Topher
Gold Member
How is it out of their depth if they have already allocated the funds?
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Sony has $10 billion left to spend on acquisitions through 2023
- Thread starter Lunatic_Gamer
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How is it out of their depth if they have already allocated the funds?
Mozza
Member
I mean compared to what Microsoft have to spend.
Bernd Lauert
Banned
Spending all of their funds on one game publisher would be pretty bold. We're talking about the entirety of Sony here, not just Playstation.
Topher
Gold Member
Sure, but the rest of the company isn't embroiled in a consolidation war like the gaming sector is. I think some boldness isn't unwarranted. But realistically, I agree with you since Sony has traditionally been very conservative in this regard. A single massive purchase isn't their way.
Thirty7ven
Banned
Why is there always someone remembering everybody that MS has more money? How uninteresting a person can you be? Is anybody saying Sony has as much money as MS?
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Lognor
Banned
Never mindSo the Japanese government would stop a Japanese company from acquiring another Japanese company? And won't stop an American company to buy the same Japanese company?
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John Wick
Member
There's people on here who think MS is their uncle. They especially get excited when the financials are in and start boasting about how many Bethesda's worth profit they made. It's the only sad fanboys I've heard do this. I rarely hear Apple, Google fanboys say anything remotely similar even though Apple dwarf MS in Cash in Hand.
Bernd Lauert
Banned
Sir, I'm a shareholder. MSFT is like 20% of my portfolio.
digoutyoursoul
Member
Konami and awaken a lot of those dormant IPs.
Get Pro Evolution Soccer reborn instead of this E-Football vomit. Castlevania, Contra, Silent Hill etc.
Get Pro Evolution Soccer reborn instead of this E-Football vomit. Castlevania, Contra, Silent Hill etc.
Kojima doesn't make any sense.
The team has no IPs and no significant know-how in any particular genre Sony wants to expand to. Actually Sony needed to help him a LOT with Decima Engine and Guerrilla to even make Death Stranding.
With Kojima Productions you're just buying a famed director who is now close to 60 and could be a couple of big games away from retirement.
Awful investement. Kojima is basically the perfect single-game contract developer.
With From Software you need to deal with Kadokawa and their extra baggage as you say.
CDPR might make sense to cover the WRPG genre but the company ruined their reputation both with the general public and with Sony itself with Cyberpunk.
Also Sony could make more WRPGs if they wanted to, see Horizon.
The only targets that make sense for them are Capcom, Square and Ubisoft.
Capcom has a huge amount of beloved IPs and a huge expertise in fighting games that also fits with their e-sports ambitions with EVO.
Square has a huge amount of beloved IPs which are closely associated to Playstation, they're a key publisher to even think to stand chance to be successful in Japan, FFXIV is one of the biggest and most successful live service on the market today and this is a key area Sony is interested in.
Ubisoft is basically the master of GaaS and has HUGE teams across the world. The quality of their games has become basic copy and paste but they also have many beloved IPs. The Guillemot family might be an obstacle given how strongly they refused the Vivendi takeover (although that was hostile so it would be a totally different situation with Sony).
We'll see what happens but this year will be fun, I definetly expect Sony to grab a publisher, it's the best time to do it, the more consolidation continues the more potential targets will become expensive and more companies will try to grab them. I think talks with different companies might be already happening as we speak. Just like no one knew about the talks with Bungie.
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RevGaming
Member
How about sony gets nothing and still they split off.
xHunter
Member
Its also always the same guys that get banned on a monthly basis.
John Wick
Member
So your shares are worth tens of millions? Otherwise who gives a damn
John Wick
Member
Stop this nonsense. Sony are paupers they cannot afford to spend more than 3-4 billion. How dare you explain how it's possible for Sony to even buy a 40billion company. It's all cash in hand
John Wick
Member
Oh it will definitely. We just need Apple, Amazon and a few others to gobble up a publisher or two.
John Wick
Member
Yep those three are the best ones. Ubisoft could be persuaded to sell just like Bungie. Vivendi went about their business like the scumbags they are.
Mozza
Member
I know, if the roles were reversed, not one Sony fan would ever mention it.
Bernd Lauert
Banned
No, but (to me) they're worth a considerable amount of money so I give a damn.
Ass of Can Whooping
Member
Topher
Gold Member
James Sawyer Ford
Member
Kojima makes perfect sense
In this industry, long term, talent >>>> IP
The fact that they have no IP makes the purchase much cheaper. The studio isn’t just about Kojima, it’s the entire team behind him. All the big talent at Konami moved over.
They made a huge AAA game in a few years with a brand new studio, that’s very impressive.
Sony needs more AAA Japanese talent, and this one would be cheap. Easy acquisition.
yurinka
Member
I'm pretty sure that in during this year SIE will spend between $4B and $9B in:
- At least 1 well known Japanese publisher with many current and legacy known IPs (to secure them for PS & Spartacus) that they will also use in movies, tv and anime, fields where they may already be. Someone who had many previous PS exclusives in the past and particularly successful in Asia not only in console or PC, but specifically on mobile. Like Bungie they would continue as independent multiplatform publisher inside SIE, not integrated into PS Studios. Main candidates: Capcom, Square Enix, Sega Sammy, Bandai Namco, Kadokawa.
- At least 1 single player focused AAA studio focused on narrative and high end visuals that would be integrated inside PS Studios to make exclusive games after they release some multiplatform game they may release soonish. Main candidates: CD Project, Remedy, Quantic Dream, Rocksteady, Kojipro, Crytek, Supermassive Games
- At least 1 smaller scale multiplayer game studio who previously worked on successful multiplayer exclusive games for them, that would be integrated into PS Studios for exclusive stuff. Main candidates: Arrowhead, ARC System Works, Dimps
- At least 1 smaller scale VR studio who previously worked on some successful VR project for them, would be interated into PS Studios for exclusive stuff. Main candidates: Camouflaj, Impulse Gear, Tangent Games, Polyarc, Survios, Supermassive Games
- At least 1 smaller scale support team for PS Studios for old PC ports/remasters, outsourcing art or something like that. Main candidates: Jetpack Interactive, Iron Galaxy, any of the many outsourcing art studios they frequently use
- At least 1 big mobile gaming publisher that already is big and can help them cover Asia or to bring their main Sony IPs ot mobile gaming. Main candidates: Scopely, Nexon, Mixi, GungHo, CyberAgent, DeNa, IGG
Sony Corporation has a remaining assigned budget for acquisitions of $10B to spend on agreeing acquisitions from today until March 2024. They want to spend it mostly on gaming and IP/content for their services and stores (so PSN/PS+/PS Now and not only gaming, also movie/tv/anime/music).
This kind of budgets typically are reviewed at the end of each fiscal year, so they could increase it next month or in a year from now before they spend it. And who knows, maybe if desired they can spend more than the initially budgeted.
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RevGaming
Member
Since Jim said expect more acquisitions and not just one. They spent $7.5 and not everything has been revealed from that so:
ArcSystems (EVO and Sony doesn't have a fighter)
Fromsoftware (Not Kadokawa, just FS)
Kojima (Buy Silent Hill IP since he wants to make horror games)
Deviation Games (MP Shooter)
Haven Studios (MP)
Firewalk Studios (MP Shooter)
Sumo Digital (They could keep making kid friendly games)
Techland (They needed two publishers for DL2 and the game ended up being buggy and taking 7 years)
Ember labs
There's also:
Crytek, IOI, Remedy
With the $10B left, they'll go for Ubisoft, Square or Capcom (making the most sense) if it happens. If not, those $10B will be for their other divisions. Sony won't go over 2 publishers when the gen is done is another prediction.
Anyways that's my final prediction.
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Bruno_Arrais85
Member
sure, you only need to purchase Kodokawa which is a mega expensive company (btw, sony already has part of kodokawa)
John Wick
Member
Not really. They could negotiate to buy FromSoft from them depending on what deal or sweetener they offer.
Crytek interests me because they have a lot of expertise in FPS, multiplayer, live games, graphics and graphics engines etc.
DForce
NaughtyDog Defense Force
God, a lot of you guys just argue based on emotions. It's about anti-trust
Listen to the video.
In his opinion, the deal will go through, but it's not guaranteed to happen. Going after a major publisher within the next year would make things harder. He's familiar with the law, so I wouldn't put much stock into your words at all. No reason to even debate this. It's obvious that it would create more problems.
assurdum
Banned
Yes is it. Don't kid yourself. They have famous IP but it's not a big as you think. My apologies for the stupid Bungie comparison but Capcom compared to Bethesda is not that big.
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yurinka
Member
MS doesn't have any monoply and isn't even the market leader on gaming, console gaming, pc gaming, mobile gaming, vr gaming, game subscriptions and super likely cloud gaming (if they would have better numbers than PS Now they would have bragged about it but never mentioned not even cloud gaming, but at least GPU revenue or subs).
In many of these cases even after acquisition they aren't even 2nd on these markets. There are zero monopoly or 'semi monopoly' concerns, MS is super far from this.
Capcom has more valuable IPs (not only in gaming, also in movies/tv shows/anime), had more hits this generation instead of over a decade ago, a bigger amount of older generations games for Spartacus, has almost 10X more workers than Bethesda, covers more game genres, releases way more games per year/generation, is bigger in Asia (biggest and fastest growing gaming region) and mobile (biggest and fastest growing gaming market). Their financials are great and they are growing.
Not sure if $10B, but it should be valued higher than Zenimax, which maybe was a bit overpriced.
Capcom makes around $800-$900M/year revenue and growing, with a positive and growing operating income, so at least a very optimistic and good priced $5-6B only for that, add on top some extra for the IPs and the potential growth and side sinergies (movies, tv, anime, eSports, IPs for mobile...) they could have if joining Sony, and some overpaid due to the current consolidation environment.
A $7-9B acquisition cost would be pretty possible and realistic in the current market conditions, and Sony would recoup it in aprox. 5-7 years, the equivalent period of a console generation.
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Zeroing
Banned
You talking about ignoring stuff from your favorite brand and that’s what you also do.
Like I said before many times here, corporations aren’t our friends.
That good/underdog MS narrative needs to end
RevGaming
Member
Lol. Bethesda was thinking of selling studios.
Besides BGS and iD, the others weren't sustainable.
Have you seen the leak of upcoming Capcom games?
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yurinka
Member
We know that they are working on multiple acquisitions, but this doesn't mean that they would be ready to be announced this year, or that they will decide to close all of them.
As an example, maybe with Deviation, Haven, Firewalk or Ember Labs they may have signed a deal that depending on the performance of their next game, they would buy them or not.
Ubisoft doesn't want and doesn't need to sell. Sumo Digital is owned by Tencent, who I'd bet doesn't sell stuff.
I see ARC System Works, Kojipro, Kadokawa or From, Crytek or Remedy, Square or Capcom likely if they want to sell.
I also think Crytek, Techland, IOI or Remedy maybe would prefer or fit better MS. I also think MS could be more interested, I only see Sony being interested on Remedy and maybe Crytek IP if very cheap (they are in the shit right now, something MS doesn't care about).
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Umbasaborne
Banned
The flood gates are open now. I think its less that we want to play the games, and more that we are excited to see a whole slew of people get locked out of those games
The only big irreplaceable talent there is Kojima.
You can't justify an acquisition for the fame of a director who is close to retirement age.
Just to do a comparison with movies it is like buying Studio Ghibli without Hayao Miyazaki. It's just not the same.
Death Stranding was basically co-developed by Guerrilla. Kojima couldn't do it without Sony and Guerrilla giving him the engine and all the technical support.
Kojima created the concept and he ended up with something really divisive.
If Sony was interested given how they bought Bluepoint and all the smaller studios last year, this deal would have been already done.
Square and Capcom are the targets that make the most sense for them.
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RevGaming
Member
Didn't know about Sumo.
I guess because of vivendi, Ubisoft wouldn't want to, but they were doing better back then. Idk if things have changed. Anyways it wouldn't do anything for me. I play siege but that game will remind multiplat. Their recent games haven't attracted me.
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James Sawyer Ford
Member
This is all completely false.
He’s one guy amongst a large team. You are basically hand waiving hundreds of people.
Kojima was responsible for mentoring and recruiting them, but they are not some easily replaceable resource
Square and Capcom are orders of magnitude more costly, less likely to be acquired, and less likely to need publisher support from Sony
Kojima is a slam dunk acquisition. You do it. Square/Capcom only if at risk of being acquired
We'll agree to disagree.
I love Kojima games but I try to see things objectively at a financial level and it doesn't make sense to me for the reasons above.
Kojima would have been already grabbed if Sony was interested because it perfectly fitted with the kind of acquisitions that Sony has been doing last year. Instead it's likely that he's doing multiple projects and something with MS as well according to rumors. If Sony was interested these rumors wouldn't even exist.
Ass of Can Whooping
Member
Not big how?
They're larger in terms of head count and they bring in more revenue than Bethesda
Where exactly are they smaller?
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yurinka
Member
It wasn't because of Vivendi. It's because Ubisoft (I did work there during the Vivendi issue) wants to remain independent and ruled by the Guillemot brothers, who have been in charge of it during the 36 years of Ubi's history.
When Vivendi tried to buy Ubisoft there was a huge push from the Guillemot brothers, stakeholders and many thousands of Ubisoft workers to stop the acquisition and to keep the Guillemots in charge of the company. Stakeholders and workers were happy with how the Guillemots ruled the company, and how the company was and didn't want to change it to something that could be potentially worse (something for sure if it was Vivendi looking at what they did with Activision) or having to adapt to other company or had to do stuff for other company.
All Ubisoft workers receive -as part of many bonuses and perks for working there- thousands of dollars of stocks of Ubi periodically, and if you remain there for a few years Ubi thems back to the worker to a higher price of the market one. Workers there have good freedom to do whatever they consider in the area they are in charge of, plus freedom to pitch whatever they wanted (the games where I did work were pitched by our own team), are in frequent contact with people in charge of this in the other teams of the company to learn from them, and a good amount of internal transparency and approachability to learn from the other teams or to debate about everything.
With over 20000 employees (plus thousands more who did work there during these 36 years), statistically maybe like in any other company some of these reported harassment & other horror stories may be true (+ some more that may not have been reported), but 99.9% of the people are happy working there and don't want to get acquired by some potentially evil corporation who may force them do some random or shitty stuff.
Their games may not be perfect or top tier and to have many issues (they are made by inperfect humans after all), but they do what they can and are happy as they are, don't want and don't need to sell.
Any publisher would have acquire Kojipro if he wants to sell. Or when they left Konami, any big publisher (I know it was the case of at least two of them) would have hired them with a blank check and full creative freedom.
Kojima makes games that achieve great reviews and sales, in terms of PR and marketing is some of the most prestigious folks in the industry, and Death Stranding even if as AAA game budget/manpower is relatively small and a super weird and risky project it's on track to become the best selling Kojima game ever and got very good reviews.
If Kojipro is independent is because they (mostly Kojima) wants so. But if he ever sells, I'm pretty sure he will sell to Sony. Kojima is very happy with Sony and Sony is very happy with Kojima, them working together again with the Director's Cut (and Reedus leaking that they will make a sequel) proves it. Kojima also wants to make something in the movies/tv show/anime area, and Sony wants to use PS IPs on movies/tv show/anime area. Sony gives them full creative freedom to do any bizarre weird think they want and all the money they want, and now is ok with PC ports (and even allowed him to make the PC port when they didn't). They have zero reasons to go with MS to make a game or to sell them the studio.
The rumored project with MS was a lie officially debunked.
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Capcom is overall a better and more effective acquisition than Bethesda.
They have tons of IPs including many classics that could be revived and many of them are highly successful. Resident Evil, Monster Hunter, Devil May Cry, Street Fighter. They are all major series.
Bethesda has lots of talented people but the Arkane and Tango games are always commercial bombas, iD is stucked with its usual Doom/Quake fanbase since the 90s and the big RPGs have impossibly long development cycles, they had huge misssteps like FO76 and the typical polish level they deliver at launch is not that distant from Cyberpunk...I still remember the Skyrim PS3 version with the memory leak when save games became too big..
RevGaming
Member
Wow. Thanks for the info and the insight. Could that change, tho?
What's with the GaaS direction tho? After poorly received Extraction and Far Cry 6, the next farcry and AC being GaaS, Hyperscape shutdown, the Tom Clancy free to play nobody wants, guessing Rider Republic's didn't do that good, Beyond and Evil 2 and Skull and Bones having development problems. You sure they're doing ok there?
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