Back in May, Japanese gaming giant Square Enix sold off its western portfolio of game publishers – like Crystal Dynamics and Eidos Montreal – to Swedish holding company Embracer Group.
For a bargain cheap $300 million, Embracer landed the IP rights to the “Tomb Raider,” “Deus Ex,” “Thief” and “Legacy of Kain” franchises along with several other games.
Now it turns out that more divestment of Square’s non-Japanese properties is on the way. Japan-based analyst David Gibson took to Twitter to summarise a conference call held by the publisher on Friday.
According to Gibson, the May sell-off was the first phase in a plan with the second to be a “diversification of studio capital structure” with a studio portfolio review coming up.
Gibson explains the biggest impact will be on the European and North American studios with Square Enix: “looking to sell stakes in its studios to others to improve capital efficiency.” Such sales would allow Square Enix to be able to allocate more resources to its Japan titles.
The most notable ‘western’ franchise that Square Enix still publishes is “Just Cause” with a fifth entry in that series confirmed to be in development. They also publish the “Life Is Strange” and “Outriders” franchises.
Source: VGC
