Sony's future and possible studio/publisher acquisitions

[Deleted member 417]

Yes consolidation is bad I would have agreed before Microsoft went on a buying spree. Several Multi-platform studio since 2017, followed by Bethesda and now the biggest publisher worldwide: Activision Blizzard!

It is bad, problem with that line of thinking is that it's too late now. MS started this, not Sony. They have 2 options now, either do nothing and lose even more or take part and try and secure what they can.

Respectfully, I disagree. Microsoft are fighting a different battle than the one that Sony is involved in. Microsoft want to compete in America, with American companies using American ideals and tactics. Sony and Nintendo want the world wide market in traditional gaming. Nintendo have carved out a good chunk of market share, likewise Sony have.

All that Microsoft will do now, which I have mentioned a few times before, is focus on streaming, subscriptions and mobile games. They want to chase the revenue of mobile, just like they did with consoles, motion controls, VR/AR, walkmans, mobile phones, tablets...and just like all of them, they will cock it up.

Xbox gamers are rejoicing now but they've signed their own death warrant. Microsoft will ditch those fans, just like they ditched the 'hardcore' fans and move into a new area of the market. By the end of this generation, people who cheered on this deal will be complaining on GAF about how bad the Xbox has got.

Sony isn’t close as Nintendo. Nintendo’s franchises are unique, not even COD or GTA can beat Mario, Zelda and Pokémon.

Sony is very dependent by 3rd Party partners. Square Enix and Capcom are from utmost importance to secure! Playing nice and insisting on just buying 10 people Studio doesn’t work anymore. Sony needs to at least secure their partners in Japan. I am not pointing on Microsoft, Tencent and Netease are also a potential danger for Sony.

In a perfect world, these companies would use that money to fund new studios and IPs. That's what's been happening until MS decided they want to buy the industry out. So they either partake or get left behind. No other option.

American third parties turned their backs on Sony a few years ago. Choosing to punish single player games (The order was review bombed) then supporting multiplayer games and even saying that there is no future in single player only games (because they want that sweet MTX money).

Sony ignored them, then dropped the triple whammy of TLOU2, GoW and Spiderman. Third parties have to deal with Sony because they own the world wide market share. If they decided not to put their games on Playstation, they would lose substantial amounts of revenue. Which shareholders are going to allow that?

 

[Deleted member 417]

It’s takes 5-6 years to make a aaa game. Sony has 4, maybe 5 top tier studios capable of that. Most of these studios are once a generation games. Sony needs more fire power. If they lost Square or capcom, PlayStation would become a niche brand. I’m sorry but that’s the reality. The reason the brand is so strong is because people are used to getting most aaa games on PlayStation but the longer this consolidation environment continues, and Sony refuses to participate, the worse it’s going to get for them. They’ve sat out long enough, it’s time for them to accept reality.

I disagree. Nintendo release games with big gaps between each iteration and have little to no 3rd party support and they are still breaking records.

Microsoft can spend all of the money in the world making AAAA games (where the hell is Perfect Dark?) but they will never again have the quality that they used to, because they think that throwing 100's of millions at a remake will work just fine.

The reality is nothing will change. Sony will offer high-end consoles with traditional games (and be ahead of the VR curve for when that becomes mainstream) Nintendo will focus on first party games and affordable hardware, and Microsoft will keep floundering around trying to figure out why it can't get anywhere in the market.

 

[Dabaus]

I disagree. Nintendo release games with big gaps between each iteration and have little to no 3rd party support and they are still breaking records.

Microsoft can spend all of the money in the world making AAAA games (where the hell is Perfect Dark?) but they will never again have the quality that they used to, because they think that throwing 100's of millions at a remake will work just fine.

The reality is nothing will change. Sony will offer high-end consoles with traditional games (and be ahead of the VR curve for when that becomes mainstream) Nintendo will focus on first party games and affordable hardware, and Microsoft will keep floundering around trying to figure out why it can't get anywhere in the market.

Nintendo has 30 year plus established ip instantly recognized by hundreds if not billions of people. Mario, Mario kart, Zelda, Pokémon etc. Sony have spider man and they don’t even own that really just an extremely long licensing period for the movies.

 

[KnittedKnight]

It's an arms race, and there is no such thing as unilateral disarmament. Disarmament only occurs when one party is defeated or when the two parties agree to detente (which never lasts). The path of detente becomes viable only as a result of the arms race growing and widening in scope beyond manageable control but not before reaching that point. Manageable control being a loaded term. We're not at that inflection point.

Sony would be wise to have a couple consultants that understand geopolitics as Sony seeks to device strategy. It's always a positive to have those perspectives and historical knowledge around when rivalry heats up.

 

[Deleted member 417]

Nintendo has 30 year plus established ip instantly recognized by hundreds if not billions of people. Mario, Mario kart, Zelda, Pokémon etc. Sony have spider man and they don’t even own that really just an extremely long licensing period for the movies.

Sony's instantly recognisable Ip's are the ones with 'Playstation' on them. Not to be flippant or dismissive, but the brand of Playstation means quality. Sure, they make some misses, who doesn't, but when you pay for a Playstation game, you know you're getting quality.

And they never stay too long with a franchise. Even ones that were once associated with Playstation and are now third party, are seen as quality when they were under the Playstation banner. Tomb Raider, Crash Bandicoot to name a few, even arguably Resident Evil but that's down to taste.

 

[Dabaus]

Sony's instantly recognisable Ip's are the ones with 'Playstation' on them. Not to be flippant or dismissive, but the brand of Playstation means quality. Sure, they make some misses, who doesn't, but when you pay for a Playstation game, you know you're getting quality.

And they never stay too long with a franchise. Even ones that were once associated with Playstation and are now third party, are seen as quality when they were under the Playstation banner. Tomb Raider, Crash Bandicoot to name a few, even arguably Resident Evil but that's down to taste.

Alright just let Microsoft buy all the big franchises. That’s a good strategy.

 

[Deleted member 417]

Alright just let Microsoft buy all the big franchises. That’s a good strategy.

What big franchises are they buying? Overwatch, Diablo and CoD? 3 always online, multiplayer games. Two of those games won't get a sequel for 5 years.

CoD has seen popularity dips in the past and the only way they managed to save it was by dropping remakes of MW1 and MW2. They've played their ace in the hole. The next time it becomes an afterthought because of a new Multi-player trend, could be it's last.

 

[Bryank75]

2 lines of thinking....

If Taketwo is too expensive for management to stomach... then they should go for medium sized entities like Capcom, Square and CDPR. Boosted by smaller studios like IOI.

If they can get TakeTwo, they will probably still need to fill the void in WRPG's.... so CDPR or something similar is necessary.

Buying TakeTwo would be to increase revenue and profits more than push console sales. (Annual sports franchises / GTA shark cards etc)

Buying Capcom, Square, CDPR etc.... I feel emphasizes the closed platform approach and would be more useful to push console sales.

I don't believe there is much urgency to make a COD clone / competitor... because it is gonna be almost impossible and might as well invest in a few smaller shooters or new companies, as they have done.... they also have Bungie working on some games that could fill the area. Apex and Fortnite along with others are still massive.

Overall I prefer Capcom, Square, CDPR style acquisitions and pushing console sales as sports titles will have to be on PlayStation platforms anyway. But with regulators doing such a bad job... losing GTA / RDR is a risk.

 

[Nhomnhom]

With MS spending more than the entire market value of PlayStation in aquisitions in just a few years, Sony now only has a few options in the mid/long term:
- Massivelly grow the PlayStation division in size.
- Resign to inevitably transition to third-party/niche product.
- Operate their business as usual assuming Xbox model is not sustainable and try to outlast it before MS quits.

If I was in Sony's position Iwould seek to bring one of Google/Amazon/Apple as a partner and act fast by playing the same consolidation game MS is playing. MS is now an existencial threat to Sony. They are just too big and regardless of how bad they are at this size still matters in the long run.

Sony needs to start playing the dirty PR/influencer game MS is playing since MS has zeroed in on destroying PlayStation, we are now at Sega vs Nintendo territory. Sony has had poor communication for years at this points, internal devs and the hardware team are pretty much the only reason why they are so dominant still and they are being put in a position where they can't make any mistakes. Jim Ryan does not look like the man for this job.

 

[Gods&Monsters]

AND now their desire to categorize Nintendo as a separate low end market may bite them bad in Japan if they attempt to make acquisitions there if Microsoft presses this 98 percent market thing. Jim Ryan and these lawyers should be fired.

That wasn't really them? I thought it was the FTC that did that and they just agreed.

The market in Japan is very different. Unlike America, where Xbox and PS are 50/50 even during the XBONE gen and this gen until 2022.

 

[AshHunter216]

Sony need to establish a stronger presence in Japan before its too late.

 

[Zzero]

I suppose that could be true, but if Sony were to buy any publisher it would have to go through all the same country courts like this activision deal has and whose to say ms won’t want some revenge and bribe of the judges to block it? Sonys strategy has been extremely short sighted in my opinion. They should’ve accepted consolidation is here to stay and got square, capcom, cdpr whoever while regulators were focused on activision blizzard. Heck maybe Sony overloading the system like that would’ve led to all deals, including activision blizzard being blocked?

Its hard to take your arguments seriously when they include companies bribing the judges.

 

[Johnic]

Its hard to take your arguments seriously when they include companies bribing the judges.

But then there's this. What he's saying probably isn't and won't happen but it's not like it's an exactly new thing for MS and probably numerous other companies as well. Wasn't it just recently that xbox fanboys were blaming Sony for bribing the regulators?

Microsoft is tied to hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign bribes, whistleblower alleges

“I don’t want you to be a blocker,” his manager told him.

www.theverge.com

 

[Dabaus]

Fellas maybe I’m over reacting here idk. I just think the longer this drags out, the more desperate Microsoft becomes and them dragging international commerce chair (wo)men into it isn’t going to play out favorably. Maybe start a discussion with Microsoft that you’re willing to sign the deal for 10 year, maybe make it 12 instead? Agree with the game pass stuff and get on and make your own acquisitions before it’s either too late or they’re just not allowed.

 

[Yobo]

I hate to be Mr pessimistic here but I have to say Sony got completely outplayed. Not only is the deal going through now, but they had to give sensitive documents to the ftc, AND now their desire to categorize Nintendo as a separate low end market may bite them bad in Japan if they attempt to make acquisitions there if Microsoft presses this 98 percent market thing. Jim Ryan and these lawyers should be fired.

This 98 percent high end market thing in Japan might simultaneously paralyze any major moves Sony could do over there and give the excuse Microsoft needs to get their foot in the door. It’s a catastrophe.

What are you on about lol

 

[Eternal_Wings]

@Dabaus @Bryank75 @TubzGaming

 

[Johnic]

Just get it over with Sony. It makes the most sense.

 

[Firefly]

Why has Sony not bought square enix is beyond me.

 

[Bryank75]

As I was saying, a couple medium size publishers, developer acquisitions.....

and then use the higher demand for PS5 to push for more sales, try and get to 150 million or more this gen.

Owning the dominant install base is the key, once you buy a piece of hardware you are more likely to engage...while look at streaming in film falling apart for everyone.

My advice is focus on quality games, exclusives and mostly getting consoles out as fast as possible, slims, Pro's.... everything.... just bury Xbox as a platform.

 

[Dabaus]

Just announce a square buyout already and promise to bring ff14 to Xbox and whatever else to appease regulators. This back and forth corporate flirting is ridiculous.