Japanese publishing giant Square Enix might be selling segments of its first-party studios.

That's going by remarks made during the company's recent conference call for its financial results – as reported by analyst David Gibson – during which the firm spoke more about its strategy in the wake of selling its Western studios to Embracer Group.

That, apparently, was the first phase of a multi-part plan. The second is selling off stakes in its developers, in part due to the rising costs of making video games. At the moment Square Enix is conducting a "studio portfolio review," after which some developers will remain entirely owned and others will be partly sold off. The Japanese giant is also looking to expand its studio portfolio, something that it had already mentioned.

"Phase 2 = So SE is looking to sell stakes in its studios to others to improve capital efficiency," Gibson wrote.

"Right when others like Sony etc are buyers. I would expect Sony, Tencent, Nexon etc would be interested."

Initially, the profits of selling its Western studios were going to be put towards Square Enix's Web3 business, though this seems not to be the case anymore.