Embracer Group AB (Embracer) just announced that they have entered into an agreement to acquire Crystal Dynamics, Eidos-Montreal, and Square Enix Montreal. As a result of this acquisition, Embracer now also owns a large number of popular IPs including Tomb Raider, Deus Ex, Thief, Legacy of Kain, and over "50 back-catalogue games from Square Enix."
Embracer's announcement says that this acquisition includes roughly 1,100 employees across all three studios working at eight locations around the world.
The total purchasing price is $300 million (USD) "on a cash and debt free basis, to be paid in full at closing." The deal won't be finalized until it is approved by regulatory and other external approvals. The deal should be done "during the second quarter of Embracer's financial year" for 2022-2023. Meaning that this should be a done deal between July and September 2022.
A stream for investors, media, and analysts is expected to take place at 9AM (CET) on May 2. It will probably already have taken place by the time you read this.
The collection of studios represents a world-class creative team of ~1,100 employees across three studios and eight global locations, including two of the most reputable AAA studios across the industry in Crystal Dynamics and Eidos Montréal. The studios possess a unique ability to deliver blockbuster hits decade after decade. The acquisition brings a compelling pipeline of new installments from beloved franchises and original IPs, including a new Tomb Raider game. The acquisition builds on Embracer’s mission of creating a leading independent global gaming and entertainment ecosystem. Embracer has been particularly impressed by the studios’ rich portfolio of original IP, housing brands with proven global potential such as Tomb Raider and Deus Ex, as well as demonstrating the ability to create AAA games with large and growing fan bases. There are compelling opportunities to organically grow the studios to maximize their commercial opportunities.
The portfolio of IP consists of iconic franchises appreciated by critics and players alike. For example, two original IPs, Tomb Raider and Deus Ex, have sold AAA units of ~88M and ~12M, respectively. Embracer sees an opportunity to invest in these franchises, as well as the additional acquired IPs such as Legacy of Kain, Thief, and other original franchises. The acquisition also includes the continued sales and operations of the studios’ more than 50 back-catalogue games.
Founded in 1992, Crystal Dynamics consists of almost 300 employees across San Mateo, CA; Bellevue, WA; and Austin, TX. The studio is committed to creating narrative-focused AAA action-adventure games and is led by 30+ year veteran Scot Amos. Prior AAA releases from the studio include Rise of the Tomb Raider and Legacy of Kain Defiance. Crystal Dynamics is actively working on several AAA projects, including the next mainline Tomb Raider game that will deliver next-generation storytelling and gameplay experiences.
Founded in 2007, Eidos Montréal consists of almost 500[1] employees across Montréal, Canada; Sherbrooke, Canada; and Shanghai, China. The studio focuses on creating memorable AAA experiences focused on unique stories and strong characters within the action-adventure and RPG genres. The studio is led by David Anfossi, who has 26 years of industry experience. Prior AAA releases include Thief 4, Deus Ex Human Revolution, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider. The studio is working on a host of AAA projects including both new releases from beloved franchises and original IP.
Founded in 2011, Square Enix Montréal consists of almost 150 employees across Montréal, Canada and London, UK. The studio focuses on building mobile games that players will want to return to for years to come. The studio is led by Patrick Naud, who has 24 years of industry experience. The studio is uniquely talented in creating mobile experiences based on traditionally PC/Console IPs such as Hitman, Tomb Raider, and Deus Ex. The studio will continue to develop and operate memorable mobile games based on AAA IP.
The portfolio of IP consists of iconic franchises appreciated by critics and players alike. For example, two original IPs, Tomb Raider and Deus Ex, have sold AAA units of ~88M and ~12M, respectively. Embracer sees an opportunity to invest in these franchises, as well as the additional acquired IPs such as Legacy of Kain, Thief, and other original franchises. The acquisition also includes the continued sales and operations of the studios’ more than 50 back-catalogue games.
Founded in 1992, Crystal Dynamics consists of almost 300 employees across San Mateo, CA; Bellevue, WA; and Austin, TX. The studio is committed to creating narrative-focused AAA action-adventure games and is led by 30+ year veteran Scot Amos. Prior AAA releases from the studio include Rise of the Tomb Raider and Legacy of Kain Defiance. Crystal Dynamics is actively working on several AAA projects, including the next mainline Tomb Raider game that will deliver next-generation storytelling and gameplay experiences.
Founded in 2007, Eidos Montréal consists of almost 500[1] employees across Montréal, Canada; Sherbrooke, Canada; and Shanghai, China. The studio focuses on creating memorable AAA experiences focused on unique stories and strong characters within the action-adventure and RPG genres. The studio is led by David Anfossi, who has 26 years of industry experience. Prior AAA releases include Thief 4, Deus Ex Human Revolution, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider. The studio is working on a host of AAA projects including both new releases from beloved franchises and original IP.
Founded in 2011, Square Enix Montréal consists of almost 150 employees across Montréal, Canada and London, UK. The studio focuses on building mobile games that players will want to return to for years to come. The studio is led by Patrick Naud, who has 24 years of industry experience. The studio is uniquely talented in creating mobile experiences based on traditionally PC/Console IPs such as Hitman, Tomb Raider, and Deus Ex. The studio will continue to develop and operate memorable mobile games based on AAA IP.
Over the past couple of weeks now I've been replaying Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, plus all the story DLC and I've been wanting a new game something fierce.
This kind of gives me far, far more hope of seeing a new entry sooner rather than later if current Square Enix remained in charge of Eidos.
HOWEVER, the game loves to crash and freeze. Just look at some of the tweets I made over the past week or so.
See, the game has issues on CPUs with a lot of cores. If you have a lot of CPU cores, the game will fail to load on transitions, and there are a lot of them if you are taking the metro between both halves of Prague all the time.
The "fix" for this is to set CPU affinity to using just one CPU core. So, you restart the game after it fails to load. Before you try to travel (or activate a cutscene), you need to alt-tab to the task manager and change the affinity for the game from off of all cores and on to just using CPU 0 and CPU 1.
Then you travel or load the scene that was causing issues. After that, you can set the affinity back to all cores.
I basically lived my life on the quicksave feature when playing Mankind Divided because it happened so often and the auto-saves were nowhere near frequent enough. Drop a quick save right before using the metro. If it worked without issue, great. Drop a quick save after loading in to the next area. If it didn't load: Force quit, do the affinity crap, drop a quick save again after it loads.
Then there were times where it would just randomly freeze or crash to desktop. These were far far less frequent than the failure to load crap though.
When it worked, it was a fun time, story notwithstanding. At least the DLC ties up a couple of those dangling threads, but yeah, a full sequel needs to happen. Still working through the last DLC now for MD, the prison one. The DLC, called Jensen's Stories, seem to increase in quality with each one.