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%.

at the end of every trailer, including the more recent one, it says PLAYSTATION 3 ONLY WORLDWIDE

I'm willing to bet my nut sack that it stays exclusive, anyone wanna take me up on that??

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.

If FFXIII sells very well on XB360 and FFvXIII isn't exclusive by contract, they could make it WW timed exclusive for PS3, then release it on 360. Enduring success of the series on PS3 even with not big installed HW base means they can't afford pissing off PS3 fans removing every exclusive, but a timed exclusive could be fine for them, make content XB360 fans too and make VERY content S-E.

That's what i've heard... but i've found no mention of the shares being non-voting the farther i looked.

It is consistant with the Microsoft/Apple deal where Microsoft bought part of Apple to keep Apple afloat. (Due to some deals they made).

Though it is impossible to even find articles about the deal anyway.  I swear what i hate about blogs is, you've got hundreds of websites parroting the same story and it makes it impossible to find the stories you want, because the most recent similar one takes up like the first 10 pages.

guys i dont thnk it will go to xbox 360 and i dont think FF13 will do good on 360 since its on 3 discs and as they reported before that the ps3 version is much superior

Either way it's owned by Sony's financial division so it's kind of a moot point.

The divisions of Sony are like squabbling children trying to get the attention of their dad. I don't get it.

I mean, hell. Final Fantasy Versus? What about Ghostbusters?

Ghostbusters was on all 5 platforms... the Ghostbusters IP is owned by... Sony.

Sony can't even convince Sony to make it's IPs PS3 exclusive.

I mean, so many Sony owned IPS go to all systems just so they can make more money for their division.

They could own 49% of SE stock and PS3 probably wouldn't get anymore PS3 exclusives.

50% or more they would of course because it would be transfered to SCE.

2 million for FF XIII on the 360 and it might have a chance.

If it stays exclusive I will be shocked, I expect it to make some appearance on the 360 if not at the same time then later on.