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[ChuckeRearmed]

Acquiring studios with prior relationship like Insomniac, Bluepoint, Housemarque and KojiPro makes more sense than going after big publishers like Zenimax, Square Enix, Sega or Ubisoft. He knows the moment he makes a bid for Square, Phil will just outbid him. If I were Jim, I would be careful about all those timed exclusives from Square. FF7, FF16 and now Forspoken. It reminds me of that speculation that after DeathLoop, Ghostwire Tokyo Jim was trying to sign Starfield as a timed exclusive which forced Phil's hand. Probably something someone made up, but its not something you want to entertain.

We don't even need to think about Square. Leyou demonstrated that too - Sony was outbid by Tencent. Also according to the rumors Sony was also interested in Bethesda and was also outbid (original price supposed to be 5 bln, MS just went with 7.5 at once).

Regarding Square Enix I am pretty sure that within the next years it will be either purchaseув or fall apart. Their current behavior completely mirrors Bethesda's behavior - flops left and right, weird mobile initiatives, half backed games and so on. They certainly has some issues and it seems they are bleeding money. Things don't look good for them. Will be very interesting. Also I think that 2 years exclusivity for Forspoken and 1 year exclusivity for FF16 are not accidental numbers (Forspoken supposed to be released before FF16 right?)

But will money hat random games for timed exclusivity.

Organic fertilizer

 

[SafeOrAlone]

Microsoft hasn't even shown up at the starting line this generation.

It's the best place to play right now, given the small handful of exclusives available on any console, and the best value proposition.
Backwards compatibility is awesome. No, seriously. It's not just playing old games. All the old games are playing and looking better than ever, loading in the blink of an eye, and are, well, actually available to play, unlike Nintendo and Sony's deal. Not to hate too much on Sony or Nintendo, who are both putting out some of the best games of all time, consistently.
GamePass is awesome. My friends and I can all play the same games. Even my friend on PC, who I could never play with before, because.....Crossplay is also awesome. Xbox allows it.

But, nah, Xbox showed up. It's unfortunate that they haven't brought next-gen experiences yet - it really is. But they've been kicking ass in every other department, so I think they deserve credit.

 

[FritzJ92]

yeah true. its what i hope for. i just dont agree with the premise that microsoft has unlimited budget and can solve every problem with money while playstation is the poor boy fighting with everything he has because he cannot afford to play with the big boys.
dont know how the fuck people would ever come to that conclusion.

Sony can afford to play with the big boys to a certain extent. That’s kind of the point people are saying.
Microsoft historically has no fear of dropping billions on whatever they want, just like Apple and Google. Sony does not have the luxury of doing that at the same level.

 

[Akuji]

Microsoft stagnated a bunch of their tent pole releases and Phil is trying to course correct. I think he's done an admirable job so far but we've yet to see the fruit of their investments (and probably will not for a few more years). Game Pass and Cross Buy /w PC are great programs.

While a lot of Sony's output no longer appeals to me, they are always great about introducing new franchises or reinventing existing IP to help prevent stagnation.

didnt Phil already have more then 8 years already? There is no "give him time" anymore. Everything good and bad that xbox has today is his doing. Atleast he has to take responsibility for it. Back Compat on xbox is the best in biz. Gamepass is for alot of people a great way to enjoy games it seems. Not for me, but i can see the appeal.
But the whole game output is also his doing and him missing up to deliver those games.

 

[ChuckeRearmed]

But 11 billion is no pocket change

During the Q call, purchase of Bethesda was not even mentioned. 7.5bn was not big enough sum for stakeholders to be interested in it. That's all we need to know

 

[Topher]

But will money hat random games for timed exclusivity.

Weren’t they knocking at everyone’s door to sign deals?

Sony has reportedly approached all major third-party developers with exclusivity deals

A new report claims that Sony has approached all major third-party companies for PlayStation 5 exclusivity deals of sorts, and offered considerably more than Microsoft in terms of monetary value.

www.neowin.net

Microsoft made acquisitions and money hatted "random games for timed exclusivity" as well. This type of thing has been going on for quite some time.

 

[Shubh_C63]

Don't need to.

Don't have capital for that either way.

 

[mckmas8808]

Of course, they cant afford to.

They can afford to make dumb decisions though. These last few acquisitions have been smart.

 

[ChuckeRearmed]

So you think Microsoft bought Zenimax cause they were pissed at Sony for time exclusives

I am pretty sure that was part of the reasoning. Time exclusivity deals prevent the games from appearing on Game Pass for example. And when you don't own the content it can leave any time or you cannot get it until contract expired (see that Evil Within 2 did not appear on Game Pass until it was removed from PS Now). And that's why I think will purchase some japanese publisher - it will just make sense.

 

[Kumomeme]

it makesense since they already has well established, solid first party studios since beginning. so they only need to be particular about who they gonna add to balance what they currently already have while maintaining their existing philosophy. it is not necessary all always about resources vs resources situation that lead to these acquisition decision.

 

[mckmas8808]

MS has more cash on hand than Sony's market cap. They know they cant get into a bidding war with MS.

Acquiring studios with prior relationship like Insomniac, Bluepoint, Housemarque and KojiPro makes more sense than going after big publishers like Zenimax, Square Enix, Sega or Ubisoft. He knows the moment he makes a bid for Square, Phil will just outbid him. If I were Jim, I would be careful about all those timed exclusives from Square. FF7, FF16 and now Forspoken. It reminds me of that speculation that after DeathLoop, Ghostwire Tokyo Jim was trying to sign Starfield as a timed exclusive which forced Phil's hand. Probably something someone made up, but its not something you want to entertain.

EDIT: This is the speculation I am talking about.

Sony was reportedly in talks to sign Starfield before Xbox’s Bethesda buyout | VGC

Microsoft has said it will honour PS5’s existing exclusivity agreements with Bethesda…

www.videogameschronicle.com

I think the bolded is the DUMBEST thing I've read about all this bidding war stuff. No way, Sony "forced" poor MS into buying ZeniMax and Bethesda for $7.5 BILLION just because Sony wanted to make one game exclusive. Like come on guys....

 

[bender]

didnt Phil already have more then 8 years already? There is no "give him time" anymore. Everything good and bad that xbox has today is his doing. Atleast he has to take responsibility for it. Back Compat on xbox is the best in biz. Gamepass is for alot of people a great way to enjoy games it seems. Not for me, but i can see the appeal.
But the whole game output is also his doing and him missing up to deliver those games.

In he previous capacities, he certainly had his hand is the output failure but Microsoft had a shit in 2017 when Phil was promoted to the executive leadership team. Games take forever to make. I'm not trying to give that division excuses as the game output has been on the anemic side, but they've done a lot of good things to help mitigate the wait.

 

[zaanan]

I don't think resources plays as big a part as you think. Sure, Microsoft has a lot more money, that's a fact. But in terms of acquisitions, Sony's strategy has been consistent. And it begins with established relationships. Always has.

Seeing lots of posts saying Sony can’t compete financially with Microsoft, as if it’s a David vs Goliath scenario, and these folks are on the side of Goliath.

 

[Akuji]

During the Q call, purchase of Bethesda was not even mentioned. 7.5bn was not big enough sum for stakeholders to be interested in it. That's all we need to know

what else was mentioned? sometimes you dont mention what u dont want others to know or remember them. Xbox already was under cirtic by shareholders in the past. I dont think the last 5-8 years anyone really attacked the xbox division but that could be a reason to not talk about it.
7.5billion is a big sum, for everyone. Depending on what else microsoft did this last year ( i dont follow the whole company ) the bethesda purchase could really be not important enough to mention. But i dont think we can deduct it that easily.

 

[Snake29]

It's not an arms race, it's a chicken fight. Sony will always win most battles if not all but it just can't afford to go to war with Microsoft.

You don't have to, you just have to be smart and Sony is smart how they manage their studios and teams.

 

[FatKingBallman]

I think Sony has around 11 billion thats more then enough to make a splash.

Doesn't Sony has 30+ bil. cash on hand??

 

[mckmas8808]

I am pretty sure that was part of the reasoning. Time exclusivity deals prevent the games from appearing on Game Pass for example. And when you don't own the content it can leave any time or you cannot get it until contract expired (see that Evil Within 2 did not appear on Game Pass until it was removed from PS Now). And that's why I think will purchase some japanese publisher - it will just make sense.

Not even close! I'm willing to believe it played ZERO role at all. Nobody spends that amount of money so that Sony wouldn't get 1 game as a 6 month launch exclusive. Think for a second.

 

[KAL2006]

I think the bolded is the DUMBEST thing I've read about all this bidding war stuff. No way, Sony "forced" poor MS into buying ZeniMax and Bethesda for $7.5 BILLION just because Sony wanted to make one game exclusive. Like come on guys....

It's all true I tell you. There are rumours Sonys Jim Ryan ran over Phil's dog so now Phil sent the order in to buy Capcom and Square.

 

[BennyBlanco]

They couldn’t afford an arms race. Buying housemarque and bluepoint is something they should’ve done years ago since they basically only work with them anyway. They are happy just moneyhatting games.

 

[Topher]

I think the bolded is the DUMBEST thing I've read about all this bidding war stuff. No way, Sony "forced" poor MS into buying ZeniMax and Bethesda for $7.5 BILLION just because Sony wanted to make one game exclusive. Like come on guys....

Yeah, that is the product of some extremely vivid fanboy imaginations.

 

[ChuckeRearmed]

didnt Phil already have more then 8 years already

No. He was the head of Xbox until 2018 basically. At that time his scope of activities were limited - as Xbox was under Windows division - but in Xbox area he achieved a lot - backwards compatibility for Xbox 360/Xbox, Xbox One S/X. Even Game Pass.

At the end of 2017 he became vice president of gaming - so he stopped being under Windows division. And starting 2018 we had the parade of acquisitions and even the talks regarding Bethesda last 2 years (so also since 2018 basically).The scope of his operations has became much bigger. So basically the full investment began in 2018 only. Before that Xbox had operate with a limited set of resources. And that's just the beginning because in 2020 Satya officially announced that MS is all-in gaming. Let the hunt begin!

 

[SlimySnake]

But will money hat random games for timed exclusivity.

Weren’t they knocking at everyone’s door to sign deals?

Sony has reportedly approached all major third-party developers with exclusivity deals

A new report claims that Sony has approached all major third-party companies for PlayStation 5 exclusivity deals of sorts, and offered considerably more than Microsoft in terms of monetary value.

www.neowin.net

Yep. I remember that post. It's already come to pass. Sony has been paying a lot of money for timed exclusives these last few years.

Just off the top of my head.

- Deathloop
- Ghostwire Tokyo
- FF7remake
- FF7remake integrate
- Forspoken
- FF16
- Kena Bridge of Spirits
- Godfall (only 6 months)
- Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 remake (only 1 month but they still thought it was worth whatever they paid for just 1 month of exclusivity)
- Jade Raymond's new studio exclusive
- Ex-Treyarch devs new studio exclusive
- Ex-Bungie devs new studio excluisve

Then there are unannounced games like MGS and Silent Hill remakes that will likely also be timed exclusive.

 

[zaanan]

Kind of like how Microsoft acquired Bethesda, a company they had an established relationship with.

Nope. MS did not “acquire Bethesda,” they bought AlphaDog/Arkane/Bethesda/id/MachineGames/Roundhouse/Tango/ZenimaxOnline. Doesn’t compare as well to Sony’s single-studio acquisitions when you put it like that tho, eh?

 

[KAL2006]

Yep. I remember that post. It's already come to pass. Sony has been paying a lot of money for timed exclusives these last few years.

Just off the top of my head.

- Deathloop
- Ghostwire Tokyo
- FF7remake
- FF7remake integrate
- Forspoken
- FF16
- Kena Bridge of Spirits
- Godfall (only 6 months)
- Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 remake (only 1 month but they still thought it was worth whatever they paid for just 1 month of exclusivity)
- Jade Raymond's new studio exclusive
- Ex-Treyarch devs new studio exclusive
- Ex-Bungie devs new studio excluisve

Then there are unannounced games like MGS and Silent Hill remakes that will likely also be timed exclusive.

Had no idea jade Raymond new studio and ex treyach and bungie studio games were time exclusives. I those are published by Sony like Returnal. Do you have a source these games won't be published by Sony and likely time exclusives

 

[SLB1904]

Had no idea jade Raymond new studio and ex treyach and bungie studio games were time exclusives. I those are published by Sony like Returnal. Do you have a source these games won't be published by Sony and likely time exclusives

they are sony ips. but he knows. he trolls like that
and lets not pretend her studio didnt even exist before that.

 

[KAL2006]

they are sony ips. but he knows. he trolls like that
and lets not pretend her studio didnt even exist before that.

No he made a list lets hear him out im sure he has a source he can send to show he is right

 

[TheGodfather07]

Sony have the same strategy that they have always had. This is the way they have built their first party and will continue doing so and they have been rewarded for their efforts. It's the right way of doing things but ultimately, in business, money talks and it isnt always going to be fair as seen with the Bethesda acquisition.

 

[kyussman]

If they were in an arms race they would be loosing quite badly right now based on recent events wouldn't they,lol.

 

[TransTrender]

Makes sense because Nintendo already won the ARMS race

 

[ChuckeRearmed]

what else was mentioned?

Nuance acquisition was mentioned as far as I remember. Which is around 20 bln.

Doesn't Sony has 30+ bil. cash on hand??

Yes, I think it is around 45 (not sure). But Sony is a conglomerate of 4 companies so we have to split that money as each part of Sony has its own acquisition budget. Add to that that companies always keep around 3 quarterly profits (I think it was that) in cash for unforeseen circumstances.

Not even close! I'm willing to believe it played ZERO role at all. Nobody spends that amount of money so that Sony wouldn't get 1 game as a 6 month launch exclusive. Think for a second.

It played the role. Of course it was not 50% of the reason but at least 10%. Content is important, so not losing content - is equally important. If it did not matter, Sony would not money hat stuff left and right. Why would they spend tens or hundreds of millions for time exclusivity? MS just operates at the bigger scope. It is really nice to see MS finally backing Xbox and that it started to operate like they supposed to be from the very beginning. If they started that earlier they could secure Bioware and Remedy, the relations with Platinum Games would not fall apart and so on.

 

[SlimySnake]

Had no idea jade Raymond new studio and ex treyach and bungie studio games were time exclusives. I those are published by Sony like Returnal. Do you have a source these games won't be published by Sony and likely time exclusives

Nope, but the wording gives it away. Sony is publishing THEIR games. Sony doesnt own the IPs in these cases. The bungie studio was created in 2018 way before sony got involved.

PlayStation and Firewalk Studios announce publishing partnership for a new, original multiplayer IP

Firewalk’s AAA team sets its sights on creating memorable multiplayer moments for players.

blog.playstation.com

Today, we’re thrilled to announce a partnership with Sony Interactive Entertainment for our new, original multiplayer game.

We are currently working on an unannounced, original multiplayer game that is being published by our partners at Sony Interactive Entertainment

Also the job listings ask for multiplat engine experience.

• You have a lot of experience developing an optimized multi-platform graphics code taking advantage of each platform to its fullest.

 

[jshackles]

Why does this feel like when I was a kid playing on the playground, and I'd start racing some kid and beat his ass, and then at the end of the race he shows up and was like "you didn't win, we weren't racing..."

 

[ChuckeRearmed]

Also the job listings ask for multiplat engine experience.

I presume it is PC and PS.

 

[OmegaSupreme]

But will money hat random games for timed exclusivity.

Weren’t they knocking at everyone’s door to sign deals?

Sony has reportedly approached all major third-party developers with exclusivity deals

A new report claims that Sony has approached all major third-party companies for PlayStation 5 exclusivity deals of sorts, and offered considerably more than Microsoft in terms of monetary value.

www.neowin.net

All this positive Sony news really has you shook for some reason.

 

[Great Hair]

Like a boss. Shots have been fired!

 

[MiguelItUp]

"It's not like we're going around and just making random acquisitions.”

There is no current company that is guilty of doing such a thing. Of COURSE no one is going to just run around making random acquisitions, that'd be a waste of money. More doesn't equate better, it's about the quality through and through. I'm sure they're all well aware of that.

 

[Alebrije]

How Sony buys developers :

Meanwhile Microsoft :

 

[SenjutsuSage]

Shots fired. Phil "Random Acquisitions" Spencer.

Random acquisition that gets you Obsidian along with the Outer Worlds 2 and Avowed? I'll take it.

And whatever they may want to call the Bethesda acquisition, it is quite literally one of the smartest ever acquisition related investments in gaming history. If not #1 it's damn near to the top.

Microsoft owns Fallout, Elder Scrolls, id tech engine, Doom, Wolfenstein, Starfield, Redfall, Prey, Dishonored, Shinji Mikami's studio Tango Games etc. Even the timed exclusives Deathloop and Ghostwire: Tokyo for PS5 are now Xbox first parties. They will be dropped into Game Pass when the time comes. Xbox may have an exclusive Indiana Jones game by the looks of the Microsoft strategy so far with Redfall and Starfield. Unless Disney insists otherwise, Microsoft is probably already making that move, and considering what they're doing with cloud gaming across all platforms including android and iPhone and Game Pass on both Xbox and PC, they may have plenty enough to woo Disney on the Indiana Jones exclusive.

That Pirates of the Caribbean expansion for Sea of Thieves is just another sign of their collaboration with Disney.

The simple thing about this is that these acquisitions weren't just "random," they were all smart, all well timed. Playgrounds was an excellent pickup. Ninja Theory was also a very smart buy as well. So was Doublefine and InXile. Everything plays perfectly into Microsoft's current and future strategy. Obsidian and now Bethesda certainly was no accident. Someone has a new vegas followup in mind for certain.

As shown by 343.

This gets so old and tired lol. 343 are delivering the best looking and most ambitious looking Halo game ever. The game is looking like a homerun, so they may not exactly be the best example. It isn't a major surprise that a team with such big ambitions couldn't make launch date in the middle of a global pandemic.

 

[bender]

Random acquisition that gets you Obsidian along with the Outer Worlds 2 and Avowed? I'll take it.

Outer Worlds was pretty meh.

 

[vaibhavpisal]

"we are just buying studios we should've bought eons ago"

 

[SenjutsuSage]

Outer Worlds was pretty meh.

lol on a serious note, Outer Worlds was damn good, especially the expansions. Once you accept the world for what it is, it's nuts.

 

[reksveks]

Doesn't Sony has 30+ bil. cash on hand??

Someone was saying that includes their financial service which has some limitations

 

[Elder Legend]

Thanks to this thread. A lot of arms chair financial NeoGaf experts are going on my ignore list.

 

[cireza]

We are not in an arms race with Microsoft, but we are still going to make a comment about it and about Microsoft.

 

[Punished Miku]

They're absolutely in an Arm's Race, which is why they're buying two studios they've worked with for years without having to buy them.

This is just muddy messaging. The only reason to purchase these studios after decades is because of the current content gold rush going on.

 

[Ass of Can Whooping]

Nope, but the wording gives it away. Sony is publishing THEIR games. Sony doesnt own the IPs in these cases. The bungie studio was created in 2018 way before sony got involved.

PlayStation and Firewalk Studios announce publishing partnership for a new, original multiplayer IP

Firewalk’s AAA team sets its sights on creating memorable multiplayer moments for players.

blog.playstation.com

Also the job listings ask for multiplat engine experience.

• You have a lot of experience developing an optimized multi-platform graphics code taking advantage of each platform to its fullest.

If they're funding the games then they definitley own the IP

 

[reksveks]

If they're funding the games then they definitley own the IP

Depends on the contract

 

[MOTM]

All this positive Sony news really has you shook for some reason.

Sony bought a AA dev that only made games for PlayStation for the last 10 years. Yeah very shook. Anything else?

 

[Ass of Can Whooping]

Depends on the contract

Sony always owns the IP for games they fund themselves, and given these are completely new studios it's not like they have any leverage in negotiations

 

[Excess]

I remember when Phil "We don't believe in console wars" Spencer said something similar.