Sony's future and possible studio/publisher acquisitions

[Eternal_Wings]

Then it will go the way of Sony TVs, Vaio, etc if they don't start making massive acquisitions of their own.

How do you think Sony is going to fight Xbox+Bethesda+Activision+Blizzard?

With Horizon? With Uncharted? With Marvel licensed games? With Fairgame$?

They probably know this better than us. Not Sony’s board, they are way to competent for this. Sony’s leadership dragged Sony out of their crisis in early 2000s (2008-2014). Sony managed well to restructure the company in a successful and healthy business. Their TVs, sound systems, headsets, cameras did become very popular. Have some confidence in them man. Do you really think in Sony’s board are sitting amateurs? They do understand their daily bread. No way in hell Sony will give up and get to embrace Microsoft buying the industry. Sony will need to find their own niche: Full acquisition of Square Enix, Capcom + stakes in Konami, Bandai and TakeTwo. The refining Bungie, Firewalk and Deviation Games. I see many scenarios but definitely not the option that Sony will vanish. PlayStation is along Nintendo the strongest gaming brand in the entire world. Also if Sony did underestimate Microsoft’s vile intentions, now this leaked documents about acquisitions targets have probably…no more than likely opened Sony’s eyes.

 

[Nhomnhom]

They probably know this better than us. Not Sony’s board, they are way to competent for this. Sony’s leadership dragged Sony out of their crisis in early 2000s. Sony managed well to restructure the company in a successful and healthy business. Their TVs, sound systems, headsets, cameras did become very popular. Have some confidence in them man. Do you really think in Sony’s board are sitting amateurs? They understand their daily bread. No way in hell Sony will give up and get embrace Microsoft buying the industry. Sony will need to find their own niche: Full acquisition of Square Enix, Capcom + stakes in Konami, Bandai and TakeTwo. The refining Bungie, Firewalk and Deviation Games. I see many scenarios but definitely not the option that Sony will vanish. PlayStation is along Nintendo the strongest gaming brand in the entire world.

I have no confidence in them, I have confidence in PlayStation not Sony. PlayStation crawled out of the PS3 hole on its own, on the talents of it's devs and hardware team and under the leadership of people that don't work there anymore or that occupy a different position now. All that while Sony was getting in the way due to it's own problems at the time.

Sony still has options, I'm just saying that they have to make those defensive moves. The defensive move is not o invest in GaaS or to try to grown their PC business. The move is to go after Xbox with all they have now (now as in as soon as the ABK deal goes one way or the other).

Sony is concerned about making cars while PlayStation faces an existential threat.

 

[Eternal_Wings]

I have no confidence in them, I have confidence in PlayStation not Sony. PlayStation crawled out of the PS3 hole on its own, on the talents of it's devs and hardware team and under the leadership of people that don't work there anymore or that occupy a different position now. All that while Sony was getting in the way due to it's own problems at the time.

Sony still has options, I'm just saying that they have to make those defensive moves. The defensive move is not o invest in GaaS or to try to grown their PC business. The move is to go after Xbox with all they have now (now as in as soon as the ABK deal goes one way or the other).

Sony is concerned about making cars while PlayStation faces an existential threat.

Well if the PlayStation division managed to survive the darkest age of their history (PS3 era), they will also continue to do in the future.
Sony is not abandoning their most successful business. PlayStation is carrying the entire Sony corporation. Let’s be real if Sony would be a slow poke, then they would have gone bankrupt for a long time. A company like Sony needs to adapt for changes, and they know this better than us. Sony will be forced to spend big bucks and also their shareholders will demand it from Sony execs to do so. Sony's shareholders know that PlayStation is a very important asset of the Sony corporation.

 

[Nhomnhom]

Well if the PlayStation division managed to survive the darkest age of their history (PS3 era), they will also continue to do in the future.

Xbox never had the backup of MS like it does now. If it had this at the time of the 360 than PlayStation would've died right there.

At this pace MS will have in a matter of a few years spent the entire market value of Sony making acquisitions to kill PlayStation. How do you survive that?

 

[ksdixon]

MS have some kind of favored nations clause where if anyone else wants to buy NVIDIA, they get first refusal.

I don't understand the business behind M&A's, but can't Sony just put a few classes into their deal memo/letter of intents? Like MS purchase of Minecraft having to retain all platforms.

From, Capcom, SE, Sega, Konami... carry on as usual, we'll help finance/co-develop games on game to game basis (defacto exclusives if they want, a la FF16). We'll buy some shares/invest a bit additionally, but for that if anyone comes sniffing around, we want to have first dibs on M&A.

Else we get stupid shit like SE West selling to Embracer for peanuts, when those IPs would have benefitted Sony.

 

[Eternal_Wings]

Sony will buy for 1000% Square Enix.

Not a single partner developer of Sony ever did advertise their products. This merger is happening after Activision Blizzard case is done.

 

[Bryank75]

Sony will buy for 1000% Square Enix.

Not a single partner developer of Sony ever did advertise their products. This merger is happening after Activision Blizzard case is done.

Better have From and Capcom lined up just after them, don't want Microsoft freed up to buy any of those...

 

[ultimateFF]

I'm still in the right mind that sony logical potential acquisitions should be Square Enix and Capcom, on the condition that Sony should be taking hands-off approach regarding them(and maybe cut xbox from their releases lmao). And about From Software, I think they will be better off with Bandai Namco(because of their long relationship working experiences, and also Bandai Namco knew how to utilized FS expertises).

 

[Jim Ryan]

We're looking at the marvel snap people right now.... Maybe.

You guys like mobile games, right?

 

[Zzero]

MS have some kind of favored nations clause where if anyone else wants to buy NVIDIA, they get first refusal.

I don't understand the business behind M&A's, but can't Sony just put a few classes into their deal memo/letter of intents? Like MS purchase of Minecraft having to retain all platforms.

From, Capcom, SE, Sega, Konami... carry on as usual, we'll help finance/co-develop games on game to game basis (defacto exclusives if they want, a la FF16). We'll buy some shares/invest a bit additionally, but for that if anyone comes sniffing around, we want to have first dibs on M&A.

Else we get stupid shit like SE West selling to Embracer for peanuts, when those IPs would have benefitted Sony.

SE West wasn't sold out from under Sony's nose. If Embracer got them its because they offered more than anyone else. Sad since I think they fit in really well with PS branding. Tom Raider is nearly synonymous with PS despite most (none?) of the the titles being exclusives. I normally don't think that acquiring an "IP" rather than a studio is wise use of money but Tomb Raider specifically does have a special place in PS history and PS gamers' minds. Deus Ex also "feels" like a PS3-era Sony game way more than it does a 360-era Xbox game.

I'm still in the right mind that sony logical potential acquisitions should be Square Enix and Capcom, on the condition that Sony should be taking hands-off approach regarding them(and maybe cut xbox from their releases lmao). And about From Software, I think they will be better off with Bandai Namco(because of their long relationship working experiences, and also Bandai Namco knew how to utilized FS expertises).

FROMsoft already has an owner, Kadokawa. If anything I bet they can't wait to be freed from their old agreement with Bamco.

 

[ksdixon]

SE West wasn't sold out from under Sony's nose. If Embracer got them its because they offered more than anyone else. Sad since I think they fit in really well with PS branding. Tom Raider is nearly synonymous with PS despite most (none?) of the the titles being exclusives. I normally don't think that acquiring an "IP" rather than a studio is wise use of money but Tomb Raider specifically does have a special place in PS history and PS gamers' minds. Deus Ex also "feels" like a PS3-era Sony game way more than it does a 360-era Xbox game.

But Embracer got those ip's/studios for peanuts. PS aligned/mindshare IPS, I agree with everything you said. It seems so against Sony's BS of organic growth. It made every sense in the world to buy them, I believe we've even seen Embracer remonstize some properties selling a TV show rights to Amazon? (I forget the details atm).

Especially in light of everyone still being sure they're gonna get a Bungie deal. If trending that way regardless, why not invest a bit when SE needed it, and complete the buyout later for the other SE properties/dev teams. Someone did that recently. Was it TenCent investing more into SuperMassiveGames and actually buying them fully?

 

[Zzero]

we've even seen Embracer remonstize some properties selling a TV show rights to Amazon? (I forget the details atm).

The details were not made public and we are not sure how much of that money actually went to Embracer (whether the outlay was all towards the IP rights or if it also counted the entire budget of the project and marketing, though its sounding more like the later.)

Was it TenCent investing more into SuperMassiveGames and actually buying them fully?

Happens a lot. Often when a company invests in something they get the "option" to make a full purchase at an agreed rate at a later date. They don't need to take the option, though.

 

[Yurinka]

Was it TenCent investing more into SuperMassiveGames and actually buying them fully?

Tencent typically don't invest or acquire to control companies or force to do something.

They basically chase win/win investments where they help the studios in some areas (like funding or accesing China) while also keep the management of the studio do their job as they consider. In exchange, Tencent gets money from the dividends of that company and also from publishing these games in their Chinese platforms.

So they don't care about fully acquiring the studio or not as long as they get what they want (content for their stores, diversify their investments outside China and dividends from their investments). In addition to this in some cases, the people who run the studio are ok with getting investment but not with selling the studio.

In the case of Supermassive, it was fully acquired by Nordisk Film last year. Sony prefered instead to sign an unannounced 2nd party PS5 only game with a new studio created in 2019 by Until Dawn devs, Ballistic Moon.

 

[Zzero]

Tencent typically don't invest or acquire to control companies or force to do something.

They basically chase win/win investments where they help the studios in some areas (like funding or accesing China) while also keep the management of the studio do their job as they consider. In exchange, Tencent gets money from the dividends of that company and also from publishing these games in their Chinese platforms.

So they don't care about fully acquiring the studio or not as long as they get what they want (content for their stores, diversify their investments outside China and dividends from their investments). In addition to this in some cases, the people who run the studio are ok with getting investment but not with selling the studio.

In the case of Supermassive, it was fully acquired by Nordisk Film last year. Sony prefered instead to sign an unannounced 2nd party PS5 only game with a new studio created in 2019 by Until Dawn devs, Ballistic Moon.

I'm phone-posting and can't debate too hard but earlier this year (or late ladt year?) they said they would start taking a more hands-on approach with so e studios after growth leveled off. They also started Level Infinite, which will act as a more traditional publisher, including for many of the studios they have stakes in.

 

[Ronin714]

Capcom
Square Enix
Level 5
Team Ninja
Platinum Games
Shift Up (Stellar Blade)
Ember Lab
Arc System Works
Konami IPs
FromSoftware
Sumo Digital
WB Games
Supermassive Games

These are the only ones that would make sense.

 

[Muddasar]

Capcom
Square Enix
Level 5
Team Ninja
Platinum Games
Shift Up (Stellar Blade)
Ember Lab
Arc System Works
Konami IPs
FromSoftware
Sumo Digital
WB Games
Supermassive Games

These are the only ones that would make sense.

Level 5 are there for the taking considering how much they are struggling.

Problem is like Kojima Productions they are dependent on 1 person.

 

[Sleepy Brown]

Sony will buy for 1000% Square Enix.

Not a single partner developer of Sony ever did advertise their products. This merger is happening after Activision Blizzard case is done.

They surely won't because they're not going to spend ~$10 billion to acquire Final Fantasy.
Square-Enix makes a ton of AA games like Octopath Traveler, Harvestella and Tactics Ogre. Games that sell well on Switch. Just like Dragon Quest (Square-Enix doesn't own it). Sony is only interested in Final Fantasy and AAA games. The pipedream of Sony buying a publisher is ridiculous. Buying Bungie for $3.6 billion was Sony Corp's biggest acquisition ever. And they only did it because making GaaS games (hoping for another Fortnite) is their emergency strategy to save PlayStation. It's their last hope.
Sony will go after more no-name studios like Firewalk, Haven and Savage Game Studios for more live-service and mobile games. They are preparing themselves to become a 3rd party publisher for Xbox, Switch, PC and mobile phones at the end of the next gen (PS6).

Xbox never had the backup of MS like it does now. If it had this at the time of the 360 than PlayStation would've died right there.

At this pace MS will have in a matter of a few years spent the entire market value of Sony making acquisitions to kill PlayStation.
How do you survive that?

They won't.

 

[Eternal_Wings]

They surely won't because they're not going to spend ~$10 billion to acquire Final Fantasy.
Square-Enix makes a ton of AA games like Octopath Traveler, Harvestella and Tactics Ogre. Games that sell well on Switch. Just like Dragon Quest (Square-Enix doesn't own it). Sony is only interested in Final Fantasy and AAA games. The pipedream of Sony buying a publisher is ridiculous. Buying Bungie for $3.6 billion was Sony Corp's biggest acquisition ever. And they only did it because making GaaS games (hoping for another Fortnite) is their emergency strategy to save PlayStation. It's their last hope.
Sony will go after more no-name studios like Firewalk, Haven and Savage Game Studios for more live-service and mobile games. They are preparing themselves to become a 3rd party publisher for Xbox, Switch, PC and mobile phones at the end of the next gen (PS6).

They won't.

I said it once you’re a big clown here. Becoming 3rd Party for Xbox.
Which console is always on the last place for more than 4 generations? This doesn’t make sense at all, Xbox was always the platform where games sold less to nonexistent sales. Xbox is the least popular console on the whole globe. PlayStation will spend cash if needed to protect their business. You Xbox worshippers are the only folks who repeating the constant misinformation, that Sony doesn’t have enough cash. I tell you once again, you and all the other Xbox followers will have a bad awakening soon.

Edit: No Harvestella nor other A-AA didn’t make a money. Square Enix already admitted that Domestic market is not profitable any more. Hence why the shift to AAA games. The new appointed Square Enix CEO announced the company’s strategy will shift to AAA games. Stop telling misinformation. Clown yourself further.

Sony considers partial spin-off and listing of financial services unit

Shares of Japanese conglomerate rise 6% as investors welcome idea

www.ft.com

"Consolidation in entertainment has been happening and Sony doesn't want to be left behind." - Hiroki Totoki (SVP, CFO Sony)

You can flip-flop it how you want but you will soon awake from your delusional takes.

 

[ultimateFF]

They surely won't because they're not going to spend ~$10 billion to acquire Final Fantasy.
Square-Enix makes a ton of AA games like Octopath Traveler, Harvestella and Tactics Ogre. Games that sell well on Switch. Just like Dragon Quest (Square-Enix doesn't own it). Sony is only interested in Final Fantasy and AAA games. The pipedream of Sony buying a publisher is ridiculous. Buying Bungie for $3.6 billion was Sony Corp's biggest acquisition ever. And they only did it because making GaaS games (hoping for another Fortnite) is their emergency strategy to save PlayStation. It's their last hope.
Sony will go after more no-name studios like Firewalk, Haven and Savage Game Studios for more live-service and mobile games. They are preparing themselves to become a 3rd party publisher for Xbox, Switch, PC and mobile phones at the end of the next gen (PS6).

You had me there until the last line

 

[Sleepy Brown]

I said it once you’re a big clown here. Becoming 3rd Party for Xbox.
Which console is always on the last place for more than 4 generations? This doesn’t make sense at all, Xbox was always the platform where games sold less to nonexistent sales. Xbox is the least popular console on the whole globe.

And now Microsoft is serious and is spending over $80 billion to acquire over 20 1st party studios and multiple publishers.
Wanna see how things changed? Look at Sony showcase this year, or the Sony showcase of last year that doesn't exist.... and then look at Microsoft's showcase this year. And it's only getting worse for PlayStation.
You will get a ton of Xbox 1st party singleplayer games, the best AAA RPGs and famous multiplayer games. Meanwhile Sony is going to spend more and more of its budget on live-service games because they hope they can make another Fortnite to save the PlayStation brand and fight off Microsoft's Call of Duty.
But it ain't gonna happen.

PlayStation will spend cash if needed to protect their business. You Xbox worshippers are the only folks who repeating the constant misinformation, that Sony doesn’t have enough cash.

Well they don't have enough cash. Sony's biggest acquisition was Bungie (emergency plan - live-service games to save PlayStation). Sony is going to buy a few no-name studios like Haven and Firewalk. Not a publisher.
Remember when Sony sold multiple buildings 10 years ago to survive?

Sony sells Manhattan headquarters skyscraper for $1.1bn

Sony agrees to sell its US headquarters in Manhattan for $1.1bn (£690m) as the troubled Japanese music group seeks to raise cash.

www.bbc.com

Sony sells Tokyo office building for $1.2 billion

Sony announced its second sale of major offices in as many months today, the company offloading its Tokyo-based Sony City Osaki building for ¥111 billion (around $1.2 billion). Following last month's sale of its US headquarters for $1.1 billion, Sony entered the Osaki building and its premises...

www.engadget.com

They're not going to spend $10 billion for Final Fantasy.
$10 billion is pretty much pocket change for Microsoft. For Sony it's the world.

Edit: No Harvestella nor other A-AA didn’t make a money. Square Enix already admitted that Domestic market is not profitable any more. Hence why the shift to AAA games. The new appointed Square Enix CEO announced the company’s strategy will shift to AAA games. Stop telling misinformation. Clown yourself further.

You mean "successful" AAA games like Forspoken or Square's biggest IP Final Fantasy XVI only selling 3 million copies? Yeah no, they will keep making AA games for Switch. They know that's their future. See Theatrhythm Final Bar Line, Star Ocean: The Second Story R, or Dragon Quest Monsters.

You had me there until the last line

It's literally Sony PlayStation's future. To become another 3rd party publisher just like Sega.