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Microsoft considered launching a bid to buy Final Fantasy maker Square Enix, freshly-uncovered court documents have revealed.
The idea was floated among Xbox top brass back in 2019 – before Square Enix sold its suite of Western studios, and before Microsoft got entangled in its current attempted $68.7bn Activision Blizzard buyout.
Documents showing Microsoft’s interest in acquiring Square Enix surfaced today, as the company continues to plead its case with the Federal Trade Commission.
Dubbed as “Project Phoenix”, the idea for Microsoft to buy Square Enix was based around the lure of owning the publisher’s three main franchises – Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest and Kingdom Hearts – to gain a bigger Xbox audience in Japan, and a publisher which released games on mobile.
As with its subsequent acquisition of Elder Scrolls publisher Bethesda, Microsoft planned to continue releasing Square Enix’s then-announced games across “all relevant platforms”, with “all future Square Enix releases” also launched into Xbox Game Pass on a day and date basis.
Future Square Enix games would also “preference Project Scarlett”, Microsoft wrote, referencing the development codename for Xbox Series X/S. Microsoft accepted that doing so would “cannibalise” some sales.
Details of Microsoft’s buyout attempt are interesting, but perhaps not too surprising considering the news earlier this week that Microsoft has previously also mulled purchases of Sega and Destiny developer Bungie, among numerous others.
Indeed, a merger review watchlist from 2021 highlighted potential candidates such as Hitman studio IO Interactive, Pokémon Go maker Niantic, Hades developer Supergiant Games and more.
In the years since 2019, Square Enix has – if anything – cosied up closer to PlayStation, with console exclusives such as the recently-launched Final Fantasy 16, and the upcoming PlayStation exclusive Foamstars.
Back in 2019, Xbox Game Studios boss Matt Booty said Microsoft should “spend Sony out of business”, in another document revealed this week.
Microsoft’s history with acquiring studios (or being interested in doing so) is in the spotlight this week as the FTC considers the impact of Xbox owning Call of Duty maker Activision.
The decision to make Bethesda games like Redfall and Starfield Xbox exclusives is “powerful evidence” against the Activision Blizzard takeover being approved, the FTC has said.
The trial continues.
