Source article of all this information
Games Industry.biz
A nice tidbit in the source article, is that D'astous said that he believed SE was always blaming non Japanese games for under-performance. I remember when Tomb Raider first launched it sold 5 million copies (initially) on a reboot of a supposed burned out franchise (14.5 million todate), and SE went on record saying it under-performed. Yet Final Fantasy 15 sells 10 million copies of a game that took over 6 years to make and not a word of disappointment.
1. I think SE has a non-Japanese culture bias towards any foreign holding. It is not the first time they have thrown non Japanese studios under a bus. Especially when their own Japanese IPs under-perform and yet are never mentioned in the same breath as other IPs they own.
2. I think D'Astoous is on the right path believing SE wants to sell their soul to Sony and are willing to do anything to get that.