Sony's future and possible studio/publisher acquisitions

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peter42O

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Expecting Deviation Games to be Sony's next development studio acquisition but really hoping for Ember Lab.
 
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Yurinka

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My sources are saying IllFonic, Lucid Games and Camouflaj.
Destruction All Stars wasn't well received, but at Lucid have former SCE Liverpool, Evolution and Bizarre Creations staff that would be a great addition to Firesprite, where there are way more people from these 3 studios. In the same way Firesprite absorved Firesprite

Regarding Illfonic, the pitch using popular IPs did sound good (Sony published their Predator game) but I think their games never have been well received enough or had good sales enough to deserve to be considered by Sony as an acquisition.

Camouflaj did a very good job for Sony with Ironman VR in reviews and sales, and they have key staff with great experience in AAA games (they recently did open a Japanese studio with a former Capcom producer in charge of it). Sony will be interested to increase their bet on VR so this or other studios who successfully worked for them in AAA games are a highly likely candidate.
 
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Remember_Spinal

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Destruction All Stars wasn't well received, but at Lucid have former SCE Liverpool, Evolution and Bizarre Creations staff that would be a great addition to Firesprite, where there are way more people from these 3 studios. In the same way Firesprite absorved Firesprite

Regarding Illfonic, the pitch using popular IPs did sound good (Sony published their Predator game) but I think their games never have been well received enough or had good sales enough to deserve to be considered by Sony as an acquisition.

Camouflaj did a very good job for Sony with Ironman VR in reviews and sales, and they have key staff with great experience in AAA games (they recently did open a Japanese studio with a former Capcom producer in charge of it). Sony will be interested to increase their bet on VR so this or other studios who successfully worked for them in AAA games are a highly likely candidate.

I think whatever sony buy will be for more than their expertise that will benefit all their studios and SIE as a whole rather than just wanting more IP or game specific talent at this point.

I see mobile, pc, and VR, and general tech as companies sony would want to spend big money on. While VR is probably important, those studios wouldn’t need extra precautions for sony to purchase, most of them wouldn’t even ping the anti-trust’s attention.

If they were buying valve that would be different but gabe wouldn’t sell it sony even in his grave
 

Yurinka

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I think whatever sony buy will be for more than their expertise that will benefit all their studios and SIE as a whole rather than just wanting more IP or game specific talent at this point.

I see mobile, pc, and VR, and general tech as companies sony would want to spend big money on. While VR is probably important, those studios wouldn’t need extra precautions for sony to purchase, most of them wouldn’t even ping the anti-trust’s attention.

If they were buying valve that would be different but gabe wouldn’t sell it sony even in his grave
I think Sony would want to get the by far most important PC store, talent and maybe some patents behind their VR hardware plus devs who made Half Life Alyx. Their games and IPs would be a good extra, being the most valued for Sony Half Life Alyx. On top of that they could turn release PSP and PS Vita tv games on PC and have SteamDeck as their PSP3 on top of all what Steamdeck it already has. They could put PlayStation name on it, call it PSP3, PSVita 2, PS Deck or whatever like that.

But yes, I think Valve wouldn't sell. And I don't have any idea of Valve's revenue but if some day Gaben wants to sell it before retiring, it wouldn't be cheap.
 

Remember_Spinal

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Hey guys some hot news!
Sony hired a very famous lawyer and that’s very much likely a sign for a big deal to about to happen. Credit to @LightBolt for discovering it!



Bloomberg

 
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If it turns out to be Ubisoft or EA…then I am gonna turn for a whole month into a full Xboner and keep roasting Sony for this! 🤧
 

Dabaus

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Cross Posting from another thread:

Heres my thoughts on various companies and publishers and kind of where things stand IMO:

Square enix: (Most Likely IMO)
-Long, close history with sony
-Recently downsized by selling crystal dynamics
-At least 5 AAA exclusives with playstation which seems absurd
-Not outrageously expensive for what youre getting
-Most popular GAAS currently and also has a sizeable mobile division and some manga.
-Has had some hits but also some misses recently

Capcom: (Good relationship but doubtful)
-Has had a rocky history with sony in the past. Once made resident evil nintendo exclusive for the gamecube despite ps2 dominance. Pulled monster hunter off sony handhelds effectively killing the vita in japan before it launched.
-Was close with Microsoft during the 360 heydays
-Outside of street fighter 5, hasnt made a playstation exclusive for some time now
-Has close relations with nintendo and apparently porting resident evil games to apple platforms now too
-Theyre doing better than they ever have and get deals from all platfrom holders

Take 2: (Possible but really expensive)
-Huge acquisition that would shake up the industry but i think sony would leave games multiplat
-GTA and Red dead are the big games. Borderlands and Bioshock are the other big gets IP wise.
-Recently acquired zynga so maybe theres something there for a motive for a mobile division?
-Seems to be doing well financially

Ubisoft: (Possible because the value is low for how many IPs you would be getting)
-Huge, Bloated, and seemingly incompetent with all the recent cancellations, mess of a company
-String of toxic work culture allegations
-Workforce of 20,000 employees in various countries would be a legal nightmare in court with antitrust regulators
-Seems to be losing key staff based on who Haven is hiring.


EA: (Expensive but not impossible?)
-Was recently looking for a merger not that long ago
-Has a slew of IP including FPS, RPG, and GAAS service games
-Has kind of lost its mojo in terms of single player game success and battlefield was a flop
-Recently lost the licensing to Fifa
-Probably a legal nightmare in court with antitrust because of all the studios across the world and licensing agreements

Epic Games: (doubt it)
-Would be shocking in terms of "howd they do it" but wouldnt be surprising that sony would want them.
-Tencent holds like 40 percent i doubt theyd ever give that up
-Unreal engine being owned by a platform holder would probably raise alot of concerns legally
-Fortnite is a juggernaut and sony wants to lean in on GAAS
-Would be very expensive
-Has little reason to sell

CD Proect Red: (Entirely Possible)
-Value has collapsed
-Has the rights to one of the best selling western rpgs
-Has a pc storefront which is something sony probably would want
-Probably wouldnt raise too many concerns about antitrsut though?
-Sony pulled cyber punk off psn store so there may be some bad blood on cdprs end?

I dont think Bandai Namco, Sega, or level 5 would be a consideration.

Of all the companies listed i could see Square enix, CDPR, Ea, and take 2 in that order of most likely possibilities.
 
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Eternal_Wings

Eternal_Wings

Dein Nomos
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It would be funny it would be SEGA. They sold of a while back all their Arcade machine business.
That would be a Suprise no one would have considered. They have a big branch in NA, so then this hire would make sense.
 

Dabaus

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It would be funny it would be SEGA. They sold of a while back all their Arcade machine business.
That would be a Suprise no one would have considered. They have a big branch in NA, so then this hire would make sense.
Please No lol
 

Remember_Spinal

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SEGA sucks. Like objectively.

Outside of Yakuza and Persona (which still aren;t huge franchises) what do they really have? Phantasy Star a c tier mmo? a trail of failed 3d sonic games?

The most beneficial thing SEGA would have is their legacy libraries which get whored out so much its pretty much holds no value.