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Ampere Analyst expects Sony to react to Xbox’s Activision deal with a major acquisition of its own

Thirty7ven

Banned
Meta tried to outbid Microsoft for ABK, but were out of their league.

Tried to outbid? That’s how you tell the story? MS was the only one bidding. Kotick was the one who sought other buyers, Meta was one of them, and they declined to match MS’s offer they didn’t try to outbid. Trying to outbid means there was a bidding contest, and there wasn’t any. MS was the first and only offer.

Why some of you create fan fiction I don’t know.
 
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DryvBy

Member
Sony will respond with the Spider-Man 2 release that will sell 25+ million copies and take PS5 console sales and revenue to new heights, and let's be honest, considering how things are going, even that would be more than enough.

Seriously. Sony makes games whereas Xbox under Dr. Phil gets games that were already previously being made and then nothing until the next fanboy screams something something competition something.

Wake me up when MS matches Nintendo and Sony with the 90+ club consistently. Their top big "game over for Sony" fanboy games couldn't even get there with sites like XboxEra and SonySucks giving them perfect scores.

They don't care so much they pay to keep games of the console/sub

So does Microsoft. In fact, you knuckleheads just cheered on two billions of dollars worth of acquisitions for that specific reason. Cry us all another hypocritical river there.
 
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Heisenberg007

Gold Journalism
Seriously. Sony makes games whereas Xbox under Dr. Phil gets games that were already previously being made and then nothing until the next fanboy screams something something competition something.

Wake me up when MS matches Nintendo and Sony with the 90+ club consistently. Their top big "game over for Sony" fanboy games couldn't even get there with sites like XboxEra and SonySucks giving them perfect scores.
Their output is already strong enough. So far their exclusive games are better than MS, no matter what studios Microsoft bought.
Exactly. And look at what happened in the NPD numbers for September.

Microsoft bought a publisher for $7.5 billion. The biggest game by that publisher, Starfield, was released as an Xbox console exclusive because Phil canceled the PS5 version.

PS5 still was the #1 console in the US, which is Xbox's strongest market. On top of that, subscription growth was also -2%. There is no impact of these big acquisitions: not on console sales, not on subscription growth, not displacing competitor's market share.

Sony doesn't really need to onboard any risk and acquire any big publishers for as long as they continue releasing top-notch PlayStation Studios titles.
 
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Heisenberg007

Gold Journalism
They better, cause I suspect a drought coming after sm2, besides wolverine which is looking like 25, what is their slate looking like?
What drought?
  • Helldivers 2 (Feb 2023)
  • Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth (Feb 2023
  • Granblue Fantasy Relink (Feb 2023)
Then 2024 will also have:
  • Rise of the Ronin
  • Death Stranding 2
  • Wolverine (maybe)
  • Stellar Blade
  • Lost Souls Aside
  • Convallaria
Other unannounced titles like Twisted Metal and Horizon Multiplayer are also likely to launch in 2024. That's like at least 6 confirmed PlayStation Studios titles that will be launching in 2024.

On the other hand, there is 0 Xbox game currently scheduled with a release date now that Forza is released. Nobody knows what the next Xbox game is and when it's releasing.
 

simdog461

Member
What drought?
  • Helldivers 2 (Feb 2023)
  • Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth (Feb 2023
  • Granblue Fantasy Relink (Feb 2023)
Then 2024 will also have:
  • Rise of the Ronin
  • Death Stranding 2
  • Wolverine (maybe)
  • Stellar Blade
  • Lost Souls Aside
  • Convallaria
Other unannounced titles like Twisted Metal and Horizon Multiplayer are also likely to launch in 2024. That's like at least 6 confirmed PlayStation Studios titles that will be launching in 2024.

On the other hand, there is 0 Xbox game currently scheduled with a release date now that Forza is released. Nobody knows what the next Xbox game is and when it's releasing.
I suppose MW3 is now an xbox game though. But other than that, you're right.
 

BootsLoader

Banned
Exactly. And look at what happened in the NPD numbers for September.

Microsoft bought a publisher for $7.5 billion. The biggest game by that publisher, Starfield, was released as an Xbox console exclusive because Phil canceled the PS5 version.

PS5 still was the #1 console in the US, which is Xbox's strongest market. On top of that, subscription growth was also -2%. There is no impact on these big acquisitions: not on console sales, not on subscription growth, not displacing competitor's market share.

Sony doesn't really need to onboard any risk and acquire any big publishers for as long as they continue releasing top-notch PlayStation Studios titles.
Off topic: I like when Eva Elfie agrees with me. 😜
 
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Zathalus

Member
Exactly. And look at what happened in the NPD numbers for September.

Microsoft bought a publisher for $7.5 billion. The biggest game by that publisher, Starfield, was released as an Xbox console exclusive because Phil canceled the PS5 version.

PS5 still was the #1 console in the US, which is Xbox's strongest market. On top of that, subscription growth was also -2%. There is no impact on these big acquisitions: not on console sales, not on subscription growth, not displacing competitor's market share.

Sony doesn't really need to onboard any risk and acquire any big publishers for as long as they continue releasing top-notch PlayStation Studios titles.
- It was the best September for Xbox since 2014 for dollar sales and 2016 for units sold.
- Xbox got a large bump since the previous month.
- Starfield got to the number one spot. No other Bethesda game has managed to do this, not even Skyrim.
- Gamepass saw a bump in subscribers, the loss was due to other sub services falling such as PS+.

It's not the failure you are trying to paint it as.
 

Heisenberg007

Gold Journalism
- It was the best September for Xbox since 2014 for dollar sales and 2016 for units sold.
- Xbox got a large bump since the previous month.
- Starfield got to the number one spot. No other Bethesda game has managed to do this, not even Skyrim.
- Gamepass saw a bump in subscribers, the loss was due to other sub services falling such as PS+.

It's not the failure you are trying to paint it as.
  • Single-digit increase. Xbox had double-digit increases in console sales in 2021 and 2022 without Starfield.
  • Source for the subscription data? I may have missed it.
  • Starfield got to the #1 spot for a 30-day period, in absence of BG3, when it had a full 30-day period as it launched on September 1st in Xbox's strongest market. FC 24 was tracked for only 3 days. The 30-day period is a very narrow view. Look at the YTD data. Starfield was not the success it should have been.
  • Most importantly, Xbox could not displace PS5 to be the #1 console in a month when it launched its biggest console exclusive this generation and PS5 released 0 games. This is the biggest takeaway here. Xbox has invested all this money and canceled PS5 versions of those acquired games, not because they wanted revenue, but because they wanted to take back market share and outsell PlayStations. They failed to do so. After Starfield, when will Xbox have another opportunity this generation to do this?
 

Kuwitzzer

Member
  • Single-digit increase. Xbox had double-digit increases in console sales in 2021 and 2022 without Starfield.
  • Source for the subscription data? I may have missed it.
  • Starfield got to the #1 spot for a 30-day period, in absence of BG3, when it had a full 30-day period as it launched on September 1st in Xbox's strongest market. FC 24 was tracked for only 3 days. The 30-day period is a very narrow view. Look at the YTD data. Starfield was not the success it should have been.
  • Most importantly, Xbox could not displace PS5 to be the #1 console in a month when it launched its biggest console exclusive this generation and PS5 released 0 games. This is the biggest takeaway here. Xbox has invested all this money and canceled PS5 versions of those acquired games, not because they wanted revenue, but because they wanted to take back market share and outsell PlayStations. They failed to do so. After Starfield, when will Xbox have another opportunity this generation to do this?
Honestly, I think they still have many opportunities. It’s hard to imagine with that excessive amount of studios, Xbox still has no GOTY-quality games. Xbox, I feel, only needs that one big game to create the momentum for many next waves to come. Currently, Xbox has many great AA type games like Hi Fi Rush and Pentiment.
 

Heisenberg007

Gold Journalism
Honestly, I think they still have many opportunities. It’s hard to imagine with that excessive amount of studios, Xbox still has no GOTY-quality games. Xbox, I feel, only needs that one big game to create the momentum for many next waves to come. Currently, Xbox has many great AA type games like Hi Fi Rush and Pentiment.
They do make very good AA games. It's the AAA standard, tech, and experience they lack in. With the current setup, policies, and business model they have, I believe they will continue to fumble on the AAA front.
 

Kuwitzzer

Member
They do make very good AA games. It's the AAA standard, tech, and experience they lack in. With the current setup, policies, and business model they have, I believe they will continue to fumble on the AAA front.
All the talks about great games moving the needle but I do not think they will ever really move the needle (Phil is not really wrong for saying a 11/10 game would have no impact), because Xbox just doesn't seem to have a real focus. Like do they want the brand to be about PC, or about subscriptions, or about console, the answer is that they want the brand to be all of those things and it's just not gonna work. As much as the PC crowd wants people to believe it's not the day-one PC ports that are harming Xbox, they probably can not deny one thing that is some people after seeing the Starfield presentation would rush into the store just get for themselves an Xbox. And while doing that, they also discover that XBox has many exclusives that PC can not play, so they are not really in for just 1 game.
 
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Heisenberg007

Gold Journalism
All the talks about great games moving the needle but I do not think they will ever really move the needle (Phil is not really wrong for saying a 11/10 game would have no impact), because Xbox just doesn't seem to have a real focus. Like do they want the brand to be about PC, or about subscriptions, or about console, the answer is that they want the brand to be all of those things and it's just not gonna work. As much as the PC crowd wants people to believe it's not the day-one PC ports that are harming Xbox, they probably can not deny one thing that is some people after seeing the Starfield presentation would rush into the store just get for themselves an Xbox. And while doing that, they also discover that XBox has many exclusives that PC can not play, so they are not really in for just 1 game.
I agree with the focus part. I've been saying the same thing for a long time now. Xbox does not know what it wants to be.
  • You want to increase console market share? Stop putting your games on PC and make true console exclusives.
  • You want to be a subscription-first company? Put everything on your subscription and then put your subscription on everything -- PlayStation, PC, Xbox, Nintendo, etc. Stop treating PlayStation and Nintendo as your competitors in that case.
  • You want to increase software sales revenue? Stop putting games day one on your subscription service.
Pick a lane.

They don't know what they want to be and what they want to do, so they are trying to do everything and losing at everything. They have the fewest software sales; they are in the last position in console sales and market share; they have the fewest subscribers.

Phil Spencer says the Xbox console is their cornerstone, and the Xbox console customers are the ones that are most "financially committed." Then Xbox also runs ads for Starfield that literally says you don't have to buy a console to play Starfield.

It's a mess.
 

A.M_Light

Neo Member
Go to a war of acquisitions with a trillion dollar company.

Sounds like a smart plan.
It's not purely about the money. It took years for Activision deal to be approved. They won't be able to buy an EA or ubisoft for example and get away with it at least for now.
 

RickMasters

Member
So you mean to tell me that if Take-Two goes up for sale that without a shadow of a doubt, MS would be the one to make that acquisition? Like 100?

If you say yes then you are a liar. No one outside of MS knows this. And you don't know how much they are willing to spend for this perceived value you're talking about.

If you say no then your entire argument is pointless.
I’m saying they will go to the highest bidder. It’s reasonable to assume that would be Microsoft


It’s funny that you guys will say I can’t be sure that the company that just paid 70Billion On a publisher(ABK) …. After they just spent 7 billion For another( bethesda) ….. is somehow not gonna buy T2 because I ‘ don’t know how much they are willing to spend…… yet y’all are so certain Sony will sell a part of themselves to buy T2? Make it make sense bruh…… 😂😂😂😂😂😂
 

RickMasters

Member
I'm not saying microsoft won't try and make a move for T2 one day.

But I'm saying if Sony was to, MS won't just outbid them just because they can.

Otherwise Sony would never had gotten Bungie because Microsoft could've "just outbid them".
That’s a non factor, here. MS wasn’t interested in acquiring bungie for a second time.
 
I’m saying they will go to the highest bidder. It’s reasonable to assume that would be Microsoft


It’s funny that you guys will say I can’t be sure that the company that just paid 70Billion On a publisher(ABK) …. After they just spent 7 billion For another( bethesda) ….. is somehow not gonna buy T2 because I ‘ don’t know how much they are willing to spend…… yet y’all are so certain Sony will sell a part of themselves to buy T2? Make it make sense bruh…… 😂😂😂😂😂😂

Just like I thought, you are not directly answering the question. Also, I never said a single thing about Sony and Take Two. Honestly, I'm not even exactly sure why I bothered in the first place because from the beginning I knew you had no clue and are simply blindly shilling for your team. And as long as that's the case, it'll never....ever.....ever make sense to you. Later my guy..
 
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Ansphn

Member
That would require the game to be remade pretty much entirely from scratch and probably in a different engine.
Completely re-do how the combat works, remove most of the strategic ways to play, re design the party system, alienate pretty much the entire fanbase, and reinforce the (silly) idea that all Sony 1st party games look and feel the same.

The system that they used for the console version struck a perfect balance between usability with a controller and staying true to how it plays on PC imo. If you haven't played it I STRONGLY urge you to do so.

On a side note, the Witcher 3's combat was... fine? It certainly isn't what made the game so revered. It was the world, the characters and the meaningful ways player choices impacted the story- all of which BG3 has in spades.
How do you know that the engine won't be able to do it? Make the combat similar to Final Fantasy 7 remake. That allows you to switch between the characters and control them in live battle.And why would it alienate the fanbase if the original still exist? No one on consoles wants to play a point and click over the top game.
 
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Ansphn

Member
Uhm. sir. BG3 already is the next Witcher. It's about as popular and beloved as Witcher 3. Among the same audience, too. No changes needed there.
Imagine if they can merge what's special with BG3 (the freedom of choice and it affecting outcomes of game and ending) with the Witcher 3s cinematics, camera view, action and combat. I dream big..that would be the Greatest RPG of all time.
 
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64bitmodels

Reverse groomer.
Imagine if they can merge what's special with BG3 (the freedom of choice and it affecting outcomes of game and ending) with the Witcher 3s cinematics, camera view, action and combat. I dream big..that would be the Greatest RPG of all time.
I actually wouldnt mind that. just keep it far away from Baldur's Gate. People like those games because of the CRPG feel, a pivot like that would kill the franchise. twice. not to mention a game with those kinds of production values would take forever to develop
 
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Nubulax

Member
Go to a war of acquisitions with a trillion dollar company.

Sounds like a smart plan.

Why do people act like MS will do whatever it takes in the XBOX division if other companies start acquiring. They ALREADY spent 80 Billion or so, 2 of the largest 5 acquisitions in MS entire history has gone to xbox I believe. If I was an investor I would be pissed if MS actually kept sinking cash on hand into xbox after already spending 80 billion of the cash on hand. Do other divisions not matter...they will just keep sinking billions upon billions into xbox no matter what?
 

Ansphn

Member
I actually wouldnt mind that. just keep it far away from Baldur's Gate. People like those games because of the CRPG feel, a pivot like that would kill the franchise. twice. not to mention a game with those kinds of production values would take forever to develop
That's why the best solution would be like an expansion type of deal. After the original/classic releases, a 2nd team would make an expansion to change the camera view and combat to a more action based. This would cut down on development time because they're not building the game from the ground up with the story, set pieces, lore, etc. Balders gate 3 already have a 3rd person camera view so it would not be hard to lock it at 3rd person.

I don't want to piss off the Baldur gates 3 people, I just want an option for people like me who want to experience that greatness but can't get into the game because we can't do over the top point and click slow action.
 
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Gaiff

SBI’s Resident Gaslighter
Why do people act like MS will do whatever it takes in the XBOX division if other companies start acquiring. They ALREADY spent 80 Billion or so, 2 of the largest 5 acquisitions in MS entire history has gone to xbox I believe. If I was an investor I would be pissed if MS actually kept sinking cash on hand into xbox after already spending 80 billion of the cash on hand. Do other divisions not matter...they will just keep sinking billions upon billions into xbox no matter what?
Because they would. Those guys seriously considered buying Nintendo. Make no mistake, if Microsoft could gobble up the majority of the game industry, they would in a heartbeat. Regulations prevents them from doing that.
 

Darsxx82

Member
Why do people act like MS will do whatever it takes in the XBOX division if other companies start acquiring. They ALREADY spent 80 Billion or so, 2 of the largest 5 acquisitions in MS entire history has gone to xbox I believe. If I was an investor I would be pissed if MS actually kept sinking cash on hand into xbox after already spending 80 billion of the cash on hand. Do other divisions not matter...they will just keep sinking billions upon billions into xbox no matter what?
Because coincidentally MS itself (Nadella and Phil) has said that the purchase of ABK is not going to stop possible new purchases??

Shareholders? MS just bought a company that generates a minimum of 2B annual profits. I don't think shareholders are throwing up their hands, quite the opposite.

That said, I highly doubt that MS is now looking to acquire any major publisher in the short term after the tough regulatory process with ABK. It would be more logical for him to now look more towards individual Studios and close the organization chart of the 40+ Studios that it now owns.

Sony? People tend to think that Sony buying a big publisher will be a bed of roses and it remains to be seen.
It is clear that there is nothing similar to the ABK scale except perhaps T2. But if Sony (1 in revenue and prominent leader in the console market with a quasi-monopoly in some markets) acquires something like Capcom without problems, it is clear that MS will not have problems buying a Sega, WBS, etc...

Another question I have is whether there is any gentleman's agreement between MS and Sony regarding the position when it comes to making large acquisitions against the other. Will MS denounce and oppose Sony's purchase of a large publisher the way Sony did with ABK? Or will simply abstaining ease the way for Sony?

There can be a lot behind the scenes as we have seen in the case of ABK.
 

Nubulax

Member
Because they would. Those guys seriously considered buying Nintendo. Make no mistake, if Microsoft could gobble up the majority of the game industry, they would in a heartbeat. Regulations prevents them from doing that.
Yes but it was Nintendo BEFORE ABK was a thing or possibly even Zenimax depending on the timeline. Not Nintendo IN ADDITION to ABK. I think it would be absolutely wild if Microsoft were to say... Buy Take 2 for around 40-50 billion and in a few short years completely exhaust the 100+ billion they had with cash on hand and basically start from 0 with cash on hand just for the xbox division when Cloud and AI are more important sectors imo

In the above, As a shareholder, you dont think you would question just WTF MS is doing sinking close to 120 BILLION+ into one of their worst divisions in such a short time?
 
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Jooxed

Gold Member
If anything I would guess it would be Square, though I hope they still produce the fun Octopath games and stuff for switch!
 

PanzerCute

Member
I really don't see Sony buying a big publisher to be honest, and also why would they?

When you look at the potential candidates they either feel like a waste of money or being out or reach for Sony. And with all these regulators shenaningans happening to MS, I dont think it would be that easy to purchase a large amount of IP.

To detail a bit more my thinking process: why would Sony buy Square Enix, Capcom, Sega or Kadokawa? These are japanese companies and have almot no chance of being bought by a non-japanese company according to japanese laws. It's not like there is a big risk of losing these companies to Microsoft or even the likes of Tencent. And as Capcom said recently, it is not like they would like to anyway.

Moreover, most of the games from these japanese publishers sell like 90% of copies on Playstation and PC, and a lot of releases skip Xbox entirely without any need for an exclusivity deal. These companies are still in need of Playstation in a way, so once again the risk of losing big IPs is minor imo.

Oh and for some of these companies, Sony hold some of their stock (they have 14% of Kadokawa for instance) which makes it even more unrealistic that they get acquired behind Sony's back (you have to tell shareholders and give them an opportunity to outbid)

Now going to the non-japanese big guns of the industry like Take 2, EA or Ubi. I would say that these companies are either way too expensive (not that Sony cannot afford it but that would be HUGE acquisitions for them), or not that relevant to Sony. Ubisoft could tick some boxes: they have long experience in GaaS, have great IPs that sold big amount of copies and also produce VR games (not that its the main reason). But with the bad press they got during recent years and the quality of their last blockbusters I would say that it wouldn't be an ideal acquisition for Sony.

I am definitely not an expert and I also know that Sony needs to move at some point, but I really can't see a huge scale acquisition of a "historical" publisher.

I would imagine Sony being more inclined to make purchase in the areas they are lacking. And looking at their last acquisitions, it seems like this is their strategy: best remake/ remastered studio in the industry (Bluepoint), a VR and PC competent studio (Firesprite), a GaaS expert (Bungie), some other PC nerds (Firewalk) etc..

The Honkai Watch devs, as already mentioned here, would be a dream move for them (no idea if this is possible tho). These guys basically print money with their GaaS and are very dominant in Asian markets that Sony is trying to tackle more.

No one would think about them, but Crytek could also be a smart move for Sony, in order to get some FPS and GaaS expertise (and IPs!). We all know they are cooking some new Crysis projets, including a GaaS, and that IP is still quite big and could make a good come back in the near future.
They also have a great GaaS with Hunt Showdown, a masterpiece of a game that also happens to print quite some money (not in the scale of a Fortnite obviously, but it is still one of the top PC online game). Also note that they have a very competent in-house Engine with CryEngine.

But hey once again I am not an expert at all, it is just all "educated" guesses.

Oh, and fuck consolidation in any case.
 
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Go to a war of acquisitions with a trillion dollar company.

Sounds like a smart plan.
Why not? MS keeps fumbling with the acquisitions they have made so far. We'll see if that Activision acquisition breaks the trend 10 years from now.

And Sony have been competing with a trillion dollar company for 4 gens, now, and save for the PS3, where they only slightly came out on top, they've been stomping them.
 

RickMasters

Member
Just like I thought, you are not directly answering the question. Also, I never said a single thing about Sony and Take Two. Honestly, I'm not even exactly sure why I bothered in the first place because from the beginning I knew you had no clue and are simply blindly shilling for your team. And as long as that's the case, it'll never....ever.....ever make sense to you. Later my guy..
Your question was answered you just a didn’t like the answer and keep fishing for a different one. That’s your issue not mine.


By the way…. This is a thread about who Sony might buy. Who can they realistically afford…. Might wanna think about that……
 

MacReady13

Member
I agree with the focus part. I've been saying the same thing for a long time now. Xbox does not know what it wants to be.
  • You want to increase console market share? Stop putting your games on PC and make true console exclusives.
  • You want to be a subscription-first company? Put everything on your subscription and then put your subscription on everything -- PlayStation, PC, Xbox, Nintendo, etc. Stop treating PlayStation and Nintendo as your competitors in that case.
  • You want to increase software sales revenue? Stop putting games day one on your subscription service.
Pick a lane.

They don't know what they want to be and what they want to do, so they are trying to do everything and losing at everything. They have the fewest software sales; they are in the last position in console sales and market share; they have the fewest subscribers.

Phil Spencer says the Xbox console is their cornerstone, and the Xbox console customers are the ones that are most "financially committed." Then Xbox also runs ads for Starfield that literally says you don't have to buy a console to play Starfield.

It's a mess.
Sir/Madam, I could kiss you! Perfectly put about how completely lost Microsoft is at the moment. Seriously, this is possibly the best post I've read on this site for a very long time. Kudos!
 

yazenov

Member
Damn imagine an american company buying Capcom and Square, say goodbye to attractive female characters.

3j91pnG.jpg
 

Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
What drought?
  • Helldivers 2 (Feb 2023)
  • Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth (Feb 2023
  • Granblue Fantasy Relink (Feb 2023)
Then 2024 will also have:
  • Rise of the Ronin
  • Death Stranding 2
  • Wolverine (maybe)
  • Stellar Blade
  • Lost Souls Aside
  • Convallaria
People are sleeping on Concord.

- The game got greenlight after the BR explosion so it will certainly be a modern multiplayer game.
- The early descriptions of the game are saying all the right things - Social, sandbox, PvP.
- PlayStation bought the entire studio after they saw the game.
- It's a GAAS game which is most effective tool PlayStation has against the 800lb gorilla in the room (XBox)
- Concord will be bigger than every game on that list except for maybe Wolverine.
 

Roronoa Zoro

Gold Member
Ampere Analysis maybe didn't realize that Sony decreased their acquisitions and investements budget for this FY until around $140M before acquiring Audeze, and decided to keep acquisitions for the mid to long term, pretty likely matching the timeframe when they'll have completed the spinoff of their banking division to sell 80+% of it (which will take 2-3 years according to their estimate).

PS Studios+Bungie have several shooters that have been under development for many years, and they'll continue having CoD for at least 10 years. In addition to this, the Zenimax acquisition didn't cause any advantage to Xbox (with important YoY decreases in hw sales) or Gamepass (did stop growing and got stagnant since many months ago).

I think they won't need to make any acquisition to counter it, at least for a few years.
It's a cliff approaching though once they lose too many big IP. They're already not getting the next Doom, ES, Fallout, Wolfenstein, Crash, Spyro, Diablo, etc. If they let it happen that they also end up not getting the next RE, Persona, Yakuza, Sonic, Final Fantasy, Monster Hunter, etc. Then they're suddenly gonna feel the bottom fall out of their gaming division. You can only let so many big IP get gobbled up by the competition and gamers have shown they WILL buy the same IP forever
 

Roronoa Zoro

Gold Member
Square enix , Capcom or Sega make the most sense surely. Microsoft seem like theyd go for Ubisoft as they have marketing deals with a lot of the tentpole Ubisoft games too
I just hope these 3 don't leave Sony. Whether that means staying independent completely or Sony just doing a Bungie style deal where they keep control of where they publish I don't really care. Quite frankly when the big IP are on both systems people have shown that they will overwhelmingly buy on PS so Sony doesn't really need them exclusive either.
 

Heisenberg007

Gold Journalism
People are sleeping on Concord.

- The game got greenlight after the BR explosion so it will certainly be a modern multiplayer game.
- The early descriptions of the game are saying all the right things - Social, sandbox, PvP.
- PlayStation bought the entire studio after they saw the game.
- It's a GAAS game which is most effective tool PlayStation has against the 800lb gorilla in the room (XBox)
- Concord will be bigger than every game on that list except for maybe Wolverine.
I'm in the same boat. Although we haven't seen anything of it, which is why I'm reserving my judgments and optimism, but I think Concord will surprise people.

1) Because the team that's making it is super experienced.
2) It passed Bungie's "internal review" (which Naughty Dog and Deviation Games failed). And it didn't just pass. It passed with such glowing reviews that it didn't require any delays or extra work and that Sony bought the entire studio from ProbablyMonsters.

They must be cooking something very special for that to happen.
 

Roronoa Zoro

Gold Member
Because coincidentally MS itself (Nadella and Phil) has said that the purchase of ABK is not going to stop possible new purchases??

Shareholders? MS just bought a company that generates a minimum of 2B annual profits. I don't think shareholders are throwing up their hands, quite the opposite.

That said, I highly doubt that MS is now looking to acquire any major publisher in the short term after the tough regulatory process with ABK. It would be more logical for him to now look more towards individual Studios and close the organization chart of the 40+ Studios that it now owns.

Sony? People tend to think that Sony buying a big publisher will be a bed of roses and it remains to be seen.
It is clear that there is nothing similar to the ABK scale except perhaps T2. But if Sony (1 in revenue and prominent leader in the console market with a quasi-monopoly in some markets) acquires something like Capcom without problems, it is clear that MS will not have problems buying a Sega, WBS, etc...

Another question I have is whether there is any gentleman's agreement between MS and Sony regarding the position when it comes to making large acquisitions against the other. Will MS denounce and oppose Sony's purchase of a large publisher the way Sony did with ABK? Or will simply abstaining ease the way for Sony?

There can be a lot behind the scenes as we have seen in the case of ABK.
Sony's current market share shouldn't really matter. Refocus to the overall size of each company and it's easy to see which one deserves more scrutiny and look at the vertical monopoly aspect. MS owns huge IP they had no hand in making now, they own the PC market as if you don't release on Windows what are you even doing, and they have more cash on hand than anyone else by a country mile. No way should miniscule by comparison Sony get that kinda scrutiny when they don't control PC at all, don't have the capital to buy everything like MS does, and considering they're where the vast majority of any third party company's games sell anyway.

Like it would be one thing if MS was only spending money made in gaming to grow gaming, but when you bring in money from other branches it makes the size of your gaming branches irrelevant. Sure Sony is bigger in that sector but when you can bring in 70 billion in windows cash that doesn't matter.
 
Your question was answered you just a didn’t like the answer and keep fishing for a different one. That’s your issue not mine.


By the way…. This is a thread about who Sony might buy. Who can they realistically afford…. Might wanna think about that……

You continue to have no clue. Good talk.

Vanish Peace Out GIF by Room104


 
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