Does Sony need to buy more studios? Or more 3rd party deals?
- Thread starter Kokoloko
- Start date
Korean, Chinese and Japanese studios are always welcome.
There has been too much focus on the western devs and acquisitions of overpriced developers
There has been too much focus on the western devs and acquisitions of overpriced developers
Sony has created seemingly 3 more studios, santa monica, team split from bungie, and the talent taken from deviation. They should continue working with smaller devs on 2nd party relations and maybe down the road if the games are good, relations are solid and financials make sense do it as they have in past.
Simply buying big names does not work, just look at xbox, talent is lost or leaves and bigger the name would require changing the business
Simply buying big names does not work, just look at xbox, talent is lost or leaves and bigger the name would require changing the business
yeah, I think people forget that sony most likely have at least two internal studios that haven’t announced yet.
Honestly, I don't believe that Sony really needs to do anything. At most, expand their currently owned studios so they can have two games in development at once and then release them apart by 2-3 years so you can get 3 games or so in a generation from a single studio. Other than that, I would say Sony suits should stop listening to Bungie in all matters because they don't know what they're doing outside of ripping Sony off.
They already have many 3rd party deals, with AAA like the Final Fantasy games or keeping some Capcom games in VR and/or away from XBO, with AA-ish stuff like fighting games or Silent Hill 2, indies or their Chinese/Korean partnerships with stuff like ZZZ or (2nd party, not 3rd party) Stellar Blade, or doing the China/India Hero Project initiatives. I want them to continue with that. In fact, I think that as Xbox continues losing market share the amount of 3rd party exlcusivities or deals will increase.
Regarding acquisitions, I think that as they plan they have to continue expanding but not now. I think that before they have to properly integrate the studios they acquired in recent years, complete the payments, ensure their projects work well and in general to improve profitability to save money to acquire new studios specially if not waiting (I think they'll wait) until they get the money from selling most of their banks division. I think acquisitions is a complex topic to guess because the other part has to want or need to sell, which normally isn't the case in very successful companies as now are Capcom, FromSoft or MiHoyo.
I think that in some specific cases they may go more for an intermediate approach: with Kadokawa they may increase their investment stake on FromSoft, and they create a joint venture with Square Enix to acquire part of some -the interesting ones, not all- Square Enix studios. That would also help avoid the issues with regulators they could have they could have if going after big publishers since they are market leaders. And well, I don't see Chinese selling their a supersuccessful company like MiHoyo, but I think they could do make a deal with Sony selling them the totality or a portion of the subsidiary they have for selling their games outside China.
Regarding acquisitions or investments, it's important to remember that Sony wants to do them to grow in areas where they already aren't experts with their existing 1st party teams. So I assume their priority would be someone who could help them grow in areas where they want to expand like mobile, PC, GaaS, eSports, movie/tv shows and maybe in some top selling genre where they may depend too much on 3rd parties and there are maybe only a handhul top players and one of them may be in danger of being acquired by some top competitor like MS or Nintendo.
Regarding acquisitions, I think that as they plan they have to continue expanding but not now. I think that before they have to properly integrate the studios they acquired in recent years, complete the payments, ensure their projects work well and in general to improve profitability to save money to acquire new studios specially if not waiting (I think they'll wait) until they get the money from selling most of their banks division. I think acquisitions is a complex topic to guess because the other part has to want or need to sell, which normally isn't the case in very successful companies as now are Capcom, FromSoft or MiHoyo.
I think that in some specific cases they may go more for an intermediate approach: with Kadokawa they may increase their investment stake on FromSoft, and they create a joint venture with Square Enix to acquire part of some -the interesting ones, not all- Square Enix studios. That would also help avoid the issues with regulators they could have they could have if going after big publishers since they are market leaders. And well, I don't see Chinese selling their a supersuccessful company like MiHoyo, but I think they could do make a deal with Sony selling them the totality or a portion of the subsidiary they have for selling their games outside China.
Regarding acquisitions or investments, it's important to remember that Sony wants to do them to grow in areas where they already aren't experts with their existing 1st party teams. So I assume their priority would be someone who could help them grow in areas where they want to expand like mobile, PC, GaaS, eSports, movie/tv shows and maybe in some top selling genre where they may depend too much on 3rd parties and there are maybe only a handhul top players and one of them may be in danger of being acquired by some top competitor like MS or Nintendo.
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sony is in profit overdrive mode, they aren’t making risky bets with M&A.
They’re going to get something that can bring reliable residual income or greater efficiency for their studios. I could see them acquiring Arrowhead just because they will probably be indefinitely working on Helldivers 2 and eventually Helldivers 3. It will probably be easier to have them on the books internally, and another HD game is kind of a proven success.
They’re going to get something that can bring reliable residual income or greater efficiency for their studios. I could see them acquiring Arrowhead just because they will probably be indefinitely working on Helldivers 2 and eventually Helldivers 3. It will probably be easier to have them on the books internally, and another HD game is kind of a proven success.
Dragged your stank all the way from gaf huh.
The partnerships should be used to see which can fit as an internal studio if they choose to be bought. Fostering these relationships for a few years.
I would prefer if most were partnerships with third parties and that’s how Sony has historically been dominant; by being the console of choice for third party developers and publishers.
I also see less risk involved doing such vs a huge internal project as the partnered games tend to be a bit smaller in scope and costs shared.
I would prefer if most were partnerships with third parties and that’s how Sony has historically been dominant; by being the console of choice for third party developers and publishers.
I also see less risk involved doing such vs a huge internal project as the partnered games tend to be a bit smaller in scope and costs shared.
Agree.
I only say build new teams/studios for the certain case where a game like SOCOM who would make it? Not many PS studios outside guerrilla who would work on it & there working on Horizon online & Horizon 3 & a new ip.
In the case of reviving old ip poaching certain talent/devs from Tom Clancy/Rainbow Six Siege would make sense to not only revive SOCOM but work on existing ip like WarHawk, MAG, Resistance etc
PS turning there best studios multi team is something they should’ve done back in 2020. Naught Dog seem to be a 1 team studio which is disappointing since it means no mainline Uncharted or Jak & Daxter which is embarrassing considering Uncharted 4 sold 20 million & its been almost 10 years since the last Uncharted, not to mention Uncharted movie was successful & made more money then Indiana. There should be 2-3 team working on Uncharted. 1 Naughty Dog mainline, 1 license as spin off Uncharted more experimental & 1 licensed to a indy/smaller studio I’d take a Metal Slug Uncharted either pixel art or 3D/stylized a Uncharted Metal Slug type game that has a budget of 25-50 million & takes 3 years to make w 4 player online coop.
Not entirely true. 3rd party companies aren’t going to do exclusive anymore with the mainline franchise that they themselves have to develop. Nintendo still gets exclusive monster hunter & dragon quest & expect it to continue, it ain’t the mainline games but spin off will continue to see exclusivity & that’s almost been confirmed by Sega.
Sega will license there ip so in hypothetical PS could get a Persona exclusive game thoe it wouldn’t be Persona 6 nor would Sega themselves would develop. If PS had a studio that made JRPG sega would have no problem licensing the persona ip to allow PS themselves to make an exclusive games. It’s essentially free money with their own studios not being limited to making an exclusive game to 1 platform.
If PS owned Level 5 & went to Square to get hold of the FF license to make an exclusive I don’t see why Square Enix would reject that. There studios aren’t the one making the game so there main studios aren’t limited to 1 platform & possible limited profit/growth & licensing the FF ip to Sony that PS themselves make a FF game would be easy & essentially free money from licensing.
This literally happens with Apple & Sega. Sega licenses the Sonic ip to Apple & then Apple makes exclusive Sonic mobile game. Apple gets an exclusive then Sega gets free license money & Sega don’t have to put no work. Sega does this with Bayonette & Nintendo where they license Bayo to Nintendo & Nintendo founds platinum games who isn’t a Sega own studio so Sega doesn’t care it’s free licensing money by doing nothing. The only thing that would stop PS from getting FF exclusive games in the future is PS not having a studio internally to make it.
To be fair. Xbox problems aren’t necessarily something that would translate to PS.
Xbox console diminish by PC day 1
Xbox ecosystem/game sells diminish by Gamepass
Xbox games poor quality (casuals viewpoint of Xbox effected)
Xbox console & games not selling (mainly due to quality)
PS doesn’t necessarily have these problems. Maybe in the future if they continue with porting PS games to PC but hypothetically if Sony bought a publisher they would have no problem making them exclusive because PS is in the business of selling games, hardware, storefront & 3rd party mtx/subscription
I don't see them going on an acquisition spree since how everything has turned out now. They retained CoD for a decade and basically now Bethesda with addition of XGS titles coming. There was a phase of worry missing out on a 3rd of the (Western) industry and GAAS revenue but that's over.
They are the defacto console platform for 3rd party and with the Pro they automatically have the best version of games on console as well. They simply would (already) benefit from marketing/bundles.
If there were acquisitions I wouldn't do Western ones but get 2 Japanese studios. Agree with ArcSystem Works but not with Level 5. The latter is bloated and with issues, hasn't delivered over a decade, their heydays are 20 years back.
I would go for Nihon Falcom, consistent, historic, great titles, cheaper & smaller, underrated and a lot of room for growth to cultivate.
Sony would have four 1st party Japanese studios that would address Racing, Platformer, Fighting and J-RPG. Perfect to supplement the Cinematic and Live-service roster. It's wild to me that a Japanese platform doesn't own a J-RPG studio, I mean Nintendo got at least Monolith.
Furthermore continue what they are doing; Look, support and sign from emerging markets titles like Phantom Blade 0 to the platform.
Maybe get NeoWizz (Lies of P) work on an owned IP, work further with Shift-Up etc. Keep up what Yoshida is doing with the Indies stuff imo he is doing great filling in the quirky smaller titles.
On the 3rd party exclusives, I expect them to not have the need to rely on them since PS studios production pipe-line will churn titles out in the 2nd half.
They only have FF7-3 atm and KoToR remake is presumably canned maybe another Team Ninja title. I would've signed Persona 6, DQ12 and Bioshock 4 with their blockbuster focus but they probably missed the boat on those. Definitely would sign Yoko Taro (Nier) for a new title with maybe Platinum/XDev, have a feeling he is overlooked. And for FFS Sony, you got the magnificent Decima engine but barely utilise it, I expected the new studios to at use it.
They are the defacto console platform for 3rd party and with the Pro they automatically have the best version of games on console as well. They simply would (already) benefit from marketing/bundles.
If there were acquisitions I wouldn't do Western ones but get 2 Japanese studios. Agree with ArcSystem Works but not with Level 5. The latter is bloated and with issues, hasn't delivered over a decade, their heydays are 20 years back.
I would go for Nihon Falcom, consistent, historic, great titles, cheaper & smaller, underrated and a lot of room for growth to cultivate.
Sony would have four 1st party Japanese studios that would address Racing, Platformer, Fighting and J-RPG. Perfect to supplement the Cinematic and Live-service roster. It's wild to me that a Japanese platform doesn't own a J-RPG studio, I mean Nintendo got at least Monolith.
Furthermore continue what they are doing; Look, support and sign from emerging markets titles like Phantom Blade 0 to the platform.
Maybe get NeoWizz (Lies of P) work on an owned IP, work further with Shift-Up etc. Keep up what Yoshida is doing with the Indies stuff imo he is doing great filling in the quirky smaller titles.
On the 3rd party exclusives, I expect them to not have the need to rely on them since PS studios production pipe-line will churn titles out in the 2nd half.
They only have FF7-3 atm and KoToR remake is presumably canned maybe another Team Ninja title. I would've signed Persona 6, DQ12 and Bioshock 4 with their blockbuster focus but they probably missed the boat on those. Definitely would sign Yoko Taro (Nier) for a new title with maybe Platinum/XDev, have a feeling he is overlooked. And for FFS Sony, you got the magnificent Decima engine but barely utilise it, I expected the new studios to at use it.
OP
OP
They should invest in their own studios. With MS going third party and Xbox out of the window, there's no need for third party deals anymore.
Why do they need to be AAA
It's okay to make smaller games to fill the back catalogue while the larger stuff is developed.
The issue with bigger studios is there are only a limited amount that adhere to the standard. And those studios outside are not for sale or too costly. You don't wanna dilute your talent and sacrifice quality with quantity either. It's like they said from the SP perspective better to organically grow them. Valkyrie as a support studio was a good buy for example cause they have worked on both GoW so you expand Santa Monica indirectly.
Sucker Punch is up next, some folks already put them there but imo with Ghost 2 can really cement them at the top with the 20+ sellers.
Bend is still a category behind and you got Bluepoint & Housemarque with potential and Firesprite acquired.
I agree with Xbox out the way there is less of a need, but you still need to have 3rd party deals to entice people from going to PC or Nintendo. It's also about keeping people engaged on the platform not only mainstream but niche areas as well.
Sucker Punch is up next, some folks already put them there but imo with Ghost 2 can really cement them at the top with the 20+ sellers.
Bend is still a category behind and you got Bluepoint & Housemarque with potential and Firesprite acquired.
I agree with Xbox out the way there is less of a need, but you still need to have 3rd party deals to entice people from going to PC or Nintendo. It's also about keeping people engaged on the platform not only mainstream but niche areas as well.