Which studio would you aquire to counter MS buying Activision?

[steel6burgh]

3 minutes ago, Sebatrox said:

 

"some" 100mln players.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1110000/call-of-duty-warzone-players/

Yeah but all 100mil aren't going to jump ship and leave to xbox and the ones who only play COD exclusively aren't really contributing all that much to Sony's bottom line anyway.  Trust me gaming and sony were both around long before COD and they will be around long after as well. 

[Tsundokuist]

I don’t think they do need to counter it. At worst this just differentiates the two brands more (which is a good thing for both) and gives them differing libraries. Sony/3rd parties will just see opportunities to step into genre gaps if Microsoft take away stalwarts like COD but for the sake of speculation…

 

Konami is the obviously available publisher, given they have no real talent, just a handful of sleeping giant/crown jewel IPs in Metal Gear Solid, Silent Hill and Castlevania (all with strong Playstation legacies). Still, they might not be worth it to Sony however given Pro Evo is in an awful state and nothing else Konami has mass-market relevancy in this day and age.

 

I doubt Sony could afford it but Capcom are the ultimate proposition, Sony would be locking up the Monster Hunter franchise which guarantees console sales in Japan, they’d also be locking up the global fighting game community with Street Fighter, Darkstalkers and (potentially) Marvel/SNK vs. which ties into their Evo interests. Beyond Resident Evil, there’s also all kinds of interesting franchises that could be rebooted or handed to Sony studios for reimagining… Dino Crisis, Okami, Mega Man (the latter by the Ratchet and Clank team? *drools*)…

 

FromSoftware are another good shout, I think that would come at a huge premium and definitely cost far more than it’s actually worth but Activision/Blizzard and Bethesda are both big in the Western Action RPG/Fantasy space and FromSoftware have a lot of talent and a huge fanbase to allow Playstation to at least hang on in that front.

Edited January 21, 2022 by Tsundokuist

[milanbarca82]

None as it will make things far worse, and I doubt Sony has the money to buy those studios. 
Even if they buy one, M$ will buy 10 and so on.  It's a losing battle. It's like a trophy hunter who wants to be competitive and play fair in the leaderboard against players with infinite income, whose 97% of their platinums are of the simple 5-10 minute to complete type of games.  Winning against them is out of the question.

Edited January 21, 2022 by milanbarca82

[thefourfoldroot]

If i was Sony I wouldn’t. What I would do is set up multiple other devs, each dedicated to a specific genre, then hire people from all the devs MS bought, offering a great salary and complete creative freedom (something MS will not offer given what they have paid for IPs).

Sony need to replace the Bethesda games lost and now COD with new IPs, but it is the developers themselves who have the talent, and whilst the companies can be bought out, the devs are free to go to those offering the best opportunities.

Sony should seek to systematically gut these dev teams MS have acquired

Edited January 21, 2022 by thefourfoldroot

[TheMikeSC]

Sony really CAN'T. Microsoft has tons more money. Heck, PS Now runs off of Microsoft's cloud service. Financially, Sony cannot potentially compete. They lack the money to buy Take Two, Square, etc. Sony has plenty of good stuff.

[iriihutoR84]

Sony needs to make sure they have a strong VR line-up planned for years to come whether it's from funding, marketing deals or acquisition. That's definitely a potential weakness. 

 

They also need to focus on content for their biggest target markets, Europe and America. Microsoft is an RPG powerhouse with Obsidian, Activision and Bethesda now while Sony only has RPG-lites in Horizon and God of War. They're investing too much in Japanese RPGs and have left a hole to fill in the western ones. Not an easy hole to fill though since Microsoft has purchased the biggest. Larian is a great studio but they don't make console-focused games. 

 

The most important thing they should invest in is probably more support studios though. They need to ensure that their big studios can deliver bigger games and at a faster pace. Sony already has some excellent studios under their wing that will help them remain competitive. 

 

Apart from that, they have to invest in a cloud infrastructure but that's definitely a space where they will have an even harder time to compete with Microsoft than in the console space. 

Edited January 21, 2022 by iriihutoR84

[majob]

Realistically, buying another studio in response would be a terrible move because it would show Sony's confidence is shaken and nothing is more volatile to a publicly traded company than a lack of confidence. Not to mention Sony's market cap just took a heavy hit so they actually have fewer options on who to buy because you have to offer a company more than their market worth in an acquisition.

 

Smartest move is to do what they did with the PS3. Focus on their own offerings and services. You can't out spend Microsoft so just keep developing things Microsoft can't offer

 

Edited January 21, 2022 by majob

[starcrunch061]

Sony loses a buying war.

 

What they need to do is reinforce their ties to developers (especially Japanese ones). Currently, they stand to lose western devs to MS and Japanese ones (to say nothing of indies) to Nintendo. 

 

And I hate to sound like "that guy", but this might be difficult with someone like Jim Ryan at the helm. At the very least, they need to minimize his...speaking. His arrogance in the past will look increasingly absurd if Sony doesn't regain its momentum. But I fear that, instead, we'll hear about how SIE is the big breadwinner, and how every decision they make is the correct one, blah blah blah.

[Sebatrox]

As for me I'm still going to buy a PS5 instead of Xbox Series X. because:

a) I prefer the PlayStation brand as a whole (games, consoles, trophies)

b ) I'm already using xCloud, so I can play all the Xbox exclusives on my laptop (Halo Infinite was average BTW )

[TJ_Solo]

On 1/19/2022 at 10:56 PM, Wavergray said:

Sony's debt to equity ratio is around 0.8 were any number lower than 1 being seen as good. Sony is managing their debt pretty well, but trying to acquire a whole other company, which would mean dealing with any debts or contracts that company has, is a big move to make when you can't cover all of your current debts.

I didn't say they can't do anything, I just said they don't have the money to make any big acquisitions like Microsoft. There are tons of other things they can do to "counter" Microsoft. 
Honestly the whole Activision things feels more like Activision approached Microsoft with the offer and Microsoft just decided to take it. 
Because outside of their mobile stuff and Warzone, almost everything that made Activision big was on the downturn. Combine that with all the lawsuit and bad press stuff, it was going to take a long time for Activision to recover. Microsoft was one of the few adjacent companies that could afford to buy them outright without much of a issue.

Anyway Sony will be fine, for them a better move would be to spend like 500 million to make a few new in house studios instead of spending billions on a bunch of IPs, debts, and contracts.

Also, the only reason Microsoft doesn't just buy Sony is because of anti-trust law in each country. That just how much money Microsoft has.

 

Dealing with another company's debt depends on the company and the debt. Unknown variables that can't be used to limit or restrict Sony without actual examples to be considered.

Who here is saying spend 70 billion? Is there even another publisher left that is valued the highly? People want big news and aren't caught up in the dollars. Big to many gamers would be another company with games they like. Names like Capcom, Square, and Konami are thrown around more than saying Sony should spend 70+ billion on Netease.

 

Sony, is fine. This MS news hurt every gaming company because of the sheer size of it. Consolidation is not viewed as a positive. Sony can continue on their path putting out great games and picking up the odd developer that fits perfectly into the puzzle. Sony has still managed to release more games than MS even after all these goliath level acquistions. Sony will keep getting games sales while MS "number crunches" their development schedules and budgets to a slow death.

Speaking of anti-trust. The deal isn't closed. MS has not received government approval or even a government reveiw of the proposal yet.  
 

[TheBlaskar]

Microsoft is swinging for the fences. Sony needs to combat Xbox's acquisition of not only Activision but Bethesda as well. That's insanely huge. They either need to acquire one massive studio, or a bunch of big ones. They would never be able to afford Rockstar or Epic Games but they need something like those for sure just to combat, you know, Elder Scrolls VI, Dishonored III, f*ckin Call of Duty, and so much more. Granted, Sony's exclusivity shines in the projects they own themselves (Spider-Man, God of War, Horizon) but they need to bring back Killzone and InFamous in BIG ways. Make Killzone the Halo killer it was planned to be before it, well, sucked in the first and fourth games. 

 

I'm honestly not sure they can compete with the acquisition of Activision and Bethesda. There is the possibility that we'll still see some of those games on PS seeing how Sony has let Microsoft have God of War and Horizon on PC, but still. They need to lockdown some heavy hitters or pour more money into SuckerPunch and Insomniac and Guerilla for more frequent releases. CoD is yearly. Sony needs something like that. The only other yearly franchise I can think of is Assassin's Creed (sports games aren't games) and that's going live service.

 

What I would do: purchase BioWare from EA, they're faltering and can't be too expensive. Acquire IOI which is about to have James Bond, get Rocksteady with Arkham, and whatever else you can get from WB. FromSoftware. SquareEnix: make Just Cause good again. Final Fantasy as a Sony exclusive? that's big. Purchase the Bioshock IP from 2k. That has so much more potential than is being understood. There are a lot of options, but competing against bethesda and activision is a big undertaking.

Edited January 21, 2022 by BlakeCarson666
bold key ideas for skim reading

[ObsceneSociopath]

Reading through this thread, I'm actually surprised to see no-one has mentioned Bandai Namco who if a purchase had to be made is who I'd rather see in Sony's hands.

 

Bandai have the monopoly on several major markets:

 

JRPGs -  outside of Square & Atlus, prettt much every JRPG comes through and is published by Bandai Namco. It's a market that Microsoft have shown interest in breaking into so holding it would benefit Sony.

 

Anime - Amost all of the officially licensed anime games (and all the best ones) come through Bandai as they own the licences. Whoever controls Bandai, controls the anime market and licences which is huge.

 

Fighting - Outside of Guilty Gear, Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat, the majority of major fighting game franchises (Tekken, Soul Calibur, Dragon Ball etc.) are published, owned and developed by Bandai. Just like with anime, owning Bandai would pretty much mean majority control of the fighting game market.

 

They also own other popular franchises that don't fall into those categories like Ace Combat, Ridge Racer etc.

 

While Bandai would do best remaining as they are now, they would no doubt be a major asset and control a big market which would heavily benefit anyone who owned it.

Edited January 21, 2022 by ObsceneSociopath

[Amonares]

SEGA, Konami, Capcom, From Software, Square Enix, Take Two, Ubisoft.

[TJ_Solo]

1 hour ago, starcrunch061 said:

And I hate to sound like "that guy", but this might be difficult with someone like Jim Ryan at the helm. At the very least, they need to minimize his...speaking. His arrogance in the past will look increasingly absurd if Sony doesn't regain its momentum. But I fear that, instead, we'll hear about how SIE is the big breadwinner, and how every decision they make is the correct one, blah blah blah.

 

Has PlayStation lost its momentum? Sure the current MS news is massive but that is MS news and not Sony lacking or doing something that hurt itself. 
Has this MS news hurt Horizon Forbidden West, GT7, the new console covers, PSVR2, or God of War: Ragnarok? These are things I could slightly attribute to Jim Ryan in his leadership position due to these things being the topics that he speaks on when he speaks now.

Compared to Phil Spencer, Jim Ryan mostly talks about tangible products instead of emotion or personal goals that get confused as business plans. Half of Spencer's interviews are him talking about what he enjoys about gaming, how much of a nonpartisan he is, and how great the idea of communities can be. He is charismatic but says so much nothing for people that are looking to play games. Without the charisma Jim Ryan just gets the work done. He was told that the EU sucked as a Playstation market and he needed to fix it. Without starting Twitter campaigns or getting buckets of cash from Sony he went to make the EU the top territory for PS2. 

 

To me, Ryan is a proper businessman with effective leadership skills and productive when it comes to releasing content. Phil is a silver tongued snake with access to the Microsoft trust fund that relies on promises and pretenious goals. 

[starcrunch061]

15 minutes ago, TJ_Solo said:

Has PlayStation lost its momentum? Sure the current MS news is massive but that is MS news and not Sony lacking or doing something that hurt itself. 
Has this MS news hurt Horizon Forbidden West, GT7, the new console covers, PSVR2, or God of War: Ragnarok? These are things I could slightly attribute to Jim Ryan in his leadership position due to these things being the topics that he speaks on when he speaks now.

 

Certainly, Sony has lost momentum. A lack of supply of PS5 consoles hasn't helped, but that doesn't mean that Sony hasn't sat on its hands for half a generation, resting on its laurels, watching as developers of "niche" titles jump ship.

 

And I can't in good conscience give Ryan too much credit for securing sequels to some of the biggest games of the generation. Would those games have jumped ship to become multi-platform? Possibly, but losing (or gaining) exclusives is far bigger than merely keeping them.

 

New console covers, PSVR2 - those are neat, sure, but hardly things that are going to move many consoles. 

 

22 minutes ago, TJ_Solo said:

Compared to Phil Spencer, Jim Ryan mostly talks about tangible products instead of emotion or personal goals that get confused as business plans. Half of Spencer's interviews are him talking about what he enjoys about gaming, how much of a nonpartisan he is, and how great the idea of communities can be. He is charismatic but says so much nothing for people that are looking to play games. Without the charisma Jim Ryan just gets the work done. He was told that the EU sucked as a Playstation market and he needed to fix it. Without starting Twitter campaigns or getting buckets of cash from Sony he went to make the EU the top territory for PS2. 

 

If Jim Ryan is to be given credit for restoring the EU market, he must take blame for abandoning the Japanese one.

 

Further, some of his oddball antics haven't exactly endeared him to some of his US market. We can debate whether Sony's seeming pivot from Japan, or its seeming indifference to indie devs or legacy games is a good move. But there is absolutely no reason for him to take part in the silly back-and-forth regarding The Last of Us 2, yukking it up with Neil Druckman on Twitter (a Twitter campaign for the EU market would have been preferable to nonsense about "soyboys" and whatnot). There was absolutely no reason for him to make comments about the unplayability of "old games" (which likely did Sony no favors with indie developers creating retro games). To use a tennis analogy, these are unforced errors. Did they have a huge effect on overall profit? Probably not, but they certainly hurt perception among a nontrivial number of gamers, and if the last couple of years have shown us anything, perception is now reality in the world of business.

 

30 minutes ago, TJ_Solo said:

To me, Ryan is a proper businessman with effective leadership skills and productive when it comes to releasing content. Phil is a silver tongued snake with access to the Microsoft trust fund that relies on promises and pretenious goals. 

 

This could be debated, but what's the point? Plenty of proper businessmen have run companies into the ground, and plenty of silver-tongued snakes have made billions.

 

My point remains: Sony should focus on its relationships with developers, and broaden its horizons. But with Ryan at the helm, there seems to have been a narrowing of perspective here, under the idea that a game that sells 500,000-1,000,000 copies is just "niche", and therefore, its loss isn't detrimental. 

[TJ_Solo]

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Certainly, Sony has lost momentum. 

 

Sony has lost some unimportant news battle. Nothing has technically changed yet. Sony has more content and hardware due out this year to sell while Xbox is struggling to give out release dates and gameplay updates on anything. 

 

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 A lack of supply of PS5

 

Global issue not a Sony issue. All producers are in a bind and Sony isn't experiencing this issue better or worse than other tech companies.

 

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And I can't in good conscience give Ryan too much credit for securing sequels to some of the biggest games of the generation

I gave him credit for the topics he talks about. He talks about software and hardware that mostly have release dates. As CEO, he rarely drools on about gaming ethics, personal opinion in gaming, and he doesn't make promises. He states what will or won't be done if it is in his/Sony's control.

 

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New console covers, PSVR2 - those are neat, sure, but hardly things that are going to move many consoles. 

 

It is still real products for the company that are coming out instead of being stuck in the cloud or concept table. 

 

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If Jim Ryan is to be given credit for restoring the EU market, he must take blame for abandoning the Japanese one.

 

Sure, if we can also blame Phil for the Xbox's dips in the Japanese market, NA market, EU market, and the dozens of smaller markets that Xbox doesn't enter.

 

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Further, some of his oddball antics haven't exactly endeared him to some of his US market.

I don't invest time into researching these people beyond their offcial comments and public appearances. The worst statement I am aware of Ryan saying was a comment him not understanding why gamers would want to play retro games due to outdated graphics and controls. He wasn't CEO then but what he said also wasn't incorrect as he'd have access to the numbers of people retro gaming on the PS ecosystem. I don't need an endearing CEO but clearly, some people on social media like to pretend these talking heads are their buddies. 

 

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Plenty of proper businessmen have run companies into the ground, and plenty of silver-tongued snakes have made billions.

 

Yet that isn't the case in respect to the PlayStation and Xbox brands. PS has been on an incline. Consistantly breaking sales records and pacing from their previous record breaking gens. The Xbox content and services have been in decline mostly and was briefly puffed up by the last few stay-at-home orders. I'd love to comment about hardware sales of the Xbox Series but there are no numbers. The only sites talking about it tend to use the terms "shipped" , "sold", "sell-thru", "estimate", "guess", and "imagine" interchangeably. The rather secretive way Spencer runs Xbox doesn't exactly ring of confidence.  

[JediKnight_327]

If Sony were spending money on anything, I'd prefer they spent it buying specific games and licenses like Monster Hunter and FIFA (which EA will be losing soon?), or in pursuing other partnerships like the one they have with Marvel.

[Rozalia1]

On 21/01/2022 at 9:40 PM, TJ_Solo said:

Yet that isn't the case in respect to the PlayStation and Xbox brands. PS has been on an incline. Consistantly breaking sales records and pacing from their previous record breaking gens. The Xbox content and services have been in decline mostly and was briefly puffed up by the last few stay-at-home orders. I'd love to comment about hardware sales of the Xbox Series but there are no numbers. The only sites talking about it tend to use the terms "shipped" , "sold", "sell-thru", "estimate", "guess", and "imagine" interchangeably. The rather secretive way Spencer runs Xbox doesn't exactly ring of confidence.  

 

Microsoft have declared hardware numbers irrelevant as they're no longer in the primary business of selling Xboxes and are instead in the business of selling Gamepass... of course just how much money they've lost on that is also a secret. It is telling though yeah, because if the numbers looked good they'd be screaming them from the rooftops. 

[kidson2004]

Honestly, with what Microsoft pulled off, it was only a matter of time if this turns out to be true. If so, what studios do you think they should buy? Let’s have a civilized conversation and be ok with other peoples opinions. 

[SoliDeoGloriaIHS]

I would love Square Enix and Take Two.  But any of the above would be fine.  Nintendo will never happen! Lol 

[TJ_Solo]

aaaaaaand blocked

[ThatMuttGuy]

I wish we could just let Third Party studios stay third party. Exclusivity is such a dumb thing. 

[Darling Baphomet]

This is fake. The account cited (AccountNGT) has repeatedly said that they were just giving an opinion, not a leak.

 

Edit: Responding to the rumor posted above. That was a very bizarre thread merge.

Edited January 31, 2022 by Darling Baphomet

[SoliDeoGloriaIHS]

Square Enix and Take Two.  In that order. 

[RadiantFlamberge]

 

On 1/18/2022 at 0:03 PM, MidnightDragon said:

Pretty much this. It’s bullshit, even if I don’t care about Activision.

I agree 110%. It's a terrible precedent, and it spells monopoly. I'd prefer for Activision's buyer to have been a multi-platform publisher, like Warner Bros., Square Enix, or Bandai Namco.

Even though UbiSoft is worth jack to me lately, I don't want to see them wolfed down by a console producer either. MS snatching them would be more bullshit. Sony gobbling them up would egg on MS to do more acquisitions... it'd be like a poker game that would never end. Not what we need.