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Were SquareEnix really the best suitors to acquire Eidos?

Sequel to my thread about Sony buying Insomniac! /s

But hey, all joking aside, I think I really have a more compelling point this time and really, it comes down to this. Do the post-acquisition Eidos titles sell really badly? Or are the expectations from Square Enix just too high?

Okay, so Eidos were a publisher like Midway and Acclaim that just struggled to modernise right? Cash losses constantly reported. Poor business and poor excuses for said business led to buyout by SCi and then another buyout by SquareEnix. Sounds like a bit of a troubled company right? I guess you'd be fair in saying that they had their fair share of problems. But they still had value in their intellectual property that was just vastly misused and led to their circumstances for requiring a buyout. Tomb Raider, Hitman, Deus Ex and Legacy of Kain. Four IP that alone would normally be a core foundation for a video game publisher. Or so, you would have thought.

If anything, the following words have become, to me, synonymous with titles released by the post SquareEnix acquisition Eidos and those words are simply, "Failed to meet expectations."

Tomb Raider 2013 and Hitman Absolution both sold 3.5 million copies by the financial year of March 2013. With Sleeping Dogs notching just shy of 2 million in sales for a brand new IP. So call it 9 million in sales, kay? So how did SquareEnix forecast this cluster of games to sell close to 15 million units? Though arguably, the 2013 Tomb Raider really hit off when it came to the PlayStation 4 and XBOX One.

Rise of the Tomb Raider was a well known sales disaster. Perhaps the XBOX exclusive arrangement was partly to blame for that, even Crystal Dynamics were taken back by that announcement and they were developing the fucking game. Suffice to say, Tomb Raider has a core audience on PlayStation which has been the focal point for the character that was once said to have built the house of Eidos.

Investors stated that sales of Shadow of the Tomb Raider were 'low' with 4.12 million copies sold as of December 31st 2018.

Deus Ex Human Revolution sold 2.2 million before the directors cut. A title Square actually put back because they already saw their titles suffering in the console space and wanted to address these issues. But perhaps not understanding their market they went all in pushing DE:HR in North America when the majority of sales came from Europe.

Now let me be clear, I love all these games. Not all of them to a high degree but Human Revolution I loved immensely. I even named my son Jensen because his character was an inspiration to me. I thought with the sales of Human Revolution we would never get a sequel but lo and behold, we got one. But favourable reviews, a number 1 spot at launch and great fan feedback wasn't enough to save Mankind Divided from putting the future of the series on hiatus. Meddling from the publisher, an incredibly poor 'augment your pre-order', a tacked on multiplayer mode and the silly micro transactions that almost felt compulsory in a game that was so hard to level up, left for a bad taste in the mouth and fans left wanting. As much as fans like me want a third Deus Ex title with Adam Jensen, the outlook right now, frankly is low.

I won't even get on to Hitman and Just Cause which have stories of their own. Sleeping Dogs appears to be dead as a door nail after that stupid MMO title killed the majority of interest in the future of the franchise and where in the blue hell is Legacy of Kain? Perhaps the slogan of modern Eidos should be failed to meet expectations...

But SquareEnix, whilst arguably greatly diversifying it's offerings as a publisher by acquiring Eidos were looking to offer more to the consumer, where does the fault lie for the lack of success? Low sales for very popular franchises despite great games. Were they really low or were the bar set too high? Does SquareEnix really understand the western IP they bought into and how to leverage it?

Looking back since the acquisition over the past decade, was it the right thing to do for both companies? I would argue it wasn't the best idea. It's caused a lot of upset and the Eidos development teams are now apparently supporting Square by developing technology or working solely on Marvel properties, that is according to an ex-employee, even though Crystal Dynamics are a mad talented studio. I would argue someone like 2K or dare I say it... Activision might have been a better fit Eidos in the long run. Without going to a console manufacturer that is.

Whatever the future holds, for them it isn't looking very promising...
 
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I feel for that answer, you have to first ask the question "who else could have buy Eidos and could the result be worse than they are now?"
 

theclaw135

Banned
I'd hazard to suggest Eidos wasn't prepared for the 360/PS3 transition. They specialized in games that hugely balloon in budget as tech improves.

But mismanagement crept up on them much earlier. Too many sequels too fast eroded Tomb Raider's value.
Deus Ex was up and down from the start. Human Revolution appeared to regain momentum after many ignored Invisible War, then it stumbled again.

The confusing corporate baggage might not have helped either. Square Enix Europe today is an amalgamation of Domark, US Gold, SCI, Crystal Dynamics...
 

Quezacolt

Member
Honestly, i think Eidos would've been in good hands with Sony. Most of the studios they own now release great stuff and the budget these studios have seem to allow them to pursue any direction.

Nintendo and Eidos have nothing in common, but maybe that woul'd have lead them on a good path.

Microsoft .... well, so far the studios they bought and have released games for them, well, those studios aren't getting the same praise they did before being owned by MS.

Other big publishers that could have aquired them... EA? nope. Activision? lol. Ubisoft? meh. 2K is just as bad as the first 2.

Honestly, i think that in the end, Square was the best choice, outside of Sony or Nintendo.
 

Vawn

Banned
Honestly, i think Eidos would've been in good hands with Sony. Most of the studios they own now release great stuff and the budget these studios have seem to allow them to pursue any direction.

Nintendo and Eidos have nothing in common, but maybe that woul'd have lead them on a good path.

Microsoft .... well, so far the studios they bought and have released games for them, well, those studios aren't getting the same praise they did before being owned by MS.

Other big publishers that could have aquired them... EA? nope. Activision? lol. Ubisoft? meh. 2K is just as bad as the first 2.

Honestly, i think that in the end, Square was the best choice, outside of Sony or Nintendo.

I agree. As long as it isnt EA or Microsoft. Those two are especially notorious for acquiring talented studios and completely ruining them until they're a shadow of their former selves.

Look at what EA is doing with BioWare. And Microsoft took Rare at its peak and stuck them making Kinect shovelware until everyone that made Rare, Rare, was gone.
 

Mokus

Member
Lol! Activision better?! Then the answer is definitely SquareEnix is way better owner of Eidos ips. After the first failure of Tomb Raider for not selling over 10 million copies, Activision would have abandoned the series.

What should have kept SquareEnix after buying Eidos, is Batman Arkham Asylum license and the Rocksteady Studios shares. In retrospect that was a big miscalculation on their behalf.
 

Sorcerer

Member
I think ideologically Square Enix and Eidos are like oil and water. I guess if you look at it as Square just wanting something in their portfolio to generate cash I guess its understandable. but I have never seen Square /Enix influence on any Eidos franchise, its like they just leave Eidos be and hope they rake in money.
That being said back in the day I thought the merger between Square and Enix itself would be the Holy Grail of RPG gaming development, and it just seemed both companies got watered down in the merger and have never been the same since, what with Square needing ten years to finish a game LOL!!!
 
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I think Eidos and Square Enix are doing just fine together. When the deal was being made, only other possible buyers mentioned were EA and Warner Bros, but it wasnt them who put out a bid in the end at all. The first bid was by Elevation Partners, an investment firm. Tomb Raider was badly managed, Championship Manager was totally mismanaged and going down the drain. They were lucky they even got bought out. Tomb Raiders legacy was so tarnished by then, the only good thing to happen to them in a long time was that Legacy reboot or whatever it was called for xbox360 and PS3.

Point is, its easy to say oh this studio would be a better fit. Guess what, none of those studios even bothered to bid on Eidos because they saw them as a sinking ship. Maybe SONy could of bought them and then never make another TR game ever again and just hoard that IP like Konami is doing now by having all their major IPs on ice and they are doing just fine without releasing a new SH, MGS, Castlevania etc.
 
Square wanted a developer/publisher that they believed had a strong understanding of the Western games market and would be fairly cheap to buy. Eidos, in Square's mind seemed to fit that bill, especially the cheap part.

Understanding of or maintaining strong Western games/IP market... I can see where one could say it didn't pan out as well as Square had hoped.
 

Sorcerer

Member
Lol! Activision better?! Then the answer is definitely SquareEnix is way better owner of Eidos ips. After the first failure of Tomb Raider for not selling over 10 million copies, Activision would have abandoned the series.

What should have kept SquareEnix after buying Eidos, is Batman Arkham Asylum license and the Rocksteady Studios shares. In retrospect that was a big miscalculation on their behalf.

Square was a little crazy about the Tomb Raider sales. It sold fine and they were not happy. The game was certainly not a failure by any stretch of the imagination, especially considering it was a comeback after such a tarnished legacy.
 
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Square Enix gives their Japanese companies millions of chances to get better / or to keep fucking up. But if Hitman overspends the budget, they need to sell the IP and the studio. FF14 can burn to the ground and then redo after 3 years, but Deus Ex needs to be fucked about with monetization and a story cut in half abruptly. So yeah... pretty shitty, even EA would have been a better choice at this point. ALSO give back Legacy of Kain to Sony you hacks! Don't sit on the IP ... .
 
I liked Tomb Raider 2013, didn't finish the sequel and haven't touched the most recent. Honestly if they had kept with the more fun, cheesy action flick Tomb Raider it might hold more interest, but despite being graphically impressive I think most people are already bored of the new TR games. They don't offer anything new or exciting anymore, but of course the same could be said about a few of the pre-Square Enix titles as well.
 
5 years ago I would've said heck yeah, Eidos and Squeenix ended up being a great pair.

But as you detailed, they're repeating the same arrogant Japanese mistakes of SEGA Japan vs SEGA N.A.
 

diffusionx

Gold Member
I think they were a good fit, especially since S-E was wisely trying to expand their portfolio and Eidos was a depressed asset at the time.

I don't think Square has really mismanaged the portfolio, maybe they expected too much from it, but let's not pretend Deus Ex was some major franchise. S-E *tried* to make it one but it didn't work out, that's okay. And well nobody's perfect, it's not like there is some other acquisition that would have been much better.
 
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