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[Mibu no ookami]

At first glance, I thought they overpaid as well.

But you know what, sometimes you overpay for important things in life. Imagine something is the cornerstone of your strategy and there are no alternatives available. Would you overpay for it? Yeah, I think you would.

Bungie does the following for sony:

• Gives them a AAA FPS developer with the size to make AAAA games as well.
  • FPS is a genre Sony has struggled to get a foothold into
• Gives them a AAA FPS franchise
  • See above
• Symbolically hits Microsoft owning the original creators of Halo, their biggest franchise
  • For what its worth its a shot at Microsoft that Microsoft really can't respond in kind. What buy Clap Hanz or GenDesign? Doesn't quite slap...
• Gives them a leg into live service games
  • While not for all of us, is a big element in gaming right now
• Increases the knowledge and talent of SIE studios across the board (including Bungie)
  • Sony is going to cultivate this studio and have Bungie help cultivate its other studios. It's no surprise that nearly every major Sony studio has stepped up their game the last generation. The tech and knowledge sharing is making a difference.

Buying Respawn doesn't give you any of that. And also they're not available, so it's not even an option if you wanted it as an alternative, which drives up the price for Bungie.

 

[OmegaSupreme]

There's only one company this past few years who's been desperate. You know, the one who's spent 80 billion. The one who was dominated the entire last generation.

 

[Abriael_GN]

abrabriel how is possible that you are so chained to the industry and still after 15 years that I read you are so Sony partisan? cmon man

Over 20. Also, this has nothing to do with being "Sony Partisan" (My main platform of choice is PC, for the record, and all consoles are left far behind in my preference, with PS and Xbox being pretty much equivalent and Nintendo even further behind) .

This has to do with a take that's massively ignorant for anyone who has the slightest affinity with the gaming industry and economy in general.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

So let me get this straight.

Buying over $80B worth of studios and the number 1 third party in the world ISN'T an act of desperation.

But buying a 3.6B single studio and IP IS an act of desperation? Huh?

Michael Pachter continues to be absolutely clueless in all his industry takes. Can't believe he's actually an industry analyst. Actually, I do. Their analysis isn't worth shit.

 

[El Pistolero]

Even our infamous genius trolls here chose -wisely- to avoid such a retarded comment...

 

[Hendrick's]

They definitely overpaid and the timing is a strange coincidence.

Doesn't matter anyways.

It's not a coincidence. It's clear Sony panicked and paid more than anyone else was going to. And they did it with a prenup.

 

[Jaybe]

Edit, never mind he doesn’t work for NPD

 

[Hendrick's]

NPD should fire his ass. Because people follow his company’s data updates, it’s gone to his head as if people care for his take. I work in the data biz and if I ever publicly said a cooperating client (one that shares the data we use) was acting in desperation, I’d be canned so damn quick.

He doesn't work for corporations.

 

[Yoboman]

It's not a coincidence. It's clear Sony panicked and paid more than anyone else was going to. And they did it with a prenup.

Every acquisition is paying more than anyone else will. That's what an acquisition is

You think these devs and publishers are selling to the lowest bidder?

 

[StreetsofBeige]

I dont think it was desperation to counter MS.

I think Sony just needed to buy games, franchises or companies that have GAAS as a core model of their games and it so happens it's a Bungie shooter. And since Bungie is always willing to play mercenary to buy outs and partnerships, Sony knows that third party company is always willing to listen to offers.

Their focus only on Destiny is a good thing or bad thing kind of view. It's good that it streamlines everything into Destiny. But it's bad as they are an all eggs in one basket kind of company.

Sony's focus on GAAS is big now as they got many MP games in the works and they finalized buying out the maker of that Fate Grand Order game so Sony has full control now. Giant GAAS game.

 

[Jaybe]

He doesn't work for corporations.

Thanks, for some reason I thought he worked at NPD or used to.

 

[Yoboman]

Do you think any gaming company has ever actually hired him for his analysis?

 

[Edgelord79]

Every acquisition is paying more than anyone else will. That's what an acquisition is

You think these devs and publishers are selling to the lowest bidder?

Especially now. Someone comes knocking, raise the price.

 

[lh032]

wait...if im not mistaken, I think I seen it somewhere that, this Sony-Bungie deal was already in negotiation before covid lockdown....

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Do you think any gaming company has ever actually hired him for his analysis?

No Wall Street analyst knows anything. All they do is take whatever guidance is given and tweak it a bit. That's why smaller companies that don't give guidance or are followed much can have the handful of analysts making wild estimates that are all over the place. One guy is way high, one guy is way low like they are playing darts. But then a big company will have a tons of analysts within a dime of each other.

Just to show their projections are way off, the vast majority of big companies have earnings that beat the analysts' street consensus number.

 

[Warnen]

Desperate to own the best game of all time? Worth every penny.

 

[treemk]

He's gotta know these deals don't happen as a kneejerk reaction to something another corp did, and certainly not in that time frame. I honestly have a hard time believing he even believes this, it seems like disingenuous clickbait catered to console warriors. Sony seems to have targeted this specifically to fill some gaps where they are lacking, GAAS, FPS, multiplayer. Bungie having already proved themselves with Halo, has been through highs and lows with the Destiny IP keeping it successful. Comparing that to pre-Apex Respawn is laughable.

 

[Chris_Rivera]

Just ignore him.

 

[Mabdia]

Well... uh... yeah!

Does Bungie has any IP that is worth $3Bi?

 

[ReBurn]

Well... uh... yeah!

Does Bungie has any IP that is worth $3Bi?

They probably have patents and technology that Sony wants to deliver their 10 online service games they announced. Their value isn't in the games they make as much as it is about how they make them.

 

[yurinka]

What a clown. Sony will recoup tthis money before the end of this generation:
-Destiny 2 makes money and will continue getting updates
-They plan to release AT LEAST one (so they have more that may be ready by then) new IP before 2025, and they made the Halo and Destiny IP, so these new IPs have potential to be super huge
-They have 900 workers and growing, so have a big potential to keep releasing many games
-They're working on movies and tv shows using Bungie IPs like Destiny
-They have top tier expertise, knowledge, experience, data, tools and tech that will help improve many non-Bungie Sony games in the key GaaS, MP and FPS areas, where Sony 1st/2nd party was weak and now will have key actors in this area improving their catalog
-They will also will help, support and will learn stuff from the SIE and PS Studio team so their games will improve as a result of it
-Being acquired they are secured to continue on Sony consoles and subs

 

[Y0ssarian]

https://www.pushsquare.com/news/202...bungie-says-outspoken-analyst-michael-pachter

"Just to compare and contrast, EA bought Respawn about three or four years ago for $700 million with 400 developers. And those guys generate $700 million a year in revenue. Bungie does about $200 million in revenue. So I think Sony vastly overpaid."

"I think this was a statement that [Sony's] not going to let Microsoft get ahead of [it], so [it'll] just buy something out of desperation," Pachter adds, in rather damning fashion. "It's not really a deal that makes a whole lot of sense to me," he concluded.

 

[ChiefDada]

Sony definitely overpaid. It will be interesting to see what the next big acquisition looks like. Do you need to overpay now to win?

How did you come to this conclusion? What qualitative and/or quantitative factors suggests that they overpaid?

And I read that bungie went to Microsoft to discuss an acquisition but bungie's price was too high for ms

What price are we talking about? Monetary wise, I don't think so. Knowing what we now know about the Sony/Bungie deal, I'd be willing to bet a pretty penny that the high level of independence and autonomy Bungie was seeking was too much for Microsoft.

 

[Amiga]

EA softened down Respawn by burying Titanfall 2 in a bad release. what was their revenue at the time of purchase?

He's hoodwinking us.

that's the actual job of most public market "analysts". the real info if for his clients.

Maybe it was an overpay.

Paying premium over stock price in a buyout is the norm. unless the owners are parachuting out of a disaster.

 

[GhostOfTsu]

That's okay, my dude. I just thought it was weird because yeah, I have talked about Psygnosis a lot, but never to say them getting bought by Sony killed Sega in the '90s. I wouldn't be surprised if there are people who think that, though.

Also yeah that particular post probably has data wrong. Psygnosis was a publisher, but I strongly doubt they had anything near 40% of the gaming market prior to Sony buying them. It'd of been way smaller, they didn't publish a ton of games anyhow, at least to my knowledge. Acclaim, Ocean etc. were much bigger publishers at the time. Even Sega published a ridiculous 150 games in 1995 (between consoles, PC, and arcade).

Psygnosis were one of the smaller publisher outfits at the time, but they showed a lot of promise. That's why they got purchased

I was reading Era and as you can see below, the narrative that Sony bought a huge publisher in the 90s is still getting spread by Xbox fans as if it was fact (that poster is one of the biggest fanboy on Era).

Psygnosis was a very small publisher without any big IPs. Wipeout was the only one that survive for awhile. The market was so small anyway, it is nothing compared with Bethesda/Activision. It was before the PS1, while MS bought 2 pubs in their 4th generation with tons of million-selling IPs. It is nothing alike.

Post in thread 'Jim Ryan says you should "expect more acquisitions" from PlayStation' https://www.resetera.com/threads/ji...sitions-from-playstation.546488/post-81357245

 

[Fredrik]

Also yeah that particular post probably has data wrong. Psygnosis was a publisher, but I strongly doubt they had anything near 40% of the gaming market prior to Sony buying them. It'd of been way smaller, they didn't publish a ton of games anyhow, at least to my knowledge.

I think the post said they had 40% of the UK market. I have no idea if that’s true but they were absolutely huge on the Amiga. Question is, how big were they after the Commodore days?

 

[Elios83]

Predictably it seems like Nintendo won't join the consolidation race easily.
They don't have the mentality to just acquire companies to become bigger.

In a side news the Switch hardware sales forecast was cut again for the second time this year down to 23m because of chip shortages.

 

[Hitchyhero]

Nintendo has never needed to rely on third party anyway. Especially outside japan

 

[T-Cake]

Good. Last thing I'd want is Nintendo snapping something up and only having it on Switch. Hell will freeze over before I buy any of their products. (That's my controversial gaming opinion.)

 

[onesvenus]

Can anybody with access to the article post what are the new forecasted sales?

 

[Elios83]

Can anybody with access to the article post what are the new forecasted sales?

23m

Free article here:

Nintendo raises profit forecast but cuts Switch sales outlook

Nintendo raised its full-year profit forecast Thursday, citing strong performances by recent game releases, but it again cut its sales target for the Switch over global supply chain problems. The Japanese giant posted its highest-ever annual profit in 2020-21, buoyed by a surge in gaming as the...

www.arabnews.com

"In regard to business risk, the extended impact of both Covid-19 and the global semiconductor shortage creates a state of continued uncertainty, with the possibility of future impact on production and shipping," Nintendo said in its earnings release.

"While these and other unforeseen risks exist, we continue to take all necessary measures in conducting business."

 

[Bonfires Down]

I think they should consider buying Square. That seems like the best fit if they were to buy anyone. Not that I would want them to. But it would be funny to see the FFVII sequels downgraded from the first.

 

[TGO]

For once a I agree with Nintendo.

 

[I Love Rock 'n' Roll]

Shure! WiiU says hi!

Edit: sure!

 

[Georges Chiellins]

Nintendo am apartheid reich confirmed.

 

[Dick Jones]

I would love to see Ubisoft get bought by Nintendo. Imagine the Assassin's Creed games staying at 60 dollarydoos with no sales. Who's buying Unity for that amount?

Seriously with the cash that Nintendo are raking in, I find it so weird they don't have more internal studios created for each franchise so they can concentrate on that IP. Too many classic Nintendo IPs lay dormant with their current setup.

 

[Mozza]

Shure! WiiU says hi!

Your comment has very little nuance or indeed context.

You have to look at the reasons the Wii U failed, and you have to remember that Nintendo was dipping it's toes into a whole new market with the Wii and DS, and both techs were in their infancy for consumer products, hence the huge success of the Wii and DS generation (Basically the very definition of lightning in a bottle), by the time the Wii and 3DS were releasing Nintendo had totally underestimated both the fickle nature of their casual audience and the fact cheaper tablet devices and smartphones were much more common and cheap to buy. So basically most of the Wii and DS's audiences were simply not there anymore.

With the Switch it looks like Nintendo have learned a valuable lesson from all this, and going forward the Switch brand is in much better shape than the Wii was, but as with all of these things only time will tell.

 

[Mozza]

I mean why would Nintendo want to spend billions on a developer, to only sell niche numbers of games from that said developer on their console, makes no sense whatsoever.

 

[Fake]

Can't deny that.

 

[Haggard]

It's not a coincidence. It's clear Sony panicked and paid more than anyone else was going to. And they did it with a prenup.

oh come on you drama queen.
there`s barely been a month between those acquisitions and working out the contract specifics for a deal like this alone takes several.....

 

[Bernd Lauert]

Based and blue ocean first party-pilled.

 

[Cutty Flam]

These guys created Halo…

The video game industry is filled with the most useless media and takes I swear. Watch, their next IP is going to be better than Halo: Infinite. Guaranteed. Mark my words boys. And gift me eight years of NeoGAF gold a piece when this prediction becomes reality

Don’t ever doubt the creators of Halo you swine!!!!!!!

 

[I Love Rock 'n' Roll]

Your comment has very little nuance or indeed context.

You have to look at the reasons the Wii U failed, and you have to remember that Nintendo was dipping it's toes into a whole new market with the Wii and DS, and both techs were in their infancy for consumer products, hence the huge success of the Wii and DS generation (Basically the very definition of lightning in a bottle), by the time the Wii and 3DS were releasing Nintendo had totally underestimated both the fickle nature of their casual audience and the fact cheaper tablet devices and smartphones were much more common and cheap to buy. So basically most of the Wii and DS's audiences were simply not there anymore.

With the Switch it looks like Nintendo have learned a valuable lesson from all this, and going forward the Switch brand is in much better shape than the Wii was, but as with all of these things only time will tell.

I´m still waiting for Miayamto 3 games made with the tab in mind. Even executives were not sold on WiiU and wanted a direct sequel to the Wii. Talking about dna is something that makes me perplexed.

Wii and DS light success really took Nintendo by surprise. It was mostly impossible to find a Wii for the 1st year, even UK had to rise its price. Those were desperate moves after the N64 and GC.

 

[DavJay]

Imagine being a developer locked into making games with weak outdated hardware.

 

[Mozza]

I´m still waiting for Miayamto 3 games made with the tab in mind. Even executives were not sold on WiiU and wanted a direct sequel to the Wii. Talking about dna is something that makes me perplexed.

Wii and DS light success really took Nintendo by surprise. It was mostly impossible to find a Wii for the 1st year, even UK had to rise its price. Those were desperate moves after the N64 and GC.

Totally agree, Nintendo's hand was forced into a totally unknown and new direction after the GameCube, and Nintendo could tap into a new far more casual audience, issue was trying to predict if a huge majority of this would still be there for the next generation, the 3DS was pretty much guaranteed because Pokemon always pushes handheld type devices, but the Wii U was left stranded, and on it's way out very shortly after launch, shame as I loved the console to bits.

 

[ZehDon]

Say what you will about Nintendo, but they've proven for the past four decades and change that they can deliver industry leading game and hardware design again, and again, and again. After the WiiU, I said the Switch would fail because it was overpriced. Well, I was clearly wrong. So while their track record isn't 100%, but when they hit, they hit big. I'd say it's a pretty fair statement at this point in the game that Nintendo knows what it's doing... most of the time.

 

[Kuranghi]

Translation: You can work with us but you have you let us jazz up you first. Pretty rude for such a wholesome company.

 

[Bernd Lauert]

Imagine being a developer locked into making games with weak outdated hardware.

 

[Bo_Hazem]

They are self reliant, so why bother?

 

[Mozza]

Imagine being a developer locked into making games with weak outdated hardware.

Not so sure why this upsets or surprised people anymore, it's 2022 and Nintendo have not been about console power since the GameCube, and surely the PS5 and Series X are more than enough to satisfy all your graphical frame rate desires, I have no issue playing on my Series X, then using the Switch in handheld mode while the wife is hogging the T.V, but enjoy it just as much docked.