Embracer Group To Acquire Crystal Dynamics, Square Enix Montréal, Eidos-Montréal, Plus IPs For $300 Million

Embracer Group, the Swedish video game holding company and parent of Gearbox, Saber Interactive and THQ Nordic (among many others), has entered into an agreement to acquire several studios and a selection of IP from Square Enix.

Included in the deal are three studios — Crystal Dynamics, Square Enix Montréal, and Eidos-Montréal — plus a catalogue of IP and games including Tomb Raider, Deus Ex, Thief, Legacy of Kain and over 50 “back-catalogue” titles. The acquisition will include over 1,100 employees across the three studios, with the total purchase price totalling $300 million.

The news was put out via a press release from both companies. Embracer expects the deal “to close during the second quarter of Embracer’s financial year 22/23 (July-September 2022)”.

Square Enix states in its press release that “the Transaction enables the launch of new businesses by moving forward with investments in fields including blockchain, AI, and the cloud.” The Japanese company also says that it “will continue to publish franchises such as Just Cause, Outriders, and Life is Strange“.

After closing this transaction, the US will be Embracer’s #1 country by number of game developers and Canada will be #2. In total, post pending closings, Embracer will have more than 14,000 employees, 10,000 engaged game developers, and 124 internal studios. Embracer’s upcoming content pipeline includes more than 230 games with more than 30 AAA games. 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.

This is the latest in a series of high profile acquisitions in the video game industry, with Microsoft in the process of a $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, after picking up Bethesda and its IP in 2020.