Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) is reportedly out shopping again, looking to secure PlayStation exclusives and third-party partnerships in the burgeoning developmental hotbed that is South Korea. With Sony's renewed focus on mobile, this makes some synergistic sense, but the news has some potentially interesting implications for console players as well.
This news comes to us from MTN Korea (via MP1st, PlayStation LifeStyle), which reports that Sony is currently in discussions with multiple studios. Pearl Abyss, which has PS5 and PS4 action RPG Crimson Desert currently in development, along with NCSoft (developer of PC MMO Blade & Soul), Com2uS (Summoner's War), and Neowiz Games, which will be publishing upcoming Soulslike Lies of P on PS5 and PS4, are all reportedly taking Jim's calls.
Sony made a smart bet getting into bed with Chinese developer miHoYo, with the Genshin Impact, Honkai: Star Rail studio managing to make more of a profit than PlayStation itself. Honkai: Star Rail isn't even out yet and already promises to be one of the biggest games of the year. Looking for partnerships with aligned interests could continue to pay off for the firm and seems like a saavy play.
What do you think of Sony's reported discussions? When do you think the quietly churning cold war of acquisitions begins to heat up again (publicly)? Let us know in the comments section below.
[source news.mtn.co.kr, via mp1st.com, playstationlifestyle.net]
Comments 39
paid for exclusivity is abhorrent nobody should be doing it and certainly not celebrated
if you own the developer thats a different matter
As long as they're fewer live services and more single-player experiences like Stellar Blade, I'm down for more South Korean joints.
@trev666 Most people don't care and it's an effective method in getting people on your platform, but don't confuse paid 3rd party exclusives like Deathloop with 2nd party exclusives published by Sony themselves like Stellar Blade, Nioh, Death Stranding, which as long as Sony has a console of its own, won't come to Xbox.
Do Korean studios have a special appeal which studios from other regions lack? Or is it just the opportunity to go shopping in a non-consolidated market?
Korean media is in. Naturally Sony will make all these deals with Koreans and then the next craze will have popped up and everyone’s listening to Vanuatuan pop and watching Vanuatuan dramas.
@trev666 Its an effective business strategy and as long as they're only year or less exclusives I don't mind them. I agree though other than 1st and 2nd party sony published games they should all come to everything, at least eventually. The devs certainly want their games available in as many places possible, even some 1st party devs do.
More paying to keep games off other consoles
@nessisonett I don't think this is on behalf of K-pop's international success. The games look genuinely exciting. The same goes for some Chinese and Taiwanese projects.
Still, the practice of paying that the competition has less is not great. Purchasing a talented studio that would struggle on it's own I can support however.
Some, if not all will disagree with me on this. But as an owner of both a PS5 and Series X, i have nothing to gain or lose. But i don’t mind Sony spending money to bring great exclusives to their console. At least i know they are willing to spend money to make money. That is an old saying and it’s still true. It earns my trust that Sony is trying to bring me the most games they can to the platform. Business deals aren’t suppose to be fair, they are suppose to give an advantage and make money. On the flip side i am more happy that Microsoft is opening their wallet and showing me they are trying to bring me games to the platform and not have a Xbox One issue of very little 1st party games and owned studios. I am ok with the ABK deal. Sure if they were taking COD off PS then that wouldn’t be cool, cause like COD or not it is arguably the biggest game in the industry or close to it. Seeing as a new one comes out yearly and we got one GTA game in the last 10 plus years. But COD, GTA, FIFA, MADDEN etc etc, are staples in gaming. They push the causal numbers and make gaming bigger than movie sales. If any of those titles went exclusive i would think that would be more harm than good. I know i will catch heat for saying this. But i am happy to support companies that invest into their brand and not naive they do it for profit. But last i checked Xbox and PS aren’t non profit companies. We knew from the beginning they want our money. Media companies pay big money for exclusive interviews, networks pay big money for exclusive sports games. It’s business and until recently Sony was in a league of it’s own doing it, MS woke up, and we have competition in the space again and i find that exciting. 😊
I'm all for more games coming out from Korea or anywhere else, but I'm against exclusivity. Unless it's 1st party.
After the fiasco I'm experiencing with Diablo 4 I'm done with non PS5 exclusives. The PS5 exclusives make a real use of the console: haptics, 3d sound, graphics, VRR, ALLM, 120Hz mode, etc. I know that many "discerning players" use the PS5 as a glorified PS4 for games from 2013 that can play at 60fps now, that's their choice. There are some exceptions as Hogwarts Legacy and some indie devs that I support as Deck13. D4 runs perfectly for PC, so you can get it at the Autumn sale in Steam, but it's a waste of money in PS5. As for COD, FIFA, GTA, etc, I don't mind, back in the day we used to hang out with real mates, playing on the park and else, not yelling in a game online, so Im fine. And any exclusive PS5 shall receive hate, that's usual... like for FF16 talking about "level design", "real RPG" and else, "it's not like Yakuza", well mate, play Yakuza then, who in their right mind is playing FF16 wanting Yakuza?, the hatred always exist mainly for those who do not own the game. Sorry, life is hard...
Great, more stellar blade-like games please, I'll play it as long as it's a single player games
@NinjaNicky It's best to buy new-gen console after 1-2 years into it's lifespan since you got more exclusive games and more discounted games, ps5 (and xbox sx) got it worse since there's 2-3 years pandemic when the console launched.
I myself bought ps5 on release and sold it again a couple of months later since nearly all I got is ps4 upgrade, and the games are expensive, I just bought it again february this year and I got more exclusive and cheaper games price
Lol, I want some PS5 exclusives from Sony in general.
@wiiware I have my PS4 for taking to my mom but i can't go back to the PS4 besides that better looking and running alone is enough.
Have to say that Black Desert promised so much but turned out to be a complete nonsensical turd. Can't even make your character walk anywhere!
Looks like they might have sorted that part for Crimson Desert but not hoping for much from it.
@NinjaNicky It's been almost 3 years - but your right, the lack of PS5 titles that aren't on the PS4 is concerning. On the other hand, PS4 owners have never had it so good!
@Toot1st Good for Sony, after watching Microsoft try to buy the world.
@BeerIsAwesome I often think about this too.
Why does TV get away with it but games don't?
Maybe it was always an issue, but I only really remember the conversation about it starting last gen around the time Phil Spencer was talking about how all games should be on all systems.
Little Devil Inside is made by a SK dev, just saying...
@number1024 Thanks!
What Sony offers is great support to studios and marketing beyond anything they could muster themselves. Like it or not, Sony exclusives have been very good for gaming.
Anyone can choose to offer exclusivity to these new IP's at any time since time immemorial, and there is always a great deal of risk vs reward. Some companies are just not very good at it when they do it so have to buy the most ginormous publisher's to offer massively established IP's instead. And still might make a proper pig's ear of that as well
@trev666 I disagree, Microsoft have the money to buy whoever they want whenever they want, Sony don't. The best sony can do is get timed exclusives and they should continue to do so to help the platform stay consistent and relevant.
It is very strange @Shepherd_Tallon
BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 and Sky don't produce every show they show, they have some that are in house productions. The rest they bid for in an open market on a show by show basis based on what they think their viewers will watch. This means that each channel has some top dramas, comedies, documentaries etc distributed in a way where you don't just have to watch one channel.
And then for the huge established behemoth's, like the Premier League, there is a different process, subject to scrutiny where one provider cannot simply purchase all Premier League matches to show on their channels, due to competition regulation, in the hope of remaining somewhat a level playing field, or at least, not solely dominated by one entity.
This should work in gaming too. There are enough games for everyone to have exclusives, timed exclusives, and multi platform. It'd be weird if every game was available on every console, and every TV show was on every channel.
But regulation is still needed for certain giant entities being purchased outright. Or not, as it may turn out in the gaming world, unfortunately... for everyone. (Imagine Sky's prices if they did own all of the Premier League with no rival. Consumer friendly that would not be)
@Flaming_Kaiser I got ps4 pro so while the upgrade to ps5 is nice, it’s not 30 fps to 60 fps jump, it’s more like 40-50 fps to stable 60 fps that while nice, not as appealing as an upgrade, at least not while the games are expensive and have no discount back then (in the 1st year of ps5 launch).
This year is the right time to get ps5 since it’s exclusive already discounted and some even already on psplus ecosystem.
I agree to an extent, but however it costs MS a ton more for games and studios than it does Sony, because of the market share so I guess it’s about being shrewd and smart.
There’s a lot of Korean talent out there and very much think both will be investing there. We are already seeing it with Stellar Blade
@Ravix I definitely agree that an industry regulator is needed at this point, but I don't think it will ever happen.
I also agree that there are enough games for everyone to have exclusives.
A lot of people still feel that they should have the option to play every game if they want. It's a point that I get, I just don't think it's ever going to happen either.
Plus, Sony's exclusives will result in good XBOX exclusives.
Just like Game Pass has resulted in improvements to PS Plus.
@Shepherd_Tallon No, Sony’s good exclusives have resulted in Microsoft buying previously third party games to be exclusive. If it Xbox made their own quality games, it wouldn’t be an issue.
@TripleKing333 That's true too.
"Sony buy a Japanese studio"
"Sony you need more in house Japanese studios"
"Sony you're a Japanese company you need to get back to your roots"
Sony: "herp a derp here's a bunch of Korean games🤪"
Not a dig, @UltimateOtaku91, but I'm curious what you think; you say that Sony should be doing this in order to help them grow, but with the current split between players on the PlayStation versus the Xbox being 70/30 in favour of the PlayStation, how much more do you think Sony should grow their platform? Bear in mind, that for each percentage that they improve, they are taking a percentage away from the Xbox. Trying to stop the gap widening is why Microsoft are buying ABK after all. So, with the PlayStation already having a 40% lead in terms of player-base over the Xbox, how much more do you think that lead should be, and how much more do you think becomes too much and strays into the 'monopoly'* territory that people often accuse Microsoft of. This is not a dig at you in the slightest. I am simply curious what you think.
*Obviously, a monopoly means there is only one company providing a service, so in this instance, I mean how much bigger does Sony need to grow the PlayStation platform before it is effectively able to dictate the way the gaming industry is run?
@Fiendish-Beaver Tbf I think grow was the wrong word to use, I meant it as for them to stay relevant and to continue to get the attention they are getting now. Obviously after ABK Microsoft will have almost double the studios and treble the staff so for Sony to combat that long term the only solution I see is to carry on getting timed exclusives whilst their own studios pump out 1 or 2 games a year whilst Nintendo and Xbox (soon) will be pumping out 4-5 first party exclusives per year, Something Sony aren't capable of doing unless with the help of third party help.
Thank you, @UltimateOtaku91. That's a very fair comment. One with which I fully agree. We are certainly in interesting times. Hopefully once the ABK deal goes through, both companies will be on their game (no pun intended! 😂)...
I have no stake in this but I am interested in seeing what Korean devs can cook. Lies of P, Stellar Blade and Little Devil inside to name a few are some interesting titles coming out. If Sony does invest more on Korean devs, I can see another positive outcome. Just look at Genshin Impact (Sony's effort to invest on Chinese devs). They struck gold on that one.
@trev666 That makes no sense. You'd rather them permanently block all of a studio's games from being multiplatform than temporarily block one game? If, say, Nintendo hadn't bought Monolith, we'd have Xenoblade Chronicles on other platforms now. They've paid to keep all games exclusive forever - how is that better than one game being exclusive for a bit?
And do you find things like Fire Emblem, Kirby, Pokemon or Smash Bros being exclusive "abhorrent"? None of those games are made by Nintendo or a studio Nintendo own.
@wiiware Ah ok it took me so long to get one that I don't have the heart to sell it. Its so quiet, fast I don't want to sell it and for Demon Souls alone it's here to stay. 😉
Completely forgot about Crimson desert.
We shall see.
@trev666 lol you make it sound like a gang of PS exclusives killed your pet XD
@Flaming_Kaiser I got ps5 at launch (Indonesia ps5 launch), there's official lottery to buy ps5 from store, I didn't get it but there's buyer that didn't pay it on time so I automatically get his/her ps5.
While I'm really glad at first, then it's kind of annoying when every ps5 games is so expensive while there's always discount on ps4 games lol. Thankfully now there's discount on many ps5 games too, 2 years is the best times to buy next-gen console imo
@wiiware I can understand life is expensive enough already and if you can deal with the PS4 shortcomings it's still quite a cool little piece of hardware with a brilliant software lineup. If they put in a PCI express with SSD speeds for the platform and a little more ram then it would be a easy sale fore. The OS of the PS4 is way better then the PS5 that for sure.
No thanks, I'll pass on those
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