Kadokawa Confirms Sony Acquisition Interest

Can't wait for people to continue their meltdowns over a Bloodborne remaster that's never happening.

@NapoleonDynamite I bet you ten copies of Concord that a Bloodborne remaster is out by the launch of the PS6 (latest as a launch title for it similar to Demon Souls)

@Burnish1619 Sony don’t want FromSoftware they want Kadokawa, FS is just a nice bonus.

I expect a 'welcome to the family' announcement ,at the game awards from Sony ,regarding FromSoftware, i can't see them withholding any games from xbox though, but elden ring or any future games won't have any chance appearing on game pass.

Fret not, Bloodborne will be brought back like Demon's Souls was, when Sony will consider it appropriate to boost console sales. I very much doubt there will ever be a PC port though...

Back to topic: it seems Kadokawa is considering it, which in other words leans towards this happening.

@lazarus11 I would assume no Xbox release, but I’d hope they’d put them out on PC day one. That would be a reasonable compromise and if FromSoft games can be made to the technical level of Sony first party games then most people are going to be winners from that arrangement.

Ngl not that i'm in favour of more acquisitions, but it's gonna be fun to see how the people that were in favour of the Activision acquisition by Xbox will react to this, especially on the green sister site where people were calling Sony desperate for trying to stop the acquisition and cheering Microsoft to consolidate the market.

Also, anything other than a 100% rejection of the idea that they are for sale means they’re ready to sell, it’s just a matter of price.

@DonJorginho if bluepoint do it I'm onboard

Gotta respect the old school approach by sending a letter.

The phrase “letter of intent” always amuses me. It sounds so confrontational, like a declaration of war - we’re letting you know that we’re coming for you and you’re *****.

As far as acquisitions go it makes the most sense besides Sony would probably keep all the FromSoft games multiplat except those that belong to Sony. They are only really interested in growing their anime empire to one of the biggest in the world.

more boring souls likes instead of fun action adventure games and platformers is what we need

I'm not sure the Bloodborne remake/remaster is contingent on this. Doesn't Sony own the IP anyway and Bluepoint have shown themselves more than capable of doing a stellar job with the From games.

Bloodborne so needs a resolution boost, I love it dearly but in my head looks pristine in a nightmarish way but booting it up it looks far rougher than I remember.

bloodborne was made by fromsoft but sony was the publisher of the game so they need each other to remaster or remake the game so if sony buys the company no more impediment..

@MeanBeanEgg I don't go on that green sister site anymore , i find most people seem to be irrational nutters.
Edit
I've just been looking at the comments on the other site about this news, so much rage, absolutely crazy , the people who frequent here, seem to be far more polite and civilised.

@Neither_scene lol😂😂😂

I kinda want it to pass just so I can see how bad, big evil Sony is. And how a monopoly being run by Sony looks like lol. I do think those bums have been setting extortionate prices on everything PS but I don't think they're anywhere close to being a monopoly in any area. I'm not as big into buying anime/manga much, but as far as I can tell nothing much feels all that different under a company that apparently owns a large chunk of the industry now. Crunchyroll and funi were both crap before Sony. They're still crap after

If this is actually really happening I really hope it spurs Xbox into doing at least something competitive. I don’t mean an acquisition. I just mean something that isn’t constantly funding Sony. Who knows.

@K1LLEGAL

So gobbling up the industry with the initial intent to out spend Sony out of the market weren't moves to be competitive?

Sony want this from an anime/manga perspective, are MS going to buy out a massive anime conglomerate to fight that?

If they buy it does that mean more anime would come to crunchyroll?

@K1LLEGAL i don't see how this will spur xbox on to do anything different to what its been doing, there will be no from software games on game pass , Sony will look at future souls game sales on xbox and if they don't sell to justify development, that will stop as well , this will be the only change if this acquisition goes ahead , for xbox owners anyway, what would you like xbox to do ?

I am confused by the lack of IP comment. Still doesn't make sense, they are sitting on a gold mine

I assume it's on reference to Sony pictures but even thats not true, they have 100 years of film and tv content to work with .
Playstation itself they could nurture resistance, destiny, killzone, wipeout, Syphon filter, legend of dragoon, warhawk, Bloodborne, demons souls, lemmings, wild arms, heavenly sword, the order, infamous , returnal etc

It's a treasure chest

@MeanBeanEgg This! The usual suspects on purexbox will now say that Sony does not have sufficient funds or that exclusives don’t sell as reason for Sony not buying this company, whilst celebrating when Microsoft does an acquisition.

@K1LLEGAL You mean the time that they purchased Bethesda and then Activision blizzard for $70 billion dollars? Really strange when Xbox fans ask for more after one of the largest acquisitions ever (7th on this list https://mnacommunity.com/insights/the-largest-mergers-and-acquisitions-in-history/)

I hope this goes through in order to see the meltdown of Xbox fans (mainly the usual suspects on Purexbox who become financial experts when it comes to Sony) who gave millions of reasons why the AB acquisition of Microsoft was good for the industry.

I personally can't see a problem with this acquisition part from Sony are growing an monolopy with anime.

@Sanquine Talking as a fan of both, I was incredibly confused when Phil said they were in the market again, I'm like "bro, you JUST managed a transaction that had to go through court, USE IT ffs and slow down"

Both companies are being incredibly weird and it makes me glad I'm not solely worshipping one of them exclusively.

@NapoleonDynamite Sounds like someone is scared about being forced to babysit 10 copies of Concord 😉

@ThatOneSneak I do understand why Microsoft wants to purchase another company. It’s a buy and build strategy and it’s normal for companies with a SaaS mode (software as a service). I think MS wants to diversify their portfolio because it’s western developers.

All the acquisitions they've made after Bluepoint have been garbage and made absolutely no sense this one actually would and as you pointed out benefit multiple branches of the company. Sony gets the Manga and Anime stuff to add to their line up and Playstation gets freaking From Soft and 2 cool smaller developers but most importantly TENCHU BABY!!!!!🥷

@DonJorginho The fact that you even mentioned Concord proved you weren't serious about it in the first place.

My guess would be that if this goes through, all FS will become PS5 and PC exclusive, with 1st launch being PS5, and PC following up (potentially soon after).
Sony do not really need to sell games to Xbox gamers. Due to game pass - the number of people, out of a relatively small market share, prepared to pay full price is just far too small. If you arent prepared to pay full price for games, you cant complain when those games dont come.
Of course Sony may do a game by game deal, but they would be silly to overlook brand building in favour of short term gain.

Comparing this to the MS aquisition of Activision is just strange. That aquisition, which was clearly aimed at just trying to buy up part of the market, was much, much larger in scale - so large in fact, it seems to have seriously backfired on Xbox division as MS/shareholders force Xbox to port games onto PS5, and force massive game pass price hikes.

This aquisition seems much more sensible in scale, and fits in (given the manga/anime elements) much better.

The fact we havent seen Bloodborne patched to allow 60fps or a straight 60fps remaster suggests plans are already in place to produce a full Demon Souls type remake, but whether this has got past planning stage is anyones guess. If the aquisition goes through, it will probably see a priority bump.

@MeanBeanEgg i don’t recall people ‘cheering microsoft’ for consolidating the market.

Also, Sony is still the market leader, even after the acquisition.

@Friendly

Do not even try to pretend that PureXbox wasn't cheering, just don't.

The CMA would get nothing but abuse so don't even try to pretend people weren't cheering.

@Friendly They were definitely cheering lol, especially because "Imagine all these games on Game Pass, what a value!".

It's been fun watching the meltdown on both Pure Xbox and Nintendo Life, especially financial experts on PX trying to argue that PS5 actually isn't successful.

@ButterySmooth30FPS Man, what happened to the NL comment section. It used to be a lot better, now it's like a cult, they are talking about Sony like It's the devil himself lmao.

Microsoft seeks to acquire Acti-Blizz: An entire year of, "acquisitions are bad, and Microsoft's going to monopolize the industry!"

Microsoft remains open to new acquisitions: "Microsoft is a menace."

Sony initializes an acquisition: "This would be amazing! If all those games are are consistently and readily available on PlayStation consoles could be console exclusives — I mean, wow. And look at the funny xbots freaking out about it!"

I mean, whoever can acquire whoever; while consolidation isn't ideal, my only real issue with it are the inevitable layoffs. But all you PlayStation fanboys better not act like you care about consolidation and monopolization next time. It clearly was never a monopoly problem, it was an Xbox problem. If PlayStation's the monopoly, everything's good apparently.

If their wiki is correct with their financial numbers for the year they'll also bite Sony's hand off if it's a decent financial package.
They're overly bloated and not making any profit

Here lies the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon franchise. Well, it was nice while it lasted.

But this is worrying for anime fans, as it almost monopolises the whole industry under Sony, and we saw what they did with Funimation.

Also I like that most of the developers under Kadokawa were ones Nintendo highlighted as deepening relationships with going into their next system. Just a side bonus for Sony to remove that from the equation too.

What people don't get this deal has to deal with more with anime then fromsoftware they are just there part of the deal but kad does do alot of anime I see why they want to buy them it help crunchrolly there is still other anime services hidive is not only person Sony go against u guys forgot Disney and Netflix are in anime business now too

@ButterySmooth30FPS notging on Nintendo Life. But I do see it on PureXbox.

i'm excited to see where this goes. sony was always involved in fromsoftware in some way , i feel like a full partnership with them and sony they can create some cool stuff.

I see this as more Sony trying to beef up their entertainment division rather then just acquiring FromSoft. But I have a feeling FromSoft won't really change what they're doing if the acquisition does go through.

@Keyblade-Dan “ Playstation gets freaking From Soft and 2 cool smaller developers”

There actually no guarantee that PlayStation get anything from this… Another similar subsidiary under Sony, Aniplex, has developed and published games… and a of lot that has barely benefited PlayStation in an anyway. It really depends on if they plan to split up the company, or just keep the company the same.

@RoomWithaMoose

Why is the Xbox community so disingenuous all the time?

Go on PureXbox and all that glee towards consolidation has now changed to anger.

@Sanquine no I don’t mean that time, at all. In fact I specifically stated not an acquisition. No point commenting if you’re not going to read it.

What is it with this site and people just responding but not reading. Makes no sense.

@K1LLEGAL

Then what would you propose?

They legally can't remove CoD for a decade so what exactly do you want them to do?

They can't backtract on their multiplatform stance as they've already made it clear they hate exclusivity now that it isn't going the way they envisioned.

@TeiGekiLord Literally the EXACT thing seems to apply to this PlayStation community. Consolidation is a much bigger topic than frivolous fanboy wars.

Being for or against it are legitimate opinions. Flip-flopping depending on the business decisions of your video game manufacturer of choice is just a silly look.

@RoomWithaMoose

So why are you singling out the PS community like it is exclusive to them when the past 2 years have been nothing but "MICROSOFT SHOULD BUY XXX or XXX" non-stop?

@TeiGekiLord well it would be the Multiplatform strategy. I know it won’t happen. But yea they could backtrack if they wanted as they have said case by case or whatever. Really just such a waste of what could have been a great competition. But instead they will keep funding Playstation and its deals.

@K1LLEGAL

So all that talk that the Xbox community does about exclusives being bad for the industry is only if Sony does them but fine if Microsoft does?

Microsoft were more than welcome to actually utilize their talent or make deals like Sony did but chose to open pandora's box and acquire the biggest publishers in the industry.

They have no one to blame but themselves, it's ridiculous that people think that Sony should entirely change what works for them just because Microsoft is inept.

@TeiGekiLord "Flip-flopping depending on the business decisions of your video game manufacturer of choice is just a silly look."

That quote applies to anyone whose values change depending on their video game business of choice. I'm referring specifically to the PlayStation community here because this is a PlayStation site where PlayStation fanboys are displaying their hypocrisy.

If I had an account on PureXbox, I would likewise point out that you can't support the biggest acquisition in gaming history just to turn around and cry about a competitor's proposed acquisition. But I'm not on PureXbox, I'm on the PlayStation one.

@RoomWithaMoose

Way I see it, if Microsoft have been given the OK to gobble up everything then Sony are within their right to acquire publishers as well.

I don't want them too but Microsoft have been allowed too, why shouldn't Sony?

@Rich33 you maybe right there, if all Fromsoftwares games became ps exclusive going forward ,that would shift a lot of consoles

@anoyonmus Check out the (admittedly clickbaity) article "Mario & Luigi's Future In Doubt As A Potential Sony Acquisition Emerges"

@Slayer25c I think the main issue is that this would give Sony a monopoly. Not on Souls like genre. But on the anime and animation side.

@ButterySmooth30FPS yes I saw. So what?

Every comment section has its own bad things. Stop acting the PS comment section is any better because I really don’t see it that way. All 3 of them have their own issues.

@TeiGekiLord As far as I'm concerned, Microsoft and Sony can do whatever they want.

But ethics isn't about what's currently convenient to your worldview. It's about integrity and consistency. If you bemoan one company acquiring another, you shouldn't be praising another for doing the same. Anything less would be hypocritical; that hypocrisy is specifically what I'm calling out.

And I don't know where Microsoft's been given the OK to buy everything. Despite what people have been saying, they are not an infinite pit of money and must focus their efforts towards creating profits to satisfy their shareholders; there is no world wherein Microsoft can keep spending billions on its gaming division and not exponentially widen the hole they're already dug themselves. And it's not like Sony's been shy to buy. Just because they haven't gotten anything as grandiose as Acti-Blizz doesn't mean they're not a force in acquisitions as is.

@TeiGekiLord @meanbeanegg because of game pass.

Not because of consolidation.

@RoomWithaMoose you have an account to all 3 (NL, PS, PX) technically. Just use the same account on PX that you use for PS.

@RoomWithaMoose i completely share your view.

Sony owning fromsoft would be huge for them.

@TeiGekiLord i’m not going to talk for the Xbox community.

But my personal opinion as of right now is that each console should have exclusives but only first party. No timed ***** and no permanent third party bs.

However thats because I like buying all three consoles and enjoying them and the tech etc. So I know that is not everyone's opinion.

@Friendly

Uh huh, so you're a hypocrite then, got it.

@TeiGekiLord ive seen your comments on purexbox , I'm quite suprised they've not banned you yet 😁 I'm sure all of your comments have been flagged by most of the cult members 😂

@anoyonmus I mean, I already get enough out of these comment sections — and already sink more time into them than I should. So I don't really care to frequent the sister sites.

Besides, I do actually come to PushSquare for Playstation news. I usually get my Nintendo and Xbox news elsewhere.

@K1LLEGAL

Well tough, Microsoft chose to take away two of the largest third party publishers to make them first party. They were going to make them exclusive but it didn't go as they envisioned.

Stuff that wasn't multiplatform I'd be fine as exclusive but Microsoft were fully happy to take those away.

@K1LLEGAL timed are cheaper and a good way to bolster sales , all companies do it , it will never stop.

@anoyonmus I'm not acting like this site is better, all I said was that the reactions on the other two sites are entertaining. This site certainly isn't perfect, just look at how people took the announcement of an optional upgrade console so dramatically personal.

@lazarus11 the only timed I really can appreciate are when it’s a small dev who couldn’t handle a larger launch. E.g. what happened with Fall Guys and Rocket League.

@Friendly And that's still consolidation, which people on the Xbox side had no problem with.

@lazarus11

Clowns: "NO ONE CARES IF SONY SUCCESSFUL"
Also Clowns: "HERE WHY SONY CAN'T BUY ANYTHING CAUSE POOR"

I still love how people act like the Xbox community are victims when they're just as bad.

@ButterySmooth30FPS hmm the pro debate 😂 some people got very angry, at what others where going to spend their money on ,didn't they.

@MeanBeanEgg "b...but Game Pass is my darling so it's fine!!!"

I guarantee you that if Sony would dump their games on PS Premium, his tone would still be anti.

@Friendly ofcourse you do (as someone who mainly comments on Purexbox it’s the stance I would expect).

Just looked a bit more. Kadokawa owns 5 companies. Spike Chunsoft, FS, Acquire, Gotcha Gotcha Games and From Networks.

They own 70% of FS.

I really only care for Spike Chunsoft games (I like Danganronpa) so I don’t want that going exclusive.

Rest of what Kadokawa owns is all media and such. Anime, animation.

So Sony buying Kadokawa would give them a monopoly on animation and anime.

@TeiGekiLord ive found if it's not something they want to hear ,they don't acknowledge what you've said ,i don't engage with them anymore , they're mental.

@ButterySmooth30FPS @lazarus11 you know that user Banjo on PX seems to be quite the interesting fellow.

@anoyonmus interesting? I got in an argument with him resulting in almost getting perma banned.

@K1LLEGAL personally I don't care what console it's on, doesn't affect me in the slightest, I do prefer sonys first party games though , story based single player is my thing , i was looking forward to the new iteration of flight simulator but it doesn't work at the moment, Ill be playing stalker 2 later ,I believe it's a bug fest though.

@anoyonmus hmm banjo , he's got an account here also, i think he has multiple accounts across both sites , he tends to draw people into arguments he's very passive aggressive, i wouldn't converse with him, he seems to have issues.

@ButterySmooth30FPS From what I see, it’s the potential loss of SC on NL is the issue. They don’t care for FS. PX was on about everything though.

I do hope SC isn't exclusive tbh.

@lazarus11 he’s all about “Sony bad, Nintendo bad, Xbox good”.

Rather than just doing information and not being biased, he sticks to being biased for Xbox.

@anoyonmus he cherry picks a comment, completely disregarding most of it ,so it loses all context , and then replies with some inane diatribe, which frustrates people.

@TeiGekiLord @Sanquine @MeanBeanEgg Nah man, I don't feel that I'm the hypocrite here.

The people commenting on PushSquare were afraid of consolidation, and angry at Xbox / Microsoft. I always said in my comments that I did not like it but since Sony is the market leader there's not really something regulators could do against it. And they indeed couldn't. Also because Sony had bought companies as well.

And now again, i'm saying I do not like this consolidation. So I feel that I'm consistent with all my comments up to now. But a lot of comments here cheer for the consolidation 'because Microsoft did it'. And that's stupid reasoning imo. In my opinion there's absolutely nothing you as a consumer will get out of Sony buying this company. The only thing that will happen are layoffs.

As I've pointed out earlier: I own a Switch, xbox series S and PS4. And I absolutely do not like Sony's take on this generation (with their 'addiction to growth' as their CFO has pointed out, their price hikes and bad behavior towards their customers, and their focus on games as a service), hence why I have not upgraded to PS5 yet. I also do not see the need to upgrade to Xbox series X.

You will therefore also mostly see me comment on Nintendolife, not here, not at purexbox. Because in my opinion, Nintendo does business in a fair and fun way this generation.

@lazarus11 precisely

@Friendly

If you don't feel that you're being a hypocrite then I don't know what to tell you.

You were fine with Microsoft buying publishers but anti-Sony doing it, you are a hypocrite.

You can use Game Pass as a crutch all you want, you're a hypocrite.

@Friendly @RoomWithaMoose Thats a bit unfair. There are normal acquisitions. And acquisitions of an unprecedented scale like the Actiblizz.

Are you saying Sony and other players in the industry should ignore this unprecedented deal and not make any moves for themselves, after Microsoft acquiring two of the biggest publishers?

@MeanBeanEgg

Nintendo is easily my favourite of the three console manufacturers and have my favourite in terms of 1st party output but they make me just as frustrated as Sony and Microsoft do at times.

Them going after games like Palworld for example is ridiculous.

@K1LLEGAL

Yo, was re-reading the comment string and I came off very hostile in that last comment so I'm sorry man.

Been dealing with nutters over on the green site so was a tad fed up of the hypocricy towards acquisitions today.

I fully agree that first party games should be exclusive but now that MS are buying away decades long publishers with no one stopping them, I'm fine with them porting stuff elsewhere.

@LogicStrikesAgain No. As I've reiterated, I don't care about Sony's potential acquisitions — nor Microsoft's (though, I do think Microsoft should be looking to stabilize right now).

All I'm really commenting on is the hypocrisy of fanboys. If it wasn't for the anime/manga monopolization, I'd completely agree about ActiBlizz being on a different level. But that's not what I've been talking about.

@TeiGekiLord where do you see me saying those things you stated? I prefer BOTH not doing it.

@Friendly

You literally mentioned Game Pass as a reason you weren't opposed to it and were gleeful on Purexbox during that period.

While everyone is crying about this it seems it may have been a move from Kodokawa and Sony to prevent a takeover from a South Korean conglomerate called Kakao which makes sense because Japanese companies prefer to stay in Japanese hands.

@TeiGekiLord people in general were cheering because of game pass. Not because of the consolidation. And also: Not me. I don’t care about CoD for instance. I already own Starcraft, Starcraft 2, Warcraft III and Diablo. No need for the rest of Actiblizz to be on gamepass for me.

So I do not see where you get that from.

I am not for big corporates gobbling up smaller ones, because there will always be layoffs and apart from the higher ups nobody will benefit from it.

@MeanBeanEgg what is unfair about keeping games at launch price for most of the year?

Btw, there’s a black friday sale going on, a lot of first party nintendo games are 33-70% off, both physical and digital.

@NapoleonDynamite Bloodborne remake you mean? It'll happen, don't be an Eeyore.

@RoomWithaMoose Well, this deal will be reviewed by regulatory bodies, to see if it indeed creates a monopoly(i doubt it) and whether it harms competition. We can all speculate about it, but there are people more qualified, who do this for a living, that will thoroughly review this deal.

As far as your frustration towards fanboys. I agree, some of them can be very ignorant and annoying. But that happens on both sides. A large demographic of the gaming industry is also pretty young, im guessing. That might explain some of the truncated views and unreasonable ways of arguing.

@LogicStrikesAgain I mean, I agree with all of this. I just want to clarify that I never defended Xbox fanboys, nor absolved them of their own hypocrisies.

It sounds like this is 90% done.

I now expect a full on Bloodborne remake to launch with the PS6.

@Friendly Well, these companies don't care about our preferences unfortunately. And to be fair, consolidation happens in most industries, especially as they mature. And the gaming industry is a bloated one. Microsoft has made its moves, and people can feel one way or the other about it. It still happened. And because of the scale of their move, it influenced other players to react to the changes in the competitive landscape.

Sony probably thinks since MS made such unprecedented deals, they can at the very least buy a few small publishers here and there. And i understand them, and they should. Cause who knows which companies are eyeing these publishers now. There are many companies with far deeper pockets than Sony, who might also be interested in snatching up some of these publishers, some of which own very valuable IP.

@Friendly “And because of the scale of their move, it influenced other players to react to the changes in the competitive landscape.”

Just want to add to that. This might also be applicable to the fanbase. People who might have been against consolidation during the Actiblizz deal, may have changed their stance since the deal passed. It was such a bold and impactful move that some people might now feel that if Sony cant avoid consolidation, they might as well embrace it, every company out for themselves. And that might be why you encounter all this “hypocrisy “.

@LogicStrikesAgain good you’re calling it hypocrisy, cause it absolutely is.

I don’t see why anyone is defending sony here. Because again: it doesn’t bring any consumer anything, other than the feeling that their purchase is ‘winning’ or similar dumb reasoning.

Unless you’re a person that likes seeing headlines next year again of ‘x amount of persons laid off here, studio y shut down there.’

@LogicStrikesAgain ‘scale of the move.’ Nothing so far has been lost for Sony fans with the actiblizz purchase btw. Every game has been multiplatform so far. So it was an outcry that playstation owners would ‘lose’ stuff based on nothing.

So, consumer has gained nothing gained, lost nothing. Except tons of layoffs. And lost creativity. Again.

@Friendly Im not necessarily defending Sony, im just saying, from a business standpoint, what they’re doing makes sense.

So you agree with MS growing their business, but not with Sony doing the same?

You mention Sony layoffs, but why the focus on Sony? These layoffs are industry wide, and while Sony is the largest publisher, they didn't even have the most layoffs compared to others.

Im confused by your arguments, you're strongly against consolidation and layoffs. But seem much milder on ur critique of MS, which consolidated a big portion of the industry, and made many lay offs after the deal.

Somehow you are sure that this deal will lead to many lay offs. Why do you have such a hyperfocus on Sony? You praise MS for keeping everything multiplat, which is not entirely true. And Sony in general, seems to keep things multiplat more than Microsoft.

Bottom line, it find ironic the condescending way you speak of Sony and its fanbase when you come across as having a strong bias yourself.

If you're so against all these ‘bad companies’, why not focus on bigger fish? These are hardly the most evil corporations out there. Consolidation happens in any industry, If you’re so against it and its effects, why not put ur focus on some of those larger corporations who are doing much worse. Im wondering what your fight really is here?

I really hope Sony doesn’t do that. Then again, they will use the Xbox buying Activision as their main excuse to monopol… I mean, buy part of the manga industry

@Savage_Joe Don't worry, it will be reviewed by the proper regulatory bodies to see whether this will create a monopoly or not. And if it does, they will either have to cancel the deal, or change the deal so that it will not give Sony a monopoly.

If people have any arguments or can demonstrate how it will actually create a monopoly, maybe that would be more interesting than just shouting these empty claims though.

@Rich33 FromSoft games are some of the few that do sell well on xbox, most of them aren't on gamepass

@LogicStrikesAgain because people don't care unless it's about their precious, precious video games

@TeiGekiLord it’s all good. It is tough as I can’t help what Xbox is doing to themselves. But as someone who has been fully in on Xbox since Jan 2006… it’s pretty rubbish to see them change the status quo in such a white flag way.

And I know the joke is that with Xbox it’s always “next year will be the one” but with their studios and output at the moment it would have been a great time to bring the competition to Sony.

It’s all video games at the end of the day and when you step back and look at it, we are genuinely lucky we have these 3 giants each pumping out games covering so much variety between them and giving other publishers a place to call home and stores to sell their games on. That’s why I want it to continue.

I love Spike chunsoft for it's whacky games, I hope Sony doesn't close them if the acquisition goes through. They are such a nice AA breath of fresh air... If Sony isn't interested in them, maybe Bandai Namco will take them in... Considering they are a large ally to both companies.

@NomNom Why would they? I wonder what that worry is based on? I hear some people saying that. I genuinely don't know, Im not really familiar with that studio. Do their games not sell well? Or are they underperforming in any way?

@SlipperyFish
I will say I dont know individual game sales, but I was talking about the overall 'Game Pass effect' that affects games not on GP ie where a large proportion of Xbox gamers will not buy any game - they pay their Game Pass subscription and think this should provide all the games they want - and to be fair to them (though I think it all a bit ludicrous), this is what Xbox keep telling them.

Im sure I have read a couple of articles now that work out that in generalised terms if you launch a game on Xbox (not on GP), the sales will only be around half of what you should expect given their market share.

This doesnt put off most 3rd parties yet, because they need every sale possible, but Sony have other considerations.

@Rich33 in general yeah I agree with what you're saying, that is true. But FromSoftware seems to be an exception, they do well on xbox despite the Gamepass effect. Something like GTA 6 will obviously sell well on xbox as well. Anything not guaranteed to be really good, xbox players don't like paying for.

My objection to this is more about Sonys monopoly of global streaming of anime than anything games related. Yet if it is to prevent a hostile takeover, I would understand.

@SlipperyFish
If thats the case (and to be clear, im not saying otherwise - I just dont know), maybe Sony need to think about a case by case situation eg BB remake exclusive, ER follow up multi.
Its an odd case as I still think game exclusivity to build/maintain the PS brand is worth far more to Sony than sales of a few games, in terms of their business model, but they may be able to do a deal with Xbox thats beneficial to PS gamers (and be unusually open about it - we release game A on xbox s/x, they release games B and C on PS with full pro support).

@LogicStrikesAgain they are a very creative studio, but I don't think they make a ton of sales. They were a staple on the Vita and make great handheld titles for the Switch too. If Sony keeps them I can see them being moved to the handheld division. But since they are a generally low units sold studio I feel they might get shafted being in PlayStation.

@NomNom Ohh, in that case i hope they wont shut them down either! Sony really needs some of these smaller creative studios

@LogicStrikesAgain I'm hoping Sony music or pictures makes the acquisition not SIE, so that they are in that Bungie gray area. Spike chunsoft and Acquire make boatloads of money on Nintendo, and if they remain separate from first party they should still be able to make games on the Switch while being a "first party" studio. Obviously the games would need to come out on PlayStation too but it'll keep the companies alive and thriving. FromSoft isn't going to ever close down, they'll essentially become a PS/PC powerhouse studio.

@NomNom I agree! But if those studios already make a boatload of money, im pretty sure Sony wont shut them down. I don't think Sony has a problem with keeping those studios multiplat.