Support NeoGAF

[Sleepwalker]

Microsoft wanted to acquire Square Enix as part of plan for mobile Game Pass

Another potential acquisition.

www.theverge.com

According to the documents, Microsoft had a number of reasons for being interested in Square Enix. Part of it was to bolster Xbox’s historically scant presence in Asian markets. There was another obvious reason: to add more content to drive growth of Xbox Game Pass through new blockbuster Square Enix releases as well as the company’s extensive back catalog.
A more surprising reason for the potential acquisition, however, was to gain a step up in mobile — which could help “future mobile-exclusive Game Pass offerings.” Currently, Game Pass supports Xbox and PC, but it looks like Microsoft has had some broader plans in the past.

“Combining Square Enix’s robust mobile-native portfolio with our own could potentially help us create a mobile-native Xbox Game Pass SKU,” the document reads, adding that the publisher’s games — which include ports of classic games sold at a premium — would “have substantial value for a subscription service.”

 

[graywolf323]

quoting myself from the other thread on this

I mean at this point we basically know Microsoft had looked at acquiring

 

[legacy24]

who haven't they tried to buy at this point ffs

 

[lh032]

i dont know why, but "mobile version of gamepass" seems like an insult to SE

 

[BennyBlanco]

Xbox didn’t really do much of anything in the Xbone era. I wonder what exactly changed in the last few years that sent them down this insane path? Dollar losing value and needing to spend the cash sitting around? Absorbing all these companies would just lead to MASSIVE layoffs and spreading yourself way too thin.

 

[Fabieter]

Gaming is doomed.

 

[Astral Dog]

I heard they were looking into buying Nintendo

 

[HTK]

Sounds about right, MS wants to buy everyone and create a nice little monopoly for themselves.

1) Buy Everyone You Can
2) Increase GamePass Price YoY
3) Ruin The Quality of Games Over Time
4) Get Rid Of Your Competition Permanently

 

[Unknown?]

Ruining Japanese gaming again, eh? Thank God they didn't! Remember the 360 days? Many Japanese games struggled and died off

 

[quest]

Xbox didn’t really do much of anything in the Xbone era. I wonder what exactly changed in the last few years that sent them down this insane path? Dollar losing value and needing to spend the cash sitting around? Absorbing all these companies would just lead to MASSIVE layoffs and spreading yourself way too thin.

CEO loves himself a subscription service. Once they started on the gamepass train the CEO opened the wallet.

 

[StealthGoblin]

If people aren’t concerned by Microsoft’s long term vision for gaming then I don’t know what to say.
Consolidation is the enemy, regardless of who is doing it.

 

[RaZoR No1]

who haven't they tried to buy at this point ffs

Probably easier to make a list of devs etc. they didn't want to buy

 

[jroc74]

Mobile you say?

Interesting.....lol.

 

[lh032]

Sounds about right, MS wants to buy everyone and create a nice little monopoly for themselves.

1) Buy Everyone You Can
2) Increase GamePass Price YoY
3) Ruin The Quality of Games Over Time
4) Get Rid Of Your Competition Permanently

yea i already see that few years ago.
Microsoft is going to brute force with a load of money and stay number 1 in the industry as no competitor able to get in the market.

 

[mansoor1980]

Gaming is doomed.

only one man can save us , the reluctant hero

 

[Sleepwalker]

Mobile you say?

Interesting.....lol.

Square has a ton of mobile games out, just search final fantasy on either appstore. They're not even really cheap. And thats just 1 of their franchises.

I assume their mobile business does well in JPN

 

[Fake]

WTF is that mentality of buying everything? lol

 

[Skifi28]

So they've basically looked into buying 80% of the industry. Can we finally drop the narrative about poor little startup Xbox in last place with 16% trying to compete? They don't want to compete, they want to have their own little gaming monopoly.

 

[Zones]

I heard they were looking into buying Nintendo

They actually did back in the day, but this was their reaction…

 

[Beer Baelly]

 

[sinnergy]

Do it

 

[Calling 911 Melts Beams]

ff16 would have been a great exclusive for the microsoft duo phone

 

[Dick Jones]

I heard they were looking into buying Nintendo

Again? The first meeting must have gone well

1st meeting:

 

[LordCBH]

WTF is that mentality of buying everything? lol

If you can’t succeed, buy, buy, steal, buy, buy, and buy again.

It’s been the Microsoft way since the 90’s.

 

[Chukhopops]

Thank God they didn’t, that would have been a complete disaster.

 

[FalsettoVibe]

Sounds about right, MS wants to buy everyone and create a nice little monopoly for themselves.

1) Buy Everyone You Can
2) Increase GamePass Price YoY
3) Ruin The Quality of Games Over Time
4) Get Rid Of Your Competition Permanently

This. Its sad that people don't see this. Seems they only care about their "team" and getting more "free" day one games.

 

[ComputerBlue]

Gross. My dislike for Microsoft continues to grow exponentially.

 

[VAVA Mk2]

who haven't they tried to buy at this point ffs

Talking about potential purchases and mergers internally in business strategy meetings across and organization their size is not the same as approaching with an actual offer.

 

[TheInfamousKira]

So they wanted to take one of the last AAA Japanese developers, who are renowned and revered in the hobby as, primarily, creators of robust single player story driven RPGS....

....and turn them into a mobile gaming unit? Microsoft's version of Bust a Brick and Candy Crush nonsense? On a subscription based platform?

I think I'm officially a console warrior now.

 

[Valkyria]

Man, Microsoft are completely out of their minds. Thanks God that Japan has laws preventing acquisition from foreign companies.

 

[Chukhopops]

So they wanted to take one of the last AAA Japanese developers, who are renowned and revered in the hobby as, primarily, creators of robust single player story driven RPGS....

....and turn them into a mobile gaming unit? Microsoft's version of Bust a Brick and Candy Crush nonsense? On a subscription based platform?

I think I'm officially a console warrior now.

Square Enix already produced dozens of mobile games, they just haven’t been particularly successful with them outside of Japan.

I don’t think the plan was to turn them into a full blown mobile developer lmao.

 

[drganon]

They're just trying to compete. Just a few dozen more publishers and developers.

 

[TheInfamousKira]

Square Enix already produced dozens of mobile games, they just haven’t been particularly successful with them outside of Japan.

I don’t think the plan was to turn them into a full blown mobile developer lmao.

I mean, it wouldn't be a smart decision.

Would it be a surprising one, though?

 

[MAtgS]

Ruining Japanese gaming again, eh? Thank God they didn't! Remember the 360 days? Many Japanese games struggled and died off

You're blaming 360 for that? & not PS3's pain in the ass cell processor?

 

[Robb]

Satya Nadella: How many gaming publishers would you like to acquire?

Phil Spencer: Yes.

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

This might actually explain why Sony have entered a more strategic partnership with Square-Enix in the first place: how ironic would it be that Sony's 3P deals with pubs like SE was a reaction to them uncovering plans by Microsoft to practically buy up the biggest 3P publishers in the industry?

We already know Sony bought Bungie in reaction to Microsoft trying to buy them, right after having bought Zenimax. MS are currently trying to buy ABK, and Satya Nadella is on record saying they (MS) were looking into buying more post-ABK. The 2019 "thought experiment" email turns out to be what MS have been planning to act on the whole time.

It's a very clear pattern of a targeted effort to cut Sony off from their biggest 3P dev/pub supporters, with MS taking full ownership and squeezing Sony out of options for independent 3P publishers to work with. That is another way of saying, Microsoft realized they could never out-compete Sony in a fair market where 3P are allowed to actually choose who they want to work with, so they have resorted to buying those 3P instead, using the merits of Microsoft's non-gaming money and technologies to do so, since Xbox as a brand and division has effectively been a failing strategy (due to MS's own incompetence).

The anticompetitive intentions behind these big 3P publisher acquisitions from MS could not be clearer.

Man, Microsoft are completely out of their minds. Thanks God that Japan has laws preventing acquisition from foreign companies.

It's not that they completely prevent foreign companies from buying Japanese ones. It's that it's much harder for foreign companies to buy Japanese ones, than Japanese companies buying or merging with each other.

But if those companies fall into a "protected sector", then yes, a foreign company 100% can't buy them, to my knowledge. Sony would be one such company, for example. Nintendo likely falls into that designation themselves. Dunno about Square-Enix, but they obviously had many business (and likely corporate culture)-related reasons to reject any offer Microsoft tried approaching them with.

 

[DeepEnigma]

 

[Luigi Mario]

i dont know why, but "mobile version of gamepass" seems like an insult to SE

It tells you that they don't hold Square's core games output in high regard.

 

[Ronin_7]

I heard they were looking into buying Nintendo

They already tried that in the 90s.

 

[Chukhopops]

I mean, it wouldn't be a smart decision.

Would it be a surprising one, though?

I don’t believe for one second that MS would entirely cut the development of console games and force SE into mobile development.

I guess we’ll never know but I would bet a lot of money on that.

 

[Interfectum]

Phil is obsessed with mobile because he promised the CEO a billion gamers. Cloud is a bust and very few give a shit about Xbox so mobile is the only way to save his ass.

 

[Del_X]

"try to buy"
They did an assessment. Same with Sega and others - they thought about it.

 

[Sleepwalker]

"try to buy"
They did an assessment. Same with Sega and others - they thought about it.

Ctrl + F "try to buy"

1 result: your post.

 

[Spyxos]

Who weren't they trying to buy?

 

[Del_X]

Ctrl + F "try to buy"

1 result: your post.

Wanted to buy, whatever. Doing an evaluation doesn't equate to want - other posts imply or directly state the same thing about other studios.

 

[Crayon]

If you still boost ms crying poormouth you are either brainless or shameless.

 

[Chukhopops]

"try to buy"
They did an assessment. Same with Sega and others - they thought about it.

Not to mention they would have kept games multiplat and not force SE into making mobile games:

Ironically there would have been fewer exclusive deals from SE if the deal had gone through.

Really makes you think.

 

[jroc74]

Square has a ton of mobile games out, just search final fantasy on either appstore. They're not even really cheap. And thats just 1 of their franchises.

I assume their mobile business does well in JPN

I know, it's also why it would be a good get for Sony. This coming off of Phil throwing out ideas about shutting down Xbox and doing mobile gaming is just funny, that's all.

This might actually explain why Sony have entered a more strategic partnership with Square-Enix in the first place: how ironic would it be that Sony's 3P deals with pubs like SE was a reaction to them uncovering plans by Microsoft to practically buy up the biggest 3P publishers in the industry?

We already know Sony bought Bungie in reaction to Microsoft trying to buy them, right after having bought Zenimax. MS are currently trying to buy ABK, and Satya Nadella is on record saying they (MS) were looking into buying more post-ABK. The 2019 "thought experiment" email turns out to be what MS have been planning to act on the whole time.

It's a very clear pattern of a targeted effort to cut Sony off from their biggest 3P dev/pub supporters, with MS taking full ownership and squeezing Sony out of options for independent 3P publishers to work with. That is another way of saying, Microsoft realized they could never out-compete Sony in a fair market where 3P are allowed to actually choose who they want to work with, so they have resorted to buying those 3P instead, using the merits of Microsoft's non-gaming money and technologies to do so, since Xbox as a brand and division has effectively been a failing strategy (due to MS's own incompetence).

The anticompetitive intentions behind these big 3P publisher acquisitions from MS could not be clearer.



It's not that they completely prevent foreign companies from buying Japanese ones. It's that it's much harder for foreign companies to buy Japanese ones, than Japanese companies buying or merging with each other.

But if those companies fall into a "protected sector", then yes, a foreign company 100% can't buy them, to my knowledge. Sony would be one such company, for example. Nintendo likely falls into that designation themselves. Dunno about Square-Enix, but they obviously had many business (and likely corporate culture)-related reasons to reject any offer Microsoft tried approaching them with.

If it comes out that's why Sony went on a timed exclusive spree....I'm going to laugh so, so hard.

This case has been dropping bombshells left n right.

 

[kaizenkko]

This. Its sad that people don't see this. Seems they only care about their "team" and getting more "free" day one games.

People are convinced that Microsoft buying all those companies is good because that means more people will have access to games (via xcloud). Phil really fuck their minds. lol

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

"try to buy"
They did an assessment. Same with Sega and others - they thought about it.

Ah, yes, more "thought experiments".

I suppose Zenimax and ABK are also "thought experiments". Thought experiments, costing billions of dollars, ironically.