Embracer Group – the owner of Tomb Raider, Deus Ex, and other IPs bought from Square Enix in early May – sees “great potential” in making sequels, remakes, remasters, and spin-offs of these franchises.
Revealed in the colossal holding company’s latest financial results, Embracer said it had “further strengthened [its] development capabilities and IP-portfolio” by purchasing Crystal Dynamics, Eidos Montreal, and Square Enix Montreal which included “Tomb Raider, Deus Ex, Thief, and Legacy of Kain and other IPs.”
In addition to the sequels, remakes, remasters, and spin-offs, Embracer also sees potential in “transmedia projects” across the group, later referring to similar initiatives from company’s such as Netflix and Amazon.
Embracer Group also owns Dark Horse Comics and board game company Asmodee, which “will also enable the use of gaming IPs across yet another media”.
Alongside the four previously-Square Enix games mentioned above, the Embracer deal also included more than 50 back-catalogue games developed by the three studios.
Tomb Raider is arguably the biggest franchise acquired in the deal and, while we last saw a new release in 2018 with Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Crystal Dynamics announced not long before the Embracer sale that it was working on a new game in the franchise.
The last mainline Deus Ex game was 2016’s Mankind Divided, while Thief returned briefly in 2014 after the original trilogy ran from 1998 to 2004, and there hasn’t been a Legacy of Kain game since 2003.
Embracer’s financial results also revealed that Borderlands creator Gearbox has nine AAA games in development as the developer/publisher continues to grow under its giant owner.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer who occasionally remembers to tweet @thelastdinsdale. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.