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Who should SONY buy?

Basically every day there's a thread "Who should Sony buy?".

BTW, I don't think Sony will spend 20 billion in purchasing Take Two... Amazon, Google or Microsoft might...
 
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While Sony can technically afford a publisher, they wouldn't. Especially with their CoH.

I honestly doubt it's a war Sony wants to get into with 3 of the 4 richest companies in the world either.

If Sony does acquire anymore, it will be a studio like Housemarque, Kojima Productions or Bluepoint.

Even then, it may not mean a hell of a lot given Microsoft is still looking to acquire more and Amazon have thrown their hat into the ring. Anyone who loves console gaming should probably get behind Microsoft in this upcoming bidding war because they're the only one of the big 4 (Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon) that plans to keep making consoles.

If Amazon or Google start getting their hands on publishers and studios, you won't be playing those games on any kind of hardware anymore. At least with Microsoft, your worst case scenario is *gasp*, buying an Xbox.
 
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Nickolaidas said:
I too think that Sony should buy a powerful publisher, because if Microsoft keeps buying 3rd party publishers and dev teams, they'll eventually lock out Sony out of EVERYTHING, except for their 1st party games. Since MS so far is keen of buying western studios and publishers, Sony should go for the eastern ones. Capcom, FROM Software ... producers of solid Japanese IPs with a huge following. This will also help in differentiating the two rivals even more.

You like western games? Buy an X-Box.

You like Japanese games? Buy a PS or Switch.

You like both? Buy a PC.
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MS won't lock out anything.

The IPs are notoriously difficult to leverage - games that were big titles in the past very quickly fall out of favour.

On top of that, the staff can go and work where they feel comfortable. The good staff will decide if they like the new environment and if they don't they'll leave for other pastures.

Game studios are 90% the purchase of intangible and unpredictable equity and represent a major investment risk.

About the best one can hope for is MS do like they did with Mojang and just let them milk the cash cow as long as the market is there.

Ultimately MS will have to show investors that their approach is profitable - that means showing both gamepass and cloud gaming can be profitable and to do that, MS has to be platform agnostic and put their content on as many devices they can.
 
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GTAV is Rockstar's big next gen release of 2021. I'm unconvinced anyone would be getting anything in the near future to justify spending $billions on them right now.
 
ToadMan said:
MS won't lock out anything.

The IPs are notoriously difficult to leverage - games that were big titles in the past very quickly fall out of favour.

On top of that, the staff can go and work where they feel comfortable. The good staff will decide if they like the new environment and if they don't they'll leave for other pastures.

Game studios are 90% the purchase of intangible and unpredictable equity and represent a major investment risk.

About the best one can hope for is MS do like they did with Mojang and just let them milk the cash cow as long as the market is there.

Ultimately MS will have to show investors that their approach is profitable - that means showing both gamepass and cloud gaming can be profitable and to do that, MS has to be platform agnostic and put their content on as many devices they can.
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Ah, the famous «Ms investors» that have been used by Sony fans for over 15 years when preaching about why MS will leave the console industry. Investors only care about the profits the whole company makes and the value of their stocks and MS has been very good to them. Most «investors», at least with the way people like you are using this word, don't give a shit about what a particular MS department does, MS has sunk billions in markets like mobile phones and mp3 players and no investor even blinked. Hell you are fantasising that there is an army of investors dictating MS'policy when, in fact, only 2-3 extremely large investors have a say. Under Nadella's leadership MS has been transformed into a much bigger behemoth than they once were, so don't worry, they will not abandon console industry/gaming suscription/cloud gaming anytime soon.
 
Shpeshal Ed said:
While Sony can technically afford a publisher, they wouldn't. Especially with their CoH.

I honestly doubt it's a war Sony wants to get into with 3 of the 4 richest companies in the world either.

If Sony does acquire anymore, it will be a studio like Housemarque, Kojima Productions or Bluepoint.

Even then, it may not mean a hell of a lot given Microsoft is still looking to acquire more and Amazon have thrown their hat into the ring. Anyone who loves console gaming should probably get behind Microsoft in this upcoming bidding war because they're the only one of the big 4 (Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon) that plans to keep making consoles.

If Amazon or Google start getting their hands on publishers and studios, you won't be playing those games on any kind of hardware anymore. At least with Microsoft, your worst case scenario is *gasp*, buying an Xbox.
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it's how i see it too.
MS seems to the one going for play how you like where you like it and that can be console, pc or streaming.
The others are only pushing streaming solutions for all we know (maybe they will announce something ?)
as long as it stays this way, ms is the lesser evil for me
i also prefer this philosophy to let you play games day one where/how you want and i'm not sure this way is a threat to sony/nintendo if they negociate terms and accept gamepass on their platform.
ms could even stop releasing hardware in this scenario.
 
TwistedSyn said:
Bluepoint and Housemarque. They have worked with them for years now and seem to be a good fit. I already have a feeling that SONY is gonna pick up Bluepoint once Demon's Souls releases.
They can be their remake studio while also working on their own IP.
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Why would Sony buy two independent studios that already only develop games for them? What's the point

Actually, if any other company bought any of those studios (I really think both of them would reject the offer), it would hurt more Sony than benefit the other company, whether it was MS, Nintendo, Amazon, Google, whatever.

Tldr; Sony doesn't need to acquire studios they already work exclusively for, so they are saving money
 
Laconian Sword said:
Don't think Sony need to do anything, but I'd love to see them pick up Housemarque so they can go back to pumping out arcade masterpieces. Looking forward to Returnal, though.
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I'm probably slow when it comes to this stuff, but I just realized that Housemarque telling the media that they can't make arcade games any longer was probably to get Sony's attention for acquisition.
 
kretos said:
People saying T2 should tell me what kind of stuff are they smoking it must be real good

for the money that will cost to buy T2 they could buy SE + Capcom + Sega and will still have change
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What you reckon T2 would sell for or how much would they sell R* for?
 
intheinbetween said:
Why would Sony buy two independent studios that already only develop games for them? What's the point

Actually, if any other company bought any of those studios (I really think both of them would reject the offer), it would hurt more Sony than benefit the other company, whether it was MS, Nintendo, Amazon, Google, whatever.

Tldr; Sony doesn't need to acquire studios they already work exclusively for, so they are saving money
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The reason would be to stop MS or someone like Amazon/Google buying them. It's probably why they bought Imsomniac.
 
ZZZZ said:
1ouw96.gif
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people laughed like that when someone suggested that microsoft should buy a big company like bethesda. that laughing turned into them seething pretty fast.
 
They don't need to buy anything. They have amassed a large enough stable of talented developers to do whatever the fuck they want and it be high quality.

We do not need further consolidation of creative talent in this industry so that a bunch of infantile crybabies can conduct somehow even more immature versions of playground "My dad could beat up your dad" arguments.

These massive corporations - particularly the multi-trillion dollar ones - do not need more people simping for them.
 
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If Sony is going to buy a studio, I expect Bluepoint, From Software, or evening Platinum, I don't see them outright buying a big publisher, unless it's something like SquareEnix but I felt like if Sony wanted to do that, they would have tried already.

Everyone needs to realize that the Zenimax purchase by Microsoft has been cooking for while, and while it could be seen as business as usual, it felt personal as well, and Zenimax has been pretty much involved with Xbox since before it's creation.

There was several unique circumstances that built up to this.
 
It's strange reading how Sony is missing the boat on streaming when PS Now exists and they were the first to market in that space if I'm not mistaken (remember Gaikai?). They also have Remote Play, which allows you to stream to your phone.

Maybe their PR department is as bad as people say.
 
intheinbetween said:
Why would Sony buy two independent studios that already only develop games for them? What's the point

Actually, if any other company bought any of those studios (I really think both of them would reject the offer), it would hurt more Sony than benefit the other company, whether it was MS, Nintendo, Amazon, Google, whatever.

Tldr; Sony doesn't need to acquire studios they already work exclusively for, so they are saving money
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Both Housemarque and Bluepoint have worked on Xbox.

Sony will for sure look at at least one of them if not both.
 
How about nobody ? They don't need to react because ms bought zenimax let's see if ms can at least match Sony's software output before we start begging Sony to buy other studios.
 
i dont want sony to buy anyone, they should create their own studios and grow the market instead of buying shit that exists already ...
if they buy studios i hope they buy small studios with incredible talent and give them the chance to push further without pressuring them.
Housmarque, Bluepoint, Kojima, Supermassive come to mind.

And hopefully a collaboration with From Software, just help them out with the tech stuff while they do their creative work.
I would be happy if Microsoft does a collaboration with From as well. i dont care who.

This talk about m$ bought Bethesda and Sony needs to counter is stupid. Bethesda is huge but Sony has more then enough to not be afraid of it, lol.
Suckerpunch,Insomniac,SantaMonica,Naughty Dog,JapanStudio,Guerilla and more.

This is not about who spends the most money or who has more studios in total.
Its about who gets quality games and how many?
If Sony and M$ do great, people will buy both consoles.
If M$ falls short, people keep buying Playstations only.
 
I will buy Sony! Mark my words.... you read it first on GAF!
.... and i will make a New PSVITA ❤
tenor.gif


And Sony should buy Koei Tecmo. No one else.
They have genre where Sony is not: DOA, Samurai Warriors, Remance of the three Kingdoms, Ninga Gaiden, Nioh...
 
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kretos said:
People saying T2 should tell me what kind of stuff are they smoking it must be real good

for the money that will cost to buy T2 they could buy SE + Capcom + Sega and will still have change
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Good point. You are about the same ballpark with that, the relevant market capitalisations are.

T2 - $18 billion.

Square Enix - $8 billion
Capcom - $6 billion
Sega - $3 billion

But you'd have 3 lots of premiums acquiring three companies so the latter deal is probably a wee bit more expensive.
 
IShowUBasics said:
people laughed like that when someone suggested that microsoft should buy a big company like bethesda. that laughing turned into them seething pretty fast.
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Difference is one of these companies has hundreds of BILLIONS in cash and is also worth over 1.5 TRILLION dollars where as the other... well..
 
Laconian Sword said:
It's strange reading how Sony is missing the boat on streaming when PS Now exists and they were the first to market in that space if I'm not mistaken (remember Gaikai?). They also have Remote Play, which allows you to stream to your phone.

Maybe their PR department is as bad as people say.
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No, the problem is that this forum, the other one and the majority of the english media is skewed towards USA. Xbox is a no factor outside there and few similar markets.

On topic: No one, just keep on creating internal studios as Nintendo has done.
 
The red alert scrambling people do to demand Sony to purchase something, anything before Microsoft announces another acquisition is hilarious. Sony can't afford a secure gaming network, let alone acquire a studio or publisher as large as what MS did. 😂
 
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GiJoint said:
Because everyone seems to think Sony is flush with an endless amount of cash.

Sony should buy Apple.
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I would add to Apple the acquisition of General Motors and Mercedes Benz, to make sure there are enough trucks around to supply stores with their super consoles.
 
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I don't think the ZeniMax buyout was as reactionary as people seem to think. Was probably a while in the making. I doubt Sony can just knee-jerk a large scale buyout.
 
Sony buying Rockstar would be a death kill but so unlikely. You'll probably see the PS5 getting exclusive timed content from Rockstar on GTA5 (which they have) and for GTA6.

I think Sony should focus on acquiring Konami and Kojima. I don't think it would send shockwaves like the Bethesda acquisition did but there's some big IPs in there to say are exclusive to PlayStation would be huge - Silent Hill, Castlevania, Metal Gear and PES plus maybe another Kojima masterpiece.
 
You can be certain that if anyone attempts to buy Take 2, Sony or Microsoft will enter the fray.

There is no way to slice it, but GTA exclusive to any console would be massive.
 
The answer is Capcom, but the real question is, do they have the money to do it? It's not just about buying a publisher for their ip. You need high quality teams to make these games and those games cost a good chunk of cash to make. The margin for error is much smaller than Microsoft's and currently sony has no long term plan to capitalize on such an investment.

I said it before in the other thread, Microsofts goal is a 100 million game pass subs which would turn it into a multibillion dollars a year service. What's sony doing with a big company like capcom? Selling their games at a loss to provide exclusive content to fanboys on their PlayStation? Sony already has some of the best exclusive content in the business. They don't have an answer to game pass and buying a capcom or Konami doesn't suddenly give them an answer either. They are losing boatloads of cash by not being on the pc market. They will get outpaced by game pass no matter what they buy. It's not about pure console sales anymore. It's about recurring revenue. That's all there is to it.
 
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Bluepoint and Housemarques is the obvious answer, but I think Remedy and Kojima Productions would be a good fit for PS Studios. From Software too, since Souls was birthed on PS and Sony and From have a long and successful history together (Kings Field, Demon's, Bloodborne).
 
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Something smaller like insomniac that will come at low cost but makes lots of good exclusives. Are there studios that have made them lots of exclusives or timed exclusives that they haven't bought yet? I think buying an IP like crash or FF or MGS would make more sense honestly but since IP seem to be the most valuable thing these days (why MS bought zenimax not for it's workers but for their valuable IP)
 
I don't think that works that way. Takes excess $. Plus selling the PS5 at a loss is going to really, initially, eat into Sony last gen profits.
 
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Harry Tung said:
Bluepoint and Housemarques is the obvious answer, but I think Remedy and Kojima Productions would be a good fit for PS Studios. From Software too, since Souls was birthed on PS and Sony and From have a long and successful history together (Kings Field, Demon's, Bloodborne).
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While From would do nothing for me it would be big for Sony
 
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