Sony's future and possible studio/publisher acquisitions

Puff

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Already, Sony is decreasing staff at some of its major studios including Bungie. It plans to reduce gaming M&A next year by roughly 20%, he said Thursday. Sony reported a less-than-projected ¥263.01 billion operating income for the September quarter.

reduce gaming M&A next year by roughly 20%?

I don’t know how they want to sell Consoles in the future when they are losing all ips. Sony should discuss a merger with Apple. They won’t be able to keep up with MS's output.
 
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Playstation Sucka

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8 Jan 2023
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reduce gaming M&A next year by roughly 20%?

I don’t know how they want to sell Consoles in the future when they are losing all ips. Sony should discuss a merger with Apple. They won’t be able to keep up with MS's output.
Create a strong sense of community belonging to their brand
They have two options either choose a path like Nintendo or Microsoft right now they are in the middle where they don't tilt strongly to either way but by their recent actions they seem to tilt strongly towards a path chosen by Microsoft to not give the console preferential treatment
 

AshHunter216

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I'd take a Takashi Mochizuki article with a grain of salt. They could be talking about integration and operating cost like with Bungie, or they could be meaning to buy ownership stakes in pubs rather than outright buying. There's also ways to buy things that don't involve using 100% of your own money. I personally think there's a reason they didn't want to lay out their full plan until next year.
 
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Dabaus

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reduce gaming M&A next year by roughly 20%?

I don’t know how they want to sell Consoles in the future when they are losing all ips. Sony should discuss a merger with Apple. They won’t be able to keep up with MS's output.
This. If anything they should be doubling down on acquisitions not retreating. Especially now since their pictures division has shown that gaming IP are lucrative in the long run. I really do think if Sony doesnt make a play for square enix, Microsoft will. Seems sony doesnt care.

They really are in a bad spot software wise. The GAAS initiative was always dumb and they bit off more then they could chew with it at that. They have way too many holes in the genre portfolio and depend way too much on third party IP. After the ABK announcement they shouldve made some defensive moves by raising funds and investing in key publishers. Instead they wasted 4 billion on bungie and set their software pipeline back for years chasing the GAAS trend.

The only reason Sony seems to be ok in the short term is it seems likely they will sell 25 million and thats great, but as Phil said in his email they are playing the long game while sony is playing year to year. Sony is winning battles but Microsoft strategy wins wars IMO.
 

Playstation Sucka

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This. If anything they should be doubling down on acquisitions not retreating. Especially now since their pictures division has shown that gaming IP are lucrative in the long run. I really do think if Sony doesnt make a play for square enix, Microsoft will. Seems sony doesnt care.

They really are in a bad spot software wise. The GAAS initiative was always dumb and they bit off more then they could chew with it at that. They have way too many holes in the genre portfolio and depend way too much on third party IP. After the ABK announcement they shouldve made some defensive moves by raising funds and investing in key publishers. Instead they wasted 4 billion on bungie and set their software pipeline back for years chasing the GAAS trend.

The only reason Sony seems to be ok in the short term is it seems likely they will sell 25 million and thats great, but as Phil said in his email they are playing the long game while sony is playing year to year. Sony is winning battles but Microsoft strategy wins wars IMO.
I don't blame them it is the age old problem of putting all your eggs in one basket which Microsoft looks to have learnt from their past when they only tried to made live service games and fall flat on their face and Sony is trying to amend it with their gaas initiative through Bungie and other avenues
In case of sony they have put all their eggs in the single player narrative driven games but due to how long it takes to develop them there are no stop gaps in between the release henceforth gaas games are necessary for cooldown and stickiness to their ecosystem people here don't like sony going for gaas but they are right to do so because not all live service games coming out from them will be successful atleast some have a chance to be a growth vector for sony and earn them some dollahs from those sweet sweet Macro transactions
 

Johnic

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The only reason Sony seems to be ok in the short term is it seems likely they will sell 25 million and thats great, but as Phil said in his email they are playing the long game while sony is playing year to year. Sony is winning battles but Microsoft strategy wins wars IMO.
MS' strategy has yet to win a single battle in 20 years, let alone a war.

I mean, I agree with their acquisition situation but MS' strategy seems to be trying everything and anything, hoping something sticks.
 
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Playstation Sucka

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MS' strategy has yet to win a single battle in 20 years, let alone a war.

I mean, I agree with their acquisition situation but MS' strategy seems to be trying everything and anything, hoping something sticks.
But battles are small scale and wars are large scale and he isn't wrong battle of consoles is where playstation persists but war will be fought on console, PC and Mobile where sony has been really half heartedly committed
Look at their VR and PC related business decisions they are not Fully committed to it
 
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Danja1187

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Microsoft has definitely won the Acquisition / IP war. The question is will they be successful at nurturing those IP's and studios.

Sony has flubbed this entire generation they should be lucky for the goodwill, dedicated fanbase and the foundation set by previous leaders.

PS6 is when the brand will be truly tested and everything from PS5 missteps catches up to them.
 

Playstation Sucka

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Microsoft has definitely won the Acquisition / IP war. The question is will they be successful at nurturing those IP's and studios.

Sony has flubbed this entire generation they should be lucky for the goodwill, dedicated fanbase and the foundation set by previous leaders.

PS6 is when the brand will be truly tested and everything from PS5 missteps catches up to them.
I think they have a lot of time till the next gen hits sony could make some wonderful experiences
 

Playstation Sucka

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Too late even if they started course correcting now we still won't see the results for another 5 - 6 years. It's crazy to me how they misread literally everything about the market and yet us gamers could see it coming a mile away.
That is true for any new acquisitions they do but not for studios they already own
 
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On Demand

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I'd take a Takashi Mochizuki article with a grain of salt. They could be talking about integration and operating cost like with Bungie, or they could be meaning to buy ownership stakes in pubs rather than outright buying. There's also ways to buy things that don't involve using 100% of your own money. I personally think there's a reason they didn't want to lay out their full plan until next year.

Nah. None of this is possible.

Sony is doomed.
 

tutomos

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We just saw Sint trying to spend $10b to buy Zee in India. If it makes sense to them, they'll use their money for m/a. But I don't see any m/a making sense on the gaming side unless it's Insomniac level where they get a lot of returns for a relatively cheap price.
 

Yurinka

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What they really said regarding next FY24 fiscal year in the Q&A regarding acquisitions (to be exact, they didn't say anything since he was talking about acquisition costs made in previous FYs, not about future budget for acquisitions):

https://www.irwebmeeting.com/sony/fast/20231109/m8q63fxg/202403_2q_02_en/index.html
  • (00:45:40) Acquisition related costs -not only Bungie, but also a number of others- peaked in FY23 (current FY) and will decrease a 20% for FY24 on a USD basis. (please notice he's talking why profits were impacted and why will improve next fiscal year, and he's talking about acquisition related costs of acquisitions made in previous years)
 

anonpuffs

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Very very misleading analysis. I took a look at the actual financial report and you can see the reason they missed the profit projections is largely due to losing money in the image sensors and life insurance sectors.
Screenshot_20231109_144401.jpg
 

Dabaus

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What they really said regarding next FY24 fiscal year in the Q&A regarding acquisitions (to be exact, they didn't say anything since he was talking about acquisition costs made in previous FYs, not about future budget for acquisitions):

https://www.irwebmeeting.com/sony/fast/20231109/m8q63fxg/202403_2q_02_en/index.html
  • (00:45:40) Acquisition related costs -not only Bungie, but also a number of others- peaked in FY23 (current FY) and will decrease a 20% for FY24 on a USD basis. (please notice he's talking why profits were impacted and why will improve next fiscal year, and he's talking about acquisition related costs of acquisitions made in previous years)
Hmmm I think you may be correct. Hes not talking about acquisitions budgets but talking about paying off prior acquisitions. If that is the correct translation and context.
 

Arminius

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reduce gaming M&A next year by roughly 20%?

I don’t know how they want to sell Consoles in the future when they are losing all ips. Sony should discuss a merger with Apple. They won’t be able to keep up with MS's output.
Agreed. Sony needs to merge or partner with some entity like Apple.