First off; hello everyone! And very good to be here. Thanks also @Papacheeks for hitting me up with a link, much appreciated. Been fun reading through the convos in some of the other threads, too.
On the topic of Sony acquisitions, I know a lot of you are speculating on who Sony could buy from a finances/strategy POV but I'm personally more interested in terms of who they could get WRT doing more with some of their legacy IP and maybe those of whoever it is they buy. That's why picks like Ubisoft or Netherrealm, despite how they seem in terms of the fiscals, I just don't give much a crap about. They have little to no IP I'm actually interested in outside of Rayman and maybe Rider's Republic, and Mortal Kombat & Batman.
However, I can kind of live without any of those tbh. You can sacrifice Batman for Spiderman & Venom (& Wolverine), you can sacrifice Rayman for Astrobot, Jak & Daxter, Sly Cooper, Tomba! etc. You can even sacrifice Rider's Republic for Motorstorm. The only one of those IP-wise that Sony doesn't necessarily have a 1P equivalent for is Mortal Kombat, but if it's a matter of having an in-house fighter, why not just buy out the rights for Bloody Roar instead? That still has a lot of nostalgia tied to it IMO.
Same way I've been thinking of it these days for Microsoft, for Sony I'm more interested in the ways these acquisitions can maybe bring back some classic IP, as well as benefit the purchaser's finances. I'd like for these to have a balance; it's kind of why I saw the Zenimax acquisition for MS being an overall better pickup for them than ABK; yeah ABK brings in more money, but very few of their IP have any legacy with Xbox and they have less relevant IP (for my tastes) than Zenimax does, too. So I can see where Ubisoft, EA or WB make a ton of sense for Sony financially, and they all have some pretty strong legacy with PlayStation, but if it were me looking to buy, I wouldn't go after them, or maybe just limit it to one of those picks, mainly WB. Let someone else pick up Ubisoft, EA etc. if they want.
So for me, acquisitions I would be most interested in from Sony would be Capcom, Square-Enix and Sega, if we're talking publishers. The least likely is probably Sega; they just seem very close with Microsoft these days and I only hope in the case IF MS go after them, they will have already proven they can actually make Zenimax & ABK (as well as the 2018 studio pickups) better off or I'll be extremely pissed off, there's no reason for them to really buy more ATM when they still need to prove they can maximize the acquisitions they've already purchased so far, otherwise they look like patent trolls IMO. There are obviously some Sega IP I would like to see come back like Panzer Dragoon, Dragon Force, (classic) Phantasy Star, Outrun etc. but I don't know if there are any Sega teams that could do much for Sony's classic IPs and some of those Sega IP I like, Sony technically have equivalents for in some way (the Ico/Shadow of the Colossus/Last Guardian type games for Panzer Dragoon for example, thematically speaking).
OTOH, Capcom and Square-Enix have a lot of classic IP of their own I'd love to see come back as either AAA reboots/sequels or AA & indie remakes/reboots/sequels. Einhander, Parasite Eve, Mega Man, Power Stone, Dino Crisis, Racing Lagoon, etc. I think they also have some teams that could do really well for some of Sony's classic IPs like Legend of Dragoon, Parappa/UmJammer, Tomba!, Driveclub, Ueda Trilogy etc. There's a lot of synergy there, and that can extend beyond games because a lot of those IP could make for great anime/CG/live-action adaptations, manga adaptations, toy lines, artbook collections, clothing apparel, etc. It would also do really well in terms of utilizing nostalgia (something Nintendo are masters at...maybe almost TOO well) and be a great balance for their big marquee, more modern IP like TLOU, Spiderman, Ghosts of Tsushima, Horizon, etc.
So yeah in terms of publishers the two for Sony I'd be most interested in (and are also likely among the more realistic to happen anyway) are Square-Enix and Capcom. I wouldn't of mind Sega but it seems like they might be veering closer to Microsoft these days, tho the two have had some pretty strong historical relations (at least as far back as Windows CE for Dreamcast, but even a bit earlier). I do see the immediate value in WB and they have IP I'm interested in as well, but that's mainly in terms of comic book characters like Batman, and I wonder if Sony could just work out a licensing deal for the "Batman universe" for games and have right of first refusal in case they want to exclusively work with a certain character or characters. If they could do that while just buying select WB studios, even better.
As for companies like EA, Ubisoft or even Take-Two...I know they are massive but there's not a lot in terms of IP between those three I'm very interested in. Off the top of my head, I can think of Road Rash (dormant), Haunting Starring Poultryguy (dormant), Test Drive (dormant), Burnout (Dormant), Grand Theft Auto, Rayman, and Rider's Republic. Four of those are effectively racing games (and not much that something like a new Motorstorm couldn't incorporate gameplay elements of), one's so niche (tho very cool; play it if you haven't) that they could basically do their own take without the IP, one's a solid platformer that isn't without peers or betters (including some Sony themselves own already), and the last is...well admittedly, it's THE largest single IP in the industry, the quintessential open-world game but, honestly, it's not like GTA would go anywhere regardless who buys them, and Sony could still bring in some really good money with other options if money is focus.
For me tho, money isn't everything and that's why ultimately if they have to pick up a prominent publisher or two, the best fits are likely Capcom and Square-Enix. If they can work out licensing deals with Konami for, say, Castlevania, MGS etc. then cool; same with some of Sega's stuff, but in both cases, those wouldn't be vital. If there's any one Western publisher worth seriously considering, it's WB. I've seen some of y'all mention studios like Ember Labs, or small indie publishers like Devolver Digital...I think those would be very good fits too, even maybe a developer like Asobo if they were actually interested in being acquired (tho that one would probably be more hotly contested; I was always thinking a while back that MS should've tried picking them up but that moment might have passed for them).
At the end of the day tho, especially when it comes to publishers, for me it's about what pubs bring the IP (and the teams that can do right by their IP as well as those of a buyer like Sony's, particularly the classic IP) that perhaps can get love via some new indie, mid-tier & especially upper mid-tier and AAA games that we wouldn't of gotten otherwise. Because that's the most interesting in my eyes. If Sony buying SE means a new AAA Parasite Eve, that's awesome! If it "just" means securing permanent exclusivity for a Final Fantasy they would've already had multi-year exclusivity for before, then that's maybe smart for Sony's finances, but isn't as awesome because we would be getting that Final Fantasy regardless, as exclusive or multiplat, even. Same with Capcom; if Sony buying Capcom means we can get a new AAA Dino Crisis or a new AA Darkstalkers, that'd be amazing, especially if we have little to no chance of that happening without an acquisition. But if it just means Sony now getting more revenue off SFVI & RE4 Remake sales, again that's smart for their finances, but not nearly as exciting to me in terms of maximizing possibilities.
Hey Thicc, welcome to the forum. It's awesome to have you here and thanks for the detailed post on the topic....
I agree with you and I think we are gonna see the same few companies mentioned again and again as favorites for Sony to buy.
Square Enix seemingly the most obvious and anticipated move....however Capcom being the most versatile and like a Queen piece on the chessboard as opposed to the Bishop or Knight of Square Enix. (especially with Tomb Raider etc sold off)
While in the west WB as you said, seems to be the most speculated. I would also say that CDPR may be a possibility.
I think Ubisoft will resist takeovers and EA see themselves as buyers, not sellers and are aligned with MSFT already IMO.
I could also see Sony going for something out of left field...like one of the rising Korean developers.
I would love to see them have a fighting game studio like Arc..... and maybe do a Marvel fighting game.
. I've been watching some older anime the past few weeks, it's always neat to see the PS1/Super Famicom/PC-Engine/Saturn references (or in some cases, outright official versions) of them in. I should look up what anime Sony helped co-fund or produce, just to catch the PS1 & PS2 references in them.
