It’s no secret that Marvel’s Avengers performed beyond expectations, and Guardians of the Galaxy didn’t play better either. However, we still don’t know how much Square could have fallen with these titles.
The news for top video players came this week when Embracer Group announced on Monday that it would acquire Western Square Studios. Square Enix Montreal, Crystal Dynamics, and Eidos-Montreal have also split from the Japanese distributor, and Embracer only had access to a nearly $300 million bid for development teams and nearly 50 IPs tied to their names.
However, according to the news, there was a good chance it would turn out differently if the high-budget Marvel games from Square hadn’t failed so much. We probably wouldn’t need to discuss at length about how well Crystal Dynamics’ latest game, Marvel’s Avengers, designed for live-action luxury, unfortunately Eidos-Montreal’s single-player attempt, the excellent Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, wasn’t a huge success either.
David Gibson, a financial analyst at MST, (via metro) that Square could have lost about $200 million with Marvel’s very expensive but ultimately unsuccessful pair development. So this could have been the last straw when it came time to separate the studios.
Although neither Crystal Dynamics nor Eidos-Montréal has earned much from games based on comic book heroes, the holding company that holds the studios is still interested in the two titles. No matter how many popular or old IPs (Tomb Raider, Deus Ex, Thief, Legacy of Kain) go into the company’s acquisitions, the rights to games with the official Marvel logo don’t easily transfer to them. The Embracer Group has already submitted an application to Disney to take over the rights to the licensed developments, but no agreement has yet been reached.
