Pushing Buttons: How Tomb Raider’s Lara Croft was let down by generic games
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There’s been an interesting development in the games business this week: Square Enix, the Japanese company behind Final Fantasy, has sold off basically its entire North American business for $300m. Swedish entrepreneur collective Embracer Group, a relative newcomer in gaming, is now the proud owner of studios in Montreal the US, and properties like Deus Ex, Thief and, of course, Tomb Raider.
Not too long ago, this would have felt like big news purely because of the money involved. But given the eyebrow-raising sums that have been flying around in the games industry lately – Sony and its suite of games – $300m seems quite the bargain. You’d think Tomb Raider alone might at one point have been worth that much or more. But not any more.
