire me, I’m almost out of money”.

[BRiT]

@Sparda3g

So it seems like Square is embracing the “future” as in NFTs, GaaS, and whatever makes fans rage. That’s the impression I’m getting as of late.

The most amazing part of this deal is what they sold for $300 Million to be put straight into NFTs.

[KiryutheD (KiryutheDragon)]

I bet Ubisoft/SquareEnix(eastern studios) and WB Games will all be purchased before the ABK deal is done. i think these companies shareholders will want to cash out as there could be a world recession with rising interest rates and supply chain problems that got worse with the Russua/Ukraine conflict. These companies stock prices and market cap seems to have gone down a lot in the last 4 months.

[MJ_INC]

Not sure if Matthew Ball is right but if he is then the $300m isn’t quite accurate:

Matthew Ball

[Biggzy (Hassan)]

@MJ_INC

Not sure if Matthew Ball is right but if he is then the $300m isn’t quite accurate:

Yeah I have seen this. Don’t know how true it is, but I do feel people are getting too hung up on the headline figure as it doesn’t tell the whole story as to the true costs involved.

[SpiderLink]

@saintsflow20

… This would happen. It’s not Square’s IP, or at least not solely their IP. Armor Project (Horii’s studio) owns it and I believe Sugiyama also had ownership (his involvement with the music) though I don’t know what happened here since he kicked the bucket. Anyway Horii would want DQ on the most popular console in Japan which is currently the Switch. Even with DQIX they put it on DS instead of PS3 and put DQX on Wii instead of PS3 initially. DQ has the same rules as sports games essentially due to ownership from outside entities. KH is the same because of Disney. They could probably do a little strong arming to keep DQ off Xbox though as I doubt Horii would care really. KH could be possible too all depends on how much Disney cares.

Little late but thanks for the reply. Regarding DQ skipping Xbox, I’ll take what I can get

@MJ_INC

Not sure if Matthew Ball is right but if he is then the $300m isn’t quite accurate:

This makes a lot more sense if it’s right.

[DARK-PARADISE]

@Biggzy

Yeah I have seen this. Don’t know how true it is, but I do feel people are getting too hung up on the headline figure as it doesn’t tell the whole story as to the true costs involved.

Embracer is gonna wash Square Enix’s car for two years

[Bits-N-Pieces]

Watching people confuse how business works with playing a game of Top Trumps will never not be amusing. I get it’s a discussion forum and people want to discuss things but come on…

[n0tjack (NotJack)]

I haven’t looked at anything around true valuation or consideration for this deal, but an easy concept for everyone to think about is how MSFT isn’t going to risk losing a $70bn deal for any deal, especially ones less than $1bn which are most. Missing out on other deals is always an opportunity cost of deals, especially mega-deals.

Seems like online discussions just see the words Tomb Raider next to Call of Duty and think “I liked Tomb Raider more!” but lose sight of the difference in magnitude.

[Proven]

@n0tjack

I haven’t looked at anything around true valuation or consideration for this deal, but an easy concept for everyone to think about is how MSFT isn’t going to risk losing a $70bn deal for any deal, especially ones less than $1bn which are most. Missing out on other deals is always an opportunity cost of deals, especially mega-deals.

Seems like online discussions just see the words Tomb Raider next to Call of Duty and think “I liked Tomb Raider more!” but lose sight of the difference in magnitude.

Call of Duty on Game Pass, let alone if it becomes exclusive, is worth more than all of Square Enix multiplied by 5