Jim Ryan: $3.6B Bungie Deal “Can Give Us Way More” Than $69B Activision Buyout

[Gamernyc78]

Jim Ryan: $3.6B Bungie Deal "Can Give Us Way More" Than $69B Activision Buyout

The PlayStation brand CEO, Jim Ryan, said that the Bungie deal gives them way more value than the Activision acquisition.

exputer.com

Jim Ryan: $3.6B Bungie Deal “Can Give Us Way More” Than $69B Activision Buyout​

The CEO also claims that PS Plus is more meaningful than Game Pass.​

By Shahmeer Sarfaraz4 days agoLast Updated: September 24, 2023
2 minutes read

Jim Ryan is currently the front face the of PlayStation brand.
Story Highlights

• The PlayStation brand CEO said in a Q&A that its $3.6 billion deal with Bungie “can give us way more” than the Activision buyout.
• Jim Ryan said that an acquisition for it is only valuable if it can help PlayStation deliver on its strategies in a way it is currently unable to achieve on its own.
• He clarified that publishers do not like the Game Pass service because it is value-destructive, not only on an individual level but also at an industry level.
• Jim finds the PlayStation Plus service to be more meaningful than Game Pass. He deemed 25 million Game Pass subscribers not to be as good as he expected.

Microsoft’s buyout of Activision has caused a major shift in the gaming ecosystem. However, Jim Ryan does not seem to see as much of an appeal in the major merger as Microsoft does. The CEO of the PlayStation brand said in an interview that its $3.6 billion deal with Bungie “can give us way more” than a $69 billion purchase of Activision.

The questioner asked Jim Ryan whether Sony saw Activision Blizzard as a target acquisition. He said that Bungie is more proficient for Sony, considering its capital. The now-unredacted interview was conducted last year between Jim and investors from Fidelity. Previously, many parts of the Q&A session were redacted, but the Reddit user u/PBOats121 has shared the complete interview on the official r/PS5 subreddit.

In terms of deployment of Sony’s capital, when you look at 69 billion dollars for Activision compared to 3.6 billion dollars for Bungie, we believe that Bungie can give us way more than a 69 billion acquisition of Activision,” said Jim Ryan.

Jim Ryan continues that this comparison is made before even the “relative value of the particular transaction” is considered. According to him, an acquisition is only ideal if it can help PlayStation deliver on its strategies in a way it is currently unable to achieve on its own. The CEO was also asked regarding the Xbox Game Pass model and the challenges that Microsoft has faced because of it.

Jim Ryan said that Microsoft did pledge minimum revenue guarantees to publishers to secure titles for the subscription service. He says the strategy “did not work at all” with many studios. Instead, the Xbox brand owner resorted to acquisitions to strengthen its Game Pass portfolio. He further clarifies that many publishers do not like the subscription service at all because it is value-destructive.

The interview also confirms that PlayStation Plus subscribers amount to nearly 50 million milestone. The number has likely surpassed that since it has been a year. Jim Ryan expected more from the Game Pass, implying that 25 million subscribers are not as good as he anticipated. Additionally, he dubbed PlayStation Plus as a “meaningful subscription service

 

[KiryuRealty]

Jim Ryan: $3.6B Bungie Deal "Can Give Us Way More" Than $69B Activision Buyout

The PlayStation brand CEO, Jim Ryan, said that the Bungie deal gives them way more value than the Activision acquisition.

exputer.com

Jim Ryan: $3.6B Bungie Deal “Can Give Us Way More” Than $69B Activision Buyout​

The CEO also claims that PS Plus is more meaningful than Game Pass.​

By Shahmeer Sarfaraz4 days agoLast Updated: September 24, 2023
2 minutes read

Jim Ryan is currently the front face the of PlayStation brand.
Story Highlights

• The PlayStation brand CEO said in a Q&A that its $3.6 billion deal with Bungie “can give us way more” than the Activision buyout.
• Jim Ryan said that an acquisition for it is only valuable if it can help PlayStation deliver on its strategies in a way it is currently unable to achieve on its own.
• He clarified that publishers do not like the Game Pass service because it is value-destructive, not only on an individual level but also at an industry level.
• Jim finds the PlayStation Plus service to be more meaningful than Game Pass. He deemed 25 million Game Pass subscribers not to be as good as he expected.

Microsoft’s buyout of Activision has caused a major shift in the gaming ecosystem. However, Jim Ryan does not seem to see as much of an appeal in the major merger as Microsoft does. The CEO of the PlayStation brand said in an interview that its $3.6 billion deal with Bungie “can give us way more” than a $69 billion purchase of Activision.

The questioner asked Jim Ryan whether Sony saw Activision Blizzard as a target acquisition. He said that Bungie is more proficient for Sony, considering its capital. The now-unredacted interview was conducted last year between Jim and investors from Fidelity. Previously, many parts of the Q&A session were redacted, but the Reddit user u/PBOats121 has shared the complete interview on the official r/PS5 subreddit.





Jim Ryan said that Microsoft did pledge minimum revenue guarantees to publishers to secure titles for the subscription service. He says the strategy “did not work at all” with many studios. Instead, the Xbox brand owner resorted to acquisitions to strengthen its Game Pass portfolio. He further clarifies that many publishers do not like the subscription service at all because it is value-destructive.

The interview also confirms that PlayStation Plus subscribers amount to nearly 50 million milestone. The number has likely surpassed that since it has been a year. Jim Ryan expected more from the Game Pass, implying that 25 million subscribers are not as good as he anticipated. Additionally, he dubbed PlayStation Plus as a “meaningful subscription service

Nothing untrue in any of that!

 

[John Elden Ring]

Nah, Activision has dozens of profitable IPs. To be fair, Insomniac was a steal compared to what Sony paid for Bungie.

I do agree those 70 billions could have gone into something else, but any company that could buy Activision Blizzard would have done so.

Call of Duty is one of the top five most profitable games of all time and makes a billion yearly. Bungie has basically Marathon and Destiny; Activision has Diablo, Overwatch, Candy Crush, Crash Bandicoot, Spyro. Guitar Hero, Starcraft, Tony Hawk etc etc.

 

[ethomaz]

IMO.

In few years Bungie will be doing close revenue as Activision.
Bungie revenue is rising and with two more games it will reach new levels.
Activision revenue will drop a lot… even CoD won’t do big numbers anymore.

Whatever enter in Gamepass will have the revenue sliced.
Whatever cuts PS5 will have near 50% drop in revenue.

 

[KiryuRealty]

Nah, Activision has dozens of profitable IPs. To be fair, Insomniac was a steal compared to what Sony paid for Bungie.

I do agree those 70 billions could have gone into something else, but any company that could buy Activision Blizzard would have done so.

Call of Duty is one of the top five most profitable games of all time and makes a billion yearly. Bungie has basically Marathon and Destiny; Activision has Diablo, Overwatch, Candy Crush, Crash Bandicoot, Spyro. Guitar Hero, Starcraft, Tony Hawk etc etc.

*formerly profitable

Activision strangled more golden geese than most publishers have ever created under Kotick.

 

[Gamernyc78]

*formerly profitable

Activision strangled more golden geese than most publishers have ever created under Kotick.

I Hvnt paid attention to their Financials lately.

 

[KiryuRealty]

I Hvnt paid attention to their Financials lately.

They’re basically doing nothing but COD these days. All the studios that did other things are either support for COD or shut down, even when they did have successes. The team that did Tony Hawk 1&2 remake is now on COD support and there won’t be any more Pro Skater games, even though the last one was a million-seller!

 

[Box]

What does Activision have beyond candy crush and Cod? Cod makes a lot of money but it's also very expensive to make.

 

[reziel]

They’re basically doing nothing but COD these days. All the studios that did other things are either support for COD or shut down, even when they did have successes. The team that did Tony Hawk 1&2 remake is now on COD support and there won’t be any more Pro Skater games, even though the last one was a million-seller!

Better yet their games are so bad that they have have to shutdown the previous Warzone to make people migrate to Warzone 2.0 it's a riot.

 

[Gamernyc78]

Better yet their games are so bad that they have have to shutdown the previous Warzone to make people migrate to Warzone 2.0 it's a riot.

They killed Warzone 2.0 for me with the changes they made specifically making inventory more cumbersome. I use to play Warzone daily.