14 DAY TRIAL // It's now pretty much official. Eidos has announced that its shareholders, who have seen their company felled by financial problems, have approved the take over by Japanese publisher Square Enix. A little over 85% of those still holding on to Eidos shares have voted yes. They will get a little less than half a dollar for a share that they own. This might seem low, but it's actually three times more than the Eidos stock was worth on the day when Square Enix announced its offer, which is standing at 120 million dollars.
Following the vote, Eidos will be de-listed on April 21 and its shares will be suspended from trading. On April 22, Eidos, which for the moment will keep its name, logo and properties, will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Square Enix.
The Japanese company has said that the move has been prompted by its need to expand its operations on Western markets. The Eidos distributor network is going to come in handy in delivering the Japanese role playing games that feature prominently in the catalog of Square Enix to players who might have had trouble with getting them until now.
What's not clear is what will happen with the Eidos intellectual properties, like Lara Croft and Hitman. Underworld has just been released, re-imagining the character of Lara Croft, and is set to receive some more DLC in April, while no Hitman game is said to be in development at the moment. Square Enix will probably evaluate the properties and we'll see more games featuring these characters in the future.
Square Enix is rather busy with developing Final Fantasy XIII, the latest in the long running and incredibly successful JRPG series. The game, which should come on both the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360, is set to be released in Japan this year. Because of issues with porting and translations, the game will only arrive in the West in 2010.