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OP
Sony's future and possible studio/publisher acquisitions
- Thread starter Eternal_Wings
- Start date
Wait insider trading a felony in US? Because I see those politicians in US DC do it all the time
D
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- CDPR - WRPG expertise - AAAA kind. Audience of its own - but cancels out Elder Scrolls/Fallout.
- Larian - WRPG expertise - mechanics heavy kind. Target - Diablo audience.
- FromSoftware - Souls/Armored Core. Mainly for Souls - WRPG. Proven to do action well too - say a Sekiro clone. They create niches of their own. Original.
- Bohemia Interactive - Shooter incubator (Day Z, Arma). Looking for a military shooter GAAS and AAA non-GAAS. Target - COD.
- Konami's Gaming IPs (not Konami as a whole). Specifically gunning for the Castlevania IP, and Metal Gear Solid IP - rest is gravy. Castlevania as a AAAA WRPG (studio handoff unknown), Metal Gear Solid IP as a TPS - continuation, reboot or what have you.
- Ubisoft (The Division, A-Creed, Rainbow Six - main staples - rest of the IPs is gravy). Division and Rainbox Six target both COD and cancel out Overwatch. Obviously advantage COD but that is where Bungie, those GAAS shooters and a COD suppression strategy come in. Death by a thousand cuts.
- Warner Gaming Studios and IP (Batman, DC IP rights (25 yrs least), Mortal Kombat, Harry Porter IP rights). Superhero differentiation.
Those are key targets for maintaining the status quo vis a vis the Bethesda/ABK combo.
Combinations that work to address the problem:
CDPR, Konami IP rights, Ubisoft (Good shooter mix, more action adventure, some WRPG).
Larian, Konami IP rights, Warner Gaming, Bohemia Interactive, FromSoftware (Good on WRPG, light on shooters, cements the PS5 as the superhero console).
Ubisoft, Warner Gaming (Ubisoft shooters + more AAA action adventure. Sony also cements the PS5 as the superheros console, light on WRPG).
CDPR, Larian, Bohemia Interactive, Konami IP rights, FromSoftware (heavy on WRPG, very light on shooters).
Wishlist: All of them.
Take-Two and EA are off-limits for obvious reasons - mainly cost and oversight.
Japanese publishers are untouchable by Western giants. Big politics. Has been the case since time immortal.
Obviously the Western WRPG/Shooter audience is of immediate concern requiring immediate address.
Down the line Sony should definitely be looking for those anime inspired Asian GAAS.
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What would Sony do with Bohemia Interactive?
Capcom: Publisher of the highest quality, with classic IPs in great shape like Resident Evil, Mega Man, Monster Hunter, Street Fighter, Devil May Cry, etc. Probably the closes publisher to Nintendo given their long history.
Konami IP rights: just key IPs like Metal Gear or Castlevania. Similar to when MS bought Gears from Epic, Sony would need to either acquire some other studio to handle the IP or open new ones. Looking at how little value the Tomb Raider IP had I can't think these IPs would be that expensive.
Square Enix: doesn't change that much because their biggest games are already associated with PlayStation but secures one of their biggest partners going forward.
CDPR: they don't own any IP and just had a big stumble with Cyberpunk but they are also the guys that made TW3. This would be the best answer to Bethesda but I'm not sure Sony has a good relationship with them.
Larian: BG3 is shaping up to be a breakout success and they could get in time to block any more work on Xbox versions. It would do well for Sony to have one studio with great communication and engagement with player. Another good answer to Bethesda and all the RPG studios MS acquired recently.
Warner: I don't think Mortal Kombat should be a PlayStation IP and now that Rocksteady is in terrible shape I think this is a bad investment, Harry Potter alone ain't worth it.
Ubisoft: Please no. Would contaminate Sony with their lack of productivity and uninspired games, ultimately killing PlayStation. Sadly I could see Jimbo going for them.
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In it's current state definitely would be a terrible get. But If xdefiant can become a legit cod competitor, that alone would make it worth it, but that's a big if.
I've seen this quite a few times and I need to correct this. While Ryan was the one who put the PC plan into motion, it was Layden who came up with it. He said it was "an easy choice".
Former PlayStation boss says bringing exclusives to PC was an easy choice
"There's no losing in this transaction."
Even if Yoshida got Ryan's job, the outcome would have been the same. The plan was in motion even while Layden was there.
Why would xDefiant become a legit CoD competitor? This is like betting on some WoW killer back in the day.
D
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Capcom has a lot overlap in action adventure, survival horror with SIE and their IP's don't do that well on Xbox, except maybe RE. Too much strength overlap with SIE strenghs. Monster Hunter IP will create conflict with Nintendo - unecessary. Dragon's Dogma does address the WRPG angle. Above all, Capcom is an ally by market reality that is better to have as a passive +, like Valve is to MS, as is EA. They're nuclear option war participants if forced to pick a side.
Square Enix strengths are in the JRPG sector. Not the critical need. Passive ally.
CDPR's main problem with Cyberpunk was improperly managed ambition (leading to insane scope vs. human capital capabilities), and too much greed leading to a rushed release. The game just needed time, much more time - say 8 more months and last gen dropped. The game, as of today, is solid. That's not me cutting them slack for what they tried to pull - they deserved all of it but just being objective. The studio has a massive amount of talent, and their ambition is commendable in their games. When you play them, you get it. The Witcher 3 is the best cinematic WRPG that has ever released and an established staple. It takes Bethesda for a spin out back. Fallout, Elder Scrolls, you name it. It's an impact IP with the spectacle touch that studios like Santa Monica and Naughty Dog give to their works. Sony can work wonders on ironing out the technical hurdles of console development as well as simplify them not to mention offer great advice and guidance for project management.
Also and this is a general assessment, as I've said before, Japanese publishers like Capcom and Square are not and will not become part of or be acquired by Microsoft - not on this lifetime or the next. Any attempts will simply be shot down. It's big politics. Those that know how it works know.
Square Enix strengths are in the JRPG sector. Not the critical need. Passive ally.
CDPR's main problem with Cyberpunk was improperly managed ambition (leading to insane scope vs. human capital capabilities), and too much greed leading to a rushed release. The game just needed time, much more time - say 8 more months and last gen dropped. The game, as of today, is solid. That's not me cutting them slack for what they tried to pull - they deserved all of it but just being objective. The studio has a massive amount of talent, and their ambition is commendable in their games. When you play them, you get it. The Witcher 3 is the best cinematic WRPG that has ever released and an established staple. It takes Bethesda for a spin out back. Fallout, Elder Scrolls, you name it. It's an impact IP with the spectacle touch that studios like Santa Monica and Naughty Dog give to their works. Sony can work wonders on ironing out the technical hurdles of console development as well as simplify them not to mention offer great advice and guidance for project management.
Also and this is a general assessment, as I've said before, Japanese publishers like Capcom and Square are not and will not become part of or be acquired by Microsoft - not on this lifetime or the next. Any attempts will simply be shot down. It's big politics. Those that know how it works know.
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There is a big diference between allowing Death Stranding, Days Gone and Detroit to be ported and porting The Last of US Part I (a few months after release), Uncharted 4, God of War and Spider man/Miles Morales to sell a few million copies combined.I've seen this quite a few times and I need to correct this. While Ryan was the one who put the PC plan into motion, it was Layden who came up with it. He said it was "an easy choice".
Former PlayStation boss says bringing exclusives to PC was an easy choice
"There's no losing in this transaction."www.gamesradar.com
Even if Yoshida got Ryan's job, the outcome would have been the same. The plan was in motion even while Layden was there.
Sony PC strategy has been proven a massive failure, one of the worst decisions they ever made in the long run.
Have you seen it?
It's the most closest anyone has got to a cod clone.
Gameplay, class loadouts, match types all have that cod feel.
I played the beta and it definitely feels like a challenger. Now it's up to ubisoft not to make a mess of it.
All of that would have happened regardless. The plan was in motion long before Ryan took over.
He could have stopped those silly experiments or slowed them down, he went all in.
There is no going back now that they ported Spider-man, God of War, TLoU and Uncharted. Even if they stop all port from now on PC players will still expect those games on PC 10 years from now. They took a massive risk for a pathetic reward.
GaaS games were the ones that needed to be ported to PC, that's it. Sony clearly don't understand the PC market, PC players hate them, their games get pirated to death on day one, they are used to downplay the value of PS5 and the money used on porting these games could be much better used supporting PlayStation instead.
All the biggest and best PlayStation IP now have technically superior versions on PC. Wow. Congratulations. Best place to play indeed.
They messed up porting over PS5 games. Games with impending sequels sure but what was the reason for TLOU, Ratchet, Returnal, Sackboy, Uncharted?
You wanna be the Apple of gaming but giving away the goods? Get PS+ on PC then. Get off Steam.
No it was him taking the piss out of the PS community and leveraging the MS/ABK acquisition to do it. Call it what it really is.
These "insiders" are not worth anything and like we've seen with Shrepnel_Nick (or however you spell his name), are mostly wrong alongside being EXTREMELY BIASED Xbox/PC fanboys.
Maybe 'P x S' means 'PlayStation x Silent Hill'.
There are several Silent Hill games coming and we know Sony signed a (timed?) console exclusivity for the Silent Hill 2 remake, which as I remember releases this October, and that there is also a rated 'Silent Hill: The Short Message' game (or 'playable teaser'?) which seems to be also console exclusive and since it was rated while ago it should be released soon.
So maybe he was teasing the upcoming announcement of a PS exclusive Silent Hill The Short Message or a Silent Hill themed State of Play or Konami stream.
I assume the deal between Sony and Konami could only be a couple of (timed?) console exclusivities plus marketing rights for the IP during this generation, not an acquisition of the company or the IP.
The reason was to earn addition several hundreds of millions of dollars in profits with cheap PC ports of old games reaching new players who would never buy a console to get extra fundings to make new games.
Yesterday I did check the numbers and the ports released in the last year -making the 'reviews x 25' quick rough estimation sold combined around 3.8M so far. Plus obviously they also have previous ports like GoW 2.65M, HZD 2.46M or Days Gone 1.6M and older and smaller games like Helldivers and Predator.
According to that estimation method they have sold well over 10M copies of these ports so far (and most at a very expensive price for being ports of old games),
Plus they also now have the PC revenue of Destiny 2 on top of that, and also the money they also got from the ports of their games published on PC by other people like Flower, Dreams, Heavy Rain, Beyond Two Souls, Detroit or Death Stranding etc.
Their PC adventure is being very successful and profitable, and didn't negatively affect any metric of their console business, so this is why they have been doubling down on it.
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