Yes, SE is smaller way than ABK and mostly have JRPGs. If Sony buys them would be to secure the JRPG genre for them and to don't depend on 3rd parties for RPGs. Plus SE is very successful at adapting their console IPs to mobile, something Sony wants to do so could learn from them and add their catalog to their new mobile publishing brand. They also have several IPs with proven value in cinema and anime, so could milk them there.
SE generates $2,5B per year and is a profitable company because they release many successful games every year. They have the biggest selling RPG series and the current top grossing MMORPG in all platforms.
i was getting at they don't release a FF every year. They dont have a title that they pump out on a yearly basis was what I was getting at. And that 2.5B was on a high note of covid, and FF14 having a huge resurgence because WOW players left Blizzard for FF14.
On top of their mobile efforts.
Square (and) Enix already was super successful in NES and SNES and already were the kings of RPG. In fact proportionally they were bigger back then.
Square did dozens of exclusives for Sony, and not sure if ever did any for MS. Did Bethesda ever had a MS exclusive game or IP? Bethesda recently released 2 Sony exclusives and traditionally has been a multiplatform publisher.
To you're first question, Square had success on NES and SNES, but more success WW with Sony's distribution of Playstation in outside markets of the US/UK and Japan. Square bought Enix during the PS1-PS2 era because they had the capital during their expansion growth.
FF7, FF8, and FF10 made them so much money that they were able to branch out and buy studios.
Thats wht they are so close with Sony.
They owe a lot of their growth and success in terms of being a powerhouse publisher to those gens. PS2 was in basically every market. Meaning JRPG and Square published game reach was wider than NES/SNES days every was.
To the second about Bethesda, Microsoft similarly to Sony sent engineers to Bethesda and helped them with Morrowind on XBox, helped them out also with Oblivion direct x wise.
So there's a long history of titles that got a good amount of help from Microsoft's Direct X team. It made sense, also Microsoft helped a lot of smaller games like call of cthulu on OG xbox, among others. So that partnership totally makes sense.
Turns out Phil can make CoD "exclusive" and still never break his word. Absolute masterclass.