Sony Buying Square Enix Would Make PlayStation 'The Japanese Console' Again

Playstation and Xbox could be very distinct consoles in the next couple of years.

[KingBowser]

I really doubt it would. Squares big games are only available on PS currently, and it is still being destroyed by the Switch. They need to do a lot more than buy Square to regain market share from Nintendo.

[Gardenia]

The reason Switch sells well is because of the chip shortage that the PS5 is still suffering from. With covid people being at home having a lot of free time, no change of buying a PS5, and the Switch being cheaper is basically the only solution for most of them.
Nintendo got extremely lucky with the timing of the Switch.

[KingBowser]

It has nothing to do with COVID or shortages. Pre-covid, the Switch also passed the PS4 in Japan by 2019 (~2 years on sale) meanwhile the PS4 had been on sales for ~5-6 years at that point.

Source: https://www.gamesindustry.b...

[itsmebryan]

@Gardenia
No, people buy it because the want the switch and it's games not because of PS5 chip shortage. Smh

[MadLad]

That's not even close to being accurate lol

[shinoff2183]

Its portable thats why its liked. Imo i dont think its anything special. Portablity does nothing for me.

[brewin]

Lol. It's 1000% the software that sells the switch. You're delusional to even think otherwise. Nintendo just has the games people both young and old want to play. I love my PS5, but i don't have one for each of my kids. We've got 4 switches in constant use in the house though. And i know many families in the same situation. I'll be playing Xenoblade while the wife is playing Bayonetta 2 and the kids are playing MK8 and Animal Crossing in the other room. That's why the Switch sells so much.

[Lifexline]

PlayStation fanboys are bipolar as hell when the ps5 sells good they say finally the chip shortage is being handled and supply is being replenished but when it’s not oh the chip shortage is still happening. Make up your mind which one is it. The switch outsells the PlayStation simply because of the games and it’s a great console. Mario,Zelda etc so many great games to play. It outsells it simply because people like it better it’s as simple as that.

[ufo8mycat]

The reason the Switch sells well is simple, it's catered to a totally different market, casual gamers and kids. Yes, there are some core gamers who own one, myself included, but the majority of it's sales/customer based are casual gamers and kids, which is a much larger market then your traditional core gamer.

It being a portable handheld device magnifies it's 'attractiveness' even more so to this mark, hence the sales.

Not saying it doesn't have any great games, it does, but casuals/kids have a different 'taste' when it comes to whats good.

[H9]

The Nintendo hate boner is on again, first you said how the switch sells well because of the PS5 chip shortage which doesn't explain how the switch was selling extremely well when the PS4 was in it's hayday, and then you accidentally praised the switch for it's concept because it is fitting for people sitting at home, obviously that's a praise for the switch's Versatility, Nintendo design a fun flexible console with fun games and it sold well because people wanted that, that's not an insult to Sony that's just the truth

[darkrider]

The reason it's easy. It's the only portable console available. No competition from anyone. Nothing more. It lacks all the big 3rd party games.

[Bobertt]

Switch sold well because it is also a handheld console and there is no competition for market share. DS and Gameboy are number 2 and 3 on the list of the best selling consoles and Switch is their successor. If the switch was only a home console with it's specs it would have bombed like the WII U.

[JL2930]

Pretty stupid statement considering the Switch had been selling well years before the pandemic.

[Silly gameAr]

You mean the Switch which has a $199 option that people like to conveniently forget? Yeah, I can see a system that cheap "destroying" the more expensive console that doesn't have a handheld option.

[Shane Kim]

Hard for people to grasp. Let's compare apples to apples please.

[KingBowser]

Your point is moot. It exceeded 6 years of PS4 sales in Japan in just 2 years, prior to the $199 Switch Lite being released.

[AndrewM]

@ bowser. You don't seem to understand what a point means lol. Hes saying they sold so much because its way cheaper and also a hand held. You coming in and saying switch sold a whole bunch actually co aligns to his point perfectly.

[Chevalier]

"Your point is moot. It exceeded 6 years of PS4 sales in Japan in just 2 years, prior to the $199 Switch Lite being released."

Maybe this is flying over your head, but, portability has always been a big thing in Japan, if you think otherwise you're an idiot.

[neutralgamer1992]

Switch selling because it's portability. Japanese market is very different when it comes to what gamers buy/support/are interested in

Also switch is a double edged sword for Nintendo now. They can't have another floo like wiiu after this success so they like R* want to milk this cow till there is nothing left. I don't think we will get another Nintendo consoles till 2024-2025 at the earliest

Sony's acquisition news will happen on August 24th or 25th

Also let me ask you y'all something. Would you rather Sony buy square or tencent? Because of Sony doesn't buy them tencent will trust me on that. Square are selling by choice and prefer Sony

As a gamer I don't want tencent near any AAA games. They are the evil empire they make EA look like a gamer friendly company

So let's put aside this childish plastic box differences and look at the bigger picture. Would we rather PlayStation have square and keeping making games we love or tencent and everything turns into mobile and micro transactions

Fact remains square enix will not make it out of this year being independent

[rlow1]

That’s a tough one. Sony would definitely not share their games with all platforms. But they would definitely support them in the right way.
TenCent would allow them to go multiplat I’m sure. But do you really want the Chinese government in control of them?

I’m hoping they stay independent or even merge with another videogame company. But the costs of making AAA games now seems to have grown exponentially. That could be the key for them to seek out acquisition. As always, it will happen when it happens.

[Mobis-New-Nest]

Hail Nintendo Switch! Hail Victory!

[ABizzel1]

I doubt it would. PS already gets FF and other big Square franchises, and it still at best does decent in Japan (10m average). Japan is a handheld market now.

In terms of software, Nintendos IPs are still the best selling / hardware movers there. For Sony to compete they'd need to buy Square (FF/DQ) and Capcom (MH/RE), but again they already have those games on their console.

[brewin]

I agree. Square games just don't hit the same anymore. Nintendo is the king of Japan. It's funny because the only reason I ever gave PlayStation a chance was because of Final Fantasy 7 on PS1. Now decades later they're still doing Final Fantasy and it just feels so ho hum at this point.

People tend to trash Nintendo for it's reliance on Mario and Zelda, but square is on the 16th iteration of Final.Fantasy not including remakes and they don't say squat about it?! Monolith is better at RPGs than Square at this point.

[Chevalier]

Different target groups and portability is a huge thing in Japan. It's literally an apples to oranges comparison.

[darkrider]

Nintendo Market share isn't the same of Sony. Their target aren't the same. Nintendo rules the portable world thats why their gamers don't care that the games look couple of Gens behind whats being done in every single aspect.

[Crows90]

Switch is a handheld. The Japanese love handhelds. It's almost part of their culture. You can't compete with culture.

[H9]

You are underestimating Nintendo and overestimating current Square Enix, having the names like FF is useless if it's butchered unless we are talking about money only, also while Square Enix did sell it's western studios, they kinda erased a lot of their japanese flair in favor of a western one, which is one of the reasons why their games are soulless, add to that that Sony is also trying to get rid of it's Japanese identity as well and I can't see how getting Square Enix would make it the Japanese console, if anything that would help kill a chance to preserve the Japanese identity in gaming

[SonyStyled]

Did you mean PlayStation is also trying to get rid of its Japanese identity? Because that would make more sense. Sony is a Japanese company, and I haven’t seen anything about Sony trying to get rid of it’s Japanese identity, unless I missed something.

It also wouldn’t be PlayStation purchasing Square Enix. It would be PlayStations Japanese parent company, Sony.

I can’t think of another company on the publisher purchasing spree that would preserve the Japanese identity in gaming more than Sony if they acquired SE.

[Docknoss]

Sony moved its HQ to America and ever since then its become far more westernized. Buying Square Enix would do very little honestly. Sony would have to get back into the early Playstation mindset of those Super over the top Japanese games that I'd play o. Those old demo disc's you could get in magazines and stuff. The stuff that appeals to those crazy Japanese game show types.

[annoyedgamer]

The PS division is based in California. Pay no mind to the shills downvoting it. Sony is still based in Japan but the gaming division is purely American now.

[SonyStyled]

@ Darknoss, I did a basic google search. Sony is headquartered in Japan. The PlayStation gaming devision of Sony ( aka PlayStation) is headquartered in the USA. Sony as a company, is still a Japanese based company founded in Japan after WW2

[H9]

Can't disagree more, tell me how many Japanese style games have Sony made and how many western style games they have made, they want the mature cinematic action adventure formula in nearly everything which isn't really favorable in traditional japanese games, even in their niche games they stopped it like with Gravity Rush!

And I don't want to get in the conversation of their consorship to japanese games because it's a tricky subject, but Sony would consor some revealing outfits in japanese games and then make a sex scenes in their western ones, they see it as tasteful and stuff like that but regardless of their intention, they believe in the western identity more than their japanese one, now don't get me wrong a lot of japanese sexual stuff are creepy but I think their double standards can show you where their leanings are!

With modern Sony and Square Enix you are more likely to get 10 games with a dialogue like Forespoken than few strange games like gravity rush

[nommers]

"Soulless" lol. Sure, if you take out All of FFXIV, FF7 Remake, Nier Automata, DQXI, and quite a few other games. Nintendo has been nothing but soulless for decades. Charming, but soulless.

[H9]

I think final fantasy xiv is the only FF with a soul since XII but you can argue that only recently they have decreased their greedy practices from it and NieR is hanging on the shoulders of Yoko Taro who may work with anyone, only DQXI is pure Square Enix and still good, and I heavily disagree with what you said about Nintendo and apparently you as well because you called them charming, how can you be charming and soulless at the same time

[nommers]

@H9

Charm lacks depth to poignancy/soul. It's a very basic sense of delight, without nuance or depth/complexity. It's more skin deep than something that can evoke deeper or tougher emotions. I haven't felt anything from a Nintendo game that reached the soul level since maybe OoT(only the Spirit temple), but that was mostly just the soundtrack. Same with their SNES games. Their soundtracks and even in some cases the atmosphere like in Super Metroid hit harder. Taro pretty much only works with SE. I have tried to find other works of his but at least in terms of games he seems to work only with SE. He made a website about selling digital stickers one time lol.

[darthv72]

I seem to recall reading that Sony decided to move Playstation operations to California. So to say they would be "The Japanese Console Again" seems kind of odd. https://www.wsj.com/article...

[Eonjay]

Also, Sony already has devs in Japan, Eripe, and North America. How does adding an additional Japanese developer make the PlayStation and less global?

But classical you are correct the company itself is Based in the US so technically it's an American console.

This article is insinuating that only developers in Japan matter. By this logic Xbox is a Japanese console now too. It's so silly

[DogJosha]

Right, Sony's current leadership decided to base itself in CA and for a large part wants to associate itself with western companies as much as it can. Meanwhile, Square's latest news shows that they want to distance themselves from western style development and focus on their Japanese roots. Their two goals are complete opposites so for Sony to buy Square would mean Sony would destroy Square. It don't really matter because all these people seem to not understand that Square's latest news was not that they were selling out, they were looking to find alternative funding for their less Japanese centric studios in the form of things like collaborations kind of like BB is Sony's IP, but that doesn't mean they took ownership of From Software.

[PapaBop]

In the Western market it still is. If you love Japanese games then you're likely to go with PS. Granted I say this as someone who has always had a Nintendo console as a secondary but if I had to pick one, I'd go PS. Maybe it's a little different in Japan but I don't imagine Switch owners are suddenly going to rush out to buy a PS just because Sony bought Square.

[garryxcs]

No it would make it exactly the same console it is now it would just have exclusive Square Enix games.

[annoyedgamer]

PlayStation is based in California. All that would do is move another Japanese IP to the west.

[John_McClane]

If Sony wants to be more Japanese they should move from the US to Japan.

[shinoff2183]

Some of yall just be saying the dumbest things. It will always be a japanese company unless bought by an american company. Sony being hq in the u s. Doesnt mean anything as far as all that

[Rynxie]

Have you seen Sony playstation recently? They're pushing censorship, pushing leftist progranda, very anti-consuner practices. They are very much western now.

[Workshyskiver]

Except current foreign ownership of Sony is over 59%... its not even a majority owned Japanese company anymore.

[Walweeze]

Cant we just enjoy the variety of games we get on ps4/ps5 rather than try to make something outta nothing?

[gold_drake]

it would make alot of sense if Sony did aquire them. i know some disagree, but FF fans, Nier fans and most DQ fans, are on playstation.
that is a fact.

[shinoff2183]

Your right.

Side note
Id like square to go old school more often instead of hack and slash with rpg elements.

[franwex]

I think most DQ fans are on Nintendo.

[MadLad]

The only of the big 3 with a real hold on the Japanese market nowadays is Nintendo.
While having FF and Dragon Quest under your belt would be a great thing, it wouldn't shift that dynamic.

[jznrpg]

I don’t know what that title means exactly but I’m all for Sony buying Square , it makes sense to me they get the most exclusives from them as it is .
I buy a lot of Japanese games on PS already so yeah whatever . I buy some on Nintendo that aren’t on PS but it’s a lot less than what I buy on PS overall. Some games are on both but I always pick PS over Nintendo . I buy exclusives on Nintendo only which they do have some great ones .

[CrimsonWing69]

I’m going to try to take a stab at what they mean by “Japanese Console”.

Y’see, way back in the day Japanese games led the industry, but once Xbox showed up there was kind of this point where Western devs were getting their foothold in the console market.

By the time we entered the 360 era western devs began developing games that surpassed Japanese developed games. Western developed games became the more sought after IPs.

It’s sort of why you saw Capcom licensing out IPs to western developers and Japanese games trying harder to appeal to a western audience. I think this author believes that somehow with Sony purchasing Square Enix it’ll bring the console back to being “Japanese”… maybe… Y’know what, I really don’t know now. This was a dumb title to a story I will never read.

[TheColbertinator]

Not necessarily. Plenty of other Japanese publishers make better Japanese games than Square Enix nowadays.

Ironically the best Square Enix games are the exclusives they launched for the Switch.

[CrimsonWing69]

Final Fantasy is arguably their strongest IP and I don’t think FF7 Remake is on it. Also FF16 won’t be on it, either… Unless they do some cloud streaming.

[Auron]

No.. sony getting out of california and dropping its wokeness would..

[LoveSpuds]

Sony and MS buying up these publishers is so bad for gaming in my opinion. I enjoy exclusives and believe they are important in distinguishing between platforms however, platform holders buying major publishers is really bad for the industry in my view.

I hear people praising these acquisitions purely based on their childish perceptions of their preferred team 'winning'. The reality is, most big budget games need to sell to the whole gaming market to be profitable and by segregating the market, you severely limit potential profit; this in turn will ultimately lead to a shrinking budget for games and less risks being taken.

MS might be willing to eat these losses now, but their shareholders won't support the losses for ever. You only need to look at Netflix, even with their dominant market share they are slashing budgets, cancelling shows and hiking prices.

Even though I am a fan of Sony, I don't like seeing stories of them buying up whole publishers.

[Zeref]

I'm definitely expecting Sony to buy Square Enix soon. Wouldn't make much difference for Xbox fans though.

[JL2930]

Bullshit, they are Americanized. Sony hasn't been the same since it left Japan and never will be.

[JBlaze226]

I doubt Sony buying Square Enix is going to make things any better. If Sony buys Square Enix their is a logical chance they might make games exclusive and if they do it will hurt that company since PS5 are still scarce.