How should Sony respond to the ABK acquisition, now that it is imminent?

[Lord Mittens]

I dont think they are going to do anything significant other than focus on the status quo - focus on GaaS, they made it loud and clear that's where they are going to help fund there first party titles.
I think Take Two is to big, and doesn't fit there current vision.

 

[anonpuffs]

He's already working under Sony, what do you think a publisher relationship is?

A partnership. He has more leverage in a partnership because he can take his studio and walk. Under Sony he can only walk himself out the door.

 

[Shmunter]

As much as I don’t like it, they need to ring-fence large 3rd party ip as part of an arms race. They need bargaining chips.

Capcom, SEGA, From, maybe even Ubi

 

[Ludwig]

As much as I don’t like it, they need to ring-fence large 3rd party ip as part of an arms race. They need bargaining chips.

Capcom, SEGA, From, maybe even Ubi

Def Capcom, From and Ubi, but they should have done one of them years ago. Not at the last minute.

 

[anonpuffs]

As much as I don’t like it, they need to ring-fence large 3rd party ip as part of an arms race. They need bargaining chips.

Capcom, SEGA, From, maybe even Ubi

Capcom yes, Sega no (they are MS aligned), From yes, Ubi no (they are too big headcount wise). I think for sure they are going after Square Enix. For Western devs I think they should form a long term partnership with Embracer who I believe just had a long term contract fall through with one of the others, probably Microsoft. Embracer has a lot of high quality indie titles and studios. Otherwise they need long term contracts or partial stakes in EA and Take Two to defend nba2k and madden/fifa(EA FC)

 

[Fenton]

 

[Bryank75]

Excellent post, I think it shows that things need to change and Sony have not been playing the toxic game that Microsoft have...

Time to make moves that do impact Xbox and Nintendo negatively.

 

[Johnic]

Sony should have reacted the moment MS bought Zenimax. But they dragged their feet and focused on shitty little studios that stole Ubisoft's homework and made a game based on it.

I seriously doubt they'll do much, apart from more small, no IP owning studios.

 

[DemonRavana]

I genuinely do think they're going to become more aggressive, if simply because they have to. They could focus on smaller studios when Zenimax went off the board because Zenimax isn't all that big when looking at the totality of the market. Most of their games outside of Bethesda's were underperforming and Bethesda only releases a big Elder Scrolls/Fallout/Starfall type game every 6-8 years or so.

Activision is something they can't ignore.

The question I have is if they're capable of becoming aggressive enough to sustain their position. Playstation is a gargantuan brand but yeah it's absolutely going to need a boost in 5-10 years and have to be protected from MS's further acquisitions. Do they have the money to accomplish that? I honestly don't know.

 

[Fenton]

Sony should have reacted the moment MS bought Zenimax. But they dragged their feet and focused on shitty little studios that stole Ubisoft's homework and made a game based on it.

I seriously doubt they'll do much, apart from more small, no IP owning studios.

They just can't casually blow billions of dollars like MS without any care. Also, PS is the market leader with highest revenue. So it's difficult to make big moves unless you promise that no games will be exclusive after acquisition. Little studios deals don't get scrutinized by regulators.

 

[Johnic]

@Fenton

They have enough to secure at least some IPs. Not only have they done none of that, they lost some of the partnerships they had. IOI is working with MS and will more than likely get bought. There goes the Hitman IP, Sony worked closely with for the PSVR implementation.

Sega is now firmly in MS' corner, after all those years of partnership with Sony.

But it's cool, because Haven made something out of Ubisoft's playbook that'll fail within 6 months.

Regulators no longer matter. If they let this acquisition through, there's no stopping anything else. It's legally not possible as any company looking to buy out major publishers can just point out to this.

 

[Fenton]

Speaking of Square Enix, Yuji Horii's Armor Project owns the Dragon Quest IP. Kingdom Hearts is owned by Disney.

 

[Johnic]

Speaking of Square Enix, Yuji Horii's Armor Project owns the Dragon Quest IP. Kingdom Hearts is owned by Disney.

So, Final fantasy and Just cause only?

 

[Fenton]

So, Final fantasy and Just cause only?

Yeah..and bunch of smaller IPs which won't really make MS nervous. Final Fantasy is the only big system seller they own.....and SE has no problem continuing the partnership with PS.

 

[FatKaz]

They just can't casually blow billions of dollars like MS without any care. Also, PS is the market leader with highest revenue. So it's difficult to make big moves unless you promise that no games will be exclusive after acquisition. Little studios deals don't get scrutinized by regulators.

I think it depends if regulators can identify a game like call of duty.

If sony went after square enix, most square enix games being removed from xbox or nintendo won't really effect the console gaming market, as alot of their big hitters don't even come out on Xbox, and Nintendo isn't really that much reliant on third party games either.

Imo if Sony did go after a big Japanese pub, western regulators may not be the biggest hurdle rather Japanese.

But considering how lopsided the competition is in Japan between Sony and Nintendo, Sony can make a case for making things more competitive in the Japanese market to the Japanese regulator.

 

[SLB1904]

Keep releasing new games

 

[Nhomnhom]

Its not gonna be great if MS buys Publishers and Ips like CDPR, Mortal Kombat, DC games, Sega and they will probably buy a Ubisoft or EA in a few years. Even if Im not a fan of certain games, the mindshare will be important. And alot of those games I dont wanna see not be on PS.

All Sony can do is like you said, make sure games like GTA will be on PS and not lose them. Maybe invest in small shares so they don’t lose publishers.

Capcom won’t sell supposedly and want to keep it in the family. And Square isnt enough anymore. FromSoft would be smart though, mindshare wise especially

I think SE is one where maybe they don't even need to buy, they can just secure the next big games as exclusive, but Capcom and FromSoftware would be about removing games from Xbox like MS is doing to PlayStation.

Xbox is trying to choke Sony out so maybe Sony can adopt a similar strategy but limited to Japan (without Japan the odds of Xbox doing well are limited as always).

Sony just need to outlast Xbox, not MS gaming ambitions, the thing it seem like Sony has bigger ambitions for PlayStation that aren't limited to just having a successful console (they want to be big in mobile, PC, GaaS and just having a successful console business doesn't seem like enough for them).

As much as I don’t like it, they need to ring-fence large 3rd party ip as part of an arms race. They need bargaining chips.

Capcom, SEGA, From, maybe even Ubi

Ubisoft? Ew, that's when I would stop caring if PlayStation dies or not.

 

[John Elden Ring]

You cant look this into a fan perspective but in a bussiness perspective.

Let's say your are Jim Ryan, there arew a few points to consider as a CEO:

• Sony market value is $110.61 Billion whereas Microsoft Microosft market value $2.472 Trillion.
• You have considerably less purchasing and investment powert than Microsoft.
• You recently purchased Bundie for 3.6 billion.
• Board will be desesperate because of the ABK deal.
• As PlayStation CEO, you still awnser under Sony CEO and cannot make decisions without the board approval.
• Square Enix recently sold their Montreal Division to Embracer, this means you lost the opportunity to acquire Tomb Raider, Deus Ex, Marvel Avengers for a really good price.

There isnt much of what Sony can do other than increase it's user install base, once Cal of Duty goes to Xbox it's over, they are going to lose those players who only purchase a PlayStation for Call of Duty.

So, looking as a Bussiness, PlayStation can:

• Increase the scope of the new PlayStation Plus service.
• Release their own PC Launcher and PlayStation Plus on PC via that launcher
• Create their own Call of Duty competitor by homologuing it's developemnt by one of their top studios (Naughty Dog, Insomniac, Santa Monica)
• Release Exclusive titles simultaneosly on PlayStation Plus and PlayStation PC to increase your Playstation Plus install base and increase profit without the need to pay Steam their percentage.
• Take the opportunity of the ABK deal to purchase a publisher since the board will be more leninent due to ABK deal.

Ressurecting OLD IPs like Killzone and Infamous to increase your catalog would be a massive gamble since producing sequels to those games would cost considerable more than what they did on the PS3 era with the risk of not bringing out profit.

-----

What Sony is probably considering right now is purchasing Square Enix. They currently are under a financial recession and probably would be purchased under a discount by Sony due to their past deals.

But if i were Sony i wouldnt purchase Square Enix without purchasing the rights to Square Enix Montreal games back, this means you are looking at an investment of around $10 billion + 2 billion for Embracer recently acquired titles.

 

[Airbus]

Since baldurs gate 3 coming next month...

Get Larian first...

And then lets decide whats next after that...

Xbox cant buy japanese publishers so the likes of sega, square enix, capcom are safe....

Maybe sony can start with Ubisoft...

Start building up from that...they have so many good dormant ips...

Sony can bring splinter cell back as metal gear replacements....

Oh i forgot sony already own bungie

Bungie is now officially part of Sony

Let the live service games begin.

www.theverge.com

Make the next destiny game playstation exclusive

 

[Vertigo]

They don’t need to react but people want them to.

They have already made key investments and can proceed with the plan and see how it pays off. They are already market leader by a huge amount and have the software needed to keep momentum. Stay the course.

Gamepass is at its core destructive and cannot fund AAA game development. Unlike Microsoft, Sony’s business model will not bankrupt its game studios. This alone is the key factor. They do not have to act. Microsoft will continue to not understand the industry and kill studios and revenues for themselves.

The first move is to remove ps plus paywall and give a fair competitive playing field for all multiplayer games vs the f2p giants. MS bought CoD (and more) for revenues made on PlayStation for the short term for sure. Don’t facilitate their dominance.

And if they were to react with a purchase that would all be subjective... I disagree with buying publishers and IP. It’s a waste if the talent isn’t there or just leaves. IPs don’t mean shit to me long term… I’ve seen both Halo and Star Wars turn to shit in my lifetime so there’s that.

But if I wanted to make a more perfect Sony in the image of my choosing; they already have my favorite studio so I’d just finish the dream team by signing Kojima Productions and From Software. And then I’d have Sony buy Toho in Japan to strengthen their japan library and get Godzilla and all other properties from the legendary Japanese movie studio. This would pair well with the crunchy roll purchase and non game media push.