Square Enix drops Tecmo bid, hints at new deals

Japanese RPG giant formally scuppers $200 million offer for Ninja Gaiden maker, in talks with "quite a few" companies regarding mergers and buyouts.

Less than 24 hours after Tecmo said no thanks to its $200 million offer, Square Enix has officially withdrawn it. Initially, the Japanese role-playing game giant didn't rule out a hostile bid for Tecmo. However, the day the Ninja Gaiden maker announced it was pursuing a union with Dynasty Warriors publisher Koei, Square Enix president Yoichi Wada threw in the towel.

"If they truly dislike Square Enix, there is no point," Wada told the Reuters news service. "All [game] creators would leave the firm the moment the deal was done. It would be the equivalent of buying a building."

But while the Tecmo takeover may be dead, that doesn't mean the minds behind Final Fantasy XIII aren't laying plans for other buyouts or mergers. "We are talking with quite a few companies in and outside of Japan," said Wada.

While Wada did not go into further detail, and downplayed any on going negotiations as "routine," the fact Square Enix is talking to non-Japanese parties raises an array of intriguing possibilities. First, that the Tokyo-based company might acquire a Western developer, as Sega did with Secret Level (US) and The Creative Assembly (UK). There's also the possibility of some sort of agreement with a Western publisher, such as the recent Grasshopper Manufacture/Electronic Arts deal.

121 Comments

  • taddia

    Posted Oct 2, 2008 1:43 pm PT

    RavenSoS said:

    Good freaking lord. Can there be one article that doesn't degrade into "this is why this is good for [360/PS3] and why [360/PS3] sucks". Not everything is about your favorite console. This article is simply about a merger of companies. I still can't believe that people continue the pathetic console-wars BS.

    Omg man i so agree with u!

  • kos1085

    Posted Oct 2, 2008 11:45 am PT

    Those two companies did not seem like they would mix anyway.

  • shabulia

    Posted Oct 2, 2008 10:56 am PT

    If you ask me, Tecmo has just gone WAY downhill. With the loss if Itagaki-san, and then all of Team Ninja, then the scandal and abrupt leaving of the president of Tecmo, and now choosing Koei over Square-Enix as a merger, it would seem like Rain Man is at the helm for Tecmo's latest moves. It would seem no more hope for Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive is just plain "Dead"

  • RavenSoS

    Posted Oct 2, 2008 9:50 am PT

    Good freaking lord. Can there be one article that doesn't degrade into "this is why this is good for [360/PS3] and why [360/PS3] sucks". Not everything is about your favorite console. This article is simply about a merger of companies. I still can't believe that people continue the pathetic console-wars BS.

  • hellpolice

    Posted Sep 20, 2008 12:12 pm PT

    I'm glad it was dropped because Team Ninja will not disband after all.

  • Tigervamp

    Posted Sep 14, 2008 5:15 pm PT

    http://www.teamteabag.com/2008/09/05/square-enix-the-electronic-arts-of-the-east/

  • gunswordfist

    Posted Sep 11, 2008 2:22 pm PT

    I'm glad the merger failed. Tecmo is no good w/o Itagaki and the way they treated him shows that they need to continue to suck w/o him and w/ Koei.

  • lightwarrior179

    Posted Sep 9, 2008 9:11 am PT

    I was surprised with Tecmo rejecting Square's "friendly" deal but then Tecmo is now in talks with Koei another company like Tecmo that knows how to spoil it's franchises.
    Hopefully,Tecmo and Team Ninja will make quality games even after the merger.

  • Gamer4Iife

    Posted Sep 8, 2008 4:58 pm PT

    I can already see the countless Ninja Gaidens and DOAs. We're talking about Koei, the dudes that keep making Dynasty Warriors over and over again. Square-Enix was by far the better choice in almost every aspect. What were they thinking ?

  • iboo01

    Posted Sep 8, 2008 4:34 pm PT

    I really dont know why they would decline

  • Mafia217

    Posted Sep 8, 2008 3:34 pm PT

    Why would Tecmo deny the offer? It's great progress for them. tsk tsk tsk...

  • grand17

    Posted Sep 8, 2008 10:44 am PT

    Grampy_Bone
    They didn't want to buy the company because the talent would leave? Wow, that never stops EA...

    BAHAHAHAHA

  • zeke2040

    Posted Sep 8, 2008 9:40 am PT

    oh boy!

  • ebookerd1

    Posted Sep 8, 2008 9:32 am PT

    As long as no quality is lost because Koei sucks I'm happy.

  • Asmodai12

    Posted Sep 8, 2008 7:00 am PT

    I actually look forward to Koei and Tecmo merging. I may be alone in this, but I feel the talent that Tecmo keeps on hand could completely revitalize the 8 million Dynasty Warriors and ROTK franchises.(Games that are my secret guilty pleasure.)

  • Asmodai12

    Posted Sep 8, 2008 6:56 am PT

    Lach0121 wrote - "all these mergers, and buyouts, and offers, and money money money money money money.... it isnt about us gamers anymore. and not about the devs anymore... the music industry pt2."

    It never was... They just didn't know what sold before, so they had to try harder. It's always about money, one way or the other.

  • Grampy_Bone

    Posted Sep 8, 2008 6:41 am PT

    They didn't want to buy the company because the talent would leave? Wow, that never stops EA...

  • centuryslayer

    Posted Sep 8, 2008 4:38 am PT

    naww, poor square, no one wants to play with them ;__;

  • ASnogarD

    Posted Sep 8, 2008 2:15 am PT

    The only game for the PC by that company in the works is Concerto Gate, a free to play MMO... hardly in the same league as the Final Fantasy or Kingdom Hearts franchises, which is what most players associate Square Enix with.

    I stand by my statement that Square Enix is not a true PC developer, even FF VII and VIII were rather lazy ports (didnt update the background art for the superior res of the PC).

  • mrboone01

    Posted Sep 8, 2008 1:48 am PT

    ASnogarD,
    I seriously suggest you reasearch before typing. Square Enix does in fact make PC games.

  • ASnogarD

    Posted Sep 8, 2008 1:03 am PT

    Just wanted to know how is this news for PC gamers ? Square Enix dont make PC games... and as far as I know, nor does Tecmo.

    General news yes, not PC though.

  • Kratossssssssss

    Posted Sep 7, 2008 8:02 pm PT

    @demokillua - i went on vgchartz yesterday and saw an article titled - (rumor) kingdom hearts 3 on the ps3, the site that said that is a magazine( for playstation i think) in UK saying that kingdom hearts 3 is secretly in development for the ps3..so idk but people said it was a reliable magazine so...

  • Kratossssssssss

    Posted Sep 7, 2008 8:01 pm PT

    @demokillua - i went on vgchartz yesterday and saw an article titled - (rumor) kingdom hearts 3 on the ps3, the site that said that is a magazine( for playstation i think) in UK saying that kingdom hearts 3 is secretly in development for the ps3..so idk but people said it was a reliable magazine so...

  • Kratossssssssss

    Posted Sep 7, 2008 8:01 pm PT

    @demokillua - i went on vgchartz yesterday and saw an article titled - (rumor) kingdom hearts 3 on the ps3, the site that said that is a magazine( for playstation i think) in UK saying that kingdom hearts 3 is secretly in development for the ps3..so idk but people said it was a reliable magazine so...

  • Sony_Soilder78

    Posted Sep 7, 2008 7:34 pm PT

    All business is about money, why are people acting so strange.

  • Lach0121

    Posted Sep 7, 2008 4:36 pm PT

    all these mergers, and buyouts, and offers, and money money money money money money.... it isnt about us gamers anymore. and not about the devs anymore... the music industry pt2.

  • MuscleCarMan

    Posted Sep 7, 2008 4:17 pm PT

    instead of running around trying to buy people out, why dont they finish final fantasy 13 instead.

  • EcoJak

    Posted Sep 7, 2008 3:03 pm PT

    Sweet

  • magic137b1

    Posted Sep 7, 2008 2:37 pm PT

    Square Enix is no EA. Know why? Cause they make good games. Square Enix can do what they have to keep doing that. This move doesn't bother me one bit.

  • rikhan_z

    Posted Sep 7, 2008 1:04 pm PT

    Is Squaresoft turning into the next EA for 2000-05 with strong marketing tactics? That is my question.
    Koei looks like they do need the support Tecmo is offering.

  • Demonkillua

    Posted Sep 7, 2008 11:34 am PT

    @skydancerofchao- Currently their has been no announcement for a KH game on and big console. Kingdom Hearts is going to be released onto 3 diffrent things; the DS, PSP, and Mobile Phone. each with there own diffrent story.
    KH 358/2 Days (DS)- The story will revolve around Roxas while he was in Organization XIII and before kingdom hearts 2.
    KH Birth By Sleep (PSP) - Will be about the keyblade wars just like with the secrect ending in KH2. and them looking for the Keyblade Master.
    KH Coded (Mobile) - I currently have no info on.

  • ShadowVari

    Posted Sep 7, 2008 9:03 am PT

    Well, Square Enix has been working on the 360 a lot lately (a non-Japanese system), so I guess it's just as expected for them to work with non-Japanese parties. I think this could get quite interesting. I'll be looking forward to what happens...

  • IXIWhistIXI

    Posted Sep 7, 2008 8:36 am PT

    Some people are talking about square making FF multiplatform and how it's bad because it does not push the console's abilities to the limit...
    It's final fantasy...as long as the consoles it's for can support insanely advanced graphics it'll be fine. The actual game play isn't anything the Nintendo 64 couldn't preform (well aside from holding that long of a game on a single cartridge)

  • iesexywarden

    Posted Sep 7, 2008 8:26 am PT

    i lost alot of respect for Square Enix...there trying way to hard and not pumping enough quality out. They made ff13 multiplat saying its we have to go multiplat because its not making money if its exclusive (well thats MS, u know MS paid for some of that) and whats with these 36 0exclusive games for saquare (infident undiscovery)..Plus there games are getting worst ratings...seems to me there in it for money. And now there treying to merge and become a HUGE dev.

  • otanikun

    Posted Sep 7, 2008 8:03 am PT

    Gave up that easily eh? Or rather I should say, didn't want to become another EA games eh?

  • darkslavechaos

    Posted Sep 7, 2008 7:46 am PT

    I'm happy that S-E made XIII a multiplatform because it's the only PS3 exclusive I had my eye on. Versus' hero looks far too much like Uchiha Sasuke for me to disassociate the two (and I hate Sasuke) and as much as I enjoyed the first KH, KHII was too convoluted. I've never been a MGS or GT fan either.

    Microsoft are being as ruthless as they've always been, so are S-E... but they're giving me what I want so I'm not going to complain. I only hope that with XIII, S-E can regain the form it had prior to the merge. I haven't truly loved an S-E product since X and even that didn't match up with many of its predecessors. I don't want a VII remake or any more damn spinoffs, I just want them to focus, totally, on the pillar franchises again.

  • fgjnfgh

    Posted Sep 7, 2008 7:40 am PT

    Square Enix is trying to expand. I read an article around 5 years ago saying that the company considers making its own console. Who knows...

  • boris_viper

    Posted Sep 7, 2008 4:12 am PT

    Greed is one of the seven sins and there is a good reason for that...Cause come on open yer goddamn eyes...look what happened with ea games after goin' for multi platforms and the money in that...look what happened to NFS , and i swear to god if square continues its path its heading STRAIGHT down(witch is already happenin')God help play station fans...

  • skydancerofchao

    Posted Sep 7, 2008 1:16 am PT

    imemo...stop with the pro-xbox crap, geeze, that issue is dead. Besides, Kingdom Hearts 3 is, as of right now, a PS3 exclusive development, so there.

    As far as square-enix goes...I've been with square and enix since the NES/SNES days where titles such as FF3, Chrono Trigger, 7th Saga, Brainlord, Secret of Mana and the liek were all top-notch rpg in their own right and almost nothing churned out by either company was sub-standard. I'd have to say that that is absolutelly no longer the case with Square. Only about 40-50% of the games they develop now are really worth any mention and, of those, its generally only the big franchises like Kingdom Hearts or Final Fantasy. I was completelly miffed to say the least by their decision with a multi-platform FFXIII, but I can understand that there is certainly more money to be made. That said, I still find their business practices opf late to be seriously disconserting and leaning more towards the business end rather than the quality of production in their titles. All of this aquisition bull on their part only leads me to believe that my once favirote company and rpg developer is now in the game to make as much money as possible. If they really wanted us to all be happy they would already be halfway through development on Chrono Trigger 2(a true sequel), Secret of Mana 4(another true sequel), a port of Front Mission 5, and the oft-rumored Final Fantasy VII Remake. They don't give a damn what we want, they just do what is in their best financial interest. The sad part is that, no matter what market research probably indicates, all of the titles I just mentioned would probably make them more money than half the lame DS games and 5th remakes of old games combined.

  • imemo8502

    Posted Sep 6, 2008 10:44 pm PT

    no point in owning a ps3 unless ff7 comes out again but noone can get them to do it and from what ive read theres not gonna be a new kingdom hearts yet either ff13 on both 360 and ps3 i hope it has a ton of discs i always thought that was fun anyways

  • olsteradamus

    Posted Sep 6, 2008 10:42 pm PT

    The golden days of Square are over. Basically after the geniuses that made the games pre-Enix merger left most of their games have been mediocre at best save for a couple. Back in the day almost every Squaresoft game was killer. I've personally given up on them.

  • Spider-Jim

    Posted Sep 6, 2008 9:39 pm PT

    As long as Final Fantasies keep coming I'm a happy chappy!!

  • Ra-Devil

    Posted Sep 6, 2008 8:58 pm PT

    Bungie doesn't own the Halo franchise, M$ bought that, Bungie just made the first one, then came M$. If Bungie wanted to, their next game that isn't published by M$ (their currently in-development game is published by M$) then yeah, they could put it on a Sony console, but I think M$ is paying them too much for them to go the other way. I mean really, why be a first party developer when you can be third party and have the publisher pay you extra?

  • AdemaSlipknot

    Posted Sep 6, 2008 7:52 pm PT

    @ Interfearence:

    You do know that the Halo IP is owned by Microsoft, and thus won't be heading anywhere else without the OK of Microsoft, right?

  • StanAce

    Posted Sep 6, 2008 7:32 pm PT

    As Toysoldier says, it'd defeat the purpose of having two consoles if developers did not optimize for one system. While I'm not always fond of titles being exclusive, at least it gives that hardware the extra push to go above and beyond.
    When done properly anyway...

  • yoshi_3_6_0

    Posted Sep 6, 2008 7:31 pm PT

    Square switching consoles is not new. Keep in mind, Final Fantasy games were made for Nintendo systems for 2 console generations. Now they've served 2 console generations with Sony. If anything, be glad that they're making it for both systems, as opposed to abandoning Sony the way they did Nintendo.

  • Toysoldier34

    Posted Sep 6, 2008 6:42 pm PT

    As long as Versus is still PS3 exclusive cuz thats the one I think I'm more excited for but I wonder if they will make the 360 version crappier than the PS3 version or if they will be the same quality between the systems. Because I though FFXIII was supposed to push the system but if they want it to be exactly the same on both systems then it won't be pushing anything on the PS3. Don't disappoint me Square.

    I hope they make the PS3 version as good as possible then put the xbox version on 13 discs cuz that would be kinda cool even if it may only need like 3 or 4.

  • elbert_b_23

    Posted Sep 6, 2008 6:02 pm PT

    to me square hasn't made any really great games for the past 4 years, lately all they are making are ds remakes or bad 360 games i really can't see on how any company would risk merging with them

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