As much as i would like to read why Cyberpunk is one of the best games ever made, i don't think this would be a good fit for organic growth or Sony's plans to go for GaaS. So i doubt this is gonna happen.
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Jim Ryan confirms Sony ‘has more studio acquisitions planned’ (VGC)
What plans are you talking about? They have 10 Gaas in development by 2026. They won't get more involved in this topic.
The money lies where MP and GaaS games are and i just don't think Sony would invest big money into a singleplayer game focused company. They already got more than enough good devs for that.
lh032
I cry about Xbox and hate PlayStation.
What? Don't you think they have good dingleplayer devs? Almost all of their games are 85+. There is a reason why they bought Bungie and for that reason i higly doubt they would buy CDPR.
Borowski_1
Member
you're missing the point:
why is someone thinking they're gonna buy CDPR? Where does that come from?
why is someone thinking they're gonna buy CDPR? Where does that come from?
Heisenberg007
Gold Journalism
Let's humor this "rumor" for a second. Although the person should share the source for it:
Pros:
Pros:
- A heavy-RPG studio for Sony
- GOG PC store
- Multiple support studios
- Presence in the emerging Poland game industry
- Popular games. No matter how CP2077 was released, The Witcher 4 will likely break records.
- Too expensive. It'd cost them more than $5 or $6 billion. They can easily make or buy multiple RPG studios for less than 1/4th of that price.
- They don't have a lot of IPs, although Sony doesn't really have an IP problem, so not sure how big of a problem that really is.
- Mess of a studio with lots of management issues. It'll require a lot of work for Sony's management.
- Uncertain future (in terms of popularity and PR) after CP2077
Lol, that's a good question and the simple answer is: Some random guys said so without any source. But actually that's the case for most rumors
lh032
I cry about Xbox and hate PlayStation.
nominedomine
Banned
With Sony history with DRM and game preservation I doubt they'll see the GOG store as a Pro.
The real pro would be acquiring them when they are at their lowest. I don't see how they could fumble again if their next game is another Witcher game. But even then it's still a lot of money for a studio that imploded to miserably.
The real shrewd move would be for Sony to invest into setting up a studio in Poland to steal a lot of their talent, they have no internal development presence in eastern Europe right now. It would be extremely easy to spin this move as something positive for the region (and it probably would be anyway).
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Heisenberg007
Gold Journalism
I totally agree with you, and I've been actually saying the exact same thing for some time now.
They just need a new studio in Poland as there's a lot of RPG talent in that country. They can easily poach talent from CDPR and Techland -- all the talent without the baggage. GG from the Netherlands can help set up and manage the new studio if needed. Devs/Managers from Firesprite and London Studios can also chip in.
Badlucktroll
Member
Sony will bring the Konami IPs back to life….
yurinka
Member
Some extra info:
They already released two of these 10 GaaS: GT7 and MLB, at least two more are Bungie new IPs (they plan to release "at least" one before 2025) and then you have the Haven, Deviation, Firewalk games. The other 3 are pretty likely the TLOU Factions game, the unannounced Guerrilla MP game and a Firesprite or Sony London game.
Hermen said they had over 25 games under development at PS Studios -which doesn't include Bungie-, so 8 GaaS out of over 25 means that under a third of their games under development are GaaS.
I highly doubt it. Sony IPs got better sales, better reviews and received more awards.
Even if it would be great to have more well known IPs specially for PS+, Sony doesn't need to buy IPs. They need more talented manpower to release more games of the IPs they already have, also capable to produce new hit IPs. They are focusing on getting this expanding their existing studios and acquiring new ones. And if by doing this they get some juicy IP, it's welcomed.
That would be a great idea. To create a brand new studio in Poland with good management and good practices from other European Sony studios. Hire a lot of current and former CD Project and Techland staff (plus maybe from some other talented Polish team), plus move there Polish or western european talent they have in any other Sony studio who wants to go back home.
Sony wouldn't want GoG due to low market share and DRM, CD Project doesn't own the Cyberpunk or The Witcher IPs, they seem to have bad management, best practices and studio culture. And well, if Sony took down Cybrpunk from PSN I assume won't be happy with them, maybe they have a bad relationship. Cyberpunk and Witcher will continue being sold in PS and can make a deal to include the two games in PS+ if desired, so no need to buy them for that. It would be better for Sony to get the talent instead and rebuild or build a studio from scratch.
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remember_spinal
Banned
+ they have a mobile studio now
I’ve been saying for a while that Sony buying CDPR would make a lot of sense. It gives them a big rpg (lets face it, Witcher 4 will be huge) that can stand toe to toe with ES6. They are also the only AAA indepdent western rpg studio left in a reasonable price range for Sony and greatly expands their Eastern European talent sector.
The cons are certainly there but they are fixable. The cost, i don’t think is unreasonable if the licenses for Cyberpunk and Witcher/Gwent carry-over. The IP isn’t really a big hurdle, shit they could make a legend of dragoon game for all we care (or even just a new IP), won’t be a big as Witcher out the gate but essentially the same idea. I could even see sony trying to wrestle the movie/tv rights for witcher from netflix.Also, with sony funding and support they could essentially revisit their plans for the cyberpunk online mode, if done right could be a nice GAAS for them.
The management issues would be the same as activision on a much much smaller scale. Just sony purchasing them would almost rehabilitate their reputation over night and gain a lot of confidence from investors. At the end of the day, they aren’t a big unmanageable studio with thousands of employees, they are around the same number as Bungie.
If Zenimax was struggling so much they had go to Microsoft to bail them out imagine how helpful Sony would be for CDPR right now. At least they wouldn’t have to stress as much about when their next games were coming out.
Borowski_1
Member
again, why are people talking CDPR?
people who bring stuff without any sources or proof should be banned
people who bring stuff without any sources or proof should be banned
FF:Enhanced_Reality
Member
Missed a big con, studio might not be there soon given the state of Russia and Ukraine.
Borowski_1
Member
too much fodder for Sony
phil_t98
#SonyToo
some decent games in their library though, be a nice counter to Activision even if not as big
Borowski_1
Member
currently?
i'd wouldn't qualify AC, Far Cry, Watch Dogs and Division as decent
Capcom and SE so much better
nominedomine
Banned
People Can Fly for example, would cost about half a billion dollars and has about 400 employees, so it's a very large studio already.
I don't know how good their management is. Assuming there's nothing wrong with them, Sony could acquire them, get them on an established IP, give them proper support and be in perfect position to steal talent from other polish devs like CDPR.
To me that's a much better bet than spending 10 times more money on CDPR after everything that happened.
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yurinka
Member
If they don't have management issues this would be a great option too, like creating a new studio but with the difference that they would save a lot of time to build and set up a team, they would start with an already large and experimented one.
In their specific case I see them maybe would be a better fit for MS, but MS maybe already has more than enough FPS teams. With Sony instead they could team up with Guerrilla, Insomniac and Bungie (plus maybe Firewalk and Deviation) to reboot Killzone and Resistance plus to make a new IP. MS probably wouldn't need their help even if I assume it's always welcomed.
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ChorizoPicozo
Member
I am wating Jimbo.
remember_spinal
Banned
Yeah, i don’t see Sony building a new studio from scratch there. I dont see any of the big platform holders building brand new studios when there are so many industry veterans and smaller AAA capable studios out there right now.
The best plan of action for a “new” expansion is to buy a studio like “People Can Fly” and use them as a proxy to acquire talent, like they are doing with Haven in canada.
nominedomine
Banned
I don't think it makes much sense for Sony to acquire any publisher when their real strength (since the PS3 days) is the fact that contrary to most other publisher they actually have fairly good success with producing games. Buying individual studios is a lot less risky and costs a lot less anyway, they are in a great position to know which studios are competent bug haven't year had a breakout success but that could thrive with proper support.
Sony can't play the same game as MS, they need to play "moneyball" while MS is being this aggressive. It actually might be good for Sony if MS overcommits and becomes too big.
So far that's what Sony seems to be doing, with Bungie being the only exception (and not really a PlayStation Studios acquisition anyway). The problem now is that the remaining acquisition candidates aren't as obvious as Insomniac Games, Housemarque or Bluepoint.
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ChorizoPicozo
Member
It's about the catalog as well.
remember_spinal
Banned
I agree, i think its a waste for sony to buy a publisher. Especially when they don’t have a gaming service to feed monthly.
SlimySnake
Flashless at the Golden Globes
Playing cyberpunk the other day, it became clear to me that they are still a euro jank studio who accidently hit it big with Witcher 3. A game full of janky mechanics and other euro jank stuff we expect from smaller studios like Metro and Dying Light devs. The game looks incredible at times and really trashy at other times. Some of the stuff with the crowd and on the streets is worse than GTA5 on the PS3. The story missions feel very unpolished. The first person cutscenes are one of those dumb ideas only B studios would ever consider a good alternative to properly choreographed third person cutscenes.
Bioware has received a lot of shit recently due to a string of poorly received games in the 2010s but I still think Bioware is a true AAA studio while CD Project still feels like an up and coming indie studio trying to find their footing. The writing is so cringeworthy in cyberpunk that it makes me want to completely turn it off and play the game on mute. Witcher 3 did it better but I think Mass Effect series is still in another league compared to even Witcher 3.
In short, they are not worth $5-6 billion. They are able to mask some glaring problems in their games by pushing great tech and visuals, but they are at least years away from being a true AAA studio like Rockstar, Naughty Dog and Bioware.
nominedomine
Banned
Catalog of what? Catalog of old games? Old games are pretty much worthless if we are being honest (as far as making money for them), it's even reflected on their price and the fact that publisher don't care at all about them.
We have countless examples of that:
-GTAIV is one of the biggest games of all time, never made it to the PS4 or PS5 and R* didn't care.
-Sony has dozens of games stuck on PS3, haven't bothered making them available to most people.
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remember_spinal
Banned
Theres no way they “accidentally” hit it big with Witcher 3, then Hearts of Stone, the Blood and Wine. That was essentially its own trilogy of games. They are each their own seperate masterpieces of gaming, and I’ll take those games over anything Bethesda has done in the last decade
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ChorizoPicozo
Member
No if you don't want to pay the licenses for them and if you want to 'inflate' the number of games you have in your service.
Is not about making money or not from them. Is about having a large amount of games that people are attached to them (nostalgia/prestige) factor.
Hezekiah
Banned
Eh, unles they're going cheap not sure that's a good idea.
Haven't they lost a lot of staff over the past year?
ChorizoPicozo
Member
Sony hates CDPR lol.
nominedomine
Banned
Old games ain't going to be the draw for these service, they never are.
PSNow had hundreds of games, plenty of them good and no one cared about it. Why would people care when old games are so cheap anyway? If you want to play an old game why don't you already have it when they are constantly being heavily discounted?
I bought TW3 for PS4 (I already had it for PC) because it was so cheap that I had to buy it just because, it would've cost me more to buy a burger, I also paid about $5 for Cyberpunk.
Gamepass has a lot of games but all the focus is on future releases, day one releases and the games that were included lately. The promise of what Starfield could or some other future game has more impact on people getting Gamepass than all the good old games that are there already combined.
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Hezekiah
Banned
Yeah that's way too expensive (couldn't Capcom be acquired for that, or Ubisoft) and Sony has shown they're not overly bothered about buying established IPs. They have more than enough expertise at developing their own.
leizzra
Member
People Can Fly are... they kind of ok, but they have their own problems. Their CEO is a businessman first and tends to do some questionable stuff (I can't say what but let's say that the situation was at the edge). Also the team is full of veterans who thinks that they are the best (I think due to collaboration with Epic).
In the end I think that PCF could be better investment in long therm then CDPR. CDPR would need a ton of work to be good company. It would be hard to do, because as I wrote earlier, the management should be changed. I don't think that many people would like to work in Poland, so they would need to send polish staff to other studios for training. Even then you don't know how they will work. And that's only one problem.
In the end I think that PCF could be better investment in long therm then CDPR. CDPR would need a ton of work to be good company. It would be hard to do, because as I wrote earlier, the management should be changed. I don't think that many people would like to work in Poland, so they would need to send polish staff to other studios for training. Even then you don't know how they will work. And that's only one problem.
ChorizoPicozo
Member
Is not about that. Is about the marketing/PR/dumb people on the internet. Everyone knows that older content is not a meaningful factor of growth....people want new shit.
That's what I am saying.
nominedomine
Banned
Why are you going to market something that isn't the draw of the service?
I don't know what we are arguing about anyway. My point is that old games are there because they are cheap to add, just as fillers and I bet hardly anyone is playing them.
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yurinka
Member
I assume that the strategy behind buying Bungie or big 3rd party publishers is:
- To get extra revenue and profit to increase to pump their business volume so to have smaller overal risk if a huge project tanks
- To reach players from other platforms including rival consoles day one while keeping their PS Studios games exclusive as USP for their console
- To secure big, key 3rd party multiplatform IPs for their console and in the long term depend less on 3rd party games, like Nintendo
- To secure these multiplatform IPs for their game sub and pretty likely to block them from being on rival game subs
- To use these IPs on movies, tv shows and anime and get all related revenue and profit
- To get top presence in genres or gaming areas where their 1st party has a weak presence (FPS, MP and GaaS with Bungie) as could be fighting, rpg, survival horror, monster hunting, soulsbornes, anime games, eSports, VR, F2P, mobile, PC, Asian market
- To acquire knowledge, talent, expertise, tools and data from these areas to help their other teams to improve there
- Every gen AAA games will take longer to get developed, so need more important names to fill their roadmap with exciting games
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ChorizoPicozo
Member
Cuz dumb nostalgic people on the Internet then, those people will go on social media evangelizing the service.
nominedomine
Banned
Yea, I think the Bungie acquisition makes sense on it's own, even if Sony doesn't change anything about them. Sony bought a ticket to be a bigger player in the GaaS market with them.
Nope, people talk about new games. The other day I had to remind people that there was no Activsion or Blizzard games on Gamepass, that how much they actually care, they care so much to play them that thought they had them already.
PSNow is the best example of this, it illustrate how little people care about cloud or catalogs of old games. It might even explain why MS had to commit so much to Day 1 releases, because that's all people care about and they had to do it to keep growing.
That's why the trial thing Sony will attempt might actually work, people will might see more value in 2h trials than on old games.
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phil_t98
#SonyToo
down to fast but assassins creed is a great game
ChorizoPicozo
Member
I didn't say people. I said Dumb Nostalgic People.
Again, normal people really dosen't put much weight in old content (it is nice, I guess) but the driven force of GROWTH is new content. (As I said already)
nominedomine
Banned
I'm dumb an nostalgic but I know I'm not their target audience, Sony couldn't care less about it. I'd pay for an easy way to play proper emulated games, I like that more than rereleases or remakes even.
If Sony is smart they'll start to put day 1 indies on their service, it's actually where they had the most success with PS+ IGC, with games like Rocket League and Fallguys blowing up.
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ChorizoPicozo
Member
Well, there you go. If Sony/Nintendo/Xbox said:
We have all the Resident Evil games in this service. (Just as an example). These people are going to go bananas on social media preasing the service. And subscribe impulsively.
nominedomine
Banned
All Resident Evil games (except 8) could be there already and people wouldn't know. Maybe they are there already.
Now if they announced RE4 Remake was going to be there with no release date people would pay the subscription for months or years in anticipation.
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kyliethicc
Member
3 of my best sources indicate Sony has bought Mario
ChorizoPicozo
Member
It was an example.
ChorizoPicozo
Member
yurinka
Member
I think that if Sony buys some big 3rd party multiplatform publisher like Capcom, Square Enix etc would keep them to continue -at least during the next few years- as full multiplatform under SIE banner independent from PS Studios. They only would ask them:
- No game exclusives for other platforms (Nintendo, Xbox, PC)
- If there is a total, timed or console game or demo exclusive would be for Sony
- Sony gets exclusivity for game subs, marketing and console bundles
Yes, people talks more about new games.
But regarding old games, I think it's important and valuable to have quantity, quality and variety. Because let's say you love a certain genre or niche: if it has all tthe big games there you'll be happy. Or let's say there's a new Uncharted, Horizon or Resident Evil coming. Many people will want to play the previous one(s) so it would be great if they have the whole series there. And everyone has some old fetish games that would like to play again after so many years, or some old games you always wanted to play but couldn't or didn't have time.
You may not talk about these games but you'll like to play them or at least to make the service more appealing to you to get it and make sure you have them in case you want (or have time) to play the some day.