Varteras
Member
Okay so the $26 billion was the amount that was already tied up in their Financial Services anyways.
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Jim Ryan confirms Sony ‘has more studio acquisitions planned’ (VGC)
vivftp
Member
Yes
vivftp
Member
Why would you post a screenshot with no link to the source? Highly suspect and silly.
Varteras
Member
Well now with this next report being the end of the fiscal year, I'm really interested to see how everything ultimately panned out for them after 12 months of acquisitions.
lh032
I cry about Xbox and hate PlayStation.
5 bil dollars + Jimbo free massage for 10 years.
kyliethicc
Member
j0hnnix
Member
SaucyJack
Member
There’s definitely a lot of smoke in the PlayStation acquisition department, whether there is fire remains to be seen.
The most interesting rumour I saw was a deal with several Japanese studios [Capcom, Square, Sega and From] which also brings their content into the new PS plus platform and includes the acquisition of one or more of these studios. Would definitely be a pretty strategic play.
For me the most likely deal is for the gaming assets of Konami and also Kadokawa, the latter being strategic from more than a PlayStation perspective.
The most interesting rumour I saw was a deal with several Japanese studios [Capcom, Square, Sega and From] which also brings their content into the new PS plus platform and includes the acquisition of one or more of these studios. Would definitely be a pretty strategic play.
For me the most likely deal is for the gaming assets of Konami and also Kadokawa, the latter being strategic from more than a PlayStation perspective.
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Badlucktroll
Member
Holding out hope that they announce the aquisition along with the Silent Hill reboot.
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kyliethicc
Member
Holding out hope that they announce the aquisition along with the Silent Hill reboot.
StealthGoblin
Banned
Their premises (the main one anyway) is huge. Bigger than some current PS Studios and that is all on Sony’s money.Lol Deviation Games plastering their walls with DualSense artwork
Tell me you're a PS Studio without telling me you're a PS Studio
One thing I hope Sony understand about their future GAAS games is that content is king. Destruction Allstars lacked content and didn’t have a clear roadmap. You need long-term buy in and I hope they synergise between studios so they aren’t stepping on each other’s toes. Simultaneous PC launches are also essential.
Tiago Rodrigues
Member
Sony is basically acquiring all senior talent from Assassin's Creed, COD, etc that were tired of doing the same crap over and over.Lol Deviation Games plastering their walls with DualSense artwork
Tell me you're a PS Studio without telling me you're a PS Studio
This could be interesting depending on their projects tbh.
Men_in_Boxes
Snake Oil Salesman
I hear this sentiment a lot but it's simply not true. Good game design is king, content is secondary. Many of the most successful GAAS titles launched bare bones with slow content drip out of the gate.
Destruction All Stars was never going to make it, even with a rich content pipeline. Why? Because it's a bad game. Hopefully Sony knows that.
StealthGoblin
Banned
I don’t think a game launching into an already crowded marketplace can afford to launch as thin as Apex etc did. Look at Halo.
And of course, it needs to be a good game.
rofif
Can’t Git Gud
Men_in_Boxes
Snake Oil Salesman
On the flipside, I don't think a game launching into an already crowded marketplace can afford to be bad. Look at Halo.
GAAS works because it allows developers to launch a minimum viable product, and if it catches, they can work on the content pipeline later. The reverse doesn't work.
BennyBlanco
aka IMurRIVAL69
Buying Konami or Square would a stupid move IMO. Square is a huge company and the quality of their games is all over the place. They are prone to massive flops like Avengers and Babylons Fall. Konami is a bunch of dead (but good) IPs and no game developers.
Sony is way more focused on the West because that’s where their bread is getting buttered. I bet it will be something out of left field again like CDPR or maybe Ubisoft.
Sony is way more focused on the West because that’s where their bread is getting buttered. I bet it will be something out of left field again like CDPR or maybe Ubisoft.
adamsapple
Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Buying Square would be a waste of money cause their biggest IP (Final Fantasy) is already getting multiple exclusive PS entries in 16 and the 7 sub-series.
Paying billions to have future entries in Stranger of Paradise, Babylon's Fall etc seems like an unwise investment.
yurinka
Member
Sony currently has GaaS titles like Gran Turismo 7, MLB The Show 22 and Destiny 2, and I think they are more representative of their future GaaS than the failed, smaller experiment Destruction AllStars.
The other "over 10 GaaS in development" seem to be GT7, MLB 22, the TLOU2 Factions game, the games from Haven (ex AC/Watchdogs/R6/etc), Deviation (ex-CoD BO), Firewalk (ex-Bungie and Apex Legends), two Bungie new IPs, the MP game from Guerrilla with the R6 Siege/Killzone 2 MP director, the next Sony London game and (if isn't the same of the London one) the Firesprite MP game.
This is true, but also because GaaS allow players who desire it (a very small percent of the total) to spend way more money on the game than the one it costs to buy the game. In some cases, specially the most successful ones, means successful AAA GaaS generate way more revenue than successful non GaaS games.
Traditionally also means GaaS have a way higher cost because in many cases they are developing and adding extra content for years. But as you mention the good part is that if they see the minimum viable product tanks they can stop or reduce post launch content, saving a lot of development costs.
GT7 is a great, successful game. So they will continue supporting it for years with new content and features, as happened with let's say Destiny 2. Destruction All Star instead was a failure, so they did stop adding post launch stuff.
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Varteras
Member
I did some further digging into Sony's financial reports. They transferred around $23 billion in Marketable Securities from their Current Assets to Investments and Advances of their Non-Current Assets. Between March 2021 and June 2021. Current Assets being anything Sony has that is already cash or could quickly be turned into cash within a year. Non-Current, as you would imagine, being the opposite. Something that cannot quickly or easily be turned into cash. It would typically require more than a year and could include legal hurdles, depending.
As of December 2021, Sony's actual Cash reserves were $16 billion. Supplemented by $3.2 billion in Marketable Securities. This has them reporting a Cash-on-Hand value of over $19 billion, as of December 2021. However, that is not the extent of Current Assets. They also have Receivables, Inventories, and Other Current Assets. These are more difficult to convert into cash than Marketable Securities as well as less reliable to match value. They could sell those assets at a loss or gain compared to declared value, depending. But they could still be relatively quickly and easily sold within a year. Sony reportedly has $47 billion in Current Assets. They have $217 billion in Non-Current Assets. Both as of December 2021.
So, Sony could conceivably liquidate enough assets, right now, to give themselves $47 billion in cash. Clearly, they won't do this. But it does illustrate how much they could potentially have suddenly if they wanted to. Just that the closer you get to that maximum, the less likely Sony is to actually do it. Last year, Sony Pictures sold GSN Games to Scopely for $1 billion. I'm not sure what kind of asset that was, but Sony has already shown a willingness to relieve itself of assets to bring in some cash. As I've also pointed out previously, Sony's very low long-term debt to asset ratio gives them a lot of leverage to take out a loan if they wanted a big cash injection. In case they were willing to pay off a bigger debt down the line instead of selling an asset.
IbizaPocholo
NeoGAFs Kent Brockman
Topher
Identifies as young
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remember_spinal
Banned
i think they should buy Devolver Digital and make all their published games timed exclusives.
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Zeroing
Banned
Omg shut up Jeff! I say it here multiple times, Sony will buy 3 studios, they already brought 2 since my posts! I’m an insider, jeff knows nothing!
yeah he is really setting himself to ridicule.Confirmation that Sony is acquiring a small dev that no one has ever heard of?
NoLootBoxDev
Member
Confirmation that Sony is acquiring a small dev that no one has ever heard of?
Surprise it was me, your friendly
do I need to say this is a joke?
kyliethicc
Member
Iron Galaxy confirmedConfirmation that Sony is acquiring a small dev that no one has ever heard of?
ChorizoPicozo
Member
I wonder...every Tuesday I wake up:
Hoping
for Jim to deliver the goods. Capcom 
, Square 
, KojiPro 
? But these damn insiders want all the attention.
Hoping
for Jim to deliver the goods. Capcom , Square , KojiPro ? But these damn insiders want all the attention.
Heisenberg007
Gold Journalism
Not gonna lie, Iron Galaxy will actually be a good buy.
- Talented devs with lots of experience
- 230 employees, enough to handle multiple projects at once
- 3 different studios: Orlando, Chicago, Nashville
schaft0620
Member
Idk who Sony would aquire for $5 billion. I do know who is a fit at $7-$10 bil and would fit the description. Plus is on the downturn and LOTS of contacts at VGC/Kinda Funny and would be a Jim Ryan-Sony-Europe/Canada equivalent to Activision.
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remember_spinal
Banned
Kadokawa would probably be around 5
schaft0620
Member
Not even warm to my guess but good to know.
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kyliethicc
Member
We’ll see how their Uncharted PC port goes. Their track record is mixed.
remember_spinal
Banned
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yurinka
Member
According to a random website https://www.value.today I found, these companies have this market value:
Bandai Namco $16.4B
Konami $6.4B
Square Enix $6.2B
Ubisoft $5.7B
CD Project $5.14B
Capcom $4.8B
Sega $3.7B
Kadokawa $3.2B
Gaming companies are very overvalued on the current consolidation climate, so I'd add an extra to these valuations.
I assume companies like Take 2, EA, Valve or Epic are out of the question because they would be too expensive. But well, they don't need to buy 100% of the stocks to own and control the company or to pay with Sony stocks. I think their best deal for them would be Capcom followed by Kadokawa and if they could afford it now/would want to spend it now Square Enix, but the only one I see with their investors who would be willing to sell would be CD Project. But aftter the Cyberpunk launch shitfest, lack of owned IPs and their working conditions I'm not sure if Sony would be interested to buy them.
If cheap they would be a good support team to port stuff or maybe to do some outsourcing tasks to help other teams. I think they did a good job with seasons 2 and 3 of Killler Instinct, but I think their original games don't have enough quality to be a Sony team, or that they could add anything valuable enough (other than porting and outsourcing manpower) to Sony.
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ManaByte
Gold Member
Yea Sony is totally getting chummy with the company that exposed their lack of a refund process.
yurinka
Member
Sony temporally kicked them out of their store and it was the first time we know they did it with someone and the game is now sort of ok but tnot great. Doesn't sound as something that brings companies together.
Regarding GoG, not sure if they still do it but at least back in the days all their games were DRM free, and I don't see Sony putting their games there DRM free. CD Project also had internal issues with working conditions and so on, issues with investors... doesn't sound good.
But maybe Sony's PS Studios studios management could solve their issues, Sony would appreciate to have a PC store with a good catalog and userbase even if its market share is too small compared to Steam and would need a major overhaul to merge it with the PSN store. They down own IPs but The Witcher III and Cyberpunk 2077 sold a shit ton so they may be happy with it. With them they could also get open world WRPG and PC store knowledge and talent, and maybe some stuff for their internal Sony engine (even if CDP plans to move to UE5).
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SlimySnake
Flashless at the Golden Globes
I dont care about acquisitions anymore. It doesnt really give PS owners any good value, and if anything limits the budgets for each studio by splitting the budget pool with other studios under the Sony umbrella. Also, with Bungie going multiplatform, I cant even get hard thinking about what they would do with the PS5 IO and SSD. I do think working on one platform is better for devs overall, but Bungie and other big Sony acquisitions wont be doing that so who cares.
That said, credit where credit is due and Jimbo getting Housemarque, Nixxes, Insomniac and BP deals done is a big deal. Bungie he had to do as a response to CoD going to Microsoft just to show that they wont be calling it quits, but I think it's time to settle down and focus on increasing budgets for their first party studios. Wouldve loved to get Kojima but he couldve easily given Kojima a $100 million to make his next game in 2019 which might have been ready by 2022 seeing as how fast he works. He didn't and now Kojima has no game to work on and he doesn't want to be acquired so Jimbo's fucked up that relationship for sure.
Just go on a hiring spree. Acquire support studios like Nixxes. There are plenty of them in Asia. Get them to help out ND, SSM, Sucker Punch and GG because right now those studios are struggling to put out games in a timely fashion. That should be the priority now. They have enough studios. It's time to make them more productive.
That said, credit where credit is due and Jimbo getting Housemarque, Nixxes, Insomniac and BP deals done is a big deal. Bungie he had to do as a response to CoD going to Microsoft just to show that they wont be calling it quits, but I think it's time to settle down and focus on increasing budgets for their first party studios. Wouldve loved to get Kojima but he couldve easily given Kojima a $100 million to make his next game in 2019 which might have been ready by 2022 seeing as how fast he works. He didn't and now Kojima has no game to work on and he doesn't want to be acquired so Jimbo's fucked up that relationship for sure.
Just go on a hiring spree. Acquire support studios like Nixxes. There are plenty of them in Asia. Get them to help out ND, SSM, Sucker Punch and GG because right now those studios are struggling to put out games in a timely fashion. That should be the priority now. They have enough studios. It's time to make them more productive.
Yoboman
Member
You think the Bungie deal was done in the 4 weeks after the Activision announcement?
yurinka
Member
What?
GG released HZD for PC last year, HFW this montth, has Call of the Mountain that pretty likely will be released in less than a year or so and is working on the MP game since some years ago that could also be released in a year or two too.
ND released TLOU2 in 2020, released Legacy of Thieves collecttion this year, its PC port I think will be released this summer, and I assume that in less than a year from now or so they'll release the TLOU2 MP and TLOU1 remaster. And who knows if they are working in something else on top of that like the Uncharted spinoff they were making with Bend, TLOU3 or a new IP. And all this while overviewing the tv show.
Sucker Punch released GoT in 2020 and during 2021 Legends and GoT DC.
SSM released GoW in 2018, the PC port in 2022 and Ragnarok is coming this year too. Plus SSM is also working in more stuff.
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SlimySnake
Flashless at the Golden Globes
No, but it definitely pushed them to finish it. They supposedly outbid Microsoft to get the deal done which looking at the final price tag is kinda obvious. They knew they couldnt stand to lose both CoD and Bungie, and were forced to go above and beyond to get it done.You think the Bungie deal was done in the 4 weeks after the Activision announcement?
To say it had nothing to do with Activision's deal is silly.
sendit
Member
yurinka
Member
The Bungie deal was started before than the Activision deal. Had nothing to do with the ABK deal.
And what is the source that says that they did outbid MS for Bungie? Why would Bungie want to sell to MS if they left and joined Sony because according to tthem was partly to get their help to make movies and tv shows?
Bidding war with whom?
Which Japanese company has as many resources as Sony has to buy a major publisher in Japan?
Can you not be an idiot?
No Japanese regulator will allow a foreign company to buy a large Japanese conglomerate.
And for the most part, old people with ancient thinking sit in such companies, who will not want to sell themselves to someone from abroad.
It seems to me that their game will be something like Call Of Duty. That is, with the company and a separate multiplayer.
Unlikely
As Schreier said, Sony did not care about small games, and especially indies. Money for their development is unlikely to be spent.
kyliethicc
Member
Jimbo will buy Mario
yurinka
Member
Hermen Hulst debunked this, said he's proud of their smaller, more experimental games like Dreams, Astro's Playroom or Concrete Genie and that will continue doing both big and small games.
And well, they also support 3rd party indie games via PlayStation Indies, a department headed by Shuhei Yoshida. Sony spends money on several indies every year. Some recent ones supported by PlayStation Indies were Sifu, Sol Cresta, Moss II, Salt & Sacifice or Kena, and soon they'll release Stray, TMNT Shredder's Revenge or Little Devil Inside.
Sony will continue publishing smaller games and will continue helping 3rd party indie games. I don't think they need to buy Devolver because they frequently already have deals with them and with many other indies. But could be a good idea, to secure an additional good quality indies stream for PS and PS+: they could keep them multiplatform and only asking them optional temporal console exclusivity for PS (blocking exclusivities for other consoles) for those devs who may want it and mandating game sub excluisivity in case devs want to include the game in a game sub, at launch or not.
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Hermеn Hulst says a lot of things. He said a million times that Sony is first and foremost storytellers and their main driving mechanism is single games.
At the same time, Sony is going to release 10 services by 2026. It's funny, basically.
And again, those games that you listed. All of them were approved by Shawn Leiden.
The indie initiative is just a small offshoot where Shuhei Yoshida buys some temporary indies for little money. Not development within Sony itself. Different things.
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TheTony316
Member
So you'd rather believe Shreier?