Legacy of Kain fans have been neglected for a very long time. It’s been nearly twenty years since the release of Defiance, the latest franchise installment in the action/adventure IP.
Now that Eidos Montréal has been sold by Square Enix to Embracer Group alongside Crystal Dynamics, though, the studios regained control of Legacy of Kain, among other popular franchises. Today, during the Q2 2022 Embracer Group earnings call, Phil Rogers (currently CEO of both Eidos Montréal and Crystal Dynamics) said Legacy of Kain fans had been heard loud and clear after the recent survey garnered a lot of traction.
We wanted to get a community perspective on what players are looking for. Should we revisit the land of Nosgoth and, of course, our iconic IP Legacy of Kain? Like I said earlier, we have brands which resonate with gamers. We hope to use these brands to drive ever more meaningful relationships with our customers. In the past, we found out that surveys usually get typically between one and three thousand responses. When we asked about Legacy of Kain, we received over 100K responses, with 73K gamers completing the full survey. Every one of them, we thank you very much. We appreciate it was quite the effort, given the survey was pretty extensive. We found that this was a great way to reignite this passionate fan community of a legendary PC/console game series. Rest assured, we hear you loudly and clearly, and we’ll continue to update you on the possibilities ahead for Legacy of Kain in the future.
However, it is unlikely either Eidos Montréal or Crystal Dynamics will be able to make a brand new Legacy of Kain title any time soon. Elsewhere in his talk, Rogers said both studios are leaning heavily towards co-development as not only an additional revenue source but also to enter partnerships that can add long-term value.
Crystal Dynamics is officially working on a new Tomb Raider game (powered by Unreal Engine 5) and also on the Perfect Dark reboot alongside Microsoft’s The Initiative. For its part, Eidos Montréal is rumored to be helping Microsoft’s Playground Games with the Fable reboot, in addition to starting development on a new Deus Ex game and also working on a new IP. It doesn’t really seem like there’s any space for new games. A remaster or remake, possibly handled by another studio at Embracer Group, seems like the most likely option. Either way, we should hear what’s next from both studios at some point next year, according to the CEO.
As a side note, Rogers revealed that Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, now past its first anniversary, has reached over 8 million players. A portion of those certainly came through the game’s additions on Game Pass and PlayStation Plus. Rogers also said that the team has a lot of pride in what they made, and rightfully so, given that it’s a great game.
