Xbox wanted to buy Square Enix for its… mobile games?-Michael Beckwith-Entertainment – Metro

Final Fantasy 7 Remake – it’d probably be the only way to get Final Fantasy 7 Remake on Xbox at this point (Picture: Square Enix)

Aside from Sega and Bungie, Microsoft had its eye on Square Enix so it could add the Final Fantasy games and others to Xbox Game Pass.

You would think if any major video game publisher would buy Square Enix, it’d be Sony. It was a popular rumour for ages, emboldened by the two companies’ close working relationship, with several modern Final Fantasy titles 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 The Verge, which learned this through documents shared as part of the legal battle over Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard acquisition.

In fact, Microsoft sometimes claims that the Activision Blizzard buyout is for mobile developer King 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 Sega, Bungie, and Zynga 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.

Final Fantasy 16’s PS5 exclusivity is one of Microsoft’s counterarguments to complaints of it potentially making Activision games Xbox only (Picture: Square Enix)

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