That's great that they sold well. It's still all the same genre that appeals only to certain gamers and to be quite frank 20+m for god of war that was released to a 100m + consoles isn't a very high sell through. It shows there are a lot of gamers who don't actually care about those games on that platform . I'd wager that those who bought god of war encompass all the other games too with fewer exceptions.
What should Sony's Acquisition Plans Be? *spawn*
- Thread starter RDGoodla
- Start date
That's great that they sold well. It's still all the same genre that appeals only to certain gamers and to be quite frank 20+m for god of war that was released to a 100m + consoles isn't a very high sell through. It shows there are a lot of gamers who don't actually care about those games on that platform . I'd wager that those who bought god of war encompass all the other games too with fewer exceptions.
I think Sony had a more diverse AAA library pre-ps4 days. Nowadays its mostly 3rd person cinematic or superhero/marvel action type of games. Returnal is a somewhat departure but still 3rd person action. Most of these sell around 10% of the total userbase which isnt all that much, but assumably still profitable enough to continue with high-budget AAA titles.
To much feelings about franchises and not, my guess (or feeling?) leans how big of a hole does this leave in Sony's incoming?
How much revenue was Zenimax/Beteshad and now Activison Blizzard expected to generate for Sony? And second wave is, how many people will switch away from console due to those 3rd party publishers not publishing on PS in the future?
Heck allowing gamepass and xcloud on PS would probably add to the misery, since other publishers 3rd party titles would probably be added to those MS services. Unless MS pays Sony enough to cover the loses, they might be crazy enough to do it short term, but long term I doubt.
If PS goes the way of Sega, ie becomes a game publishing company only, how much money is that? (Hoping for DSoup to have read the accounts and is ready dish out the info
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How much revenue was Zenimax/Beteshad and now Activison Blizzard expected to generate for Sony? And second wave is, how many people will switch away from console due to those 3rd party publishers not publishing on PS in the future?
Heck allowing gamepass and xcloud on PS would probably add to the misery, since other publishers 3rd party titles would probably be added to those MS services. Unless MS pays Sony enough to cover the loses, they might be crazy enough to do it short term, but long term I doubt.
If PS goes the way of Sega, ie becomes a game publishing company only, how much money is that? (Hoping for DSoup to have read the accounts and is ready dish out the info
)To much feelings about franchises and not, my guess (or feeling?) leans how big of a hole does this leave in Sony's incoming?
How much revenue was Zenimax/Beteshad and now Activison Blizzard expected to generate for Sony? And second wave is, how many people will switch away from console due to those 3rd party publishers not publishing on PS in the future?
Heck allowing gamepass and xcloud on PS would probably add to the misery, since other publishers 3rd party titles would probably be added to those MS services. Unless MS pays Sony enough to cover the loses, they might be crazy enough to do it short term, but long term I doubt.
If PS goes the way of Sega, ie becomes a game publishing company only, how much money is that? (Hoping for DSoup to have read the accounts and is ready dish out the info
Its like the smaller smartphone companies/devisions. They have a hard time keeping up with the big fish (xperia, LG, nokia etc).
I mean I don't really see much a difference from god of war to horizon to spiderman to ghost. They are all variations of the same genre just like the shooters MS has.
Also like I said , There have been people trying to mentally justify microsoft keeping these games on all platforms from starfield to elder scrolls to doom and now cod and all of blizzards stuff. So it shows there is a high demand for these games. What happens when these games don't exist on the playstation platform? Well people who want those games need an xbox or pc or game pass. If someone perfers these types of games over sony's line up they will leave the sony platform or make it secondary.
MS also has the series s which is a low cost of entry into the Microsoft ecosystem.
It's being speculated that the cod deal is 4 year intervals and was last reupped in 2019 which puts it ending in 2023 just in time for the purchase to finalize.
ChuckeRearmed
Regular
Are they though? I believe Sony gets most of its revenue from the third parties, no?
I agree. Previous gen was rather plain as we either had COD or Ubisoft style games from Sony while Xbox was sleeping.
With MS again being competitive we are getting increasingly diverse lineup on Xbox and PC side at least.
Even Sony game division Sie alone makes more than 3x profit than Taketwo annually.
Taketwo can afford 12.7 billion buyout then Sony game division should afford much bigger buyout than Taketwo; not limited to 5 billion.
ChuckeRearmed
Regular
But T2 did not buy in cash. They dilute stocks no? For such acquisition to happen, SIE should make other Sony divisions to agree on the merge.
Anyway my position remains the same - if people expect T2 level acquisition from Sony (or even Square Enix for that matter) it won't happen. Will be funny if I am wrong. Especially if Sony grabs Square East (Ms getting west). Though with all that time exclusives that Sony made - I doubt that even Square East is happening.
I mean if MS is willing throw 70b in gaming - it really changes dynamics.
Johnny Awesome
Veteran
It's interesting what's happened over the years as MS used to rely on Halo, Gears and Forza, but they have a much more diverse lineup now with Gears Tactics, Flight Sim, Psychonauts, Hellblade, Grounded, Sea of Thieves etc... That is only going to improve when they have 32 studios (easily 40+ well-funded teams) cranking out titles.
Sony should likely diversify their offerings beyond 3rd person action/adventure, but we'd all be fools to count them out. They still have 20+ strong teams.
I think the strongest argument for an acquisition is to prevent MS from buying the same studio.
Sony should likely diversify their offerings beyond 3rd person action/adventure, but we'd all be fools to count them out. They still have 20+ strong teams.
I think the strongest argument for an acquisition is to prevent MS from buying the same studio.
They should get naughtydog making a FPS, In the past they prolly didnt want to step too much on COD toes because of their close relationship between sony and COD, but now they dont have they restriction. Then again MS will take halo away from 434 so I assume that franchise will improve.
Yeah they sure are diversifying their line up.....by acquiring existing ones
None. These companies should stop acquiring. A world of fewer, bigger companies is bad. We want a lively market of lots of publishers, developers, all trying different things, with different identities. People talk about how these acquisitions can be good for diversity etc. given stagnation in the Old Guard - the gaming landscape was its best in the 90s, with loads of publishers, big and small, and massive game diversity grown from people who enjoyed computer games and wanted to make computer games and not being motivated just to get rich. Now it's just turning into GAAS and ongoing monetisation driven by metrics and, for all the PR about 'it's for the gamers', it's soulless and for the investors. There comes a time when there's enough money and people should stop thinking about getting more money and instead think about what they are contributing. Sony, MS, they're big enough. Have other independent players working on creating content and supporting content developers, growing to middle size and then being happy there instead of driven to become monolithic entities devoid of soul and driven by a mindless pursuit of Bigger Bank.
Yeah they sure are diversifying their line up.....by acquiring existing ones
Sony bought 6 video game companies in 2021. Vlakyrie entertainment , bluepoint , fabrik , firespite , nixxes and housemarque. They also bought Evo.
Guess it's okay when sony does it ?
Ultimately new companies will form from people who don't want to be at the mega corps but have enough name power to get new studios off the ground. They will start of small of course but continue to grow over decades.
ChuckeRearmed
Regular
I wonder if Sony could go to Google and move their PS Now to Stadia (they use linux in Playstation anyway). Would a be huge move and Google + Sony both hate Microsoft anyway 
Somebody cant spot the difference
ChuckeRearmed
Regular
MS is just on a different scale. I wonder if Sony experiences the same thing Sega experienced when Sony entered the gaming market.Somebody cant spot the difference
D
Deleted member 7537
Guest
Somebody cant spot the difference
Bluepoint = Activision & Blizzard.
I think the acquisitions Sony made lately were mostly with teams who were already making exclusive games for them, and the intent was not to take anything away.
This huge Activision purchase (and Bethesda before it) has the intent of taking teams and games away from a huge chunk of gamers, which is a little different.
I'm not saying it's 'bad', and I totally get why MS would do this, but still it's quite different from Sony buying bloody Bluepoint who were only making games for them anyway.
And if Sony now starts buying, say, Square and Ubisoft (just an example here!) to ensure their position in the market, and we end up having such wide gaps with exclusivities, with Square/Ubi being exclusive to Sony, I will find that very sad, personally.
This huge Activision purchase (and Bethesda before it) has the intent of taking teams and games away from a huge chunk of gamers, which is a little different.
I'm not saying it's 'bad', and I totally get why MS would do this, but still it's quite different from Sony buying bloody Bluepoint who were only making games for them anyway.
And if Sony now starts buying, say, Square and Ubisoft (just an example here!) to ensure their position in the market, and we end up having such wide gaps with exclusivities, with Square/Ubi being exclusive to Sony, I will find that very sad, personally.
I d say not even the slightest. Sega was losing support for multiple reasons, not because competition was buying off IPs.
Even the N64 had more support than the Sega Saturn. A lot of titles released on PS and the N64 never saw a release on the Saturn.
Acquisitions like this are just Microsoft being Microsoft. They can't help themselves Their tactic since the 80's has been to starve the competition rather than try and compete.
But acquisitions like this are just bad news, it doesn't matter who does it. The end result just breeds a stale bland market as all the creatives end up having to follow the same rules, report to the same people, beg for money form the same channels. I fully expect that if this merger isn't blocked then quite a few of those studios covered by it will shutter, otherwise they run the risk of competing with each other for the same slice of pie.
For this acquisition the only ones to benefit will be Microsoft and its shareholders.
I wonder what the price of Gamepass will escalate to, if this kind of consolidation is allowed to happen?
Their tactic since the 80's has been to starve the competition rather than try and compete.But acquisitions like this are just bad news, it doesn't matter who does it. The end result just breeds a stale bland market as all the creatives end up having to follow the same rules, report to the same people, beg for money form the same channels. I fully expect that if this merger isn't blocked then quite a few of those studios covered by it will shutter, otherwise they run the risk of competing with each other for the same slice of pie.
For this acquisition the only ones to benefit will be Microsoft and its shareholders.
I wonder what the price of Gamepass will escalate to, if this kind of consolidation is allowed to happen?