The Embracer Group Promises New Deus Ex & Thief Games

The Embracer Group has promised to fund new Deus Ex and Thief games, and more, once its acquisition concludes in the coming months.

The Embracer Group has promised to fund new Deus Ex and Thief games, and more, once its acquisition concludes in the coming months.

The Embracer Group is all set to acquire Crystal Dynamics, Eidos Montreal, and Square Enix Montreal for an estimated $300 million; a deal which also includes several intellectual properties such as Tomb Raider, Deus Ex, Thief, Legacy of Kain, as well as unannounced franchises.

The acquisition is expected to close in the next five or six months, after which the Embracer Group plans to task the three former western studios of Square Enix (via PSLS) to produce an “exciting pipeline of new installments and original IPs”.

Crystal Dynamics is already working on a new Tomb Raider game and the upcoming Perfect Dark game. Eidos Montreal is working on several unannounced projects that include a new installment in either Deus Ex, Thief, or Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy. With the latter reportedly costing Square Enix part of a $200 million loss, chances are that the Embracer Group will refrain from venturing into any Marvel project any time soon.

It has been confirmed that Life Is Strange, Just Cause, and Outriders are not part of the acquisition. It remains to be verified whether the three franchises were not picked up by Embracer or were never part of the sale. Outriders has notably failed to turn a profit and will continue to be owned by Square Enix.

The Embracer Group, however, has still not clarified the status of Marvel’s Avengers. The live service game is supposed to receive new content as part of its existing roadmap except that it was “a commercial disappointment” for the publisher.

Marvel’s Avengers sold about 3 million copies after costing over $100 million to produce. There is a chance that once the acquisition concludes, Embracer will refrain from pumping any resources into the game for continued support.

Saqib is a managing editor at segmentnext.com who has halted regime changes, curbed demonic invasions, and averted at least one cosmic omnicide from the confines of his gaming chair. When not whipping his writers into ...