Under the new owner, Crystal Dynamics has ditched the previous Square Enix shackle (so you don’t have to force games with a live service model).
Crystal Dynamics recently updated its social media pages with a new image celebrating its 30th anniversary. Well, we can notice three silhouettes above the logo. For example, there is Lara Croft. That’s fine, because it’s actually getting a new game on Unreal Engine 5, so we have a treasure hunter. But Raziel appears beside him on one side and Jax on the other. Oops.
Raziel is a familiar character from Legacy of Kain: he was the protagonist of the two works with the subtitle Soul Reaver, and Gex was a gecko that originally started as a killer app for Panasonic 3DO, which got the PS1 port out of a 2D platformer, then came the 2D sequel (There have been other outlets, but let’s not discuss that here.) Both characters have been completely deprecated recently, except for the appearance of the model Gex Jr. The initial PS1, which we also wrote about.
Square Enix registered at least two trademarks of Gex recently, most recently in February. This was prior to the sale of Crystal Dynamics (as well as Square Enix Montreal and Eidos Montréal) to the Embracer Group. This fast-growing group has acquired several IP addresses, so in addition to Deus Ex and Thief, Gex and the Legacy of Kain have also fallen into the hands of Embracer led by Lars Wingfors. And let’s just remember what they wrote in the ad when they announced the purchase…?
“After the end of the quarter, we strengthened our development capabilities and intellectual property portfolio by signing agreements with Crystal Dynamics, Eidos Montreal and Square Enix Montreal, including Tomb Raider, Deus Ex, Thief and Legacy of Kain, in addition to other agreements on the purchase of IPs. The announcement has an overwhelming and positive response. We see great potential not only in sequels, but also in remasters, converters, derivatives, and Tranmedia projects within the group. “We expect the deal to close in July-September,” Embracer wrote.
Many people will be happy with that.
source: PSL
