Forum - View topicNEWS: Embracer Group to Acquire Eidos-Montéal, Crystal Dynamics, Square Enix Montéal from Square Eni
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AiddonValentine
Posts: 2234 |
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Well, the reality is Eidos' reputation is kind of overblown. When they were bought by Square, they really weren't in the best of positions with a lot of their IPs not really being that hot of sellers. Tomb Raider was around, but Lara wasn't exactly on top of the world, Deus Ex was on ice, so were Legacy of Kain, Thief, and Hitman. Square-Enix admittedly didn't manage them well, but not any worse than they were already doing (and trust me, SqEx isn't good at managing their own IPs). We'll see how this goes, but it is still astounding that they sold for $300 mil; you'd thing they'd at least get half a billion from it. I'm also wondering what this means for the Marvel stuff since I doubt that transfers over to Embracer. |
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Silver Kirin
Posts: 1138 |
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I think Tomb Raider is still one of the most important IPs in the videogame industry, despite SE dissatisfactions with its profits the recent games sold millions of copies and Lara still is the most well known female videogame character. Kind of strange that SE didn't at least tried to keep the rights. Square-Enix does indeed has management problems, the Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters aren't available on consoles, Dragon Quest X hasn't been released outside of Japan, the Chrono Cross remaster has several problems, they still have some problems with Nintendo regarding the Super Mario RPG rights, etc. |
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FunkyDude88
 Posts: 108 |
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Is she really, though? I'm not sure how we could empirically judge it to begin with, but I feel like she's been overshadowed a lot since the 90s. Sure back in the 90s she was huge. A sex symbol that was actually used in lots of real-world advertisements and showed up in actual men's magazines, not to mention all the spreads she got in gaming magazines like PC Gamer, EGM, PlayStation magazine and legends about specific cheat codes in her video games. But then the 2000s hit and she kinda faded into the background once her games started getting bad with the occasional reboot here and there to try to keep her popularity. Then the IP went dormant until the modern iteration where she kind of just shifted out of the public eye and became another strong female character in a sea similar, more popular characters, like Alloy since she was no longer used for sex appeal. As far as Square-Enix specifically goes I'd easily say 2B and Tifa are way more popular than Lara is. 2B and Nier are practically milked to death and appear in so many crossover game tie-ins and merch in particular. |
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Silver Kirin
Posts: 1138 |
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I know Lara's popularity started to decline after the early 00s but the Tomb Raider games kept selling well, and despite Square-Enix's expressing dissapointment about the reboot not selling as much as they expected the Tomb Raider series has sold over 80 million copies. And I would argue that Lara is in the same league as characters like Pac-Man, Mario and Sonic, even people who haven't played games in years still remember her from the Core Design days, not to mention that TR got 3 Hollywood movies and in the first two Lara was played by Angelina Jolie which was one of her first major blockbuster role. |
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enurtsol
 Posts: 14796 |
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They've streamlined themselves, and they've given up figuring out how to profit enough from its Western properties, compared to the company as a whole
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Silver Kirin
Posts: 1138 |
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Not sure if SE is considering being acquired by another company, but since Microsoft bought Bethesda and Activision-Blizzard some people have suggested that Sony should buy SE due to its longtime association with the PS brand. But SE is a bigger company than most people imagine, they have a manga publication (Gangan Comics), they make their own figures as well as other pieces of merch. Sony does have a lot of history with Square since the release of Final Fantasy VII and when Square lost millions due to the low performance of the Spirits Within movie Sony bought some stakes in the company. On the other hand, Enix never prioritized a console unlike Squaresoft, which abandoned Nintendo hardware due to the use of cartridges. Enix kept releasing games on the N64 and GameBoy, they only made DQVII for the PSOne because it was the market leader. And speaking of DQ, I'm not sure if Sony would be interested in acquiring it, the series has never been that popular in the west compared with FF and other RPGs like Persona or Tales of, but it's a massive deal in Japan, a market in which the PS brand is declining in popularity and perhaps an exclusive DQ could help, but Nintendo has always had an interest in the DQ games, even publishing them in the West themselves. But the thing is that DQ is owned by his creator, Yuji Horii and his studio Armor Project, SE is only the distributor, don't know if whether Sony or Nintendo would like to keep the game for their respective consoles. |
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jdnation
Posts: 2016 |
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Square Enis reportedly lost $200 million on Avengers and GotG. That's considerable. Also likely their own fault for chasing the GAAS model.
Apparently Embracer straight up paid cash in the table? Maybe that's why Square wasn't waiting for sone better offer. They needed the injection of cash right away. That and probably given the low margins that these devs had, nobody wanted to pay substantially more. While there are strong IPs historically, they aren't what they used to be. It is possiblr that they are also dropping weight to be acquired by Sony is rumors are true. And that acquisition fits Sony's habit of taking people they are used to working with on exclusive deals etc. Microsoft's strong arm tactics are likely forcing Sony to do this. Especially if streaming and subscription models are a thing. They will need steady content. Acquiring Square will be expensive, but Sony could do the Bungie deal where Sqiare still operates independently and multiplatform. But Sony maintains the exclusivity for subscription games long after releasing them multiplatform for typical sale. So it maintains income amd still gives them the edge subscription wise and with maybe some console exclusive content. |
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vampiyan
 Posts: 64 |
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Sony buying Sqeenix would be pretty bad. I'd much rather Nintendo grab them if I had to choose. I'd rather they remain independent though and that's all just a baseless rumor.
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jdnation
Posts: 2016 |
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Bad in what way though? For sure there is the legitimate worry about Sony making all SE games exclusive. But I don't see that happening for these potential reasons: - a developer of SE's size and budget will necessitate profitability that demands multiplatform releases where appropriate. - the TV console market has shrunk considerably in Japan. Switch and mobile releases would necessitate Sony release Japanese games on Switch to maintain that market and profitability for the large SE branch. - As Bungie demonstrates, Sony is open to allowing independently run studios making multiplatform titles. There are plenty of other ways to incentivize people to buy the PlayStation versions. - Any deals between Nintendo and SE already in place, even for exclusives will have to be honored, as Sony does with MLB. So the dam has already broken in many ways for both Sony and Microsoft to publish games on competitors systems. The worst thing Nintendo may lose out on are that some Switch-developed titles also show up on PlayStation moving forward as ports. Switch due to the power difference was likely never getting any of the titles developed for PS5/Series X anyway, not without another successor to keep up with at least Series S specs in the future. Ot is possible that talks between Sony and SE began a long time ago which may have been why Sony shuttered their SCEJ studios with the exception of Asobi. If it happens I expect that nothing changes for Nintendo which will still see appropriate Japanese market games developed for Switch. Nintendo may lose out on the overseas market where people may prefer to buy the games on PlayStation or PC. Sony would have to do this to maintain profitability as we've already seen them bringing 1st party titles to PC. The only exclusivity may be for subscribers where if you want the games on a sub service you'll have to use PlayStation. |
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GNPixie
Posts: 310 |
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They confirmed last year they weren't looking to be acquired.
Here. I don't see that changing. They're probably dropping stuff that just isn't profitable. They did the same with IOI. |
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Silver Kirin
Posts: 1138 |
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I don't think SE would want to be bought by Nintendo, their most important title internationally, Final Fantasy, has been a techinical showcase since the PS1 era and Nintendo pretty much abandoned the idea of competing against Sony and Microsoft in the technical department, that's why most SE games that came to the Switch are smaller titles like Octopath Traveller, Triangle Strategy and ports of older games like the recent Chrono Cross remaster. I also don't think Nintendo is interested in games like Final Fantasy, NieR or Kingdom Hearts, they had their own RPGs like Pokémon, Xenoblade and Fire Emblem to fill that void, although I can see they trying to keep Dragon Quest in their platforms. Since the NES days Nintendo has made more efforts in igniting interest in the DQ games in the West than Enix themselves, Nintendo even published DQIX and the portable remakes that came to the DS and 3DS instead of SE. |
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Aresef
Posts: 914 Location: MD |
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Sony did once a stake in Square Enix. They bought 18.6% of Square in 2001, after the Final Fantasy movie flopped, to convince Enix that Square was on solid financial footing. Their share became an 8.2 percent stake after the merger. They offloaded it in 2014. But again, if Square Enix is in such a position they are throwing Tomb Raider overboard, an acquisition by somebody might be in the offing. |
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BadNewsBlues
Posts: 6030 |
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Nintendo grabbing them would be much worse considering the technical limitations with their consoles. Like yeah you don’t need powerful consoles to play Triangle Strategy or the more modest Dragon Quest games and having some of those games playable on the go is a novel idea but in spite of all that you’d. A. Only have those games available on Nintendo platforms. B. At least if Sony purchased them you would “potentially” have those games available on at least Windows/Steam (potentially) and iOS Android. You’d run into a bit more uncertainty with Nintendo with those games being released on PC. |
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AmpersandsUnited
Posts: 633 |
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Triangle Strategy was the best Square-Enix game in a long time so I'd be completely fine with that, actually. The problem with Sony buying them aside from the extra censorship and ethics would be Sony has pretty much killed off all their Japanese developers and IPs in favor of western focus. (RIP Ape Escape and Gravity Rush) So they'd probably have Square-Enix focus on western focused titles. Which would be ironic if they just shed their western IPs. |
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Silver Kirin
Posts: 1138 |
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I'd say SE has had a strange relationship with current Nintendo hardware, unlike the DS and 3DS, the Switch is a HD console and, while very less powerful compared with its competitors, people expect a major console experience, so that's why in part they ported much of their PSOne and PS2 catalog which never appeared in Nintendo systems and developed original games like Octopath and Triangle Strategy, which are amazing but something about their retro looks makes them seem like SE still has doubts about making a game that pushes the Switch's hardware. Third-party games like MH: Rise and SMT V do push the Switch to its limits, but I can't imagine SE making a game something like FFXIII or DQVIII for the Switch. I think if Sony would acquire SE they would mostly develop AAA style games like FF and KH, but smaller titles like the Team Asano games would have trouble, and Dragon Quest is a series that would have to change a lot in order for Sony to care to promote it. |
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