the-pi-guy said:
If it was just the one thing, I don't think anyone would be speculating. One piece of evidence might be nothing by itself, but may be meaningful in the context of other points. I would throw out: 1.) The industry going through consolidation is pretty indicative that many companies that we wouldn't have dreamed would end up being sold, are getting sold. Like Activision for example. 2.) A lot of people feel that Sony is going to, or will have to make some more major moves of their own. Square Enix feels like a target that makes the most sense. Take Two or EA would require Sony to go into a good bit of debt, which isn't impossible, but it makes it very, very, very unlikely. Ubisoft has too much overhead and isn't very profitable. Capcom is owned by a family, which will make that harder. Bandai, Konami have a lot of businesses outside of gaming (so does Square, but most of those businesses are at least something Sony has a hand in). 3.) Most notably, these rumors didn't start from the know nothing gaming community though. They started with Grubb and Greg Miller. The latter of who, hasn't ever put out these kinds of rumors. And the former, has a bit of a spotty track record, but frequently shows that he does know things. Just usually moreso on the Xbox side. And then we have the Eidos Montreal founder, who likely would have connections with people still at Square mentioning that Sony specifically wanted Square Enix Tokyo. It's probably not going to happen either way. But it feels like this is the closest it ever has gotten to happening. |
..Just a point of clarification, a purchase of EA (or even Take Two) is kind of out of the question for Sony. Sony has a market cap of $110 billion (B) while EA has a market cap of $37B. While yeah, Sony is bigger, they are spread out over multiple divisions, so SIE is probably about as big as EA if it wasn't part of the whole of Sony, or at least in the same ball park. For comparison, Microsoft's market cap is $2 trillion while Activision, currently, is $60B, which is why they can buy them up. Square Enix is 745B yen, and when converted to dollars, it about $5B. So, its much more do-able. Again, still difficult for Sony, but possible. This is all before considering any premium the buyer has to pay.
That said, I agree with the rest of your post. I think the fact we are seeing consolidation (as you noted) really means anyone is up for grabs. I don't think a lot of people figured Square would sell of Eidos. I think talks of Sony buying Square also come down to the companies long relationship and the fact that Sony kind of needs to make a big acquisition. Square is kind of in the ball park. The problem is really going to be the money as Sony isn't very liquid and 5B plus whatever over they pay is a pretty steep asking price. If it does happen, then it would probably be the end of Sony's game acquisitions.
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