Support NeoGAF

[fart town usa]

Ubisoft almost had a hostile takeover by another company. Not Sony or MS though. They didn't want to be bought.

I was reading about that a few years back. Just seemed so messed up.

Like a stalker, "I'm going to own you...it's just a matter of time"

I have no idea how big business works at those levels but it was just weird. Something about % of stock ownership, etc.

 

[Team Andromeda]

SONY don't have the cash, they'll be lucky to buy SEGA with their lack of Cash reserves

 

[lastmessiah]

Take Two isn’t for sale. They just acquired Zynga. You don’t do that if you’re looking to sell out.

 

[fart town usa]

I absolutely think MS will angle for a Japanese publisher, it's the only hole in their portfolio. SEGA is most likely because it's low-hanging fruit, but I think they'd go after Square Enix or Capcom.

Please not Capcom. I'd buy an XBOX for it but Capcom going MS exclusive is just a heartbreaking concept.

 

[Effigenius]

By MS? I will say Take Two.

By Sony? I don’t know, who makes the Untitled Goose Game? Maybe them.

 

[Leyasu]

Sony buying Konami, or Rockstar could work, imagine GTA or Metal Gear Solid (notorious PlayStation games) being exclusive to PlayStation, Microsoft fanboys in the room are falling off their chairs thinking about that scenario.

Nobody is buying Take 2 (GTA). If someone (microsoft) tries then the other (Sony or vice versa) will enter the fray. GTA is a franchise that nobody can lose.

 

[CatLady]

Microsoft are probably looking at the more casual and mobile end of the market if they purchase anyone else, I don't think they will buy another core game publisher.
Maybe a studio like Crystal Dynamics when Perfect Dark is done.

That would be awesome.

I would have much preferred They bought Crystal Dynamics, Eidos Montreal and Asobo for MANY billions less than Activision/Blizzard. Xbox would then have pretty much every major studio I'm interested in and the only games I'd ever need to get outside of Xbox ecosystem would the annual/bi-annual AssCreed.

 

[Gen.Grievous]

Was just watching CNBC. They said Microsoft made this acquisition now to get out in front of other Big Tech companies. They said Amazon, Netflix, Google, Facebook, etc, are all going to be competing in the future to make purchases for some of the last remaining major publishers to build out their own "metaverses".

CDPR, Roblox, EA, and Take Two were all mentioned as being potential acquisitions.

Sony is in serious jeopardy of getting locked out of far more IPs than those from Acvitision if they don't move. Their position in the future of gaming is on the line.

Terrible future.

 

[Filthy Casual]

Square Enix is probably the most realistic and would make the most sense from Sony's perspective.

Something on the scale of Take Two is just not going to happen. Even if Sony tried MS would probably outbid them. You don't spend $68b to own CoD only to then lose GTA. Would be pointless.

 

[bentanchorbolt]

Sony doesn't buy companies. They buy independent developers and invest into their own talent.

This

Sony doesn't have to spend billions of dollars to buy up existing talent. They have a track record of doing exactly what you said and it works for them. Sony and MS can both play the game their own way and everyone involved will make plenty of money. Its not a this or that.

 

[Kokoloko85]

Let's see the bright side: Sony is obligated to build new ip and innovate. No more excuses to stay stagnate to the old ones. MS to the other side..

Im sure they will. Hopefully it kicks Playstation up a gear and release 1st party titles and new ones like the PS3/PS4 gen brought.
But I hope in the future they keep some 3rd party studios on the Playstation like RE, Persona, MGS, RDR, King of Fighters etc.
MS is defo gonna buy one of those Japanese studios…

 

[Cornbread78]

MS will buy Capcom & SEGA or Bamco next..

 

[Sanepar]

Sony will be more smart if goes after great independent studios like Bungie, From (buying kadokawa for anime), KojiPro, Larian, Emberlabs and Remedy.

 

[Kokoloko85]

This

Sony doesn't have to spend billions of dollars to buy up existing talent. They have a track record of doing exactly what you said and it works for them. Sony and MS can both play the game their own way and everyone involved will make plenty of money. Its not a this or that.

But Playstation also sells lots of 3rd party titles and over time it seems like they will have less and less titles to be available to them…
Hopefully they keep the Japanese 3rd party titles

 

[Sanepar]

MS will buy Capcom & SEGA or Bamco next..

This will not gonna happen, Japan Gov will not let they buy any Jap Publisher I`m sure.

 

[Goalus]

I think Sony will buy Square Enix.

I would almost bet on that.

 

[Camreezie]

My guess is MS buying WB , T2 or Ubi

 

[MonarchJT]

Looking at the trend set by these acquisitions MS will target a company who’s stock is on the downturn and franchises have soured or gone a bit stale.

Based off of that I think they will purchase BOTH of EA and Ubisoft, both can be acquired for less than Activision combined.

EA recently lost the rights to use FIFA branding and don’t seem to be too panicked into getting it back, BF2042 is an unmitigated disaster and their next biggest franchise Madden is a US focused game with limited pull worldwide I think they will be next in a similar big move.

Next up Ubisoft, their biggest franchise Assasins Creed is at an all time low with Valhalla being ultimate cookie clutter game and FarCry being a very similar rinse and repeat job, considering the relatively low cost of taking them on I think they’ll look into a swift acquisition.

Hoovering up all the content studios is essential to a streaming platform where content is king therefore I think it’s extremely likely these will be next.

Sony won’t focus on large acquisitions, if anything I can see some strategic partnerships being written up for significant money with square for example, their focus will be in their first party which is industry leading and no amount of mergers and large takeovers will stop them producing the kind of content and quality most people want.

Essentially Sony turns into Nintendo 2.0.

Nintendo cater to lower age demographics than Xbox and Ps....sure there's overalap and ninty lovers of all ages but their bread and butter are younger (also very young) gamers. Sony becoming a niche choice would not have the advantage of being able to sell stuff like Nintendo is doing because Sony and Xbox share the same market audience.

 

[Kokoloko85]

This will not gonna happen, Japan Gov will not let they buy any Jap Publisher I`m sure.

I dont think thats the full story. Im not sure but I think they only step in if its a hostile takeover

 

[Kokoloko85]

Sony will buy a PC porting studio and an indie

MS will buy EA, Take2, Unreal, Steam and all the Japanese studios and the rest of the world

Nintendo will buy Square and make them work on Mario Sports titles like they did to my boy Hiroyuki Takahashi and Camelot ( Yes give me a new Shining Force and Golden Sun )

 

[StreetsofBeige]

The big ones only MS could do but I dont see them buying another one.

I voted that slew of Japanese studios at the bottom of the range ripe for picking. SE and Capcom being the ones with the most appeal.

 

[Manji Uzuki]

Its not only a matter of money but also those companies need to be willing on being sold. Personally I hope we don't see more acquisitions of big studios. I don't care if its MS or Sony, I think its always better if studios like Capcom, Sega or SE can keep doing their stuff with more freedom.

 

[lastmessiah]

Its not only a matter of money but also those companies need to be willing on being sold. Personally I hope we don't see more acquisitions of big studios. I don't care if its MS or Sony, I think its always better if studios like Capcom, Sega or SE can keep doing their stuff with more freedom.

When you’re a video game developer “freedom” means more money and resources to make the games you want to make.

 

[Manji Uzuki]

When you’re a video game developer “freedom” means more money and resources to make the games you want to make.

Yes but being part of this big corporations does not mean "hey, here you have a lot of money to do your next game, have fun!". They have their own goals and plans and will make the acquired studios adapt to them, so yeah they will have more finantial stability but less freedom.

 

[spawn]

Sony is in the hot seat so they have to buy Take 2 or Ubisoft to counter MS acquisition of Activision. I don't think they can afford EA.

 

[Brofist]

I hacked his webcam:

That can’t be him. I like to imagine he’d be seeing this browsing the net on his PS Vita or something

 

[SLB1904]

from reddit lol

 

[Ogbert]

Bungie.

 

[Warablo]

For ~70B this would have been a better deal

EA: $38B
Take Two: $18B
Nexon: $15B

You got to tax on a extra 10-20 billion on each of those. Microsoft paid 30% more than market value.

 

[TheDreadLord]

The one thing that is missing now in GP catalogue are sport games. I know that you have access to EA games through EA Play, however, a yearly update of a beloved sports series can be a high impact release for GP.

 

[S0ULZB0URNE]

Considering how bad they have been... I can see someone buying UBI Soft.

 

[lastmessiah]

Considering how bad they have been... I can see someone buying UBI Soft.

Didn’t they just announce a partnership with Game Pass for Ubisoft Connect?

 

[S0ULZB0URNE]

Didn’t they just announce a partnership with Game Pass for Ubisoft Connect?

Yup

 

[Hawking Radiation]

Honestly if you compare Ubisofts and EA's 'live' franchises, as in franchises that are still getting new games, Ubisoft IMO is way better than EA.
I'm surprised EA is worth that much to be honest, although obviously Fifa is a big part of that.

There were also rumours a while back about Ubisoft possibly being in some financial trouble and open to a buyout, even though games like Valhalla was the 4th best selling game of last year or soemthing. That was one of the reasons given for why Ubisoft are changing some of their games to a more 'live sevice' angle.

I feel 7bil for Ubisoft is a pretty damn good deal.

Agreed. Ubisoft is a better buy than EA.

There's quite a few Ubisoft games I can easily get lost in which is why I subscribed to their Connect service along with GamePass. These two services cover a lot of my gaming needs.
Only one missing is PlayStation.

 

[ksdixon]

Though I personally don't care much for SE, I still think they're an important get for Sony in terms of bringing characters/IPs back under the PS umbrella (FF, TR etc), especially now given MS owns Crash/Spyro. I'm also fairly certain Sony would want to bring whatever gci film aspirations SE has with, say, FF closer into the Sony fold, any film/game technology engines like that luminous engine they were working-on for years etc.
I'd like SEGA, but I think Sony's smart money aside from SE is in if they can buyout Capcom for a few reasons. Characters from MH, RE, DC, Capcom itself all become PS-owned, Sony can easierly navigate Marvel VS Capcom roster liscense issues as they own all the Sony/Capcom characters and have an "in" with Marvel too. If Sony also go and grab WarnerMedia's game studios (I'm mostly talking about NetherRealm Studios to be fair here), they can start playing with IPs.... MK vs SF?.... DC vs Marvel? MVC4?....

 

[JackMcGunns]

You can almost add all those up to equate what MS just paid for Activision/Blizzard... Mind boggling

 

[tpieman2029]

All of wb discovery by Microsoft to enter the tv streaming biz

 

[tpieman2029]

Also the problem of sony buying square is they're already getting most of the big square gmgames exclusive right now anyway. You're gonna pay a massive premium to what keep the status quo and for the edios titles. Not worth whst it would cost

 

[Damigos]

Well we ve come to the point where i would just merge all american companies with Xbox and all Japanese with Playstation.
European and the rest of the world would be divided

 

[Damigos]

Also the problem of sony buying square is they're already getting most of the big square gmgames exclusive right now anyway. You're gonna pay a massive premium to what keep the status quo and for the edios titles. Not worth whst it would cost

At 5 BN its a steal. Do you know how many studios and IPs they own? They will be worth 10 BN in 1 year .

 

[Oddvintagechap]

I guess Bungie has higher prospects than Sega.

I didnt even put them in the list.

Sony must of been upset about Crash and Spyro.

 

[saintjules]

Could it be?

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

Sony must of been upset about Crash and Spyro.

 

[Tiago Rodrigues]

Could it be?

They wouldn't tease an acquisition on a tweet. It's about Elden Ring

 

[saintjules]

They wouldn't tease an acquisition on a tweet. It's about Elden Ring

I thought that as well. Oh well.

 

[Zeroing]

Could it be?

Nah, it’s going to be Koei Tecmo

 

[remember_spinal]

it is interesting that sony has no marketing deal for elden ring but is still pretty much doing the marketing for it

 

[Roman Empire]

Sony buys itself a place under the Xbox family and Nintendo follows suit. Then Gabe comes and says he wants to be part of the Microsoft family as well. Not long after Phil comes to public announcing that the Microsoft CEOs want to shut off the Xbox branch and brush it off all the net losses. And that's how the game industry comes to end because everyone sees how gaming sucks and we don't need that. Think of the children!

 

[SSfox]

Could it be?

Doubt it, Bandai Namco are too Japanese for modern Sony.

 

[DinosaurNerd89]

SONY don't have the cash, they'll be lucky to buy SEGA with their lack of Cash reserves

Sony has close to 20B left to spend even after Bungie. Sega wouldn't be an issue, LMAO.