Embracer agrees to buy Crystal Dynamics, Eidos-Montréal, Square Enix Montréal, and their IP

Embracer Group announced today that it has entered an agreement with Square Enix to acquire Crystal Dynamics, Eidos-Montréal, and Square Enix Montréal. Embracer will also get a hold of major IP from those companies, including Tomb Raider, Deus Ex, Thief, and Legacy of Kain.

The deal is costing Embracer $300 million. While that’s a lot of money, it’s significantly less than other recent blockbuster gaming deals. Sony is spending $3.6 billion on Bungie.

Embracer has been in the acquisition business since before giant deals like Microsoft buying Bethesda (and later Activision Blizzard) made them something of an industry trend. The Swedish holding company owns other major gaming labels like Deep Silver, Saber Interactive, and THQ Nordic.

For Square Enix, this gives the Japanese publisher a way to offload its biggest western studios. Square Enix has often maligned the releases from Crystal Dynamics and Eidos — like the recent Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy games — as financial disappointments. This move allows Square Enix to invest more in technologies, like blockchain, AI, and cloud gaming.

Embracer expects the deal, which includes about 1,100 employees, to close between July and September of this year.

Crystal Dynamics is currently helping Microsoft with development of its Perfect Dark reboot. It is also making a new Tomb Raider game.