Sony decides to buy a western publisher, who should it be & why?
- Thread starter Bryank75
- Start date
Ubisoft is a mess. No one wants to buy them.
T2 one game every decade, that makes tons of gold. Good for Sony but adds nothing to us.
Embracer has many developers who make smaller games that potential fill gamepass. Good option to hurt Gamepass. But adds nothing to us. Also, too many developers and studios. This is a nightmare to manage. They also expanded in bubble fashion. Not safe investment.
T2 one game every decade, that makes tons of gold. Good for Sony but adds nothing to us.
Embracer has many developers who make smaller games that potential fill gamepass. Good option to hurt Gamepass. But adds nothing to us. Also, too many developers and studios. This is a nightmare to manage. They also expanded in bubble fashion. Not safe investment.
Nexon isn't western, did you perhaps mean not Japanese?
If so, I'll cheat and say Krafton. They own PUBG, a few other shooter properties and some new teams dedicated to building AAA experiences.
CDPR also acceptable, as are IO Interactive or the Payday studio group, who's name I forget.
EA and T2 are too big for Sony to realistically afford (they'd realistically have to merge with EA, outright, for instance,) Embracer is a house of cards IMO and if they want some of Ubisoft they would be better off just buying those parts specifically (Red Storm/Tom Clancy/The Division, maybe that vikings and samurai game who's name I forget, etc.)
And then, like, I don't think that PC publishers like Valve or Paradox fit their plans.
If so, I'll cheat and say Krafton. They own PUBG, a few other shooter properties and some new teams dedicated to building AAA experiences.
CDPR also acceptable, as are IO Interactive or the Payday studio group, who's name I forget.
EA and T2 are too big for Sony to realistically afford (they'd realistically have to merge with EA, outright, for instance,) Embracer is a house of cards IMO and if they want some of Ubisoft they would be better off just buying those parts specifically (Red Storm/Tom Clancy/The Division, maybe that vikings and samurai game who's name I forget, etc.)
And then, like, I don't think that PC publishers like Valve or Paradox fit their plans.
God beware no!
Take2 brings no benefit, because their games come out every decade.
Ubisoft is mismanaged to hell, this mess to clean won’t Sony do any favour.
Embracer has nothing but mid franchises, there is no prestige in buying them. They are also too bloated.
Sony will look out for synergies: a publisher must resonate also with other division of whole Sony corporation. A Japanese publisher(s) is the only logical consequence for Sony. Be either Square Enix or Capcom (or maybe both) bringing tons of synergies. Anime, Manga publishing labels, Merchandising, movies, GaaS, Mobile Gaming and Video games. This is what Sony will evaluate for a potential acquisition.
Take2 brings no benefit, because their games come out every decade.
Ubisoft is mismanaged to hell, this mess to clean won’t Sony do any favour.
Embracer has nothing but mid franchises, there is no prestige in buying them. They are also too bloated.
Sony will look out for synergies: a publisher must resonate also with other division of whole Sony corporation. A Japanese publisher(s) is the only logical consequence for Sony. Be either Square Enix or Capcom (or maybe both) bringing tons of synergies. Anime, Manga publishing labels, Merchandising, movies, GaaS, Mobile Gaming and Video games. This is what Sony will evaluate for a potential acquisition.
Most speculation has been that Sony doesn't want that other stuff, just games and game tech. They can take it and fine a place for it in Aniplex or SME but thats just a bonus, not what the games division actually wants to spend its money on.
And since Sony already dominates Japan, what incentive is there to "strengthen" their already strong position there, unless against the Switch.
Lol don’t want that stuff, who is saying this?
Alone Gangan comics is a pure gold mine. Do you know how many successful anime Sony produced with Square Enix’s Manga franchises?
Every Anime they produced is so far a big hit! Currently Nier Automata very successful and popular. Don’t you guys do follow what Sony is also doing besides gaming? They didn’t buy Crunchyroll for fun. They want to gain a lot of market share in Anime industry. What would help them more than a Manga Publishing label in addition to buy a video game publisher?
Sony said themselves, that Anime sector shall become a core business.
You guys underestimating Anime, this is a Multi Billion Dollar industry and still on the rise.
I am telling you guys, Sony is not buying a western publisher. I am convinced it will be someone from Japan. Be it Square Enix or whoever.
The acquisition isn't being directed by Sony as a whole, rather by their Playstation division which has a set M&A budget. They don't want to spend "their" budget on boosting some other part of the company, they want to boost gaming. If Sony wants Gangan specifically thats up to the Aniplex people to argue for and as far as we know, they aren't. As to who's saying it, the people who were saying that the Eidos sell-off was to pave the way for a Sony buy-out (Sony "only interested in CBU teams".)
No that’s not in the slightest true. The “PlayStation division” is a 100% subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation. This is also a misinformation you do write, the budget for M&A wasn’t allocated by SIE, this is all organised by Sony Group Corporation (Hiroki Totoki CFO).
SIE doesn’t even have an own balance sheet, they are are all consolidated under Sony Group Corporation. Sony Group Corporation has it’s HQ in Japan, not California. When Sony will acquire a publisher from Japan, this will be something coming from the higher ups from Sony’s CEO Kenshiro Yoshida. This budget is for all Sony Group Corp. not only SIE. I am following Sony long enough besides gaming, they don’t do rushed moves. If Sony buys a publisher, it will be someone who brings a lot of resonances for other Sony divisions as well.
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EA
Apple, Amazon, Disney and Comcast in talks over Electronic Arts acquisition. It will be difficult for Sony to compete with the Tech Giants. Add to that the high price of the company.
Ubisoft
Number of employees: 20,665 (2022). We can end here lol. Don't forget that Tencent invested in them.
Epic Games
Sony owns a stake in Epic Games. That's enough for them.
Owners: Tim Sweeney (>50%), Tencent (40%). Good old Chinese here as well.
Nexon
Embracer
There is nothing to say about them, it seems unlikely that Sony will be interested in them.
Take-Two Interactive
And the winner is... T2!
Sony has no need for any other major western publisher. Maybe their big games come out rarely. But GTA is capable of selling for years. Also on the CEO role is Strauss Zelnick. He used to work at Sony, I read somewhere on the forum.
Apple, Amazon, Disney and Comcast in talks over Electronic Arts acquisition. It will be difficult for Sony to compete with the Tech Giants. Add to that the high price of the company.
Ubisoft
Number of employees: 20,665 (2022). We can end here lol. Don't forget that Tencent invested in them.
Epic Games
Sony owns a stake in Epic Games. That's enough for them.
Owners: Tim Sweeney (>50%), Tencent (40%). Good old Chinese here as well.
Nexon
Embracer
There is nothing to say about them, it seems unlikely that Sony will be interested in them.
Take-Two Interactive
And the winner is... T2!
Sony has no need for any other major western publisher. Maybe their big games come out rarely. But GTA is capable of selling for years. Also on the CEO role is Strauss Zelnick. He used to work at Sony, I read somewhere on the forum.
OP
OP
EA
Apple, Amazon, Disney and Comcast in talks over Electronic Arts acquisition. It will be difficult for Sony to compete with the Tech Giants. Add to that the high price of the company.
Ubisoft
Number of employees: 20,665 (2022). We can end here lol. Don't forget that Tencent invested in them.
Epic Games
Sony owns a stake in Epic Games. That's enough for them.
Owners: Tim Sweeney (>50%), Tencent (40%). Good old Chinese here as well.
Nexon
Embracer
There is nothing to say about them, it seems unlikely that Sony will be interested in them.
Take-Two Interactive
And the winner is... T2!
Sony has no need for any other major western publisher. Maybe their big games come out rarely. But GTA is capable of selling for years. Also on the CEO role is Strauss Zelnick. He used to work at Sony, I read somewhere on the forum.
Yes...
"Prior to forming ZelnickMedia, Strauss was President and Chief Executive Officer of BMG Entertainment, a $4.7 billion music and entertainment company. His appointment as President and Chief Executive Officer of BMG Entertainment followed his tenure as President and Chief Executive Officer of the company's North American business unit from 1994 through 1998. Before joining BMG Entertainment, Strauss was President and Chief Executive Officer of Crystal Dynamics, a leading producer and distributor of interactive game software. Prior to that, he spent four years as President and Chief Operating Officer of 20th Century Fox, where he managed all aspects of the worldwide motion picture and distribution business.
Previously, Strauss spent three years at Vestron Inc. as a senior executive and rose to become President and Chief Operating Officer. He also served as Vice President, International Television for Columbia Pictures."
He started in Columbia Pictures and then later was at BMG (Sony music subsidiary)
Strauss Zelnick - Chairman and Chief Executive Officer | Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc.
The Investor Relations website contains information about Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc.'s business for stockholders, potential investors, and financial analysts.
www.take2games.com
I agree that TakeTwo is the only logical choice, especially given that EA is larger, has Fifa license which would be forced everywhere and is less likely to go through regulators than Taketwo for MSFT if they attempted.
Also 20-30 billion is doable for Sony if they were determined..... and financing could look something like.... 10 billion cash, 5 billion paid in annual bonuses over 5 years(like Bungie) , 5 billion in Sony stock and 5-10 in issued debt / bonds.
Meaning they use most of their cash reserves that are only depreciating due to interest rates and poor markets and they only incur a relatively small amount of debt.
Edit: Even if GTA is a once per generation event, it's an evergreen title that constantly makes money. (for those that mentioned it)
EA doesn't have Fifa license.Yes...
"Prior to forming ZelnickMedia, Strauss was President and Chief Executive Officer of BMG Entertainment, a $4.7 billion music and entertainment company. His appointment as President and Chief Executive Officer of BMG Entertainment followed his tenure as President and Chief Executive Officer of the company's North American business unit from 1994 through 1998. Before joining BMG Entertainment, Strauss was President and Chief Executive Officer of Crystal Dynamics, a leading producer and distributor of interactive game software. Prior to that, he spent four years as President and Chief Operating Officer of 20th Century Fox, where he managed all aspects of the worldwide motion picture and distribution business.
Previously, Strauss spent three years at Vestron Inc. as a senior executive and rose to become President and Chief Operating Officer. He also served as Vice President, International Television for Columbia Pictures."
He started in Columbia Pictures and then later was at BMG (Sony music subsidiary)
Strauss Zelnick - Chairman and Chief Executive Officer | Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc.
The Investor Relations website contains information about Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc.'s business for stockholders, potential investors, and financial analysts.
I agree that TakeTwo is the only logical choice, especially given that EA is larger, has Fifa license which would be forced everywhere and is less likely to go through regulators than Taketwo for MSFT if they attempted.
Also 20-30 billion is doable for Sony if they were determined..... and financing could look something like.... 10 billion cash, 5 billion paid in annual bonuses over 5 years(like Bungie) , 5 billion in Sony stock and 5-10 in issued debt / bonds.
Meaning they use most of their cash reserves that are only depreciating due to interest rates and poor markets and they only incur a relatively small amount of debt.
Edit: Even if GTA is a once per generation event, it's an evergreen title that constantly makes money. (for those that mentioned it)
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They have the player license though, right? So it would probably be forced to be multiplat?
If not, maybe Sony should see if it's possible cause Fifa / EA Sports FC is very important to PS.....
I really don't know if 40 billion is feasible for Sony though, they could structure it very smartly but it's still massive money.
The upside is that EA is the biggest for engagement across platforms, so that would be absolutely huge for them and it would (and I think this is HUGE) possibly deny EA games in Gamepass. That would truly fuck MSFTs shit up.
EA also has NFL, NHL and UFC liscense agreements to worry about (and NBA, but they allow competition between multiple liscense holdees and consensus is that 2K puts out the better b-ball games anyway.) They also might have trouble justifying liscensing costs for non-sports stuff (Star Wars) if they only have one platform to sell through.
Thats probably a good reason for no-one having mentioned WB so far. And, hey IIRC, they are cheaper than EA, as in all of WB/Discovery could be had for less than EA.
Take 2 would be a great acquisition target for Sony, and they should pursue this in the unlikely event the regulators go against reason and signal that anticompetitive purchases are ok.
Rockstar is a tier 1 dev, and you have Ken Levine with Ghost Story, the Bioshock and Mafia franchises, Civ, Xcom, and sports titles.
If none of the manufacturers can buy big pubs, I'd prefer they bought IO, CD Projekt Red, and Larian instead.
Rockstar is a tier 1 dev, and you have Ken Levine with Ghost Story, the Bioshock and Mafia franchises, Civ, Xcom, and sports titles.
If none of the manufacturers can buy big pubs, I'd prefer they bought IO, CD Projekt Red, and Larian instead.
I see T2 as defensive buy. So people will know they ll get their usuall stuff on ps platformand that others dont buy it.
Nba and wwe ll stay multi cause of licence. Thats d be fine.
Gta with 10 year commitment to xbox. Sony can have bundles, dlc exclusive,marketing etc.
Rdr, borderlands, mafia....exclusives or ps/pc.
T2 s not that profitable. They re mismanaged and leaking money. They spend time on irrelevant stuff. No1 cares about horse balls.
If not, agree about cdpr anf larian. Some western rpg for fans andnoverall quality stufios for cheap. Gog can offer ps games on pc witout giving steam their cut.
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Definitely makes them far more complicated. It's hard to see EA or WB being worth it unless there is a very clever way to work around the issues.