Square Enix has outlined plans to establish new studios, after recently revealing it’s going to sell off three of its western developers.
The plan was revealed in Square Enix’s results briefing for the last financial year, which was released today (May 13). The company outlined how more studios will help with “strengthening our [intellectual property] ecosystem”. The establishment of new studios at Square Enix is also set to help boost game development capabilities (via Stephen Totilo).
Each of the long-term objectives behind Square Enix’s recently announced sale of Crystal Dynamics, Eidos-Montréal and Square Enix Montréal to Embracer Group were also outlined. The company wants to optimise resource allocation to create “appealing titles better aligned to customer needs”, to “revisit our existing governance structure”, to better align oversees publishing work with the Tokyo organisation, and to transform its business portfolio to the fields of blockchain, AI and the cloud.
Square Enix also wants to “cultivate robust IP,” with this objective likely tied to the formation of the new studios that the company wants to better manage.
The sale of much of the company’s western development arm to Embracer Group will also see the ownership of major franchises transferred across from the Japanese publisher, as Tomb Raider, Legacy Of Kain, Deus Ex, and over “50 back-catalogue games” go to Embracer. Square Enix will make approximately £240million ($300million USD) from the deal.
Whilst the deal with Embracer goes ahead, Crystal Dynamics will still work with Xbox’s The Initiative as co-developer on the upcoming Perfect Dark reboot. The Initiative said in a statement:
“We’re excited to see Crystal Dynamics take these next steps with their studio. Our teams have made great progress in building Perfect Dark together as co-development partners, and we will be continuing this work with them in their next chapter.”
In other news, Sega plans to release multiple remasters, remakes and spin-off games in the next financial year.
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