Square Enix has said that the money raised from the sale of a large portion of its Western development arm will not be reinvested in NFT and blockchain.
Embracer owners announced on May 2 that they want to buy Crystal Dynamics, Eidos Montreal, Square Enix Montreal and a bunch of IPs including Tomb Raider, Deus Ex, Thief and Legacy of Kain for $300 million. Square Enix said at the time that “the transaction enables the launch of new businesses by continuing to invest in areas including blockchain, AI, and the cloud.”
However, during the Japanese publisher’s full-year financial results meeting on May 13, president Yosuke Matsuda said the proceeds of the sale will be used to strengthen the core game business. company core. “Rather than using the proceeds from divestment in new areas of investment like NFT and blockchain, we plan to use them primarily to fund our drive to promote solid IP and enhance our capabilities.” our growth in our core Digital Entertainment segment,” he said.
“Our intention is to make fundraising efforts for our new areas of investment separate from our core business areas, and we are looking at different possibilities, including including the possibility of establishing a CVC organization”. Responding to comments on the decision to sell off overseas studios and IPs, Matsuda said its main purpose is to reorient our investment portfolio.
He added: “We are specifically reviewing our portfolios from the perspective of accelerating the delivery of the online titles we develop to the North American and European markets. “We want to focus on creating new IPs that align with our game development strategy, including old ones. The Just Cause brand will remain our IP and we are working on developing a new installment in the series.”
Matsuda is probably referring to Just Cause Mobile, the delayed free-to-play shooter that’s currently scheduled for release in 2022. During the Q&A session of the meeting, Matsuda was asked if the sale was large. Studio West means that the company will focus exclusively on developing online titles for overseas markets or not. “We won’t necessarily just focus on online games, but we still have many other plans in the future.”
