General Gaming News.

Bedinsis

Elite Member
Legacy
Escapist +
May 29, 2014
1,645
832
118
Country
Sweden
Their whole goal was to get fat enough for a Saudi acquisition. That fell through, and now they're a confused, lumbering giant.
This is the first I've heard of this. Did you get this reasoning from somewhere? It wouldn't be at odds to what I believe if true.
 

BrawlMan

Lover of beat'em ups.
Legacy
Mar 10, 2016
29,329
12,221
118
Detroit, Michigan
Country
United States of America
Gender
Male
This is the first I've heard of this. Did you get this reasoning from somewhere? It wouldn't be at odds to what I believe if true.
It's a first for me as well, but it doesn't matter. Either way, Embracer was looking for a quick and easy payout, but failed. They bought all those IPs for nothing, only to waste away or be mediocre.
 
Last edited:

Bedinsis

Elite Member
Legacy
Escapist +
May 29, 2014
1,645
832
118
Country
Sweden
It's a first for me as well, but it doesn't matter. Either way, Embracer was looking for a quick and easy payout, but failed.
I still am curious about the reasoning, and I'm not sure they were going for an "easy payout".
A baseball all those IPs for nothing, only to waste away or be mediocre.
Your voice-to-text messed up again?
 

BrawlMan

Lover of beat'em ups.
Legacy
Mar 10, 2016
29,329
12,221
118
Detroit, Michigan
Country
United States of America
Gender
Male

Chimpzy

Simian Abomination
Legacy
Escapist +
Apr 3, 2020
12,834
9,267
118
This is the first I've heard of this. Did you get this reasoning from somewhere? It wouldn't be at odds to what I believe if true.
The Saudis have expressed an interest in gaining a foothold in entertainment media, including games, for some time now, as a means of diversifying their economy. Tho by buying their way in, as Saudi tradition demands.

For example, that same Saudi fund whose $2B deal fell through had already invested $1B in Embracer last year, and gained stakes in Nintendo, Capcom and Nexon, and basically owns SNK. As well as put aside $38B for further investment in games, including plans to acquire a major publisher.

But I don't think all those Embracer acquitisitions were done with the intent of specifically courting the Saudis. The timelines don't quite add up, since Embracer was already acquiring studios and IPs left an right for a couple years before the Saudis announced their investment plans. That said, with all that spending and not much to show for it yet (or much at all, as it would turn out), Embracer was almost certainly hard up for any investor money. The Saudis just happened to be looking for investment opportunities, so I suspect Embracer eagerly came knocking. I also don't doubt they were really banking on getting that $2B.
 

sXeth

Elite Member
Legacy
Nov 15, 2012
3,301
676
118
Sure they do other stuff, but if those other stuff come at the expense of their mainline entry, then that's a big problem. In their golden year they were pumping out FF game every 3 year or so and no one complained (they were also putting out plenty of other game at the same time).
Well the thing with Square, is they aren't trying to be the dev studio that makes Final Fantasies. They're aspiring (with questionable success) to be a AAA publisher with multiple brands and so on. And have been since at least the Enix merger, if not slightly before.

Their aptitude for it, and personal taste aside. They've specifically been trying to not just be the Final Fantasy guys or even the JRPG guys for like, 20+ years now. Expecting them to hop in the DeLorean and suddenly whip back 30ish year to when they were just pumping out Final Fantasy and associated similar but not particularly distinct games with the same basic design is unlikely to be taken up by them rather then some newer indie/middle range studio.
 

meiam

Elite Member
Dec 9, 2010
3,589
1,820
118
Well the thing with Square, is they aren't trying to be the dev studio that makes Final Fantasies. They're aspiring (with questionable success) to be a AAA publisher with multiple brands and so on. And have been since at least the Enix merger, if not slightly before.

Their aptitude for it, and personal taste aside. They've specifically been trying to not just be the Final Fantasy guys or even the JRPG guys for like, 20+ years now. Expecting them to hop in the DeLorean and suddenly whip back 30ish year to when they were just pumping out Final Fantasy and associated similar but not particularly distinct games with the same basic design is unlikely to be taken up by them rather then some newer indie/middle range studio.
I can understand that, but they're not that good at it and at the same time they're bread and butter is suffering for it.

I guess I could make a comparison with the movie studio Cannon. They used to be a mid size studio that would pump out... let say high class schlock movie (mostly about old white dude shooting people). They we doing reasonably well for themselves but they decided that they wanted to become a big studio, so they took a mountain of debt and tried to make these big movie... which mostly flop because they weren't very good at it (most of them are hillariously bad, their He-Man movie is a classic bad movie). This resulted in them going bankrupt because they stopped making what made them money in the process.
 
  • Like
Reactions: BrawlMan

The Rogue Wolf

Stealthy Carnivore
Legacy
Nov 25, 2007
16,852
9,529
118
Stalking the Digital Tundra
Gender
✅

Well I guess one silver lining is that no one will have to pay COD every year with the game pass. But then there are games like OW2 that are already f2p. Hmm.....
"You're always welcome here." Yeah, because Microsoft hasn't already locked acquired franchises into exclusivity deals. Oh, wait, hello there Bethesda....

The Saudis have expressed an interest in gaining a foothold in entertainment media, including games, for some time now, as a means of diversifying their economy. Tho by buying their way in, as Saudi tradition demands.
There are also accusations of attempting to whitewash its reputation, distracting people away from the fact allegations that government officials have had critical journalists murdered.
 
  • Like
Reactions: BrawlMan

BrawlMan

Lover of beat'em ups.
Legacy
Mar 10, 2016
29,329
12,221
118
Detroit, Michigan
Country
United States of America
Gender
Male
I guess I could make a comparison with the movie studio Cannon. They used to be a mid size studio that would pump out... let say high class schlock movie (mostly about old white dude shooting people).
That was mainly the Death Wish sequels, and Chuck Norris, but he wasn't old yet at that time. They did other types of action movies. Two of them being Van Damme movies. There's the American Ninja franchise, and the Enter the Ninja Trilogy. I only care for Revenge of the Ninja. Sho Kusagi kicked ass!
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: meiam

BrawlMan

Lover of beat'em ups.
Legacy
Mar 10, 2016
29,329
12,221
118
Detroit, Michigan
Country
United States of America
Gender
Male
Alternate title: Waifu May Cry
You're gonna have to be specific; cuz there's about over three dozen of them at this point.

  • Devil May Cry 2 - Lucia
  • DMC4SE - Lady and Trish
  • Bayonetta franchise - Bayo, Jeanne, Rosa, and Viola
  • Oneechanbara
  • Lollipop Chainsaw - That one technically more so No More Heroes, but it counts.
  • Genshin Impact
  • Senran Kagura
  • Assault Spy - The brawler girl. Whenever you're playing as her.
  • Bright Memory - A first person example.
  • Heavenly Sword - God of Waifu more so.
  • Nier: Automata
  • Lightning Returns
  • Chaos Legion - Whenever you're playing as the Gun Kata girl.
  • Honkai Impact 3rd
  • The Legend of Korra
  • Mitsurugi Kamui Hikae
  • Persona 5 Strikers
  • Astral Chain - If you picked the girl.
And plenty of others I don't know.
 

sXeth

Elite Member
Legacy
Nov 15, 2012
3,301
676
118
I can understand that, but they're not that good at it and at the same time they're bread and butter is suffering for it.

I guess I could make a comparison with the movie studio Cannon. They used to be a mid size studio that would pump out... let say high class schlock movie (mostly about old white dude shooting people). They we doing reasonably well for themselves but they decided that they wanted to become a big studio, so they took a mountain of debt and tried to make these big movie... which mostly flop because they weren't very good at it (most of them are hillariously bad, their He-Man movie is a classic bad movie). This resulted in them going bankrupt because they stopped making what made them money in the process.
Well yes, whether they succeed is a question in of itself. They could be Cannon, or they could be New Line (who went from pumping out Elm Street increasingly drivel sequels to Lord of the Rings somehow) in that metaphor.

The main question would then be, can they actually make something of a callup to that level of "success" (we'll say, because the money definitely disagrees) with the people they have to begin with. Sure, they could always stumble over their metaphorical Peter Jackson any day now, but most of the people who made the FFs (and Chrono Triggers, and such) in their heyday are long departed.

Nonetheless, I don't think its particularly their pace of releasing the things. Its been a pretty deliberate choice (going all the way back to FF7 as a patient zero, even if it wasn't as divisive as later entries) where the series has become increasing less stylized (sounds weird, but they've fallen more and more into what I'd nowadays call the movie-version-of-comic outfits) and more realistm chasing, darker and grimmer in tones and characters. Perhaps having the technical tools to make "real" things is why they've slowly sanded off the stylizations that would have been a necessity in the sprite days, but the writing and such is prettymuch 100% down to them.
 
  • Like
Reactions: BrawlMan

BrawlMan

Lover of beat'em ups.
Legacy
Mar 10, 2016
29,329
12,221
118
Detroit, Michigan
Country
United States of America
Gender
Male