Sony's future and possible studio/publisher acquisitions

[Bryank75]

Are Sony buying SquareEnix or what

The overall feeling is that they make a lot of sense, they cover many niches that PlayStation are weak or want to grow in and the customers on PlayStation alone can support their biggest games for the most part.

FFXIV would be a a huge addition to GAAS and would look great beside Destiny 2 and GT7 in that lineup.

They have loads going on in mobile, which PlayStation want in on.

The characters, IP's, music etc all have great potential in other media...

But Sony is weird...they are unpredictable and if Square are safe from anyone else acquiring them, then I doubt Sony would waste that cash...as they could use it to secure something that is under threat that may be more strategically useful.

The main issues with guessing are that we have no idea who is "on the market", who is willing to sell if they are offered enough, who other companies may be pursuing for acquisition and how much cash / funds Sony wants to commit.

If they were going all-in for instance, I wouldn't go for TakeTwo... I would be saying WB / Discovery for the transmedia potential, highly talented game studios and overall building a Sony media empire to rival Disney. TakeTwo is 22 billion Market cap and WB / Discovery is about 25 billion.

If they wanted medium sized publishers / developers... Capcom, Square and CDPR are my top picks.

If they just wanted IP's.... they can buy some from Embracer (TR / Legacy of Kain) and Konami (MGS, Castlevania etc)

Smaller studios.... IOI, Arc System, Level 5, Larian (big enough), Remedy...

Its just such an open ended question.

Disney might even be down to sell Star Wars.... they are struggling.

 

[Thunderstorm__]

Wow decades old Games. Yes the P3 remake too. I bet Persona 6 will be exclusive (timed at least) to PS5 or PS6, and all the doom mongers will forget about the “broken Sega relationship”.

Persona 6 will definitely not be an exclusive. Third party publishers are getting out of the exclusivity bullshit, they understand it's far more profitable to just release everywhere. I would say PS went down a wrong path this generation. We all know how many 1 year exclusives PS was trying to gobble right from the start of the generation. MS instead played a long-term game and bought some big publishers like Bethesda or Activision. Hopefully the leadership shake-up will be exciting

 

[Zzero]

Disney is not down to sell Star Wars, the stuff they want to sell is the stuff nobody wants to buy. Or, more accurately, the stuff no-one famous wants to buy. They want to offload their American cable networks (probably to a group like Sirius that isn't even known about outside of the US) and they want to sell entity stakes in ESPN to pro sports leagues like the NFL and NBA, a proposal that has seemingly been met with zero interest from said leagues, who like the current ESPN/Fox Sports broadcast rights bidding wars. If you're lucky they sell off "20th Century Films" (the former Fox films unit) but IMO its more likely that they just lay all of those employees off, integrate or liquidate the physical assets and vault the IP.

 

[gokuss4]

These japanese company's square sega Capcom ect are not system sellers
If sony get gta for example they well sell more then 15 millions consoles every year
Gta San Andreas got released back in 2004 and the game still mainstream and every time a youtuber do a longplay for sa they get more then 10 millions views in less then a week
and these broken HD remake for gta games sold more then 10 million in just couple of weeks

 

[gokuss4]

Grasp the new Square Enix CEO. Sure sure.
“Whenever possible” doesn’t sound really like Square Enix would has much choice where their big games will release. Reminder: OT II is not coming to Xbox Gamepass, FF14 is also not on Microsoft’s sub service.
Nah it’s only the usual doom & gloom preachers here.

Some people have a doom gloom fetish lol
Sometimes I make doom posts just for fun

 

[Gods&Monsters]

Persona 6 will definitely not be an exclusive. Third party publishers are getting out of the exclusivity bullshit, they understand it's far more profitable to just release everywhere. I would say PS went down a wrong path this generation. We all know how many 1 year exclusives PS was trying to gobble right from the start of the generation. MS instead played a long-term game and bought some big publishers like Bethesda or Activision. Hopefully the leadership shake-up will be exciting

Please name these exclusives. MS made a lot more deals and just this year they already have more than Sony ever did.

Sony had FF16 and Rebirth that were announced back in 2020 and that's it.

Ghostwire and Deathloop were flops and not 1 PS5 console was sold because of them. You won't make me believe Xbox was hurt by that 1 year exclusive. MS had Redfall, Hifi and Starfield instead.

 

[gokuss4]

Disney is not down to sell Star Wars, the stuff they want to sell is the stuff nobody wants to buy. Or, more accurately, the stuff no-one famous wants to buy. They want to offload their American cable networks (probably to a group like Sirius that isn't even known about outside of the US) and they want to sell entity stakes in ESPN to pro sports leagues like the NFL and NBA, a proposal that has seemingly been met with zero interest from said leagues, who like the current ESPN/Fox Sports broadcast rights bidding wars. If you're lucky they sell off "20th Century Films" (the former Fox films unit) but IMO its more likely that they just lay all of those employees off, integrate or liquidate the physical assets and vault the IP.

Disney successfully destroyed the star wars brand with their mediocre TV shows films ect

 

[Danja]

Please name these exclusives. MS made a lot more deals and just this year they already have more than Sony ever did.

Sony had FF16 and Rebirth that were announced back in 2020 and that's it.

Ghostwire and Deathloop were flops and not 1 PS5 console was sold because of them. You won't make me believe Xbox was hurt by that 1 year exclusive. MS had Redfall, Hifi and Starfield instead.

Media narrative started by that fraud Khan or whatever his name is. Who claimed he heard Sony was making so many deals at an unprecedented level. He started the rumor they were after Starfield too until Microsoft bought them. We learnt that was never the case during the trial.

Sony's plan to simply migrate the PS4 players to PS5 at unprecedented pace, which would have given them first dibs on every single thing. Unfortunately Covid fucked everything. Xbox really are only existing today because of Covid... It's funny to think about.

 

[AshHunter216]

Persona 6 will definitely not be an exclusive. Third party publishers are getting out of the exclusivity bullshit, they understand it's far more profitable to just release everywhere. I would say PS went down a wrong path this generation. We all know how many 1 year exclusives PS was trying to gobble right from the start of the generation. MS instead played a long-term game and bought some big publishers like Bethesda or Activision. Hopefully the leadership shake-up will be exciting

They're doing pretty well to have supposedly gone down the wrong path this generation. You guys go for every Xbox fanboy narrative hook line and sinker.

 

[Thunderstorm__]

They're doing pretty well to have supposedly gone down the wrong path this generation. You guys go for every Xbox fanboy narrative hook line and sinker.

I have enough critical thinking to not need to follow any fanboys’ narratives. Going the wrong path may be an exaggeration but I don’t know how you guys can be happy that Sony sorted out some exclusivity deals while MS managed to get much bigger fishes. Doing pretty well is meaningless in a grand scheme of thing if they shoot themselves in the foot in the next few years. The fact that some people here are begging for big acquisitions is telling enough.

 

[AshHunter216]

I have enough critical thinking to not need to follow any fanboys’ narratives. Going the wrong path may be an exaggeration but I don’t know how you guys can be happy that Sony sorted out some exclusivity deals while MS managed to get much bigger fishes. Doing pretty well is meaningless in a grand scheme of thing if they shoot themselves in the foot in the next few years. The fact that some people here are begging for big acquisitions is telling enough.

Not really, many here just get easily spooked. Xbox isn't going to be able to just eliminate Playstation like they want to given how often they screw up everything thet try. I doubt Sony plan to be complacent all gen, though they can afford to go slower than many here would like.

Same ridiculous takes on this forum every day. Play more games people, Spider-Man 2 is a banger.

 

[Thunderstorm__]

Not really, many here just get easily spooked. Xbox isn't going to be able to just eliminate Playstation like they want to given how often they screw up everything thet try. I doubt Sony plan to be complacent all gen, though they can afford to go slower than many here would like.

Same ridiculous takes on this forum every day. Play more games people, Spider-Man 2 is a banger.

I’m not one of those delusional doomers, what I was trying to say was not even doomposting, I simply stated Playstation might be in a tough spot in the next few years. The criticisms about exclusivity deals is perfectly valid because they add so little to the brand ecosystem (the people who disputed my point were even trying to support my point by stating how poorly those timed exclusives sell lmao). Doomers are no more delusional than people who think Playstation would just be 100% at the top regardless of how much Xbox is trying to expand.

 

[Thunderstorm__]

Please name these exclusives. MS made a lot more deals and just this year they already have more than Sony ever did.

Sony had FF16 and Rebirth that were announced back in 2020 and that's it.

Ghostwire and Deathloop were flops and not 1 PS5 console was sold because of them. You won't make me believe Xbox was hurt by that 1 year exclusive. MS had Redfall, Hifi and Starfield instead.

Xbox also made 2 big acquisitions that now allows them to be self sufficient (theoretically) by having more than 30 studios. Also lol at your last point, so now timed exclusives need to sell to actually make them timed exclusives? What is this bullshit? And aren’t you acknowledging these exclusivity deals are awful?

 

[Playstation Sucka]

Not really, many here just get easily spooked. Xbox isn't going to be able to just eliminate Playstation like they want to given how often they screw up everything thet try. I doubt Sony plan to be complacent all gen, though they can afford to go slower than many here would like.

Same ridiculous takes on this forum every day. Play more games people, Spider-Man 2 is a banger.

They don't need to they are right to expand to mobile because the market favours playstation and Nintendo

 

[Gods&Monsters]

Also lol at your last point, so now timed exclusives need to sell to actually make them timed exclusives? What is this bullshit? And aren’t you acknowledging these exclusivity deals are awful?

What was the point you were making below?

I would say PS went down a wrong path this generation. We all know how many 1 year exclusives PS was trying to gobble right from the start of the generation.

I thought you were implying Sony was playing dirty and being unfair to Xbox by making these deals? Those games didn't move the needle at all. I could easily say Stalker 2, Ark 2, Powerwash Simulator or Darktide was the wrong path for Xbox.

Since when are timed-exclusives so evil anyway? They've been part of gaming forever. I don't know why you're so bothered about these deals.

Nintendo has 2 exclusives from Square coming out in the next few weeks and I don't see any outrage. It's only when it's poor Xbox.

They had access to all these franchises and they didn't sell. Even their own exclusives are flopping

 

[Johnic]

Nintendo has 2 exclusives from Square coming out in the next few weeks and I don't see any outrage. It's only when it's poor Xbox.

Hell, Front Mission 2 remake was just recently released on Switch. Timed exclusive, just like the first one.

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

Hell, Front Mission 2 remake was just recently released on Switch. Timed exclusive, just like the first one.

Can't wait to see the BS articles about Nintendo hurting Square-Enix's growth as a 3P when that FM2 remake inevitably underperforms. Maybe we'll even get some hokey articles of Square-Enix stock drops afterwards being blamed on Front Mission 2 Remake timed exclusivity to the Switch.

Oh, wait, it doesn't involve PlayStation? Oh well, never mind. All those no-worth games journalists and bloggers will just conveniently not make the same rounds. Guess they got it out of their system with FF XVI.

Conveniently...

 

[Gods&Monsters]

Hell, Front Mission 2 remake was just recently released on Switch. Timed exclusive, just like the first one.

See? I didn't even hear about this. Same for Dragon Quest Monsters. Let's wait to see if Thunderstorm is so bothered by what evil Nintendo is doing. They took the wrong path. Switch 2 is done

Dragon Quest is as big as Final Fantasy. Xbox players could easily say they are missing out and the franchise won't grow because of the exclusivity bullshit...but they don't. Total silence from all the shills, no requests and nobody wants to play it. Why? It's not on Playstation.

 

[teezzy]

See? I didn't even hear about this. Same for Dragon Quest Monsters. Let's wait to see if Thunderstorm is so bothered by what evil Nintendo is doing. They took the wrong path. Switch 2 is done

Dragon Quest is as big as Final Fantasy. Xbox players could easily say they are missing out and the franchise won't grow because of the exclusivity bullshit...but they don't. Total silence from all the shills, no requests and nobody wants to play it. Why? It's not on Playstation.

Dragon Quest is not equally as big in the west as Final Fantasy is. Xbox gamers live in the west.

 

[Jim Ryan]

Dragon Quest is not equally as big in the west as Final Fantasy is. Xbox gamers live in the west.

They tried for many generations to get Final Fantasy selling on Xbox and the numbers were simply very disappointing.

There are definitely a lot of vocal people from the Xbox side online but it just doesn't reflect what the majority of Xbox gamers want and value.

Then a lot of those people are just console warriors that have no intention to actually play the games but simply want to deny an exclusive for PlayStation.

Also Final Fantasy sells well globally and unfortunately for Xbox, it is mostly only competitive in the US.... so the viability might not be there.

Xbox is really struggling in Europe and Asia... the only way I can see it making sense is if they pay a lump sum for the games to go on gamepass a few months / year after launch.

But does it really make an effective difference for the console? I don't think it would.