It’s unbelievable that Square Enix would come up with such a stupid reason for selling Square Enix Montreal, Crystal Dynamics and Eidos Montréal…

It is still incomprehensible that Square Enix sold the three studios and their IPs to the Embracer Group for around 300 million dollars (and there was a rumour about one of them, Eidos Montréal, which was in the news today), as it is a relatively low amount in the gaming industry. Square Enix then revealed its primary rationale in a statement, “a more efficient allocation of resources and the launch of new businesses by moving forward with investments in fields including blockchain, AI, and the cloud.”

The company has now released its quarterly business report, and two analysts, David Gibson and Dr Serkan Toto have spoken about the real rationale. Toto nearly went off the deep end, “Square Enix says they sold Crystal Dynamics and Eidos because they feared sales from these two studios would cannibalize sales of the rest of the company. Who is so dumb to believe this complete and utter BS?” It is indeed an incomprehensible justification from the Japanese company.

The likes of Deus Ex, Thief and Tomb Raider have diversified Square Enix’s portfolio from the Western studios and helped the publisher when games being made in Japan, its home turf, required repeated postponements (e.g. Final Fantasy VII Remake and Final Fantasy XV). At least they have a more robust schedule now, with Live A Live just released on Nintendo Switch, but Valkyrie Elysium, Star Ocean: The Divine Force, Dragon Quest Treasures, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII – Reunion, Forspoken, Final Fantasy XVI, and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth are all coming soon.

Square Enix has most likely “streamlined” itself to be acquired by another company, and there are indeed rumours that Sony could be the new owner…

Source: WCCFTech