Reuters: Sony in talks to buy Kadokawa [UP] The company wants Sony to buy all of its assets

[Cool hand luke]

Personally, I believe that Sony will keep all the studios/games multi-platform as they are because imagine Elden Ring not being cross-gen and multi-platform. It doesn't get anywhere near the 25m copies it has sold. Sony isn't going to give up all that extra revenue and profit which mostly comes from the gaming aspect of Kadokawa.

Also, all of Microsoft's studios have been far better than they ever have been for me. No way in hell would I ever take what they were pre-Microsoft to what they are now. I'm finally getting so many games that I actually want to play where as before, it was barely any and if I subtract Gears of War, jeez, it was a disaster for me.

It's funny, PlayStation/Xbox fans are upset or whatever and yet, here I sit the happiest I have ever been with both Sony and Microsoft!!!

No extra revenue to be had, really. They can convert Xbox owners to PS5 where they earn 100% of title sales instead of the earlier 30%, but even if they can't every native PS sale will likewise get them 100%. What they don't sell or convert is a loss in Fromsoft revenue of 70% given Xbox's cut.

Fromsoft before acquisition
100 sales at $70 ($7000, but only $4900 goes to From due to platform cuts)
80 PS5 ($70*70%*80 = $3920)
20 Xbox ($70*70%*20 = $980)
From earns 4900

Fromsoft after acquisition, Xbox version cancelled, no conversions to PS5
80 sales at $70 at 100% =
From earns $5600

So you see, they don't even need to sell more to be in a better position as a first party. The bonus? It doesn't work the other way. Microsoft NEEDS to keep releasing on PlayStation because it's 80% of every title.

 

[Puff]

The cost of buying out Kadokawa entirely could discourage Sony from acquisition deal, says Japanese finance outlet​

The cost of buying out Kadokawa entirely could discourage Sony from acquisition deal, says Japanese finance outlet - AUTOMATON WEST

Japan's Toyo Keizai reports that a total buyout of FromSoftware owner Kadokawa could be potentially challenging for Sony.

automaton-media.com

Rumors of Sony Group and Kadokawa Corporation being in the midst of acquisition negotiations surfaced last week. Since then, Kadokawa’s CEO made a statement to officially confirm Sony’s buyout interest. In addition, Bloomberg has reported that Kadokawa wants Sony to “buy it entirely or not at all,” while the latter is more interested in “extracting” only assets related to anime and video games.

However, Japan’s Toyo Keizai reports that Sony could face significant obstacles in fully acquiring Kadokawa, a major one being how much it would cost.

Kadokawa’s current shareholders are Korean IT giant Kakao (9%) and China’s Tencent (7%), which means that there are no major shareholders that could potentially block an acquisition by Sony. However, based on calculations by Macquarie Capital Securities Japan, the deal (in case of a total buyout) is expected to be worth more than 640 billion yen (which is around $4.3 million USD based on recent conversion rates).

As part of its midterm management plan for 2024 to 2026, Sony Group said it would allocate 1.8 trillion yen towards investments and flexible share repurchases. But the company has been spending significantly elsewhere too – amidst the rising costs of music rights, Sony Music has been making $1 billion dollar deals this year to acquire catalogs of artists like Queen (source: Variety) and Pink Floyd. Considering this, plus other large expenses like acquiring game studios, Toyo Keizai speculates that Sony may not have much leeway financially.

Moreover, even if Sony makes a tender offer, the acquisition might not go smoothly, as large-scale M&A deals can invite rivals. If a bidding war caused the cost of acquiring Kadokawa to soar, this could prompt Sony to back out. Just this year, the company has been named as a potential buyer in several acquisition deals, but has since seemingly given up. One such example is the Japanese digital manga provider Infocom, which Sony initially planned a bid for (source: Bloomberg), however, Infocom was ultimately acquired by US fund Blackstone.

Alternatively, Sony could acquire 15% of Kadokawa’s shares to convert it into an equity-method affiliate, or 50% to turn it into a subsidiary – both options would strengthen the two companies’ ties without the need to acquire all shares at once, but it remains to be seen what direction negotiations will take. Meanwhile, Kadokawa’s employees have expressed both excitement and disbelief at the prospect of joining Sony and the way this would level up their anime sector.

Another shitty analyst claims Sony can't afford a full buyout and is financially weak.

 

[SuperPotato]

The cost of buying out Kadokawa entirely could discourage Sony from acquisition deal, says Japanese finance outlet​

The cost of buying out Kadokawa entirely could discourage Sony from acquisition deal, says Japanese finance outlet - AUTOMATON WEST

Japan's Toyo Keizai reports that a total buyout of FromSoftware owner Kadokawa could be potentially challenging for Sony.

automaton-media.com

Another shitty analyst claims Sony can't afford a full buyout and is financially weak.

It's just an opinion piece.

 

[Thirty7ven]

Sony is under a bit of pressure here because this would be the third failed big acquisition in a row, which would make them look funny in the light.

It’s also obvious that Sony would’ve already known they would’ve to purchase the whole company.

 

[On Demand]

The cost of buying out Kadokawa entirely could discourage Sony from acquisition deal, says Japanese finance outlet​

The cost of buying out Kadokawa entirely could discourage Sony from acquisition deal, says Japanese finance outlet - AUTOMATON WEST

Japan's Toyo Keizai reports that a total buyout of FromSoftware owner Kadokawa could be potentially challenging for Sony.

automaton-media.com

Another shitty analyst claims Sony can't afford a full buyout and is financially weak.

The letter is already written and it’s for all of the shares. Kadokawa themselves confirmed this.

I don’t get why all this FUD.

 

[On Demand]

If they can’t afford it why would they already have agreement in place

 

[Cool hand luke]

The cost of buying out Kadokawa entirely could discourage Sony from acquisition deal, says Japanese finance outlet​

The cost of buying out Kadokawa entirely could discourage Sony from acquisition deal, says Japanese finance outlet - AUTOMATON WEST

Japan's Toyo Keizai reports that a total buyout of FromSoftware owner Kadokawa could be potentially challenging for Sony.

automaton-media.com

Another shitty analyst claims Sony can't afford a full buyout and is financially weak.

Poorly researched FUD. Sony can comfortably purchase Kadokawa in full and Kakao sold all its shares before this.

 

[Gediminas]

Poorly researched FUD. Sony can comfortably purchase Kadokawa in full and Kakao sold all its shares before this.

did you just assume there was any research?

 

[Monkeyclaw]

@Monkeyclaw

Salty, sport?

No, quite sweet actually? Why the interest if I may ask?

 

[peter42O]

Respect your opinion but does that include Rare?

I do see Rare as being the best they've ever been and by far, the most successful with Sea of Thieves. They are one of the few studios that aren't for me and the last game I beat from them was the original Donkey Kong Country for Super Nintendo. I did play Jet Force Gemini and Conker's Bad Fur Day but barely put any time into the game and outside of the intro for Conker, I don't remember anything from either game. I was never a big/huge Rare fan. I liked Rare but I never cared when they were acquired by Microsoft. Since the original DKC, I simply look at them as not being for me with is fine by me.

Make the same argument but with Spider-Man 2 and explain why it isn't on Xbox One and Xbox Series. Or God of War and Ragnarok, or Horizon... I mean how exactly are these different?

I'll even throw in FF7 Remake and Rebirth which they PAID to make exclusive...

The difference is that From Software is the biggest and most popular that it's ever been and unlike God of War/Horizon, being exclusive after their most successful game was multi-platform in Elden Ring will cause them to go back to the 5m or so level ala Bloodborne. From a business standpoint, Sony would be shooting themselves in the foot. For me, I don't care one way or the other because their games aren't for me. I don't lose or gain anything. I'm just looking at it from a business standpoint.

As for Spider Man, it's the biggest licensed IP and will sell 30M because of the license and the quality of the games from Insomniac. I wouldn't be shocked to at some point see Spider Man being on other platforms besides PC/PlayStation especially if/when the contract gets extended/renewed and Disney/Marvel want more money out of it. This wouldn't shock me at all.

Back to Kadokawa for a minute, Sony acquired Bungie and kept them multi-platform and you could easily argue that post Elden Ring, From Software is far beyond Bungie and to lose all the revenue and profit from not keeping them multi-platform just doesn't make sense to me from a business standpoint especially when Sony continues to chase (like majority of publishers) their live service Fortnite.

Xbox output is literally worse than ever. The fuck am I reading. Only thing that makes sense if this dude started playing games on Xbox One and was dropped on his head as a baby. None of this compares to even the OG console.

Xbox has been a dumpster fire since halfway thru the 360 gen.

I didn't play any Microsoft game on Xbox until this past summer when I went through all the Halo games and Infinite's campaign is by far the mother fucking best because it plays the fucking best. The old games, I can't aim down sights, I can't sprint, the Warthog controls were trash. Seriously, all the older Halo games are overrated in my opinion. Reach is by far Bungie's best.

Xbox 360, it was only Gears of War 1-3 which were awesome but that was it. The other games I completed from Microsoft were State of Decay, Mark of the Ninja, Deadlight and Sine Mora. Ninja was excellent but four amazing games in eight years. UGH.

Xbox One, it was Gears of War 4/5, Quantum Break, Ryse and Halo 5 which I played this past summer. Best game was Gears of War 5 for me. Quantum Break was fine. Halo 5 is 343's worst Halo game and 2nd worst in the series for me personally. Ryse was like The Order, a technical visual showcase that had a lot of potential but gameplay wise, left a lot to be desired.

Imagine if you subtract Gears of War. Everyone says that Xbox sucks and were better back then. No fucking way in hell is that the case for me. So many mediocre games, barely any fucking studios, barely anything of interest outside of Gears of War.

Fast forward to this generation -

- Halo Infinite campaign (my 2021 game of the year, 3rd best game of the gen and first Halo game I ever played and completed and is by far the fucking best from a combat/gameplay perspective which is what I care about the most)
- Starfield (my 2023 goty and #1 game of the gen and my first completed BGS game and no I don't care about the old Fallout/Elder Scrolls games and will wait for TES VI and Fallout 5)
- Hi Fi Rush (great 8.5/10 action adventure game and im not into rythm games at all)
- Gears Tactics (great 8.0/10 turn based strategy RPG)
- COD MW 3 (8.0/10 for the campaign, im not a warzone guy so people bitching about the open areas has nothing to do with me, MW 3 campaign is basically more COD, nothing more and nothing less)
- Hellblade 2 (good 7.0/10 at best, was more disappointing than anything)
- Redfall (above average 6.0/10 at best and while it's not horrible or bad/broken, it just doesn't do anything unique at all and if it wasn't for the fact that there's barely any games with Vampires in it, I never would have even played it)

- Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 (haven't played the campaign yet but my friend would put it as his second best game of 2024 behind only Astro Bot and he hasn't played a COD game since MW 2019 and if thinks it's this good, then yeah, I know that im going to like it a lot as we rarely disagree on games we both play and complete)
- Indiana Jones and the Great Circle (in all honesty, im not super hyped for Indy like my friend or others are but I am looking forward to seeing what Machine Games cooked up with Indy and getting away from Wolfenstein is a positive because The New Order is still the best of those four games)

2025 and beyond -
- Avowed
- Clockwork Revolution
- Contraband
- Doom: The Dark Ages
- Fable
- Gears of War: E-Day
- Marvel's Blade
- Perfect Dark
- South of Midnight
- State of Decay 3
- The Outer Worlds 2
- The Elder Scrolls VI
- Towerborne

I will never ever understand the bullshit hatred that so many people here have for Microsoft when it comes to their games this generation. I get it, they bought a lot of shit but hey, if anything, about fucking time they did something instead of the same boring Halo/Gears/Forza shit. Best of all, since Microsoft is by far the most dominant publisher when it comes to live service games, im finally getting what I have wanted from them for over a decade - single player games or at the very least, games that have a single player campaign that can be played solo like Towerborne. In general, first person, third person, action adventure, RPG's, etc.

I'm sorry but as someone who was a massive Xbox 360 fanboy, Microsoft fucking sucked with Xbox One and is far beyond what they were last generation and as I previously mentioned, subtract Gears of War and I had nothing but Mark of the Ninja on Xbox 360. One excellent game in eight years during the Xbox 360 generation which was already surpassed one year into this generation for me with Halo infinite. And while im back at being an Xbox fanboy this generation, I was 100% a PlayStation 4 fanboy last generation. It wasn't even close. Even Days Gone alone which was my 2019 goty blows away the few games I had on Xbox One and again, outside of Gears of War, Microsoft barely gave me anything of interest until this generation with Xbox Series X.

To each their own and all that but Microsoft can port every mother fucking game in their entire history to Sony/Nintendo platforms for all I care because no way in hell would I sacrifice what I have had this generation and what im getting in the future just for some limp dick lame ass exclusives in which I barely played and those I did outside of Gears weren't even all that good.

Way more happy, hyped and satisified with Microsoft and Xbox this generation than I ever have been in their previous history for one simple reason - they're finally giving me games that im interested in playing and completing.

 

[voke]

I do see Rare as being the best they've ever been and by far, the most successful with Sea of Thieves. They are one of the few studios that aren't for me and the last game I beat from them was the original Donkey Kong Country for Super Nintendo. I did play Jet Force Gemini and Conker's Bad Fur Day but barely put any time into the game and outside of the intro for Conker, I don't remember anything from either game. I was never a big/huge Rare fan. I liked Rare but I never cared when they were acquired by Microsoft. Since the original DKC, I simply look at them as not being for me with is fine by me.



The difference is that From Software is the biggest and most popular that it's ever been and unlike God of War/Horizon, being exclusive after their most successful game was multi-platform in Elden Ring will cause them to go back to the 5m or so level ala Bloodborne. From a business standpoint, Sony would be shooting themselves in the foot. For me, I don't care one way or the other because their games aren't for me. I don't lose or gain anything. I'm just looking at it from a business standpoint.

As for Spider Man, it's the biggest licensed IP and will sell 30M because of the license and the quality of the games from Insomniac. I wouldn't be shocked to at some point see Spider Man being on other platforms besides PC/PlayStation especially if/when the contract gets extended/renewed and Disney/Marvel want more money out of it. This wouldn't shock me at all.

Back to Kadokawa for a minute, Sony acquired Bungie and kept them multi-platform and you could easily argue that post Elden Ring, From Software is far beyond Bungie and to lose all the revenue and profit from not keeping them multi-platform just doesn't make sense to me from a business standpoint especially when Sony continues to chase (like majority of publishers) their live service Fortnite.



I didn't play any Microsoft game on Xbox until this past summer when I went through all the Halo games and Infinite's campaign is by far the mother fucking best because it plays the fucking best. The old games, I can't aim down sights, I can't sprint, the Warthog controls were trash. Seriously, all the older Halo games are overrated in my opinion. Reach is by far Bungie's best.

Xbox 360, it was only Gears of War 1-3 which were awesome but that was it. The other games I completed from Microsoft were State of Decay, Mark of the Ninja, Deadlight and Sine Mora. Ninja was excellent but four amazing games in eight years. UGH.

Xbox One, it was Gears of War 4/5, Quantum Break, Ryse and Halo 5 which I played this past summer. Best game was Gears of War 5 for me. Quantum Break was fine. Halo 5 is 343's worst Halo game and 2nd worst in the series for me personally. Ryse was like The Order, a technical visual showcase that had a lot of potential but gameplay wise, left a lot to be desired.

Imagine if you subtract Gears of War. Everyone says that Xbox sucks and were better back then. No fucking way in hell is that the case for me. So many mediocre games, barely any fucking studios, barely anything of interest outside of Gears of War.

Fast forward to this generation -

- Halo Infinite campaign (my 2021 game of the year, 3rd best game of the gen and first Halo game I ever played and completed and is by far the fucking best from a combat/gameplay perspective which is what I care about the most)
- Starfield (my 2023 goty and #1 game of the gen and my first completed BGS game and no I don't care about the old Fallout/Elder Scrolls games and will wait for TES VI and Fallout 5)
- Hi Fi Rush (great 8.5/10 action adventure game and im not into rythm games at all)
- Gears Tactics (great 8.0/10 turn based strategy RPG)
- COD MW 3 (8.0/10 for the campaign, im not a warzone guy so people bitching about the open areas has nothing to do with me, MW 3 campaign is basically more COD, nothing more and nothing less)
- Hellblade 2 (good 7.0/10 at best, was more disappointing than anything)
- Redfall (above average 6.0/10 at best and while it's not horrible or bad/broken, it just doesn't do anything unique at all and if it wasn't for the fact that there's barely any games with Vampires in it, I never would have even played it)

- Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 (haven't played the campaign yet but my friend would put it as his second best game of 2024 behind only Astro Bot and he hasn't played a COD game since MW 2019 and if thinks it's this good, then yeah, I know that im going to like it a lot as we rarely disagree on games we both play and complete)
- Indiana Jones and the Great Circle (in all honesty, im not super hyped for Indy like my friend or others are but I am looking forward to seeing what Machine Games cooked up with Indy and getting away from Wolfenstein is a positive because The New Order is still the best of those four games)

2025 and beyond -
- Avowed
- Clockwork Revolution
- Contraband
- Doom: The Dark Ages
- Fable
- Gears of War: E-Day
- Marvel's Blade
- Perfect Dark
- South of Midnight
- State of Decay 3
- The Outer Worlds 2
- The Elder Scrolls VI
- Towerborne

I will never ever understand the bullshit hatred that so many people here have for Microsoft when it comes to their games this generation. I get it, they bought a lot of shit but hey, if anything, about fucking time they did something instead of the same boring Halo/Gears/Forza shit. Best of all, since Microsoft is by far the most dominant publisher when it comes to live service games, im finally getting what I have wanted from them for over a decade - single player games or at the very least, games that have a single player campaign that can be played solo like Towerborne. In general, first person, third person, action adventure, RPG's, etc.

I'm sorry but as someone who was a massive Xbox 360 fanboy, Microsoft fucking sucked with Xbox One and is far beyond what they were last generation and as I previously mentioned, subtract Gears of War and I had nothing but Mark of the Ninja on Xbox 360. One excellent game in eight years during the Xbox 360 generation which was already surpassed one year into this generation for me with Halo infinite. And while im back at being an Xbox fanboy this generation, I was 100% a PlayStation 4 fanboy last generation. It wasn't even close. Even Days Gone alone which was my 2019 goty blows away the few games I had on Xbox One and again, outside of Gears of War, Microsoft barely gave me anything of interest until this generation with Xbox Series X.

To each their own and all that but Microsoft can port every mother fucking game in their entire history to Sony/Nintendo platforms for all I care because no way in hell would I sacrifice what I have had this generation and what im getting in the future just for some limp dick lame ass exclusives in which I barely played and those I did outside of Gears weren't even all that good.

Way more happy, hyped and satisified with Microsoft and Xbox this generation than I ever have been in their previous history for one simple reason - they're finally giving me games that im interested in playing and completing.

No offense whatsoever ever but you just glanced over what made Xbox 360 such a great platform compared to Series X. You had timed exclusive masterpieces such as Bioshock and Mass Effect 2. You had legendary trilogies such as Halo and Gears in their prime. Exclusive DLC for the two biggest gaming franchises (GTA, COD) and usually the best running version of third party games until towards the end of the gen.

Sounds to me the bulk of your gaming started last gen, because your dismissals of BGS games before starfield tells me you weren’t around to know how incredible their games were at the time. Skyrim is still 100% playable today and clears Starfield by every metric. I guess you just had to be there, I can understand not going back but sheesh… very hot takes there.

 

[mibu no ookami]

The difference is that From Software is the biggest and most popular that it's ever been and unlike God of War/Horizon, being exclusive after their most successful game was multi-platform in Elden Ring will cause them to go back to the 5m or so level ala Bloodborne. From a business standpoint, Sony would be shooting themselves in the foot. For me, I don't care one way or the other because their games aren't for me. I don't lose or gain anything. I'm just looking at it from a business standpoint.

That simply makes no sense. God of War 2018 and Horizon Zero Dawn sold just as many copies as Elden Ring once you remove Xbox from the equation. Spider-Man sold even more.

There is zero explanation here as to why Elden Ring would go from 25 million units to 5 million, simply because it wasn't on Xbox. Also Bloodborne sold 8 million units, which probably isn't significantly less than what Elden Ring sold on PlayStation.

As for Spider Man, it's the biggest licensed IP and will sell 30M because of the license and the quality of the games from Insomniac. I wouldn't be shocked to at some point see Spider Man being on other platforms besides PC/PlayStation especially if/when the contract gets extended/renewed and Disney/Marvel want more money out of it. This wouldn't shock me at all.

There is zero chance that Sony's spider-man games end up on xbox and the fact that they haven't, you're unable to answer for, which is why you pretend like maybe it'll happen in the future, because you have no real argument as to why it doesn't.

Back to Kadokawa for a minute, Sony acquired Bungie and kept them multi-platform and you could easily argue that post Elden Ring, From Software is far beyond Bungie and to lose all the revenue and profit from not keeping them multi-platform just doesn't make sense to me from a business standpoint especially when Sony continues to chase (like majority of publishers) their live service Fortnite.

Bungie specifically stipulated that they be able to manage themselves in the acquisition. From doesn't have that leverage.

After Marathon, I also doubt Bungie games remain self managed and they'll likely end up rolling under PlayStation Studios.

 

[peter42O]

No offense whatsoever ever but you just glanced over what made Xbox 360 such a great platform compared to Series X. You had timed exclusive masterpieces such as Bioshock and Mass Effect 2. You had legendary trilogies such as Halo and Gears in their prime. Exclusive DLC for the two biggest gaming franchises (GTA, COD) and usually the best running version of third party games until towards the end of the gen.

Sounds to me the bulk of your gaming started last gen, because your dismissals of BGS games before starfield tells me you weren’t around to know how incredible their games were at the time. Skyrim is still 100% playable today and clears Starfield by every metric. I guess you just had to be there, I can understand not going back but sheesh… very hot takes there.

I don't disagree with what you're saying in general as I didn't really start playing a lot of games until 2012. I was mainly a sports/puzzle/beat em up gamer. I would play the main games that I wanted to play like GTA III, Vice City, Manhunt, The Warriors, MGS 1 & 2, etc. but I was younger back then and had less time to play games than I do now. Now, im older and I don't have to work as much as I did in my 20's and 30's so I have more time to play games. For Xbox 360, I only completed 43 games and this includes games I played later on. Out of the 43 games, I only played 27 games day one in that entire generation. The other 16 were during the PS4/XBO generation or this generation. For PS3, I only completed 5 games total, 4 at launch. For Wii, I only completed 2 games and both were years after they launched.

For the series that you mentioned, I never cared about BioShock and still don't. It's not for me. I played the original Mass Effect for 45 minutes back then and tried playing it with Legendary Collection a few years ago and just can't do it. Just not into it. Was never into Halo until Infinite because the combat/gameplay looked great. The exclusivity and whatnot was great but it didn't do anything for me because it's not about the exclusivity, it's about the game itself and if it appeals to me enough to where im interested in playing it. The first COD game I played was Infinite Warfare in 2016. Campaign only. Don't care about multi-player/co-op in general. I went back and played the original MW but was like, okay, I can see these games being 90+ back then but when I played them, not so much if at all. This applies to Halo games as well because what may have been amazing back in 2001 or 2010 or whatever year they released, it wasn't anywhere close to amazing when I played them this past August. It's one of the reasons why I rarely go back and play old games because I know that the chances of them resonating with me with they did others back then is slim to none.

As for GTA, I beat 3 and Vice City. Loved Vice City and yeah, it's a Scarface rip off but that's one of my all time favorite movies which is why it's probably my favorite GTA game. I tried playing San Andreas and just wasn't into it. All I ever did in that game was enter those cheat codes for all the weapons, blow up everything to get a 5 star wanted level and then see how long I could last. lol. I played GTA 4 for maybe 30 minutes. I didn't care about the game. I did complete GTA 5 and rated it a 9.0/10 but I easily prefer Sleeping Dogs over it. I'm hyped for GTA 6 only because it seems to be a Bonnie and Clyde setup which sounds very interesting on paper. Hopefully, the game delivers for me but im nowhere close to being a GTA fanboy or anything like that because the games themselves would always play and run like shit and yet, they all score like 95+? Yeah, I don't fucking think so. lol

Back to 2012 for a minute. I completed 10 games day one that year. For comaprison, last generation with PS4/XBO/Switch (I guess it counts), I completed 97/5/5 games respectively. Vast majority of PS4 games from May 2014 onward was day one. Day one for Xbox One started with Rise of the Tomb Raider even though I have it setup as a PS4 2016 game so I could have it as my game of the year because there was nothing 2016 that was better for me and it wasn't beating out The Witcher 3 in 2015. The Switch games were only 3 day one and 2 remasters from Wii U.

So yeah, outside of 2012, you could definitely say that last generation was what really started everything for me. But I did love my Xbox 360 and had some awesome games on it like Splinter Cell Conviction, Sleeping Dogs, the Gears of War trilogy, etc. but I didn't really start expanding my interests until near the end of the 360/PS3 gen. For example, I was never into first person games and while the first game I ever played and completed was Jurassic: The Hunted (it's a 6.0/10 game from Activision but it had dinosaurs in it so I wanted to play it) but it wasn't until Far Cry 3 in 2012 that really got me interested in not only first person shooters but also open world games as the only one I played beforehand was Sleeping Dogs as open world games wasn't something I was into because I knew even back then, it's going to be mostly filler that's not worth my time.

Fast forward to PS4, I got way more into a lot more genres and IP's. Went back and played a decent amount of older games as well which I have also done this generation but the problem and why I don't like playing older games is because they don't have the same impact or feeling or whatever you want to call it. As for Skyrim for example, hell no, it's not playable for me nowadays. I played Fallout 4 years ago for about two hours and granted, it was after The Witcher 3 but im sorry, it looked and played like a shitty 90's PC fucking game. I could just look at it and im like, you gotta be kidding me and im not a graphics whore at all (it's third most important aspect to me in a game) but even I have limits. lol

I can only imagine what a Skyrim and I don't care how many times it's been milked (err, I mean remastered), it looks like it plays worse than an AA eurojank game which I have played a few. Plus, while im pretty sure the game can be played in third person, the melee combat in first person I know is horrible and third person isn't any better because the animations just aren't there. The reason why Starfield is awesome for me is because first, it's sci-fi which ranks higher for me than fantasy and post-apolcolyptic games, second, it has space ship combat where outside of No Man's Sky which isn't for me at all or that Starlink Ubisoft game which I did play and man, it was fucking boring, there's nothing else on consoles that gives me what im looking for. Star Citizen is the only other game that I would ever play but im spending $5000+ on a high end PC to do so. Just not worth it at all.

After that, I loved the combat/gameplay because unlike others say for example Dan Stapleton who's a BGS fan (hahaha, yeah right) but didn't know he had to unlock the ability to do stealth in the game. Starfield is truly my first ever BGS game and even I KNEW that you had to unlock stealth because it's in the damn skill trees. Seriously, I don't believe that reviewers or a lot of people in general ever check out what's in the game and what you need to do in order to do something when you're actually playing the game. I check skill trees and everything else that I can once I can open up menus and whatnot because I want to know what I need to do in order to do something gameplay wise in the game. I also don't believe that critics and people in general ever go into settings/options especially for the HUD because im always seeing all this shit that I turn off instantly. Sorry, that was a rant based on pet peeves of mine. UGH.

Anyway, back to Starfield. Combat/gameplay wise, I played it 100% as a first person shooter with ship combat being 100% in third person with the camera being behind the ship. I didn't do melee combat at all because it didn't look good so why bother and stealth when there's a ton of enemies inside interiors in close quarters? Nah, not doing that. I played the game the way I wanted to play and loved it. Loved the story/characters. The main quests and side quests especially the Crimson Fleet and UC faction quest lines, oh man, by far the fucking best since The Witcher 3. Nothing I have played between then and now comes close.

In general, im not even dismissing or shitting on the older BGS games, more than anything, I just don't care to go back and play a 13 year old game in Skyrim or to give a 9 year old game in Fallout 4 a second chance. I prefer to just wait for the newer games when they eventually release. Just like I did with Dragon Age, Halo Infinite, a few others and like I will do with Mass Effect, The Elder Scrolls and Fallout just to name a few.

Not only that but im someone that when I see games get 90+ overall with 150+ reviews or whatever, im like, yeah, sure okay. So many games I give chances to that are a 90+ and im like, get the fuck outta here with this overrated trash. I'm not a fan of Jim Sterling but my God, he was 100% accurate when he said BOTW is a 7.0/10. Hell yeah it is. I played that shit for 22 hours and the last two hours of just wandering around being bored as fuck, I was like, this game is done. Seriously, remove the Nintendo logo and the Zelda name, replace it with Immortals Fenyx Rising and the Ubisoft logo and I guantee the game doesn't even hit an 80. Guaranteed.

But anyway, I have posted more than enough. lol

 

[peter42O]

That simply makes no sense. God of War 2018 and Horizon Zero Dawn sold just as many copies as Elden Ring once you remove Xbox from the equation. Spider-Man sold even more.

There is zero explanation here as to why Elden Ring would go from 25 million units to 5 million, simply because it wasn't on Xbox. Also Bloodborne sold 8 million units, which probably isn't significantly less than what Elden Ring sold on PlayStation.

One other factor would be dependent on if the game is cross-gen or not which added to the 25m that Elden Ring sold. If it was only PlayStation and even more so if it was only PlayStation 5, it would be under 10m because the growth for the IP simply wouldn't be there. People can shit on Xbox all they want but it's not only about what they sell on Xbox. Even if it's 5m total, that's still a lot of money. But it's also about those who may not have an Xbox but do have a PlayStation and have friends/co-workers than play on Xbox (or PC for that matter) and are told about the game. That leads to extra sales on PlayStation. Too many people keep thinking about only the box which is irrelevant, obsolete and already has an expiration date the moment it releases. It's about the growth of the IP and you're not going to do that by limiting/restricting those who want to play it. Elden Ring is From's biggest and most successful game because IT IS mult-platform and cross-gen. Subtract these two and they go back to the as you said 8m or so sales like Bloodborne. Sorry but if im running a business, im not sacrificing all that revenue, profit and potential IP growth and potential growth on their future IP's since they would have a massive fan base just so some people who can't even run a lemonade stand have some bragging rights on Twitter and forums.

God of War was an already established IP and while Horizon was new, let's be fucking honest here - BOTH aren't souls games. They ARE geared and made for casuals. Not hardcore fans who like punishing themselves. Souls games are NOT for everyone, especially casuals. Spider Man sells because IT'S Spider Man. If it was ANT-MAN instead of Spider Man, you still believe that it's selling at the same ratio? I don't. Not even close and the game can be a 95, still not selling like Spider Man.

There is zero chance that Sony's spider-man games end up on xbox and the fact that they haven't, you're unable to answer for, which is why you pretend like maybe it'll happen in the future, because you have no real argument as to why it doesn't.

I disagree because if you go back 5 years ago, im 100% certain that every single PlayStation fan here would have said that there's a ZERO percent chance of Sony ever releasing their games on PC. Five years later, how did that go for you guys? Don't ever say there's a zero percent chance because you know that's not true. It's that YOU HOPE it's a zero percent chance, NOT that it is zero percent chance of happening.

Bungie specifically stipulated that they be able to manage themselves in the acquisition. From doesn't have that leverage.

After Marathon, I also doubt Bungie games remain self managed and they'll likely end up rolling under PlayStation Studios.

I don't think that it had anything to do with leverage. Destiny has been successful because it's everywhere. Bungie is everywhere and to take that away would simply be fucking stupid from a business standpoint. Not only that but since Sony has taken over Bungie and are keeping multi-platform, that tells me that they were never going to make them exclusive. It makes Sony too much money.

As for From Software, it has nothing really to do with them or the other studios. I simply believe that if Sony acquires Kadokawa, they will simply keep all their games multi-platform and if possible, cross-generation because Sony will simply want to earn back the return on investment as quickly as possible and cutting off platforms would simply prolong that process.

 

[mibu no ookami]

One other factor would be dependent on if the game is cross-gen or not which added to the 25m that Elden Ring sold. If it was only PlayStation and even more so if it was only PlayStation 5, it would be under 10m because the growth for the IP simply wouldn't be there. People can shit on Xbox all they want but it's not only about what they sell on Xbox. Even if it's 5m total, that's still a lot of money. But it's also about those who may not have an Xbox but do have a PlayStation and have friends/co-workers than play on Xbox (or PC for that matter) and are told about the game. That leads to extra sales on PlayStation. Too many people keep thinking about only the box which is irrelevant, obsolete and already has an expiration date the moment it releases. It's about the growth of the IP and you're not going to do that by limiting/restricting those who want to play it. Elden Ring is From's biggest and most successful game because IT IS mult-platform and cross-gen. Subtract these two and they go back to the as you said 8m or so sales like Bloodborne. Sorry but if im running a business, im not sacrificing all that revenue, profit and potential IP growth and potential growth on their future IP's since they would have a massive fan base just so some people who can't even run a lemonade stand have some bragging rights on Twitter and forums.

God of War was an already established IP and while Horizon was new, let's be fucking honest here - BOTH aren't souls games. They ARE geared and made for casuals. Not hardcore fans who like punishing themselves. Souls games are NOT for everyone, especially casuals. Spider Man sells because IT'S Spider Man. If it was ANT-MAN instead of Spider Man, you still believe that it's selling at the same ratio? I don't. Not even close and the game can be a 95, still not selling like Spider Man.



I disagree because if you go back 5 years ago, im 100% certain that every single PlayStation fan here would have said that there's a ZERO percent chance of Sony ever releasing their games on PC. Five years later, how did that go for you guys? Don't ever say there's a zero percent chance because you know that's not true. It's that YOU HOPE it's a zero percent chance, NOT that it is zero percent chance of happening.



I don't think that it had anything to do with leverage. Destiny has been successful because it's everywhere. Bungie is everywhere and to take that away would simply be fucking stupid from a business standpoint. Not only that but since Sony has taken over Bungie and are keeping multi-platform, that tells me that they were never going to make them exclusive. It makes Sony too much money.

As for From Software, it has nothing really to do with them or the other studios. I simply believe that if Sony acquires Kadokawa, they will simply keep all their games multi-platform and if possible, cross-generation because Sony will simply want to earn back the return on investment as quickly as possible and cutting off platforms would simply prolong that process.

So this just boils down to hopium... got it.

 

[Puff]

If Sony can't even manage to acquire Kadokawa, they might as well consider selling the PlayStation division and exiting the gaming industry altogether.

 

[Vertigo]

Bungie is positioned as a publisher separate from PlayStation brand. I would not assume that From will act as publisher if Kadokawa is bought out.

 

[Petekilla]

If Sony can't even manage to acquire Kadokawa, they might as well consider selling the PlayStation division and exiting the gaming industry altogether.

It would be embarrassing. If this was another acquisition that fell through.

 

[mibu no ookami]

If Sony can't even manage to acquire Kadokawa, they might as well consider selling the PlayStation division and exiting the gaming industry altogether.

It would be embarrassing. If this was another acquisition that fell through.

I can see why people are bringing up past acquisition attempts, but context matters.

These are the "failed" acquisitions we're talking about

• Zee Entertainment/Culver Max
  • This was actually a joint merger and the target company and their CEO ended up being super sketchy (embezelment). It would have given Sony a major boost in the Indian media landscape, but it could have ended up being disastrous.
  • They also had a line of debtors looking to get their money back
• Paramount
  • They initially planned to jointly pay 26 billion with Apollo to acquire the Paramount, but during the DD phase, it seems like Apollo was out. At the end of the day, it was probably too much debt to take on assets which have a business model that was failing, especially if your financing partner backs out. At the end of the day, no one bought out Paramount in full.
• InfoCom/MechaComic
  • Sony was allegedly looking to spend 1.3 billion and it ended up going for 1.5 or 1.7 billion. It's not clear why this failed, whether they were simply outbid or whether they lost interest in paying more that a certain amount for it. At the end of the day this was more than they bought Crunchyroll for.

All three of these failed for clearly different reasons and it wouldn't surprise me if Sony is back to looking at Paramount in 5-10 years. To clump them together is pretty lazy analysis.

 

[DarkLordOtaku]

If Sony can't even manage to acquire Kadokawa, they might as well consider selling the PlayStation division and exiting the gaming industry altogether.

What would be next for you, if Sony exited the gaming industry?