Reuters: Sony in talks to buy media powerhouse behind 'Elden Ring', sources say

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Puff

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mibu no ookami

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or Hellblade 2
It just shows that MS initially planned to make everything exclusive. And they would if they were a market leader

Microsoft spent 80 billion dollars on zenimax and ABK and have gotten absolutely nothing out of it. Bethesda has been on the decline for years and so have ABK..


By the end of this Sony will have likely spent less than 8 billion dollars on Insomniac, Bungie, and FromSoftware... rounding out a roster that already included Naughty Dog, Santa Monica, Polyphony Digital, Team Asobi, Guerrilla, Sucker Punch, and even Bend Studio...

The disparity there is ridiculous.
 

Zzero

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Microsoft spent 80 billion dollars on zenimax and ABK and have gotten absolutely nothing out of it. Bethesda has been on the decline for years and so have ABK..


By the end of this Sony will have likely spent less than 8 billion dollars on Insomniac, Bungie, and FromSoftware... rounding out a roster that already included Naughty Dog, Santa Monica, Polyphony Digital, Team Asobi, Guerrilla, Sucker Punch, and even Bend Studio...

The disparity there is ridiculous.
They've owned A-B for a little more than a year and already got a good Call of Duty out of it. Bethesda has absolutely saved their ass, they'd be multiple years into having had no major releases if it wasn't for them. The real dead weight is all of the problem child studios they rescued last gen. Shit units like Team Ninja literally never produce profitable games.
 

mibu no ookami

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Our favorite lawyer.

Let me break down things that this "expert" gets wrong and I'm not even half way through the video, so might have to do a part 2 of this post:

  • Sony didn't back out of the Zee Entertainment deal because they simply changed their minds or got buyers remorse.
    • The deal didn't close by the closing date
    • The Indian version of the SEC put out a report that the CEO of Zee was siphoning funds from the company and was banned from being an executive at any publicly listed company, that ban got reversed but Sony wanted someone else to head the company
    • There were also valuation and debt problems surrounding Zee
    • Also of note it wasn't a 10 billion dollar cash purchase, it was going to be a joint venture worth 10 billion dollars, with sony being the majority share holder (just slightly over 50%) and sony injecting something like 1.45 billion in capital into the new company
  • In Japan Letters of Intent are actually binding unless specifically cited otherwise a difference from the United States. Assuming all laws are universal is always a mistake.
    • More likely than not this is a binding letter of intent, meaning after Sony goes through its due diligence, unless something doesn't add up from before the letter of intent, it should come up with a tender offer.
 
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mibu no ookami

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They've owned A-B for a little more than a year and already got a good Call of Duty out of it. Bethesda has absolutely saved their ass, they'd be multiple years into having had no major releases if it wasn't for them. The real dead weight is all of the problem child studios they rescued last gen. Shit units like Team Ninja literally never produce profitable games.

Starfield was a disaster as was Redfall. Indiana Jones looks like it will be too.

Call of Duty hasn't driven Xbox console sales and it has only weighed down GamePass causing a massive price increase and a massive reduction in revenue for premium CoD sales on Xbox and PC.

To quote Kotick: value destructive
 

MrAss

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Microsoft spent 80 billion dollars on zenimax and ABK and have gotten absolutely nothing out of it. Bethesda has been on the decline for years and so have ABK..


By the end of this Sony will have likely spent less than 8 billion dollars on Insomniac, Bungie, and FromSoftware... rounding out a roster that already included Naughty Dog, Santa Monica, Polyphony Digital, Team Asobi, Guerrilla, Sucker Punch, and even Bend Studio...

The disparity there is ridiculous.
And I think we should not sleep on Housemarque. They were already robbed with Returnal but next round they will come and swing with some GOTY material.
 
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Zzero

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Starfield was a disaster as was Redfall. Indiana Jones looks like it will be too.

Call of Duty hasn't driven Xbox console sales and it has only weighed down GamePass causing a massive price increase and a massive reduction in revenue for premium CoD sales on Xbox and PC.

To quote Kotick: value destructive
Starfield was not a disaster, it made plenty of money and carried them in a period where they had nothing else. CoD also made money. Bethesda was an awesome buy, probably the best gaming acquisition since Sega buying Atlus. Activision was a whole lot of money and might pay itself back but will take time. The question is if you are talking about Microsoft or talking about Xbox.
 

ethomaz

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  • In Japan Letters of Intent are actually binding unless specifically cited otherwise a difference from the United States. Assuming all laws are universal is always a mistake.
This is true and the opposite of US.

“The default rule under Japanese law is that a letter of intent is a binding agreement, unless the letter of intent expressly states that all or a portion of its terms are non-binding.”

In Japan unless you say in the letter that it is a non-binding then it is binding.
 

voke

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And I think we should not sleep on Housemarque. They were already robbed with Returnal but next round they will come and swing with some GOTY material.
They could be absent for the rest of the gen, to me they’ve already made the quintessential game of this entire generation. They need all the time to build on that and cook more.
 

ethomaz

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Starfield was not a disaster, it made plenty of money and carried them in a period where they had nothing else. CoD also made money. Bethesda was an awesome buy, probably the best gaming acquisition since Sega buying Atlus. Activision was a whole lot of money and might pay itself back but will take time. The question is if you are talking about Microsoft or talking about Xbox.
Bethesda expected to make $1b with Startfield… it was leaked in the court documents.

They failed miserably to that target.
 
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Exactly, but look at the comments, they're all eating up the evil Sony narrative ☠️

We're at the point where Sony cannot do anything without getting shit on lmao. Internet now treats them like pre MS ABK, EA, and Ubisoft even though they have always been leagues beyond any of those publishers.

But if MS buys 80 billion worth of publishers it's somehow ok... quite odd.

No offense but you're just helping retards like that get traffic by linking them. Never even heard of them until your post and wish it had stayed that way.

This is where SIE's ignoring of cultivating a community presence with enthusiasts spaces and Western games media hurts them: idiots like whoever you linked having their 25 IQ fed pro-Xbox talking points from outlets like IGN and Digital Foundry, and likely indoctrinated into it for years if not since the 360 era.

It's the only "war" in the gaming space Microsoft's ever actually won, mainly because no one else cared to bother.
 

mibu no ookami

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Let me break down things that this "expert" gets wrong and I'm not even half way through the video, so might have to do a part 2 of this post:

  • Sony didn't back out of the Zee Entertainment did because they simply changed their minds or got buyers remorse.
    • The deal didn't close by the closing date
    • The Indian version of the SEC put out a report that the CEO of Zee was siphoning funds from the company and was banned from being an executive at any publicly listed company, that ban got reversed but Sony wanted someone else to head the company
    • There were also valuation and debt problems surrounding Zee
    • Also of note it wasn't a 10 billion dollar cash purchase, it was going to be a joint venture worth 10 billion dollars, with sony being the majority share holder (just slightly over 50%) and sony injecting something like 1.45 billion in capital into the new company
  • In Japan Letters of Intent are actually binding unless specifically cited otherwise a difference from the United States. Assuming all laws are universal is always a mistake.
    • More likely than not this is a binding letter of intent, meaning after Sony goes through its due diligence, unless something doesn't add up from before the letter of intent, it should come up with a tender offer.
Part 2

He partially admits he was wrong about Kadokawa costing 12 or 15 billion dollars, but still rounds up to 5 billion dollars, which is unrealistic to a degree. It shouldn't be more than 4.5 at the most.

He gets Sony and Tencent's ownership flipped, but I'll let that pass because of medical reasons. But what I won't let pass is that he doesn't know that Japan has squeeze out mechanisms in place and that Sony will almost certainly take 100% ownership of FromSoftware.

Also, any LOI would have had language for exclusivity in negotiations. Kadokawa can't simply take an offer from Microsoft or Tencent to get into a bidding war nor can they accept any offers from any companies until the exclusivity period ends. Whatever offer Sony comes up with Kadokawa's board will almost certainly put in front of shareholders. Most of which are institutional Japanese investors who are going to want to keep management of companies Japanese, not to mention they're not going to want to hold out for a better offer that might not come or come significantly later reducing the benefit of cash today (cash today is worth more than cash tomorrow).
 

saltyashell

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Starfield was not a disaster, it made plenty of money and carried them in a period where they had nothing else. CoD also made money. Bethesda was an awesome buy, probably the best gaming acquisition since Sega buying Atlus. Activision was a whole lot of money and might pay itself back but will take time. The question is if you are talking about Microsoft or talking about Xbox.
Huh? Starfield was touted to be the system seller game of the generation for Xbox. PC players bought a good amount of copies sure, but it totally flopped in terms of putting Xbox back as a viable console rival to Playstation. It's no surprise that they quickly pivoted to the "everything is Xbox" strategy soon after. You can tell even Bethesda doesn't came much for it anymore based on the horrible quality of that turd DLC they dropped on everyone. Too many people coddle Xbox and hold them to such low expectations as if the brand was their slightly retarded younger brother.
 
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