Despite Embracer Group‘s acquisition, Crystal Dynamics continues to assist The Initiative, while Eidos Montréal has switched from its proprietary technology to Epic Games’ engine.

We reported yesterday that Square Enix had sold three of its studios to the Embracer Group for what could be described as peanuts. It may have raised whether this will stop The Initiative and Crystal Dynamics from working together on the Perfect Dark reboot. It won’t: Microsoft’s studio said on Twitter, “We’re excited to see Crystal Dynamics take these next steps with their studio. Our teams have made great progress in building Perfect Dark together as co-development partners, and we will be continuing this work with them in their next chapter.”

Meanwhile, we’ve also heard from around Eidos Montréal (Deux Ex: Human Revolution, Thief reboot, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy). Studio head David Anfossi appeared on the Embracer Group’s investor conference call, where he summarised the studio’s development history. Then came the twist: Anfossi confirmed that they, like Crystal Dynamics, have switched to Unreal Engine 5 (which CD is using to develop the new Tomb Raider, it’s official).

Until now, they used the Dawn Engine (based on IO Interactive’s Glacier 2) for Deus Ex: Mankind Divided and Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy and the Foundation Engine for Shadow of the Tomb Raider. The Thief reboot was a bit of a standout (Unreal Engine 3). So the studio, which currently employs 481 people (Montréal: 442, Sherbrooke: 34, Shanghai: 5), is also switching technologies.

It is not a bad idea, as Unreal Engine 5 seems to be a significant technological development. If so many people are using Tim Sweeney’s technology, Epic Games must have come up with something outstanding. Given that the first Unreal Engine was also revolutionary in the late 90s, this is to be expected from them, right?

Source: WCCFTech, WCCFTech