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Japanese gaming giant Square Enix announced that it would sell several of its development studios for $300 million to invest in blockchain.
Square Enix’s decision implies that Tomb Raider games, Deus Ex, Thief, and Legacy of Kain titles would all be divested to Sweden-based Embracer Group AB. The agreement is expected to conclude between July and September of this year.
Square Enix’s subsidiary Crystal Dynamics is the principal developer of Tomb Raider, which generated $92 million in revenue in its fiscal year ending March 2021.
Aside from Tomb Raider, Crystal Dynamics and Eidos Interactive, another subsidiary to be divested, hold intellectual properties for titles such as Deus Ex, Thief, and Legacy of Kain.
Tomb Raider is one of the most well-known video game franchises of all time in which players navigate British archaeologist Lara Croft through a series of ancient tombs and hazardous ruins. It has sold roughly 88 million copies to date.
Coin Telegraph reported that about 40% of the sales came from the franchise's rebooted trilogy consisting of Tomb Raider, Rise of the Tomb Raider, and Shadows of the Tomb Raider, while the rest came from sales of the original game. The franchise saw over 53 million paid mobile downloads from games such as Lara Croft: Relic Run.
Square Enix said that it would be selling the assets to cut down on costs amid a challenging global business environment, while also investing in new technologies like the blockchain.
Source - Square Enix, Embracer Group, Coin Telegraph
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