Board 8 > Embracer Group to acquire Crystal Dynamics, Eidos, S-E Montreal and their IPs

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://twitter.com/Wario64/status/1521010532655923200

Avengers bombed so hard Square Enix is getting out of making Western games

Theyre keeping Just Cause, Life Is Strange, and Outriders though, so they havent entirely given it up

I think the bigger loss here for Square-Enix is that they wont have their usual scapegoats when shareholders are unhappy about a financial report

............. huh?

Only 300 million for all of that in light of how much it seems like every other studio is being sold for makes me think Square Enix itself is going to be acquired by someone soon.

Rumors have been teasing a big Sony acquisition lately. Most people speculated that it's going to be konami franchises but square makes sense too. Square and Sony always felt like they had a good relationship, especially back in the ps1 and ps2 eras

and still continues!

For now FF16 is still a PS5 exclusive game

This is absolutely wild. Only 300 million fir a huge chunk of Square-Enixs business including their second biggest IP in Tomb Raider. Tomb Raider 2013 was one of Square-Enixs highest selling games ever, maybe even the highest at this point. It really underlines Square treating these companies the way did, setting unrealistic expectations then blaming all issues on them alone.

WarThaNemesis2 posted...

Only 300 million for all of that in light of how much it seems like every other studio is being sold for makes me think Square Enix itself is going to be acquired by someone soon.

Oh, its stupider than that:

The Transaction will assist the Company in adapting to the changes underway in the global business environment by establishing a more efficient allocation of resources, which will enhance corporate value by accelerating growth in the Company's core businesses in the digital entertainment domain. In addition, the Transaction enables the launch of new businesses by moving forward with investments in fields including blockchain, AI, and the cloud.

Look forward to Square-Enix NFTs!

The company clearly has no idea what its doing with itself and hasnt for several years now.

Kinda curious whether Embracer will deem it worthwhile to try and revive Avengers (assuming the approval to do so comes through, which I assume is on Marvel's end) or if they'll just let it die after Jane and anything else far enough along to finish up easily. I could see it going either way.

Lightning Strikes posted...

This is absolutely wild. Only 300 million fir a huge chunk of Square-Enixs business including their second biggest IP in Tomb Raider. Tomb Raider 2013 was one of Square-Enixs highest selling games ever, maybe even the highest at this point. It really underlines Square treating these companies the way did, setting unrealistic expectations then blaming all issues on them alone.

The crazy part is that SE would've shopped these studios around to other publishers too and no one was interested in paying more than $300M. Why would everyone see them as worth so little?

This might honestly be a more impactful acquisition for anyone but casual gamers than the Activision Blizzard one... And it cost them less than 0.5% compared to what Microsoft paid for ActiBlizz... I'm shocked...

skullbone posted...

Rumors have been teasing a big Sony acquisition lately. Most people speculated that it's going to be konami franchises but square makes sense too. Square and Sony always felt like they had a good relationship, especially back in the ps1 and ps2 eras

Ugh, I would hate to lose all those AA Nintendo RPGs so much.

As for this sell, I can't say I was ever interested in any of these studios' output and I always forgot they were even part of SE.

Maybe these companies should just buy crypto instead of trying to shoehorn the blockchain and NFTs into games.

https://twitter.com/jeffgerstmann/status/1521153767235735552

300 mil is crazy cheap, hot damn

"In addition, the Transaction enables the launch of new businesses by moving forward with investments in fields including blockchain, AI, and the cloud."

That sounds like they are just throwing around buzz words because they don't have an actual plan for the future. Also, they aren't even doing that right since the hot trend right now is the metaverse.

Apparently their shares rose a ton once they started announcing investments into those buzzwords, which is kinda sad

I guess the idea is to sell NFTs and other content in various metaverses

Squenix has handled Deus Ex, Sleepy Dogs, and Tomb Raider pretty badly so... it can't be any worse for those franchises!

KamikazePotato posted...

Apparently their shares rose a ton once they started announcing investments into those buzzwords, which is kinda sad

That doesn't surprise me in the least. I don't think anyone would ever accuse the stock market of being rational.

Tomb Raiser seemed like it was handled okay, they just had ridiculous expectations for it. Deus Ex and Sleeping Dogs were murdered though.

The bad handling part is putting huge budgets into those games. Shadow of the Tomb Raider has one of the top 10 biggest budgets ever for any game, and obviously didn't deserve it.

Mac Arrowny posted...

The bad handling part is putting huge budgets into those games. Shadow of the Tomb Raider has one of the top 10 biggest budgets ever for any game, and obviously didn't deserve it.

Do you know how that compares to FF15's budget?

Depends on how you count 15's budget, since the game was scrapped and redone. Square did state FFXV was profitable on day 1, though. A big part of it is that Japanese devs are paid less than western devs.

You would think the Tomb Raider IP alone would be worth more than $300 million. Again, its Squares second biggest series, Tomb Raider 2013 may be their highest selling game ever. I am not sure they even shopped around, I think they wanted to offload Eidos for whatever. Also its weird that they kept Just Cause.

Lightning Strikes posted...

I am not sure they even shopped around, I think they wanted to offload Eidos for whatever.

There is zero chance they didn't shop around lol.

Also pretty sure FFXIV is their highest selling game, though FFVII could be up there with all the ports it's gotten.

There's no way FF14 is their highest-selling game going by units sold. Maybe it reaches highest theoretical playrate if you factor in the free trial? Pretty sure it is their most profitable game, though.

They announced FFXIV was their most profitable game ever a year or two ago, yeah.

It likely is XIV, but that is weird due to the extended trial. As of today they announced that the Tomb Raider reboot trilogy sold 38 million - nearly half of the series total. That would definitely put Tomb Raider 2013 above FFVII, and possibly Rise too. Shadow was less successful than those two.

The point is Tomb Raider is a huge franchise and the fact that were comparing the two biggest Final Fantasy games to two Tomb Raider games does show that.

Team Rocket Elite posted...

That doesn't surprise me in the least. I don't think anyone would ever accuse the stock market of being rational.

You should check out the TV news during a US election!

So is Embracer likely to give Tomb Raider the massive budgets Square gave it to compete with Uncharted or will they be less ambitious and aim to be more AA.

Wasn't Avengers S-E's biggest seller (NA) last year? How is it a bomb?

https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2021/09/15/marvels-avengers-has-sold-better-than-you-think-this-year/?sh=3b512c191c96

Square claims to have lost money on it. I have no idea if thats actually true, or if they had remotely reasonable expectations since they always seem to speak negatively about their Western studios games performance, but its what they said.

(also that was a 12 months from release to September of 2021 chart, so its including the launch sales from 2020. I dont think it charts for 2021 as a whole, and I assume it was outsold by Endwalker)

looks like it was 11th for 2020 though, right behind VII Remake which is definitely higher than I would have guessed

https://venturebeat.com/2021/01/15/npd-reveals-the-best-selling-games-of-2020-in-the-u-s/amp/

the only Square-Enix game to chart in 2021 was Guardians of the Galaxy at #18 on the Sony chart

Given the length of time between announcement and release I bet they spent a looooot of money on Avengers that they didnt make back

ChichiriMuyo posted...

Wasn't Avengers S-E's biggest seller (NA) last year? How is it a bomb?

https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2021/09/15/marvels-avengers-has-sold-better-than-you-think-this-year/?sh=3b512c191c96

Cyberpunk sold a hell of a lot better than Avengers and was still a bomb. Meanwhile, Voice of Cards sold a minuscule amount of copies and was successful. For a game to be successful it has to make more money than it cost to create. Avengers has ongoing costs too, which makes the threshold for success even higher.

Didn't Harry Potter technically lose money at the box office even with 1bn at the box office?

The bigger budget projects probably all have some accounting stuff at play that makes things a little opaque.

I imagine that licensing costs for Avengers were brutal as well

voltch posted...

Didn't Harry Potter technically lose money at the box office even with 1bn at the box office?

The bigger budget projects probably all have some accounting stuff at play that makes things a little opaque.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_accounting

A Warner Bros. receipt was leaked online, showing that the hugely successful movie Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix ended up with a $167 million loss on paper after grossing nearly $1 billion.[27] This is especially egregious given that, without inflation adjustment, the Wizarding World film series is the third highest-grossing film series of all time both domestically and internationally, after Star Wars and the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 remains the highest-grossing movie ever for Warner Bros.[28] The Hollywood accounting in the Harry Potter case included a $60 million interest charge on a $400 million budget over two years an interest rate far higher than industry standard[29] as well as high distribution and advertising fees paid out to Warner Bros. subsidiaries and sister companies.