Sony's future and possible studio/publisher acquisitions

[Muddasar]

Surprised they haven't already snapped up Deviation Games yet. Unless they have behind the scenes and just waiting for the right moment to announce it.

I believe they have already been snapped up alongwith a few others.

This is their new studio. Doesn't look like a Third Party Multiplatform studio if you ask me.

Reckon the news of Bungie acquisition being investigated has stopped the announcements for now.

 

[LightBolt]

I believe they have already been snapped up alongwith a few others.

This is their new studio. Doesn't look like a Third Party Multiplatform studio if you ask me.

Reckon the news of Bungie acquisition being investigated has stopped the announcements for now.

I think Sony has got Deviation and EmberLab and Arrowhead and will reveal them in coming months?

 

[Muddasar]

I think Sony has got Deviation and EmberLab and Arrowhead and will reveal them in coming months?

Yes once the Bungie acquisition is complete. Expect a flurry of announcements. No way Deviation Games and Ember Lab remain independent.

The last studio acquisition announcement was Haven studios in March 2022 and that was right before the news that Bungie acquisition was being investigated in May 2022.

So it looks like Sony are keeping quiet until Bungie is completed.

 

[LightBolt]

Yes once the Bungie acquisition is complete. Expect a flurry of announcements. No way Deviation Games and Ember Lab remain independent.

The last studio acquisition announcement was Haven studios in March 2022 and that was right before the news that Bungie acquisition was being investigated in May 2022.

So it looks like Sony are keeping quiet until Bungie is completed.

You think both will join Sony?

I agree that Sony has more though.

 

[Muddasar]

You think both will join Sony?

I agree that Sony has more though.

I am certain both will join.

Deviation Games for instance have open a second studio in Canada I believe. Where's the money coming from? Also their Main 14,000 sq. ft. studio was opened in Santa Monica which isn't cheap either.

Same for Emberlab. They wouldn't be here without the investment Sony made in Kena.

Organic growth.

 

[LightBolt]

I am certain both will join.

Deviation Games for instance have open a second studio in Canada I believe. Where's the money coming from? Also their Main 14,000 sq. ft. studio was opened in Santa Monica which isn't cheap either.

Same for Emberlab. They wouldn't be here without the investment Sony made in Kena.

Organic growth.

Yeah that screams Sony funding don't you think? Not cheap at all!

Plus Sony did SIE studio spotlight for Ember didn't they ?

 

[Yurinka]

I think Sony has got Deviation and EmberLab and Arrowhead and will reveal them in coming months?

Deviation entered full production in 2022 after around a year building the team and preproduction. So I'd bet they won't show or announce their game until 2024 or 2025.

Emberlab relased Kena less than a year ago so pretty likely it's also too early to announce their next game, maybe it's still on preproduction or barely started production too, and we don't know if will be a Sony (timed console?) exclusive or if it will be a 2nd party game, or if Sony will buy them. But we have many hints showing a great relationship between both PS Studios/SIE and them so may annouce an acquisition.

Regarding Arrowhead, they published their most recent game 7 years ago, Helldivers. It had very good reviews and aparently performed good enough in sales. They have been growing and working on a next gen third person AAA coop shooter since then so it's very likely they may announced it and maybe even release it this same year. Can't find the link but I'd bet someone posted an evidence of Sony being the publisher of their next game. Very successful and unique on their game type (coop MP), have a long relationship with Sony with their previous games being PS console exclusives, a strong and successful experience in PC and are from Sweden, country with a lot of gamedev talent and no Sony studios presence there. Being a smallish team with no big IPs (they did Magicka and its sequel but Paradox may own it) to acquire would be cheap, and they are a perfect fit for an acquisition.

 

[Yurinka]

Seems they closed the acquisition of Haven today, required less paperwork than Bungie:


Let's hope it means they move to the next acquisition and announce the next one soon.

 

[LightBolt]

Seems they closed the acquisition of Haven today, required less paperwork than Bungie:


Let's hope it means they move to the next acquisition and announce the next one soon.

KNACK III

 

[Yurinka]

How about Sony announcing the acquisition of one of the big ones (Capcom, ARC System Works, Bandai Namco or Netherrealm)?

 

[Eternal_Wings]

So now that Haven is completed and Bungie maybe in Fall 2022, who do you think is next?
What’s your bet?

 

[Muddasar]

So now that Haven is completed and Bungie maybe in Fall 2022, who do you think is next?
What’s your bet?

Emberlab and Deviation Games.

 

[nominedomine]

So now that Haven is completed and Bungie maybe in Fall 2022, who do you think is next?
What’s your bet?

I'm surprised they bought Evo but haven't bought Arc System Works yet.

But I guess it falls in the same category of Japanese publisher where they maybe don't have that much incentive to buy them if all their games are already PlayStation games anyway.

 

[ksdixon]

... maybe don't have that much incentive to buy them if all their games are already PlayStation games anyway.

This line of thinking is so short sighted by Sony in my opinion.

That gets you situations like FB buying Ready At Dawn; MS buying ABK and Sony still being on the hook for Deathloop/Tokyo Ghostwire marketing (not that they'll sell well on PS anymore as people will mostly wait for the eventual drop onto GP). Or losing Lara, Crash, Spyro to other companies.

 

[Eternal_Wings]

All people who say: “Yeah but the games are already exclusive to Playstation, no need to buy them” and that’s one big mistake. Because of statements like this, Sony don’t see any need to buy. But we all got proved wrong who said so and now Microsoft snatched Activision Blizzard games forever away from Playstation. We need to stop this naive thinking, it’s already a war and I am not referring to MS only, all Tencent and potentially (FB, Google, Amazon, Apple lurking there). I would really stop playing games if some garbage like Tencent would grab Square Enix, Capcom or whoever. Sony needs to act now, I don’t want to loose this nearly Playstation brands. It’s ethically not wrong for Sony to rescue what they can.

 

[nominedomine]

This line of thinking is so short sighted by Sony in my opinion.

That gets you situations like FB buying Ready At Dawn; MS buying ABK and Sony still being on the hook for Deathloop/Tokyo Ghostwire marketing (not that they'll sell well on PS anymore as people will mostly wait for the eventual drop onto GP). Or losing Lara, Crash, Spyro to other companies.

I don't see how that relates to those things at all.

-Sony was never going to buy Activision Blizzard.

-With Ready at Dawn it was a matter of The Order 1886 floping/taking too long to develop with Sony rushing it out of the door. Big mistake by Sony, they are a very competent studio that were perfectly suited to take over ND IPs like Uncharted and Jak and Daxter.

-Bethesda exclusive worked great for Sony, it made so that MS had a garbage year like they did in 2022 since there was no room to take those games away from PlayStation. Sony was probably never in the market for Bethesda either, not a good fit at all.

As for Crash, Lara and Spyro those game were made ages ago an Sony never owned the IPs (Tomb Raider wasn't even exclusive to PlayStation).

I think a better example would be Monster Hunter, Sony took it for granted and the series moved to the 3DS, really hurting the Vita.

 

[Eternal_Wings]

Ladies and Gentleman’s the acquisition of Bungie has now completed.




It’s time for this one:



I am counting on you Jeff Grubb!

Playstation - Twitter

 

[Muddasar]

I thought Bungie will be part of SIE.

That tweet says welcome to the Playstation family.

Bungie part of PS studios?

 

[BloodMod]

I thought Bungie will be part of SIE.

That tweet says welcome to the Playstation family.

Bungie part of PS studios?

Yes, it's PR. If I recall correctly, the deal indeed was that Bungie publishes independently from PS under SIE. Probably why the FTC didn't object to the sale.

 

[kyliethicc]

I thought Bungie will be part of SIE.

That tweet says welcome to the Playstation family.

Bungie part of PS studios?

Sony Interactive Entertainment is PlayStation. Same thing.
PlayStation Studios is a division within PlayStation (aka SIE).
Bungie is not part of PlayStation Studios. They’re a part of PlayStation.

Jim Ryan runs PlayStation (SIE).
Hermen Hulst runs PlayStation Studios.
Pete Parsons runs Bungie.
Both are part of PlayStation and both report to Jim Ryan.