Square Enix is selling Tomb Raider, Deus Ex, and its Western studios

The three major Western game studios are being sold along with the associated video game properties. The studios and properties will be acquired by the Embracer Group for an estimated $300 million, following regulatory approvals, and will be finalized between July and September of this year.

The company is acquiring Crystal Dynamics, Eidos-Montreal, and Square Enix Montreal, which will result in 1, 100 employees across three studios and eight global locations. Crystal Dynamics recently announced that it is working on a new Tomb Raider title.

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More than 100 studios are part of the Embracer publishing group, including the likes of Gearbox, Saber Interactive, and THQ Nordic. Dark Horse is a comics and entertainment brand. According to Embracer, when the deal with Square Enix closes, it will have a total of 136 internal studios and 14500 employees.

The studios will be part of the Embracer Group, co-founder and CEO Lars Wingefors said in a statement. It has been a pleasure meeting the leadership teams and discussing future plans for how they can realize their ambitions and become a great part of Embracer.

The move into Western game development began with the acquisition of Eidos Interactive in 2009, which resulted in the release of new games such as Tomb Raider and Deus Ex. IO Interactive became an independent studio after splitting from Square Enix. The company will still publish Just Cause, Life is Strange and Outriders, despite the deal.

During a busy time for video game acquisitions, the news comes. Sony is buying the developer of the game "Destiny" for $3.6 billion, Take-Two spent $12.7 billion for the maker of the game "FarmVille", and Microsoft is set to acquire the maker of the game "Call of Duty" for nearly $69 billion.