What should Sony's Acquisition Plans Be? *spawn*

[RDGoodla]

imho Sega, along Capcom, and very few others, is the company with he most talent.
I

Sony needs SONIC most, after the ASTRO BOT success.

They seem a bit clueless. They changed strategy in 2019 to Moare Acquisitions, including startups, versus their previous strategy of occasionally buying studios with an established portfolio from a proven track record of excellence, and so far it looks to have been a waste of money.

The whole situation changed after Ms bought Axtivision. Sony also rushed to buy FPS game studios.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

The whole situation changed after Ms bought Axtivision. Sony also rushed to buy FPS game studios.

Not Activision. Bethesda. When MS started acquiring large, it seems Sony felt the need to copy. Other than Insomniac, which was in keeping with Sony's traditional strategy. They seem to have bought fairly randomly and it doesn't appear to have paid off.

Looking this up, one of their acquisitions is working on stuff for Star Citizen!

 

[Globalisateur]

Not Activision. Bethesda. When MS started acquiring large, it seems Sony felt the need to copy. Other than Insomniac, which was in keeping with Sony's traditional strategy. They seem to have bought fairly randomly and it doesn't appear to have paid off.

Looking this up, one of their acquisitions is working on stuff for Star Citizen!

Not quite randomnly. The main problem here is they started buying untested woke studios because it was the "right thing to do" and obviously their games didn't need to pass the usual internal tests because those games were "rightly targeting the modern audience". Concord is the perfect exemple of this and Fairgames will be next. You can already count on it been another massive failure for Sony.

I give you 2 examples. When Barlog was doing God of War 2018 (the last great new Playstation game before AstroBot) he was constantly visited by his boss, here Shue Yoshida, to prove Sony that his game was going to be a hit and they could delay the game in confidence. From Barlog point of view Shue visits were not a joke at all, it was serious and Sony could stop funding the game suddenly.

Even Team Asobi, after only crittical successes from them for years and the best PSVR game, had to do a fu**** playable demo to prove Sony their AstroBot project was going to work!

The main problem of those western videogames companies and how the accountants are making decisions is virtue signaling. Which is why they are still buying into this new "culture". And this is why the best games are currently coming from either indies or the east. Creativity in the west is mostly dead right now.

 

[see colon]

Not quite randomnly. The main problem here is they started buying untested woke studios because it was the "right thing to do" and obviously their games didn't need to pass the usual internal tests because those games were "rightly targeting the modern audience". Concord is the perfect exemple of this and Fairgames will be next. You can already count on it been another massive failure for Sony.

I'm not sure I can really get behind the untested studios assertion. Sure, some of the studios were green, but they were headed or staffed by industry vets with proven track records. And I doubt Sony bought them without looking at what they were working on. Firewalk is staffed by former Bungie employees, Haven headed by Jade Raymond, Bungie made at least 1 good game, Valkyrie was a support studio on Forza Horizon 5, Halo Infinite and God of War Ragnarok, Bluepoint and Nixxes are talented port studios with celebrated resumes, with Lesengle and Savage/Neo Koi being mobile developers. It isn't like these studios were full of nobodies.

The main problem of those western videogames companies and how the accountants are making decisions is virtue signaling. Which is why they are still buying into this new "culture". And this is why the best games are currently coming from either indies or the east. Creativity in the west is mostly dead right now.

Indies have always been at the spearhead of creativity though, this isn't some new trend. Larger companies have traditionally been more risk averse, while smaller companies have been more apt to swing for the fences with some novel idea and mechanics. This trend you are picking up on is the industry trying to appeal to a younger demographic, because growth has stagnated and they are trying to capture younger players who have grown up playing Minecraft, Roblox and Fortnite. Sometimes it works, like Helldivers 2 (which is described as a "pretty woke" game by it's community manager) and sometimes it doesn't work, like Saint's Row - Which ended up looking like Buscemi with a skateboard. Also, the problem with describing anything as "woke" is that it's proven undefinable. The previous example of Helldivers 2 is a perfect example, because it's defined as such by at least some Arrowhead employees, but many of it's players insist that it isn't.

 

[Globalisateur]

I'm not sure I can really get behind the untested studios assertion. Sure, some of the studios were green, but they were headed or staffed by industry vets with proven track records. And I doubt Sony bought them without looking at what they were working on. Firewalk is staffed by former Bungie employees, Haven headed by Jade Raymond, Bungie made at least 1 good game, Valkyrie was a support studio on Forza Horizon 5, Halo Infinite and God of War Ragnarok, Bluepoint and Nixxes are talented port studios with celebrated resumes, with Lesengle and Savage/Neo Koi being mobile developers. It isn't like these studios were full of nobodies.


Indies have always been at the spearhead of creativity though, this isn't some new trend. Larger companies have traditionally been more risk averse, while smaller companies have been more apt to swing for the fences with some novel idea and mechanics. This trend you are picking up on is the industry trying to appeal to a younger demographic, because growth has stagnated and they are trying to capture younger players who have grown up playing Minecraft, Roblox and Fortnite. Sometimes it works, like Helldivers 2 (which is described as a "pretty woke" game by it's community manager) and sometimes it doesn't work, like Saint's Row - Which ended up looking like Buscemi with a skateboard. Also, the problem with describing anything as "woke" is that it's proven undefinable. The previous example of Helldivers 2 is a perfect example, because it's defined as such by at least some Arrowhead employees, but many of it's players insist that it isn't.

Sure failures have always existed for various reasons. But show me a bigger failure than Concord? It's likely the biggest bomba in the videogames industry and will be reminded as such. Fairgames inevitable failure (maybe not as big as Concord though) will make it a combined catastrophic disaster for Sony. Hopefully it will teach them a lesson.

And they have others GAAS games almost as promising in the pipeline...

 

[Davros]

But show me a bigger failure than Concord?

Duke Nukem Forever
Daikatana
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
APB: All Points Bulletin
Battlecruiser 3000AD

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury the defence rests it's case....

 

[RDGoodla]

Concord is the perfect exemple of this and Fairgames will be next. You can already count on it been another massive failure for Sony.

Is Fairgames gameplay really worse?