Square Enix sells Deus Ex, Tomb Raider and several studios to embracer group. Can better focus on blockchain now. (PCG articles)

[ZedClampet]

Is $300M for Tomb Raider and Deus Ex really that big of a steal?

Embracer Group to acquire Crystal Dynamics, Eidos-Montréal, and Square Enix Montréal

"It also said that this transaction "enables the launch of new businesses by moving forward with investments in fields including blockchain, AI, and the cloud."

(I'm behind on the news, but since Square Enix is my least favorite publisher, I had to link to these articles...)

First of all, yes, it's a steal. Square completely mishandled the last Deus Ex and, generally, doesn't do a good job of promoting games, anyway. In fact, they just aren't particularly good at games in general. Maybe it's because, as was reported last week, "Yuji Naka goes nuclear: 'I don't think Square Enix cares about games'".

But it's definitely a steal just because these are two of the biggest, most recognizable names in gaming. Properly handled, they could create a ton of income for the Embracer Group.

The nice thing about the Embracer Group is that they don't interfere with developers. They let them make the game they want to make instead of trying to force the latest trends on them. This means we could get some seriously good Tomb Raider and Deus Ex games now that Square isn't lording over the developers with dumb ideas.

 

[Johnway]

heres hoping we get another decent deus ex/tomb raider game and Square Enix endeavors into NFT goes no where and makes them lose money. Too often publishers go fo r the easy route to make money instead of, you know, making a decent game that everyone likes and would pay to play. NFT's being the latest sham and i hope that everyone who tries to dabble in it gets burned by it.

 

[Alm]

I agree that it's a good thing that other developers can work on those IPs. I think Square could struggle if they focus on block chain. Excluding crypto currency, I think NFTs etc are a bubble waiting to burst.

I was reading that someone bought an NFT of the first ever tweet for millions and tried to sell it to raise money for charity. The biggest offer he got was about 6k.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/technology/2022/apr/14/twitter-nft-jack-dorsey-sina-estavi

Edit: might not have been for charity, my memory is hazy on that bit.

 

[WoodenSaucer]

Man, I completely disagree with Zed here. I love all of those franchises. In fact, if this is what it would take to get a new Thief game, I'd be very happy.

 

[Zloth]

I don't think Square/Enix was planning to do any more Deus Ex games at all, were they? This is good news for that franchise.

Tomb Raider isn't quite as straightforward. Those games have been pretty good, even if the story in the last Tomb Raider was flat-out dumb. Crystal Dynamics has been having troubles from well before the reboot, too. It would be nice to get an HD update for Anniversary, just to celebrate Anniversary's 15th anniversary,

 

[Colif]

Its probably good that the franchises are away from a company that wants to invest in NFT, as they might live while it deserves to decline more.

Shows they don't care about the customers, its all about profit.

Play to earn games are a job to people whose countries minimum wage is below what they can earn farming in games. When playing a game becomes a job, is about point I stop playing them. Games meant to be fun, not how you make money. Very few people make money doing both. Rest just fail trying.
exploitation of the player base is what this is.

Hope they weren't after Metaverse games as its a money losing business, FB lost 3billion last quarter on Metaverse. No one wants to set one up where they don't make money off it, and so far, no one wants to join one where they have to pay out half the profit to exist on it. Metas version expects other companies to give meta half their profits... yeah, thats not going to work. People don't want to give away profit they made, even if its just on virtual items.

 

[WoodenSaucer]

These franchises were basically the only things I loved about SE.

 

[WoodenSaucer]

I was wondering why I had never heard of Embracer Group when it's so big. I just found out that they're THQ Nordic, Sweden, and they changed their name to not be confused with the other THQ Nordic. Now this makes more sense to me.

 

[Zloth]

Shows they don't care about the customers, its all about profit.

It's a company, of course it's all about profit. Thing is, long term profits are downright impossible when you don't make customers happy. I think what we have here isn't so much a case of "we don't care about customers" - it's more of a "we don't know how to run our business anymore."

These franchises were basically the only things I loved about SE.

What about....

Save 85% on Just Cause™ 3 on Steam

With over 1000 km² of complete freedom from sky to seabed, Rico Rodriguez returns to unleash chaos in the most creative and explosive ways imaginable.

store.steampowered.com

I'm worried about Final Fantasy 7. It still isn't on Steam for whatever crazy reason. Even more worrisome, there hasn't been a peep about the second part of the game. It isn't like they're making a whole new game engine for part two, they're just continuing the story with what they already have. Was the studio completely reliant on everyone being in the office and unable to switch to working from home when COVID hit or something??

 

[Colif]

I think what we have here isn't so much a case of "we don't care about customers" - it's more of a "we don't know how to run our business anymore."

true, its a "we don't know how to make large profits and make good games, at the same time" situation. Could be they can't do either.
I know all companies are about profit (well, most) but it also helps to build up an image that makes it seem like you care about those who buy products. That is something a lot of companies seem to not care so much about anymore.

The profit must be waning if the desire to pretend to care is overridden by survival and scraping as much out of what you have left... or sell them as NFT and hope that bubble doesn't pop before you can sell pictures attached to a database position to anyone stupid enough to buy them.

 

[WoodenSaucer]

What about....

Save 85% on Just Cause™ 3 on Steam

With over 1000 km² of complete freedom from sky to seabed, Rico Rodriguez returns to unleash chaos in the most creative and explosive ways imaginable.

store.steampowered.com

Just Cause is much better than their other stuff, like Dragon Quest. But I'm not really a fan. I just couldn't get into it for some reason.

 

[Colif]

Square seems a little late with their idea

 

[WoodenSaucer]

Square seems a little late with their idea

Let's hope that's true. NFT needs to crash and burn.

 

[Pifanjr]

Hope they weren't after Metaverse games as its a money losing business, FB lost 3billion last quarter on Metaverse. No one wants to set one up where they don't make money off it, and so far, no one wants to join one where they have to pay out half the profit to exist on it. Metas version expects other companies to give meta half their profits... yeah, thats not going to work. People don't want to give away profit they made, even if its just on virtual items.

Square seems a little late with their idea

I hope this shows game companies that the metaverse and NFTs are not worth investing in before either is forced into a bunch of games.