yurinka
Member
Which one? The 'big' one mentioned by the 'leakers' and 'insiders'? According to them Sony was going to announce it last week. But guess what, it was made up bullshit to get attention and that acquisition never existed.
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Jim Ryan confirms Sony ‘has more studio acquisitions planned’ (VGC)
phil_t98
#SonyToo
Wasn’t the leakers just making noise for the PS+ change?
Lognor
Banned
LOL, typing on a phone. My bad.Just a guess on my part. It just makes sense given Sony's current moves(EVO etc). Even Microsoft will have to cool their current buying spree after snatching up Activision Blizzard. Which isn't even official. If it doesn't happen they definitely have the money to snatch up all of WB games.
ALSO, who is the WE in this?
WB is under AT&T which is publicly traded. So Sony trying to scoop up WB games will face the same type of scrutiny that Microsoft is facing now. So Sony is unlikely to even try to make that play. And I doubt Microsoft would sit idly by anyway, since they did have their eyes on them before.
Heisenberg007
Gold Journalism
No, both Jeff Grubb and Greg claimed to hear three rumors:
- Spartacus / PS+
- PS VR 2 event
- A "really big acquisition"
phil_t98
#SonyToo
Ah right must of missed the last bit. The PS VR 2 thing never happened either did it.
lh032
I cry about Xbox and hate PlayStation.
hmm are you sure? perhaps another delay by Sony since everybody tries to leak it.
Alot of people are talking about this big acquisition now.
Sanepar
Member
A lot of people who?
lh032
I cry about Xbox and hate PlayStation.
twitter rumors of course, which we shall see in the upcoming weeks or months.
ethomaz
Banned
It is actually around $17b.
It is about the budget Sony had approved last year for acquisitions.
It won’t happen but not because the lack of $$$.
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Hezekiah
Banned
Yep, Insomniac was a terrible deal wasn't it lol.
StealthGoblin
Banned
The Sony that has:
- FFXVI exclusive?
- Marketing deals for COD, FIFA and Fortnite?
- Locked down FFVII: Remake?
- Bought Insomniac for less than $300 million?
- already have 200 publishers/developers signed up to PS+ extra?
Do they need the Warner licenses? No. Sony don’t need IP. All of their purchases are to do with buying in talent.
We have to remember that Sony’s deals and talent acquisition are the reason why they’ve consistently stayed on top.
Plus, that was just cash. They could do more with debt or shares. Take 2 would get them sports, GAAS, big single player IP and mobile expansion. I don’t think they’ll do this, but it is an option.
If Sony Corp feel that their biggest division is under threat, they’ll do what it takes.
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Borowski_1
Member
Stop hiding the games, Jim
Cyber_hunter026
Member
He notes that it could be nothing. but similar emails were sent out to certain industry people when the PS5 unveiling event was to be announced. we'll find out if it's bs or actually real in the coming weeks.
Tripolygon
Banned
What I hate about theses “rumors” are that they are inevitable already known things.
We knew since Sony announced PSVR 2 that they will have a State of Play focused on the reveal sometime this summer. We knew for months that PS+ and PSNow merger was coming. We know Sony is still buying studios because they said so for months now.
Lunarorbit
Member
So do we all think the games firewalk and deviation are making are FPS? I'm not a fps fan but it seems like there's already a glut of these titles.
Anyone have any ideas of what else they could be?
Anyone have any ideas of what else they could be?
Cyber_hunter026
Member
At the end of the day. nobody knows, because sony runs a tight ship, it could be something or it could absolutely be nothing. we'll have to wait and see, but nothing is gonna stop these clout chasers from putting out tweets or articles nature of the beast and all that jazz.
remember_spinal
Banned
Heisenberg007
Gold Journalism
No. But there was a PS VR 2 GDC event that did happen and got leaked later. (It's pretty cool, too).
They might have got information about that. If not, Tom is hinting on some more PS VR 2 stuff.
If both these things turn out to be correct, then only the "big acquisition" is left, which I don't think we'll hear anything about at least the Bungie deal is closed. So 2-3 months at least.
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phil_t98
#SonyToo
Am interested to see what they do with PS VR 2, I own the first one and it’s great tech but it needs killer games, there isn’t anything that is much much better on VR than on a normal tv. For me wipeout was the best I tried, those hills were insaine but it’s just as good on a tv. I want to be wowed by PS VR 2 and the gakes with it
Warren, Sanders, Whitehouse, Booker Urge FTC Chair Lina Khan to Carefully Scrutinize Proposed Microsoft-Activision Merger
Microsoft and the entire world are on an inevitable collision course. Sony will take advantage of the chaos:
- If Activision deal is halted, Sony will keep breaking records.
- If Microsoft buys Activision, Sony will end up owning multiple publishers (PS Studios, Bungie and more ... ) and will keep breaking records.
Microsoft's attempt to gain control over the entire industry through massive horizontal and vertical integration, plus the rise of global inflation are crushing video game stocks, in both nominal and real terms.
Sony will probably keep buying small devs over the short term, but the stars are beginning to align: publishers are getting cheaper, the industry is facing an existential threat, Big Tech companies are under regulators' scrutiny and the Japanese goverment is offering financial support to the country's second largest company.
Market cap (1Y)
Sony $129.0 bn (-5.70%)
EA $36.0 bn (-9.55%)
Take-Two $17.8 bn (-15.79%)
Bandai Namco $16.6 bn (+14.34%)
Embracer $9.1 bn (-34.19%)
Capcom $6.8 bn (-15.43%)
Ubisoft $5.7 bn (-37.40%)
Koei Tecmo $5.7 bn (-17.19%)
Square Enix $5.6 bn (-12.62%)
Sega Sammy $4.7 bn (+29.85%)
CD Projekt $4.2 bn (-11.65%)
Remedy $498 m (-20.97%)
USD to YEN 122.76 yen
USD to EUR 0.91 euro
USD to SEK 9.42 krona
USD to ZLOTY 4.21 złoty
Was? Do you know something we don't and acquisition already happened?
Anyway the main thing I was referencing is that CDPR is rather well known for their dysfunctional(and toxic) working culture. And while it's certainly not unique or special in that regard, it's up there with the more infamous ones.
And when it comes to acquisitions of semi-large studios (several hundred people or higher) - the integrations are challenging enough(and very prone to failure - see what happened with most/many Amazon acquisitions for instance) without having to deal with cleaning up such issues.
I think that's probably being overstated. A lot of productions still operate on this razor's edge of rebuilding most of production stack for every new project - and what 'does' get reused accumulates tech-debt until it becomes so bad it has to get dropped just for production to move. It's pretty much what happened to every tech-famous company at some point (including Epic, but they were the ones that took better lessons than most from it).
It's not even internal vs. external - it's just that for a studio to be competitive they build up expertise (and their own differentiators) with a specific tech-stack. And changing that always comes with substantial costs, even when it's 'just' going from one major version to another. Also see above...
TBH - those costs really start hurting when games get big, but yea Witcher 4 could very well qualify. One of the common trends I've seen in the industry at large is that the bigger the IP - the more its holders are reluctant to hitch themselves to a licensor that can turn the tables on them at any moment...
John Wick
Member
Give over. Sometimes hold up your hands when your wrong. He made that statement straight after MS had stated that the first two years MS would be making crossgen games. Clearly Jimbo Ryan was trying to imply that PS5 would have no crossgen games. Should have just kept his stupid mouth shut.
John Wick
Member
I'm using this as an example. Let's say Sony got the license, I would buy the PES team from Konami. Add some more talent and give them the budget to make a truly great football game. Could be huge.
DenchDeckard
Moderated wildly
I think wb games is a big possibility.
Heisenberg007
Gold Journalism
To be fair, though, in that same interview, Jim also confirmed supporting PS4 for years to come.
Did he try to be sneaky and take a shot at Xbox's no next-gen exclusive game for 2 years? Absolutely, he did.
Was he entirely wrong with his statement? No, I don't think he was.
I think Jimbo was telling the truth as he saw it. PlayStation "believed in generations" (and therefore released games like Rift Apart, Destruction All Stars, and Demon's Souls), and PlayStation also had "a responsibility to support the PS4 community for several years", so they also released games like Miles Morales, Horizon Forbidden West, Ragnarok, etc. on PS4 as well.
Both things can be true at the same time, and that's what Jimbo said. Also notice that in his quote, nowhere did he say that games will be next-gen exclusive. If anything, he was talking about console features, such as 3D audio and DualSense etc.
The shot at Xbox was kind of valid from Jimbo's POV because they said "no next-gen exclusive games for 2 years at all", while Jimbo implied that they will do both, and they did. As per Jimbo, PlayStation would make PS5 exclusive games (which they did) and would also support the PS4 community for several years after (which they are doing).
Marvel
could never
Thought they weren't selling
Tiago Rodrigues
Member
Looking at this i always find it funny how people say Sony ($129.0 bn) can't buy big companies like Capcom ($6.8 bn) or Square-Enix ($6.8 bn).
Yet Zynga ($10.5 bn) was acquired by Take-Two ($17.8 bn) for over 12 billion US dollars.
I know market cap doesn't show the entire picture specially in terms of acquisitions since it's not connected with the money each company has to spend...but when you put these numbers close to each other and how much money Take-Two spent on Zynga it helps put things in perspective.
I have been saying this for a while and i'll say it again: Now that Sony has acquired most studios close to them, they will go after videogame IPs that have always been connected to PlayStation. Capcom and Square-Enix are two i could imagine...but there's more possibilities. Specially now with PSPlus having this revamp and the synergy with movies and TV shows that PlayStation Productions want. Imagine Capcom and Square-Enix entire catalogs on PSPlus, plus all the studios in multiple countries they have. Plus the fact most Square-Enix businesses are also things that interest Sony (manga, anime, etc). There's also the fact if Sony managed to acquire big companies with lots of IPs people always connected with Sony, there's a possibility they would also leave Gamepass once those deals are over.
There's another war that's not 100% connected to studios happening right now and that's getting known IPs and content to your services. Sony knows this. They also know Apple, Google and Amazon could buy something big in the future and MS is now "on hold" after the Activision acquisition. This is the perfect timing for them, just as their new fiscal year starts.
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yurinka
Member
Maybe they delayed it, or maybe not.
People like Greg Miller or Jeff Grubb have some credibility but they heard 'last week' and nothing. Geoff also mentioned while ago Sony making a big acquisition and unless he meant Haven (I doubt it) we're still waiting. The thing is, as I remember the big acquisitions never got leaked.
We know Sony will continue acquiring because Jim Ryan said it, so pretty likely they or their "sources" are only making a guess, like us.
We don't know if the next Sony acquisition will be big or small. After making many smaller acquisitions with Bungie as exception, I think they may buy a publisher now. Specifically, a Japanese one with several very popular IPs with potential to make movies, tv shows or anime and with a good catalog to fill PS+. But to do this they should increase their budget for acquisitions because with the available one I think they won't have enough specially considering they have to share it with other Sony divisions.
If not, I think they'll continue with smaller acquisitions: a mobile gamedev, a support team (like another outsourcing studio) or VR gamedev studio. Or some mid sized gamedev who doesn't own top IPs but made at least some successful exclusives for them and has potential to continue making sucessful games and to grow (Arrowhead, Kojipro, Quantic Dream, Supermassive, ARC System Works...).
The thing is, they have been closing the fiscal year and a big acquisition would have been important to be included before or after closing the fiscal year and they would have planned to place the announcement where needed. So maybe in other weeks of the year, it could have been ok to delay it, but I think in this particular case not.
I think that if Sony would have a big acquisition announcement planned for last week, they would have made it there. I think this is one of these cases similar to the fake rumors of "Sony will have a big SoP coming this next week(s)" after months of no SoP -or at least not big ones- and nothing happens, or they make one without important announcements. But a ton of "insiders" and "leakers" kept pumping the hype machine saying they heard Sony was going to have a huge SoP. And when nothing happens they say 'well, it has been delayed'.
Same applies to the acquisitions: Jim Ryan says Sony will continue acquiring, so a fake insider says a few weeks later 'Sony will announce an acquisition soon", and then other fake insiders repeat it, some of them adding that is going to be a "big" acquisition and other one adding is going to be "next week". And nothing happens.
I think they, Kadokawa and Bandai Namco would be the best fit.
Bandai Namco has a lot of current and classic IPs, a great catalog of old classics for PS+, mobile stuff, license to make games of many anime top stuff and is the top Japanese toy maker which could be a great synergy to make toys of PS, Sony anime, movies and tv shows or Sony Music artists. They also make and own top anime stuff. Sony also wants to grow in Asia, and Bandai Namco make a lot of their sales from Asia, particularly Japan:
They are in a good finantial shape but a big stagnant, a push from Sony could be welcome specially to help them grow in the west but they aren't in a finantial position where they would want or need to sell. But they are too expensive Sony's currently their available acquisitions budget and have some business like arcade game development or amusement centers (same applies to Sega, Capcom or Konami) that wouldn't line very well with Sony.
Capcom is in a pretty similar position: many old and active top IPs with potential -or already in- movies or anime, a huge catalog of old classics to fill, arcade business... in their case a cheapar and more affordable price even if they could still be too expensive for their current available acquisitions budget (but they could rise it, have more than enough money to pay with cash any of these acquisitions). But are in a great finantial shape, better than ever. They don't need to sell and pretty likely won't want to sell at least now because they are growing a lot. Their net income:
Almost the same with Square. Like the previous ones are very appealing even if have a few business that may not be very aligned to Sony and may be too expensive for their current budget. Plus don't need and may not want to sell because they are in a great finantial shape and growing:
Kadokawa is cheaper and affordable with their current budget. Has several game publishers and development teams, dozens of PS exclusives since the PS1 days, some interesting IPs and a ton of anime, music stuff Sony may be interested in. They also have book/manga/magazine production and publishing labels that may not interest Sony even if it could generate good synergies with their gaming, cinema, anime and movies divisions specially if Sony helps them to expand beyond Japan. It may a pain in the ass to properly integrate them into Sony because Kadokawa has a ton of different companies who work in different areas, their teams aren't split into separate gaming/music/anime/etc divisions.
In terms of finantials Kadokawa is performing well but would welcome help to bump their sales (and this is why they made a deal with Sony and another one with Tencent). They don't need an acquisition but may be open to sell because it would really help them grow specially in sales.
So everything can happen, but I don't think Sony is buying any of these ones at least right now (more likely way later once they rise the budget). First because maybe only Kadokawa would fit on their current acquisitions budget (so the only they could afford right now unless they decide to rise it) but may not be that appealing for Sony due to the potential restructuring needed to properly integrate it in Sony and that many of their gaming IPs aren't that important compared to the ones from Capcom, Square Enix or Bandai Namco specially for potential movies.
But instead they have a ton of manga and anime IPs, some interesting gaming IPs and FromSoft. Plus in their acquisitons Sony, with Destiny as excepction, isn't buying top game IPs: they are buying instead focusing on teams that may support existing teams, covering certain areas where they don't shine or welcome help to grow (VR, mobile, remakes, ports, GaaS...) and specially experimented talent to create very successful IPs. And From Soft fits very well in this last point specially after the recent Elden Ring. Sony also always valued to acquire teams who had a long tradition of partnering with them for exclusives. And well, From Software has dozens of exclusives since back the PS1 days, and same goes for the non-FromSoft Kadokawa game publishers and devs: they have dozens of PS exclusives since the PS1 days too.
So I think Sony isn't buying any publisher right now, but if they are buying one right now, I'd bet is Kadokawa.
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Give over for what, he should have kept his mouth shut yes, but compared to the competition ps5 had exclusives at launch so its simply wrong to say that he was lying.
Heisenberg007
Gold Journalism
While we all get swept away in the hype, in hindsight I don't think Sony would be announcing anything anytime soon. They first need to successfully close the Bungie acquisition before moving on to something else.
Badlucktroll
Member
I don’t see the Kozuki family selling Konami unless they just want to cash out the gaming division/ips.
Dick Jones
Gold Member
They finally understand why Quiet is dressed like she is and they are shamed of their words and deeds. So much so, they are leaving the gaming sphere.
yurinka
Member
I think Sony may announce more acquisitions in the coming months but pretty likely of a lower scale than big publishers because of regulators. Instead of Take 2, EA, Namco Bandai, Square Enix, Ubisoft or Capcom I think they may announce acquisitions more similar to the other ones they made outside the Bungie one: some mobile or VR dev team, some support studio for ports or outsourcing, or some not too top tier gamedev who made or is making 2nd party stuff: someone like Arrowhead or Deviation maybe if their project is very promising. But in these cases I'd expect something like they did with Housemarque: once they publish their first pretty big project, if it ended well (I assume will be the case of Helldivers 2 and first Deviation game) they'll buy them.
Or who knows, maybe Lucid to integrate it inside Firesprite to continue their rebuilding of SCEE Liverpool + Evolution Studios + Bizarre Creation under a same label and to grow Firesprite's manpower.
But well, it's hard to predict becaus we saw very different cases and exceptions of all kinds.
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phil_t98
#SonyToo
Is that market cap for Sony as a company or Sony PlayStation?
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iHaunter
Member
Generally speaking it is, to an extent. Just buying already shit companies won't really help.I don’t know. I just remember seeing Sony fans and Jim Ryan saying organic growth was better than acquisitions.
Tripolygon
Banned
Your question doesn't make sense. There is no such company trading as Sony PlayStation.
SaucyJack
Member
Equally Sony would not have any real interest in Konami’s core gambling business. Any deal to be done here is surely for gaming assets.
Until Sony actually buys a Publisher I'm going to remain skeptical of these rumors. People like the bring up the fact that Microsoft is in regulator review with the Activision purchase and wouldn't be able to make another purchase until that acquisitions closes. I don't think that's the case. I believe any publisher that maybe looking to sell right now is going to shop around for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th offers and would have no problem waiting a year if an offer from Microsoft meant $5B or more than what Sony was offering.
If Sony was to offer lets say $15B for Konami I guarantee you Konami would shop that offer around and would receive offers in the $20-$30 billion range easily from a multitude of tech companies.
If Sony was to offer lets say $15B for Konami I guarantee you Konami would shop that offer around and would receive offers in the $20-$30 billion range easily from a multitude of tech companies.
Banjo64
cumsessed
Not sure what you mean? Insomniac and Bluepoint for peanuts and Bungie at 3b compared to Activision for 69b is looking like really shrewd business to me.
Ass of Can Whooping
Gold Member
I don't want to see anymore investment in GaaS. They've got plenty of those in the pipeline now to put their focus on other areas.
The one that sticks out like a sore thumb for me now are western RPGs. MS is looking too strong in that area for Jim to ignore.
I can't think of many more good western RPG devs though. Larian comes to mind. I'd love to see Sony get their own Avowed game in the Divinity universe.
The one that sticks out like a sore thumb for me now are western RPGs. MS is looking too strong in that area for Jim to ignore.
I can't think of many more good western RPG devs though. Larian comes to mind. I'd love to see Sony get their own Avowed game in the Divinity universe.
Mibu no ookami
Banned
Not certain how easy it would be to "buy" their team, but it's certainly a possibility.
I wonder how much of the staff remains from This is Football. A collaboration might even be fruitful.
Mibu no ookami
Banned
I can't agree that a studio as expensive as they'll be (given you'd almost certainly have to buy Kadokawa) and as reliant as it is on a single employee can be considered a "Best Buy"
yurinka
Member
WRPG sell more on PS than on Xbox and PS already has a shit ton of WRPG even if not exclusive. Sony doesn't need to have their own ones.
Even considering this, Sony recently released Horizon. How many exclusive WRPG has published Xbox?
In addition to tthis, Sony has also a lot of exclusive RPGs, way more than Xbox. Who cares if western or not. With both exclusive or multi, Sony has the RPG genre more han covered.
It wouldn't make sense to pay $15B for Konami. They don't have a single AAA dev team. Do they even have a game that sold 10M? They have a lot of old classics and 4 or 5 IPs that could be used for mid sized AAA games and other ones for small games. And a successful mobile game team, that's all. They also have an IP with potential for movies or anime (out of maybe up to 3 or 4) and Sony is already making that movie. Plus they have business like pachinko and gyms that Sony isn't interested on them.
I think several other publishers would better fit Sony, and if they would acquire Konami they would pay way less than $15B for it.
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Ass of Can Whooping
Gold Member
By western RPG I mean the create the sandbox create your own character type ones. Games like Horizon don't fit that bill.
Ass of Can Whooping
Gold Member
Lol Deviation Games plastering their walls with DualSense artwork
Tell me you're a PS Studio without telling me you're a PS Studio
Tell me you're a PS Studio without telling me you're a PS Studio
Cyber_hunter026
Member
Lol Deviation Games plastering their walls with DualSense artwork
Tell me you're a PS Studio without telling me you're a PS Studio
Yup they are next
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yurinka
Member
WB has some super talented and successful AAA teams. To separatedly buy Netherrealm, Avalanche, Rocksteady, TT Games without IPs, maybe only getting MK would be great for Sony.
Sony already has a lot of underutilized IPs and frequently creates new ones. Plus they also could use Marvel IPs or some IP from Sony Pictures movies or even anime.
In addition to this, Sony made a good deal so far with acquisitions. With a budgef of a few billions they got Bungie, Haven, Blue Point, Housemarque, Firesprite and Fabrik (Evolution + SCEE Liverpool + Bizarre, now VR friendly), Nixxes, EVO, a mobile gamedev that makes them a billion per year and an outsourcing studio plus Destiny and all future Bungie new IPs.
Their previous acquisition was Insomniac and look at the results. So who knows what can they do with all these teams in the long term.
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I was basing the $15B on Konami's $9.36B market cap. Who ever purchased them would have to pay a premium above their market cap.
My argument is that their isn't a publisher Sony could buy where they wouldn't be outbid by another company. Folks think if From Software came on the market they would be bought by Sony without a bidding war? These rumors are delusional. There will be bidding wars for any publisher that comes on the market. Especially after the Activision/Blizzard deal.
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Varteras
Member
Almost certainly going to be announced some time this year. I knew the moment the acquisition race heated up that Sony was going to look more intensely to their partnerships and possibly buy them in advance of their games. If they were liking what they saw. When that interview with Raymond went out and she said Sony was so impressed with their pitches that they wanted to greenlight all three of them, which would have meant hiring like crazy to give them the people they need, I knew they were going to float a big check to Haven. When it was announced that Deviation was opening a second studio in Canada, funny enough in Montreal where Haven is at, I knew Sony was backing them with a lot of extra money. Knowing they are also making a live service game, which Sony REALLY wants, and seeing them move into this new studio for their primary location before they've even put a game out... and plastered with PS5 images.... yeah. Only question now is what is the relationship between Firewalk and Probably Monsters and can Sony buy them? Hulst has said a few times now that he's very psyched about their project. Again, a live service game.Lol Deviation Games plastering their walls with DualSense artwork
Tell me you're a PS Studio without telling me you're a PS Studio