Stefan d’Astus (STEPHANE D’Astous) – founder and former general manager Eidos-Montréal, studios that created the last Deus Ex, Thief And Guardians of the Galaxy. In October 2013, he left the company, and now gave an interview to Gamesindustry.Biz, where he shared his vision of why his team could not spread his wings under control Square Enix.
About your care
D’Astus says he was not too surprised when Square Enix I decided to sell Eidos-Montréal: Like, everything went to something like this back in 2013:
Such a development of events could be predicted. I left because there was not enough in the head office. To Square Enix u Eidos Excellent developers have developed, but they did not have sufficient knowledge on how to sell their games. It was obvious.
Except Tomb Raider in those years (it was a completely different era), then magnificent games Eidos and series Hitman could become projects for six, seven, eight million copies. Deus Ex I could also become like that. Do not understand wrong, we have reached good indicators, but it always seemed to me that the ways that Eidos sells games, were too traditional and generally accepted. There was not enough innovation. And because of this, the circulations of games suffered, despite their quality.
When Square Enix I bought it Eidos In 2009, I hoped that it would change.
About the failure of Thief
The first project Eidos-Montréal – Deus Ex: Human Revolution gained global recognition and instantly brought the studio to the Premier League. And here Thief 2014 met cooler.
However, D’Astus considers the “thief” one of his best projects. He is sure that everything could have been different if the team had managed to cut off an additional nine months for production:
We did everything in our power. We had hard. This is life in the development of games. Not everything takes off. But we were close, there were not enough several final strokes.
Team Deus Ex was Bettingsitesnogamstop.co.uk one of the strongest that I had to collect. They stood behind each other a mountain. They understood the difficulties ahead. IN Thief I no longer had such a luxury – to have a backbone of people who have already worked together before. Therefore, I hired talented people very talented, but they did not have the opportunity to work together before. This is probably one of the reasons why everything went not as smoothly as with Deus Ex.
On the failure of Marvel’s Avengers
In the mid-2010s Square Enix signed a contract for several projects with Marvel. As we know, in the end we came out Marvel’s Avengers (weak reviews, weak sales) and Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy (Great reviews, weak sales).
Maybe when they signed the contract, superheroes were popular. They still attract a lot of attention, but begin to bother. Especially in games – few people managed to release a successful project with superheroes. There is always a Batman from the guys from Rocksteady. There is a spider man. But among all the people who were engaged, the share of the success of the superhero games was not too good.
Maybe this was seen as a simple path. Maybe they thought that selling a superhero game is easier than a traditional.
About unrealistic expectations of Square Enix
U Square Enix There is a reputation of a company that is always unhappy with the sales of its games, even when the circulations make up many millions of copies. Inside Eidos Also hung up similar feelings: what does the head office expect from them?
As he recalls D’Astus, On the financial report for 2012, it turned out that from the group Eidos planned to receive $ 65 million profit, and the group brought only $ 65 million losses.
Eidos I began to worry about my fate. D’Astus I tried to find out from London management Square Enix, What to do studios. But they didn’t really say anything there.
The tension began to increase – both from my subordinates to me, and from me to my authorities. I believe that when people fall in a crisis situation, you can clearly see their values and behavior. And I didn’t like what I saw. There was very missing a leader, motivation and desire to talk. And when there are no such basic things, not a single employee can work correctly, especially when you head the studio.
I lost the hope that Square Enix Japan can do with Eidos Something great. I lost confidence in my head office in London. In annual financial reports, the Japanese office always added a couple of phrases: “We are disappointed with certain games. They have not reached our expectations ". And by this they meant only games made not in Japan.
On the sale of Western studios Square Enix
In May 2022 Square Enix She announced that she would give it Eidos-Montréal, Crystal Dynamics, Square Enix Montréal and their franchises in favor Embracer Group. The deal was estimated at $ 300 million, which for a package of such strong assets sounds like a ridiculous amount.
D’Astus also surprised – for example, Embracer I bought it Gearbox for $ 1.3 billion:
At [Gearbox] about a thousand employees. U Eidos About a thousand employees. At [Gearbox] There is Borderlands and other things, but at Eidos franchise once five more. So why for Eidos gave four times less? Probably, she was not interested in few. Unfortunately, this is a sign of how unhealthy Eidos potential.
For me it looked like a train crash in slow time. One could understand that the train was moving in the wrong way. Maybe hence $ 300 million. This is really a little. There is no sense in this.
D’Astus does not know how Japanese office Square Enix to blame for a shaky state Eidos, But he claims that "some bad decisions have exactly come from London".
About the future of EIDOS as part of Embracer
D’Astus is careful in his assessments of how things go Eidos Under the wing Embracer:
I hope Lars appreciated everything, held detailed conversations and found out the plan [Eidos]. Because their plan in the previous ten years was clearly unsuccessful. I don’t know if the plan for the next ten years will turn out to be better, because the same people remained in place. The same players are still sitting there.
And if there are no changes, the train will continue.
Rumors go that Square Enix I got rid of Western studios because she wants to absorb her Sony, A Sony Interested only in Japanese branches Square Enix. D’Astus repeats these rumors and adds: if this is true, then it is clear why Square Enix Sold Eidos So cheap.