Embracer Group, a Swedish game company, has just announced a blockbuster acquisition of Crystal Dynamics, Eidos-Montréal, and Square Enix Montréal for what appears to be a bargain of $300 million, according to a press release.
According to the press release, the deal includes a “catalog of IPs including Tomb Raider, Deus Ex, Thief, Legacy of Kain, and more than 50 back-catalog games from Square Enix Holdings.” Regulatory approval is required for the transaction.
According to the company, these studios employ approximately 1,100 people across eight global locations. Embracer will have 14,000 employees, 10,000 game developers, and 124 internal studios when the deal is completed. It is working on more than 230 games, 30 of which are AAA titles.
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“This acquisition will bring additional scale to Embracer’s current AAA segment, and Embracer will have one of the largest pipelines of PC/Console games content across the industry, across all genres,” it said.
As part of the deal, Eidos Montreal intends to resurrect Deus Ex and use new Unreal Engine 5 technology, according to a statement made during the acquisition conference call, as reported by Shack News.
“At the moment, we are insane people who have decided to resurrect the Deus Ex IP as our first game,” Eidos Montreal Studio Head David Anfossi said. “A new team, a very complex production, new technology, and a new studio, a simple task.” According to Anfossi, Deus Ex console sales have surpassed 12 million units.
Today we have entered into agreement to welcome over 1000 new colleagues through the acquisition of @CrystalDynamics, @EidosMontreal, and @SquareEnixMtl with a fantastic catalog of IPs such as Tomb Raider and Deux Ex, to be part of our ecosystem.https://t.co/NqELDQKTGe
— Embracer Group (@embracergroup) May 2, 2022
Crystal Dynamics announced last month that it was working on a new Tomb Raider game based on Unreal Engine 5, with plans to “push the envelope of fidelity.” Among other things, the studio created Marvel’s Avengers.
According to the Embracer press release, Eidos Montréal created Thief 4, Deus Ex Human Revolution, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, and other games, and is “working on a host of AAA projects including both new releases from beloved franchises and original IP.”
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Embracer, founded by Swedish entrepreneur Lars Wingefors, is perhaps “the biggest games publisher you’ve never heard of,” as we detailed in a feature last year. It has made a number of acquisitions in recent years, most notably Saber Interactive for $525 million and Gearbox Software for $1.3 billion.
It now owns a large number of iconic franchises, particularly in the classic category. It also owns Saints Row, Goat Simulator, Dead Island, Metro, TimeSplitters, Borderlands, Darksiders, MX vs ATV, Kingdoms of Amalur, Satisfactory, Wreckfest, Insurgency, and World War Z, in addition to the newly acquired IP. The company has promised new titles from the original developers for some of those, such as TimeSplitters.
