I think Square being acquired by Sony would make sense. Either the Japanese branch, the western branch and both.
Sony would get very talented teams, big IPs for new AAA games, many old classics for PS+ catalog and some IPs with potential to be used in movies, tv shows or anime. They wouldn't rely on 3rd partys to cover the RPG genre and would give them many Japanese teams.
They could do with Square the same movement they did with Bungie: to don't integrate it under PS Studios but to place it under SIE, where it would continue publishing using the Square label full multiplatform, with some (or maybe even all) games becoming PS timed exclusive, securing for all their games game subs exclusivity for PS+, demos/betas exclusivity, marketing exclusivity and game + console bundle exclusivity. And blocking any exclusivity with MS or Nintendo.
I think Square could have also very benefited of joining Sony: extra push on budgets and marketing, great studio/project management, access to tons of knowledge, technology and data that may interest them (example: GaaS and cloud), help for making movies and so on etc.
I may understand Squared wanted to get rid of their western branch if wasn't profitable for them to become more profitable, but why didn't Sony buy them? With Sony's their help these studios would have improved a lot and their IPs are a clear fit for Sony. There's a lot of potential there. Is it because maybe Square is preparing itself to be sold to Sony, Sony is more interested on the Japanse branch and the Square execs don't want to have their former western devs close?
I mean... final fantasy vii remake is still exclusive, ffxvi will be exclusive (supposedly timed), Forspoken will be exclusive.
The only thing this acquisition would change is the word "timed" at this point.
It does make sense though. Sony has a lot of the same businesses Square Enix has, including manga so...
It would be smarter to them to block any future exclusive for Nintendo and MS, keep big games as timed (maybe 2 years long) exclusives and give Sony exlusivity for game subs, marketing, beta/demos and game+console bundles.
After a long timed exclusive they could make money from Xbox and Nintendo (or day one multiplatform for smaller games), there's a lot of money on the table to be made there. Getting marketing exclusive rights, exclusivity for game subs and long timed exclusivity for the key games would be more than enough.
