Square Enix closes on Eidos, Final Fantasy sells 85 million

By Tom Magrino, GameSpotPosted Apr 23, 2009 12:01 pm PT

RPG-heavy Japanese company completes its acquisition of UK publisher; sales breakdowns also reveal Dragon Quest sells 47M, Tomb Raider 30M.

It'll take some getting used to, but gamers can now expect to see a Square Enix logo the next time they purchase a new Tomb Raider or Hitman game. This week, the Japanese publisher closed on its £84.3 million ($120 million) acquisition of ailing UK-based Eidos, a deal that found overwhelming support from the Tomb Raider publisher's board of directors and shareholders.

This week, the Japanese company also provided a blanket overview of how it plans to integrate Eidos into the Square Enix Group, which also includes 2005 acquisition Taito. As part of a corporate strategy presentation, Square Enix offered a brief look at the sales performance of its own games as well as those of Eidos.

Of particular note, the publisher put a number to just how successful the Final Fantasy franchise has been, saying that more than 85 million units have been sold since the first installment was released in 1987. Also an impressive seller, the Dragon Quest franchise has moved 47 million units during its nearly 23-year run. There's a significant gap between the publisher's second and third best-selling series, considering that the Kingdom Hearts franchise has logged sales of 12 million units since the Disney collaboration began in 2002.

Eidos' best-selling franchise, Tomb Raider, has sold 30 million units since 1996. The bulk of those sales can be attributed to the first four installments in the franchise, with the 1996 original having sold approximately 7 million units. The Hitman franchise has proven to be Eidos' second-best performer, with Square Enix saying that the series has sold 8 million units since 2000. Fellow IO Interactive game Kane & Lynch has sold just shy of 2 million. Other notable Eidos sales figures include Deus Ex and its 2003 sequel selling a combined 2 million units, and Just Cause selling just more than 1 million copies.

For some comparison, Capcom offered a similar breakdown of its best-selling franchises in May 2008--well before the strong debuts of Resident Evil 5 and Street Fighter IV this year. At that time, Capcom said that its best-selling franchise was Resident Evil, with 34.5 million units sold, a figure followed by Mega Man's 28 million units and Street Fighter's 25 million units.

238 Comments

  • Rygarr

    Posted Nov 15, 2009 6:27 pm PT

    Square Enix must revive Legacy of Kain and Soul Reaver

  • Atredies1

    Posted Oct 29, 2009 7:20 pm PT

    Maybe a new Legacy of Kain? RPG perhaps?

  • Lisandro_v22

    Posted Oct 2, 2009 9:57 am PT

    I mean they will give freedom to eidos, but the higher ups will change and this will change the quality of the games (i hope) for the better, cause latest eidos' have been crap

  • Lord_Regnier

    Posted Jun 26, 2009 11:37 am PT

    Brilliant!

  • MAXPAINE_1989

    Posted Jun 25, 2009 7:58 am PT

    what megaman what do u mean megaman dont tell me legends or i'll kill ya!

  • insane087

    Posted Jun 8, 2009 4:33 am PT

    thats gunna be hitting over the 100 mark next year easily!

  • thunderbang

    Posted May 31, 2009 5:27 pm PT

    square enix is not going to influence the game they are just signing cheques and getting payed. square enix are giving eidos freedom to make there games i hope complete freedom because hitman is surrounded by controversy

  • thunderbang

    Posted May 31, 2009 5:20 pm PT

    i hope they release a new hitman soon it's now 1 day from june 2009 i seen hitman on a list of coming soon games it just said quarter 1 2010 i hope this is true. i really miss these games i bought hitman silent assassin xbox original but it will not work on my 360 i hope xbox people add this game.

  • SaKHeD

    Posted May 12, 2009 6:12 pm PT

    I do too, like What's up with Hitman 5, I'm very anxious. They haven't kept up with the two year tradition, I guess one will be epic, now that Square Enix, has a hand in it. I just hope, I hear something soon. b/c it's been a while...

  • drumbreak1

    Posted May 7, 2009 4:58 pm PT

    i want news on hitman 5!

  • NAWAF005

    Posted May 2, 2009 6:37 am PT

    if they remake final fantasy vii for the PS3 the FF series will sell a gizilion copies more

  • Fady117

    Posted Apr 30, 2009 5:25 am PT

    Ow hey, imagine Hitman playing like TR or even Lara Croft having to swing giant blades!!!! although this will get me some time to get used to the Japanese Hitman, i feel that Square Enix are on it for a big leap soon. i'll bet they're preparing a nice surprise, although we can't imagine agent 47 working for the Yakuza lol whatever, having high hopes here for future Square Enix games!!!!

  • regix416_basic

    Posted Apr 27, 2009 2:07 pm PT

    Yep, like FFCourtJester has said, this would be a good step in the right direction towards a new FF7, possibly the PS3 remake we've been clamoring for.

  • thenephariouson

    Posted Apr 27, 2009 1:01 pm PT

    I apologise for my previous childish remarks "Tomb raider gundam, Hitman dragon star laser killer etc", to be honest i dont know much about SE other than being heavily focused on TBS games which i simply dont like, this is of course my own personal opinion, thats not to say that this buyout is neccessarily a bad thing as im sure they are'nt silly enough to totaly re-shape Eidos, as it is likely SE purchased Eidos mainly to provide them with a firm foot-hold into the western gaming markets, and to be honest they could do a damn site worse than buying Eidos as they have an exellent gaming history.

    My only hope is that SE still allow Eidos creative licence to continue making (in my opinion) great games such as Thief 4, Hitman 5 not to mention the much anticipated Deus-Ex 3, and to have the foresight to reinvent classics such as the Kain series without trying to redefine these games for the TBS community.

  • DoomBlast

    Posted Apr 27, 2009 11:23 am PT

    I just had to laugh on some of these comments. No, they're not turning Hitman or Tomb Raider into RPG games, they're not that dumb. Just because they have published several successful RPGs it doesn't mean that they will have to turn everything into RPGs, it's just silly to think that way.

  • nerd_assassin

    Posted Apr 27, 2009 8:17 am PT

    @DarkGothic

    And yeah, I agree with you. No wonder Hironobu went on to create Mistwalker...

    As a clarification though I only made the statement to add insult to injury, and have no idea why Hironobu Sakaguchi left Squeenix. If anyone can offer up some info on that, I'll be glad.

  • nerd_assassin

    Posted Apr 27, 2009 8:06 am PT

    @zinoalex

    I think they just acquire the company, but they leave the production team the same as before. For example, they acquire Taito. Taito still makes Space Invaders, but Squeenix publishes it and sells it, and they all earn money. But Square-Enix sets what titles should be prioritized, and I think the trend is that only the popular(selling) franchises moves on, and that new IPs will be kept at bay until R&D can assure success. I think the only new IP I've seen the last year from Squeenix was The World Ends With You, which is a really really good game. So I think that's what will happen with Eidos and their games. But it's reassuring, knowing that a bigger group acquires another. The company remains intact, just a change of key players, but still their IPs will still go on. So fans can still hope for the next Tomb Raider, Thief and Hitman. I myself am waiting for another Hitman on the way. I just hope they get it right, the way they would integrate Eidos and it's IPs in the Squeenix Group.

  • Flipyap28

    Posted Apr 26, 2009 11:48 am PT

    Shooter fans shouldn't worry about this kind of stuff some comments are ridiculous, gundam-tomb raider...gundam isn't even Square Enix

    I live in the UK and I am starting to see the changes to SE, I got an email from them advertising a new game they had a part in and it seemed to be a WWII RTS game where you are the allies attack germany...didn't think they took part in war games.

    They also do a lot of secret localization for things like the Disgaea series, look at the EU website and you can see Disgaea on it. I personally don't mind if SE expands it's business as long as Final Fantasy stays its top priority.

  • spicyramen08

    Posted Apr 26, 2009 11:26 am PT

    This is great news because soo many game creators will be able to sit and discuss more gaming possibilities. I wish Sony would make FFVII's Crisis Core Sequel on PSP... it's bothersome to think I have the play the original playstation disc which I dont exactly have my hands on... but hey, I'm for alliances. Make me some games

  • regix416_basic

    Posted Apr 26, 2009 8:42 am PT

    Final Fantasy VII for the PS3 may actually happen now. Eidos Interactive may actually help push it. Or maybe even a remake of VI?

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