Aside from and Bungie, Microsoft had its eye on Square Enix so it could add the Final Fantasy games and others to Game Pass.
You would think if any major video game publisher would buy Square Enix, it’d be Sony. It was for ages, emboldened by the two companies’ close working relationship, with several exclusive to the PlayStation platform.
Unsurprisingly, though, it turns out Microsoft was keeping a watchful eye on Square Enix and was seriously considering spending the money to make it an Xbox subsidiary.
While its library of franchises like Final Fantasy played a part in that, one major motivator for such an acquisition was its mobile games.
Square Enix does have a lot of experience in that area, having been making mobile games since the early 2000s, although very few of them have been hits outside of Asia.
Aside from exclusive spin-offs like NieR Reincarnation and the upcoming Kingdom Hearts: Missing Link, the company has also made mobile ports of console titles like the Final Fantasy games.
Microsoft believed having these available on Game Pass would bolster the service, especially in Asian markets where the Xbox usually struggles.
This is all according to , which learned this through documents shared as part of the .
In fact, Microsoft sometimes claims that the Activision Blizzard buyout is rather than any of its premiere franchises like Call Of Duty.
Square Enix is hardly the only company Microsoft was thinking of buying before settling for Activision Blizzard. The likes of were all on a list of potential acquisitions, though who knows if any of these companies would’ve agreed to Microsoft’s offers.
It’s odd though that despite apparently showing interest in so many different mobile game developers Microsoft still hasn’t actually bought one, with King set to be the first if the Activision Blizzard acquisition goes through.
You can definitely expect more behind the scenes info to drop throughout the evening. At the time of writing, the trial has resumed with Activision CEO Bobby Kotick himself taking the stand to provide testimony.
Email [email protected], leave a comment below, , and .
Follow Metro Gaming on and email us at [email protected]
To submit Inbox letters and Reader’s Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our .
For more stories like this, .
