Two Montreal studios change hands

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. © Eidos Montréal.

The Japanese company Square Enix is selling off its three key Western studios, Crystal Dynamics (in San Francisco), Eidos Montreal and Square Enix Montreal, as well as these studios’ IP, including some big franchises such as Tomb Raider, Deus Ex and Thief. Embracer Group acquired these three game development studios, which employ 1,100 people, for an estimated $300 million. Pending regulatory approval, the transaction should go through between July and September of this year. The company indicated that an upcoming Tomb Raider was in the works, and Eidos Montreal announced that its next big release would take place in the Deus Ex universe, which is a way of tapping into the studio’s big success after a foray into the Marvel universe didn’t live up to expectations.

Embracer Group is a Swedish company that started an ambitious yet low-profile acquisitions strategy in the video game industry in 2019. Today it oversees more than one hundred studios, including Gearbox, which developed Borderlands, Saber Interactive and THQ Nordic. Embracer says that once the agreement with Square Enix is finalized, its group will total 124 studios and 14,000 employees. Square Enix purchased Eidos Interactive in 2009, which, in turn, had purchased Crystal Dynamics in 1998.

⇨ Ars Technica, Sam Machkovech, “Square Enix sells all of its Western game studios—and their games—to Embracer.”

2022-05-02