Games Inbox: Why Square Enix sold Tomb Raider, Microsoft buying WB Games, and Legacy Of Kain redux

metro.co.uk:

The Tuesday letters page asks for advice on building a gaming PC, as one reader asks if this is the end for Square Enix’s Avengers game.

To join in with the discussions yourself email gamecentral@metro.co.uk

Fashionable acquisition A depressingly accurate explanation of what’s going on with Square Enix and Tomb Raider from GC. I’m sure everyone looked at the amount of money paid for everything – as you point out, less than the cost of a high-end movie blockbuster – and couldn’t believe it was so little. It reminded me of Disney buying the whole of Star Wars, ILM, and everything Lucasfilm for ‘just’ $4 billion. A huge sum no doubt, but considerably less than Bethesda, makers of such gems as Fallout 76 and Ghostwire: Tokyo, and nowhere close to the $69 billion paid for Activision Blizzard.

How famous a thing is seems to have no relation to how much it’s worth. My nan knows who Lara Croft is but I doubt she’s aware of Call Of Duty, or anything else Activision Blizzard does, at all. The main thing seems to be that live service games are just fashionable at the moment. Add in some nonsense about the Metaverse and NFTs and you’re pushing all the buttons investors want to hear, compared to just a normal sale of something that’s not a gimmick.

I think the idea that Square Enix sold Tomb Raider and everything to pay for an expansion isn’t the real truth though. They just wanted to get rid of their Western developers that they never knew what to do with and wash their hands of it all. It’s a pretty cowardly decision really, that makes me think less of them as a company.

What worries me is what’s going to happen to Square Enix now. Blockchain equals mobile games, microtransactions, and NFTs as far as I can tell and that just sounds…