Embracer Group announced that it would be purchasing Square Enix’s western studios today (i.e., Eidos Montreal, Square Enix Montreal, and Crystal Dynamics) in a deal worth $300 million, and with it comes along new insight on how lucrative two of the biggest franchises that the Japanese gaming giant has sold off might be for its new owners. A timeline shared in a presentation with Embracer Group can reveal that the Tomb Raider franchise has sold 88 million copies since Lara Croft was introduced in Core’s 1996 PlayStation classic, a success that has since culminated in various sequels and the recent reboot trilogy. Tomb Raider (2013), Rise of the Tomb Raider, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider have done particularly well, making up a large portion of total overall sales with 38 million copies sold.
Tomb Raider’s Lifetime Sales Revealed After Embracer Group Sale (IGN)
Additionally, the franchise saw more than 53 million paid mobile downloads from entries such as Lara Croft: Relic Run and Lara Croft: Go.
The timeline shows other Tomb Raider games like Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light and Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris spinoffs, as well as games before the 2013 reboot, including Tomb Raider: Legend, Tomb Raider: Anniversary, and Tomb Raider: Underworld.
Crystal Dynamics studio head Scot Amos explains that the Tomb Raider brand is a strong one, saying, “This is just looking at the games. We still have an entire transmedia world out there, known for films, new series coming, comics, and looking across what the possibilities are for this franchise, I tell you the best is yet to come.”
David Anfossi, Studio Head of Eidos Montreal, goes on to share another slide that demonstrates the sales performance of the recent Deus Ex games, reboots designed around the dystopian, cyberpunk world originally introduced by Ion Storm in 2000. Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Deus Ex: Human Revolution Director’s Cut, and Deus Ex: Mankind Divided have managed to move over 12 million copies, while its mobile-oriented spinoffs—Deus Ex: The Fall and Deus Ex Go—have earned 2 million paid downloads. Square Enix put the franchise on ice following Mankind Divided’s disappointing sales performance, something that purportedly happened due to the publisher’s interference.
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I'd say I'm somewhat surprised the studios sold for only $300M. Eidos was bought out for $130M back in '09, and that was before most of their breakout AAA releases, and Eidos was a publishing company very much on the ropes. Today it has a lot of successful releases, a Marvel license, and the IPs that are transferring with the sale are all pretty well regarded.
Granted, I have no idea how much Avengers and GotG cost the studio to put out - the terms of that licensing deal could have been crippling.
Get woke, go broke!
Could've been worse. Tencent could've bought them.
I didn't recognize the name either, but I do remember their previous name: "THQ Nordic".
I'm glad with the move, felt like these series weren't getting the push they deserved/needed from Square Enix. I also think this puts Square Enix in a more affordable position for Sony to purchase.
Tomb Raider publisher sells iconic video game franchise to invest in blockchain
What a horrible idea.
The paragraph containing the above-quoted text was followed by two citations that link to the following articles:
Square Enix sells all of its Western game studios—and their games—to Embracer
Square Enix Says Embracer Sale Will Help Fund Its Blockchain Investment
Just noticed that the forum software automatically parses bare URLs (i.e., those without user-defined titles) and generates a preview. Neato.
Also now I see they came from Nordic Games, and then I remember when THQ-Nordic was a thing. They own Koch Media and Saber Interactive. So yeah I do actually know who Embracer Group is, I just didn't recognize that name.