In what amounts to a large-scale bail-out move, Sony has confirmed that it will be tossing $124 million at Square Co., which amounts to roughly 19 percent of the company's shares.Square's financial woes were mostly brought on by the disappointing box-office performance of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, which fell short of estimates by over $100 million.
While Square plans on writing off the vast majority of the costs incurred by the movie production, the value of Square stock had already plummeted to half its original value before the movie release.
Given that Sony will now hold a very large stake in the company, it is likely that this move will dramatically affect Square's planned multi-platform strategy. While it was assumed that Final Fantasy XI and PlayOnline would appear on all three major systems, the future of this is now in question. While there were also rumors of Square unveiling upcoming titles for both the Xbox and Gamecube at TGS, there is no indication at this point how Sony's move may affect the possible announcements.
