Borrowing money was cheap until it wasn’t. When they bought the old Eidos stuff, everyone thought Square Enix was taking crazy pills. Now, given that everyone’s cutting back right now, it looks more like they knew something Embracer didn’t.
I think regardless of that deal, they were already on the debt-go-round for long enough it would’ve caught up to them eventually. I can’t imagine this was gonna be “one last job then we go clean.” The market would continue to demand more and faster growth until they hit the wall one way or the other.
2017 is ancient history compared to the current economic climate, and that sale came out of an attempt to make games episodic to their detriment. $300M seemed low considering the buyer makes that money back with probably 1.5 Tomb Raider games, and Deus Ex and all of those other Eidos properties are a bonus. Yes, the deal seemed crazy for Square Enix at the time.
They sold 9 million copies of Shadow of the Tomb Raider. I think I’m in the ballpark. And again, that’s only Tomb Raider, when they’re not blowing their money on a live service Avengers game that everyone knew was a bad idea.
Embracer got all of these studios and most of their IPs in the sale, the two biggest being Tomb Raider and Deus Ex. I focused on Tomb Raider because it’s the most valuable one in that purchase and almost makes the sale worth it on its own, or it seemed to before the economy turned, but they got plenty more besides just Tomb Raider.
Borrowing money was cheap until it wasn’t. When they bought the old Eidos stuff, everyone thought Square Enix was taking crazy pills. Now, given that everyone’s cutting back right now, it looks more like they knew something Embracer didn’t.
Wasn’t Embracer depending on a huge cash deal with the Saudis that fell through? Likely had an impact.
I think regardless of that deal, they were already on the debt-go-round for long enough it would’ve caught up to them eventually. I can’t imagine this was gonna be “one last job then we go clean.” The market would continue to demand more and faster growth until they hit the wall one way or the other.
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People were taken aback by how little they sold for. IO Interactive bought themselves back from Square Enix some time ago.
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2017 is ancient history compared to the current economic climate, and that sale came out of an attempt to make games episodic to their detriment. $300M seemed low considering the buyer makes that money back with probably 1.5 Tomb Raider games, and Deus Ex and all of those other Eidos properties are a bonus. Yes, the deal seemed crazy for Square Enix at the time.
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They sold 9 million copies of Shadow of the Tomb Raider. I think I’m in the ballpark. And again, that’s only Tomb Raider, when they’re not blowing their money on a live service Avengers game that everyone knew was a bad idea.
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Embracer got all of these studios and most of their IPs in the sale, the two biggest being Tomb Raider and Deus Ex. I focused on Tomb Raider because it’s the most valuable one in that purchase and almost makes the sale worth it on its own, or it seemed to before the economy turned, but they got plenty more besides just Tomb Raider.