Some video games of Square Enix, a Japanese entertainment company, are associated with its British publishing arm. Square Enix acquired Eidos, the parent company of British publisher Eidos Interactive, on 22 April 2009, which was then merged with Square Enix's European publishing wing and Square Enix London Studios and reorganized as Square Enix Europe. [1] Prior to its purchase, Eidos (formerly SCi Games) was the holding company for the Eidos group of companies, including publisher Eidos Interactive and development studios such as Crystal Dynamics, IO Interactive, Beautiful Game Studios, and Eidos-Montréal. [2] After their purchase, those development studios continued to publish franchises through Square Enix Europe that were previously published by Eidos, such as Tomb Raider , Hitman , Deus Ex , and Championship Manager . This list includes retail, downloadable, and mobile games primarily produced by Square Enix Europe's part of the group since its formation in April 2009. [note 1]
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In 2014, Square Enix founded Square Enix Collective as an indie game division of Square Enix Europe, and in 2018 the former Square Enix London Studios division, which handles publishing of games from third-party developers, was renamed Square Enix External Studios. [3] [4] Development studio IO Interactive was sold in 2017, and in 2022, Square Enix sold several development studios and IPs previously published through Square Enix Europe, including Crystal Dynamics, Eidos-Montréal, and Square Enix Montréal, to Embracer Group. It retained the rights to the Outriders , Life Is Strange , and Just Cause franchises, developed in collaboration with third party studios. [5] [6] Since 2023, some games previously published by Eidos, such as Gex and Fear Effect , have been re-published for contemporary platforms by Limited Run Games. [7] [8] [9]
Of the franchises published through Square Enix Europe or its subdivisions, the Championship Manager series has seen the greatest number of releases, at nine games, followed by Life is Strange with seven releases and the Tomb Raider series at six games. Several of these franchises have sold millions of copies both before and after its founding: the Tomb Raider franchise has the highest lifetime sales with over 88 million copies [10] since 1996, followed by Hitman with over 15 million copies sold since 2000. [11] Several other series, including Deus Ex, Championship Manager, and Just Cause, have also sold several million copies over their lifetimes. [11] [12]
