Daily Briefing: Wednesday 4th May

The Old Sony Acquisition Rumours Were About Square Enix

According to Jeff Grubb, the old rumours about Sony acquiring someone, the ones that eventually fizzled out, were actually about Square Enix. He went on to say it’s only a rumour and noone ever knows enough about these dealings to actually say with certainty. However, it was pointed out that Square Enix will be a much more streamlined company now they’ve confirmed they’re selling their Western studios and IP to Embracer Group.

• Despite it making a lot of sense at face value, this rumour is still a long shot. Square Enix are excellently horizontally and vertically integrated with their publishing, music and merch wings, so they’re extremely unlikely to divest just their gaming side, and given Sony’s cultural Japanese holdings like Aniplex and their Music wing, a straight merger between the two could potentially raise eyebrows in Japan. Also, Sony actually owned 18% of Square Enix in the past, but sold them all off by 2014.

Yves Guillemot Will NEVER Let Ubisoft Go

In a report Friday, Bloomberg claimed that some private equity firms were interested in taking Ubisoft over, and now an equity news report from Dealreporter claims that the Guillemot family is seeking a firm to team up with - the family wants to remain in control, so they’re trying find a partner to get ahead of a hostile takeover. Their stock is up 10% today in response.

• As for what that means for their games... well, nothing immediately, but at least it means control of the company won’t go to a private equity firm who only values money, but then it’s not like Ubisoft have been flourishing under Yves’ rule - so really, it’s a bit of a mixed bag. At any rate, it’d be very interesting how Ubisoft could change if it goes private.

Halo’s Season 2 Update Did Not Go Well With Users

Halo’s Lone Wolves season update is out, and reviews are mixed. The added mode is seemingly thrown together, the skill ceiling provided by some advanced slide jump and movement tech was quietly removed, the new battle pass brings a new ‘armor core’ which means earned player colours aren’t usable with new cosmetics, and concerns with the existing challenges remain.

• 343 seemingly can do no right - something is seriously up for simple content drops to take the guts of half a year to develop. What the hell’s going on here? Players are figuring out that the ‘live service’ moniker provides them no value, and instead it usually lines up with no content, expensive microtransactions, and frustrating game experiences that make their games worse and not better.