Will final fantasy XIII versus become multiplat?

[binary solo]

Zuhyc said:

Kasz216 said:

binary solo said:
8.25% shareholding is possibly the minimum amount of stock required to guarantee representation on the board of directors. When you have someone on the board of directors then you have the ability to directly influence decisions. Going multiplat or staying exclusive would be a decision for the board of directors not the CEO. When you have someone on the board of directors who represents the interests of a mega-corporation that is many times larger than you, then you don't make decisions that will piss them off.

If Sony wants a seat on the SE board and they need an 8.25% shareholding to do it, you can be damned sure that no matter what mergers and acquisitions happen they will maintain their 8.25%.

Sony has noone on the Square Enix Board of Directors.

http://www.square-enix.com/jp/company/e/officer/

 

So... yeah. 

Those shares are non voting as well. Sony bought them so Squaresoft wouldn't go bankrupt.

Sony didn't help to bail out a company about to collapse with no strings attached. That we can't directly see the strings doesn't mean they aren't there. And Sony doesn't need a Sony employee to be on the board for its interests to be represented on the board. Sony only needs to control one of the seats on the board and they can appoint whomever they choose, or they can simply not oppose any particular appointment.

You don't need voting shares if you have other means of exerting control. In fact voting shares are pretty much useless when one person/organisation has a controlling stake. Not having voting shares is meaningless.

That Sony has their fingers in the SE pie isn't any sort of guarantee that FFvXIII will remain exclusive. But do you really think that 8.25% shareholding didn't get Sony it's Japan exclusivity for FFXIII? The strings attached to the bailout kept FFXIII exclusive in Japan, and those strings will still be at work on other games in development too.

In any case, like others have said, FFXIII's performance on 360 will probably determine the release platforms for vs XIII unless there is a watertight permanent exclusivity deal stitched up with Sony which Sony refuses to move on.