The trial between Activision Blizzard/Microsoft and the Federal Trade Commission is the gift that keeps on giving for those of us interested in the ins and outs of the games industry. On Monday, we learned Microsoft wanted to acquire Bungie, IO Interactive and Sega (and others), and those rumours are far from the only ones proven true these days.
A heavily redacted court document confirms that Microsoft also wanted to acquire Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest and Kingdom Hearts publisher Square Enix in 2019. The American company was so serious about this that it even had a very appropriate codename for this plan: "Project Phoenix". This interest was because Microsoft, just like its evaluation of Sega, thought buying Square Enix would bring more variety and depth to both Xbox Series and Game Pass, as well as truly strengthen its position in the mobile market and Asia.
This was before even more companies allegedly started a bidding war for Square Enix and more than two years prior to the publisher selling its western studios, Tomb Raider and more to Embracer for pennies, so it would have been interesting to learn why Microsoft didn't up owning Square Enix instead of or in addition to ZeniMax.