Crystal Dynamics and Eidos Montreal are expected to release 5 triple-A games by March 2028

Crystal Dynamics and Eidos Montreal are currently expected to release five triple-A games by March 31, 2028.

Lars Wingefors, the CEO of Crystal Dynamics and Eidos parent company Embracer, provided an update on the group’s pipeline of triple-A projects during a quarterly earnings presentation on Thursday.

He defined triple-A games as titles that have over 100 full-time developers at the peak of their development phase.

They must also have notable or significant marketing budgets and are expected to sell at least two million units.

And if development work is paid for by an external partner, Embracer must also have a notable economic upside.

One project that would appear to meet all three stipulations is Perfect Dark, a co-development between Xbox studio The Initiative and Crystal Dynamics, which is being funded by Microsoft.

Another is Crystal Dynamics’ upcoming Tomb Raider game, which will be published by Amazon.

It was recently claimed that a new Deus Ex game was in very early development at Eidos Montreal, and that the studio was working on a new IP as well as collaborating with Microsoft on Xbox games including Fable.

Prior to last year’s completion of a $300 million deal to acquire a large part of Square Enix’s western development arm, Embracer said it was envisaging releasing sequels, remakes, remasters, spin-offs and more for Crystal Dynamics and Eidos Montreal IPs, which also include Thief.

And in November, Crystal Dynamics and Eidos CEO Phil Rogers said Crystal Dynamics had received an overwhelming response to a survey designed to gauge interest in a potential revival of its long-dormant Legacy of Kain series.

The release of five triple-A games over the next five years would mark a significant increase on the three released by the two studios over the past five years.

They were 2018’s Shadow of the Tomb Raider (Eidos Montreal), 2020’s Marvel’s Avengers (Crystal Dynamics and Eidos Montreal) and 2021’s Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy (Eidos Montreal).

Further reading

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Here’s why Deus Ex and Tomb Raider could thrive under Embracer

The holding firm, which lets its group of companies work independently, might be ideal for these old Eidos studios.

In total, Wingefors said Embracer plans to release 31 triple-A games by March 31, 2028.

In addition to the five from Crystal Dynamics and Eidos Montreal, eight will come from Gearbox Entertainment, 11 from Saber Interactive, six from Plaion, and one from THQ Nordic.

Four are expected to be released during Embracer’s next fiscal year ending in March 2024, with 7-8 released each year thereafter.

17 of these games are in full production, nine are in pre-production, and five are in the concept phase.

24 will be published internally, 28 will be developed internally, 23 are based on owned IP, 24 are based on established IP, and seven are based on new IP.

Only six of the 31 projects have been announced to date, Wingefors said.