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Fun Club What happens first? FF1-6 on Switch vs. Sony buys Square Enix

Which happens first?

  • Final Fantasy I - VI release on Switch

    Votes: 137 77.4%

  • Sony buys Square-Enix

    Votes: 40 22.6%
  • Total voters
    177
Yeah I was immediately suspicious after hearing this guy left Eidos 9 years ago. It’s pretty clear Square had no idea how to handle its western studios so dumping them as a new generation of games with higher development costs start getting into deep production makes sense.

Sony buying Square is still a definitely possibility, but I don’t think this guy can really be considered ‘an insider’ or anything like that.
 
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what are we losing if sony buys square anyway. FF? thats basically a sony series at this point. KH and DQ? square cant even be bothered to port those games properly and the latter is dead without japan unless 12 really breaks out. i guess theres those HD-2D games but would be better if the teams jumped ship since sony will definitely kill the studios making them. cant have anything that isnt triple AAA or gaas.
 
thoughthaver said:
what are we losing if sony buys square anyway. FF? thats basically a sony series at this point. KH and DQ? square cant even be bothered to port those games properly and the latter is dead without japan unless 12 really breaks out. i guess theres those HD-2D games but would be better if the teams jumped ship since sony will definitely kill the studios making them. cant have anything that isnt triple AAA or gaas.
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As you said, we'd be losing the entirety of Square's AA output. Makes me wonder if Square would get split up further in a potential acquisition, since Nintendo sure as hell won't let Sony take those games + Dragon Quest away from them.
 
thoughthaver said:
nintendo can just poach the teams cant they?
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That's assuming that they don't get merged into the larger studios. They also wouldn't have access to any of Square's IPs, nor the HD-2D branding.

There's a lot there that they'll lose access to, regardless of how many staff members they poach.
 
Thunder84 said:
That's assuming that they don't get merged into the larger studios. They also wouldn't have access to any of Square's IPs, nor the HD-2D branding.

There's a lot there that they'll lose access to, regardless of how many staff members they poach.
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"Introducing, 2D-HD!"
 
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I'm not so sure Square-Enix is going to be bought by Sony. If anything it seems they are really accelerating their content releases on non-Sony platforms, especially Switch. They also are seemingly obsessed with trying to do something with NFTs (ugh) and that implies, to me, that they are seeking to try new exploratory revenue streams. Sony recently had a press release about a NSO-style points system for avatars and whatnot, and they made sure people knew it was not NFT-related.

Now, they could still be bought, but I imagine it'll be much like Bungie, where they are still their own thing in a way, and continue to publish on other platforms. Honestly that's the best case scenario in a platform holder buying out a big publisher. But overall I don't see signs Square-Enix is looking to sell, but if they did, I think they would still publish multiplatform - if Sony were the one that bought them.
 
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thoughthaver said:
what are we losing if sony buys square anyway. FF? thats basically a sony series at this point. KH and DQ? square cant even be bothered to port those games properly and the latter is dead without japan unless 12 really breaks out. i guess theres those HD-2D games but would be better if the teams jumped ship since sony will definitely kill the studios making them. cant have anything that isnt triple AAA or gaas.
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I think we'd potentially be losing a lot, even if you don't care about the publisher's potential shift in platforms. I don't think Playstation's current release strategy should make anyone hopeful of the future of Square Enix AA output if this acquisition were to unfortunately occur (which you've said yourself in your post), and imo Square Enix's AA output has been fantastic over the past 10 years and only gets better every year. They're good for a number of quality remasters, remakes, and new titles from both old and new franchises every year recently. SaGa, Mana, Octopath Traveler, Triangle Strategy, Bravely Default, Dungeon Encounters, ActRaiser, Front Mission, Live A Live, Dragon Quest Builders, etc. etc. It's been a great time to be interested in Square Enix's AA output and I see no reason to expect it to flourish under Playstation. Maybe if it's a general Sony acquisition and Square Enix remains relatively self-contained.

Like you said, maybe some companies could poach talent off some of those teams that are doing great things right now, but it doesn't always produce great results when talent leaves those types of situations.
 
thoughthaver said:
what are we losing if sony buys square anyway. FF? thats basically a sony series at this point. KH and DQ? square cant even be bothered to port those games properly and the latter is dead without japan unless 12 really breaks out. i guess theres those HD-2D games but would be better if the teams jumped ship since sony will definitely kill the studios making them. cant have anything that isnt triple AAA or gaas.
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The other thing is that square doesn't even own KH and DQ; it's like saying buying Bamco entities you to Smash.

Developer, publisher, and copyright holder are not always the same people. Copyright is Disney for KH and Armor Project (aka Horii-san) for Dragon Quest.
 
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we need a poll option for "pixel remasters launch on switch but with a special, worse, switch exclusive font, which is too small to read in handheld"
 
0
How does Sony buying Square Enix make sense for Square Enix? FFVIIR sold what, 6 million copies? After all that time it’s hardly the monstrous seller you’d think. FFXIV is a killer game on PlayStation, but it would be no less successful if it supported a few more similar platforms (XSX).

On the flip side, we have everything Dragon Quest, everything from Team Asano, and an increasing number of AA efforts, that all thrive on Switch or multi platform. Sony exclusivity would be the deathknell of HD-2D titles.

Anyway I hate this subject. On my Switch I’ve played:
  • Octopath Traveler
  • Dragon Quest Builders 2
  • Dragon Quest XI S
  • Bravely Default 2
  • Triangle Strategy
  • Live A Live
  • (Pre-Order) Nier Automata.
To answer the poster from above - I’d lose a lot
 
karmitt said:
To answer the poster from above - I’d lose a lot
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I agree, I struggle to see how anyone could think Square Enix hasn’t been a good third party supporter of the Switch. Those cloud versions of Kingdom Hearts must’ve really cut deep for some folks.

On the other hand I do think there is some sense in Sony acquiring SE. It’s clear that Microsoft’s acquisitions has set up the Xbox as the place to play western games. Sony currently has their portfolio of exclusives but nothing outside of that to define their platform. If they could make Playstation the place to play Japanese games they would be distinguishing themselves in the market better.
 
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If Sony would really buy Square Enix I would hope that Nintendo gets the team that made Octopath, Triangle and Live A Live (Team Asano I think?). I don't see a future for these games under Sony and there GAAS, cinematic and western games focus.
 
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karmitt said:
How does Sony buying Square Enix make sense for Square Enix
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...
karmitt said:
To answer the poster from above - I’d lose a lot
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It makes sense for sony. and sony would pay a lot. and because they pay a lot, it makes sense for Square. That simple.
Activision also makes more with supporting multiple platforms, but microsoft bought it, because they know how much value they bring (or they asume) to XBox and PC.
 
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Nintendo already ‘used’ the Square Enix merger to poach employees and help a lot of ex-Square employee create their own studios because they didn’t want to be part of SE. It would be the same for a Sony buyout of SE, to which degree is impossible to predict but Nintendo has always used this opportunities to increase the studios considered usual partners.
 
Blue Monty said:
Nintendo already ‘used’ the Square Enix merger to poach employees and help a lot of ex-Square employee create their own studios because they didn’t want to be part of SE. It would be the same for a Sony buyout of SE, to which degree is impossible to predict but Nintendo has always used this opportunities to increase the studios considered usual partners.
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Yea, I forsee either this happening or Nintendo gets into the bidding war. There's a lot of history between Nintendo and Square-Enix and it would be a huge blow especially to Nintendo who has been the main recipient of the mid-tier and budget titles since the GBA era.

The curious thing I find about this rumor is that supposedly Sony just wants the Tokyo studio, and likely their IPs. But that doesn't make sense as selling off Final Fantasy undercuts the whole Square Enix Music label (like 90% of what they print are FF related OSTs or arrangement albums) and the figurine business. All so Sony gains a new AAA title every 3-4 years? And has to maintain two MMOs again after bailing on the space years ago?

The whole rumor makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.
 
At this point, after all the rumours and the acquision of Eidos from SE i think it's a matter of time that Sony will announce the acquision of the company.

Every other big acquisition never bothered me because i play on PC as my main hardware, but SE acquisition from Sony will mean less small projects and more cinematic blockbusters like FFVII remake and only on Playstation, probably on PC after 2-3 years.

And of course this should affect negatively and reduce drastically Nintendo third party catalogue in their future consoles.
 
SE does not own Dragon Quest fully, right? Doesn't it just have rights to publish? Horii I believe owns the series.

Edit:

Per Wiki at least: Horii currently heads his own production company, Armor Project, a company that has an exclusive production contract with Square Enix,[7] a contract established with Enix before the company merged with Square.

So SE seems to have production contract, but does not own the series?
 
Clix said:
SE does not own Dragon Quest fully, right? Doesn't it just have rights to publish? Horii I believe owns the series.

Edit:

Per Wiki at least: Horii currently heads his own production company, Armor Project, a company that has an exclusive production contract with Square Enix,[7] a contract established with Enix before the company merged with Square.

So SE seems to have production contract, but does not own the series?
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SE owns trademarks, exclusive contract and publishing rights. They might also have a stake in the case of games they develop themselves but nothing more
 
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I maintain my position that SE isn't getting bought. They're a very large company that doesn't even just do gaming, and even then, the projects that modern Sony would even care about aren't even that big a portion of their output.
 
Chris Walken said:
At this point, after all the rumours and the acquision of Eidos from SE i think it's a matter of time that Sony will announce the acquision of the company.
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Listening to the Internet echo chamber like that is how things like Morbius end up back in theaters :) Just because the Internet wants to will something into existence doesn't mean it will happen or that it's a good idea.

Regardless of whether or not they're looking to be acquired, the Eidos selloff was absolutely the right decision given how bad that situation was (and no one else outbid Embracer who got them for 1/5th of what they paid for Gearbox). Maybe people ought to look at it in the light of S-E giving up on throwing good money after bad and cutting loose a struggling asset, rather than as preparations for a sale.

If they were trying to slim down the company to make it easier to digest there's other areas they could have jettisoned as well like Taito (which is largely autonomous to begin with) or Tokyo RPG Factory.
 
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