Sony was apparently in advanced board level discussions to acquire Take Two this week, which would grant it ownership of blockbuster franchises such as Grand Theft Auto, Red Dead Redemption, and BioShock. Of course, we told you it was all nonsense, and no sooner than the speculation has started has it all collapsed into a big pile of fake news.
The source of the rumour, a Wedbush Securities analyst named Joel Kulina, quickly poured cool water on the escalating flames, claiming that it all started with “unconfirmed market speculation”. Hearsay, in other words. A Bloomberg Tech reporter named Yuji Nakamura later followed up with the Japanese giant itself, which said that there is “no truth” to the story.
Of course, this is all to be expected. While it’s not financially impossible, it’s unreasonable to expect Sony to purchase a publisher of Take Two’s colossal size. Not only would this kind of purchase result in a lot of lost jobs, but the value of brands such as Grand Theft Auto would be diminished should they switch to a single format. It never really made sense.
[source gamesindustry.biz, via twitter.com]
Comments 29
Oh well, there's always cdpr
Make sense. But how much value would they really lose on a single format? Most sales are on PS already now, and people wwould buy PSs to play Rockstar games. The loss of sales would be minimal. A lot of the Xbox sales would just transfer to PS.
What will be interesting is if Sony even remotely considered it, cos if they did they may well look elsewhere.
@Jaz007 Remember that companies like Take Two already have huge publishing divisions, business management, PR, etc etc. All of which would become obsolete if Sony purchased them, so there'd be a lot of fat that would have to be trimmed.
I also think the brands would lose value to an extent. If you look at how much money GTA Online makes every month through microtransactions, for example, limiting those sales to a single platform moving forwards would lessen the value of the brand to some degree.
Thank goodness for that. I game primarily on PlayStation, but I surely would not want Take Two/Rockstar to go single format only. Gaming in general should be enjoyed by everyone.
@wiiware CDPR doesn't sell out.
I am kinda surprised Sony hasn't made an attempt to purchase any devs this generation. Kinda makes me sad. Since even second party devs are in Microsoft's crosshairs now.
@Cpt_Price being a subjective "crown of the industry" doesn't mean anything when you're not making half as much money as Rockstar lol
I've known about this rumor for all of two hours and figured it was B.S. from the start. That would be financially irresponsible for everyone involved.
Watch them do when no one is looking
'analyst' has become an interesting word these last few years.
@Turismo4GT My thoughts exactly. I play on my PlayStation, but I’d be pretty disappointed if they went the exclusive route.
Pretty sure this was a plan to make a quick buck in the bull run that followed the “rumour”...
Hostile takeovers are always a bad idea if you upset the newly acquired staff then you damage the valuable thing you’ve just bought. That doesn’t necessarily mean that they will never take over anyone just that both parties need to be in favour.
Joel trying to give Pachter a run for his money...
I wish Sony would Buy Devolver Digital. Thats actually realistic
@NomNom New studios have been added to SIE this generation but they might all be newly constructed, and none of them are particularly big.
@Nyne11Tyme I always wanted them to make Insomniac part of Sony studios...
@NomNom as far as I’m aware, Sony have concentrated on making their first party studios bigger for more capacity rather than adding new.
Having said that they did add Kojimas studio as a new one this gen...
Buy bluepoint.
@Dodoo I always thought Insomniac was a part of Sony
@Dodoo They did ask the question of Insomniac once upon a time, but they said no.
@PhantomJ Nope. Remember, they mad Sunset Overdrive for Xbox One.
@Dodoo - Sony didn't add Kojima Productions, they have a deal for Death Stranding to be a console exclusive but they don't own the studio in any way.
@Shigurui While they don't own them now, that doesn't mean it won't happen in the future. Kojima and Sony have a great relationship that dates back to the PS1. I think at some point, Sony will likely work out a deal to acquire the studio down the line. I guess it all depends on how well Death Stranding works out and any new projects they may partner on.
@get2sammyb you'd imagine those brands would lose a significant amount of value as GTA5 and RDR2 have sold around 15 million combined on Xbox not including all digital copies and of course shark cards and what not. That's a lot of sales to lose plus the potential of PS5 not guaranteed to have the same kind of lead next generation.
It'll be interesting to see what happens with those studios recently bought by Microsoft and whether they make multiplatform games given their recent behaviour. Obviously Obsidian are for the time being and I wonder if these were bought as much to take advantage of the huge PlayStation market as much as growing their own exclusive IP content
I don't know what to believe anymore. But, what I do is that no company with any ounce of commonsense is going to say 'yeah we are (or were) in talks to buy insert company name.' That would just be stupid business. Still think if any purchase is going to be made the first one has to be Insomniac. The longer that studio remains out there, the longer it's vulnerable to an MS buyout. I don't think that'd be a good match and nobody really benefits.
@Dodoo id love resistance ip on ps5
@Shigurui ah ok my bad. For some reason I thought he was part of Sony studios...
@Gamer83 I don’t this this has anything to do with Sony or take two. More like traders looking to make a quick buck on spreading rumours.
There’s a trading saying that goes “buy the rumours, sell the news”. Whoever bought this rumour on take two”s stock likely did very well indeed!
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