Here's an odd one: Sony Computer Entertainment has recently announced that it has decided to sell its 9,520,000 shares in Square Enix to Japanese financial company SMBC Nikko Securities. The sale will furnish the firm with a flabbergasting ¥4.7 billion ($47 million) of wallet-filling financial gains.
While it's certainly not going to save the beleaguered company, it'll give it enough spare change to fund a MediEvil reboot. That's what we're hoping for, anyway.
But why has the Japanese giant opted to sell its stock? Could it be sour grapes over the lack of console exclusivity for recent Final Fantasy games? Or perhaps the disposal can be attributed to some other nefarious back room deal? In truth, there are likely a whole host of boring business related reasons that led to the sale.
However, this all leaves us with one burning question: what does the platform holder plan to use the cash for? If its recent foray into 4K media players is anything to go by, it probably won't be rushing out to spend the funds on new hardware revisions. What do you make of this slightly suspicious sale? Do you foresee the two Japanese giants parting ways? Are we being a bit too dramatic? Share your opinion in the comments section below.
[source dualshockers.com]
Comments 22
It's probably a smart move. Kaz Hirai has been trying to claw back as much cash as he can, and its stake in Square Enix was never really big enough for it to demand exclusivity or anything like that. Final Fantasy games are always going to release on PlayStation, so why not free that money back up, and use it to secure other parts of the company?
EDIT: I'll take a new MediEvil, too!
@get2sammyb Like you said, Final Fantasy games are always going to release on Playstation and we'll probably never see a console exclusive main release on Playstation again in these modern times. Best to sell up and get some extra cash, its not like Sony are going to be losing out on anything
Did Sony lose hundreds of millions overnight or something? Because last I checked, the PlayStation division alone was making about 2Bil with PS4 & PS Camera sales, which could be funneled to other divisions if necessary.
What's the point in keeping stock that you know won't go up that much at all. The future of S/E is blank, there is nothing Square/Enix stated as of yet that will make certain shareholders keep their shares, including Sony, there isn't a point in doing so. This is a smart move by Sony.
Square Enix has been doing everything to ignore what the fanbase has wanted and they keep doing so. In this case, I see no case in the stock going up in the next few years. pointless stock purchase is pointless, selling it is the right thing to do.
The shares were worth close to $160m yet they sold them for under $50m. Fantastic logic there Sony.
@BornOfEvil Sony have been struggling for a number of years I think. Sure all their divisions are regularly losing money. May be wrong but sure I've read that before. Would check but look through boring articles or pine longingly over Emma Stone? Tough choice.
anything to create new projects
Well done Kaz. SE are rubbish nowadays anyway :-/
MediEvil Reboot???!!! Best thimg to happen!!
I'll take a shot in the dark and say it's a combo of two things. Sony needs the money and SE is the company that will be providing the big Xbox One Japanese exclusive. Maybe I'm way off on that but it wouldn't surprise me. MS is busy chasing games and Sony is just sitting back doing f**k all.
@Carl-G
Their last good game was Bravery Default, their last good one was Final Fantasy X, thats a big gap :S
Why hold on to them, square enix are pretty flimsy, they're probably going to invest the spare cash to invade China.
One can never seem to go anywhere on the internet without seeing someone make either a racial or politically incorrect comment on an article. -_-; Anyway, considering all the bad decisions SE's been making lately (ie, Thief) I'm not surprised that Sony's bailing on them. Of course, if this means that Microsoft's going to try to lock in SE for exclusives, that could mean that the next FF and KH would be Xbox One exclusives...but MS is still having trouble moving XBOs, and SE's notoriety for releasing one bad game after another, they might both end up in the gutter.
Well mathematically $47 million could buy a lot of skilled people demanding eg. $54k salaries. $47,000,000 / $54,000 = 870 top staff or roughly 1000 new recruits. If a game needs 100 staff. That pot would last 8 years. They could make their own Sony fantasy or ps default!!!! After all Sony is sorely lacking a killer JRPG and western RPG franchise.
SE could have wanted it's stocks back for tons of reasons. It's weird to sell nigh a billion shares overnight, but that's capitalism, baby. I'd get rid of my SE stock too, it's been steadily tanking since a spike in Jan, but rose slightly after the sale
well it's not going to change anything as sony didn't have enough shares to affect Square Enix's decisions about games
besides PlayStation will still get Final Fantasy, Tomb Raider and all the other big SE franchises anyway
Well maybe someone should ask them because for now:
'The wind that blows is all that anybody knows'
This could be the beginning of the end for Sony.
I'm a fan of the idea there is no conspiracy theory and it means nothing.
Kupo kupo...
@Tsuzura
Blasphemy! Square Enix is one of my favorite publishers. It's not just Bravely Default (and the sequel being made) and Final Fantasy X HD. Kingdom Hearts 3D Dream Drop Distance was fantastic and oh, have you not seen their span of RPG's on the DS? That handheld was a Square Enix RPG machine! So many good games... and I do appreciate the remakes they do as well. And their catalogue consists of AAA too- Deus Ex Human Revolution comes to mind, as does Tomb Raider. And um, Kingdom Hearts 3 and Final Fantasy 15. Yeah buddy.
Come on now... I wouldn't want to live in a world without Square Enix. They bring far too much to the table. Certainly more than Capcom does, and even Capcom has Monster Hunter and Resident Evil. I think these companies get blasted way more than they deserve sometimes.
@Enobmah_Shards LOL I don't see how it's the beginning of the end unless someone is wishing for that.
@Demi_God Forgive me, was speaking out of nonsense as usual. My bad habits. =P
Tap here to load 22 comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...