Sony's future and possible studio/publisher acquisitions

[Bryank75]

Guys it’s 1000% coming. The approval of Activision Blizzard turned things to worse for Sony. They will buy Square Enix. Sony will need to find other ways to compete. Square Enix would be a good start to set a foundation.

What’s also completely strange, how in the world is Square Enix’s share price so high???

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It’s higher than even’s Capcom. Nintendo too!
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This is really suspicious. Capcom are performing by far better than Square Enix for years. Nintendo especially is very successful. So how is it possible?Eidos founder talking about Sony’s interest in Square Enix. Then Square Enix sells their western assets to outline themselves for Sony. No denial of this rumour for 2 years by Square Enix. Moving in an expensive district of Tokyo and coincidentally very close to Sony HQ in Minato…
Square Enix long member (Shinji) executive hired for a high position to Sony.
This high share price of Square Enix could be a hint for an upcoming buyout. If I would bet money who Sony is buying then it’s Square Enix.
Then we have seen many times Square Enix execs like Nomura, Yoshi-P advertising Sony products: TVs, Playstation, Smartphones etc.
And now Yoshida praising Sony in public…

Source for screenshots is: Companiesmarketcap.com

Square is right, I didn't see when it increased in value...must have been recently.

Capcom is actually higher now, it's at about 9.7 billion dollars.

Nintendo is also a bit higher at 50 billion dollars...

Probably just a few days or up to a couple weeks of difference.

But you're very right about the other things being very suspicious... It would be exciting if it did happen. I can't lie.

 

[Johnic]

SE makes sense from a business perspective. FF XIV is the biggest MMO on the market now and will fit Sony nicely.

But as a customer, SE doesn't really intrigue me. They sold off all interesting IPs and are left with FF, which just isn't for me anymore, and for some reason Just cause. Would have been great if they still ahd some of their older IPS, as I;d love to see what Sony could do with them.

 

[Gods&Monsters]

Capcom is actually higher now, it's at about 9.7 billion dollars.

Why is it so high suddenly? Is the Re4 remake selling that much?

It's actually bad news for Sony if it went up too high

 

[Eternal_Wings]

SE makes sense from a business perspective. FF XIV is the biggest MMO on the market now and will fit Sony nicely.

But as a customer, SE doesn't really intrigue me. They sold off all interesting IPs and are left with FF, which just isn't for me anymore, and for some reason Just cause. Would have been great if they still ahd some of their older IPS, as I;d love to see what Sony could do with them.

Damn they have more than Final Fantasy. Kingdom Hearts and Dragon Quest are also big. Nier is actually on rise to become a AAA franchise. Star Ocean could probably evolve further with more budget. What also is very attractive to Sony, is Square’s Manga publishing label: Gangan Comics. Majority of their adaptations to Anime are very successful. Guess who is producing them? Aniplex dude.
This would fit well for Sony’s ambitions to rise a 4th pillar with anime to their core business. Also Square Enix is very successful with their mobile games.

 

[Johnic]

Damn they have more than Final Fantasy. Kingdom Hearts and Dragon Quest are also big. Nier is actually on rise to become a AAA franchise. Star Ocean could probably evolve further with more budget. What also is very attractive to Sony, is Square’s Manga publishing label: Gangan Comics. Majority of their adaptations to Anime are very successful. Guess who is producing them? Aniplex dude.
This would fit well for Sony’s ambitions to rise a 4th pillar with anime to their core business. Also Square Enix is very successful with their mobile games.

Right, right. I keep forgetting about those. Dragon Quest is pretty good and doing well these days.

 

[Yobo]

Analyzing the strategy of Sony's acquisitions and partnerships Sony

I agree with everything you said. Companies don't act reactionary for acquisition imo and as you've said the scrutinize for a market leader would be naturally much higher. Especially if Japanese regulators would adopt the silly and dumb "high end market" some regulators tried to introduce to...

www.resetera.com

"Sony acquires square enix?"

Xbots: Nooo! Sony are in a good place even without a acquisition

Xbots are the biggest hypocrite. It's like their whole life is to become a hypocrite

The amount of regurgitating of "premium consoles" so they can't buy in Japan is nauseating. Easy to spot the twitter fanboys in the crowd there

Somebody needs to point out "premium consoles" was only defined and relevant to the CMA case as the whole thing has revolved around COD which hasn't released on Nintendo devices for what a decade? Different definitions of the market will apply depending on the startegies of the developer being acquired. If it was GTA then the same definition applied. If it's Square Enix, they have a big Nintendo presence so you are looking at the whole market

Also of relevance to the Japanese market is that Sony no longer have a development presence there which would make any purchase in Japan far more digestible

 

[Yobo]

I really hope this arbitrary 98 percent high end market share in japan doesn’t paralyze why Sony can do there. I think if they make any acquisitions they need to be extremely conciliatory and say the third party will act independently. If they do make a move for square, Maybe even off to bring say ff14 to Xbox and offer 10 year contracts or whatever. Point out if can’t be foreclosure against Microsoft even if they wanted to because most of the big games were not going g to Xbox anyways, but they potentially can under Sony management or something.

It’s better to play the long game and make some concessions to protect certain ip than potentially lose it forever. I feel like Sony dragging their feet have kind of left them between a rock and a hard place.

Its literally meaningless to any context outside of COD and maybe GTA as I said above, and the Japanese market doesn't even care about those two IPs

 

[Dabaus]

Are you guy’s suggesting squares stock rose dramatically in a short amount of time with no explanation? I’m confused what’s actually being said here.

 

[Zzero]

SE makes sense from a business perspective. FF XIV is the biggest MMO on the market now and will fit Sony nicely.

But as a customer, SE doesn't really intrigue me. They sold off all interesting IPs and are left with FF, which just isn't for me anymore, and for some reason Just cause. Would have been great if they still ahd some of their older IPS, as I;d love to see what Sony could do with them.

Just Cause was kept because it makes money and is made by an external studio.

 

[Nhomnhom]

SE makes sense from a business perspective. FF XIV is the biggest MMO on the market now and will fit Sony nicely.

But as a customer, SE doesn't really intrigue me. They sold off all interesting IPs and are left with FF, which just isn't for me anymore, and for some reason Just cause. Would have been great if they still ahd some of their older IPS, as I;d love to see what Sony could do with them.

FF XVI looks like the biggest hit SE will have in a long time, the cost of acquiring them will go up pretty quickly.

A better and less disruptive approach is for Sony to buy big stakes in their biggest Japanese partners, no need to pay any premium, it cuts the cost of deals(because in part they would be paying themselves) and gives them access and influence. Buy 20~30% of Capcom/SE/Sega and be done with it.

Acquisitions should be limited to big western publisher that MS could buy and key individual devs and IPs.

Best targets: Respawn/Battlefield, From Software, CDPR, MGS/Castelvania, Build a Rocket Boy/Absurd Ventures.

 

[Dabaus]

FF XVI looks like the biggest hit SE will have in a long time, the cost of acquiring them will go up pretty quickly.

A better and less disruptive approach if for Sony to buy big stakes in their biggest Japanese partners, no need to pay any premium, it cuts the cost of deals(because in part they would be paying themselves) and gives them access and influence.

I’ve been saying this also that way they can focus on getting companies like cdpr or whoever else.

 

[Nhomnhom]

I’ve been saying this also that way they can focus on getting companies like cdpr or whoever else.

The thing is they had years to do that and actually went in the opposite direction by divesting from SE in 2014.

Missing on Atlus and From Software being sold for peanuts was also pretty dumb, since both were close partners of obvious quality and appeal. Any person that played Persona or Dark Souls knew those were steals.

Sony kept fucking with PlayStation over the past 10 years and mostly just taking away from it. PlayStation is Sony MVP that carries the entire conglomerate, the exact opposite of Xbox that could never even carry it's own weight.

 

[Yobo]

The thing is they had years to do that and actually went in the opposite direction by divesting from SE in 2014.

Missing on Atlus and From Software being sold for peanuts was also pretty dumb, since both were close partners of obvious quality and appeal. Any person that played Persona or Dark Souls knew those were steals.

Sony kept fucking with PlayStation over the past 10 years and mostly just taking away from it. PlayStation is Sony MVP that carries the entire conglomerate, the exact opposite of Xbox that could never even carry it's own weight.

Some of those misses probably contributed to why they went and gutted a lot of Japan Studios and maybe why Yoshi P was relegated to the side lines. All these things add up over time

 

[Nhomnhom]

Some of those misses probably contributed to why they went and gutted a lot of Japan Studios and maybe why Yoshi P was relegated to the side lines. All these things add up over time

I'm still not convinced by Jim Ryan and Herman Hermen Hults. Their main calls so far:
- Shift to GaaS.
- Half-assed focus on PC.
- Milking Horizon to death based on leaks of upcoming projects.
- Shifting TLoU Pt 1 development to be handled by ND.
- Pretty tame push for PSVR2 that inspires no confidence.
- Sticking to crossgen (a correct call due to supply issues).
- No attempt to control the narrative on the media/social media.
- All time poor communication.

 

[Eternal_Wings]

I’ve been saying this also that way they can focus on getting companies like cdpr or whoever else.

Honestly this didn’t work for them out in the past. They had good chunk of Square Enix shares (approximately 20%) and it did backfire on them. Square Enix became successful and greedy. Square Enix betrayed Sony and They started doing deals with Xbox. Also the CEO Yoichi Wada did hate Sony. A CEO is always a huge risk to trust. Who knows if another Wada wouldn’t appear?

This will not work out anymore for Sony buying shares. Before you call Fromsoftware: they only bought shares because Kadokawa is not willing to sell them, simple. When Sony will invest in Square Enix it will be a full acquisition. Microsoft changed the rules and opened Pandora‘s box. This are serious times which could affect the whole Sony corporation. Remember last time people said: “Sony don’t need to acquire publishers”? This what caused them to lose Bethesda and now Activision Blizzard probably. No more halfhearted things, Sony needs to secure their key partners. Buy Square Enix, if possible Capcom too (if Capcom don’t want a full acquisition at least 33%). Don’t motivate Sony to go the cheap ass route.

 

[Nhomnhom]

Honestly this didn’t work for them out in the past. They had good chunk of Square Enix shares (approximately 20%) and it did backfire on them. Square Enix became successful and greedy. Square Enix betrayed Sony and They started doing deals with Xbox. Also the CEO Yoichi Wada did hate Sony. A CEO is always a huge risk to trust. Who knows if another Wada wouldn’t appear?

This will not work out anymore for Sony buying shares. Before you call Fromsoftware: they only bought shares because Kadokawa is not willing to sell them, simple. When Sony will invest in Square Enix it will be a full acquisition. Microsoft changed the rules and opened Pandora‘s box. This are serious times which could affect the whole Sony corporation. Remember last time people said: “Sony don’t need to acquire publishers”? This what caused them to lose Bethesda and now Activision Blizzard probably. No more halfhearted things, Sony needs to secure their key partners. Buy Square Enix, if possible Capcom too (if Capcom don’t want a full acquisition at least 33%). Don’t motivate Sony to go the cheap ass route.

If they own 20% or more of a company and can't ensure that the CEO doesn't hate them, it's on them, with that amount of influence they should be one of the louder voices.

 

[Eternal_Wings]

If they own 20% or more of a company and can't ensure that the CEO doesn't hate them, it's on them, with that amount of influence they should be one of the louder voices.

How did it help them?
Despite having this much shares, Yoichi Wada betrayed Sony. The long awaited PS3 exclusive Final Fantasy Versus XIII was cancelled because this greedy CEO wanted the next Final Fantasy to be available on Xbox and more appealing to western players. It’s his fault Square Enix was westernised and we got garbage games like FFXV. He was also the who bought Eidos and Crystal Dynamics. Since he was leading Square Enix they had loses after loses for more than a decade. Sony wants Square Enix in their wheelhouse, this will be not achieved by buying only shares.

 

[Yobo]

I'm still not convinced by Jim Ryan and Herman Hermen Hults. Their main calls so far:
- Shift to GaaS.
- Half-assed focus on PC.
- Milking Horizon to death based on leaks of upcoming projects.
- Shifting TLoU Pt 1 development to be handled by ND.
- Pretty tame push for PSVR2 that inspires no confidence.
- Sticking to crossgen (a correct call due to supply issues).
- No attempt to control the narrative on the media/social media.
- All time poor communication.

We will see. The more time passes the more I'm seeing a lot of this as necessary

Particular the shift to GAAS. They've managed this the best way possible, not really diverting their current talent but bringing in new devs who can work on these projects. After what's happened with COD it's pretty clear how vulnerable they are in this space

If the GAAS they are working on deliver they are going to be immeasurably healthier for it.

PC as well seems to have had no effect on demand for PS5 and sets them up with experience for the aforementioned PS5 games

Communication is terrible though

On the positives:

• PS5 demand at all time highs
• PS Plus is now really good
• Theyve delivered multiple GOTY calibre games
• Most aggressive acquisition streak for Sony including getting Bungie and Insomniac
• All teams have expanded
• World class developer support structure with porting, support studios and knowledge sharing making PS far more efficient than competitors at AAA games
• Probably dealing with the hardest competitive environment for PlayStation with MS's acquisitions and COVID since taking over
• Some very smart marketing and exclusive arrangements

 

[Nhomnhom]

We will see. The more time passes the more I'm seeing a lot of this as necessary

Particular the shift to GAAS. They've managed this the best way possible, not really diverting their current talent but bringing in new devs who can work on these projects. After what's happened with COD it's pretty clear how vulnerable they are in this space

If the GAAS they are working on deliver they are going to be immeasurably healthier for it.

PC as well seems to have had no effect on demand for PS5 and sets them up with experience for the aforementioned PS5 games

Communication is terrible though

On the positives:

• PS5 demand at all time highs
• PS Plus is now really good
• Theyve delivered multiple GOTY calibre games
• Most aggressive acquisition streak for Sony including getting Bungie and Insomniac
• All teams have expanded
• World class developer support structure with porting, support studios and knowledge sharing making PS far more efficient than competitors at AAA games
• Probably dealing with the hardest competitive environment for PlayStation with MS's acquisitions and COVID since taking over
• Some very smart marketing and exclusive arrangements

PS5 demand is high not because of anything Jim Ryan or Hults did. Pretty much all the games we have seen were already on the way so I can't give them credit there either.

PSVR2 to me raises a lot of doubts because the product is really good but reminds me of how the Vita was sent out to die. Stuff like backing Bloober's Silent Hill 2 and Horizon Fortnite wannabe and Horizon MMO all sound legit awful. The handling of PC is also very suspect, no Bloodborne/Demon's Souls/Dreams or new games that would actually make sense for both PS5/PC but instead Uncharted and Sackboy being sent out to get embarrassed.

As you said, we will see. It's possible that they are making the correct calls but some are very questionable for me as of right now.

 

[Yobo]

PS5 demand is high not because of anything Jim Ryan or Hults did. Pretty much all the games we have seen were already on the way so I can't give them credit there either.

PSVR2 to me raises a lot of doubts because the product is really good but reminds me of how the Vita was sent out to die. Stuff like backing Bloober's Silent Hill 2 and Horizon Fortnite wannabe and Horizon MMO all sound legit awful. The handling of PC is also very suspect, no Bloodborne/Demon's Souls/Dreams or new games that would actually make sense for both PS5/PC but instead Uncharted and Sackboy being sent out to get embarrassed.

As you said, we will see. It's possible that they are making the correct calls but some are very questionable for me as of right now.

Jim Ryan started in 2018, Hermen started in 2019. How do they not get some credit for Ragnarok? Who gets credit for PS5 launch and demand if not the CEO in charge at the time?

Seems like you're one of those that want to bash on Ryan anything you perceive as bad but not give credit for anything good.