Sony's future and possible studio/publisher acquisitions

[Zzero]

They are facts, of course they mean something.

With the facts we have is a '2nd party' 'partner' with several former Supermassive devs who is working on an Unreal Engine 5 game to be published by Sony, so it's a 2nd party game, codenamed Project Bates, since 2019. Sony replaced a list of 'partner' studios where they had some 1st party studios and Ballistic Moon with a text mentioning '1st and 2nd party', which means they continue being 2nd party.

It is also a fact that the supposed crappy 'leaked' table is full of wrong and fake data, including the game engine, codename of this project, plus the data of when XDEV started to work on the project (according to the table late 2021, according to Ballistic Moon statements and LinkedIn profiles, early 2019).

There is not a single fact to back the speculation that they have been acquired.

The problem with them being the only second party dev mentioned is that Sony actually has a bunch of second party/non-exclusive developers and thus Ballistic Moon sticks out like a sore thumb on the list in question.

And your evidence for the chart being faked is dodgey, too. Omitting "Project" from Project Bates in an internal chart isn't weird at all. People short-handed stuff all the time back when I was in *insert my previous job here*. Same for the one date descrepency, could have easily been production vs pre-production/blue sky.

 

[Muddasar]

They are facts, of course they mean something.

With the facts we have is a '2nd party' 'partner' with several former Supermassive devs who is working on an Unreal Engine 5 game to be published by Sony, so it's a 2nd party game, codenamed Project Bates, since 2019. Sony replaced a list of 'partner' studios where they had some 1st party studios and Ballistic Moon with a text mentioning '1st and 2nd party', which means they continue being 2nd party.

It is also a fact that the supposed crappy 'leaked' table is full of wrong and fake data, including the game engine, codename of this project, plus the data of when XDEV started to work on the project (according to the table late 2021, according to Ballistic Moon statements and LinkedIn profiles, early 2019).

There is not a single fact to back the speculation that they have been acquired.

What facts?

Bluepoint said we are Independent after the Sony Japan cockup. They even went as far as putting it in their Twitter profile.

This could be a similar case. Time will tell.

No one is saying it is definitive. We just don’t know with acquisitions these days.

Who would have thought Sony would surprise everyone with the Bungie acquisition and Microsoft with Bethesda and AB.

Finally why only Ballistic Moon? Where is Deviation Games, Firewalk Studios etc. aren’t they technically 2nd party?

 

[Yurinka]

What facts?

The ones linked in the post you quoted, this one.

Bluepoint said we are Independent after the Sony Japan cockup. They even went as far as putting it in their Twitter profile.

This could be a similar case.

Finally why only Ballistic Moon? Where is Deviation Games, Firewalk Studios etc. aren’t they technically 2nd party?

Why do you ask about Ballistic Moon instead of about Nintendo, Microsoft or Omega Force? There are the same facts pointing to Sony having bought or being buying them.

 

[Muddasar]

The ones linked in the post you quoted, this one.


Why do you ask about Ballistic Moon instead of about Nintendo, Microsoft or Omega Force? There are the same facts pointing to Sony having bought or being buying them.

I am not asking about anything.

We don’t know what Sony has acquired or not.

You are trying to prove your point as fact. I am just saying time will tell.

I guess you knew that Sony would buy Bungie and Microsoft AB and Bethesda.

We just don’t know.

 

[EDMIX]

The ones linked in the post you quoted, this one.


Why do you ask about Ballistic Moon instead of about Nintendo, Microsoft or Omega Force? There are the same facts pointing to Sony having bought or being buying them.

I mean...your same information is speculation on it not happening....

Sure nothing factual is saying this happened.

Nothing you are saying is factual that it didn't happen lol

We'll see.

 

[Yurinka]

I mean...your same information is speculation on it not happening....

Sure nothing factual is saying this happened.

Nothing you are saying is factual that it didn't happen lol

We'll see.

I am not asking about anything.

We don’t know what Sony has acquired or not.

You are trying to prove your point as fact. I am just saying time will tell.

I guess you knew that Sony would buy Bungie and Microsoft AB and Bethesda.

We just don’t know.

To say that it's a fact that there is absolutely nothing factual saying that they have been acquired or that Sony will acquire them isn't speculation.

To provide links of factual data showing that they are working for Sony but that there is nothing saying they have been acquired (meaning, that until Sony some day buys them they are a 2nd party team) isn't speculation. It is to show facts.

To speculate is to think that Sony may or may not bought them based on feelings, personal impressions or similarities with other cases.

 

[Bodycount611]

it's funny that whole "Sony will rue the day they crossed MS and their warchest" bullshit is actually backfiring. It's MS who should be fearful. When Bethesda got stolen, Sony went out and locked down FF as their RPG equivalent. Then MS tried to steal activision, and suddenly Bungie got bought to spite MS. And now we're going to see more and more targetted timed and full exclusives to fly in MS's face.

MS buying up developers has only hurt xbox and xbox gamers in the long run. Sony will fire back if Activision gets purchased. And whatever it is, it'll be a targeted buy precisely to hurt xbox owners. Again.

I can't wait.

 

[VillaiN]

Whats funny, angry competition from ms made them stronger. They focused on 1p studios and ips in ps3 era, stoped relying on 3p, marketing s firing on all cilinders and associating 3p games with platform (ps4 era). Huge growth of studios and buying new studios.

Japan goverment wont allow ms to touch their publishers. So they re safe there. They can always easily afford Capcom and Square. For now maybe go after From software (or Kado.whole), Team Ninja...i still think sony isnt after publishers.

But if ATB goes thorough in some form they should/ focus to west and Take2. No other way. MS plan s just to starve others from content. Long term investment (maybe face, amazon ll enter). Gta, rdr, bioshock, nba as multi, borderlands...
They can afford it. They have 30 or 40B in reserve, over 10B in yearly profits, they can offer shares, long term loan...

 

[Darth Vader]

I am not asking about anything.

We don’t know what Sony has acquired or not.

You are trying to prove your point as fact. I am just saying time will tell.

I guess you knew that Sony would buy Bungie and Microsoft AB and Bethesda.

We just don’t know.

For Yurinka, anything that doesn't fit their world view means you're wrong. But don't worry, if you're right, they'll just claim all along they said what you said and try to educate you on your own arguments.

 

[Zzero]

it's funny that whole "Sony will rue the day they crossed MS and their warchest" bullshit is actually backfiring. It's MS who should be fearful. When Bethesda got stolen, Sony went out and locked down FF as their RPG equivalent. Then MS tried to steal activision, and suddenly Bungie got bought to spite MS. And now we're going to see more and more targetted timed and full exclusives to fly in MS's face.

MS buying up developers has only hurt xbox and xbox gamers in the long run. Sony will fire back if Activision gets purchased. And whatever it is, it'll be a targeted buy precisely to hurt xbox owners. Again.

PpI can't wait.

This isn't how game publishers act, at all. They make purchases/expenses (of licenses to tech, advertising, employee pay increases/recruiting, timed exclusivty right up to studio purchases) to fulfill their own needs or because a fire sale is going on instead of to spite others. Microsoft made it's pre-Bethesda purchases, usually on the cheap, to fill holes in their release schedule. Bethesda and Activision were both because current leadership wanted out. (Perhaps illegally so in Activision's case.) Sony brought Bungie to gain their netcode expertise and maybe their patents, if they had any. Previous studio purchases were of long-standing partners who filled specific niches in the PlayStation ecosystem. S-E, if purchased, would be for the same reason and not to score some sort of tit for tat thing against Microsoft. If anything, that move would hurt Nintendo more...


edit: "and maybe their parents, if they had any"

Wow, I'm fucking savage. But no, that was just a typo/auto-correct error.

 

[Firefly]

it's funny that whole "Sony will rue the day they crossed MS and their warchest" bullshit is actually backfiring. It's MS who should be fearful. When Bethesda got stolen, Sony went out and locked down FF as their RPG equivalent. Then MS tried to steal activision, and suddenly Bungie got bought to spite MS. And now we're going to see more and more targetted timed and full exclusives to fly in MS's face.

MS buying up developers has only hurt xbox and xbox gamers in the long run. Sony will fire back if Activision gets purchased. And whatever it is, it'll be a targeted buy precisely to hurt xbox owners. Again.

I can't wait.

Bungie was not a response to the activision deal, it was in the works prior to that . Im pretty sure they even said so themselves.
FF was already going to be locked down regardless if microsoft bought bethesda or not.

Sony hasn't properly responded yet to bethesda and activision.

 

[Yurinka]

Bungie was not a response to the activision deal, it was in the works prior to that . Im pretty sure they even said so themselves.

Yes, as I remember ABK and MS mentioned that they started talks in December 2021 and Sony and Bungie mentioned that they started talks way before that.

 

[AshHunter216]

Yes, as I remember ABK and MS mentioned that they started talks in December 2021 and Sony and Bungie mentioned that they started talks way before that.

I remember early last gen Sony mentioning how they wanted to treat Destiny like a 1st party game, that may have been a hint at the future buyout right there.

 

[Bryank75]

I remember early last gen Sony mentioning how they wanted to treat Destiny like a 1st party game, that may have been a hint at the future buyout right there.

So happy they did and saw the potential of the game.

Destiny doesn't get the credit it deserves, how it mixed fps with online rpg and gaas .... and succeeded, despite some rough starts.

Definitely one of my favorite games and for the first 2 years of PS4 it filled up a lot of the time and gave me lots of memories and helped me meet many people.

 

[Alabtrosmyster]

Definitely one of my favorite games and for the first 2 years of PS4 it filled up a lot of the time and gave me lots of memories and helped me meet many people.

I recall playing it and thinking that if there was a game that got me to play online only games that would be Destiny.

 

[Yurinka]

I remember early last gen Sony mentioning how they wanted to treat Destiny like a 1st party game, that may have been a hint at the future buyout right there.

Well, in fact even before the release of Destiny 1 they already had the marketing rights and small deals like that, because for Sony it was important to let people know that the makers of Halo now were going to also release their game on their console.

 

[Bryank75]

I recall playing it and thinking that if there was a game that got me to play online only games that would be Destiny.

Same, I really had no interest in online games much before that apart from the odd game of COD.

Well, in fact even before the release of Destiny 1 they already had the marketing rights and small deals like that, because for Sony it was important to let people know that the makers of Halo now were going to also release their game on their console.

Remember the 'Law of the Jungle' trailer?

Chills!

 

[AshHunter216]

Does anyone think independent Japanese devs like Vanillaware would be worth it for Sony first party? Could help fill the void left by the closing of Japan Studio.

 

[Yurinka]

Same, I really had no interest in online games much before that apart from the odd game of COD.




Remember the 'Law of the Jungle' trailer?

Chills!

I think it's the fist time I saw the ad, and if not I forgot it.

 

[Mobile Suit Gooch]

Does anyone think independent Japanese devs like Vanillaware would be worth it for Sony first party? Could help fill the void left by the closing of Japan Studio.

Probably? But Atlus mostly published their games.