The Wall Street Journal uncovered today that Sony — ever looking to streamline and restore profitability — will sell its stake in Japanese game publisher Square Enix. All $47 million of it. The whole 9.52 million shares. I had forgotten Sony even owned a slice of Square, but it turns out it’s worth quite a lot.
The stake Sony is dealing amounts to about 8.2% of Square Enix’s net equity (according to the original Japanese news release), and given the publisher’s recently-restored success thanks to games like Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, it’s possible that Sony was simply waiting for the right moment to sell. It seems like a desperate move at first, but if will help the company reallocate some cash toward its own internal studios, or survive in general, then it may prove to be a smart decision.
Sony says the sale will provide an influx of 4.8 billion yen for the fiscal quarter ending in June, and that it plans to reveal the rest of the details about the deal this coming Thursday. Additionally, Sony will release an earnings outlook on May 14th, the same day it plans to report on this past year’s earnings. Maybe the sale is timed to calm angry investors Sony expects it will soon be facing? We won’t have to wait long to find out.
A Realm Reborn is a Sony console exclusive (aside from PC), but even so, Final Fantasy dropped its PlayStation exclusivity long ago. If Sony needs to dish off its Square-shares in order to get business moving in the right direction, then I respect that. It’d be a shame for the console maker doing the most things right this generation to be taken down by the rest of its failing arms and limbs.
