Microsoft considered adding Final Fantasy publisher Square Enix to the Xbox Game Studios family, a new internal document revealed as part of the evidentiary hearing between Microsoft and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
According to this new document from 2019, submitted as evidence as part of the hearings, Microsoft listed several reasons why it should acquire Square Enix. This included bolstering Xbox’s presence in Asian markets and providing access to Square Enix’s portfolio of games such as Kingdom Hearts, Dragon Quest, and Final Fantasy. These franchises would “drive the adoption” of Xbox Game Pass and Project Scarlett (one of the previous codename for the fourth-generation of Xbox consoles), Microsoft said.
More interestingly, the document reveals that another reason Xbox should buy Square Enix is it would have provided “mobile segment growth” for Xbox. Microsoft said buying Square Enix would have helped “future mobile-exclusive Game Pass offerings”. Game Pass is currently available on Xbox and PC, with games playable on mobile via the cloud. While Microsoft’s presence on mobile is minimal, Square Enix has what Xbox described as a “robust mobile-native portfolio”.
It is unclear how far Microsoft took its interest in Square Enix. While the document reveals a “Strategy Approval” plan, we do not know how far up the Microsoft chain it managed to climb, or, if contact was made with Square Enix, what if any response was made. However, in the context of recent high-profile PlayStation-exclusive Square Enix releases, such as Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Final Fantasy 16, it’s a case of what might have been.
Square Enix is not the only big publisher Microsoft considered buying; a separate internal document from Xbox revealed the company also considered Sega, IO Interactive, and Bungie, among several others, as the it looked to fill content gaps.
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Taylor is a Reporter at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.
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