Microsoft had plans to acquire Square Enix in the past

Microsoft considered buying Japanese game publisher Square Enix in 2019. The company wanted to increase its market share in Asia, but also earn money from Square games in the Western world.

Microsoft would obviously have wanted to add the Square games to its Game Pass subscription. In addition, the company was interested in Square’s various mobile games; which could ‘help with future mobile-exclusive Game Pass games’, as quoted by The Verge, among others.

Microsoft was particularly impressed with Square’s Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest and Kingdom Hearts franchises. These conversations took place in 2019, when Square also owned many Western franchises, but Microsoft seems to have been less interested in that. Those game series, such as Deus Ex, Thief and Tomb Raider, have been owned by Embracer Group since last year.

The information comes out in the lawsuit between the American market regulator FTC and Microsoft, which wants to acquire Activision-Blizzard-King for about 68 billion dollars. Other companies Microsoft considered acquiring included Bungie, IO Interactive, Niantic and Sega.