Microsoft Considered Acquiring Square Enix - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 01 July 2023 / 4,535 Views
It was reported earlier this week Microsoft at one point had considered acquiring Sega, Bungie, IO Interactive, and several other developers. A new internal document released as part of the Microsoft vs FTC hearings revealed Microsoft had also considered acquiring Square Enix.
The internal document provided several reasons as to why Microsoft was interested in acquiring Square Enix. The reasons included bolstering Xbox's presence in Asian markets and to add more content to help grow Xbox Game Pass.
Another reason for the possible acquisition was to help grow Microsoft's presence in the mobile gaming market as it might help "future mobile-exclusive Game Pass offerings."
"Combining Square Enix’s robust mobile-native portfolio with our own could potentially help us create a mobile-native Xbox Game Pass SKU," reads the document. Adding the publisher's games would "have substantial value for a subscription service."
Thanks, The Verge.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
More Articles
Don't ever consider it again.
This would be wild.
Square's games, especially their RPGs, have not been associated with Xbox. I don't think SE would go for this. I don't even think they would want Sony or Nintendo to buy them.
Perhaps for a giant payment they would accept to sell, not that the employees themselves would like.
SE might fall into one of those companies considered important to Japans economy and would not allow the sale.
I think it's quite obvious that MS want to expand Xbox since E3 2018. In this state, it's only sane business practice to assess every possibility/opportunity to do just that.
The main thing MS has done since that email about buying other companies is buy 2 major publishers, every option is more than just buying things, yet that's what they did. They could have have setup 100 new studios making many games of varying scale, natural growth and expansion providing jobs and games that will not be scrutinised by governmental departments.
Creating 100 new studios would only be a plain stupid act. The resource acquisition is too hard and slow for those to be up and running in any reasonable timeframe. So It'll only act to secure the status quo for another 10 years+. Even if you take Nintendo/Sony/Sega/Atari/Xbox together they did not build 100 studios in all their respective active years so why think Xbox can pull this off by themselves?
MS already has many studios which they grow organically alongside those acquisitions. So yeah every option is not limited to acquisition but nor is Xbox limiting themselves to acquisition either.
Also, the 2 publishers do not give MS any monopolistic ability, in fact, they will still not even be the no. 1 in terms of revenue in the industry.
It's an exaggeration yet oddly still cheaper than doing what they did (100x$250mil is only 25bil).
But not every studio needs to be an Insomniac or 343. They mentioned they wanted to buy Supergiant. Supergiant had 20 employees according to wiki, presume more now. They can't set up a studio like that? With their resources? If they did this in 2018-19 like you mention, we would be receiving the games they had to offer now.
And no, you are right, Tencent still wins that and anything that can fight against that is good but I'd rather organic growth than just spend until you can compete.
Yes, studios can be smaller but may not be compatible with MS goals short term and medium term. Contents that are produced with smaller studios are also easier to get through specific deals also so there is potentially no need to expand in-house on the kind of content such studio is able to produce.
I'd like to know if Microsoft has considered buying the PlayStation business from Sony
My guess is the answer is yes.
Square would probably have laughed the same way Nintendo laughed when MS tried to buy them lol
Honestly seeing all these big companies MS tried to acquire just makes MS look even more desperate. Like if MS was a person, they'd be like the rich kid that has all of daddy's money yet still can't get what they want.
Many seem to be confusing these lists of companies and studios that MS had to mean that they tried to buy each and every one of them. Every company in the world, including Sony, have lists of potential acquisitions that they look at or monitor. They don't just one day wake up and think "I'm gonna go buy xxxxx" this has nothing to do with desperation and everything to do with regular day to day business.
The company I work for now only has a net cap of a little over a billion, but execs have a list of dozens of potential acquisitions of smaller companies that they're looking at that they provide updates on at our weekly company meetings. It's just how business works. Doesn't mean anything as the list of what actually is bought, is small.
I'm not holding anything for 23 years really, I just thought it was funny that MS think they can wave their money around. The sad part is after 23 years MS is still trying to pull this lol
I know companies talk a lot about acquiring other companies but never pull through. Your company sounds like it's actually just looking to acquire. But do you honestly believe for MS, in their weak position in this market globally, it was just looking? Of course not. There's a difference between looking to acquire, and needing to acquire, and MS sounds like the latter. Then at the end of the day they aimed for the biggest acquisition possible.
That conversation with SE would go like this, Microsoft talks to SE we would love to begin discussion on purchasing you...SE no thanks.
Sony has no say in this lol...
I was confused what the thumbs down were for, I didn't say anything about Sony. SE I meant Square Enix.
OH lol I def. see SE as Sony Entrainment :)
My bad :)
It's called Sony Interactive Entertainment. Hence why it's not SE.
No kidding… I know and I just explained what I mistakenly saw by reading too quickly.
I will let you continue your trip as you seem to really need to have the last word about a simple mistake to feel better lol
Some people don't know the difference between SE and SIE apparently.
Some people cannot read properly when people admit a honest and simple mistake by reading to quickly apparently. Which happens to everybody…
I mean how proud you must feel right now about yourself to feel the need to still post that comment afterward :)
Congrats on being that person :) l
I'd love to know how to jumped to Sony.
Did you see a capitol S and your brain autocompletes to Sony?
yah lol I thought it was Sony Entrainment :) Honest mistake haha
What about nintendo ?? Step up your game microsoft.
Ok, has Microsoft planned to buy the entire industry at one point or another?
Yes, and given half a chance they will.
Yeah this was definitely part of an internal "wishlist" ain't no way that was ever going to happen lol. Who knows though. SE burying themselves into the ground with stupid crap like NFTs and numerous middling games that aren't called FF or HD-2D. They might just agree to anything if they get desperate enough.
MS, Sony, and other third-party companies always have a list of potential acquisitions they may want to pursue. They don't just wake up one day and decide to buy a company or studio.
This is triggering. Square has nothing to get with this acquisition, leave them alone MS
Square wouldn't join a failing gaming division let alone an American conglomerate
They should have made it happen would have gave PS a lot less exclusives and Xbox a lot more
Extremely thankful they decided not to waste their money on SE.
Forget Square, Sega will be a better buy and supports PC and consoles more.
Does MSFT actually grow and enhance their studios? Are their existing studios producing any new IP's? I am talking before Bethesda.
.......yes. My god, Xbox haters really need to do their research xD
