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Analyst - "One of my favorite studios, Tokyo-based FromSoftware, is currently rumored to be an M&A candidate for Sony."

Juza

Member
Where is From Soft on this trademark?

ihSTprt.png

He's right, both Dark Souls series and Elden Ring are not purely own by Bandai Namco they have like internal agreement, none of them can make a decision about these titles without the other
So Bandai cannot make Dark Souls or Elden Ring without FromSoftware and vice versa

I always assumed FROM wasn't quite happy with how Sony treated Bloodborne and they changed to focus on multiplatform releases as much as possible, after Elden Ring i don't see any reason why that would change

Sony fucked it up with FromSoftware because they announced Dark Souls 3 before The Old Hunter DLC ! after that they tried to pull some of the key people out of FromSoftware, that's why Miyazaki became CEO of FromSoftware! and not only that.

People in the social media and forums don't know shit about what happened.
 

demonstr8

Member
Sony fucked it up with FromSoftware because they announced Dark Souls 3 before The Old Hunter DLC ! after that they tried to pull some of the key people out of FromSoftware, that's why Miyazaki became CEO of FromSoftware! and not only that.

People in the social media and forums don't know shit about what happened.
I see, that’s quite a claim. Do you have a source? Also if Miyazaki was so bothered by what Sony did why did they make Deracine for them afterwards?
 

Hezekiah

Banned
I honestly don't think Tencent would be happy about it. And if it will come to "bidding war" between Sony and Tencent we all know who would win...
Tencent might have a stake in them, but they're not much more likely to be able to buy Kadokawa than Microsoft is.
 

IntentionalPun

Ask me about my wife's perfect butthole
Microsoft is buying Activision at roughly $15 over their stock price at the time the deal was announced. Activision stock was trading at ~$80 and Microsoft is buying them at $95 a share, which is 15% over market value.

I'm not really following your argument but MS bought Activision for a lot more than $15 over the stock price per share. I think you are looking at the price ACTI closed that day or something but it started the day pre-announcement at around $65 a share and the sale was at $95 a share.
 

Tripolygon

Banned
He's right, both Dark Souls series and Elden Ring are not purely own by Bandai Namco they have like internal agreement, none of them can make a decision about these titles without the other
So Bandai cannot make Dark Souls or Elden Ring without FromSoftware and vice versa
You do see the trademark holder in the USPTO filing, right? FromSoft is not on it. Whatever internal agreement those two companies have is beyond what we know publicly and I frankly don't know how you would know the dynamic between both companies and the agreements they have.

Sony fucked it up with FromSoftware because they announced Dark Souls 3 before The Old Hunter DLC ! after that they tried to pull some of the key people out of FromSoftware, that's why Miyazaki became CEO of FromSoftware! and not only that.

People in the social media and forums don't know shit about what happened.
Dark Souls 3 and Bloodborne were worked on Simultaneously, those IPs belong to Namco and Sony who decides when they are released. From seems to work on multiple projects simultaneously as they also worked on Sekiro which is their own IP and Deracine which is Sony's IP and both released back to back. How you would know the internal hiring of both companies is beyond anything we forumers would know.
 

Tripolygon

Banned
I'm not really following your argument but MS bought Activision for a lot more than $15 over the stock price per share. I think you are looking at the price ACTI closed that day or something but it started the day pre-announcement at around $65 a share and the sale was at $95 a share.
Ok, they paid 30% above the market value of $65 which is a far cry from 5x. Is that better?
 

Juza

Member
I see, that’s quite a claim. Do you have a source? Also if Miyazaki was so bothered by what Sony did why did they make Deracine for them afterwards?
Do you mean the VR prototype title that FromSoftware don't give a shit about? That was only the result of Yoshida trying to fix things up during his multiple meetings with Miyazaki
It was a token from Fromsoftware to prove that they wanted to work with Sony again but not too soon, because they have plans and they want to work on their own titles or at least that was their excuse for Sony.


You do see the trademark holder in the USPTO filing, right? FromSoft is not on it. Whatever internal agreement those two companies have is beyond what we know publicly and I frankly don't know how you would know the dynamic between both companies and the agreements they have.
The world is not only the United States you know, if you try to search for the brand in Japan, you will find that it belongs to Fromsoftware, Can I say it's only owned by Fromsoftware?

Dark Souls 3 and Bloodborne were worked on Simultaneously, those IPs belong to Namco and Sony who decides when they are released. From seems to work on multiple projects simultaneously as they also worked on Sekiro which is their own IP and Deracine which is Sony's IP and both released back to back. How you would know the internal hiring of both companies is beyond anything we forumers would know.
Dark Souls 3 was announced and the trailer was revealed just before the Old Hunter announcement, that stole the spotlight from it.
And Miyazaki said he was involved in Dark Souls 3 while he mentioned before that he was partially involved in The Old Hunter DLC
That pissed yosp off and guess what happened after that..
 

John Wick

Member
If this is true, it just goes to show how reactionary Sony is and why they have no vision.

They only want to purchase FROM software because of their big Elden Ring hit.....

I know a lot of you love Sony, but they really turn me off. Not because they want to purchase FROM Software, but because they are so out of touch and have no serious vision on what they really want.
They just react because Microsoft is buying studios, so they go buying studios, Elden Ring was huge, so they want to have more sales...

It's really just all about this $$$$$$. No real passion, no real vision... They just are looking for the next big hit to pull in more $$$$$$$.
You wanna tell all the big companies they are doing it wrong chasing the money?
 

John Wick

Member
Yes, an IP they don’t own caused their company to to skyrocket out of Sony’s budget lol


Sony doesn’t even have to spend its own cash to purchase a company like kadokawa
It's funny how it becomes near impossible for Sony to buy any company that might cost $4-5 billion? Not that FromSoft or Kadokawa would cost that much.
 
Except that was Sony with the leverage against Insomniac. Not vice versa.

Spiderman is Sony's IP (along with Marvel).

Spiderman was easily the only mainstream hit Insomniac ever had and they knew they would not be able to get another crack without Sony.

Considering Sony has tried multiple time to acquire Insomniac since the PS2 days (and failed), the fact that they ultimately needed the Spiderman IP to reel in a dev that only owned the Fuse IP (Sony already owns the Ratchet and Resistance IPs), that says a lot of about Sony's relatively mild negotiation power.

I don't think it's as much reflective of Sony having "mild" negotiation power, so much as that the industry climate WRT acquisitions was different (they were nowhere near as frequent), and Sony themselves probably had less desire or drive to push acquisitions at that time, therefore they probably didn't probably bother with working out terms or deliberations beyond a couple early sessions.

Considering they had so much marketshare even back then, I think their negotiation power would've been a bit more than simply "mild" if they actually wanted to push for an acquisition back then.
 

Nautilus

Banned
Yes, an IP they don’t own caused their company to to skyrocket out of Sony’s budget lol


Sony doesn’t even have to spend its own cash to purchase a company like kadokawa
Because From's value is not necessarily in its assets, but in its talent. Its a team that has put a better received(and sells more) with each title they make.

So yeah, I can see them being valued highly.
 

demonstr8

Member
Do you mean the VR prototype title that FromSoftware don't give a shit about? That was only the result of Yoshida trying to fix things up during his multiple meetings with Miyazaki
It was a token from Fromsoftware to prove that they wanted to work with Sony again but not too soon, because they have plans and they want to work on their own titles or at least that was their excuse for Sony.
It doesn’t matter how much you try to belittle Deracine - everyone who sees the above response knows what logical fallacy you’re engaging in - it won’t lessen the effect of how it goes against the narrative you are currently pulling out of your ass. Once again, please provide a source for the claims you are making on behalf of FROM SOFTWARE Miyazaki himself for everyone to see.
 

MonarchJT

Banned
Bit tired of this day one obsession from the green rats. I heard last year we were going to get Tsushima, Returnal, Demon’s Souls on PC after 6 months of exclusivity and then everything would be day one going forward. GT7 was going to be day-one.

Mr Mayor Waiting GIF by NBC


Why do you need this day-one validation? Because Xbox does it? I don’t get it.
i never said that will happen this soon...check my history...but is inevitable
 
Sony acquiring From would be one of the biggest tragedies in gaming history. Hopefully MS won't stand idly by and let it happen.
Why would MS be a better choice? lmao

Souls games literally started with a PS exclusive and a game Sony financed, Demon's Souls... and one of the best games of this genre is also another Playstation exclusive: Bloodbourne.
 
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Why would MS be a better choice? lmao

Souls games literally started with a PS exclusive and a game Sony financed, Demon's Souls... and one of the best games of this genre is also another Playstation exclusive: Bloodbourne.

From my understanding just because the titles would be available on PC on day one, not like praising the sun for a port of a 7 years old game
 

MonarchJT

Banned
Sony acquiring From would be one of the biggest tragedies in gaming history. Hopefully MS won't stand idly by and let it happen.
why? i really don't think so.....if something like cod fifa or Minecraft become exclusive on the other hand you would see people burn their houses
 

SoraNoKuni

Member
I believe if this happened it would branch off main titles and spinoffs, elden ring/main souls games being multiplatform, and more experimental creative games being console exclusives.

I actually believe it would be a great acquisition as FS really struggles technically and ICE could help them.
 
I believe if this happened it would branch off main titles and spinoffs, elden ring/main souls games being multiplatform, and more experimental creative games being console exclusives.

I actually believe it would be a great acquisition as FS really struggles technically and ICE could help them.
For Sony it's really easy to go PS + PC only with their games If it comes to that, Xbox sells the least copy of their games. This is the case for pretty much any Japanese game.
 
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tommib

Member
Based on how From basically changes publishers every other game, it doesn't feel like their MO to settle down with a single one.
I really like that actually. It goes against fanboyism as well. They’ve been super clever with their deals while keeping total freedom in their projects. Who would’ve thought activision would release one of the most difficult and eccentric samurai games with no micro transactions.
 

tommib

Member
Sony was the first to believe in the Souls formula with the supreme Masterpiece Demon's Souls (one of the best games of all time).
They deserve to own From Software.
Sarcasm? Sony hated the game and didn’t even publish it outside of Japan. It was a game ahead of its time and it took them years to acknowledge how influential and revolutionary it was.

And I agree: one of the best ever made.
 
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Topher

Gold Member
Sarcasm? Sony hated the game and didn’t even publish it outside of Japan. It was a game ahead of its time and it took them years to acknowledge how influential and revolutionary it was.

And I agree: one of the best ever made.

The original Demon Souls was published worldwide.
 
Sony acquiring From would be one of the biggest tragedies in gaming history. Hopefully MS won't stand idly by and let it happen.
From already had 3 recent exclusives with Sony and all their recent games released on PlayStation, it would hardly change anything except maybe for people that only play on Xbox. The majority of From Software fans own a PlayStation or at least a PC.

If they stop releasing on Xbox just play the games over the cloud on PS+, isn't that the future anyway?
 
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Akhawi

Banned
Why would MS be a better choice? lmao

Souls games literally started with a PS exclusive and a game Sony financed, Demon's Souls... and one of the best games of this genre is also another Playstation exclusive: Bloodbourne.

Because MS will actually keep the game multiplat on PC and Xbox where the majority of the Souls community is.

The Souls series became the phenomenon it is today DESPITE of Sony who thought Demon's Souls was so terrible that they didn't even want to publish the game themselves. There was a lot of bad blood between Sony and From due to how shitty Sony treated them back then.
 

Akhawi

Banned
Ok because MS did so much with RARE right?

RARE was a a dumpster fire and on the brink of death long before MS bought them, so MS had nothing to do with that. Modern RARE however is bigger and more successful than old RARE ever was, so being acquired by MS was clearly the best thing to ever happen to them.
 

Reallink

Member
Really dumb time for Sony for to try to buy them. The success and phenomenon of Elden Ring has no doubt attracted several Trillionaire suitors and driven their potential acquisition price up 100 fold. They should have bought them 2 or 3 years ago if they had any interest in their talent.
 
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Akhawi

Banned
From already had 3 exclusives with Sony and all their games released on PlayStation, it would hardly change anything except maybe for people that only play on Xbox. The majority of From Software fans own a PlayStation or at least a PC.

If they stop releasing on Xbox just play the games over the cloud on PS+, isn't that the future anyway?

"Hardly change anything" LOL! Sony would immediately fuck over both Xbox and PC gamers that make up the majority of Souls-fans, so the entire community would be broken. MAYBE us PC gamers would get a port of future From games years later, but looking at how Bloodborne and Demon's Souls is still not available on PC I wouldn't hold my breath.
 
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