This was a year of upheaval in video games. The industry has shapeshifted over the past 12 months, and it's not all due to Microsoft's lengthy acquisition of Activision, Blizzard and King. While Xbox executives were defending the legality of a $69 billion deal that would create the third-largest video game studio in the world, smaller companies were firing staff and shutting down entire teams, even amid fervent collective-bargaining efforts. It's been a wild ride. In 2023, the main factors molding the video game landscape were consolidation, layoffs and unionization, with each of these phenomena feeding into each other.

Lara Croft is making a return with the help of Amazon Games. The company will publish the next Tomb Raider title, which Crystal Dynamics is developing. Amazon said the studio is using Unreal Engine 5 to craft the biggest and most expansive Tomb Raider game to date. It'll likely be a few years before you can get your hands on the next Tomb Raider game, which is coming to multiple platforms. It's still in early development, but Amazon says it'll retain all of the franchise's hallmarks.

In June, Embracer's resources were further strengthened through a controversial $1 billion investment by Savvy Gaming Group (SGG), an arm of Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund which in turn is owned and operated by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The investment was met with backlash due to Saudi Arabia's history of human rights abuses and the prince's suspected role in the assassination of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi (Khashoggi was also a columnist for The Washington Post). Embracer CEO Lars Wingefors that the financial support from SGG would not influence how Embracer is run in any way, stating that the company is "built on the principles of freedom, inclusion, humanity and openness," in a subsequent press release.

The company that owns the rights to JRR Tolkien's works, including The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, has been bought by the Swedish gaming firm Embracer Group, which has hinted it could make spin-off films based on popular characters such as Gandalf, Aragorn and Gollum. Embracer has acquired Middle-earth Enterprises, the holding company that controls the intellectual property rights to films, video games, board games, merchandise, theme parks and stage productions relating to Tolkien's two most famous literary franchises. The deal also includes "matching rights" in other Middle-earth-related literary works authorised by the Tolkien Estate and HarperCollins – primarily The Silmarillion and The Unfinished Tales of Numenor and Middle-earth – which were published after Tolkien's death in 1973. When the business was put up for sale by the Saul Zaentz Company, which acquired its rights from the heirs and estate of Tolkien and HarperCollins in 1976, it was expected that Amazon would buy it to build its own Middle-earth empire. In 2017, Amazon paid $250m (£208m) for the rights to make a big budget prequel to Lord of the Rings, called Rings of Power, which is to have a global release on its Prime Video service on 2 September.

Embracer, the mega game publisher that's been snapping up new properties left and right, has made a deal to acquire the intellectual property catalogue and worldwide rights to various JRR Tolkien-related media and merch. To be precise, it will own the rights to "motion pictures, video games, board games, merchandising, theme parks and stage productions" based on the The Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit if the deal pushes through. It will also own the rights tied to any future literary work related to LOTR and The Hobbit that's authorized by the Tolkien Estate. This isn't the first Tolkien-related purchase Embracer has made: Back in 2021, it bought the board game publisher Asmodee, which has published over a dozen LOTR board games over the past 20 years. And if the acquisition goes through, Embracer will work with Amazon on The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power series that will start streaming on September 2nd.

Gaming company Square Enix will reduce its developer presence in the West with the sale of the studios behind franchises Tomb Raider, Deux Ex and Thief to Sweden's Embracer Group for $300 million. The latest in a series of deals in the video games industry, the sale announced on Monday includes studios Crystal Dynamics, Eidos-Montreal and Square Enix Montreal, affects 1,100 employees and is expected to close in the July-September quarter. Square Enix, whose major franchises include Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest, said the proceeds will be used to invest in areas such as blockchain, artificial intelligence and the cloud. The Tokyo-based company last year said it was reviewing its portfolio to adapt to industry trends such as the focus on the "metaverse," or the idea consumers will spend more time in virtual worlds. Embracer, which has a reputation for acquisitions and a war chest of 10 billion Swedish krona ($1.02 billion), said the deal will give it a pipeline of more than 230 games including 30 big-budget AAA titles.

The Japanese gaming company behind Final Fantasy is selling off three studios, including the rights to hit franchises including Tomb Raider, in a $300m (£240m) deal. Tokyo-based Square Enix has sold US-headquartered Crystal Dynamics and Canada-based Eidos Montreal and Square Enix Montreal to the Nasdaq-listed Swedish gaming group Embracer. The deal includes the intellectual property (IP) rights to games such as Tomb Raider, which has sold more than 88m units, Deus Ex, Thief and Legacy of Kain. It also includes 50 back catalogue games and will add 1,100 staff to Embracer, taking its global headcount to more than 14,000. "We are thrilled to welcome these studios into the Embracer family," said Lars Wingefors, co-founder and group chief executive at Embracer.

Gaming company Square Enix will reduce its developer presence in the West with the sale of the studios behind franchises "Tomb Raider," "Deux Ex" and "Thief" to Sweden's Embracer Group for $300 million. The latest in a series of deals in the video games industry, the sale announced on Monday includes studios Crystal Dynamics, Eidos-Montreal and Square Enix Montreal, affects 1,100 employees and is expected to close in the July-September quarter. Square Enix, whose major franchises include "Final Fantasy" and "Dragon Quest," said the proceeds will be used to invest in areas such as blockchain, artificial intelligence and the cloud. The Tokyo-based company last year said it was reviewing its portfolio to adapt to industry trends such as the focus on the "metaverse," or the idea consumers will spend more time in virtual worlds. Embracer, which has a reputation for acquisitions and a war chest of 10 billion Swedish krona ($1.02 billion), said the deal will give it a pipeline of more than 230 games including 30 big-budget AAA titles.

Swedish game company Embracer Group has just made a blockbuster deal to acquire Crystal Dynamics, Eidos-Montréal and Square Enix Montréal for what seems like a bargain $300 million price, the company confirmed in a press release. The deal includes a "catalogue of IPs including Tomb Raider, Deus Ex, Thief, Legacy of Kain and more than 50 back-catalogue games from Square Enix Holdings," it wrote. The transaction is subject to regulatory approval. Those studios represent around 1,100 employees across eight global locations, the company noted. When the deal is finalized, Embracer will have 14,000 employees, 10,000 game developers and 124 internal studios.