I agree, but it's a different industry environment now. It's a different, more aggressive PlayStation too. They have already bought Haven even though the studio hasn't even released a game yet.
Deviation Games fill two gaps that Sony has: multiplayer and FPS. Now with Activision (almost) gone, Sony would like to buy it; I'm sure. But they don't have to right now.
They can wait for a few years until they release their first game (which is a PS Studios title anyway) and then buy the studio. I think they bought Haven because they had technology that they could offer to other PS Studios in the meantime. Deviation Games isn't offering anything extra on top of the game, which is a PS Studios exclusive title anyway.
Yes, they made many gamedev studio acquisitions starting with Insomniac since the Jim Ryan era started in 2019. Nothing new, Sony bought studios even before the PS1 days, but it's true that in the Jimbo era they are buying more than before.
But it's important the context and details:
- They can buy more now because they now generate way more revenue and profit.
- They are also in a context of industry consolidation, so acquisitions like Bungie are needed.
- But most of these acquisitions are more smaller tier strategical acquisitions related with very long term strategies that started many years ago, like support, porting or mobile gaming studios, or small teams that did work with them for many years or teams and now are making their first AAA, or studios with tons of pedigree making top tier AAA games but that still don't have them on their current studio.
Yes, Deviation could make top tier AAA FPS, MP and GaaS games because their devs have this pedigree and Sony bought several of their former 2nd party studios. They can buy Deviation and would totally fit and to do it now would be way cheaper than after they released several games. Same goes with Firewalk.
But to acquire a studio who still didn't release their first game as happened with Haven or Savage isn't something common. They could do the same with Firewalk and Deviation but it isn't very common. Same as the Kena guys I think it's likely they may do it, but I think once they prove they deliver quality, successful and profitable 2nd party games (which I bet will be the case).
For now regarding FPS they have Destiny 2, future Bungie IPs, rumored shooters from Deviation, Firewalk, Arrowhead, Guerrilla, Firesprite or London Studio. They are working on like 10 GaaS to be released until 2026 and many MP games. And well, there are a shit ton 3rd party FPS, MP and GaaS with PS as their main platform so -like CoD- that even if bought by PS they won't leave PS.
Yes, to buy someone like Deviation could help but they can perfectly do it later. In a context of growth and consolidation they have to focus on the areas where they are weaker and have more room to grow or are in risk of being made console exclusive by MS or Nintendo. Plus they are growing their internal development teams and buying new ones so will also need to grow their support teams.
We also have to consider that mobile generates over half of the gaming global revenue worldwide and that has over half of the players, that it's the platform with higher growth and that rising costs of AAA and being developing more AAA games at the same time than any console maker ever did is so fucking expensive so they need as much as revenue as possible.
We also have to consider that digital addons (DLC, IAP, season passes) already generate more revenue than games sold and that while revenue from selling games it's expected to keep flat or slightly decrease in the coming years, revenue from addons will continue being the highest growing game revenue source. Meaning GaaS and F2P will become more important.
We also have to consider that most top grosssing games are MP and that eSports are growing a lot and becoming more and more important to increase fanbases and to enlarge the popularity and lifetime of (mostly GaaS) games.
So SIE priorities regarding acquisitions I think are, or should be:
- Acquiring top mobile gaming talent fo their PS Mobile Division team to release mobile games using PS IPs, plus strengthen thei presence in mobile publishing games made by 3rd party buotique mobile teams, to sell emulated games on mobile and release their PS cloud gaming on mobile
- Get at least another porting studio to help Nixxes with the PC ports without needing to make sure external porting teams like Iron Galaxy are available
- Acquire more top GaaS/F2P talent, knowledge, tools and data
- Acquire more MP gamedev talent and everything that may improve the MP experience and help make it cross platform including PC or mobile (Discord, tournaments, eSports, accesories...)
- AAA development costs and manpower needed to make them skyrocket every generation so outsourcing team are more and more busy with other projects so every year gets more complicated to find them available. Sony must not only continue growing their internal development teams, but also get more internal support teams (as Valkyrie or Nixxes) or that provide them something that helps them be more productive and reduce their costs (Haven)
- Some key stategical top console game genres are in the hands of one or a handful companies so they should acquire acquire related talent to secure them from being kept away from PS if acquired by Microsoft, Nintendo, Facebook, Amazon or Apple. Examples: fighting (Bandai Namco, Netherrealm, Capcom), JRPG (Square Enix), survival horror (Capcom), soulsborne (FromSoft), monster hunting (Capcom), interactive dramas (Quantic Dreams, Supermassive)
- Get more AAA-ish VR talent because this generation expectations will be higher for VR, must secure more content from being made exclusive by Facebook and may need help to build or share knowledge with Sony's non-VR teams
I think they'll focus on these points, and I think they'll continue not giving a fuck on what MS and Nintendo does outside (something I think won't happen) making these strategical companies I mentioned exclusive. As long as PlayStation continues being the market leader, something that market numbers lead to think won't happen at least this generation.
