>Reputable Japanese business magazine is reporting renewed speculation that Square Enix Holdings could potentially be taken private.>According to the article, this isn't the first time rumors of a privatization have surfaced, but Sentaku claims that the speculation is gaining more credibility this time, with foreign investment funds reportedly showing interest in the company.>The article does not claim that a specific company has made an acquisition offer, and there is currently no official confirmation from Square Enix.>Still, considering Square Enix's recent restructuring and the broader consolidation happening across the Japanese entertainment industry, I thought this was worth sharing.>Square Enix shares rose as much as 9% in the Tokyo market today, after the reporting.Source: Sentakuhttps://www.sentaku.co.jp/articles/view/26577
Brainlet here. Is this good? Will this lead to Final Fantasy actually being good again?
>>746615467Being publicly traded is why most game companies have gone to utter fucking shit, but private isn't necessarily better. Depends entirely on whose paying for it and what they plan to do.
>>746615467hell no, they'll be forced to lay off devs every release from doing the public shareholder route
>>746615559as long as it's not a chink company, I'm okay with it
They weren't woke enough. They need to be owned entirely by Blackrock.
>>746615467final fantasy was special because of sakaguchi and his elite team of GOATs none of them are there anymore final fantasy will never be good again
>>746615628Nips don't do layoffs
>>746615667It's probably the Saudis then. They are the only ones rich enough to buy companies like this and they bought EA.
>>746615719>final fantasy was special because of sakaguchi and his elite team of GOATsFF started being good after nomura and kitase joined (FFV)
>>746615389FF7 flopped that hard huh? Should have just made it turn based.
>>746615389This is where the Playstation division at Sony is headed. Sony is going to sell Playstation off.
>>746615834incorrect FF started being bad with FF12Kingdom Hearts was the last great Final Fantasy
>>746615467In theory, yes, because they no longer have to chase The Line.But 99% in practice, it's a sign of a failing company looking for a cash injection at the expense of their freedom.Really, the majority of creative companies are probably going to go private in the next decade because the economy can no longer support smaller classes of companies.
>>746615467FF is great if you're not a turd based sissy.
>other MMOs raking in millions releasing classic clients>Square can't assign one intern to patch together a 75-era client/server when an autistic team of discord sex-pests can do it for freeThey deserve this, something is deeply wrong with the management there
>>746615919Sony is one of the top 10 biggest companies in Japan. If they go down then that means Japan as a whole is imploding.
>>746615834FF was good before that and earlier FF btfo the only competition in the genre (DQ and PS)
>>746616223>reviving the disaster that almost bankrupted the companythey want to get as far as fuck away from that as possible
>>746616223ff11 is kept alive by the 40-somethings who are paying 30 bucks a month to rent their lost youth
>>746615919Nah, Playstation is literally their most profitable division. Xbox is dead, PC components are way higher than PS5's even after price bumps, and third-parties still treat Nintendo like a second-class citizen so there's nearly no competition. Not to mention it's free money because all their profits come from third-parties and MTX, which means they literally have to do nothing but exist. Also losing most of Japan means nothing because JPY is still fucking garbage and any foreign profit they generate is like a fucking 3 times money multiplier.
>>746616403this retarded anon thinks you're talking about ffxiv 1.0 lmao >>746616223this is correct. i'm playing retail now. it's still very good
>>746615919>Playstation bleeds sony for years>They sell it Lmao would be Hilarious
>>746616147Square recently announced that Chadley will have an EVEN bigger role in part 3. I’m sure you’ll enjoy it, what with your incredibly refined taste in games and all.
>>746616750Oh he means FFXIfucking why that game doesn't need a classic server at all
>>746615389>SE had a recent restructuring>company is reportedly going to be taken private>unnamed foreign investors are showing interest in SE>SE Shares rose by 9% following this announcementso basically they aren't doing so hot and foreign investors see this as a chance for some major capital following some restructuring.
>>746615389So basically last chance to play through FF14 before it gets actually ruined.Not “This patch/expansion was bad” ruined. Actual real “This game is unplayable now. EOS soon” ruined.
>>746615467If it’s private equity buying them then no. They’ll run it down the drain harder than it currently is and sell off the scraps.
>>746616870ffxi is an extremely profitable and successful product, retard
>>746615467It depends entirely on who is buying them.
>>746615467I was hoping for Sony so that their games could be locked to Playstation and I wouldn't have to think about them anymore.
>>746617018yeah, don't go diverting resources to some other shit trying to fix what's not broken
>>746615467Final Fantasy was never good, you're chasing a ghost created by nostalgia
If Square Enix gets bought out and sold for parts by private equity it would be one of the greatest disasters in gaming history. Please God do not let this happen.
>>746615389What are the chances it's Disney or one of there Japanese companies they own/ are working with?
>>746616223As someone who loves FFXI and played it on release, no, no the game does not need a "classic" server. The game requires too much for modern players to keep it functioning properly.
>>746615389It's that 1337 arab prince who is in the middle of vidya corporation acquisition spree isn't it?
>>746616939i mean theres a chance ff14 saves squeenix again
>>746617274>ff14 classic incoming
>>746615719>final fantasy was special because of sakaguchi and his elite team of GOATsReminder to play Fantasian. The game is excellent.
>>746617274It's been saving them for a decade straight, they barely put anything back into it and use it's profit to fund their extensive line of disaster projects. SE has always been led by morons, part of why they are called SE today and not Squaresoft, so anything short of a middle eastern buyer would be a step in the right direction.
>>746615389This makes no sense at all
People are going to look back at dawntrail and see it as part of the golden yearsthat was it lads, welcome to the dark ages
>>746617523If base Evercold is somehow worse than Dawntrail I'll be unsubbing for the first time since ARR and will wait to play until the patch leading up to the next expac. If the following expac after EC keeps up that trend I'll quit for good.
>>746617608>somehowit's not like it's an unfathomable idea, they're already mitigating against negative reception to the combat rework with the "evolved"/"reborn" split
>>746615467They aren't going back to turn based.
>>746617346the second half fucking sucks, they make you grind, but also you get penalized for grinding.
>>746617712A change of that magnitude requires steps be taken to ease people into it, they don't run test servers and they don't do expansion pre patches so the first time anyone is going to get their hands on it is day 1 of the new expansion. Imagine how dogshit the experience would be trying to do the level 101 dungeon with no one knowing what the fuck their buttons do.
SE derangement syndrome.
>>746617809>Imagine how dogshit the experience would be trying to do the level 101 dungeon with no one knowing what the fuck their buttons do.that's been the duty finder experience for several expansions
>Be me>Businessman>"Reveal" to someone outside that someone might maybe possibly be considering offering to buy us>Company gets free money as our stocks rise because of this>Don't sell because that other guy doesn't existProblem, shareholders?
>>746617125Disney was my immediate thought too
>>746617780>they make you grindWhat do you mean? If anything the second half is really cool, once you've got your full party and can explore the world freely.
>>746615559Valve is a private company.Valve's games are mostly live service titles with lootboxes and skinner box elements.Most of Valve's games are based on mods for other games, but dumbed down for a modern audience. Valve has mostly stopped making new games, producing only three new titles in the past 10 years.Public vs Private is a meme
>>746617125It's probably going to be 3D Investment Partners, that Singapore private equity firm. They also own majorities in Toho, Sapporo, and Nippon Steel, which are all doing pretty well lately.
>>746615467Depends, but probably not. If it's the Saudis then you won't see faggotry but you'll deal with retarded tiktok stars being party members.
>>746617173>The game requires too much for modern players to keep it functioning properly.elaborate
>>746615467no, it would be very bad and would lead to saga being even more fucked over than it already has been with the recent rs2demake
>>746615467It is good, part of why most AAA games are shit nowadays is because they need to always be appeasing DEI investors.The Stellar Blade devs got a lot of backlash lately because they hired a global communication leader that is experienced at dealing with DEI shit. The fans were mad but because they are a public traded company they HAVE to be able to at least gaslight the investors into believing that they are being inclusive enough.SE is in much deeper shit in this regard today, that's why all of their games are so fucking woke, they haven't got a choice.
>>746617173SOVLImagine the zoomers pissing and shitting themselves because they have to navigate a world they don't know by MAPS
>>746616251snoy isn't in japan you dipnigger retard
WE GETTIN ARAB MONEY
>>746617937some shareholder keeps trying to do the opposite and write hit pieces about how the company is failing to lower the price and buy up more shares
>>746617937>>746618710These are unironically both priced in, that's how free markets work.
>>746615467Private to begin with = the founders or their successors control the company, all risks and all rewards are in their hands Public after IPO = the stockholders and the board control the company, all direction is guided to increasing stock valuePrivate after acquisition = a capital finance group controls the company, largely depending on the new owners it can be dismantled for profit or thrive
When has going public actually been a good thing? Valve is a private company. All it does is make games worse cause they have to pander to shareholders.
>>746615389god please fire naoki yoshida
A-another one...why are boomers selling off Japan ?
>>746618229It's very much an old school ass old school MMORPG, everything from endgame bosses to leveling to even walking from A to B takes an immense amount of time and effort. Beyond this the entire game basically forces you to do almost everything in a group, leveling is done in a party of 6, most other content requires at least a few people to complete safely, and the entire world is dangerous as fuck. At max level of 75 you can still get your ass beat by a level 40 mob, shit aint a joke. '=XI has no syncing, no queue system, all of it is done manually and faithfully, if you wanted to play 2005 brand XI today it literally wouldn't function without a certain amount of players being online 24/7. I love XI, it's my favorite game of all time, and I played it from day 0 but I can say without a shadow of a doubt that an official classic server would not be able to retain enough players to be functional long term.
>>746615467It doesn't matter.SE was bad the moment it was founded.
>>746619274>'=I meant to type something about crafting here and must of autistically fat fingered a button please excuse me.>>746618543pic related
>>746617608Dawntrail is like the star wars prequels, but evercold will be like the star wars sequels
>>746618146You left out the steam deck and steam box and valve index and all their steam contributions over the years
>>746619753Why should anyone who isn't a valve cultist care about these products?
>>746616251Playstation is barley a Japanese company nowadays. They primarily act in California these days.
>>746615389>bought by foreign companyKek, shareholders destroy the company with "western consultants" and then buy the IPs for dirty cheap, he still right after 3 fucking years!!!https://arch.b4k.dev/v/thread/655502135/#655508761
>>746615389Best case scenario it gets bought by Katokawa or Nintendo.
>>746615389I hope it's true. There is NOTHING worse then shareholders. They're the reason why so many gaming companies have gone to shit.
>>746618146It's not a meme. Private can be good for games. It isn't always, of course. But there exists that possibility. It is possible that the owners would care about the games. Maybe they have an attachment to a series. Maybe they genuinely love video games. It's possible. Unlikely, but possible.Shareholders NEVER give a shit about the games. EVER. So public VS private is basically "definitely evil" VS "maybe evil".
>>746620826No private company has ever produced a 'Chrono Trigger' caliber game, just saiyan.
>>746615467A public company ruins itself trying to please investors who are never happy But the wording of this rumor suggests it's a private equity firm that's eying SE and that's much worse. The demand of a shareholder is infinite growth forever, whereas with a PE firm the demand is as much profit as possible as quickly as possible then shutter it the exact microsecond debt is about to outweigh assets. It's brutal If you like Square your hope would be they're bought by a conglomerate that knows vidcons, but it's a huge risk because the cost will be enormous, even if the revenue is expected to be high. Not sure anyone but Tencent would even have the ability to pen an offer sheet
>>746621031Baldur's Gate 3, Hades, Hollow Knight, Expedition 33.
>>746621369Sorry, but isn't SquareEnix a Japanese company? I thought those couldn't be bought by foreigners.
>>746619753ok, but SE has no such accomplishments. Either way going public just means they milk Cloud, Terra, Tidus, etc. harder than ever, you will never see a good, original game ever again. You think Rebirth is bad wait til FF7 becomes public IP
>>746621418Tell that to SNK who are now own by what >>746617260 said.
>>746615389I doubt they'll be allowed to sell the entirety to a foreign entity. It will have to be broken up first. Too many high profile manga are published under them, for one.
>>746619274I gotta disagree, there's plenty of people still playing FF11 to keep the official servers alive. And it's not for everyone that's fine. It never had a wow sized audience anyway, even 'back in the day' it was still not anywhere near as huge as other mmos.
>>746615467Publicly traded companies is basically the wrong model for video game companies since game development takes so long and it's very hits based so there's no company that increases their profits and revenue every quarter. Going private is the optimal path for all game developers.
>>746621669The people playing on retail today are not going to be interested in a classic server, I cannot stress enough how much of a massive time investment XI was back then and would be today. Private servers are also not a good example because they are not 1:1 with classic, they all incorporate changes and QoL features that classic would not have.
>>746621595>Saudis are giving Obari constant work on the new SNK projectBasedFuck the woke west and the cringe chinksThe future is HALAL
>>746615389Here's what's gonna happen/is happening>Final Fantasy will have multiple projects introduced>(Likely) another remake, though scale will probably be smaller compared to 7>A new mainline title taking inspiration from E33>Smaller scale 'budget' titlesThese will be major tentpole single player releases from this point on.>NieR will likely branch into a Drakengard remake>Kingdom Hearts will continue as is until it stops being successful>Dragon Quest as a console franchise will be retired when Horii retires or dies, and shift to be a mobile only, Japan only franchise>everything else is largely irrelevant
>>746622416>A new mainline title taking inspiration from E33fuck me they're gonna copy the shitty parryslop combat aren't theybecause the higher ups are still obsessed with action
>>746619753*taps sign*
>>746621418Fun fact, square goynix got memed into opening themselves as a "global" public company and thus not protected by japanese law legislations.This is also why shareholders had such a strong sway on SE's decisions over the years, because by being global, they are forced to follow amerimutt "dodge vs ford" faggotry by sheer technicality.Yes, SE was comically stupid for cracking the company open that way to the LE GLOBAL market.
>>746622416Saudis bought out SNK and nothing cool happenedI doubt we will get anything cool, instead SE will just be a FFslop company and all their other IPs will be sold or sunsetted into the voidSame with Saudis and EA, but we haven't seen anything from that yet, just rumors that they've killed ME and DA
>>746621031>No private company has ever produced a 'Chrono Trigger' caliber game, just saiyan.Square Soft was private until the year 2000.
>>746622532>because the higher ups are still obsessed with actionthat has been a thing basically since ever due to ATB faggotrydunno what you're bitching about when at least CTB with paper mario timed hits would be an improvement over ATB goyslopFFX is CTB by the way, in case you didn't know
>>746622836>FFX is CTB by the way, in case you didn't knowI did knowsave the timing shit for limit breaks/overdrives/whatever. incorporating that into every moment of combat is cancer
>>746622797Most of what I laid out is already happening, had nothing to do with investors.>Three new FF projectsAll of this is plain as day.FF remakes are being discussed and one even got cancelled.The next mainline game will inevitably take from E33.And we're getting those smaller scale budget titles this year- Elliot and the new HD2D FF.>Drakengard RemakeThis is the only direction SE will continue Nier into in all likelihood.>Kingdom Hearts continuingAlready happening.>Dragon Quest retiringThis is obvious to anyone paying attention.DQ's money largely comes from mobile projects and the MMO, and the MMO is concluding its major content updates, meaning it will no longer be receiving any major player influexes. Both of these money makers are also JAPAN ONLY.The games have largely been reduced in both scope and release consistency. It's fairly obvious that Horii is in the final 'legacy building' era of his career which is why he's doing so many remakes of DQ now as well. When he retires, I do not think DQ will have any more presence in the west at all.
>>746622818WhatI could've swore they went public in the 90sOh god I'm going senile
>>746622968God I hate remakes.Let Yoko Taro make new things instead of redoing Drakengard. He already made his statement with Drakengard. Let him make Drakengard 4
>>746623107no equity firm is going to let him do anything that doesn't include 2b or her ass based on his history of game sales.
>>746615467Depends. Gems and jeets and it's over. Saudi's and it'll be a coin flip if things get better or worse if that's even possible
>>746623152I wouldn't mind a new Nier either. Or something entirely different. If they really want money they should start putting fan service designs front and center in their games again.
>>746622968Dq makes more money in japan than appealing to brown retarded oversea fags. It's the rare unicorn of still having all the old people and youth into it always
>>746623281in 20 years will that be the same?
>>746623092Let's get you to bed, anon. Everything will be alright in the morning.
>>746615467Lol. No one cares about FF anymore.
>square enix selling to the chinksWhere did it all go wrong?
>>746615667Seething
>>746623358reminds me of that former gaijin who worked for SE who spends all day tweeting about how SE needs to add Cloud and Sephiroth to Fortnite and Roblox if they want to get kids into FF>you now remember that XVI was supposed to be the FF that attracts a younger audience when it was a linear action game set in a realistic dark fantasy universe inspired by game of thrones that released in 2023
>>746623369Genshin impact single handedly nuked the Japanese game industry. This isn't an exaggeration, a large part of jap gaming is gacha shit and square enix is a big part of it.
>>746623281>Dq makes more money in japan than appealing to brown retarded oversea fags.I'm not sure if you misread my post, but that was my point.DQ makes the vast majority of its money through phone games and the MMO, and both only exist in Japan. My point was that DQ wouldn't really exist outside Japan once Horii is gone.
>>746623461SE mobile games are catastrophic failures.
>>746623337Yes. Retarded brown fags and fans here in the west don't buy shit. I've worked at game and hobby stores, and any media or physical enjoyment is in the very small items usually. Look at how despite manga now being "mainstream" the japs don't get much income from it as all fags here do is steal and share it online. Same with animation.I bring this up as in japan they buy not only the games, but side material, games and content in mass. Yes the youth will always like it as it has never left their pop culture sphere.T.half jap with family there.
>>746623461they figured out that if you put cute girls, lots of content, high production values in your game, and optimize it so that it can run on a toaster, you will make a ton of money.
It's incredible how Square Enix somehow managed to miss out on both the pc boom and switch boom.
