Geoff Keighley Hints at More Gaming Acquisitions in 2022

If MS get Squenix I'll literally cry

I mean, he's stating the very obvious.

I wonder if Konami is on the table. I'm not sure how much they are worth, but I know for sure Sony would use their IPs far better.

I’m gonna cry if MS buys Capcom.

@Corc11 won't happen. Japan won't let them.

If M$ gets any other company at all , i’ll cry .

they can’t make games

@naruball

What makes you say this?

Geoff’s really trying to be the Flavor Flav of corporate negotiations.

Not that we didn't know it, but it's still getting more depressing waking up every day.

@TheCollector316 Konami's a dead games company that owns some interesting IPs but has virtually no production and a few b-rate mobile studios. They're unattractive to buy for gaming though because buying them for IP means buying a massive casino machine company. Who'd buy that? It's like saying to buy a PS5 you need to buy a few dozen Atari 2600s and a Wii Fit.

Geoff Keighley 'hints' about something that Sony has confirmed will be happening? Stop the press!! The people have a right to know!

@nomither6 NGL, I’ve been playing some pretty good games from Xbox this past year. Not sure I’m in agreement with your statement. Both these consoles have been really great this gen.

At this rate I'm going to dig out my raspberry pi and learn how to code. Got to be worth a couple of billion.

@Hypnotoad107 well , what are these good games ? please let me know .

@MatthewJP I've just typed

10 PRINT "1 BILLION POUNDS"
20 GOTO 10
30 RUN

on my Spectrum 48k and it's now worth 3 billion quid because of MS 😊

@TheCollector316 @naruball "Can't" is too strong a word. Once before when Square was in the dumps in the 360 era MS and Square had a LoI for sale. It only stopped because Sony moved in with a major investment to purchase a large share, and that was the preferable arrangement to Japanese regulators. It's not a preferred option, or even a likely option, but it's not an impossible option, the legal drafts were ready for it to happen once before. Sony just divested that share a few years back (which is how FF and KH finally went multiplat) so I doubt they'd be interested in buying in again at the current, much higher, trade price.

Personally I don't think it's likely S-E is for sale at all right now, so I don't think it's a worry, but it's absolutely possible were they to be for sale. And I don't think Sony could afford them as a 100% buyout. And there's obviously enough existing good relationships between the companies that they were willing to sell to MS last decade.

If I had to bet his referring to MS. Even if it is PS its obviously not going to benefit us. Especially seeing as Sony is cool with giving a dev 3.6 billion to just continue doing what they were doing.

@riceNpea Pretty sure you’ve just written a Spectrum NFT.

@Ken_Kaniff great! I'll take that bet. Jim Ryan said there'll be more PS acquisitions so...how much are we betting? If you're strapped for cash i accept luncheon vouchers and/or Greenshield stamps.

Really going out on a limb with that one...

@NEStalgia

Thanks for the detailed explanation. As I understand it, Konami still uses their popular IPs for their casino machines, so it is unlikely they would want to cleanly part with them, but buying Konami's gaming business/IPs while leaving the rest to Konami could happen. It's unlikely a full buyout will happen based on the information you shared.

@nessisonett ..and it's totally unique, only available to whomever wins the bid. Shall we start at £10,000?

Don't worry if you don't win this time, I also have..

10 PRINT '1 BILLION POUNDS'
20 GOTO 10
30 RUN

..to sell. As you can see it's one-of-a-kind as the quote marks are British standard single instead of double.

@velio84

Remedy would fit right in, but I think Sony needs to do more to protect their Eastern flank. At this point, Microsoft may decide they want to appeal to Japanese gamers more by making a run at Capcom, Sega, and Square Enix. Regulatory hurdles aside, Microsoft has a lot of money to throw around and clearly doesn't care about the damage they cause to the industry.

Ahhh, this is not the way I wanted gaming ever to go..

I want someone to purchase Konami and at this point I couldn't care who's the buyer, any one would be a step up to continuing to see them rot and at this point decompose into oblivion.

@Juanalf Konami won't be selling-up any time soon, too much of that sweet, sweet NFT money to grift off gamers. They live for that warm, fuzzy feeling they get when the long-con pays off.

@riceNpea Like I said, even if they do its no benefit to us just like the Bungie purchase. Sony spent 3.6 billion for that company to continue putting out multiplatform games (While MS is not with there acquisitions. Besides contractual obligations.) And to assist there current studios to all make live service mp games. Sony is making purchases to future proof there company, so they dont go out of business completely from these massive MS buyouts. So if it is Sony making another purchase this year and its more of this, then there's nothing for us as Playstation to celebrate about.

Potential hot take.. but what if Nintendo is finalizing an acquisition right now that isn’t Platinum games? As in, they’re going for a major publisher themselves? Seems like they’re left out of this conversation because the two big buys that occurred don’t affect them much, but I suspect they’re quietly playing the acquisition game too. So I think Geoff could be hinting at Nintendo doing something soon.

He’s a genuine man. He must have heard legit source. Push is funny calling him master of hype but at some point recurring jokes can harm and incite people low instincts e.g. hate.

@Ken_Kaniff there's LOADS to celebrate. Forget acquisitions, that's so yesterday. PSVR2 is the future. VR gaming is what we'll be doing in 10 years when the tech is fully mature. And Sony will be right at the forefront. 2D gaming will become retro cool.

@Ken_Kaniff It will absolutely benefit PS players. They didn't just spend $4 billion for nothing. Destiny may stay multiplatform but Bungie will work on things published by Sony that will absolutely not be multiplatform. It's already been stated they're working on other games. Plus that's just what they're saying now. When and if Playstation revenue starts to drop you can absolutely bet they'll have them make a new IP that will probably be Ps5/PC only.

@JJ2 Everyone in gaming knows there'll be more acquisitions. Jim Ryan said as much!! Old Keighley hinting at is is like somebody saying, 'psst....I reckon Apple will release a new phone next year'.

I understand why these two are buying developers, quite literally scared of non gaming companies coming in. We could potentially suffer from these in the future - unlikely, but not everything is past success, but new companies coming in offer more competition and could enhance our gaming. They just know they will lose market share. On the other hand, we could benefit as we then know, these great developers get financial backing to succeed. If I had to be on Sony making more acquisitions I'd probably say companies that generally offer consistent revenue. Konami would be a very good shout, with their own live service offerings.. i.e PES e.c.t

Someone informed me that Sony had 40 - 44 Billion Dollars on hand for Acquisitions & Mergers, and as of recently it has suddenly dropped to 16 Billion, the implication being that Sony has spent 24 - 28 Billion in the last 6 months, and with Jim Ryan claiming more acquisitions are coming, I wouldn't be surprised if they've made 2 BIG Acquisitions plus a few more smaller acquisitions.
Of course this is all speculation based on numbers I cannot confirm are even real, but I'm quite intrigued what other Studio's Sony could potentially buy since acquiring fan favorites Insomniac Games, Bluepoint & Housemarque, I mean what other studios would make as much sense as the acquisitions of the aforementioned Insomniac Games, Bluepoint & Housemarque?

@Shepherd_Tallon Microsoft definitely would've forced Bungie back onto Halo if the acquisition went their way.

All this acquisition talk of even more of the top 5 companies just makes me think about the direction gaming is going in and that I don't want to be a part of that. Digital subscription future in around 20 years and so many exclusives per system that you pretty much have to own both consoles to play games you could on one console in 2019. More and more buggy games get released and required day one patches, Microtransactions, live service galore, NFT's and loot boxes, over priced DLC, paid online, co op shooters everywhere and only the richest will be on top.

Wish I could go back to the days of the PlayStation 2 and whatever Nintendo had where none of that existed and only pure fun single player games and couch co op games were around. Would of been happy if that was the last gen.

FTC now looking at the Activision acquisition. I don't think Microsoft would go for anyone else until this has passed. Right now they have just spent $70billion and need to start seeing a return on that.

It's interesting that only Western devs/publishers have been picked up for the most part except for Tango Gameworks but that was through Bethesda. I hope it stays that way as the majority of what I play these days are from Japan so that's what matters to me.

@JustPlainLoco Clap Hanz, Supermassive Games, maybe even Hello Games.

@CKFilms start seeing a return on 70 billion? That's years away! MS are consolidating, building for the future. Game Pass is a loss-leader to tempt subs and all the acquisitions won't see a return for years. This is a longterm plan, MS aren't expecting to see a return any time soon.

Worst outcomes: MS buys EA (Mass Effect), Capcom (various dormant IPs), or Square (Tomb Raider, FF7R2, etc).

There's no best outcome as gamers loose at every buyout.

Et tu, Brute?

Dont like this one bit. From either company. Its never good when people start swallowing up properties in this manner.

@riceNpea I own the first VR headset and the few games I've played on it were fun, but I always go back to sitting in my recliner and enjoying 2D games. I dont care how good VR gets, I can tell you from experience I will never wont something on my head and standing up every time I game, and I dont know anyone else that would. Its a nice novelty, but not the future.

@mucc Our dictator Jim Ryan come out yesterday and said all there future development will be multiplatform, so no there is no advantage for PS fans here.

Wouldn't be surprised if ms are in the process of buying crystal dynamics (assuming they haven't just slipped the extra few $ for the entirety of squeenix) due to them helping with perfect dark.

@riceNpea hello sir

@Ken_Kaniff but that won't neccesarily be VR gaming in a few generations time so don't right it off too soon 😊

@Weebleman
Hello!! Nice to see you 🥰🥰 Hope life's treating you and all the Weeblemen well!

Could be true but this guy hypes up anything to the highest degree

@riceNpea it is indeed. Glad to stumble upon you again. Hope all is well in the pea household. Do pass on my best wishes to any other folks you may still be in touch with as well.

@lolwhatno tis a man who wobbles but does not fall down.

Painting yourself blue and going topless is recommended yet optional.

I'm quite fine with Sony buying certain game devs with rich history of multiplatform games to keep them on their platform as opposed to making it exclusive. Sony unfortunately needs to ensure x amount of games stay on their platforms, especially given that COD of all games, was snapped up by MS. If Sony loses too many games, most of my friends (one console only) will probably quit gaming and I will probably follow suite and sell my Xbox and PS and keep my pc for non-gaming purposes... I don't think streaming games is a global solution yet either.

@Weebleman nice to put a face to the name...😂 long time no speak. How are you?

@Weebleman certainly will. @code45709 makes special guest star appearances here 😁😁 and we speak in WA. I miss talking to you and the others so it's great to see you poke your head in here.

@code45709 talk of the sexually deviant devil.....

@riceNpea yay weebleman, surely good banter times are ahead of us?

@riceNpea it's as if you knew😂🤣👍

This is just getting depressing. I've read multiple claims that the hidden enemies Amazon, Google and Facebook are what we have to fear. I mean...really! Last I checked it was Microsoft, Tencent and Sony trying to consolidate the gaming industry. I think evidence shows these companies are the enemy of gaming consumers.

@riceNpea anyway I've got exclusive NFT python code for "Hello World" with a massive... erm thingy

@lolwhatno if you are going to paint yourself blue I recommend Starlight blue to match the PS controller.

@code45709 God....I dread to think what that looks like. I blame Internet pornography. In the old days you had 1 video tape you nicked off your dad and it was about as sexy as a Matt Hancock sex tape. Now if there isn't someone farting into a funnel whilst bonking a one-legged octogenarian it's not good enough.

@riceNpea 😂 my dad never had owt sadly. But the old internet days where a pic would be a bar line at a time! Self indulgence used to go on for days!!!🤣👍

Just realised of all programming languages to learn I chose python😂😂😂

@riceNpea
To be honest that’s what I think Colin M often does on his YouTube channel haha
Geof did say he heard something I believe it gives genuine info that it’s very soon though and he’s only saying it on his Twitter and expressing his thoughts is allowed I guess? Or do so called fake insiders have more right to do so?

Personnaly I don't want MS or SONY to buy any other studio, especially the big and classic companies! For me the ones that will hurt if they get acquired are SEGA and CAPCOM!

@code45709 oh you know how to code? Write any games? I remember telling my dad to buy me a Spectrum so I could learn to code but I knew I was only ever going to game on it. Didn’t even bother typing out the free games printed un mags, though they were crap most of the time.
Like when I begged him for a Casio keyboard promising him I'd learn to play. Technically I didn't lie because I do know how to play the opening line of music to Eastenders on it 😁

@Shepherd_Tallon It was, Bungie wanted to do Destiny and Microsoft wanted Bungie to only do Halo so Bungie left.

If Microsoft buys Sega, I'm going to cry like I did when they bought Rare

@NEStalgia It wouldn't be the first time that a company has been bought then unrequired parts of the business sold off, but maybe the diversity would be good for Sony

@Enriesto Possible, given in the last financial briefing Nintendo did announce a huge rebuy of stocks, and reinvesting massive amounts of cash into building up teams and acquisitions.

@riceNpea I did release some games actually. But google play store has delisted it. There's a video on YouTube and for "square in underwear" I think that's still downloadable. If you want links I'll send em on WhatsApp

You're a modern day Mozart😂 I sort of wanna hear/see you play it😂👍

I can barely remember the coding, did C# too but I doubt I could put anything complex together. Or maybe it'll come flooding back? My plan was to release free games with no MxT. And a non invasive option that the player would have to navigate to so they could pay if they wanted too

Edit: the other game is fortune cookie smash from google play, someone reviewed it (I wasn't pleased) on YouTube and my trailer for a better version for steam... I got death threats so pulled it and gave up. Carried on refurbing properties😂

@Ken_Kaniff I don't know how much more Microsoft can do before the Activision deal goes through... I just hope that Microsoft don't get their hands on any of the most beloved Japanese developers or Rockstar. The rest, I could probably lose without further thought.

For misinformed people Bungie will definitely have a major influence on PlayStation games and not just the games they publish.

@code45709 wait, how did i not cotton on this was you!! Its not like theres a clue in that name or anything!! 🤣

Im grand pal. This is like a class reunion

@Apfelschteiner In Konami's case though most of the business is the unrequired parts. Though, yeah, plenty of companies get bought just for patents and disposed of, but it's a little different. Those patents are usually roadblocks to continuing the work the company is invested in, or reaching the market they need. Konami's IPs, while quality, don't represent the same importance as a patent that would stop Sony from making games, the way, say, Konica-Minolta was for Sony's medical imaging development (which they bought for the patents, but continued making the cameras under the Sony name.)

@Reyren Nintendo's too cash-rich right now. It's a lot of money to spend to just buy money with it. Which they did on purpose. The IPs are practically priceless. They're small peanuts to a company like MS, but they're Japan's most cash-flush company, even over Sony, so no asset swapping can force it. And MS isn't in the business of hostile takeovers, I can't think of any hostile acquisition on their part. Tencent is the worrisome one, they already have a beachhead in Nintendo stock. Should they ever want to stage a hostile takeover, they have the footing to do it.

@Enriesto Nintendo already is a major publisher, moreso than Sony and Microsoft have bee the past 8 years or so. In addition to their own in-house and exclusive contract games, they play publisher for other major publishers on their hardware, publishing Square-Enix's, Segas, Capcom, and others' title in various regions on their platform. In that sense they do publishing duty moreso than most other big publishers. Acquisitions isn't really in their business plan, and Iwata got hammered by investors when he bought Monolith. I don't see them buying a Western publisher at all, and I can't see them doing a total cash buyout of something like Square, Sega, or Capcom. Though "Nintendo buys Sega" would be a vindication for many playground disputes decades in the making.

@kyleforrester87 Oof, I never thought of it before, but that comparison may be too apt!

@riceNpea lovely stuff this! I float about on here and pop the occasional comment in now and then. Other places just arent the same these days if you get my drift so i think a few are starting to wander.

Im getting so disgusted with the direction of the game industry that I’m getting to the point to where I guess it’s acceptance and not giving a damn.

I prefer traditional games with traditional content at a traditional price, but, that way of conducting game business is dying. We are heading to a future where there will be NO options to own anything. Including digital, and it will all be part of a subscription service and 80% or more of games will be mind numbing mediocre GaaS games.

I’m not saying it’s happening soon, but that is the future.

@code45709 you got death threats?! 😳 and not from a jealous husband?!

You won't like my music. I got deaf threats where people said they'd rather go deaf.

Send me a link for the game, though I realise it's a risk downloading a link you provide! Can it be played on a phone? I'll use a burner in case you give me a virus. Again.

@NB-DanTE I'd be more than happy for Sony to buy Sega as long as they kept games on the Switch because that business is meant to be multiplat. For me this Bungie deal opens new possiblilities of Sony studios outside of the Playstation studio system.

@Weebleman a real shame. Their mods have gone crazy. And that Ed Nightingale spends all day looking for things to point his finger at and be offended by. When you're there next say hello for me please. So many people I miss 😔

@Weebleman 😂 well I have many forms... I don't post until @RiceNpea joined.

The other place is terrible now. Complete opposite of what made it fun plus the terrible clickbait is a turn off

Thanks for you comments and support in my... forced removal😂👍

The only player I’m sure it’s not is Microsoft, with their enormous ActiBlizz deal still pending scrutinization from the FTC.

I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s Tencent or Embracer or one of those.

Jim Ryan said to expect more acquisitions, but I’m not sure if there will be another announced so closely with Bungie.

@Apfelschteiner They were trying to buy Bungie, but Sony offering them complete freedom sold them over MS, so I think MS buying is far from over. Im with you on losing some of the franchises. I hated losing Bethesda, but could careless about Activision (besides Crash and Spyro). Its just more about the financial hit Sony is going to take losing these future games. There survival is my biggest concern. Ive got alot of hours invested into my trophy list, lol.

I don't like this direction of the games industry and I weep for a simpler time as many here have probably already seen me say.

That being said if this is to continue then if anyone gets Sega I'd rather it be Nintendo.
They would respect Sega's heritage and it just 'feels right'.

I think Microsoft in particular would ruin them, I wouldn't trust them with any Japanese developer/publisher. I feel they just don't understand them.

If anyone else is on the cards right now it's highly likely Square Enix. PlayStation feels like the natural home for them. Tomb Raider was one of PlayStation's original icons. And Final Fantasy has long had a home on PlayStation.

I doubt Microsoft are buying anyone else anytime soon. The FTC are looking into the Activision acquisition and if they buy anymore big publishers so soon during or after the acquisition that would definitely trigger anti-trust legislation.

I had a premonition the other day that i would read a future article which discusses how Sony went from taking cd projekt reds game off their store to then buying the studio and game. So my bet is on that happening

If you are working for the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) this year...please...take your vacations now...

I agree with most, hate all this, see us racing towards a GAAS future in an on fire train, but I still don't believe the Japanese companies will sell out so easily.
If I had to guess it will be Take-Two because CEO Strauss Zelnick is a cutthroat corporate suit or Warner Bros. Games who are stuck in limbo with that AT&T/Discovery deal.

@Rural-Bandit
Well thats not entirely true about Sony not developing games. Yes in the early days they bought developers to start out but titles like Horizon Zero Dawn and Ghost of Tsushima were developed by studios they've owned for nearly three decades, and those were brand new IP's.

I can't understand people that cheer for this. In every industry this happened it made things worse

@Apfelschteiner don't get fooled by Bungie deal! Sony probably got it to get a studio with experience in making service games and the more platform it's in the better! Service games don't have the AAA games power that to attract people to their platform!

Outside of the normal targets I see being tossed around, I wouldn't be surprised if Sony picked up an indie publisher a la Devolver Digital. They've been accused of failing indies in the recent past, and I could see them wanting to bolster that flank of the business with built in relationships with a large swath of indie developers that would likely be prime candidates to fuel PS+/Spartacus for the foreseeable future.

Weird Sony is the best Sony. And right now Devolver is basically the weirdest (and consistently highest quality) indie publisher out there.

@riceNpea i will certainly pass it on. Both you and @code45709 are missed greatly. Theres a few who seek to be outraged i think. Anyone managed to find darkside?

SJP got the hammer and also rain bird (or whatever his 900th profile was) but, lets be honest, nobody was surprised. The activision purchase sent them into a frothing rage of defense 😂

@Weebleman oh boy!! I bet they went mental 😆😆😆 not heard from Darkside sadly. Do you have his number @code45709?

@get2sammyb All people talk about now is who is on whose shopping list?

I really hope we can all get back to talking about games at some point soon.

@riceNpea no he said he'd be in touch and hasn't. It saddens me this as hes greatly missed

I'm not looking forward to finding out who's buying who. Really hate all this and I really hope Final Fantasy, Tomb Raider, Persona and most of Bandai Namco games remain on PlayStation. Would be heartbreaking to see PlayStation losing them. I'd play where the games are but PlayStation is where I want to play them.

If anyone was to buy out Sega, I hope Sega could sell Atlus to Sony and then the rest of Sega could go to Nintendo. Sonic feels like he blongs with Nintendo as that's the closest platform to a Sega console but Persona should be with PlayStation.

But anyway, enough of that. Tomorrow is the State of Play for ..

One more thing. If Microsoft was to buy out Take Two and got GTA, maybe Sony could consider bringing back The Getaway. Assuming they ended up acquiring Square Enix, maybe bring back Sleeping Dogs

@riceNpea folks were naturally not impressed with MS appearing to create a monopoly. Rain was saying we should thank Phil for it. You can imagine how it went from there.

Dont know if you folks are on Discord or anything (i have it, not sure how to use it) as we should set up something on there. That way we can keep in touch without clogging up comments sections for these fine folks.

@Weebleman great idea. I don't have an account set up but I guess now its on PS I may as well set it up. Doing it right now 😊

@Weebleman discord set up. If a group happens im ready 😁

For Sony- SE, Capcom, FromSoftware and Konami make a lot of sense as they already make and have made games exclusively for Playstation platforms.

For MS- who knows...those pockets are deep and market valuation won't deter them from stroking a check.

@Corc11 Me too 😖 I hope Sony buys them.

@UltimateOtaku91 Just accept it they already brainwashed the new generation that games are broken on release. Microtransactions are standard, unfinished games/early access are now called liveservice. We are no longer called customers but consumers so they so see us as people who own a game but we are able to play them.

Ember lab.from software.remedy.capcom.square enix.level5.vanillaware.koei tecmo.word up son

@__jamiie Yeah i totally agree with you. Now we are just getting nervous if you can even play your favorite games in the future on your prefered platform.

Ofc there are ways of MS getting jap publisher.

Didn't MS tried to buy square, capcom and Nintendo? They sure did.

@TheCollector316 - What damage have MS caused the industry? They basically saved smaller devs like Ninja Theory and Double Fine. Bethesda were circling the drain when they bought Zenimax and if they can clean the cesspool that ActiBlizz has clearly become then that can only be a good thing. I fail to see any damage.

@riceNpea @code45709

https://discord.gg/WuDydAZ6kQ

@Shigurui on what planet were bethesda circling the drain? Just because fallout 76 got a bad reception? Even that had (and i assume still has) a pretty impressive player base.

@nomither6 I’m guessing Halo Infinite? Has there been a new Forza or Gears game recently? I don’t really follow Xbox news unless it’s reported here.

I hope MS don’t buy Capcom or we’ll end up with another monstrosity like RE6! 😫

Or, we won’t I guess… but just knowing it’s out there would be horrifying all the same.

@JustPlainLoco I can only see EA or Square Enix as a possible acquisition for these numbers you stated.

@Stragen8 Sony should and Capcom are valued at $4.9 Billion

@BritneyfR_ee For XB the 2021 big games were: Halo Infinite, Forza Horizon 5 (a racer winning IGN GOTY is pretty big), Age of Empires 4 (PC, XB port coming later), and Psychonauts 2 (also on PS, and it's a gem of a game.)

@Balosi Bethesda/Zenimax was having financial trouble funding the single player games they were known for which is why FO76 happened as a live service thing to begin with, they were going to have to turn everything into monetized services, and they were getting desperate with pretty gruesome monetization to hold things together, and had some insidious characters on the board. On top of that, they were privately held and their founder/CEO was dying (the public was unaware of that at the time) who was the glue that held things together since the beginning. They weren't in the best of places despite most of that not being apparent publicly until after the buyout. Being cash strapped would have sent them into a downward spiral. They'd have continued circling for some years, but it probably wasn't good long-term.

Similarly Obsidian and Double Fine are top notch studios that have been cash-strapped for a long, long, long time. Obsidian has been wandering with half-finished releases due to budget ever since Interplay/Black Isle went down and the spun out of it. Double Fine was in a similar place, though with more modest objectives. I remember as far back as KotR2 the cries about Obsidian just not having the funding they needed to finish it (it was a better game than Bioware's original and then just......ended.....)

@__jamiie NLife should buy IGN before Facebook does. Am I internetting right?

I have to wonder, will a Japanese company ever sell to Microsoft..also theyve just spent 70 billion on a video games company, what do the shareholders and board think if more acquisitions are planned ? Also I cant be arsed, can it not be the 90s anymore 😂

@Corc11 I really don't want a western company having anything to do with my favourite genre... jrpg ,they will ruin it.

@Luigia

I think Sony already got Capcom (jk but I wouldn't be surprised). The more I think of it, the more it makes sense.

Sony Pictures + Capcom movies/series. Kind of like what Bungie wants.
EVO + Street fighter and the studio
Live Service + Monster Hunter (Could be like Destiny where there's premium like expansion).
Resident Evil releases frequent and Sony now has Bungie to help them finally make a multiplayer RE game they always wanted since they all are crap lol.
Pragmata and the new Dragons Dogma 2 could be big.
Plus sony cares a lot about graphics and quality and Capcom excels at that.

Now imagine sony reveals RE4 remake, Dragons Dogma 2, MH6 and SF6 while acquiring Capcom in a showcase. Would be a nice to reveal that and not just one boring twitter post.

someone better buy Konami. I hope it’s PS but for the love of god someone buy it and bring them back out of the dark.

I’d be cool with Sony buying Square Enix.

@NEStalgia Sony could easily afford to buy Square Enix with the cash they have on hand, same applies to Capcom.

@NEStalgia a lot of worst case predictions in those stories. Im sure most companies face regular challenges.

It's kinda sad we as game consumers have gone from being shocked at seeing a studio acquisition to being mad when we don't see favorable studios and franchises being bought. Sign of the times I suppose. I'll get used to it over time.

@LightningLeader much of microoft's userbase doesn't care for the jrpg genre. it would make no sense for them to go that route but then again, much of what microsoft does makes no sense. i agree, though, it would take something of that magnitude for me to finally get an xbox. i really don't want one otherwise.

Yeah I believe Sony got Square Enix / CapCom/ and some others. I think MS will grab CD PR, EA (maybe) , WB games,

Sony Corporation -134.12 Billion
Square Enix -5.647 Billion
Capcom ADR - 5.028 Billion
TAKE-TWO INTERACTIVE SOFTWARE, INC- 18.411 Billion (has a good partnership with Sony)
Bluepoint (Sony working on it)
FromSoftware estimated net worth of about $100 thousand (not too sure if this is true)
Konami Holdings Corp -7.084 Billion

I believe Sony will or may already have Square Enix and Capcom, but there could be more.

Microsoft Corporation 2.306 Trillion
CD Projekt 4 ADR Representing Ord Shs - 4.412 Billion
Electronic Arts Inc. - 36.748 Billion
AT&T Warner gaming unit 4 billion
Ubi Soft Entertainment ADR 6.99 Billion ( likely not to be bought , as they are owned by Guillemot family in 2017)
THQ Nordic owned by Embracer Group AB (publ) (THQQF) - 10.093 Billion

I think Microsoft will go for most of the above.
This is why large purchases isn't always a good idea (in most cases its fine) : Microsoft-Activision Deal to Be Reviewed by Federal Trade Commission

This is the decade of consolidation and I don't like it

I couldn't read this there was about 5 ads in 2 paragraphs of article....

@NattyKing They can afford the EV maybe. But not necessarily a bidding war in a climate when companies as light as Bungie are going for 50% more than Squares EV. I'm guessing real sale price SE would be 15-20b+ in the current climate. MS paid 45% over on Actibliz and that was a bargain. Dollar for dollar Sony paid a lot more for Bungie. Not as cash, and Sony is highly leveraged. Ironically Nintendo is far more liquid than Sony, so they'd actually be more capable of buying square easily if so inclined. I'm not sure either of them are too interested.

All that is hypothetical assuming square is even for sale, which it probably isn't. Zeni was drowning, Acti was scandal plagued, and Bungie.... Was Bungie. SE isn't really in a bad position and just unloaded a lot of debt.

@Balosi Todd Howard point blank said that was the case regarding funding single player, and fo76 being multi because of that. And he was only slightly vague that starfield would probably have been multi, and that's why there were talks with Sony, and the signing of death loop and ghostwrite to Sony until the MS buyout came into play. And the sales of death loop that we now do see certainly wouldn't have done them favors. The founder/CEO died shortly after the buyout concluded. The company would have been headless and short on cash. Not a good combo. And they already had a great long time relationship with Ms and Spencer personally, so it clearly fit nicely. Only good came from that buyout for sure.

Obsidian, also truly was short on cash most of their history and it hurt their games. They definitely weren't going to go out of business, but they could never make the games they wanted to make to completion. Obsidian, if you weren't aware, was much of Black Isle, under Interplay. The publisher got screwed in a hostile takeover and was run into the ground. They weren't paying employees, they weren't paying Bioware royalties on baldurs gate 2 (which is how they went to publish on Microsoft before getting bought by ea), they weren't paying royalties on freespace 2 to volition (which is how they ended to getting bought by thq). It was a mess. Obsidian broke out of black isle at that time (as did interplay founder and Fallout creator Brian Fargo who started inexile, now also part of XGS). Brian's lawsuit against them was how fallout ended up sold to Bethesda.

Anyway from that point obsidian never had the money they had under the publisher and has struggled with short funding. They need some bigger publisher to sit under because that's how they were really founded and able to do what they needed. It didn't have to be ms obviously but they really did need a richer owner to function, whoever it ended up being (as long as it wasn't ea.... Poor bioware....)

I think a few years from now we can look back and say if ms was helpful or harmful here. If Bethesda stays in form, if obsidian releases the top notch experience their teams are absolutely capable of and if Activision becomes something other than a gulag that makes cod, it's a net improvement across the board and a positive difference.

That's not to say I'm fond of the consolidation in general, merely that I think in light of the facts in these cases a buyout by ms is a net plus for these particular companies that weren't in a good position as independents.

But I also would rather not see more large buys by anyone. Even Ubisoft.

@Ken_Kaniff I don't know if Microsoft buying Bungie was ever a serious option considering that Microsoft owned them before and it didn't work out for them. I was only sad about Wolfenstein. I couldn't imagine two bigger deals encompassing so many IP that I care so little for. I really hate the company culture at Microsoft. They already destroyed one childhood favourite of mine in Rare, I really hope that they don't get their grubby mits on my beloved Sega. Now that Sony have accepted a system where they have the Playstation studios and other multiplatform studios, I really feel that Sega is a great fit. Sega are making some great games that with a little care and attention could be superb and sell incredibly well.

@nomither6 what has sony done that's so much better.

@Robert01 why don’t you go ask a sony fanboy , because you’ve got the wrong one .

@code45709 Well miss me no more, me old mucker! 😁😁😁
Sorry I wasn't in touch BTW, mate. It was on my to do list, but I've had a hectic few months. A drawn out and stressful house move (and a boatload of decorating to go with it) and... I caught Covid, slap-bang in the middle of it! 😳
Pretty bad, too. Wasn't hospitalised, but it wasn't pleasant. So yeah, it's only been in the last few weeks that things have settled into normality.

You, weebleman and rice, all on the same site. Nice. 😊
Let's hope we can drag a few more of the gang away from those ungrateful, undeserving of their community, heathens at EG. 😠

Good to speak to you again, my friend. 😊😊👍

... Ooh, almost forgot... @riceNpea & @Weebleman... "How-doooo, chaps"! 😁

@TheDarkSide 🤯 wow can't believe your back and here. It's so awesome to hear from you

Join the discord that weebleman has set up

I'm overjoyed

Boo Covid, glad your ok👍

I'm lost for words and have a big smile on face

@UltimateOtaku91 If you only wanted to play 100% single player experiences with 0 dlcs or mtx there are a lot of them, most 1st party playstation titles have 0 dlc (uncharted besides 4, the last of us, god of war, infamous....) square enix games are like this actually with the digital deluxe edition having worthless content all the time. Some franchises however were like this and aren't anymore like yakuza. And i'm not talking about indie games i don't like 99% of them i speak of AAA or AA. THQ nordic also publishes a lot of these games. I was never bothered by games getting a lot of mtx or lootboxes as i don't touch these games

@nomither6 Halo, Psychonauts 2, Forza Horizon 5, Flight Sim. I really enjoyed my time with all of those games. They were all fairly well received. I don’t play them for 100s of hours, but I played them, beat them, and moved on.

@riceNpea fancy seeing you here! Thought you might want to know that you can register for PSVR2 pre-order notifications on the PlayStation website now. I wouldn't normally myself but times are a changin'

@Hipsters_tears hello! 😁 I've already registered and I can't wait!!! Thanks for telling me though 👍

@riceNpea oops yeah thought I was early but it's reported everywhere now - d'oh

@Hipsters_tears 😆 it's the thought that counts

@Hipsters_tears

If you feel like joining Darkside, weebleman, Rob-bob, Eaton Corvious, Creamysmooth, 45709, Sbandy and I on Discord please as we try to get all us old boys together again after EG ruined the community here's the link https://discord.gg/4bfgkaWD
be great to see you and talk crap 😁