While I think Sony getting Square Enix makes sense. The fact that there are rumors circulating about a potential acquisition makes me think that it's all BS, especially considering previous acquisitions we heard nothing about them before being announced.

Greedy if true.

I'd rather they didn't acquire them, but I can certainly see the appeal for Sony. In regards to S-E selling much of their western studios and IPs, in the case that the acquisition does happen, it could have been done in order to avoid any extended investigations into the transaction and avoid potential monopoly-accusations as well, like what is happening with Activision-Blizzard and Bungie right now.

The main reason I don’t think this is currently plausible is that of all the major acquisitions that have happened over the last 2-3 years, there were 0 leaks before they were announced. Absolutely nothing. Which makes me think that these discussions don’t get past the C-suite and a small ground of highly NDA’s lawyers and accountants.

At this point companies are going to become way too bloated. The big publishers have been focusing too much on a handful of big IPs, and when they start absorbing each other, the smaller brands are going to be left aside in favour of the main series. This consolidation will only result in less games for everyone. Not to mention the shrinking of the console libraries due to even decreasing multiplats...

Has any of the acquisitions had an "insider" leak beforehand? The Closest I know of is Sony tweeting one early and then deleting it about Housemarque. Some may have forgotten but for a while Sony-owned 20% of Square until 2014.

Last I heard, Playstation was trying to move its focus away from Japan and now suddenly they want to be all in. IDK, I'm 50/50 on this.

Yeah, they lost Japan to Nintendo. While Final Fantasy is more popular in the west than Japan. Dragon Quest is the opposite but Sony's been clear they don't care about Japan anymore. So it makes no real sense.

Yeah, I don't understand the "Sony is moving away from Japan" comments. To support this claim, there are two statements I always see, 1.) Sony shut down their Japan studio (which isn't true, as far as I'm aware they restructured it into Team Asobi), and 2.) they aren't sending as many consoles to Japan, why would they? Japan is a significantly smaller market than Europe and N. America for dedicated home consoles so why would Sony focus on what few consoles they ARE able to produce and send them to Japan over other regions?

If anything the second statement lends more reason as to why Sony SHOULD buy Square than the opposite if anything.

All these studio acquisitions are getting a bit too out of hand
And fans are devolving into the nerdiest w*lly measuring contest.

Sony fans: Well MY console gets final fantasy
M$ fans: Yeah well MY console gets elder scrolls 6
Nintendo fans: hey guys, pokemon.
Sony & M$: no one asked you!