Sony's future and possible studio/publisher acquisitions

[Bryank75]

It's a company who made $85.2B of revenue and $2B of operating income last year. And has 150.000 employees. Maybe gaming gives them some hundreds of millions -maybe a few billions- per year, but may not be enough for them.

In terms of game design, I'd say Marvel Snap is the best card game since Heartstone (designed by the same guys). This game needed only a very small team to be made, but generated over $100M and it's the top grossing cards game right now:

https://gameworldobserver.com/2023/08/30/marvel-snap-revenue-100-million-mobile-downloads-appmagic#:~:text=According to AppMagic, Marvel Snap is the highest-grossing collectible,by Yu-Gi-Oh!

So at least using top IPs like Warcraft and Marvel these guys know how to make great and very successful cards games. I think Sony could do something like a "PlayStation Snap" or something like that, basically Marvel Snap/Heartstone but using there characters from the SIE IPs. It would be cool to add an optional AR mode in the mobile version, it's a good idea.

Are you ready for Sony buying TakeTwo tomorrow?

 

[Yurinka]

Are you ready for Sony buying TakeTwo tomorrow?

They can't afford to acquire Take Two and pretty likely would have issues with regulators if they'd try this.

But I think they could afford the "small" (50-200 people according to Linkedin) mobile gaming studio who made a cards game.

 

[Bryank75]

They can't afford to acquire Take Two and pretty likely would have issues with regulators if they'd try this.

But I think they could afford the "small" (50-200 people according to Linkedin) mobile gaming studio who made a cards game.

Im just winding you up!

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

It's a company who made $85.2B of revenue and $2B of operating income last year. And has 150.000 employees. Maybe gaming gives them some hundreds of millions -maybe a few billions- per year, but may not be enough for them.

In terms of game design, I'd say Marvel Snap is the best card game since Heartstone (designed by the same guys). This game needed only a very small team to be made, but generated over $100M and it's the top grossing cards game right now:

https://gameworldobserver.com/2023/08/30/marvel-snap-revenue-100-million-mobile-downloads-appmagic#:~:text=According to AppMagic, Marvel Snap is the highest-grossing collectible,by Yu-Gi-Oh!

So at least using top IPs like Warcraft and Marvel these guys know how to make great and very successful cards games. I think Sony could do something like a "PlayStation Snap" or something like that, basically Marvel Snap/Heartstone but using there characters from the SIE IPs. It would be cool to add an optional AR mode in the mobile version, it's a good idea.

But I'd continue with the Marvel Snap approach of making its mechanics very simple to understand and fast to learn to -in addition to using massively popular IPs- to be able to reach a massive audience.

I get it, but also feel part of Marvel Snap's appeal was in large part due to, y'know, the MCU itself. And now that the MCU is having some serious problems in viewer retention and revenue power, that negatively impacts games like Marvel Snap.

The game itself seems sound; easy to learn but lots of depth. But I think Sony can do better than a "PlayStation Snap" variant. Give them room to do a whole new IP (maybe inspired by one or several legacy & current IP in ways, but otherwise original in its own right) and size & budget to make it a bigger transmedia IP.

Again, something like their own Pokemon. It'd tackle a lot of things simultaneously for Sony where they're somewhat lacking (GaaS, all-ages mainstream IP, merchandise-friendly IP, anime-friendly, manga-friendly, spinoff AA and maybe even AAA traditional game offshoots, physical card game variant for additional revenue, etc.).

Maybe they can leverage other IP in such a space for special crossover series or whatnot, tied to certain story events. But IMHO the IP itself should be its own unique thing that can stand on its own, like a Pokemon, Yu-gi-oh or Magic: The Gathering. Not reliant on licensed IP or multiversing with existing PS IP to be the big draw, because that might limit what can be done with the IP in the long run.

They can't afford to acquire Take Two and pretty likely would have issues with regulators if they'd try this.

But I think they could afford the "small" (50-200 people according to Linkedin) mobile gaming studio who made a cards game.

They can afford Take Two; you don't have to do just raw cash to do an M&A. Bank loans, share splits, even splitting the purchase up into phases/periods (like what they're doing with Bungie) are all options in lieu of or in addition to raw cash buys. How do you think Disney afforded Fox?

Does that suddenly increase the likelihood Sony buy Take Two? No. They don't need to buy a company like Take Two; a smaller publisher with better software IP & genre variety would suit them better. As for if buying Take Two would present issues with regulators...that depends on how good Sony could repurpose the talking points to put themselves in a position where such a M&A passes in the eyes of regulators.

They could certainly accomplish that if they genuinely wanted to, but I don't think they're interested in buying Take Two because they really don't need to in order to get a maximum return from them that a partnership (like marketing rights to GTA6) can already provide.

 

[Yurinka]

I get it, but also feel part of Marvel Snap's appeal was in large part due to, y'know, the MCU itself. And now that the MCU is having some serious problems in viewer retention and revenue power, that negatively impacts games like Marvel Snap.

They have bad retention because they now make crap and their priority is to put there woke propaganda instead of making good movies and tv shows.

The IPs remain there powerful, as show the big success of games like Spider-Man 2 and Marvel Snap show. They are IPs dozens of yeras old, a bad tv show won't affect them much.

The game itself seems sound; easy to learn but lots of depth. But I think Sony can do better than a "PlayStation Snap" variant. Give them room to do a whole new IP (maybe inspired by one or several legacy & current IP in ways, but otherwise original in its own right) and size & budget to make it a bigger transmedia IP.

Again, something like their own Pokemon. It'd tackle a lot of things simultaneously for Sony where they're somewhat lacking (GaaS, all-ages mainstream IP, merchandise-friendly IP, anime-friendly, manga-friendly, spinoff AA and maybe even AAA traditional game offshoots, physical card game variant for additional revenue, etc.).

Maybe they can leverage other IP in such a space for special crossover series or whatnot, tied to certain story events. But IMHO the IP itself should be its own unique thing that can stand on its own, like a Pokemon, Yu-gi-oh or Magic: The Gathering. Not reliant on licensed IP or multiversing with existing PS IP to be the big draw, because that might limit what can be done with the IP in the long run.

These guys are good making card games of super popular top IPs, not at creating new ones. The IP is the main hook of these games.

They can afford Take Two; you don't have to do just raw cash to do an M&A. Bank loans, share splits, even splitting the purchase up into phases/periods (like what they're doing with Bungie) are all options in lieu of or in addition to raw cash buys. How do you think Disney afforded Fox?

Disney afforded Fox having way more money than Sony has. Sony paid the whole Bungie acquisition when it was completed, but the retention bonuses for the workers is bigger than usual.

Does that suddenly increase the likelihood Sony buy Take Two? No. They don't need to buy a company like Take Two; a smaller publisher with better software IP & genre variety would suit them better. As for if buying Take Two would present issues with regulators...that depends on how good Sony could repurpose the talking points to put themselves in a position where such a M&A passes in the eyes of regulators.

Sony is the top 1 gaming company, top 1 console gaming company, top 1 game subs (at least outside mobile, with AAA games). They beat their direct competitor by obscene market shares in regions like EU. Make sure that they'd have issues with regulators if they'd try to acquire Take 2. And well, Sony doesn't need them and knows that if anyone ever buys Take 2 will keep them on PS, because as happens with CoD it would be a finantial suicide to remove upcoming GTA, NBA2K or RDR from PS.

On top of that, Sony would spend dozens of billions acquiring them for no big change for their market. They'd continue being the top gaming company, specially on consoles/AAA. The biggest change would be that Sony would climb a few positions in the top grossing PC and mobile publishers rankings, which I think isn't worth several dozens of billions on an acquisitions when they already are growing fast by themselves and already have the Take 2 games secured on PS, and if needed their Sony teams already can do games of the same type than the Take 2 ones.

When growing via acquisitions makes more sense to do it in highly profitable areas -like PC and specially mobile- and genres -as TCG- where they don't have enough experience, expertise and success where they have room to grow. Specially if they are a "small" studio with a low of potential and could help them adapt their SIE IPs to mobile and would help them grow in Asia.

 

[Deleted member 223]

Boring topic at this point. What's really interesting is the strategies post Jim Ryan era to get back to a 150 million install base, and grow past 150 million. I personally love the topic cause it will eventually hit the elephant in the room - for PS to grow past the 150 m base, in a post Xbox world, it will need to eat into PC market share in the premium games market. And naturally it won't do so by supporting Steam or PC with its software - hence the policy of support for PC will literally fall apart on itself.... that, or PlayStation simply won't grow significantly past that - unless all of the sudden China opens up massively (good luck there!). This topic is childs play.... "I want that toy" "I can't afford it" "Maybe I can" "If I don't buy this toy maybe that other dirty boy will buy it".... rinse and repeat.

 

[JAHGamer]

Boring topic at this point. What's really interesting is the strategies post Jim Ryan era to get back to a 150 million install base, and grow past 150 million. I personally love the topic cause it will eventually hit the elephant in the room - for PS to grow past the 150 m base, in a post Xbox world, it will need to eat into PC market share in the premium games market. And naturally it won't do so by supporting Steam or PC with its software - hence the policy of support for PC will literally fall apart on itself.... that, or PlayStation simply won't grow significantly past that - unless all of the sudden China opens up massively (good luck there!). This topic is childs play.... "I want that toy" "I can't afford it" "Maybe I can" "If I don't buy this toy maybe that other dirty boy will buy it".... rinse and repeat.

Hard to believe that this was Sony's marketing just a few short years ago ..... they'll never have anything as powerful as this ever again unless the new leadership is smart, which I doubt will be.

 

[ksdixon]

It's a bit contradictory to claim some of these are highly successful if the company themselves are stepping away from the studios and even the industry.

However, I do think Sony need some type of truly transmedia IP that could also be, among other things, adopted for the TCG space (digitally and physically). Maybe even integrate that with what they had going with Eye of Judgement, for (optional) expanded play capabilities.

Though hopefully something with more substance than Marvel Snap (from what I've seen of it). Maybe closer to a MTG or Yugioh, but (hopefully) with mainstream, transmedia appeal closer to a Pokemon. It'd take effort, but it can be done.

Surely there's nfc/hologram shit/camera/qr scanning in modern phones, to where instead of developing an Eye Of Judgement type accessory, they could return to and buff out the old "PLAYlink for PS4" app and games range, where you play with some combination of PS and Mobile. Or amiibo style, like place bits on the phone screen, have stats reflected in game. Or a game to also be developed for console and work on the PS camera?

 

[ksdixon]

Are you ready for Sony buying TakeTwo tomorrow?

Do it. Bring the WWF SmackDown series home and make it exclusive, after a few generations of giving Nintendo and XB's failed systems your crumbs and stretching too thin. Refocus and Improve. Code to PS5 features/metal (then hope like fuck Portal pulls it's weight).

And yes, I'm aware WWE is absolute barrell scrapings compared to T2's other properties, but I think there's some merit to sprucing 2K's sports range, throwing-in with SSD without MLB license, or indeed also picking up the old EA license perhaps. Combine EVO/PS tournaments and have an "EVO for sports games" all pumping back towards PS ecosystem.

 

[ksdixon]

Boring topic at this point. What's really interesting is the strategies post Jim Ryan era to get back to a 150 million install base, and grow past 150 million. I personally love the topic cause it will eventually hit the elephant in the room - for PS to grow past the 150 m base, in a post Xbox world, it will need to eat into PC market share in the premium games market. And naturally it won't do so by supporting Steam or PC with its software - hence the policy of support for PC will literally fall apart on itself.... that, or PlayStation simply won't grow significantly past that - unless all of the sudden China opens up massively (good luck there!). This topic is childs play.... "I want that toy" "I can't afford it" "Maybe I can" "If I don't buy this toy maybe that other dirty boy will buy it".... rinse and repeat.

1. Buy/Tie-Up Studios and IPs.

2. Make exclusive (Co develop/fund de-facto exclusives). Use our motion capture studio and other stuff for less/for free, but for that support, games exclusive bruh. A rising tide lifts all boats. And let MS invest in their own fucking infrastructure setup. They own enough studios now.

3. Cross promote with Sony owned wider media efforts (finished watching season 1 of anime? Go play the next game on PS right now. Stream from Netflix/PS+ streaming blah blah blah. Preordering this game? Here's a digital comic subscription/redemption code for it. Better than 6 early upgrade tokens ffs).

4. Buff up the Social/Live from PS5 crap. In an influencer world, there should be a PS ecosystem in-road to properly stream games/manage content, or go live and give updates walking down the road. I think there's something in PS/Xperia/PSX wordplay to have PSX refer to experimental media/gaming devices/apps, something to fit your adaptable lifestyle. I know there's stub-ends dotted around PS4/5 OS's, but I'm meaning like a cohesive platform. Not to run too far away with things, but you can certainly drive some traffic from YouTube/Twitch instead of feeding them?

5. Retrofit the "follow this game" on PS5, bring back PS4 stuff where you could follow developers. Have a section of PS dashboard for news/dev diaries/shutting down FUD stillborn. Don't give that traffic to Twitter or Wired etc. Make people come to you for breaking. The usual "games media" regurgitation will follow, but the bs narratives are harder to build in face of Sony still-borning it, and people know to get latest developments they need PS/Sony hardware. Imagine getting "U R NOT e" stealth announcements etc.

6. Future-proof Portal with PS+ streaming if not getting a real handheld. But I really think they should, if XB pull Surface and XB together, they could have a portable machine out there tomorrow and suddenly Sony's the only one with a screen controller and not a real handheld. Why do they want it tracked as a console?

7. Looking at the disc drive attachments for new PS5 Slim, can Sony not produce little attachable PS1/PS2/PS3 attachment drives with needed components in there (like plugging in bulky ass expansion bays) as a physical BC stopgap, or produce more classic teacup consoles? Give them a gen's breathing room for sorting the digital BC backend out.

8. Buy up that ring of sites that's in trouble and set-up some form of fair and balanced industry journalism.

There's loads of stuff that isn't support pc to your own detriment on console. I've never understood that push from anyone. MS or Sony.

 

[ksdixon]

CDPR probably makes sense if Sony want a leap frog into the PC store space, with nod towards GOG. But DRM free games/music hasn't been how Sony have tradionally leaned. I myself don't see the benefit of own store, as EA Origin and UBI Play, and Battle.Net launcher have all re-engaged with the STEAM borg. It doesn't seem like a winning strategy, but then again neither does Sony supporting PC at all, to me. Was Cyberpunk (eventually) all that? Or The Witcher rights in the clear now etc? Can CDPR really carry the dip in RPG's left by MS's spending sprees?

 

[Yurinka]

Boring topic at this point. What's really interesting is the strategies post Jim Ryan era to get back to a 150 million install base, and grow past 150 million. I personally love the topic cause it will eventually hit the elephant in the room - for PS to grow past the 150 m base, in a post Xbox world, it will need to eat into PC market share in the premium games market. And naturally it won't do so by supporting Steam or PC with its software - hence the policy of support for PC will literally fall apart on itself.... that, or PlayStation simply won't grow significantly past that - unless all of the sudden China opens up massively (good luck there!). This topic is childs play.... "I want that toy" "I can't afford it" "Maybe I can" "If I don't buy this toy maybe that other dirty boy will buy it".... rinse and repeat.

Last year they did show that China was the top 6 country for PS5 installbase, compared top 11 for PS4 launch aligned. They also partnered with multiple Chinese, Korean or Indian teams during the Jimbo era for PS that I assume will help them grow in Asia, the biggest and fastest growing area in the world, to enlarge the previous PS+XB installbase.

But the growth potential growth in Asia is more on PC and specially mobile, this is why they also have been expanding to these areas.

And well, eyond getting more market share from XB, growing the install base on PS is very difficult, so this is why they tried to increas the average revenue per user (or console) via GaaS, subscriptions, accesories/VR, increasing engagement to also grow the amount of games per user etc.

 

[Deleted member 223]

Lol. For one, don't stop selling consoles in Russia, while PC and Steam continue to thrive there - war or no war. Russia is a market PS is already significantly behind PC and that is poised to grow - and that is just but one example. And you don't claw market-share in markets where PC is "dominant" (more like default choice due to consumer purchasing power economics, and market structure of the "third world") by co-opting PC. The way to grow in those markets is to do the heavy leg work.... find great marketing partners, great distributors, and obviously make affordability a paramount sale, on top of console gaming culture (there is such a thing). It will also obviously involve a great share of politics by the Japanese govt - which leaves a lot to be desired. Each market needs its careful strategy.... a one-strategy fits all only works for the G7 and appendages economies which are very similar in nature (and even there some exceptions are made). And the cap in G7 and associated territories, assuming Xbox is irrelevant (back to OG Xbox numbers or killed in 2027) is about 150m or so. Unless of course, you claw back marketshare from PC in the G7 and its appendages and for that..... well.... good luck supporting PC getting you there, and not actually working against that very thing and with momentum.

You have to be really out there on the IQ scale to not notice how stupid it's to co-opt PC on markets where it's the default gateway to premium gaming (the only thing you're doing is strengthening PC's grip and offering no alternative with a significant differentiation). To still type that with a straight face - yikes. Maybe if the audience is a low IQ idiot. Obviously if Sony waves the white flag internally that is a different discussion all-together (ceding markets). Unfortunately I do not know what the current state of morale is for the higher ups making the calls... I do know this PC push is completely idiotic by all angles imaginable, long term self-defeating, and working from there I can speculate on a few things.

Bottomline PC and Consoles share the premium games market. That means there will be an eternal tussle and tug of war for market-share dominance and it will be zero-sum in large part. That can not be reconciled by any idiotic "business" concept for co-existence and peace. Those who pitch those crazy ideas are just mediocrity not doing their jobs and dangerous - to the brand and business. BTW Xbox exists because of this very fact - not because MS was ever interested in competing with Sony with toys - there is no chance for peaceful co-existance - only eternal competition, until one side ultimately falls. "All in on Gaming".

 

[Yurinka]

In recent years we saw Sony investing on or partnering with these Korean companies, Mihoyo, Kadokawa/Froom, Epic or Devolver.

I think that beyond specific stuff they may have linked to these deals (such as getting some exclusive, movie adaptation, codevelopment, helping them publishing or marketing some game, maybe to develop some game for them etc), it's a step to strenghten their relationship more, eyeing a potential acquisition some years in the future, depending how these deals perform and evolve.

Lol. For one, don't stop selling consoles in Russia, while PC and Steam continue to thrive there - war or no war. Russia is a market PS is already significantly behind PC and that is poised to grow - and that is just but one example. And you don't claw market-share in markets where PC is "dominant" (more like default choice due to consumer purchasing power economics, and market structure of the "third world") by co-opting PC. The way to grow in those markets is to do the heavy leg work.... find great marketing partners, great distributors, and obviously make affordability a paramount sale, on top of console gaming culture (there is such a thing). It will also obviously involve a great share of politics by the Japanese govt - which leaves a lot to be desired. Each market needs its careful strategy.... a one-strategy fits all only works for the G7 and appendages economies which are very similar in nature (and even there some exceptions are made). And the cap in G7 and associated territories, assuming Xbox is irrelevant (back to OG Xbox numbers or killed in 2027) is about 150m or so. Unless of course, you claw back marketshare from PC in the G7 and its appendages and for that..... well.... good luck supporting PC getting you there, and not actually working against that very thing and with momentum.

You have to be really out there on the IQ scale to not notice how stupid it's to co-opt PC on markets where it's the default gateway to premium gaming (the only thing you're doing is strengthening PC's hold and offering no alternative with a significant differentiation). To still type that with a straight face - yikes. Maybe if the audience is a low IQ idiot. Obviously if Sony waves the white flag internally that is a different discussion all-together (ceding markets). Unfortunately I do not know what the current state of morale is for the higher ups making the calls... I do know this PC push is completely idiotic by all angles imaginable, long term self-defeating, and working from there I can speculate on a few things.

Bottomline PC and Consoles share the premium games market. That means there will be an eternal tussle and tug of war for market-share dominance and it will be zero-sum in large part. That can not be reconciled by any idiotic "business" concept for co-existence and peace. Those who pitch those crazy ideas are just mediocrity not doing their jobs and dangerous - to the brand and business. BTW Xbox exists because of this very fact - not because MS was ever interested in competing with Sony with toys - there is no chance for peaceful co-existance - only eternal competition, until one side ultimately falls. "All in on Gaming".

They know that in some important markets console are barely nothing and even if they improve a bit there on console, the main gaming markets there will continue being PC and specially mobile.

On top of that, they know that the potential growth of the console market is limited and they need to grow beyond that, so they need to grow to PC and mobile. Because PC and mobile are way bigger gaming markets than PS.

Regarding the Japanese government and G7, they won't give a fuck about videogames. They would care about strategical markets such as energy, military weapons or important resources as could be water.

Things like Bungie acquisition and the PC ports did help Sony to become the top 1 gaming company in the world, outperforming Tencent, while in console they enlarged their market share and keep breaking records and growing in most areas. I don't see the mediocrity there.

 

[Deleted member 223]

Wrong.

PC has a bigger addressable, but they're not effectively bigger than consoles in premium gaming, just a fraction. The term should be "effective" addressable market - the one you can actually monetize for gaming in a structured manner and not a la carte (not to mention the piracy scene). You actually have to monetize that addressable market the way Steam, Epic and other publisher storefronts do, with a structure that is closed.

Consoles have been the structure the premium games market revolves around and continues to revolve in, not PC. Industry lifecycles and tech jumps start when Sony and Nintendo decide with a console lifecycle, not when Nvidia releases a new set of cards. Because consoles dictate industry direction, they also dictate when PC hardware is obsolete by way of min reqs. That is to say, PC Gaming is an appendage to consoles in many respects. Many of those PC-console links can be broken and severed greatly to position consoles even more market dominant (in other words, eat PC marketshare), instead of what has been happening since Microsoft came into the market with the Xbox trojan horse - an erosion of console identity, differentiation and strengths. The strategies to server those links require first of all an unequivocal approach to unique hardware identity, and to push console hardware strengths to the max, to present roadblocks between commonalities in Console-PC development environments - that is to say, to not allow MS and the Windows centric development environment dictate console development environment (API, standards etc). This all boils down to software (developer) support/exclusion btw - it's an eternal content war afterall. MS and Gabe (Valve/Steam) call this "splitting the market". I call it two bitches fearing being left out - thus acting accordingly. On mobile said companies got no chance at all... for Apple and Google are not as weak, nor as stupid by miscalculation as Sony. I guess Apple and Google did have experience on their side when dealing with MS, as opposed to Sony boasting about the grand canyon gap and its consumers getting two jobs to afford a PS3.... Sony has been paying dearly since.

But to destroy this little notion: Sony's PC direction can be boiled down to attaching itself to Valve/Steam by the hip - a direct competitor. Sony's offerings on PC don't go beyond Steam's market reach, in any of the markets discussed and thus limited by Steam's market access and penetration. So this idea of this huge addressable market..... pure and absolute nonsense. It's Steam's marketshare and reach, with a trickle from Epic's Game Store. That is effectively Sony's reach on PC - it's not independent of Steam or Epic's Game Store, it's dependent on it - hence the effective addressable market is nowhere near that huge market idiots babble about but a fraction of Sony's own console market. It's one of the many reasons Sony's software sales on PC for its top of the line top selling exclusives miss sales targets, and is, in all but name, an embarrassment. The vague suggestions that PC is this huge market is the "1% of China" redux for IQ midgets sucking on the corporate tit to push their opinions and agenda, and the other idiots with no critical thinking skills who can't discern a dick for a tree. Premium gaming on PC is a relatively small fraction of the console market when all consoles are bunched together, and is still smaller than the market leader even in a direct comparison.

Btw Valve and Epic copied consoles, to give the PC market a semblance of structure, to be more like consoles in anything but name - a market that before them was chaos - and it has resulted in an effective market monopoly with Steam, on top of the existing MS monopoly with Windows. Somehow the PC market and PC consumers love monopolies - btw this is not a suggestion in jest - it's actual fact. There is more effective competitive movement in consoles than on PC - which makes consoles more attractive, and healthy for the premium games market. You're talking about a product that has to justify itself every 6-7 years at point 0. Couldn't disagree more with anyone that could call that structure limiting and conservative. That structure is what has gotten the market and gaming to where it's today - a great balancing model.

The problem for consoles in the third-world, and in emerging markets is a market access, market operations, market marketing issue at its core - these issues are not impossible to overcome, just require a lot of hard work, and above all, the right strategy and the right minds (team) coming up with said strategy (very market specific). How you market and do operations in the U.S will never be the same as in Russia, even if there are some similarities you may try to latch to wherever possible...... or for that matter Korea, Singapore, Brazil etc.

If anything the strongest competitor consoles have is the poor leadership it has had for the last 2 console generations who have failed to get successful operations going in India, China, Brazil and Russia - the future growth markets. I should rephrase that, better operations, because they do have operations in those markets - just sadly farts in the wind - for now. Now you can make the case it's almost impossible in some instances to get a great operation going, and the bullshit in those markets does run deep, whether its the insane tariffs, straight up blocks etc.... but you know, where there is will...there is way. Its a grind.

Mobile is a different subset of gaming, it's not premium gaming. There is very little cross-palette in titles and consumption patterns between premium games, and the platforms that support it (PC, Consoles) with mobile games, and the platforms that support it (phones). The mobile gaming business model broken down to its basics draws from the console model as its inspiration but that's about it. A Sony mobile operation is not a subject that is in any way related to the topic at hand, and that includes Sony's efforts there as a third party publisher - cause the platforms are owned by Apple, and the storefronts running on android, Google Play Store, and soon enough Chinese equivalents.

The Japanese govt. cares very much about its tech giants, Sony being one. And using PlayStation as a tool to play politics with Russia is, in this case, just plain stupid. That Sony went along..... well.... Sony does take marching orders well lets just leave it at that. Could have picked something else but that is another topic. Good luck gaining consumer good will in Russia when, in their time of stress, you packed your bags to play hostile grand strategy.... I'm told it's working great too btw /s. The only winner of Sony agreeing to do what it did is PC, by extension MS, and Steam.

 

[gokuss4]

Sony will buy take two interactive dream still on

 

[Eternal_Wings]

Sony will buy take two interactive dream still on

Sega is more realistic than Take2 lol.

 

[avenovah]

Sega is more realistic than Take2 lol.

Then Square Enix will be offended lol

 

[Eternal_Wings]

Then Square Enix will be offended lol

It was a joke bruh. People need to stop expect Sony buying Mega sized publisher like TakeTwo is. Something on the scale of Square or Sega is realistic.

 

[Yurinka]

Wrong.

PC has a bigger addressable, but they're not effectively bigger than consoles in premium gaming, just a fraction. The term should be "effective" addressable market - the one you can actually monetize for gaming in a structured manner and not a la carte (not to mention the piracy scene). You actually have to monetize that addressable market the way Steam, Epic and other publisher storefronts do, with a structure that is closed.

Consoles have been the structure the premium games market revolves around and continues to revolve in, not PC. Industry lifecycles and tech jumps start when Sony and Nintendo decide with a console lifecycle, not when Nvidia releases a new set of cards. Because consoles dictate industry direction, they also dictate when PC hardware is obsolete by way of min reqs. That is to say, PC Gaming is an appendage to consoles in many respects. Many of those PC-console links can be broken and severed greatly to position consoles even more market dominant (in other words, eat PC marketshare), instead of what has been happening since Microsoft came into the market with the Xbox trojan horse - an erosion of console identity, differentiation and strengths. The strategies to server those links require first of all an unequivocal approach to unique hardware identity, and to push console hardware strengths to the max, to present roadblocks between commonalities in Console-PC development environments - that is to say, to not allow MS and the Windows centric development environment dictate console development environment (API, standards etc). This all boils down to software (developer) support/exclusion btw - it's an eternal content war afterall. MS and Gabe (Valve/Steam) call this "splitting the market". I call it two bitches fearing being left out - thus acting accordingly. On mobile said companies got no chance at all... for Apple and Google are not as weak, nor as stupid by miscalculation as Sony. I guess Apple and Google did have experience on their side when dealing with MS, as opposed to Sony boasting about the grand canyon gap and its consumers getting two jobs to afford a PS3.... Sony has been paying dearly since.

PC gaming existed before consoles went mainstream and will continue after consoles will stop existing. In fact it was a bigger market than consoles until in 2020 due do the covid bump + Switch peak year + PS5 record launch casually happened at the same time.

Sony barely started in PC and they already are top 20 publisher in PC.

And even if SIE still didn't roll out their expansion to mobile but they already also are a top 10-20 publisher in mobile:

But to destroy this little notion: Sony's PC direction can be boiled down to attaching itself to Valve/Steam by the hip - a direct competitor. Sony's offerings on PC don't go beyond Steam's market reach, in any of the markets discussed and thus limited by Steam's market access and penetration. So this idea of of this huge addressable market..... pure and absolute nonsense. It's Steam's marketshare and reach, with a trickle from Epic's Game Store. That is effectively Sony's reach on PC - it's not independent of Steam or Epic's Game Store, it's dependent on it - hence the effective addressable market is nowhere near that huge market idiots babble about but a fraction of Sony's own console market. It's one of the many reasons Sony's software sales on PC for its top of the line top selling exclusives miss sales targets, and is, in all but name, an embarrassment. The vague suggestions that PC is this huge market is the "1% of China" redux for IQ midgets sucking on the corporate tit to push their opinions and agenda, and the other idiots with no critical thinking skills who can't discern a dick for a tree. Premium gaming on PC is a relatively small fraction of the console market when all consoles are bunched together, and is still smaller than the market leader even in a direct comparison.

Sony's main business is PS5, and their only direct competitor is Microsoft. Indirect competitor is Nintendo. PC isn't a competitor for them, it's a secondary revenue and profit source for them. A very profitable one -enough to give them hundreds of millions per year- with a great growth (+50% YoY for them this H1), even if they have to pay some revenue share to Steam or Epic.

Of course PC is a huge market that makes around $40B/yera, bigger than PS (let's remember PS has under half of the console games market). It's a fact, you must be a blind flat earther to deny it.

And well, to buy premium game isn't being replaced by GaaS addons in PC only. It's also happening in consoles.

And Sony missed their PC target for last FY for around 50M because Returnal and TLOU were delayed to the end of the FY, so that around 50M were moved to the next year. That is also part of the reason of why they had an around 50% growth YoY outside PS during this H1.

Btw Valve and Epic copied consoles, to give the PC market a semblance of structure, to be more like consoles in anything but name - a market that before them was chaos - and it has resulted in an effective market monopoly with Steam, on top of the existing MS monopoly with Windows. Somehow the PC market and PC consumers love monopolies - btw this is not a suggestion in jest - it's actual fact. There is more effective competitive movement in consoles than on PC - which makes consoles more attractive, and healthy for the premium games market. You're talking about a product that has to justify itself every 6-7 years at point 0. Couldn't disagree more with anyone that could call that structure limiting and conservative. That structure is what has gotten the market and gaming to where it's today - a great balancing model.

There's no monopoly with Steam, there are many stores and Steam can't block others from open their own one. Some of the most successful publishers as Riot with LoL or Epic with Fortnite and whatever Tentent may have in China don't use/need Steam.

The problem for consoles in the third-world, and in emerging markets is a market access, market operations, market marketing issue at its core - these issues are not impossible to overcome, just require a lot of hard work, and above all, the right strategy and the right minds (team) coming up with said strategy (very market specific). How you market and do operations in the U.S will never be the same as in Russia, even if there are some similarities you may try to latch to wherever possible...... or for that matter Korea, Singapore, Brazil etc.

The problem in the 3rd world is that people can't afford them because they are poor or because there are crazy taxes in their country or because their economy is so fucked up, it isn't a marketing issue. But they have PC and mobile, and play there. So companies like Sony or MS approach these markets via mainly PC and mobile.

If anything the strongest competitor consoles have is the poor leadership it has had for the last 2 console generations who have failed to get successful operations going in India, China, Brazil and Russia - the future growth markets.

PS5 doubled the sales of PS4 in the same time frame in Asia thatnks to their growth in countries as China or India.

I should rephrase that, better operations, because they do have operations in those markets - just sadly farts in the wind - for now. Now you can make the case it's almost impossible in some instances to get a great operation going, and the bullshit in those markets does run deep, whether its the insane tariffs, straight up blocks etc.... but you know, where there is will...there is way. Its a grind.

Mobile is a different subset of gaming, it's not premium gaming. There is very little cross-palette in titles and consumption patterns between premium games, and the platforms that support it (PC, Consoles) with mobile games, and the platforms that support it (phones). The mobile gaming business model broken down to its basics draws from the console model as its inspiration but that's about it. A Sony mobile operation is not a subject that is in any way related to the topic at hand, and that includes Sony's efforts there as a third party publisher - cause the platforms are owned by Apple, and the storefronts running on android, Google Play Store, and soon enough Chinese equivalents.

I don't remember the precise market research reports that mentioned it, but most console gamers also play on mobile, and the majority of mobile gaming players also play on PC and console.

Live service games are the most popular ones in both revenue and userbase in mobile, PC and console. They generate the majority of the revenue in all 3 markets. Most of the most popular games in all 3 markets are GaaS. They already dominate totally mobile, and are growing fast in both console and PC.

In the near future console, PC and mobile will continue converging into a single shared market in both hardware and software. And as a result games will start becoming more and more similar.

The Japanese govt. cares very much about its tech giants, Sony being one. And using PlayStation as a tool to play politics with Russia is, in this case, just plain stupid. That Sony went along..... well.... Sony does take marching orders well lets just leave it at that. Could have picked something else but that is another topic. Good luck gaining consumer good will in Russia when, in their time of stress, you packed your bags to play hostile grand strategy.... I'm told it's working great too btw /s. The only winner of Sony agreeing to do what it did is PC, by extension MS, and Steam.

Japanese government has nothing to do with Sony's decision in gaming, only someone crazy would think seriously. Specially when SIE has an English CEO and their HQ in USA.

And well, it may also be a surprise to you to know that MS doesn't get a cent of Sony games being published on PC. In fact they hurt MS's market gaming share there. The main winner of Sony publishing games in PC is Sony because Sony is the one who gets the hundreds of millions they'll generate there every year, mostly with ports of old games who already completed their sales cycle on console, ports that are super cheap to make. So highly protifable for Sony.

PC games also help Sony popularize their IPs more in giant regions where consoles aren't popular, but where they play PC and mobile and watch movies, so will be able to monetize the SIE IPs there even more via these other channels.