In a surprising bit of news, Square Enix has just sold off several of its main assets.
The Swedish video company Embracer bought them from the Japanese-owned developer for $300 million.
If you’re wondering why that’s such a big deal, Square Enix is the developer behind both Marvel’s The Avengers and the owner of Eidos-Montreal, which most recently produced Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy video game.
Five years ago, Square Enx made a deal with Marvel to produce four video games for them. Because it’s only halfway through its commitment, it’s unclear what that means for the games that have been already released and for whatever plans may have been for Marvel games in the pipeline. Considering that The Avengers has been receiving regular updates since its release, this is especially worrisome.
In a press conference held about the purchase, Embracer didn’t comment on the status of any planned video games, but it did confirm that licensing from Marvel wasn’t guaranteed. Without that permission, the company hinted that there would wind up not being any further updates or in-game added.
“All games that have been developed by the studios are included in the deal. However, a number of external approvals are needed from external parties to close this transaction. And potentially, licenses as mentioned here could be one of those approvals needed,” Lars Wingefors, CEO of Embracer said.
So essentially, if it’s hard to keep the licenses to these games, the contract with Marvel will have to be scrapped.
We’ll continue to monitor this story until the deal is finalized, so be sure to follow The DisInsider for future updates.
SOURCE: Embracer
