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Mergers and Acquisitions |OT| Thread Merged

Acquisitions and mergers official topic

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  • This gaming forum has not been bought out

  • The monopolization of OTs is bad for gaming discussion

  • Your post is in talks to be acquired by another forum


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DonkeyPunchJr

World’s Biggest Weeb
I don’t get the infatuation with Steam. ”No steam, no buy” is so cringe and hypocritical.

Fuck Steam and fuck the King Gaben.

tumblr_pipipqqAhP1rgvfhu_540.gif
LOL I love Steam but those guys are tools. Back when Borderlands 3 was EGS exclusive people acted like Epic shattered their dreams and defiled their childhood. It’s a fucking storefront, you put in your credit card number, click on a button, and play the damn game. Same as Steam.
 

EDMIX

Writes a lot, says very little
Why does no one ever talk about IO Interactive. They make fantastic games, Hitman is one of my favorite IPs, especially these last 3.

Who knows, maybe they are asking for too much money. I felt MS might buy them, but with how wild this shit is, who knows.
 
I want to agree with you, honestly, but Jim Ryan confirmed rival consoles himself. Bungie is confirming even new IP is confirmed for all consoles. They're saying they have full control and will be totally multi-platform. It doesn't sound like they're just speaking PC and Playstation. It seems like Sony negotiated from a weaker position, leaving Bungie to maintain an insane amount of contractual freedom and rights while STILL being under Sony's corporate banner. When Bungie say they still control their Destiny, that's them saying they, not Sony, own the IP to Destiny still...

Looks to me like Bungie ain't giving up another IP the way they gave up Halo ever again. Sony will benefit like an owner, true, but just not in the ways Sony is use to benefitting as an owner.
I think you will find that some of the newly owned MS IPs will also find their way to PS consoles.
 

SteadyEvo

Member
It takes Two was published by EA.

If EA goes to Sony or Microsoft, we are all fucked.
Yeah, because Madden and Battlefield are the best things in gaming 🙄😆

I really wish Sony would stay out of this and focus on producing the best games in the industry, which is what they’ve been doing for some time now. Could really see them self sufficient similar to Nintendo.
 
Agreed, it might even be why they are making that statement that we should expect more. If Sony is willing to spend this much for 1 team, they might have their sights on a publisher to even out those genres lost to stay competitive and relevant against MS.

Who fucking knows how this gen will end, this shit turned into some nuclear proliferation, type standoff lol I mean, what MS did buying 2 publishers has forced Sony's hand, its just too much IP lost to really not expect them to counter that by some buys of their own to make sure their future is secure in the west.

in terms of the IP, nahhh Sony likely owns that and Bungie. I don't see Sony spending this much without that IP, so when they are giving them control over Destiny, its no different then Sony giving creative freedom to lots of IP they own. So if Sony wasn't going to fund Sunset Overdrive based on not owning the IP, we have our answer as to what Sony ask for regarding theses deals.

200 million to have Insomniacs IPs, but 3 Billion to allow them to keep the Destiny IP sound illogical and very unlikely. For all we know, they are ok with selling the IP to such a publisher that is allowing them to maintain creative control like you see with other Sony studios and allow them to self publish, but I have strong doubts that Sony doesn't currently own that IP as I don't know Sony to have really any deals where they allow anyone to keep that stuff.

The calculation has changed. Sony realizes they enough ENOUGH IP, but at this stage they have to prevent significant and highly sought after content from skipping their platform. Preventing Bungie's next big game from potentially ending up as an exclusive in Xbox Game Pass after losing Bethesda and all those IP, and after losing Activision/Blizzard and all that means, is absolutely now worth $3.6 billion to Sony, even if it means they don't have traditional control and ownership of intellectual property the way they would prefer.

This is a huge shift in the industry. Microsoft has finally gotten Sony to recognize their presence for better or for worse.
 

elliot5

Member
Steam is private and has absolutely zero reason to sell right now. They print money. They don’t need outside funding at all in any capacity.
 
I think you will find that some of the newly owned MS IPs will also find their way to PS consoles.

Which ones? COD games are contracted for a while still, likely till end of 2023. Microsoft may be charitable with Diablo 4 and Overwatch 2, but what else is there? Sony has the Ghostwire Tokyo deal.. That new Blizzard survival IP definitely ain't heading to Playstation, especially since it hasn't been officially confirmed for platforms.
 

kingfey

Banned
Has there ever been a valuation on Steam? Or how much digital revenue or profits they make?

Steam has got to be worth more than $10B(?).
Its value is on valve. Valve isn't big as xbox or Playstation. Store wise, it's big. But company wise, not that big.

Its like Google owning YouTube. YouTube is big, but the real value is on google, who is running the business.

Steam brings them tons of money. But that depends on how much games they sell on their store per year. 2020 must have been big hit.
 

SF Kosmo

Al Jazeera Special Reporter
MS spent $75b buying 2 pc stores. Now Sony spent $3b on bungie, and will buy big publishers in the future.

Valve owns steam, which has big pc market share. It's value is between $4b-$10b.

If anyone of these 2 companies buy valve, we pc community are screwed.

Future now is bleak.
If Valve was for sale MS would have bought it a long time ago.
 

Putonahappyface

Gold Member
No one wants to buy Konami. They have no talented game studios anymore, they own casino and other side business that no one is interested in running. What Konami has of value for gaming are IPs. They could / should sell them.
The IPs are the only reason I would want Sony to buy Konami for. Anything else I couldn't give a shit about.
 

dcx4610

Member
I don’t get the infatuation with Steam. ”No steam, no buy” is so cringe and hypocritical.

Fuck Steam and fuck the King Gaben.

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Because some of us have a decade old+ account with 100s of games. I like the Steam interface and I like having access to my games in a single place. I also like knowing that they have a history.

Look at the countless movie services that have come and gone. If you bought digital movies on those services, maybe you got lucky and they got transferred to who bought them but in a lot of cases, people simply lost their purchases. Who knows if Epic Games is going to last and what about my 100s of games I already have on Steam?

Imagine a console scenario where you bought a bunch of games on the PlayStation Store. All of the sudden, Ubisoft starts putting all of their games in their own store and not in the PS store. You have to download their app and buy and launch games within that app. It's just not ideal. If those same games were in your PS Store, you'd just buy them there. That's Steam at this point for a lot of people.
 

kingfey

Banned
Sony just spent about 20% of their buying power on one developer. They don't have enough money to buy a publisher.

Valve is valued at around USD$12b, but they're completely private. Gabe Newell would die in a fire before he ever sold, especially to Microsoft.
That is much better for now. But that man is 59 years old. He isn't 40 years old man. The closer he gets old, the higher the chances for him to sell valve.
 

Mibu no ookami

Demoted Member® Pro™
I think these moves have been VERY good for the PC market.

I actually think the moves are good for both Xbox and PS fans respectively.

I think Activision is going to really be helped by Microsoft's direction. I can't imagine they'll do worse than Activision did.

I think Bungie needed a partner to help them put out AAA and AAAA games and Sony is the best in the business at that.
 

Swift_Star

Banned
Duh, PC is who benefits the most here, all those Sony and MS IPs that were locked behind their plastic boxes and their pathetic 30FPS are now coming to PC, very soon there really will be little to no point in getting a console.
What was the last Sony exclusive that was 30fps only?
 
Ya’ll really believe this guy!??? Hahaha

Aint that hard to say now that SONY said they arent done with acquisitions assuming Microsoft is also still probably gonna make more as well 😂
Come on where was he a few days ago ???
Why cant he say whos gonna get bought out next???

Stop feeding this troll, i can make a twitter and go off little hints as well and make a wild prediction 😂 what a joke.

Both Microsoft and Sony will have more acquisitions this yr done woooow
 

Excess

Member
Duh, PC is who benefits the most here, all those Sony and MS IPs that were locked behind their plastic boxes and their pathetic 30FPS are now coming to PC, very soon there really will be little to no point in getting a console.
giphy.gif
 

EDMIX

Writes a lot, says very little
The calculation has changed. Sony realizes they enough ENOUGH IP, but at this stage they have to prevent significant and highly sought after content from skipping their platform. Preventing Bungie's next big game from potentially ending up as an exclusive in Xbox Game Pass after losing Bethesda and all those IP, and after losing Activision/Blizzard and all that means, is absolutely now worth $3.6 billion to Sony, even if it means they don't have traditional control and ownership of intellectual property the way they would prefer.

This is a huge shift in the industry. Microsoft has finally gotten Sony to recognize their presence for better or for worse.

I mean I agree mostly with what you are saying, simply we have yet to see anything or have any statement about them not buying that IP.

Unless stated, I believe its correct to assume its owned by Sony as I'd argue that would be something they would state today if anything if they are willing to tell us all this. Like with future Destiny titles, future new IP, stating they are self publishing.....yet not say they own the IP? Sounds like its not stated cause Sony bought it, which would make sense for 3 Billion and allowing them to have creative freedom, self publish for selling that IP in the first place. So I don't see enough to say they didn't buy that IP, Sony doesn't buy teams like that and I don't think any major publisher to my memory have ever had a deal this big, with the IP not being owned by them or something.

Even more odd, Sony owns Bungie, they bought them, thus the IP is owned by them by default anyway as this isn't some long term marketing deal we are talking about or some timed game, its simply too much money spent to believe they don't own that IP. Would be the first I've ever heard of such a thing at this price point in the industry.
 

RydarGaf

Member
Sony has spare money?

Instead of pullig a Microsoft, how about:

-Improve the PS+ games (no more Gearbox demos!)
-Where is my VRR?
-Roll back the price hike to 70USD/80€
-Free PS5 upgrades for PS4 games
It seems Sony current TVs are incapable of doing VRR.
Think about it. Why haven't they enabled it yet on the x90J and A90J TVs?
Notice on the Sony official pages they brag about the VRR feature on the upcoming TVs, but don't mention VRR on the official pages of their 2020 and 2021 TVs

They have it enabled on the x900h and it's completely broken as seen in the HDTV test video.
The 2021 TVs uses the same media tech chip that is inside the x900h. Their current TVs can't do it and their trying to save face
 

RydarGaf

Member
A423-A013-0-A81-44-B3-BB0-D-C201-B1-BAC4-B0.jpg



Sony will be at a solid 20 studios by the end of spring
This post highlights a fundamental truth. Everytime we see Sony make acquire a game developer, it's a small studio or solo game development company. We have never seen Sony buy a large game publisher such as zenimax or Activision.

There is no proof that Sony has the kind of juice to buy a publisher like Konami, Square Enix, ubisoft, or take 2 interactive.
 
This post highlights a fundamental truth. Everytime we see Sony make acquire a game developer, it's a small studio or solo game development company. We have never seen Sony buy a large game publisher such as zenimax or Activision.

There is no proof that Sony has the kind of juice to buy a publisher like Konami, Square Enix, ubisoft, or take 2 interactive.

….Until it happens

I’m not even hoping it does happen but after these past two weeks anyone denying anything isn’t possible at this point is lying to themselves
 
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FromSoftware it the most logical choice don't really need Square as Playstation already has the mainline Final Fantasy lockdown for this whole generation and i think Capcom would be too expensive
 

01011001

Banned
As long as the japanese devs are safe i really don't care. Fuck western games.

Microsoft literally is openly saying they want a japanese studio tho... and Sony is japanese... so I mean, they are the least save right now I would say, as they are cheap as fuck and neither of them have a single one at the moment
 
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EDMIX

Writes a lot, says very little
This post highlights a fundamental truth. Everytime we see Sony make acquire a game developer, it's a small studio or solo game development company. We have never seen Sony buy a large game publisher such as zenimax or Activision.

There is no proof that Sony has the kind of juice to buy a publisher like Konami, Square Enix, ubisoft, or take 2 interactive.

Who is to say they are not in the works to even buy one of those publishers right now?

So I'd say they have that kind of juice if they are ironically willing to spend 3 billion on 1 team and I'd argue Sony is more likely to be able to buy a Japanese publisher then anyone company from the west. So I'd agree with you before this turned into some nuclear battle for publishers, trust when I'm saying this, they are shopping for a massive buy to remain relevant and market leader and to invest in the future and to protect themselves from being locked out of 3rd parties they rely on to fill gaps.

….Until it happens

I’m not even hoping it does happen but after these past two weeks anyone denying anything isn’t possible at this point is lying to themselves

Pretty much.

Anyone can get it now. I thought Zenimax was a crazy deal, Activision buy out is a mental one and now this? It means they understand they need to change some strategy that they had before and need to restructure to factor those moves.

Sony bought teams and invested in house on PS1, PS2,PS3, PS4 etc

MS lost those generations when they came into gaming ,reacted by buying many teams.

It would be silly to think Sony does something, MS reacts to correct their situation.

Yet not think Sony would react or change something based on MS. I think many need to understand that it was only logical that MS bought teams to fix that whole mess last gen, Sony is buying teams to counter what is going on. It would be weird to just assume it stops here even with BOTH fucking publishers litearlly telling us they plan to continue.

So such deals can take a long time and who knows who Sony is in talks with right now or have been in talks with since those deals started happening. I wouldn't even be shocked that the Insomniac deal in 2019, was based on all those deals done by MS in 2018. ie Obsidian, Ninja Theory etc. Sony seeing them stock up, clearly means they'd be the first to make sure they obtain such a team that had deals with MS prior ie Sunset Overdrive.

Thus....one would not be shocked that after a MS deal, Sony buys a team MS had dealings with prior. Its an easy guess, an American company and obtainable by MS for the right price, so I think Sony is buying at least some based on this.
 

M1chl

Currently Gif and Meme Champion
I mean ideal situation for me would be if Sony got Capcom and MS got Square Enix.

I was thinking about consolidation, but then I figured that Bolshevik has been hungry for western companies (even Asian too obviously) I know a person from Bohemia Interactive, he was in Warhorse as me and he said that he left, because China started to send out pamphlets with what you can do and what you can't in terms of Arma, there can't be war with China or recognition of Taiwan, which we all here were taught in the school and so on.

So now please Jim and Phil, take as much as you can from likes of Tencent, Amazon, Google, Facebook. Consoles are cheap (well they are going to be...in few years), so you are loosing anything but as soon as the Meta starts to infest gaming sphere, these two companies can keep the gaming alive (at least for me).

Naive take I know, but I am from post-communist state, don't want some overlords to have everything i like. Not everything, but my other hobby is fucking expensive
 

Yoboman

Member
Aside from them owning Atlas which is pretty niche already- I dont see the appeal of owning Sega

The only good thing they've done in the past few decades has been Yakuza and the director has left Sega last year

They aren't the Sega who used to have a ton of talent, relevant IPs and sports games
 

MScarpa

Member
Just dawned on me that after the Acti buyout you can get CoD and BF (albeit delayed) on GPU.

I don't see why MS would want to buy EA given that all their titles already go to Game Pass, and they don't make any exclusives that I can think of.

Ubisoft being bought would be just lame for anyone, sure you get a lot of mega franchises but they're all so creatively bankrupt (imo) from being churned out too often, only thing modern Ubi does right is Mario+Rabbids (though I wouldn't complain about getting a Rocksmith+ subscription bundled into Gamepass).

When Japan gets involved then things will get interesting, but there are only a few of those that would qualify as megatons. Hoping Capcom keeps their independence more than anything else really.
Am I the only person that likes Ubisoft and Take Two? I feel like an alien here. I love their games. Give me Bioshock, AC, and aby other old ips I can't remember
 

S0ULZB0URNE

Member
GoG can remove games from the store. One piss from China, and your game is removed from their store. Not to mention the hitman debacle. Which had drm.

Only good one would be humble. But ign owns it.
I can play games I bought on Gog without Gog running.
I cannot do this with Steam.
I purchased games on Steam that I no longer have access to on Steam. Transformers Cybertron series for example.
 
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