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Square Enix might be preparing for a Sony Acquisition

Grapevine talk suggests that Sony's rumored acquisition is Square Enix.


Fans have been asking Square Enix to remaster Chrono Trigger for years. The Sony acquisition might hold the key to making that happen.
Fans have been asking Square Enix to remaster Chrono Trigger for years. The Sony acquisition might hold the key to making that happen.

Square Enix and Sony have a long history of working together. The former established itself as the progenitor of JRPGs during the genre's golden era and most of these games found their way to the original PlayStation. When rumors of Sony sitting on a piece of acquisition news that wasn't Kojima Productions started, all eyes were immediately on Square Enix. As it turns out, people's hunches were right all along.

According to the known industry insider, Jeff Grubb, Square Enix is in a good position for a Sony buyout. Specifically, Grubb mentioned that the earlier rumors that he, along with others, perpetuated were about Square Enix. Grubb added that Square Enix's recent firesale had something more to do about streamlining the company to make it easier for Sony to make a deal.

Square Enix recently let go of some of its biggest IPs and studios for the steal of a price of $300 million. The transaction with Embracer Group is expected to close later this year and will give the massive holding company access to Crystal Dynamic, Eidos Montreal, and Square Enix Montreal. Following the announcement, audiences couldn't help but wonder why exactly Square Enix sold the said studios for a low price, and now we might know why.

Acquisitions are very rarely leaked to the public. Case in point, nobody knew about Microsoft's interest in Activision-Blizzard nor Sony's with Bungie until they happened. The same could be said for Square Enix and Sony.

For what it's worth, being acquired by Sony makes a lot of sense for Square Enix. As we've already mentioned, the Japanese entertainment company behind hits like Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts is synonymous with PlayStation. Most of the studio's upcoming games like Final Fantasy VII Part 2, Final Fantasy 16, Forspoken, and Valkyrie Elysium, are exclusive to the PS5. Not to mention, an intensified focus on what Square Enix does best, which is making memorable and iconic RPGs, aligns with the studio's recent decisions to roll out remasters of its classic titles like Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers and maybe even Tactics Ogre.

Square Enix going back to making JRPGs seem like an interesting notion, regardless of whether Sony acquires the company or not.
Square Enix going back to making JRPGs seem like an interesting notion, regardless of whether Sony acquires the company or not.

If the rumored acquisition came true, Sony would have exclusivity over the said games and their respective franchises, which gives the console a lot of fodder against Microsoft in the still-ongoing console wars.

Unfortunately, we're all at the mercy of an official announcement. Until Sony or Square Enix confirms the purchase, all we can do is wait.


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Ray Ampoloquio

Ray Ampoloquio // Articles: 5917

Ray is a lifelong gamer with a nose for keeping up with the latest news in and out of the gaming industry. When he's not reading, writing, editing, and playing video games, he builds and repairs computers in his spare time.
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