Under the new ownership, Crystal Dynamics has removed the Square Enix shackle (so they don’t have to push games using the live service model).
Crystal Dynamics recently updated its social media pages with a new image celebrating its 30th anniversary. Now, at the top of the logo, we can observe three silhouettes. On the one hand, there’s Lara Croft. That’s okay because she’s getting a new game on Unreal Engine 5, so we’ve got the treasure hunter down. But alongside her, we have Raziel on one side and Gex on the other.
Raziel is a familiar character from Legacy of Kain: he was the protagonist of the two Soul Reaver subtitled instalments, and Gex was the gecko launched initially as one of Panasonic 3DO’s killer apps, who got a PS1 port of the 2D platformer, and then came the two three-dimensional sequels (there were other ports as well, but let’s not get into that here). These characters have been neglected lately, except for the appearance of the Gex Jr. PS1 prototype, which we wrote about.
Square Enix has registered at least two trademarks for Gex lately, the last being in February. It was when there was no talk of Crystal Dynamics (and Square Enix Montréal, Eidos Montréal) being sold to Embracer Group. With that, the rapidly growing collective acquired several IPs so that along with Deus Ex and Thief, Gex and Legacy of Kain have indeed fallen into the hands of Embracer, led by Lars Wingefors. And remember what they wrote in the announcement when they announced the purchase…?
“After the end of the quarter, we further strengthened our development capabilities and IP portfolio by agreeing to acquire Crystal Dynamics, Eidos Montreal and Square Enix Montreal, including Tomb Raider, Deus Ex, Thief and Legacy of Kain and other IPs. The announcement got an overwhelming and positive response. We see great potential, not only in sequels but also in remakes, remasters, spinoffs as well as transmedia projects across the Group. We expect the transaction to close in the July-September period,” Embracer said.
That would be welcomed by many.
Source: PSL
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