Microsoft considered launching a bid to buy Final Fantasy maker Square Enix, freshly-uncovered court documents have revealed.
The idea was floated among Xbox top brass back in 2019 – before Square Enix sold its suite of Western studios, and before Microsoft got entangled in its current attempted $68.7bn Activision Blizzard buyout.
Documents showing Microsoft’s interest in acquiring Square Enix surfaced today, as the company continues to plead its case with the Federal Trade Commission.
Dubbed as “Project Phoenix”, the idea for Microsoft to buy Square Enix was based around the lure of owning the publisher’s three main franchises – Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest and Kingdom Hearts – to gain a bigger Xbox audience in Japan, and a publisher which released games on mobile.