Square Enix Holdings published a statement to shareholders on September 1 addressing claims about the company “potentially going private.”
Earlier the same day, the September 2026 issue of monthly Japanese magazine Sentaku reported that there was reason to speculate that Square Enix, a publicly traded company, would be going private. The magazine claimed that the speculation this time around “carried more credibility” than previous such rumors. The report was influential enough to trigger a rise in Square Enix’s stock price at the Tokyo Stock Exchange (source: GameBiz).
In response, Square Enix has explicitly denied Santaku’s claims. The company stated that it had made no announcement regarding plans to go private and that there is no truth to claims that it is considering doing so.
Recently, a number of major overseas companies have made moves toward going private. The most prominent example being Electronic Arts, which was recently acquired by a consortium including Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund, and subsequently became a private company. Meanwhile, Devolver Digital has reportedly seen its stock price continue to decline since going public in 2021, even after its business performance improved. Earlier this month, the company reportedly presented investors with a proposal to delist its shares.
Meanwhile, the gaming community has also been paying attention to the recent decline in CD PROJEKT RED’s stock price following the official announcement of “Echoes of the Past,” a major expansion to The Witcher 3 unveiled at Gamescom 2026. For publicly traded game companies, stock prices have come to be subject to significant fluctuation not only based on reception and sales of released games, but also by expectations surrounding titles still in development or even a single announcement.
As for Square Enix, the company made headlines last year when 3D Investment Partners, an activist investor, increased its stake in the company and proposed bold management reforms, causing concern among fans. In any case, the speculation regarding the company’s potential privatization has now been explicitly put to rest.
