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Square Enix not longer using Embracer deal proceeds for Web3

Square Enix not longer using Embracer deal proceeds for Web3

Japanese publishing giant Square Enix has said that it no longer intends to use the $300 million it received from Embracer Group to fund blockchain and NFT projects.

In a briefing to investors, the firm said that the plan was now to use this cash to create intellectual property and improve its ability to make games.

This comes in the wake of Square Enix selling its Western studios – Crystal Dynamics, Eidos Montreal and Square Enix Montreal – to Embracer, along with IP such as Tomb Raider and Deus Ex for a cool $300 million. At the time, the plan was seemingly to waste, sorry, invest this money in Web3 projects.

"Rather than using the proceeds from the divestiture in new investment domains such as NFT and blockchain, we intend to use them primarily to fund our efforts to foster solid IP and to enhance our development capabilities in our core Digital Entertainment segment," the company wrote.

In January of this year, Square Enix revealed it was going to double down on NFTs and blockchain games. The company is still pursuing this as a business, though is going to be raising money to fund this separately.


PCGamesInsider Contributing Editor

Alex Calvin is a freelance journalist who writes about the business of games. He started out at UK trade paper MCV in 2013 and left as deputy editor over three years later. In June 2017, he joined Steel Media as the editor for new site PCGamesInsider.biz. In October 2019 he left this full-time position at the company but still contributes to the site on a daily basis. He has also written for GamesIndustry.biz, VGC, Games London, The Observer/Guardian and Esquire UK.