• ampersandrew@kbin.social
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      11 months ago

      Borrowing money was cheap until it wasn’t. When they bought the old Eidos stuff, everyone thought Square Enix was taking crazy pills. Now, given that everyone’s cutting back right now, it looks more like they knew something Embracer didn’t.

      • Spitfire@pawb.social
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        11 months ago

        Wasn’t Embracer depending on a huge cash deal with the Saudis that fell through? Likely had an impact.

        • nromdotcom@beehaw.org
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          11 months ago

          I think regardless of that deal, they were already on the debt-go-round for long enough it would’ve caught up to them eventually. I can’t imagine this was gonna be “one last job then we go clean.” The market would continue to demand more and faster growth until they hit the wall one way or the other.

        • ampersandrew@kbin.social
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          11 months ago

          People were taken aback by how little they sold for. IO Interactive bought themselves back from Square Enix some time ago.

            • ampersandrew@kbin.social
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              11 months ago

              2017 is ancient history compared to the current economic climate, and that sale came out of an attempt to make games episodic to their detriment. $300M seemed low considering the buyer makes that money back with probably 1.5 Tomb Raider games, and Deus Ex and all of those other Eidos properties are a bonus. Yes, the deal seemed crazy for Square Enix at the time.

                • ampersandrew@kbin.social
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                  11 months ago

                  They sold 9 million copies of Shadow of the Tomb Raider. I think I’m in the ballpark. And again, that’s only Tomb Raider, when they’re not blowing their money on a live service Avengers game that everyone knew was a bad idea.