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[Perrott]

Can you say which certain publisher?

Japanese publisher, and I'd say that there have been enough hints at it this year for some of you to figure out who it is. My source on this has expressed to me during our conversations that they might have the desire to tackle this topic publicly and get into the specifics of it by themselves, so I'm gonna let them have the chance to properly break it down to you internet folks.

 

[BennyBlanco]

Tencent buying Ubisoft seems realistic.

 

[MScarpa]

I pray its Microsoft just to watch the epic meltdown on here.

 

[Alebrije]

PSG buying Ubisoft with the money they got from Messi's shirts..

 

[Hendrick's]

Tencent buying Ubisoft seems realistic.

Don’t think MS would let that happen.

 

[PhaseJump]

Phil's going to pick up Konami and slap a Bomberman face on that black Series S vent.

 

[onesvenus]

Japanese publisher, and I'd say that there have been enough hints at it this year for some of you to figure out who it is. My source on this has expressed to me during our conversations that they might have the desire to tackle this topic publicly and get into the specifics of it by themselves, so I'm gonna let them have the chance to properly break it down to you internet folks.

Great, thanks. So it's either Sony buying Konami (SH, MGS rumours) or them buying From parent company.

About the other ones you've heard about being in negotiations with Microsoft. In a nuclear bomb scale, are they handmade bombs, megatons or gigatons? Bigger or smaller than Bethesda?

 

[Marvel]

Hmmmmmmm

 

[Dabaus]

Oh, there are 100% some huge potential acquisitions undergoing negotiations behind the scenes at the moment that would fit the criteria established by ACG's tweet (some where Sony seemingly has the lead; others where Microsoft is kind of fixated in outbidding everyone else at any cost; and others which are much more disputed and where players like Tencent are getting thrown into the equation), so I wouldn't be able to confidently say that Karak is talking about a certain thing specifically. But if I had to put my money on something, it would be on Sony acquiring a certain publisher, but it really could be anything by anyone to be honest.

Can you say if one of the companies up for grabs is square enix?

Edit just saw the conversation. As much as people think it’s going to be square I think Sony goes for capcom.

 

[Perrott]

Great, thanks. So it's either Sony buying Konami (SH, MGS rumours) or them buying From parent company.

About the other ones you've heard about being in negotiations with Microsoft. In a nuclear bomb scale, are they handmade bombs, megatons or gigatons? Bigger or smaller than Bethesda?

I'd put it like this (edited tier since I didn't get your nuclear bomb scale a first lol):

Gigaton: Bethesda
Megaton: Sony potential acquisition of a publisher
Handmade bomb (still pretty big): Microsoft negotiations <--- your question

Can you say if one of the companies up for grabs is square enix?

Edit just saw the conversation. As much as people think it’s going to be square I think Sony goes for capcom.

To my knowledge SE aren't up for grabs.

 

[Inviusx]

Seems unlike ACG to be a rumor whore on Twitter.

 

[Ramz87]

Sony are buying Konami.

 

[MasterCornholio]

Just throwing it out there for what its worth and I file this 100% under rumor but I hear something brewing a lot sooner then a month away

Guesses

 

[Fuz]

Me buying a new PC?

 

[SaucyJack]

Id say MS, Embracer, Tencent, EA, OR Sony would qualify as top 4 but i want to hear from him who he thinks these big 4 are.

The top 4, by gaming revenue, are: Sony, Tencent, Nintendo and Microsoft in that order. Sony revenues are about 50% higher than Nintendo.

The next tier, Netease, Activision Blizzard and EA are all about half the revenue of Nintendo. Embracer are quite a way back from there.

 

[MasterCornholio]

Japanese publisher, and I'd say that there have been enough hints at it this year for some of you to figure out who it is. My source on this has expressed to me during our conversations that they might have the desire to tackle this topic publicly and get into the specifics of it by themselves, so I'm gonna let them have the chance to properly break it down to you internet folks.

I heard some people suggest Square Enix but I don't think they were serious.

 

[BennyBlanco]

Great, thanks. So it's either Sony buying Konami (SH, MGS rumours) or them buying From parent company.

About the other ones you've heard about being in negotiations with Microsoft. In a nuclear bomb scale, are they handmade bombs, megatons or gigatons? Bigger or smaller than Bethesda?

Buying Konami would be really dumb, as they are barely a videogame company at this point. You would be getting their IP and a bunch of slot machines and gyms.

 

[MasterCornholio]

Sony are buying Konami.

If that happens.

You know how crazy the Silent Hill rumors will get right?

 

[Black_Stride]

If its anyone its Sony doing a pretty big purchase.

Just look at their current "partner" devs one of them is going full on First Party with no downsides since they were already pretty much Sony exclusive as is.

 

[Dabaus]

I'd put it like this:

Nuclear bomb: Bethesda
Handmade bomb: Sony potentially acquiring a publisher
Megaton: Microsoft negotiations <--- your question
Gigaton: Bluepoint

I'm assuming that a handmade bomb is bigger than a megaton in your scale of things lol

To my knowledge SE aren't up for grabs.

Good. So if it’s a Japanese publisher that isn’t SE, it’s either capcom or from softs parent company I’d wager.

 

[Corndog]

If that happens.

You know how crazy the Silent Hill rumors will get right?

20k thread?

 

[MasterCornholio]

20k thread?

Much worse than the Silent Hill rumor thread that we have.

 

[kyussman]

China is buying the US.

 

[AmuroChan]

If this involves acquiring a publisher, I think that rules out Sony or Nintendo. Those two historically do not make those types of purchases. It's far more likely that it would be Microsoft or Tencent.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

PlayStation event in September according to Grubb. Could be related?

 

[fermcr]

Microsoft purchases Microsoft.

 

[Dabaus]

One thing I think sticks out to me about all this is if it was in relation to MS the jez cordons and Jeff Grubbs of the world would be talking about this nonstop trumpeting it from the highest mountain.

So it’s either not MS or it’s just not happening.

 

[ZehDon]

"Huge" limits the potentials. And because I'm still drinking my morning coffee, lets speculate:

Sony purchasing Square Enix would make sense, they have a long history. This would Sony's version of the Bethesda deal.
Microsoft purchasing Konami, or at least their video game development, could be part of a push into the Japanese market. Unlikely, though.
EA or Activision buying out Nordic THQ is a potential. They've been buying up IPs for years and could make for a good grab.
And, of course, the inevitable Microsoft buying Sega. As long as they resurrect Fantasy Zone, I'm in.

 

[iorek21]

Sony acquiring Square Enix is a fair bet.

My dream purchase would be Sony getting Ubisoft. I think that would be the only possible way of Assassin's Creed being saved (or just give the IP to Sucker Punch and call it a day).

 

[plasmawave]

Sony is buying Kadokawa for that anime... and From.

 

[yurinka]

I call it bullshit.

-Tencent will continue buying and investing in studios as part of China taking over the world, but this isn't news.
-MS is still integrating the many studios they acquired and what they need to do is to start releasing games and generate money so won't make important acquisitions for a while.
-EA bought Codemasters so won't buy again soon.
-Activision is too busy now with their controversies so they will try to fix their shit and keep a low PR profile for a while to make sure their announcements don't get affected by crontroversies, so any acquisition would have pushed back.
-If Sony buys someone, will be some studio who worked with them for a while, like Bluepoint, Kojipro, Quantic Dream, ARC System Works or similar. Not huge publishers. Kadokawa and Square are too big to be acquired. They could also buy some Asian company who is huge in mobile or PC F2P, but console people wouldn't give a shit about it
-Ubisoft won't sell its company
-Foreigners can't buy top Japanese companies

If it's real, it would be Tencent buying Take 2 or Valve. But again, I think it's bullshit.

Sony
Nintendo
Microsoft
Tencent

The weird part is Sony and Nintendo aren’t really part of this whole so called consolidation movement happening right now. The recent game studio purchases made by them were all defense acquisitions, but some people just love to lump them together with Microsoft in order not to make Microsoft look bad or evil.

Defense acquisitions? Lol, what are you talking about? They are breaking gaming history records, so they don't give a fuck about MS getting some acquisitions that won't affect them at all, because the studios who MS bought only made a small portion of the revenue generated by their platforms.

 

[Mr Moose]

Sony are buying Konami.

Pachinko Online, exclusive to PlayStation, that'll boost numbers in Japan.

 

[Bryank75]

Defense acquisitions? Lol, what are you talking about? They are breaking gaming history records, so they don't give a fuck about MS getting some acquisitions that won't affect them at all, because the studios who MS bought only made a small portion of the revenue generated by their platforms.

I think he means, Insomniac were bought because Facebook were making a move and Housemarque were under threat too of being bought.

 

[SF Kosmo]

Ja Rule buys Intellivision!

 

[yurinka]

I think he means, Insomniac were bought because Facebook were making a move and Housemarque were under threat too of being bought.

They were in talks with Sony during years prior to the acquisition, nobody else were going to buy them.

Sony are buying Konami.

Phil's going to pick up Konami and slap a Bomberman face on that black Series S vent.

Great, thanks. So it's either Sony buying Konami (SH, MGS rumours) or them buying From parent company.

Microsoft purchasing Konami, or at least their video game development, could be part of a push into the Japanese market. Unlikely, though.

It has a net worth of $5B, which is too expensive to what they can offer, but they generate $2.5B but if Sony or MS buy them they would sell or shut down many divisions that generate a great portion of that revenue. And:

1) Konami has some juicy IPs, MS and Sony could be interested on them even if it's just to fill the catalog of subscriptions with old games and maybe to resurrect some of these IPs from time to time.
2) But Konami doens't have decent console gamedev studios. Sony and MS already have a lot of IPs, what they need is more studios and/or to grow their existing ones to develop them, because many of them are forgotten or in bad shape.
Konami is successful in mobile, but if they want to buy some big mobile company they could buy someone way more successful for a way smaller amount of money. But in any case, Sony would be interested on it.
3) I know big Japanese companies like Sony or Nintendo can't be purchased by foreigners, not sure if this would affect Konami too (it's possible but I think it isn't the case).
4) Konami has many other business where Sony and Microsoft aren't interested at all: pachinkos, gyms, arcades, internet, real estate, trading cards and other stuff. They also have movies and anime stuff, Sony would be interested in this part.

So even if it's still possible and they could rearrange and address everything, I think it's very unlikely to see Konami bought by MS or Sony.

There are better options. As an example, Square Enix has a market cap of $7.2B, they have way more top IPs that are still relevant today, several very capable AAA studios, they have way less weird divisions to cut and is in a very healthy position. May be more expensive but would be a better business.

 

[Hezekiah]

I pray its Microsoft just to watch the epic meltdown on here.

Does Microsoft count as one of the big four?

 

[FunkMiller]

It’s gonna be the Wednesday we’ve all been waiting for bitches!

 

[Kdad]

Gonna need a retailer to supply the new line of those Amiibos

That's 1990s synergy!

 

[kyliethicc]

This ACG guy makes no sense.

"4 gaming companies own everything" like wut lol

Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft, Valve, Activision, EA, Ubisoft, Take Two, Epic, Warner Bros, Embracer Group, Square Enix, Capcom, Koei Techmo, Bandai Namco, Sega, 505, Annapurna, Devolver, Nacon, etc etc etc

 

[Wulfer]

Id say MS, Embracer, Tencent, EA, OR Sony would qualify as top 4 but i want to hear from him who he thinks these big 4 are.

Replace Sony with Disney and you have a deal!

 

[deriks]

First wednesday of September and Sega is a confirmed buy from Microsoft

 

[PhaseJump]

Apple is going to buy Sony and cease PS5 for being too ugly to manufacture.

 

[kretos]

Sony buys NR and Mortal Kombat

 

[octiny]

Sega & MS legggooooo

 

[SaucyJack]

I call it bullshit.

-Tencent will continue buying and investing in studios as part of China taking over the world, but this isn't news.
-MS is still integrating the many studios they acquired and what they need to do is to start releasing games and generate money so won't make important acquisitions for a while.
-EA bought Codemasters so won't buy again soon.
-Activision is too busy now with their controversies so they will try to fix their shit and keep a low PR profile for a while to make sure their announcements don't get affected by crontroversies, so any acquisition would have pushed back.
-If Sony buys someone, will be some studio who worked with them for a while, like Bluepoint, Kojipro, Quantic Dream, ARC System Works or similar. Not huge publishers. Kadokawa and Square are too big to be acquired. They could also buy some Asian company who is huge in mobile or PC F2P, but console people wouldn't give a shit about it
-Ubisoft won't sell its company
-Foreigners can't buy top Japanese companies

If it's real, it would be Tencent buying Take 2 or Valve. But again, I think it's bullshit.


Defense acquisitions? Lol, what are you talking about? They are breaking gaming history records, so they don't give a fuck about MS getting some acquisitions that won't affect them at all, because the studios who MS bought only made a small portion of the revenue generated by their platforms.

Mostly reasonable but bolded bit is plain wrong, Sony have more than enough cash on hand to buy either, or both.

I'm not saying it’s likely, but you’re suggesting it’s not possible when it absolutely is.

 

[AJUMP23]

Sega Will buy MS.

 

[Shut0wen]

Imaging if it was nintendo buying platinum lmao people would riot

 

[FrozenFlame]

Blue Box Studios will purchase the Silent Hill IP so that Hasan doesn't get murdered by #teamreal.

 

[Cyber_hunter026]

Japanese publisher, and I'd say that there have been enough hints at it this year for some of you to figure out who it is. My source on this has expressed to me during our conversations that they might have the desire to tackle this topic publicly and get into the specifics of it by themselves, so I'm gonna let them have the chance to properly break it down to you internet folks.

Huh....sounds like konami as there was some rumors that they wanted to acquire the silent hill, metal gear solid, and castlevania ip's. But then again...like most have said, kadokawa and from software make the absolute most sense though.

 

[trikster40]

My bet is on Sony acquiring Kojima Productions or Konami.