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Rumour: Amazon has reportedly bought Tomb Raider franchise (Update:) Tomb Raider leased out for 600 million Krona (57 million USD)

anthony2690

Member

Didn't Embracer only spend 300 million?!
& They've literally got there money back and some from selling the tomb raider ip.


It just makes me think how stupid Sqaure Enix were.

At the time I remember commenting you would think the tomb raider ip alone would be worth more than that alone when Embracer got their bargain 🤷‍♂️

edit: source:

EDIT 2/UPDATE:

Update:
Apparently they leashed out the Tomb Raider IP to Amazon for 600million Krona ($57milliom USD)
 
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Elios83

Member
Wait if they sell the IP what about the new game they're developing at Crystal Dynamics? The development studio is sold to Amazon as well?
 

Bloobs

Al Pachinko, Konami President
Excuse Me Reaction GIF by One Chicago
 
Embracer Group just sold their ‘Tomb Raider’ rights to Amazon for a deal that we can exclusively reveal as being approximately a 600 Million overall package making it Amazon’s second biggest purchase after purchasing the television rights for ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’. Therefore, this puts into perspective the cost and prices that Embracer maybe looking for.
Source

Not sure if source is reliable but if Embracer bought everything from Eidos for 300M and sells Tomb Raider alone for 600M then, lmao. Square-Enix really don't know what they are doing at this point.

That said...it's kind of depressing to see everything that this IP has been going through since it was created by Core Design back in the mid 90's.
 

Black_Stride

do not tempt fate do not contrain Wonder Woman's thighs do not do not
Wait if they sell the IP what about the new game they're developing at Crystal Dynamics? The development studio is sold to Amazon as well?
Amazon will publish the games maybe even front the development costs or atleast some of it.
Profits shared between Crystal Dynamics and Amazon Studios.

AAA game development is getting really weird.
 

anthony2690

Member
Source

Not sure if source is reliable but if Embracer bought everything from Eidos for 300M and sells Tomb Raider alone for 600M then, lmao. Square-Enix really don't know what they are doing at this point.

That said...it's kind of depressing to see everything that this IP has been going through since it was created by Core Design back in the mid 90's.
Added source to post.
 

Elios83

Member
Amazon will publish the games maybe even front the development costs or atleast some of it.
Profits shared between Crystal Dynamics and Amazon Studios.

AAA game development is getting really weird.
Yeah it's really weird and if confirmed it seems like Embracer's goal from the beginning was to get these studios for cheap to sell them and/or the IPs again at a way higher price.
Basically Square Enix got cheated.
 

Nautilus

Banned
Guys: please, PLEASE put "Rumor" on the thread title for reports that are not official, no matter how trustworthy the source is.

You are just misinforming and doing a disservice to everyone not framing it as such, as most replies will be based on the title alone.
 

anthony2690

Member
Guys: please, PLEASE put "Rumor" on the thread title for reports that are not official, no matter how trustworthy the source is.

You are just misinforming and doing a disservice to everyone not framing it as such, as most replies will be based on the title alone.
I meant to...
My edit even says this.
Unfortunately I just got to play the waiting game till a mod sees and edits my title.

I did bold it, hoping people will atleast read the bolded text :p
 
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Black_Stride

do not tempt fate do not contrain Wonder Woman's thighs do not do not
Yeah it's really weird and if confirmed it seems like Embracer's goal from the beginning was to get these studios for cheap to sell them and/or the IPs again at a way higher price.
Basically Square Enix got cheated.

Square would probably have sold their western studios for even less.
They were just desperate to get rid of them because they didnt know what to do with them.
Some times just getting rid of something is easier/cheaper overall than trying to keep maintaining it.

Embracer have the cash and can basically shop their IPs and even their studios talent out to other AAA studios.
Square arent anywhere near that smart.

If Square knew what they were doing, they would have shopped out all their "spare" talent to other studios.
If they cant do western publishing they cold literally talk to their friends at Sony and say listen our studio does most of the work, you guys publish and provide support.

A match made in heaven, but Square are like nahh, lets do Forspoken.
 

Mibu no ookami

Demoted Member® Pro™
First, let's assume that this is even a valid source.

Second, what people have to realize in business is there are always a multitude of reasons why you might have to take less money for something than the market might be willing to pay.

Timing matters a lot.

Maybe, Square Enix needed an infusion of cash right away. Maybe Square Enix was desperate to get those studios off their books and do so. as quickly as possible to shore up their operating income.

It also might make sense that the price of Tomb Raider has gone up since Uncharted and The Last of Us came out. One might argue that Tomb Raider and the western studios were sold AFTER Uncharted came out, which is true, but the price may have been negotiated well before the box office launch.

The price of Tomb Raider might have been higher decoupled from the studios. One might add that you could just close the studios down and sell Tomb Raider, but we don't know what would be involved in closing these specific studios.

I think people are a little too quick to assume "Square Enix must be dumb"

It's also worth noting that they bought Eidos for 121 million in 2009.

It's also worth noting that Amazon might be the dumb one in this situation, paying 600 million (rumored) for Tomb Raider alone. Something Sony wouldn't do despite having a game studio and a movie production company and a movie distributor.

Why because they were able to make their own Tomb Raider for 0 dollars and it's been more successful than Tomb Raider. Buying IP is really dangerous practice.

600 million + 100 million(plus) to make a bomb of a tv series... with little to no value in a game tie-in...
 

TGO

Hype Train conductor. Works harder than it steams.
Is Amazon better for Tomb Raider then CD.
That's the question.
Or as Amazon got CD as well?
What's happened to what they was working on?
 
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anthony2690

Member
Is Amazon better for Tomb Raider then CD.
That's the question.
Or as Amazon got CD as well?
What's happened to what they was working on?
As far as I am aware crystal dynamics are making the game and it's being published by Amazon anyway.

They could always continue to outsource work to crystal dynamics.

But my post is just a rumour.
 

Mibu no ookami

Demoted Member® Pro™
Square would probably have sold their western studios for even less.
They were just desperate to get rid of them because they didnt know what to do with them.
Some times just getting rid of something is easier/cheaper overall than trying to keep maintaining it.

Embracer have the cash and can basically shop their IPs and even their studios talent out to other AAA studios.
Square arent anywhere near that smart.

If Square knew what they were doing, they would have shopped out all their "spare" talent to other studios.
If they cant do western publishing they cold literally talk to their friends at Sony and say listen our studio does most of the work, you guys publish and provide support.

A match made in heaven, but Square are like nahh, lets do Forspoken.

Think about what you said here.

You know Square has strong ties to Sony, but they didn't reach out to Sony to buy the studios or manage the products? Obviously, they would have.

Embracer is a holding firm, they're not a real company. Square Enix has to focus on maximizing their operating income and it probably makes more sense to them to focus resources on games they're trying to build for themselves rather than farming out talent to other companies.

Forpsoken was a boondoggle of a game. It was in development for 5 years while Square Enix was trying to focus more on western exposure of their games.


When they said this, it was OBVIOUS that Forspoken was doomed to be a shit title.

“Nowadays, the games market is globalised,” Matsuda said. “The domestic market used to be big, but now it is behind China and the US. If you are not recognised globally, you are not in business.

“But interestingly, if Japanese developers try to imitate Western games, they cannot make good ones. The designs of the monsters, and the visual and audio effects, are all still somewhat Japanese. And players around the world know that this is what makes Japanese games good.”

The studio was literally stood up to make western style games. My guess is they're closed down after this.
 
I'm planning on tearing it up on the Tomb Raider 2013 multiplayer servers in honor of the 10th anniversary in March. Anybody who wants a blast from the past should mark the date on the calender.
 

ToTTenTranz

Banned
Amazon buying Tomb Raider's rights shouldn't be new. Amazon is making a TV series and publishing the next games on that IP, so they might as well just buy the thing.

That value really is fishy, though. If it comes true then I hope Square Enix's shareholders kick their board of directors right away, as they've been really incompetent in recent times.


Square CEO on seppuku watch.
Worry not, his NFT strategy is going to make them the richest gaming company on the planet.
Any day, now. It's almost happening.
 

lyan

Member
Even if I borrow 300m and buy them then sell TR for 600m I probably will still be broke on account paying bills for the studio before the next successful game comes out.
 

murmulis

Member
How much would Konami sell the Metal Gear IP to Sony for?
Why would they do that? They want to keep making more pachinko machines.

Tomb Raider needs a GOW sized reimagining.....it feels like a tired franchise to me.
Yeah, they should make something similar to their mid-2000s games again. Only with better controls. Oh and keep stealth mechanics from the latest game.
 
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GHound

Member
What an amazing source. Has anyone considered scouring fanfiction.net for acquisition rumors lately?
 

BadBurger

Many “Whelps”! Handle It!
$600m for Tomb Raider? Man I wish I owned an IP to sell to Amazon.

Well, at the very least we should be getting a probably terrible television series.
 

emivita

Member
Last decent TR was Underworld and that was already underwhelming compared to Legend/Anniversary, so no big loss.
 

ANDS

Banned
It's a rumor but I honestly could see it: unlike LOTR, Amazon gets to keep this IP and not just a TV deal, so maybe, if you've got spare change around, you pay for the IP rights. On the other hand, you're really paying more than half a billion for this - at a significant profit to the previous owners? I can't see Amazon making such a lousy deal like that.
 
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