Decline of Square Enix's Western studios was a 'train-wreck in slow motion,' according to Eidos Montreal founder

pcgamer.com:

Eidos Montreal's founder has described the decline of Square Enix's(opens in new tab) Western studios as a «train-wreck in slow motion».

In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz(opens in new tab), Stephane D'Astous criticised Square Enix's dismissive approach toward Eidos Montreal(opens in new tab), as well as other Western studios like Crystal Dynamics, and speculated that its recent sale to Embracer Group was due to a purported acquisition of Square Enix by Sony.

D'Astous, who founded Eidos Montreal in 2007 and departed in 2013, described how he was initially hopeful that Square Enix would revitalise Eidos when they acquired the company two years after the founding of Montreal:

«I always felt that the way to sell games that Eidos used were so traditional and conventional. That it wasn't innovative. And it was always underselling the quality of the games,» D'Astous said of the now-defunct publisher, whose roster at the time included series like Deus Ex, Hitman, and Tomb Raider. «I hoped when Square Enix purchased Eidos in 2009 that that would change things.»

But D'Astous' hopes quickly turned sour as Square Enix proved to have unrealistic expectations for the games Montreal and Eidos' other Western studios made. «In their annual fiscal reports, Japan always added one or two phrases saying 'We were disappointed with certain games. They didn't reach expectations.' And they did that strictly for certain games that were done outside of Japan».

D'Astous also believed that Square Enix's pivot from Eidos' legacy franchises to making superhero games(opens in new tab)—including signing a multi-project deal with Marvel in 2013 – was short-sighted. «Maybe at the time [the deal was signed] the superhero thing was a big thing. It