After shedding much of its Western development presence, Square Enix plans to establish new IP and studios as it realigns its business.
In its latest financial report, Square Enix briefly outlined plans to "strengthen our IP ecosystem" as a "medium-term" business strategy. In particular, it stressed a move to "cultivate robust IP" as well as the "creation of new IP."
This plan would be aided by moves to "boost game development capabilities by establishing new studios, [mergers and acquisitions], etc," which suggests Square is looking to create and potentially acquire some additional studios.
- Sega outlines plan to "strengthen" Persona, Yakuza, and Sonic studios, says "Atlus is an important studio for us to expand Japanese IPs overseas"
- 6 months after the Visions of Mana team was closed down the day after releasing its JRPG remake, one of its leads has started a new studio: "Management needs to protect creators"
This follows Square's sale of Tomb Raider studio Crystal Dynamics, Deus Ex studio Eidos-Montreal, as well as Square Enix Montreal and other attached IP in a $300 million deal with Embracer Group. At the time, Square Enix described the deal as a way to "assist the Company in adapting to the changes underway in the global business environment by establishing a more efficient allocation of resources."
Square revisited the purpose of the deal in its latest report, affirming plans to "better align overseas publishing function with organization in Tokyo." The company also notably doubled down on this divestiture helping to "accelerate launch and monetization of new businesses by moving forward with investments in focus fields" including blockchain, AI, and the cloud. Square's even roughed out ambitions "launch a new NFT brand and IP" on the back of a new blockchain push.
Square Enix game sales were up last year, mainly thanks to the explosive popularity of Final Fantasy 14: Endwalker.
