Square Enix Has Abandoned The West

The Embracer Group have went on another spending spree. This time, they've grabbed themselves Square Enix, Crystal Dynamics & Eidos Montreal. The question is though, will they treat these games right? And what exactly does this mean for Square Enix? What's their plans? Let us know your thoughts on all of this!

00:00 Intro
00:17 The Story - Square Enix Leave The West...
02:04 The Publisher - Embracer Are HOW Large?!
05:49 The Numbers - They’ve Got A Lot To Work With!
09:37 The Seller - What Does It Mean For Squeenix?
15:29 Closing Thoughts

[Medicesca]

Finally, Eidos and CD are free. It's better that they were sold rather than have Square squat on so many amazing IPs and do nothing.

[thelittlecube]

"We never asked for this. They say they saved Deus Ex, But I'm not sure "saved" is the right word."

Would love to see more of Deus Ex. Sure it has had its issues, however I was fully invested into that story and its side quests/lore.

[FatUberUddersOfChaos]

Wow. These guys now own some of my favorite IP. Deus Ex, Metro, Darksiders and Kingdoms of Amalur. These guys could kill gaming for me if they screw it up.

[Pyrotrainthing]

Embracer Group is like a person who liked the video games they grew up with and now owns the studios making those games.
Part of me is also worried we'll see Embracer vs Microsoft in who can have Anti-Trust called on them first.

[MrGoesBoom]

Nice to see a company that goes for lots of games that do ok, rather than focusing on just one IP and trying to squeeze every drop of blood and money from it.

[Kailspars]

We've heard a lot of about what Embrace Group are doing from you, but I would really enjoy some more in depth background who they are. Seems like they have a very aggressive and smart strategy compared to many other publishers. This raises a few questions which would be interesting to see answered.

[Sathsquatch]

The Embracer group seems to be betting that major players in the gaming industry are over-investing in gaas games and undervaluing traditional games, which is an interesting strategy. Other big video game companies keep on throwing huge amounts of money into projects they hope will be the next Fortnite, and they do not want to invest their time or money into something that cannot be astronomically profitable.

I think the Embracer group is on the right track. They might never make games with the profit margin of Fortnite, but the companies they bought were probably undervalued as a whole. I think this recent deal shows that. The Tomb Raider IP is hugely valuable if handled well. The fact that the mobile game sold 53 million units shows that the IP is still a big draw, but the audience that still will buy the game is not the type of gamer that is not exclusively interested in a $60/AAA game. There are lots of opportunity to make money with these IPs if their team is interested in trying out new approaches.

[alexandrostype-]

Very good decision for both entities. We noticed that the Western part of Square Enix was neglected in terms of budget and marketing these last past 5 Years. Eidos will maybe have more possibilites, and Square can be more focused on their important franchises. For the NFT part, they will try to implement it but it will fail and they will maybe quickly abandon it

[lemao]

"they don't seem to be raising red flags"

They raise no flags at all, as far as I could see. I didn't know Embracer existed until this video, and they seem to own a lot of the games sitting in my steam library. Now, I'm glad to see a Company who's happy letting their studios and products speak for themselves. I just hope they don't screw anything up.

[soulechelon]

Was worried about these acquisitions as I didn't know anything about the Embracer Group. But it seems so far they're benevolent (Or at least, as "benevolent" as any corporation can be). So long as they stick to the percieved philosophy of not shoving their hands too deep into the pie their dev teams are making, I'm cool with them.

Squeenix however...man, they used to be my all time favorite publisher. Hell I'm playing FFXIV right now. But at this point, I'm not sure what to think about them. Feels like Yoshi-P and devs like him under Squeenix are the only folks thinking about US - the actual players. But of course, his power there is nowhere near absolute. I feel like I'll be losing yet another favored publisher real, real soon.

[keenanhorrell]

I cannot believe how cheap they got these studios. Especially in this market.

[yangnator]

Square Enix needs to understand that what they are good at is japanese style RPGs and that should be their focus, just stop with westernization of your games and embrace your own roots, which is what made ppl love your games to begin with.

[Tramere]

I can't even express how badly I would LOVE to see a Legacy of Kain revival

[Darkholow]

This is the best thing for the franchise I love aka Deus Ex. Square Enix has completely shat on the IP and "experimented" with in game MTX just to ruin Mankind Divided and then it was put on ice. I hope this buyout means we will get to see the end of Jensen's story and Embracer lets Eidos finish the trilogy.

[MerelyAFan]

Honestly, the prudent thing by SE for the immediate future might be putting out even more modestly budgeted titles for Switch geared towards the Japan market. Even if the sales in the West aren't huge, Nintendo has such domination of the scene back home that the former could make their money back and then some if it's the right game. What Capcom did with MH Rise and Konami's done with numerous games, could easily be pulled off by Square given their library. There's no such thing as purely easy money in gaming, but a timed exclusive Kingdom Hearts or Dragon Quest release for Switch in Japan would get pretty close

[Sly_]

Reminds me a lot of Capcom in the early 2010s when they stopped their "push for the west" and focused again on their core, japanese games, identity!

[Dolgorath]

This is actually a good thing. Square and it’s fans never cared about these western IPs and such. They were always going to be an afterthought.
Now Square can have more resources to focus on their core JRPGs and Japanese franchises that it’s fans actually care about.

These Eidos and Crystal Dynamics games may get better support under a company that would better support them.

I am just glad that this era is Square Enix is coming to a close and they can trim some of the fat they were burdened with.

[proy]

Let this be a reminder that Final Fantasy 14 is good in spite of Square Enix and not because of it.

[ImmortalLorient]

I don't really see this as a bad thing. SE's strength has always been its JRPGs. If this gets them back to working on those more, I'm all for it. Let other companies handle the western style AAA games. SE tried to branch out too much and I think they're starting to realize that now.

[guardianali]

Square didn't just get 300 million.... They also got out of paying the salaries for 1100 people plus the buildings and leases.
That adds up quite a bit.