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[Mibu no ookami]

No way Nixxes is above Bluepoint.

They absolutely are. The money that Sony can produce from porting their games to PC is far and above what you're going to see from Bluepoint doing remasters of games.

In the last 3 years, what have seen from both companies?

Bluepoint: Demon's Souls
Nixxes: Spider-Man Remastered, Spider-Man Miles Morales, Rift Apart, and now they're working on Horizon Forbidden West Complete Edition. They also fixed Horizon Zero Dawn.

I love Bluepoint as much as the next person, but they're not going to generate nearly as much revenue with the time it takes them to produce their remasters and probably the cost related to producing said remasters.

 

[midnightAI]

Microsoft has certainly hit the accelerate button on this, but it was already happening.

Which is not what I am talking about, I am talking about a knee jerk reaction to a $69billion acquisition not what has come before it.

Certain people believe that Sony et al will suddenly go on a spending spree because MS has bought ABK, and I don't think that will be the case, especially for Sony.

 

[adamsapple]

Cool, if a studio is open and willing to be acquired, may the highest bidder win.

 

[Unknown?]

They absolutely are. The money that Sony can produce from porting their games to PC is far and above what you're going to see from Bluepoint doing remasters of games.

In the last 3 years, what have seen from both companies?

Bluepoint: Demon's Souls
Nixxes: Spider-Man Remastered, Spider-Man Miles Morales, Rift Apart, and now they're working on Horizon Forbidden West Complete Edition. They also fixed Horizon Zero Dawn.

I love Bluepoint as much as the next person, but they're not going to generate nearly as much revenue with the time it takes them to produce their remasters and probably the cost related to producing said remasters.

Those games barely sold on PC, a big Blue Point remake would sell way more than a PC afterthought.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

If you're Totoki or the next CEO and you're looking at growth opportunities, you're going to have to look at a company in that upper echelon of medium high or high impact.

That leaves T2, Epic Games, Namco Bandai, or CDPR...

T2 gives you pretty much everything: Mobile, PC, Sports, GaaS, massive IP, transmedia

Epic Games actually drastically reduces your development costs around the board, gets you into PC, gets you Fortnite, some additional game development, maybe helps you bring back Unreal/Unreal Tournament, Resistance, or Killzone. I'm sure a Fortnite movie would do well.

Namco Bandai plays into Aniplex, helps you build brand across the board with Anime, but I think you'd have to go after FromSoftware at the same time to do an Elden Ring 2 and Dark Souls.

CDPR gives you PC, Witcher, and Cyberpunk.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

Those games barely sold on PC, a big Blue Point remake would sell way more than a PC afterthought.

Spider-Man Remastered sold VERY well on PC and both Spider-Man Remastered and Miles Morales are currently on sale and are near the top of the Steam best-selling games. Horizon also sold very well on PC.

Do you know what actually didn't sell super well? Demon's Souls.

 

[Aenima]

This is why i wanted the Activision purchase to fail. Now the gates are open.

 

[Unknown?]

Spider-Man Remastered sold VERY well on PC and both Spider-Man Remastered and Miles Morales are currently on sale and are near the top of the Steam best-selling games. Horizon also sold very well on PC.

Do you know what actually didn't sell super well? Demon's Souls.

Not a realistic comparison. One was on a console that was brand new, the other a worldwide renowned superhero. You know what else didn't do well? The other Nixxes ports.

A hypothetical Bluepoint MGS remake will do way better than another Sackboy or Horizon port.

 

[midnightAI]

If you're Totoki or the next CEO and you're looking at growth opportunities, you're going to have to look at a company in that upper echelon of medium high or high impact.

That leaves T2, Epic Games, Namco Bandai, or CDPR...

T2 gives you pretty much everything: Mobile, PC, Sports, GaaS, massive IP, transmedia

Epic Games actually drastically reduces your development costs around the board, gets you into PC, gets you Fortnite, some additional game development, maybe helps you bring back Unreal/Unreal Tournament, Resistance, or Killzone. I'm sure a Fortnite movie would do well.

Namco Bandai plays into Aniplex, helps you build brand across the board with Anime, but I think you'd have to go after FromSoftware at the same time to do an Elden Ring 2 and Dark Souls.

CDPR gives you PC, Witcher, and Cyberpunk.

It's highly unlikely Sony would (or even could) buy any of those, maybe outside chance of Namco or CDPR but I even doubt those.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

It's highly unlikely Sony would (or even could) buy any of those, maybe outside chance of Namco or CDPR but I even doubt those.

Again, this has been explained at length that not all M&A in fact most M&A aren't straight cash transactions.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

Not a realistic comparison. One was on a console that was brand new, the other a worldwide renowned superhero. You know what else didn't do well? The other Nixxes ports.

A hypothetical Bluepoint MGS remake will do way better than another Sackboy or Horizon port.

Whether the game is popular isn't up to Nixxes. Whether they do a competent port is. Same with remasters. The money is in where it is available.

That same Bluepoint MGS remake would probably have the potential to sell more on PC and cost less to make.

 

[ChuckeRearmed]

If you're Totoki or the next CEO and you're looking at growth opportunities, you're going to have to look at a company in that upper echelon of medium high or high impact.

That leaves T2, Epic Games, Namco Bandai, or CDPR...

You also look into your own pockets....

 

[Unknown?]

Whether the game is popular isn't up to Nixxes. Whether they do a competent port is. Same with remasters. The money is in where it is available.

That same Bluepoint MGS remake would probably have the potential to sell more on PC and cost less to make.

If it was released at the same time, it might be able to do comparable numbers but wouldn't by far outsell it on console and the cost is a moot point. Of course creating a remake from the ground up will be more than a port.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

Not a realistic comparison. One was on a console that was brand new, the other a worldwide renowned superhero. You know what else didn't do well? The other Nixxes ports.

A hypothetical Bluepoint MGS remake will do way better than another Sackboy or Horizon port.

Nixxes didn't do sackboy btw.

If it was released at the same time, it might be able to do comparable numbers but wouldn't by far outsell it on console and the cost is a moot point. Of course creating a remake from the ground up will be more than a port.

Yeah, that's exactly my point. The operating costs of running bluepoint and doing a remaster can't be ignored, which is what makes Nixxes a higher-impact purchase. PC ports are relatively cheap and can result in high revenue. You can target a number of different games for PC ports and can do them relatively quickly, while remasters take considerably more time.

 

[jroc74]

It's highly unlikely Sony would (or even could) buy any of those, maybe outside chance of Namco or CDPR but I even doubt those.

TIL if I want to by a $38,000 car I need to have $38,000+ in the bank.

Its amazing some ppl have a very closed minded way of thinking about acquisitions. Didnt I post recently how even Elon Musk didnt use all his own money to buy Twitter?

 

[Woopah]

This could be true of Sony and MS. Good thing Nintendo is around. Feels their games are made with fun factor and creativity in mind.

There are some M&A that make sense for Nintendo, but their decision to also invest heavily in EPD is a good one.

When the entire industry is changing, the real risk is doing nothing.

Nintendo can survive without M&A, but Sony can't.

When you want to sell 130-150 million console units largely off of 3rd party software sales, you need... 3rd parties...

I'd say Sony can fairly easily survive without M&A.

Whoever buys these publishers, they are still going to put their games on PlayStation (unless it's MS or Nintendo, and they aren't going to buy any publishers anytime soon.

Having said that, there are of course potential benefits for Sony from M&A.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

You also look into your own pockets....

Going to give you all another class on M&A.

How does M&A work from a cost perspective?

You can pay cash, which I think most people are familiar with. You can also assume debt as part of the M&A, which simply extends that existing debt at existing rates onto your ledger. You can also swap stock.

i.e. A company with a lot of debt may sell for a lot less than their market capital.
i.e. A company can leverage its stock to buy another company

Going further, you can also do joint ventures and consortiums.

i.e. Sony can partner with others to make larger purchases.

You can also buy less than 100% of a company, for control of a company all you need really is 50% +1.

i.e. Sony can purchase a company less than its full value and still take control


Or any combination of the above

 

[midnightAI]

Again, this has been explained at length that not all M&A in fact most M&A aren't straight cash transactions.

Who said anything about money?

What makes you think any platform holder could buy Epic? You think MS had a hard time with the FTC etc. buying a multi platform publisher, try buying a company that makes the engine that all platforms use.

Take2? Why would they even sell?

From? Owned by Kadokawa, they only just purchased that cash cow, why would they sell?

Etc.

And even though it isn't always about money you still do need money, Sony have what, a reported $5bn left for acquisitions until 2025? ( yes, I'm aware that could be increased, still doesn't change the fact it may not be possible to get these developers/publishers due to reasons)

 

[Mibu no ookami]

Who said anything about money?

What makes you think any platform holder could buy Epic? You think MS had a hard time with the FTC etc. buying a multi platform publisher, try buying a company that makes the engine that all platforms use.

Take2? Why would they even sell?

From? Owned by Kadokawa, they only just purchased that cash cow, why would they sell?

Etc.

And even though it isn't always about money you still do need money, Sony have what, a reported $5bn left for acquisitions until 2025? ( yes, I'm aware that could be increased, still doesn't change the fact it may not be possible to get these developers/publishers due to reasons)

Epic is a lot smaller than Activision Blizzard King. There are other tools on the market to use to build games, and it wouldn't be financially valuable to foreclose the engine from publishers, nor could they prevent those games from releasing on Xbox or PC.

At best you could foreclose Xbox using the engine and I don't think that would be a problem from regulators.

Take2 would sell if they thought that by partnering with Sony they could massively increase their wealth. This would be the case for transmedia as well as the potential for Sony to have their own PC launcher, which T2 would struggle to do on their own. Why did Bungie sell to Sony?

Sony could buy Kadokawa let alone just From, but they've already sold parts of From and Kadokawa, why? Money.

You say you're aware that it can be increased, but you conflate the fact that business strategies change all the time as do budgets. Sony has a certain amount of money earmarked for acquisitions, that doesn't mean it will spend it or that it won't spend more.

Of course that doesn't mean everyone wants to sell, but as gaming gets more expensive and games become more inherently risky, it becomes wise to consolidate with other partners. T2 for example would probably love to get the FIFA license, but that's really risky for them to do on their own. With the marketing power of Sony and the platform advertising, they'd be much more likely to have a successful game.

 

[adamsapple]

This is why i wanted the Activision purchase to fail. Now the gates are open.

 

[ChuckeRearmed]

Going to give you all another class on M&A.

How does M&A work from a cost perspective?

You can pay cash, which I think most people are familiar with. You can also assume debt as part of the M&A, which simply extends that existing debt at existing rates onto your ledger. You can also swap stock.

i.e. A company with a lot of debt may sell for a lot less than their market capital.
i.e. A company can leverage its stock to buy another company

Going further, you can also do joint ventures and consortiums.

i.e. Sony can partner with others to make larger purchases.

You can also buy less than 100% of a company, for control of a company all you need really is 50% +1.

i.e. Sony can purchase a company less than its full value and still take control


Or any combination of the above

None of that applies to Sony though. Joining forces with some company? Those who can buy any of the publishers, do not need Sony's help in that. Sony's stock itself is not doing that great to be leveraged at all. And gaming companies usually have relatively small debt (aside WB, but WB is such a mess, I don't see anybody touching aside maybe Comcast in 2 years as WB cannot be acquired for another year or two anyway as far as I recall).

Mergers are always strategic in a way how it was done with T2 - relatively similar sized companies merged together to compensate for their fallings.

The interesting fact is that, Bungie acquisition has the same relative size as ABK acquisition for Microsoft. People who are expecting big Sony acquisition will be disappointed. They might grab some studios.

All in all, I don't see Sony buying or merging with anybody. Companies like Square are tanking and thus they require financial investment on top of acquisition, Take 2 is too big, company like CDPR do not provide recurring revenue and, mobile companies - are too expensive. People forget that Sony is a conglomerate of four companies and thus it is not as simple as "merge SIE with publisher XXX".

Epic is a lot smaller than Activision Blizzard King. There are other tools on the market to use to build games, and it wouldn't be financially valuable to foreclose the engine from publishers, nor could they prevent those games from releasing on Xbox or PC.

At best you could foreclose Xbox using the engine and I don't think that would be a problem from regulators.

Epic is around 20b-30b probably and no, UE is too important to make the deal by any platform holder. And yeah "UE is used only by Xbox" lol

Why did Bungie sell to Sony?

Because it realized that it cannot survive long enough? Bungie was interested in selling to Microsoft too, and last time I checked, Microsoft has 0 relation with media industry.

Anyway, it is also enjoyable to read m&a fanfiction regarding Sony only for it to end with another Savage Game Studios...

 

[Mibu no ookami]

After Spider-Man, Insomniac could have held talks with Disney/Marvel and said, hey we can build games for you across your IP and on multiple platforms, and gotten a bigger deal than they got from Sony or they could have stayed independent and worked with Disney/Marvel as well.

They could have made Spider-Man 2 multiplatform or Wolverine.

Why did they sell to Sony?

Why did Zynga sell to T2?

 

[bitbydeath]

Options for Sony



T2
Epic Games
CDPR
Capcom
Sega Sammy
Square Enix
Namco Bandai
FromSoftware/Kadokawa
SuperMassive Games/Nordisk Film

High					T2, Epic Games
Medium High			Capcom	Namco Bandai
Medium		Square Enix	Sega Sammy	CDPR
Medium Low			FromSoftware
Low	SuperMassiveGames
Cost/Benefit	Small	Medium Low	Medium	Medium High	High

Supermassive seem unlikely, they were only just acquired last year by Nordisk film.

 

[ulantan]

None of that applies to Sony though. Joining forces with some company? Those who can buy any of the publishers, do not need Sony's help in that. Sony's stock itself is not doing that great to be leveraged at all. And gaming companies usually have relatively small debt (aside WB, but WB is such a mess, I don't see anybody touching aside maybe Comcast in 2 years as WB cannot be acquired for another year or two anyway as far as I recall).

Mergers are always strategic in a way how it was done with T2 - relatively similar sized companies merged together to compensate for their fallings.

The interesting fact is that, Bungie acquisition has the same relative size as ABK acquisition for Microsoft. People who are expecting big Sony acquisition will be disappointed. They might grab some studios.

All in all, I don't see Sony buying or merging with anybody. Companies like Square are tanking and thus they require financial investment on top of acquisition, Take 2 is too big, company like CDPR do not provide recurring revenue and, mobile companies - are too expensive. People forget that Sony is a conglomerate of four companies and thus it is not as simple as "merge SIE with publisher XXX".


Epic is around 20b-30b probably and no, UE is too important to make the deal by any platform holder. And yeah "UE is used only by Xbox" lol


Because it realized that it cannot survive long enough? Bungie was interested in selling to Microsoft too, and last time I checked, Microsoft has 0 relation with media industry.

Anyway, it is also enjoyable to read m&a fanfiction regarding Sony only for it to end with another Savage Game Studios...

https://www.latimes.com/business/ho...ed,to three people familiar with the interest.


Remember nothings impossible.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

None of that applies to Sony though. Joining forces with some company? Those who can buy any of the publishers, do not need Sony's help in that. Sony's stock itself is not doing that great to be leveraged at all. And gaming companies usually have relatively small debt (aside WB, but WB is such a mess, I don't see anybody touching aside maybe Comcast in 2 years as WB cannot be acquired for another year or two anyway as far as I recall).

Mergers are always strategic in a way how it was done with T2 - relatively similar sized companies merged together to compensate for their fallings.

The interesting fact is that, Bungie acquisition has the same relative size as ABK acquisition for Microsoft. People who are expecting big Sony acquisition will be disappointed. They might grab some studios.

All in all, I don't see Sony buying or merging with anybody. Companies like Square are tanking and thus they require financial investment on top of acquisition, Take 2 is too big, company like CDPR do not provide recurring revenue and, mobile companies - are too expensive. People forget that Sony is a conglomerate of four companies and thus it is not as simple as "merge SIE with publisher XXX".

It's not necessarily how a stock is doing at the moment, but where it can go from here.

If Sony was able to build a PC platform to rival Valve's with the help of T2 games, and able to build that transmedia with their entertainment companies, they'd surely rise in value. That's obviously a boon to anyone who gets Sony stock rather than just cash.

Not all companies have small debt. You literally just made that up. Some companies are in serious debt trouble, which is why so many gaming studios and publishers have folded in history.

T2 was not similar sized to Zynga, again you're making things up out of whole cloth.

Sony's biggest money maker is video games and thus they need to ensure the future of their market position. They've also found the power in transmedia after years of Howard Stringer hoping they would. They're even looking to sell their financial division to generate more cash.

You look at the size of Disney before they bought Pixar, LucasFilm/Star Wars, Marvel, and Fox and would not have guessed they would have made these purchases beforehand. They weren't worth nearly as much in the mid 90s. Their M&A got progressively larger.

 

[ChuckeRearmed]

https://www.latimes.com/business/ho...ed,to three people familiar with the interest.


Remember nothings impossible.

We don't know in what shape or form Sony was interested in WB. They were one of the interested parties in ABK too, but of course nobody expected them to go after the whole publisher. Fox is (was) huge and had various areas (aside IP).

 

[Mibu no ookami]

Supermassive seem unlikely, they were only just acquired last year by Nordisk film.

That doesn't actually matter. Sony could buy it from Nordisk film or they could buy Nordisk film.

FromSoftware was sold from Transcosmos in just 2014... who had just bought them 7 years prior in a joint venture.

Companies get bought and sold all the time....

 

[bitbydeath]

That doesn't actually matter. Sony could buy it from Nordisk film or they could buy Nordisk film.

FromSoftware was sold from Transcosmos in just 2014... who had just bought them 7 years prior in a joint venture.

Companies get bought and sold all the time....

Saying that would put all companies on the table.

 

[bitbydeath]

Public companies, including Nintendo, EA and Nexon, are sitting on $45 billion in cash and cash equivalents, setting up the potential for more M&A, according to venture capital firm Konvoy Ventures.

Where’s these figures coming from?

A quick google shows Nexon has 2.36B, EA has 2.5B, and Nintendo has 13B cash on hand.

 

[ulantan]

We don't know in what shape or form Sony was interested in WB. They were one of the interested parties in ABK too, but of course nobody expected them to go after the whole publisher. Fox is (was) huge and had various areas (aside IP).

Right but big publishers like capcom, square enix, sega are well within range.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

We don't know in what shape or form Sony was interested in WB. They were one of the interested parties in ABK too, but of course nobody expected them to go after the whole publisher. Fox is (was) huge and had various areas (aside IP).

The question comes down to cost. The fact that Sony has been interested in both WB and Fox tells you that they CAN in fact afford to purchase these companies that are significantly more expensive.

There is a myriad of ways to go about buying these companies.

There seems to be this myth among people that Sony isn't able to/willing to drastically transform their company for the right assets.

Sony was originally just an electronics company who spent big money on Columbia Pictures and Columbia Records.

They've spent a lot of money in other avenues of their business that people seem unaware of but that isn't to suggest they wouldnt' for gaming, they just haven't had to until recently.

They bought EMI for Sony Music for 2.3 billion just in 2018. Another 1.2 billion for BMG in 2008. 1.17 billion on Crunchyroll in 2021. This deal with Zee in India is worth 10 billion...

This idea that Sony can buy Zee in India for Sony Pictures for 10 billion, but somehow wouldn't or couldn't spend 10 billion or more for their primary source of revenue and operating income? You guys are hilariously naive.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

Saying that would put all companies on the table.

Most companies are on the table, it's just a question of what makes sense and what is the most feasible.

 

[StealthGoblin]

Sony is very strategic with their multiplatform games. The only reason MLB is on Xbox is because they were forced to do so. Same with Switch.

The only reason why Destiny is still on Xbox is because Bungie deemed it to be. Same with Marathon.

If Sony were to buy Capcom, you'd never see Resident Evil or Street Fighter on Xbox again.

I think Sony will support PC where they feel it makes sense, but don't expect much if any support for Switch or Xbox in future M&A dealings.

I disagree with most of what you have added that isn't established fact.

Sony will want the value of their purchases realised and will want that almost maximally. Outside of the usual streamlining that happens because of M&A, there is no reason to stop teams making PC games.

They are hiring specifically for PC strategy (which looks to be software portfolio, launcher, PSN integration, Subscriptions) so they'll be aggressive there.

I don't see mobile being hit either as that's also a focus. Sony, to my knowledge,.has three internal teams making mobile games at present. I suspect there are more and that xDev has more.

Sony are broadly smart with their IP. They understand value. Microsoft wrote off $700,000,000 in revenue by cancelling Starfield PS5. Sony know how lucrative Nintendo's ecosystem is. They want to do cross media. If you have PC, Xbox, Switch and PS audiences buying and liking their content then getting films and TV shows of greater quality and quantity will be far easier.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

Disney is worth 145 billion today.

They bought the following companies (adjusted for inflation):

Fox - 81 billion
ABC - 35 billion
Pixar - 10.7 billion
Marvel - 6 billion
Lucas - 5 billion

When Disney bought Fox, they bought them for a combination of stock and cash, as well as assuming their debts. It was largely a 50/50 cash stock deal.

It was essentially a 1.3 percent premium.

So imagine that was the same deal for T2.

Take2 is worth 22.83 billion. So 1.3 brings it essentially to 30 billion.

That's 15 billion dollars in cash and 15 billion dollars in stock. That's 15% of the company.

For a move that would absolutely transform Sony, that's definitely affordable.

 

[Dick Jones]

After Spider-Man, Insomniac could have held talks with Disney/Marvel and said, hey we can build games for you across your IP and on multiple platforms, and gotten a bigger deal than they got from Sony or they could have stayed independent and worked with Disney/Marvel as well.

They could have made Spider-Man 2 multiplatform or Wolverine.

Why did they sell to Sony?

Why did Zynga sell to T2?

They had a great working relationship with Sony and the MS trial (sunset) must have solidified the deal that better the devil you know.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

I disagree with most of what you have added that isn't established fact.

Sony will want the value of their purchases realised and will want that almost maximally. Outside of the usual streamlining that happens because of M&A, there is no reason to stop teams making PC games.

They are hiring specifically for PC strategy (which looks to be software portfolio, launcher, PSN integration, Subscriptions) so they'll be aggressive there.

I don't see mobile being hit either as that's also a focus. Sony, to my knowledge,.has three internal teams making mobile games at present. I suspect there are more and that xDev has more.

Sony are broadly smart with their IP. They understand value. Microsoft wrote off $700,000,000 in revenue by cancelling Starfield PS5. Sony know how lucrative Nintendo's ecosystem is. They want to do cross media. If you have PC, Xbox, Switch and PS audiences buying and liking their content then getting films and TV shows of greater quality and quantity will be far easier.

You're out of your depth dude.

First, I didn't say they would stop teams from making PC games. In fact I said the opposite. That being said, you overstate the importance of this PC strategy job rec, which is a drop in the bucket for what sony has already built out for PC strategy. It's a entry-mid level position.

It sounds like you have no idea what you're responding to. As I didn't say any of that.

 

[StealthGoblin]

You're out of your depth dude.

First, I didn't say they would stop teams from making PC games. In fact I said the opposite. That being said, you overstate the importance of this PC strategy job rec, which is a drop in the bucket for what sony has already built out for PC strategy. It's a entry-mid level position.

It sounds like you have no idea what you're responding to. As I didn't say any of that.

I didn't say you did..

I was outlining Sony's probable strategy for a large publisher acquisition.

I'm not out of my depth, you just didn't read and took everything I said as disagreeing with you.

Now, what out of what I said do you disagree with with regards to overall strategy?

The only thing I see Sony stamping down on is Gamepass.

 

[Ronin_7]

Congratulations Shareholders.

 

[LastBattle]

Unfortunately Sony woke a sleeping giant with their money hatting shinanigans. Bet they’re starting to regret their strategy of blocking content from other publishers.

 

[ChuckeRearmed]

You look at the size of Disney before they bought Pixar, LucasFilm/Star Wars, Marvel, and Fox and would not have guessed they would have made these purchases beforehand.

Disney was like 60b at the time of Pixar. For Lucasfilm I believe they were around 80b? But all those acquisitions (and Fox merger) were for something that contributed to the whole company and all their projects. Fox was essentially a horizontal merger.

All in all, the next moves of Sony might be (or might not be) interesting but I don't expect them to acquire anybody relatively important and relevant as Sony still is unable to come up with a proper strategy for the future in any of their businesses (aside probably anime). They might become more aggressive with third party deals, but it is not really relevant in the era where Microsoft owns ABK, and they won't be able to strike really big third party deals either. Plus Microsoft will launch a mobile store so I expect third parties to be interested in having their content there. Not to mention PC gaming growing.

Sony has to decide first the direction of the development. Depending on their direction, we will know what they might want to go after.

Right but big publishers like capcom, square enix, sega are well within range.

In range of what? Bungie acquisition in relative size was comparable to ABK acquisition for Microsoft. That's the difference. And it was just 3b. Sega, Square will cost at least 5-6b. Capcom is untochable and will cost around 10b+. Capcom would be be akin Microsoft spending 200b on a single acquisition. And that's while Sony's margins are around 10% (in comparison to MSFT's 30-40%).

 

[Edmund]

Really hope all those studios Embracer bought get bought by some quality third party publisher and not a platform owner. Would hate for any of those games to be part of the exclusivity nonsense.

You're saying this AFTER ATVI gets acquired by MS?

 

[ulantan]

Disney was like 60b at the time of Pixar. For Lucasfilm I believe they were around 80b? But all those acquisitions (and Fox merger) were for something that contributed to the whole company and all their projects. Fox was essentially a horizontal merger.

All in all, the next moves of Sony might be (or might not be) interesting but I don't expect them to acquire anybody relatively important and relevant as Sony still is unable to come up with a proper strategy for the future in any of their businesses (aside probably anime). They might become more aggressive with third party deals, but it is not really relevant in the era where Microsoft owns ABK, and they won't be able to strike really big third party deals either. Plus Microsoft will launch a mobile store so I expected third parties to be interested in having their content there. Not to mention PC gaming growing.

Sony has to decided first the direction of the development.


In range of what? Bungie acquisition in relative size was comparable to ABK acquisition for Microsoft. That's the different. And it was just 3b.

They bid up to 50 billion for fox these publishers cost around the 7 billion range like zenimax

 

[Topher]

You're saying this AFTER ATVI gets acquired by MS?

I’m not looking at this from a console war perspective.

 

[jroc74]

Unfortunately Sony woke a sleeping giant with their money hatting shinanigans. Bet they’re starting to regret their strategy of blocking content from other publishers.

Because clearly MS never did money hats before...ever.

 

[FIREKNIGHT2029]

Hate this acquisition spree. Can't believe some think a few gigantic entities owning everything wil be good for the industry.

Because people are idiots and don’t have a clue. They wanna cheer for big corporations out of stupid misplaced loyalty and fanboyism and they don’t care if it ruins the hobby the supposedly love. It’s all about cheering company executives and beating their chests for these console warriors and corporate cheerleaders. The ironic thing is that these same idiots will be the first ones to cry foul over the price increases to services and games that will inevitably come from this mass consolidation. Nothing good will come out from all of these buyouts.

 

[ChuckeRearmed]

If Sony was able to build a PC platform to rival Valve's with the help of T2 games, and able to build that transmedia with their entertainment companies, they'd surely rise in value. That's obviously a boon to anyone who gets Sony stock rather than just cash.

"If"

Not all companies have small debt. You literally just made that up. Some companies are in serious debt trouble, which is why so many gaming studios and publishers have folded in history.

WB has a huge debt

T2 was not similar sized to Zynga, again you're making things up out of whole cloth.

Zynga was around 9b at that time no? T2 was around 13-15b I presume at that time of purchase.

Sony was originally just an electronics company who spent big money on Columbia Pictures and Columbia Records.

Sony did that when they were one of the electronic giants with tons of money.

Take2 is worth 22.83 billion. So 1.3 brings it essentially to 30 billion.

I would like to hear the discussion between T2 stakeholders and Sony where they offered 1.3% premium and their stocks.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

"If"


WB has a huge debt


Zynga was around 9b at that time no? T2 was around 13-15b I presume at that time of purchase.


Sony did that when they were one of the electronic giants with tons of money.


I would like to hear the discussion between T2 stakeholders and Sony where they offered 1.3% premium and their stocks.

Everything is an IF when it comes to M&A... it's all about strategy and vision.

WB having a huge debt is part of my point, but the assertion that I responded to was that gaming companies are different, when that just isn't true.

You could have easily looked up T2's market cap before the purchase and you would have easily seen that you were wrong.

Sony has tons of revenue that can allow them to absorb tons of cost. In other words, they still have a lot of money.

A 130% is pretty standard I meant 1.3x not %.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

Disney was like 60b at the time of Pixar. For Lucasfilm I believe they were around 80b? But all those acquisitions (and Fox merger) were for something that contributed to the whole company and all their projects. Fox was essentially a horizontal merger.

All in all, the next moves of Sony might be (or might not be) interesting but I don't expect them to acquire anybody relatively important and relevant as Sony still is unable to come up with a proper strategy for the future in any of their businesses (aside probably anime). They might become more aggressive with third party deals, but it is not really relevant in the era where Microsoft owns ABK, and they won't be able to strike really big third party deals either. Plus Microsoft will launch a mobile store so I expect third parties to be interested in having their content there. Not to mention PC gaming growing.

Sony has to decide first the direction of the development. Depending on their direction, we will know what they might want to go after.


In range of what? Bungie acquisition in relative size was comparable to ABK acquisition for Microsoft. That's the difference. And it was just 3b. Sega, Square will cost at least 5-6b. Capcom is untochable and will cost around 10b+. Capcom would be be akin Microsoft spending 200b on a single acquisition. And that's while Sony's margins are around 10% (in comparison to MSFT's 30-40%).

They just did a 10 billion dollar deal for Zee in India... What are you on about? You're obviously not familiar with Sony's strategy, but that doesn't mean they don't have one.

Sony is trying to expand globally in markets like India and increase the size of their reach. That's why you see Sony working with game studios in Korean and China.

Did you see them spending 10 billion on Zee or was that a surprise to you? Obviously, you didn't see it happening because you still were unaware that it was happening.

But you don't know about how Sony was able to afford Culver Max. They changed the name of Sony Pictures India to Culver Max which will be a merged entity between Sony Pictures India and Zee. Sony will own a little over 50% of Culver Max. Sony is throwing in cash into the new entity, but it appears to be an all-equity deal.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

I didn't say you did..

I was outlining Sony's probable strategy for a large publisher acquisition.

I'm not out of my depth, you just didn't read and took everything I said as disagreeing with you.

Now, what out of what I said do you disagree with with regards to overall strategy?

The only thing I see Sony stamping down on is Gamepass.

"I disagree with most of what you have added that isn't established fact."

And then you proceed to state a bunch of things that had nothing to do with what I said as well as grossly misunderstanding a job rec.

 

[StealthGoblin]

Unfortunately Sony woke a sleeping giant with their money hatting shinanigans. Bet they’re starting to regret their strategy of blocking content from other publishers.

Sure, because Sony are the only company that do that.

It's not like Microsoft did that with Halo, or GTA content, or Tomb Raider, or Dead Rising, or Titanfall etc

Hell look at all the Gamepass game deals they've paid for that they've blocked from coming to PSN for periods of time. They cry about it in court but they've done it a lot.