Square Enix Will Create Or Acquire New Studios

General news News 05/15/2022

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And the Japanese publisher is likely to do so only if it will help it achieve its recently set goals.

Square Enix sold Crystal Dynamics, Eidos Montréal and Square Enix Montréal, as well as a few IPs, such as Tomb Raider and Deus Ex, to Embracer Group for virtually pocket change, and the Japanese publisher has openly admitted that the proceeds will go to investments around blockchain, artificial intelligence and the cloud. On Friday, however, the Japanese publisher released its financial results, and in them, it mentioned why it was cutting back its overseas presence.

Square Enix says it can achieve continued growth by “selection and concentration of company resources”; the Tokyo HQ and overseas game publishing may align better, and the publisher may be able to focus on the blockchain/AI/cloud as it looks to reshape its Digital Entertainment (i.e. games-focused) portfolio, in part through the creation of new IP, integrated group management, increasing its game development capability, and M&As (mergers and acquisitions). So, the new studios that the publisher wants to acquire would be ones where NFT and blockchain are not taboo…

Square Enix also mentioned Balan Wonderworld, which is why Yuji Naka (who was a significant force behind Sonic IP at SEGA, but also NiGHTS Into Dreams…) is now suing the Japanese company because he was removed as director half a year before the game was released. He said it was disgraceful how half-baked his game was. Naka spoke about it in a series of tweets back in April, but there has been an official response from Square Enix, as reported by Takashi Mochizuki, who writes for Bloomberg.

Knowing the mentality of the Japanese publisher (they don’t like PC players that much: Capcom and even SEGA remove Denuvo DRM from their games more often than Square Enix…), it’s not surprising that they first said that there was indeed a lawsuit against them, but what the Matsuda Yosuke-led company then said was simply amazing! Square Enix recommends Balan Wonderworld to players with confidence… even though Naka says it’s far from the way he imagined it!?

No wonder Naka is so angry: in 2020, shortly after the game was announced, he said that Balan Wonderworld was his “only chance” to make a platformer after leaving SEGA in 2006…

Source: VGC, VGC

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Angyal Anikó

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