Square Enix won’t ditch Just Cause after selling Western IPs

By George Yang June 6, 2022

Square Enix still finds value in its western IPs, such as Just Cause, after it just recently sold off a majority of them.

In an investors briefing last month, Square Enix briefly mentioned Just Cause, which is developed by Avalanche Studios. “We especially revisited our studio and title portfolios from the perspective of stepping up our offering of online titles that we develop for the North American and the European market,” explains Square Enix president Yosuke Matsuda.

He continues, “We want to focus on creating new titles that align with our strategy, including ones that leverage new IP. The Just Cause franchise will remain our IP, and we are at work developing a new title in the franchise.”

It’s unclear whether Matsuda is referring to the development of a new mainline Just Cause game for consoles and PC, or the free-to-play mobile game that was announced back in 2020.

Last month, Square Enix announced that it would be selling off its western divisions, Crystal Dynamics, Eidos Montreal, and Square Enix Montreal, to Embracer Group. This sale handed over properties such as Tomb Raider and Deus Ex to Embracer Group.

However, Square Enix decided to keep some western IPs, namely, Life is Strange, Outriders, and Just Cause.

The last game in the Just Cause franchise was Just Cause 4, which was released back in December 2018 for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. Just Cause Mobile is scheduled to launch sometime in 2022 with both single-player and four-player co-op gameplay, as well as PvP gameplay with up to thirty players.

Maybe it’s time that we see a new Just Cause mainline entry in the current generation for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S?

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George Yang is a freelance games writer for Digital Trends. He has written for places such as IGN, GameSpot, The Washington…

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