Acquisitions have become more and more prevalent among game companies in recent years, to a degree that is somewhat concerning. Consolidation of talent may be a good thing from certain points of view, but from a consumer perspective, it can often lead to less creative voices being spotlighted in an industry that is already fairly monolithic. Either way, another massive buyout is rumored to be in the very early stages.

Bloomberg Japan is reporting that Square Enix could possibly be acquired sometime in the near future, with several different companies eyeing the studio for a buyout. For those who might not know, Square Enix is the Japanese game company behind the likes of Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, and Kingdom Hearts. It also has several acclaimed western studios as well, including Crystal Dynamics, who created the recent Tomb Raider games and the financially unsuccessful Marvel's Avengers.

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Obviously, this should be taken with a grain of salt, as rumors of acquisitions are rarely guaranteed to come to pass. Earlier this year, rumors of Microsoft buying Discord were all over the place, only to fizzle out as nothing actually came from them. On the other hand, the recent failures of Marvel's Avengers and Balan Wonderworld could have sent Square into dire financial straits that could only be solved by a buyout. Until concrete news on the matter surfaces, there isn't any way of knowing for sure.

There are several parties who would reasonably interested in this type of purchase. Microsoft, which recently purchased Bethesda, certainly has the budget to do another acquisition, especially one that would give it more of an in on the Japanese market. Sony already works with Square Enix extensively on exclusive titles such as Final Fantasy VII Remake and Final Fantasy XVI, so them working together again would be natural. Tencent and Epic Games are two other very possible candidates with money to spare.

That said, no party buying Square Enix would be an especially great thing. While a few past acquisitions have had positive ramifications, with Nintendo's purchase of Monolith Soft being one example, these situations usually have more drawbacks than they do positives. Microsoft purchasing the company would mean that most upcoming Square projects would need to migrate to Xbox. Sony purchasing the company would likely hurt any chances of legacy releases from the company, with PlayStation's approach focusing on newer games exclusively.

Overall, nothing about this rumor is concrete enough to judge just yet, so one can hope that Square Enix is able to find success independently to prevent any future problems.

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Source: Bloomberg Japan