• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Mergers and Acquisitions |OT| Thread Merged

Acquisitions and mergers official topic

  • Is this thread organic enough?

  • The thread merging will lead to the collapse of the forums industry

  • Anti-trust laws should prevent people from creating threads

  • This gaming forum has not been bought out

  • The monopolization of OTs is bad for gaming discussion

  • Your post is in talks to be acquired by another forum

Results are only viewable after voting.
Buggy Loop

Buggy Loop

Member
Roman Empire said:
At the end of the day acquisitions, sprees like these don't bode well for the industry. I prefer more options than choosing between A, B, or C. Imagine the day we only can choose between Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo, and Tencent (of course it's not happening). Nightmarish stuff.
Click to expand...

Or PC, which has it all (Nintendo via emulation)

But I agree otherwise, not a good look for consoles. I think it’s either going to be a walled garden with a big fence, or hardware will soon be meaningless and you’ll have a subscription on your dongle or smart TV to stream Xbox or sony games.

I think only Nintendo will do its own thing, totally oblivious to what’s going on, like the Amazonian tribe that were throwing lances at helicopters because they didn’t know civilization.
 
BusierDonkey

BusierDonkey

Member
It's only Monday so Microsoft can't announce anything until next Wednesday regarding Sega.

Guess they'll just have to buy Ubisoft in the meantime.
 
ikbalCO

ikbalCO

Member
Buying publishers is a dick move. So i hope sony continues to buy independent studios or studios in general.

I think they have to find a way to buy ATLUS and save the Persona franchise before the inevitable MS/Sega buy out..

They should have purchased FROM SOFTWARE a decade ago. Its a match made in haven. I was expecting Sony to do so right after they closed Japan studio but they still have time i guess. Maybe after FS ship elden ring.

And REMEDY. I don't how they are not bought so far and while MS is busy with Acti-Blizzard deal, Sony should act quick and seal the deal.
 
kyliethicc

kyliethicc

Member
Nevertheless, Ryan says the firm is not done in this area.

"We should absolutely expect more," he concludes. "We are by no means done. With PlayStation, we have a long way to go. I will personally be spending a lot of my time with Pete and the team at Bungie, helping make sure that everything beds down right and that autonomy means autonomy. But elsewhere in the organisation, we have many more moves to make."

www.gamesindustry.biz

PlayStation: Bungie deal is about multiplatform, live-service games

PlayStation's acquisition of Bungie may not result in exclusive PS5 games, but it will allow the platform holder to sig…
www.gamesindustry.biz www.gamesindustry.biz
 
Cyber_hunter026

Cyber_hunter026

Member
kyliethicc said:
Nevertheless, Ryan says the firm is not done in this area.

"We should absolutely expect more," he concludes. "We are by no means done. With PlayStation, we have a long way to go. I will personally be spending a lot of my time with Pete and the team at Bungie, helping make sure that everything beds down right and that autonomy means autonomy. But elsewhere in the organisation, we have many more moves to make."

www.gamesindustry.biz

PlayStation: Bungie deal is about multiplatform, live-service games

PlayStation's acquisition of Bungie may not result in exclusive PS5 games, but it will allow the platform holder to sig…
www.gamesindustry.biz www.gamesindustry.biz
Click to expand...

XjzR7Ms.gif
 
thegame983

thegame983

Member
Anyone who gets hard to the fact that someone cant play what used to be a multi platform game because they bought 'the wrong console' needs to take a long hard look in the mirror.
 
yurinka

yurinka

Member
Nautilus said:
Do you really think a 70 billion dollar only took one month to get made?
Click to expand...
According to the WSJ yes, MS approached ABK on December to make a first offer. Then ABK tried to find someone else interested to buy it, but ended selling to MS. We have to consider that ABK was in the middle of their huge shitshow in terms of PR and that the development of some important IPs had -supposedly- some important issues and key staff left.

Their current management didn't seem to be able to solve this, so the best option was to sell the company and hope the buyers solve all these issues or at least are convincing to hide it in terms of PR, plus the acquisition would more than compensate what the crontroversies did hurt their stocks.
 
HundredThousandTrillion

HundredThousandTrillion

Member
Sony Cash Reserve - 16.7 Billion
Microsoft Cash Reserve - 132.3 Billion

Those numbers aren't even as close as they appear either. BILLIONS.

Let's not even pretend that these companies compete with each other when it comes to their ability to pay for other companies in anything other than issuing stock shares. Whatever Microsoft doesn't buy...rest assured that Microsoft doesn't want.
 
Last edited:
ZywyPL

ZywyPL

Banned
Gone said:
Jim Ryan on the Bungie acquisition

"Bungie’s successful track record in multi-format publishing and live game services will assist us in realizing our ambitions to take PlayStation beyond the console and increase our potential audience."
Click to expand...

So basically like some here were already saying for some time, Ryan acknowledged that Sony doesn't have the expertise in creating a broad online title/service, and some folks expected all their SP-only devs to all of a sudden come up with MP games that will shake up the industry... There was an exception with KZ2 and killzone.com, but that was 13 years ago, both the franchise and the service are dead.
 
Nautilus

Nautilus

Banned
yurinka said:
According to the WSJ yes, MS approached ABK on December to make a first offer. Then ABK tried to find someone else interested to buy it, but ended selling to MS. We have to consider that ABK was in the middle of their huge shitshow in terms of PR and that the development of some important IPs had -supposedly- some important issues and key staff left.

Their current management didn't seem to be able to solve this, so the best option was to sell the company and hope the buyers solve all these issues or at least are convincing to hide it in terms of PR, plus the acquisition would more than compensate what the crontroversies did hurt their stocks.
Click to expand...
Its not like WSJ is correct on everything they report. Much like an insider, they are working with information they have heard, not actual facts. So I remain skeptical for several reasons...

One of them being the amount. Even MS being the juggernaught that it is, 70 billion dollars is a shiton of money even for them.So I seriously doubt that all the process I have said(Reaching a consensus, convincing mS top brass of the purchase, convincing Activision and Blizzard top brass of the purchase, checking the legal status of the deal to see if there is a problem, preparing the paperwork, etc) would take only a month, including potential bids that might have slowed it down.

Another is that Activision was in the middle of this shitshow for about a year now. I dont see why in december they felt the urge to speed it up, specially given that Activision was used to being in the middle of a shitshow for more than a decade. So I dont see how they would rush something as important as this, being as powerful as they are.

So yeah, this deal must have been in the works for at least 6 months, well within the current shitshow that Activision was in, and since Sony probably knows everything that happens in the industry(much like any other big company, like Nintendo), it gave them time to react and everything. Having said that, I feel like this all was inevitable after mS bought Bethesda, wether MS decided to eventually buy Activision and Blizzard or not.
 
Roman Empire

Roman Empire

Member
Buggy Loop said:
Or PC, which has it all (Nintendo via emulation)

But I agree otherwise, not a good look for consoles. I think it’s either going to be a walled garden with a big fence, or hardware will soon be meaningless and you’ll have a subscription on your dongle or smart TV to stream Xbox or sony games.

I think only Nintendo will do its own thing, totally oblivious to what’s going on, like the Amazonian tribe that were throwing lances at helicopters because they didn’t know civilization.
Click to expand...
Diversity is always a good thing, even with shit companies like Ubisoft out there. I just know that whatever happens, I'll be using steam.
 
kingfey

kingfey

Banned
MS spent $75b buying 2 pc stores. Now Sony spent $3b on bungie, and will buy big publishers in the future.

Valve owns steam, which has big pc market share. It's value is between $4b-$10b.

If anyone of these 2 companies buy valve, we pc community are screwed.

Future now is bleak.
 
Represent.

Represent.

Represent(ative) of bad opinions
MS will buy publishers, Sony will buy Developers.

If you buy enough Developrs then it works out to be the same damn thing in the end.

I suspect either CDProjekt or FROM will be next.

They need an RPG studio.
 
Last edited:
yurinka

yurinka

Member
Mmm... seeing they will be under SIE but independent from PS Studios and continuing as multiplatform, I think this is a big change that opens the door to buying more multiplatform publishers and to keep them as multiplatform.

That for sure would be easier to convince these multiplatform publishers of being acquired, who wouldn't be happy seeing their revenues chopped by moving to being full console exclusive. Sony previously did keep as full exclusive whoever they bought, something I assume was ok for single studios, but now being open to becoming multiplatform irt's another thing.

Until now I thought Sony was going to limit acquisitions to exclusive friendly 'small' individual AAA or support studios, but I think this open the door to multiplatform publishers. Specially those who may help Sony learn stuff in areas or niches that their 1st party development or publishing teams don't control (in this case FPS, MP and GaaS), and also the ones they want to make sure get bought by someone else to block them out of PS.
 
Last edited:
Represent.

Represent.

Represent(ative) of bad opinions
HundredThousandTrillion said:
Sony Cash Reserve - 16.7 Billion
Microsoft Cash Reserve - 132.3 Billion

Those numbers aren't even as close as they appear either. BILLIONS.

Let's not even pretend that these companies compete with each other when it comes to their ability to pay for other companies in anything other than issuing stock shares. Whatever Microsoft doesn't buy...rest assured that Microsoft doesn't want.
Click to expand...
At the end of the day, 16.7 Billion is still a fuckton of money.

You could buy like 20 Insomniacs. Or studios like CDProjekt, or FROM, or Arc System Works, or Bluepoint, etc, etc. Just forces Sony to spend wisely - which isnt a bad thing.
 
kingfey

kingfey

Banned
CheeseCake said:
What on earth are you smoking?

Social Media Wtf GIF by #MAmovie


In what world is the future of PC Gaming bleak?!
Click to expand...
MS owns bethesda and Activision. 2 pc publishers are now exclusive to them.

We are at the mercy of who will buy valve. Valve steam is big part of the pc community. Who owns that store, can damage pc community.

Its very concerning thing. Considering, we are seeing alot of Billions being thrown around. And Gabe is old now.
 
Ezekiel_

Ezekiel_

Banned
Most likely to happen, eventually (couple years away), is MS and Sony have their own stores on PC.

Makes little sense for big players to give a cut to another storefront.

Heck, in a couple years time, it's all subscription based and cloud based anyway. Unless Steam comes up with their own subscription service, they will go.

Gabe is getting old. He'll be looking to sell the company soonish.
 
dcx4610

dcx4610

Member
Yeah. I think buying Steam would be a monopoly for Microsoft. If anything, I think this is the golden age for PC gaming. We'll be getting everything going forward.

I had a feeling with the consoles went x86, that was going to be a game changer so it meant super easy ports to PC. Sure enough, it's happening and even Sony is putting their exclusives out there.

The big battle will bet between Epic and Steam. I totally understand that Epic is a better deal for publishers and developers but some of us have decade old Steam accounts and I'm not going to let that go. If it's not on Steam, I don't buy it.
 
digoutyoursoul

digoutyoursoul

Member
I’m surprised they never bought Remedy in all honesty.

What id like to see Sony or Microsoft do instead of acquisition after acquisition, tit for tat, perhaps work with publishers in reviving dormant IPs. Work with Sega on a Golden Axe or Jet Set Radio revival for example or Capcom with Dino Crisis, Contra from Konami using something like Vanquish as a blueprint.

The licensed stuff like The Matrix, X-Men, Transformers, Ninja Turtles, Black Panther and so on. I’m sure Sony and Microsoft’s first party teams could do something worthwhile with some of those .
 
Captain Toad

Captain Toad

Banned
People keep guessing Japanese studios and it's never Japanese studios.

I don't see Capcom, SquareEnix, Sega, Konami getting purchased by anyone.
 
nani17

nani17

are in a big trouble
SlimeGooGoo said:
It's exactly the opposite, OP

Sony and Microsoft are planning to go full Netflix in the future, so you'll be able to play from any device, including PCs.

Valve won't be acquired anytime soon.
Click to expand...
This

I'm saying it for years now. MS and Sony are going for Nextflix style gaming which is the future.
 
Cyber_hunter026

Cyber_hunter026

Member
digoutyoursoul said:
I’m surprised they never bought Remedy in all honesty.

What id like to see Sony or Microsoft do instead of acquisition after acquisition, tit for tat, perhaps work with publishers in reviving dormant IPs. Work with Sega on a Golden Axe or Jet Set Radio revival for example or Capcom with Dino Crisis, Contra from Konami using something like Vanquish as a blueprint.

The licensed stuff like The Matrix, X-Men, Transformers, Ninja Turtles, Black Panther and so on. I’m sure Sony and Microsoft’s first party teams could do something worthwhile with some of those .
Click to expand...


Doesn't tencent own a majority stake in remedy? wouldn't that prevent them from being acquired?
 
PharaoTutAnchAmun

PharaoTutAnchAmun

Member
Croatoan said:
I guess we should look at other once great developers that make GAAS titles for clues on who Sony will buy next?

I don't get the Destiny purchase at all. I just don't. I also hate destiny the game.
Click to expand...
There is your answer, YOU hate Destiny so YOU dont get the purchase of Bungie😉
 
Last edited:
//DEVIL//

//DEVIL//

Member
If anyone isn’t getting affected by this and ( actually getting the benefits )
It’s the PC.

Sony clearly is aiming to expand beyond the console. They even said that today. All MS games are on PC as well.
I am expecting Sony to release future ps5 games on pc a year after the ps5 release max after the huge success they are getting from the PC.

If I am a console owner and not a fan of pc I can see this might upset the fanboy in me that I want these games on my favorite console only.

As a pc gamer ? Lol I am winning both sides .

It’s the 1 console only owners that are getting mad at this. But PC ? Lol
 
mckmas8808

mckmas8808

Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
Cyber_hunter026 said:
It depends, I'm not sure how much kadokawa publishing is worth but I reckon it's a significant amount. depends on if kojipro asking price if he was up for selling Kojima productions.
Click to expand...

I wonder which move would impress GAF more.

1. Capcom for $4 Billion
2. KojoPro and FROM Software for $5 Billion
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

[CNBC] Sega COO Shuji Utsumi on Microsoft Acquisition rumors: "I don't think that kind of transaction is going to happen"
News Business
35
2K
Negotiator101 replied
Atari is bringing back the Infogrames publishing label
News
30
1K
coffinbirth replied
[Forbes]There’s Little Doubt Microsoft Will Try To Buy ‘Palworld’ And Pocketpair At This Point
News Rumor Hype 2 3 4
162
10K
kiphalfton replied
ChatGPT about Activision acquisition and the future of gaming (Speculative)
13
1K
roxya replied
Embracer say their restructure is over, but it's "too early" to start acquiring studios again
News Business
27
1K
Hudo replied
Top Bottom