Square Enix Montreal has now rebranded as Studio Onoma, after being purchased by the Embracer Group back in May as part of a $300 million USD deal.
According to an official post on Onoma’s new website, the company had created a ‘rebrand squad’ that ultimately decided upon their new moniker from a list of 165 contenders that were derived from the company’s “values and brand pillars”. Onoma is Greek for ‘name’ and was chosen because it was ‘easy to pronounce in both French and English”.
The website also shows that Onoma is currently working on Tomb Raider Reloaded, Avatar Generations, and the latest Space Invaders game, all for mobile phones. This is not too unexpected, as the studio is well known for its “Go” series of titles for such devices. They are probably also working on Deus Ex and Thief games, as they proudly announced that they now owned those properties earlier this year.
Onoma’s parent company Embracer has been on a bit of a spending spree of late, having not only purchased Square Enix Montreal and Crystal Dynamics and several pieces of intellectual property associated with the studios, but an array of other media companies, including Dark Horse Comics, Middle-Earth Enterprises, Tuxedo Labs, Tripwire Interactive, Limited Run Games and more.