In a rare podcast appearance, PlayStation bigwig Jim Ryan has promised that more acquisitions are planned. This follows heavy rumours earlier in the week from industry pundits Greg Miller and Jeff Grubb, in which they alluded to a “really big” buyout. Ever since Microsoft purchased Bethesda a couple of years back, companies have been racing to snaffle studios for their empires, which has resulted in Sony snagging developers like Bungie, Housemarque, and more.
“We're growing through acquisition,” he told the PlayStation Blogcast. “We acquired five studios through the course of 2021. We're in discussions with Bungie. And we have more planned.” Most recently, PlayStation bought Canadian developer Haven Studios, although it had already signed a publishing agreement with the Jade Raymond-led team.
So, who’s next, then? Who knows? Despite the chatter of a “really big” acquisition, it’s worth remembering that the people familiar with business deals like this will be legally bound to keep their mouths shut. As such, you probably shouldn’t believe anything you read on social media. From what Jim’s saying here, though, we’ll surely learn more once the ink has dried.
[source soundcloud.com, via gamespot.com]
Comments 117
People need to give Jim Ryan credit he making sure us PlayStation gamers will be well fed this gen.
Was Sony acquiring konami, an April fool's gag?
Just like MS, Tencent, etc, buying up studios/publishers, I don't consider this great news for gaming.
A lot of April fools going on currently.
But o could imagine that they at least buy one more studio (square Enix, Capcom or From Software).
@PhhhCough yeah it is
@Gamer83 more like bad news for gaming.
I wish all acquisitions would stop asap.
How fun...... More big companies buying studios that shouldn't be bought. Hopefully it's not capcom, square enix or fromsoft. They should stay 3rd party. If anything buy Konami at least, they don't do anything with their IPs
Jim Ryan couldn't sound more boring if he tried.
Even though it's not good for the industry can you blame them? MS has ruined the industry using their conglomerate money so Sony has to either adapt or die. There's no way they can compete on their own without growing.
@anoyonmus Microsoft dropped the ball on heavy hitter acquisitions, Sony is trying to secure their future. Don't forget that Chinese companies are also acquiring others.
I don't care with Mumbo Jumbo AAA games as i only care the unpopular smaller games that capture my interest.
@anoyonmus Genie's out of the bottle now, unfortunately. It's a race to gobble everything up.
@anoyonmus gawt damn this horrendous faux-holiday! From interesting sounding games, to fake acquisitions.
I don't know where to stand at this point. Would rather things remain as they are/were, but microsoft pulled the trigger i guess.
Seeing those PS1 games in the Photo makes me wish I could turn back time and go back to those Golden days.
Nintendo selling to Sony due to Switch not meeting the sales expectations of billionaire share holders. 😏
@mucc I agree with you there. When I first heard about the Bethesda Acquisition I was like oh God here we go. I just wish things could go back to how they used to be. BLEEP Microsoft anyway, I used to like them but not anymore.
@BeerIsAwesome Sony only owns 1.93% of Kadokawa Corporation and Tencent owns 6.86%.
All I want to hear from Jimbo, is his resignation announcement or a complete reversal on the montization/live-service/remaster everything without actually remastering anything for a quick buck business model.
@KundaliniRising333 This lol. PlayStation and Microsoft needs a younger head, to truly know what we want, old people just don't know what gamers really want. We don't want live service games, actual games like GoW and Forza horizon with no live service aliments
sigh
I just hope the major Japanese publishers are left alone.
Fine by me just as long as the new acquisitions don't lead to more live service garbage or mtx smooch fest👍
I dont like acquisitions outside of the normal playstation method, but with Microsoft just buying everything instead of building from within, Sony needs to secure some *****. Kinda hoping its square enix
@Envy yeah agree but then again that wont stop microsoft from buying them which i could see them buying a square enix who is doing alot with sony
I don't want them to buy up more studios. I want them to create a studio to compete with the kinds of games that Bethesda makes, now that we don't get theirs any longer.
@Rmg0731 square enix takes anybody's money so if they get a good offer from Sony, you know they're gonna accept
Sony didn't start this game, just like charging for online, but the hand was forced.....
I'm not excited.
I wonder what’s going to happen next once the entire industry is completely controlled by a few companies. Nothing good will come out of this.
@Envy Why people keep suggesting Konami? Makes no sense at all for Sony.
Ips? Sony can build some.
@Rmg0731 Microsoft's biggest problem isn't buying studios...it's managing them.
I believe they have had 2-3 allegations in the past year from their studios. I doubt that'll get any better once Activision/Blizzard becomes first party.
They should stop acquiring and work on fixing what they have.
@NomNom I don't want to be all gloom and doom since they manage Playground very well.
Lets wait for their next showcase. If we only see Starfield and Redfall, something bad is happening. Maybe Bethesda should manage all of their studios. Hell, put Todd Howard as the head of xbox studios. Matt Booty seems like it ain't cutting it.
Just buy Deviation Games and call it a day lol.
Do we really need 10 games per year? Are we buying them all? That's one publisher.
If they keep this pace we'll end up with 50 at the end of the gen lol. 50 is too too much.
This acquisition stuff is getting super old
Good. I am not a big fan of industry consolidation, but when Microsoft decided it would start spending it's near-limitless cash to buy publishers (to make up for so many years of producing so few games and cultivating few studios) Sony had to circle the wagons. Waiting for Microsoft to buy up everything without a plan to make up for all that lost revenue would be disastrous.
In summary, I don't like industry consolidation, but since it's happening, I want Sony to participate because they must or they'll get squeezed out.
@Ralizah Alas, at least one of them will go I fear.
In a world of Microsofts and Tencents, Sony will have made a list of third party franchises and partners that they have to secure.
They have a business alliance with Kadokawa and own just under 2% of their shares, which should be enough to secure FromSoftware along with some anime deals.
Maybe.
But they'll be looking to buy one of the others in order to secure content and make sure key franchises don't just disappear overnight.
You would assume they would give any big publisher the same deal Bungie got, and those franchises won't be taken from other platforms.
If they don't outright buy Kadokawa (would they be allowed to buy another anime publisher?), it would be Konami or Square I'm betting.
Wonder if it could be FromSoftware? That would be huge for sure.
Hardly surprising, is it. All large corporations grow fastest by acquisitions. They need all need the expertise and IPs to stay relevant. Sony had to up their game with acquisitions after Microsoft started going all-in.
From a business perspective it’s fully understandable. It’ll probably hurt the industry as a whole but it’s inevitable now, it’s not going to stop.
Microsoft, Tencent, and Embracer group started this im afraid. How many people declared Microsoft's acquisition on Activision as the final nail in Playstation's coffin. Did they really expect to see Sony sit idly by and see the most profitable arm of their business fade away?
Given the state of the industry, and with more actors getting involved with the likes of Amazon and Apple, development talent will be more important than ever - so i cant blame Sony for trying to safeguard their future. I dont think they are trying to lock down ip either, but rather ensure they have plenty of capacity to keep bringing these games to us as quickly as possible at the quality expected.
I too am not sure this is good for the industry but we are where we are. I just hope Sony don't lose access to the likes of Square, Capcom, or SEGA as their loss would be devastating on my platform of choice
@Envy it's not really what all gamers want. Don't forget that the majority of gamers who aren't on sites like this don't play much else than fifa, cod fortnite etc. Those games sell incredibly well and with the mtx I don't blame any company for going that route. Since making money is what a company wants. I also don't like it but its understandable from a business point of view
@Envy As an older gamer myself, with a 14yo son who games daily - yours is a nonsense, and ageist, statement. Sony need a leadership team - not just one individual - that understands how to provide for all gamers' needs (no easy task). There is no single definition of 'gamer' that they are trying to cater for.
Also, like it or not, in business a wealth of experience can count for a great deal in getting things right - because you've had time to get things wrong and learn accordingly.
@RBMango We don’t need him to sound interesting, we need him to be good at business and keep the company moving forward
@HMazzy111 there was a big April Fools about FromSoft that got quite a lot of traction on Twitter, another for Konami, though as I understand it these are just wishful thinking
As much as I hate thie direction gaming is going and for the first time since playing games from the NES all the way to now, I'm afraid for gaming.
That said I highly doubt it will be Konami. They have their hand in other areas outside of gaming such as gambling that use their IP's. It'll be a complicated mess.
I doubt it'll be FromSoft either. It just doesn't feel right. It is highly likely to be Square Enix. Since the failure of Marvel Avengers I feel they could be struggling. A perfect time to sweep them up.
Sometimes I hope they partner with a large stake in Sega just to keep Microsoft's grubby mitts off them. I think Microsoft would ruin Sega and their beloved IP's.
There are folks over on PureXbox that keep consistently saying they want Microsoft to buy Sega while also some have commented here they don't want Sony to buy Sega.
They would riot if Sony bought Sega but would cheer and gloat if Microsoft did and I can't stand that hypocrisy.
In an ideal world Sega would be off limits because I'd rather everyone gets to play their games. Nintendo are in a relationship with them and that's where a majority of their games go. I also don't want to lose Persona and Yakuza. If MS bought Sega that would force me back over to Xbox and throwing their money around at big publishers that the other two can't financially compete with feels like bullying.
Hopefully if Microsoft tries to make any more huge acquisitions in the near future their government blocks it since they're too frequent and large. There already barriers and controversy over Activision and I'm guessing anti-trust/anti-competitive rules will trigger eventually. Or atleast I hope so.
Does anyone think Sony would of acquired these studios even if MS didn't buy Bethesda first?
I can't blame sony for doing this..I feel MS set some new tik tok trend of buying studios and Sony are feeling left out lol
@0niguy
The smaller studios, some of them Sony definitely would have bought anyway. Insomniac happened before Bethesda.
After Bethesda MS suddenly had very compelling Game Pass content, and they showed Sony that third party partners can just disappear now. So I'm sure some of those purchases were made to keep certain developers on PlayStation.
Housemarque, for sure someone else was trying to buy them, so Sony stepped in.
They were probably planning on it anyway after Returnal.
I dont like all these acquisitions anymore than anyone else. Call me selfish tho, but if everyones going to start doing a pac-man and gobbling up companies id much rather it be a company that makes the console i game on. Not much good if Sony dont buy one of the big ones out of decency and then someone/s comes along and buys them all up. Actibliz buyout for the sake of gaming? My ass! It was done to bolster gamepass with. Yippee, we get to keep Call of duty but you can bet your bottom dollar, pound or other local currency that we wont see crash, spyro or Tony Hawk again.
5 acquisitions in 2021 sounds good, but looking at those acquisitions doesn't fill me with confidence.
One was a PC port specialist so no new games from them, one hasn't even released a game at all yet, two were decent buys but don't produce AAA level games and finally the bunjie one is the worst acquisition for value that I've ever seen, to pay that kind of money for a company who only does one game and then to say that all future games will still be multiplatform 😑.
@Shepherd_Tallon yeah I guess your right..I'm quite curious who is next honestly though capcom or square makes the most since being part of playstation..I mean SFV was a console exclusive and FF just keeps being timed exclusives anyway lol
I'm going out on a limb here.. Sega. With the catalogue of games they have, plus recently the blue blur making his 2nd pretty successful movie, that would be beneficial to Sony on both sides.
@BeerIsAwesome The main reason that Nintendo buying Sega doesn't make sense is that they don't have a multiplatform model and for Sega, PC and PlayStation are very important. The ideal would be if Sega moved into the same division as Bungie, i.e. the multiplatform wholly-owned subsidiary. It would be easy to stop making games for Xbox and continue with Playstation, Switch, and PC. Or they could even continue on Xbox if they want to maximize revenue.
@0niguy Street Fighter and Final Fantasy are what I keep thinking of too. Sony would be eager to keep Street Fighter at EVO, and Final Fantasy is a key franchise for sure.
@get2sammyb Yep, it's just hungry, hungry hippos out there!
If sony were to make some acquisitions there's two that I'd personally love to see happen, one is square enix which already has a deep history with Sony and already work on timed exclusives like final fantasy 7 remake and forspoken. The other is sega or more specifically Atlus, maybe sony could buy Atlus from sega to make sure the persona series stays on playstation consoles in the future as its the best jrpg series of all time in my opinion.
If both were to happen sony would have the greatest jrpgs and hopefully win back the Japanese crowd with exclusives like Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Star Ocean, Persona, Shin megami and Valkyria chronicles
@PlayStationGamer3919 All are possibilities. Not sure if Sony will buy them all, though.
@Gunnerzaurus Oh the double standard is blatant at times. 😂😂
It's hard not to laugh at the hypocrisy.
But many journalists and others want Game Pass to succeed. Whether they realise it or not, that's the lens they view all of this through.
I was talking to two Community Managers in work last year.
One of them was saying something like, "But can you not see how Game Pass is the best thing to happen since gaming began?"
I reminded him that MS had probably just kicked off an acquisition race, but he simply responded by saying all of those old games will be on Game Pass now and he doesn't have to pay for them anymore.
I promise you the same guy will rage if Sony were to buy Square Enix and put their back catalogue on Plus.
Edit: I should note that there are people who view all of this through a different lens. They want Sony to mirror Game Pass or they want Game Pass to fail, and when Sony don't copy the GP formula it's considered a failure in turn.
There's room for Game Pass, and there's room for other business models too 🤷♂️
@RevGaming It sounds like Microsoft have been very hands-off with their studios. It works well if the culture is a good fit, but it can be a disaster otherwise. Sony had a smart business model of acquiring teams after they molded them in their image. Microsoft may have got a good price for Activision, but it will be very difficult to turn them around.
@BeerIsAwesome I would say impossible unless Sony is willing to throw some massive weight behind the purchase, and is possibly willing to go toe to toe with chinese Microsoft.
@UltimateOtaku91 In business sense Atlus is more valuable, but to me, I'd rather Sony got Ryu ga Gotoku Studio. Hopefully it's the whole company and they keep making games for Switch too.
@Shepherd_Tallon Considering PS+ back catalogue, Sega and Square would be incredible buys as would Capcom.
@Apfelschteiner agree with this ⬆️⬆️. Then at least you have leverage for deals etc of MS owned exclusives. You can have this on your system if we can have that etc. Hopefully every gamer get to play what they want on their chosen console then.
@Apfelschteiner that's the thing, Nintendo rely on these companies a lot too, they rely on sega for shin megami exclusives, they rely on capcom for monster hunter exclusives and rely on square enix for exclusive games like Bravely default and Triangle strategy.
With acquisitions like Bethesda and Activision they don't impact the switch as there games don't usually come to Nintendo, but any acquisition of Japanese studios will effect nintendo and then maybe Nintendo will start considering making acquisitions to protect their line ups.
@4kgk2 Not sure about the 'well fed' but let's just hope we don't choke on the micro-transactions.
@Apfelschteiner Yeah for sure.
You would figure a lot of those games would end up on Plus eventually anyway, but after an acquisition they would probably be there immediately.
I would rather Sony and Microsoft buy everything up instead of letting Net Ease, Tencent, Amazon, Facebook, and Google do it. With a From Software acquisition, Sony can leverage Elden Ring 2 in order for Microsoft to keep Elder Scrolls 6 on PlayStation. IMO Bethesda is overrated anyway.
Whilst nobody wants the big corps to 'gobble up' all the smaler talant, its clear that the talant pool is finite and aquitions are the method by which corps such as MS and Tencent are looking to secure a heavty slice of the existing talant pool.
The old Sony methods of working closely with a studio for a release or two before bringing them into the organisation are now a danger, as others can poach the studio you are 'coaching' and helping. Hense Sony has had to change how it expands, Heaven is bought without having a game out, and they need to look at grabbing a slice of whats left by another larger purchase or two.
Its a shame the industry has gone this way, I feel studios can be more creative without their early titles being subject to corporate overview. However, Sony is earning good, their products remain in high demand, they continue to release the games that will define this generation, and its clear they have the desire to invest where they need to to remain in such a strong state.
I'd be a lot more concerned if they had no plans while everyone else was buying it up!
I’m not really a fan of platform holders buying multiplatform devs. As long as they don’t do a MS and go for exclusivity I can accept it though. Fact is, Sony cannot afford to let MS buy all the talent and lock away popular IPs. Sony, hopefully, can’t afford to buy devs to do the same and will keep things multiplatform apart from new IPs
In relation to who they might buy, I’m hoping Sega. I couldn’t be without the Yakuza /LJ games.
@4kgk2
Its not for us, its not really for them. Xbox buying devs is not to have exclusives for them.
Companies like Apple and Facebook and Google are wanting to buy these large devs and lock them to their make believe platform. It will destroy the gaming world. So Sony and Xbox buying these companies is a joint venture to save console gaming
@PhhhCough Everything on April Fools was an April fools gag. 😗
@anoyonmus Its not stopping now its just not to lose games coming to your platform.
@Yaycandy Sorry but you know that is nonsense. Only the massive hits to big to make exclusive.
@0niguy I think alot would have been, but perhaps not at the pace Sony have been snapping them up.
The only one that arguably doesnt fit Sony's MO of 'organic growth' is Bungie, and maybe Nixxes (but each of those fit the direction Sony is moving in)
I think Housemarque and Bluepoint would have happened eventually because of their historic ties to Playstation and it feels like Haven fit the model too, albeit i think they were bought sooner than planned to lock them down after either a potential approach from another publisher or because Sony really are impressed by the project.
Firesprite was full of ex- Sony Liverpool staff anyway, and with Sony's new HQ in Liverpool it made sense.
I wouldnt be surprised to see Deviation snapped up before long if the game looks good.
If the game Lucid games is making turns out to be any good then they may get snapped up, particularly as they are also Liverpool based - although the talk that the Twisted Metal reboot got switched to Firesprite, and the failure of Destruction Allstars doesnt bode well for them
I'd still be surprised to see Sony attempt to buy the likes of Square, Capcom, or SEGA unless their hand was forced. Sony would seemingly rather go for exclusivity deals and there are strong rumours that they have locked down mainline Final Fantasy titles for this generation
The Konami IP sounds good but i doubt Konami would want to sell as they make too much money off milking their legacy dry through licensing them off for pachinko machines etc.
I see Microsoft going hard to get the likes of EA, Ubisoft, or Take Two so they can drop established franchise games straight into game pass - although i think they will have an increasingly hard time buying up any more publishers
In my opinion ultimately Microsoft are looking to buy ip they can drop straight into gamepass to improve the value (see Bethesda, Activision).
Sony on the otherhand has gone in a different direction and are most interested in securing talent in what is an increasingly small pool available
Square Enix please 😈
@Rob_230 100% I can see what MS is doing they wanna but a huge library of games straight into gamepass and Sony want exclusive games they can move forward with but yeah I can see capcom or square definitely joining the ps family if they're buying anyone
@Gunnerzaurus
Well, I can't speak for others but I can say for myself I was concerned about this as soon as MS started buying studios left and right. Most definitely was not cheerleading it.
@UltimateOtaku91 Yes, but with the Bungie acquisition, Sony showed that they are comfortable working with a model where the company stays multi-platform, so I don't see a problem with Sony buying those companies and keeping their games on Nintendo systems, but making those games available for PlayStation players.
@Rob_230 If Sony could get agreements in place that their Japanese partners just stay independent, then that could work. As you say, it might start getting difficult for Microsoft to buy any more publishers. I would be fine with Microsoft getting Ubisoft and would be disappointed if Sony bought them. Sony buying Take Two or EA makes a lot of business sense, but personally I want Sega and Koei Tecmo making games for PlayStation, I just can't trust Sony not to kill off their smaller games, unless maybe they would be a good fit for the PS+ model. I could see all Sega and Koei Tecmo games coming to PS+ day one or maybe just the lower tier titles.
@Rural-Bandit at what point in my comment did you infer that a pass was given to Sony? Internet comprehension is at all time low
As long as it’s Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo doing this, I’m much more comfortable with that than the Googles, Apples, Amazons and Metas of the world doing it.
It's actually not as simple as blaming MicroSoft, @mucc. It is worth bearing in mind that MiscoSoft are not the biggest gaming conglomerate. The biggest gaming companies are (and these are in order):
1. Sony
2. Tencent
3. MicroSoft (Xbox Games)
4. Nintendo
5. Activision Blizzard
In terms of revenue earned, Sony made $24.9 billion in 2021, whereas Xbox made $16.3 billion. Interestingly, Activision Blizzard made $8.8 billion last year, so in terms of revenue, if the acquisition of Activision Blizzard does go through, it may well put Sony and Xbox on a pretty level playing field.
So it is clear that it is in fact MicroSoft that are the ones playing catch-up, not Sony. So the acquisitions that MicroSoft are making do actually make more sense when you consider that this is the first generation that they are actually taking gaming seriously.
Would I rather not see companies being acquired? Absolutely. However, the acquisitions that Sony are making are done in order to maintain their dominance in gaming, rather than attempting to catch MicroSoft, as they are already well ahead as it is...
@4kgk2
I hate everything Ryan says. No one needs back compat? What a jerkoff Sony stooge.
BUT this is how it's going down we all lose sadly. Maybe S buys Square, N buys Capcom, MS has already got Actilizzard.. Who wants Ubi? I think EA is just too big BUT MS has deep pockets..
It's gross imo.
Hopefully it's Level-5. Someone needs to buy them to ensure their games continue to be localized.
@TheCollector316
PlayStation revenue is such a large part of Sony's overall finances. Xbox revenue is a drop in the bucket for Microsoft. Microsoft buying up publishers, which increases their revenue and decreases Sony's is a lot more damaging to PlayStation than people realize. Microsoft spent almost $80B, half Sony's net worth, in two years to catch up to Sony and can do it again and again. The danger to competition is magnified with Game Pass.
@JaneBear This is the one thing I keep telling myself - As long as it's those 3 and not the Apples and the Tencents, maybe it will be okay...
Hoping they get Square or KT (Fatal Frame, Ninja Garden, DOA, Warriors, Atilier what a line up) and the Konami thing would be amazing for me personally
You want them to buy Konami for Metal Gear and Castlevania
I want them to buy Konami for Bloody Roar we are not the same 😂
@Shepherd_Tallon Aaahhh gross I forgot about Tencent.
@themightyant You can run a business competently without sounding like a robot.
@JaneBear 😂😂
You were living in blissful forgetfulness there for a few minutes.
Apologies for making you remember.
@Shepherd_Tallon All forgiven lol
@Rural-Bandit Eh It's basic game theory though: if you have a bunch of entities harmoniously coexisting then everything's fine, but as soon as one of them starts absorbing others, it makes sense for everyone else to absorb anything they can to grow to a size that can't be absorbed by a competitor.
Ultimately this is why without regulation, such as by strict competition authorities, capitalism inevitably leads to monopolies. If the state will not step in and say enough is enough, Sony and Microsoft are going to have to continue to acquire anything and everything they can, else lose any competitive advantage they have. Before Microsoft bought Bethesda things were going at a sustainable pace. Now that one of them has started throwing billions at the market, the gloves are off and neither can afford to stand down.
@Apfelschteiner He can't nurture his 2018 studios lineup atm, idk if he will turn AB around. We'll see. For me is about time 7 of those studios reveal GAMEPLAY from their games. Avowed, Perfect Dark, Hellblade (combat this time), Redfall, Indiana Jones, Gears 6, Forza Motorsport, Compulsion's next game, SoD3, Everwild, Fable, Id's next game should all be ready with their time they have been given (4 years) to show something. Starfield is a must.
@Fiendish-Beaver What are you even talking about? In two years MS just spent $80 billion dollars buying up publishers and now are basically making the same amount of revenue as Playstation who has never purchased a single publisher before and has nowhere near the money MS does. MS just bought the 5th biggest publisher in the world like it was nothing. If you don't think this is all on MS you're insane. They started this trend. We went 40+ years without a single publisher being purchased and they now gobbled up two in two years. This is only the start. Buying up publishers to take IP's off other platforms is the worst trend in the industry so far and only MS is doing it.
@GADG3Tx87 yeh I don’t really see Sony buying up Konami. Rather I would see them maybe getting a license for these games.
I think Metal Gear games and Silent Hill games would definitely suit Sony while I think Castlevania and maybe DDR as well could suit Nintendo.
Honestly I think this is all unlikely but we wait and see what happens
@Shepherd_Tallon I don't care if someone buys Konami, considering they're doing almost nothing with their classic IPs aside from releasing (surprisingly good) retro collections.
Square-Enix getting bought out by anyone would be a catastrophic loss to the industry, though. And... I don't think it'll happen. Sony is content to snap up exclusivity of their major Final Fantasy games. S-E also probably do well with Nintendo financing timed exclusivity of their Switch-focused titles, and I'm sure Microsoft pays decently for games like Dragon Quest, Octopath, etc. to go to GP. Hard to imagine they'll get snapped up when they've cozied up to all three of the major manufacturers.
Sony is buying Nintendo. Pokemon Scarlet coming exclusively to PS5 and Pokemon the other one on PS4. You heard it here first
I'm sorry, @mucc, but you are completely mistaken.
MicroSoft didn't start buying up gaming companies first, not by a long way. These are the companies that Sony has bought over the years:
2000 - Eidetic (now called Bend Studios - Days Gone)
2001 - Naughty Dog (Uncharted and Last of Us)
2005 - Guerrilla Games (KillZone)
2006 - Zipper Interactive (SOCOM)
2007 - Evolution Studios and BigBig Studios ( MotorStorm and World Rally Championship series)
2010 - Media Molecule (LittleBigPlanet)
2011 - Sucker Punch (Sly Cooper and Infamous)
2019 - Insomniac Games (Spyro the Dragon, Rachet and Clank, Sunset Overdrive, Spider-man)
2021 - BluePoint Studios - (Demon Souls remaster)
2021 - Firesprite - (Persistence)
2021 - Valkyrie Entertainment - (God of War)
2021 - Housemarque (Returnal)
Conversely, the first studio that MicroSoft bought was Mojang Studios in 2014. They were bought primarily for the PC and are the developers of Minecraft.
Tencent bought Riot Games in 2011 for example, and Tencent are the second biggest (some say biggest) gaming company in the world, with a music empire and the 4th biggest social media platform in the world. They may not be that well known by many, but they are a force to be reckoned with.
And let's be fair here, Sony may not have bought huge companies that can match the likes of Activision, but they have splashed the cash to prevent games appearing on the Xbox platform such as Final Fantasy 7, for example. For many years they have also spent money to prevent modes of Call of Duty appearing on the Xbox console for a full 12 months, at precisely the point when that mode became pretty much irrelevant because the next iteration of Call of Duty came out. They were paying Bungie for Raids to be in Destiny and Destiny 2, but not allowing them to be on the Xbox for years at a time. They bought a years exclusivity for the likes of Deathloop and Ghostwire Tokyo, and had MicroSoft not bought their developers, who knows whether the games would ever have made their way over to the Xbox. Whilst MicroSoft may buy developers outright thus depriving PlayStation gamers of their games, Sony were doing much the same thing, paying developers to not release their games on the Xbox. It amounts to much the same thing.
Just to be clear, I'm not saying that MicroSoft buying Activision is necessarily a good thing for gamers (though it probably is), but Activision were/are in big trouble, and MicroSoft buying them is preferable to perhaps Amazon, Tencent or Apple, for example (who were approached by Activision to see whether they were interested in buying them). And, should the deal fall through, who knows what will happen; Activison's shares will go into freefall, and some of their studios may completely close down, or the whole shebang might be bought by the likes of Amazon or Apple, etc.
@mucc
continued:
However, my main point stands. In terms of gaming alone, Sony is currently the biggest company, bringing in the largest share of gaming revenue. Yes, Microsoft are in the process of spending $68 billion to buy Activision, but that doesn't mean that Xbox suddenly bring in that amount each year. As I said before, Activision's yearly revenue in 2021 was $8.8 billion, and MiscroSoft gaming revenue was $16.3. So if, and it's by no means guaranteed, Activision continued to generate $8.8 billion each year, then combined with MicroSoft you would expect to see around $25.1 billion, which is just above the income that Sony made in 2021, which was $24.9 billion. However, it should also be remembered that Sony have, in recent months, bought a number of companies, so it figures that that will boost their revenue still further.
Ultimately, two facts stand clear, Sony acquired their first gaming company in 2000, which was prior to the original Xbox's release in 2001. And MicroSoft are the ones playing catch up, whereas Sony are simply trying to maintain their lead and market dominance
@RevGaming yeah but there's awesome IP's just gathering dust, imagine a new metal gear or silent hill game, that would be amazing.
@Marquez I guess, I'm just saying I don't like how Sony and Microsoft is headed. When live service games start doing better than singeplayer games you know we are only gonna get like 2 singeplayer games at best every year with micro transactions. Yeah I might sound ageists but I don't mean too.
@Fiendish-Beaver You are a master at writing a ton of useless text and saying absolutely nothing of significance. First of all I said MS started this by buying PUBLISHERS, not developers. You can list all the developers Sony purchased over the years and it just shows that they purchased developers over a long period of time, they only turned on the floodgates recently when MS bought 10+ studios and then 2 massive PUBLISHERS. How you blindly try to compare that to Sony buying numerous studios over the 3 decades they've been in gaming is idiotic. Also for the timed exclusivity stuff guess what? MS started that too. Remember the 360 generation when they were the ones buying CoD DLC exclusivity and paid $50 million for GTA4's DLC exclusivity? Everything you blame Sony for MS did first and did it worse. I'm not saying Sony is a saint, but I'd take waiting a year to play a game rather than never being able to play a game at all.
I could pick apart every thing you say but it's Saturday and I have better things to do. Catch up lol? You really think MS that is worth a trillion ***** dollars is playing catch up to Sony? Stop being so dense.
I'm not a fan of this new approach from Sony and MS to one up each other by buying every studio out. Who ever wins from this is definitely not the gamers
@Fiendish-Beaver You appear to not know the difference between a development studio , and a publisher, and its a huge difference!
Studios have always been subject to purchase since the beginning of the industry, and I worked for several studios that were purchased by a publisher (I worked for psygnosis when Sony bought them, and Bullfrog when EA bought them.)
Buying a publisher like Bethusda or Activision is a far bigger deal than buying individual studios, and this is the big difference to what we are seeing in the last couple of years. You cannot equate the two, it's more than just scale.
@RBMango of course but it’s pretty far down the list of priorities. Peter Molyneux was a charismatic speaker but look where that got him. Better to be best at your job’s core skillset first. Everything else is just gravy
Sony buying Konami, Square Enix or Capcom next?
@Fiendish-Beaver Actually the first studio Microsoft acquired for Xbox was Bungie in 2000. Halo was originally going to be a Mac game but then Microsoft came along, acquired Bungie and made it a Xbox game.
@Envy but they're buying other stuff they aren't interested in or know how to run. I don't that it's worth it for just a few IPs.
You can make a Socom closer to what a metal gear is and Siren could be like Silent Hill.
Seriously, @mucc, you seem to be deliberately mixing up Xbox and MicroSoft. MicroSoft is the parent company of Xbox. Or, to put it another way, Xbox is the gaming aspect of MicroSoft. As I have stated on a number of occasions, as it stands, Sony's gaming division makes around $8.5 billion more than Xbox. Xbox are playing catch-up this generation having basically sat on their hands for the first 15 years and done little to invest in their gaming future.
Yes, Xbox has bought Publishers as opposed to individual developers, but those publishers are comprised of individual developers. They are basically buying in bulk. So to say there is a difference is really to speak in semantics. Again, as I said before, I'm not saying it is a good thing for the industry (though doing so will probably save Activision and many of its beloved franchises) but Xbox has done it to bolster their roster of developers, and to make themselves more competitive with Sony, and I believe that will be good for gamers of whatever ilk.
Having one company dominant over another is not good for the industry, as can be seen with Sony and its unfriendly consumer antics thus far this generation in relation to upgrade paths, for example, or with its extremely expensive MTX in Gran Turismo. And we would not be getting these new PlayStation Plus Tiers if it were not for the Xbox Game Pass. That's not to say that Xbox are the good guys here; but viewed objectively, they have done better by their consumers than Sony have thus far (and I'm directly speaking of behaviour, not games released).
If Xbox do complete the buyout of Activision, it will put both Xbox and Sony on a far more equal-footing, which can only be good for all of us PlayStation gamers as a whole, as both companies will be looking to please their consumers, rather than one or the other feeling they can do as they please because they can get away with it, which is basically what Xbox did after the 360 era.
You are absolutely right, @Grumblevolcano. My bad...
I do know the difference, @Titntin, but as I said above; buying a big Publisher is basically a case of buying Developers in bulk. Xbox have done this purely to catch up quickly because up until now, they haven't taken the gaming industry particularly seriously. To be fair, had they bought individual smaller companies, they would have struggled to find independent Developers that mattered that weren't also Publishers. They could perhaps of bought the likes of Firesprite, Valkyrie Entertainment, Housemarque, Square Enix, CD Projekt Red or Capcom as smaller deals, but again, each of these are also self-Publish. And can you imagine the uproar that buying the likes of those companies would have caused among PlayStation gamers in particular?
Who’s next? Either Sega or SquareEnix. Or Konami.
Why? They’re all Japan-based companies, and they’d rather be owned by a company with a world-encompassing business mindset like Sony…and not by a US-based ethnocentric monstrosity like Microsoft.
@jgrangervikings1
Don't forget Capcom or Arc System Works. Sony needs a fighting game of their own.
I think Deviation Games will be the next. Especially after expanding with a Canadian studio. It just sounds like Sony could have acquired them and helped fund that.
As long as we're only caught up in a console war, i'll sign for it.
@RevGaming yeah, hopefully we get some horror ips from Sony soon, I know they don't sell well but it would be awesome. Especially with VR support like resident evil 7
@Envy They can sell well if we look at RE7 and RE8.
There has to be some kind of way to fight back though.
Did Outlast sell well? I think that's the last big pure Horror game we have gotten.
Too bad sony doesnt have the revenue to buy big name studios unlike microsoft. They will probably lose sega to microsoft it would be funny if MS buys capcom or konami lol
@Pete_Stooge
Nah they will price hike games and we end up paying three times the price one day..
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