Hardknock said:
I've no doubt Sony could have funded Mistwalker, but there position in Japan is such that amongst established houses they can count on 100% support really, without having to pay for it. That's the status quo for them - and it would probably take a lot to move them to front cash for a small, unproven studio (note: not Sakaguchi, but his new studio), particularly one who had caught the eye of MS, who could escalate the cost of entry by bidding up and up. Of course, Sony does fund first/second party development, but their investment strategy or the timing may simply not have suited. I see your point about the value of denying the competition something, but perhaps they felt it likely Mistwalker would sign with a larger Japanese publisher, and thus end up on Playstation by default anyway. They're also making investments elsewhere, like in Level5 etc. Mistwalker may have seemed like a little bit of duplication in their portfolio.
Everything boils down to money. If Sony offered comparable or even near the money MS was offering, Mistwalker would have pounced on it. They'd probably have even gone with Sony for less, simply for guaranteed access to a large audience in Japan. I very much doubt Sakaguchi holds anything against Sony, let alone Sony Computer Entertainment.
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