After the sale of its Western studios and certain flagship licenses, the Japanese publisher is rather discreet about its future, despite some revelations turning to blockchains and NFTs. It was enough for the old rumor of a takeover of the dads of Final Fantasy by the company behind the Playstation to resurface. And for once, this rumor seems rather believable.
Loss of Titles
By separating from its Western studios, Square Enix has abandoned certain flagship licenses: Tomb Raider, Deux Ex and most of their links with Marvel. The reasons for this sale are unknown, but for many, they are linked to the relative failures of the last productions. It is clear that if the Marvel games are ever to mark memories in a positive way, it will not be with their version of day one. We must still at least recognize the merit of the publisher for having greatly improved the player experience since then, but the damage was already done. This is arguably Square Enix's biggest recent failure, even though the game was developed entirely by the West Pole.
If giving up collaborating with Marvel seems like a consistent idea with the recent history of games around their universe, giving up on Tomb Raider is more surprising. Even if the last part was not the box that was the first game of the license, it does not necessarily have to be ashamed of its content or its figures. It's a good game, which sold well. Only, it sold much less than the Final Fantasy 7 Remake, and that may be the reason why Square Enix wanted to focus more on their cult licenses, rather than disperse on those of others. studios. Or, there was a clause when buying Eidos: if Square Enix were to part with this studio one day, then it would recover its cult license: Tomb Raider.
A not so unlikely takeover
Historically, Square Enix and Sony have long been tied to each other, by circumstance. The first Playstation enabled Final Fantasy games to become firmly established in the Western market, while the exclusivity of these games was a selling point for the console. Seeing Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts return to Playstation exclusions would undoubtedly be a good publicity stunt for the PS5. Having sold most of its subsidiary studios, Square Enix is in an excellent position to be acquired, with very few inconvenient clauses linked to other commitments, which could put off a potential buyer.
Internal rumors (without it being possible to know if they come from Square Enix or Sony) seem to confirm that the console manufacturer is indeed positioning itself for a possible takeover. Only, it could just be a simple estimate, it happens frequently without in the end no agreement is reached. We will therefore have to wait longer to get the end of the story.
The wait is starting to get really long for budding pirates who already saw themselves navigating Skull and Bones. In development for a very long time, the last information we had dated back to 2018. Today, the veil seems to be gradually lifting on the future of the game!
