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[Lethal01]

Hear me out

Vagrant Story remake by Bluepoint

Would be terrible, the low poly pixel art style is half that games appeal

 

[yurinka]

They could always try a smaller-scale effort in the IP to test the waters, then. Maybe something 2.5D or like what they're doing with some of their JRPG remasters.

Yup. Square Enix is revisiting many IPs, maybe some day they bring back this one.

Yeah there is definitely room for a new Parasite Eve, however it gets about being made. It's got an American setting but enough of SE's Japanese sensibilities mixed in with that. Strong sci-fi/horror atmosphere with interesting hook (mitochondria evolution), hot blonde gal, etc. 3rd Birthday threw the franchise off but it's been so long, give it another chance.

Yup.

Would've been cool to see a new Fear Effect, as well, like that cancelled FE3 PS2 game. While SE can no longer do that, maybe Embracer Group decide to bring it back. The recent FE seemed like FE in name only.

Yes. I think a Fear Effect game with a fitting AA/AAA team behind could work today. And well, today certain people seem to be pretty obsessed with female protagonists and LGTB characters so at least would receive generous reviews from the gaming media.

I mean there definitely are some signs pointing to possibility of Sony going after SE; again I don't like speculating on these too much before anything's officially confirmed because it feels like all acquisition talk has turned into some form of console warring, even if talk itself involves none of that :S. I wouldn't be surprised tho, if something's cooking between them, it gets announced around June.

A lot of people sleep on SE but they're still more or less at the top when it comes to JRPGs, and they have a ton of great JRPG storylines they can pull from between the Square and Enix stuff. Enix in particular they have some pretty wild gems, publishing games like Planet Laika (100% recommend everyone play that, btw. It finally got an English translation a few months ago) and making stuff like the God Game Trinity (Actraiser, Illusion of Gaia, Terranigma). And that stuff is rife with opportunity for anime & manga adaptations, as well.

I mean FromSoft are king in their own style of RPG and Sega-Atlus have some really strong results between the Yakuza, SMT and Persona games. But still, SE is SE.

Yes, many things point to Sony being interested on SE (they seem to value them a lot asking for these exclusives). But other to get rid of unprovitable teams (something they normally would do outside the context of preparing the acquisition) there are no clues of SE wanting to sell the company. It's only speculation for bored gamers, but to speculate is fun.

Regarding JRPG they are by far the most important ones, more than FromSoft or Sega. But hey, if possible I'd buy all 3. Or any of the three open to sell. Same goes with Capcom or Bandai Namco.

 

[Clear]

From a corporate strategy perspective, purchasing SE would be a mixed bag for Sony. It'd be a lot of money for little in the way of immediate reward as they evidently have a very close relationship already and any buyout would require them maintain the company as a semi-autonomous subsidiary.

Which means they'd mainly be buying a big company which is doing reasonably but not exceptionally. FFXIV being the jewel in the crown, and certainly as good an answer to MS gaining control of WoW as it gets. You could look at SE selling off some of their underperforming western studios as a way to make them look more appealing as a package, but that could be just coincidental.

That being said if there was any interest in merging, I'm sure Sony would be kicking the tires intently. With a market cap of just under $5b it wouldn't be cripplingly expensive to buy, and as I mentioned earlier it would be a real PR coup.

The problem though would be integrating their current Japanese development operation, because based purely on head-count, it'd end up like the tail buying the dog!

 

[remember_spinal]

 

[anothertech]

I'm pretty sure his last troll was about the Forespoken gameplay reveal. He just backtracked cause the reception was shit

 

[Kiddo Cabbusses]

I don't see what Sony could get in buying Square-Enix that they don't already get from Square-Enix as it is. It didn't even seem like a big loss when FFXIII went multiplat.

 

[Craig of War]

So, are they going to announce the acquisition next Wednesday?

I believe it is gone to happen might not happen next Wednesday but Square Enix is losing a lot of money

 

[TheInfamousKira]

Epic twist: Square buys Sony.

Uncharted: Re: DRAKE'S Undeception 2/34 - A Continental Crossing: Interquel

Re:Turnal: Rogue Like Space Like

The 352/2 of Us: Part III

Final Fantasy XVII - A TPS with many, many walking sequences and a free multi-player battle Royale mode, featuring MTX cosmetics with all your favorite Playstation characters.

All of the above coming: 20-uhhh-23? Maybe? Please be excited. Square cares about generations. Your family will play these games within the next two. Stable and Square as fuck. Remastering greatness.

 

[Kilau]

I don't see what Sony could get in buying Square-Enix that they don't already get from Square-Enix as it is. It didn't even seem like a big loss when FFXIII went multiplat.

Square shot themselves in the foot with that, they haven’t been the same since then because they didn’t publicly apologize.

 

[Baki]

Very good technical breakdowns on the finance side of these companies; on ABK, I've felt pretty much from the jump that it was a Microsoft move, not necessarily an Xbox or even GamePass-focused one, exclusively speaking. Your costs-to-revenue-to-profit breakdown basically supports the idea of why they are going to keep all the big ABK IP multiplatform; they are a business and want to recoup the costs in spending.

Even with all of MS funding that acquisition it is going to take a while for pure gaming side to recoup the costs let alone start earning on top of the costs spent. If it were up to Xbox division alone it would take many decades. So I understand their decision with ABK games on that note and why I don't personally believe they'll be putting new COD games Day 1 into GamePass, either; why do that when you're guaranteed to sell millions of copies at full price at launch on all available platforms?

On the topic of Square-Enix and Capcom WRT acquisitions it's interesting SE bring in more profit off a smaller revenue stream. I wonder if it's due to some of their other non-gaming ventures which contribute to that. Do you happen to have these P/E and P/S ratios and amounts for other Japanese publishers like Sega, Konami, Koei-Tecmo and Bandai-Namco, as well?



They could always try a smaller-scale effort in the IP to test the waters, then. Maybe something 2.5D or like what they're doing with some of their JRPG remasters.



Yeah there is definitely room for a new Parasite Eve, however it gets about being made. It's got an American setting but enough of SE's Japanese sensibilities mixed in with that. Strong sci-fi/horror atmosphere with interesting hook (mitochondria evolution), hot blonde gal, etc. 3rd Birthday threw the franchise off but it's been so long, give it another chance.

Would've been cool to see a new Fear Effect, as well, like that cancelled FE3 PS2 game. While SE can no longer do that, maybe Embracer Group decide to bring it back. The recent FE seemed like FE in name only.



I mean there definitely are some signs pointing to possibility of Sony going after SE; again I don't like speculating on these too much before anything's officially confirmed because it feels like all acquisition talk has turned into some form of console warring, even if talk itself involves none of that :S. I wouldn't be surprised tho, if something's cooking between them, it gets announced around June.

A lot of people sleep on SE but they're still more or less at the top when it comes to JRPGs, and they have a ton of great JRPG storylines they can pull from between the Square and Enix stuff. Enix in particular they have some pretty wild gems, publishing games like Planet Laika (100% recommend everyone play that, btw. It finally got an English translation a few months ago) and making stuff like the God Game Trinity (Actraiser, Illusion of Gaia, Terranigma). And that stuff is rife with opportunity for anime & manga adaptations, as well.

I mean FromSoft are king in their own style of RPG and Sega-Atlus have some really strong results between the Yakuza, SMT and Persona games. But still, SE is SE.

From my other post

CD Projekt Red is overpriced ($2.7B value and they only did $207M in revenue last year. To put that into perspective, that's only $17M more than Eidos & Crystal Dynamics)
Fromsoft will be complicated as they have to buy the company from Kadokawa

Capcom is interesting because it would cost more than Square Enix but bring in much less revenue as a company.

Capcom Market Cap: $5.6B
Revenue 2021: $1.06B
Profit 2021: $420M

Square Enix Market Cap: $4.8B
Revenue 2021: $3.14B
Profit 2021: $570M

So not only does Capcom cost about 17% more. Capcom also makes 3X less revenue and 35% less profit. For fun, here is how CD Projekt Red compares:

CD Projekt Red Market Cap: $2.7B
Revenue 2021: $207M
Profit 2021: $56M

 

[TheInfamousKira]

From a corporate strategy perspective, purchasing SE would be a mixed bag for Sony. It'd be a lot of money for little in the way of immediate reward as they evidently have a very close relationship already and any buyout would require them maintain the company as a semi-autonomous subsidiary.

Which means they'd mainly be buying a big company which is doing reasonably but not exceptionally. FFXIV being the jewel in the crown, and certainly as good an answer to MS gaining control of WoW as it gets. You could look at SE selling off some of their underperforming western studios as a way to make them look more appealing as a package, but that could be just coincidental.

That being said if there was any interest in merging, I'm sure Sony would be kicking the tires intently. With a market cap of just under $5b it wouldn't be cripplingly expensive to buy, and as I mentioned earlier it would be a real PR coup.

The problem though would be integrating their current Japanese development operation, because based purely on head-count, it'd end up like the tail buying the dog!

XIV as a WoW analogue is a great point. Don't sell short the FFVIIR hype, though. While not nearly as lucrative as an MMO, that's gonna be getting a lot of (gullible) (like me) single player customers. And truth be told, Square is a legacy developer that has a lot of potential, both tapped and untapped, in their catalogue. With big brother Sony funding things and bolstering numbers where necessary, console re-releases or remasters would make gangbusters, alongside any remakes in the pipeline, and this is putting aside new releases in DQ/FF/KH, which, whatever your opinion of, each has large dedicated fanbases.

 

[Rac3r]

It would be a first for sony to do this. Which is just bad news going forward for everybody because they will do it again in the future. If they buy square enix, they will also buy capcom in the future.

I agree it would be out of character for Sony. Based on their history, nothing suggests they would want to take on a company thats as big and diverse as Square Enix or Bandai Namco. I may be wrong, but I think Capcom is much more streamlined than the former two, and would be easier to integrate into SIE.

Still, if I'm Sony, then I'm going after WB aggressively (Mortal Kombat IP alone is huge). Plan B would be Capcom (Resident Evil and Street Fighter). Plan C is Square Enix (Sony already has a big stake in SE, good relationship, and can easily continue to lock down exclusivity deals without acquiring them).

 

[remember_spinal]

 

[reksveks]

Even with all of MS funding that acquisition it is going to take a while for pure gaming side to recoup the costs let alone start earning on top of the costs spent. If it were up to Xbox division alone it would take many decades. So I understand their decision with ABK games on that note and why I don't personally believe they'll be putting new COD games Day 1 into GamePass, either; why do that when you're guaranteed to sell millions of copies at full price at launch on all available platforms?

MS storefront is sub 10% of ABK net revenue. Ignoring how much of that would be dlc/mtx which will be unaffected by GP.

Again, don't think that MS needs to recoup the cost, that money has turned into an asset.

In 2021, net revenues splits.
Apple - 17%
Google - 17%
Sony - 15%
MS - Sub 10%

 

[MonarchJT]

Any studio with the money would absolutely gobble up the rights to Final Fantasy. Like, do you even know how to do "bidness?"

Not true I don't think that Ms is interested

 

[Panajev2001a]

From a corporate strategy perspective, purchasing SE would be a mixed bag for Sony. It'd be a lot of money for little in the way of immediate reward as they evidently have a very close relationship already and any buyout would require them maintain the company as a semi-autonomous subsidiary.

Which means they'd mainly be buying a big company which is doing reasonably but not exceptionally. FFXIV being the jewel in the crown, and certainly as good an answer to MS gaining control of WoW as it gets. You could look at SE selling off some of their underperforming western studios as a way to make them look more appealing as a package, but that could be just coincidental.

That being said if there was any interest in merging, I'm sure Sony would be kicking the tires intently. With a market cap of just under $5b it wouldn't be cripplingly expensive to buy, and as I mentioned earlier it would be a real PR coup.

The problem though would be integrating their current Japanese development operation, because based purely on head-count, it'd end up like the tail buying the dog!

The two companies are closer than most so this fits one of the compatibility criteria.

Sony has already restructured Japan Studio and it is is not under a much better studio management structure overall and I believe that a better managed could perform much better.
A company like Square-Enix has a lot of cross media opportunities in Asia and the West too and part of the company would work well for the anime world domination plan Sony is executing.

On the live services/GaaS/MMO side we bring the expertise of the FFXIV team with Bungie as first party developers (which means they will get to help create and use first whatever innovations Sony wants to develop for PSN and PlayStation online services). I also do not think they would pull support from PC and Switch. Do not think they would remove their classics from Xbox either and if anything maybe they can negotiate a better deal to bring FFXIV over.

 

[Bernd Lauert]

35 years old and not even close to hitting the wall. Good genes.

 

[demonstr8]

Sony don’t have a footprint in Japan as a publisher right now after dissolving Japan Studio and transforming what was left into Team Asobi.

Sony seems most interested in anime and have been spending billions in that space and SE have the likes of Full Metal Alchemist, Soul Eater and others.

Sony don’t need franchises that are just going to compete with one another internally - for e.g. Uncharted sells and reviews better per title than Tomb Raider and just did quite well at the box office too so it makes sense that they wouldn’t be interested in those IP.

SE also said earlier in the year that they are not interested in selling any part of their company and yet here we are with their European division being sold off seemingly to no one with contacts on the insides’ knowledge.

I still don’t believe that Sony are going to acquire them because I think they’re still too obsessed with thinking that because they’re the market leader in whatever contexts they are aware of they think they can pick and choose what games to pay for exclusivity for and that it is somehow a good idea because it’s cheaper than buying the publisher that owns those IP but the last time that happened Nintendo swooped in scooped up MonHun for the 3DS effectively killing the Vita so it appears Sony still hasn’t learned their lesson.

If they bought any Japanese publisher I’d be pleasantly surprised but I still doubt it. They get every major AAA that SE puts out anyway if not exclusively.

 

[lostinblue]

Marvel and DC should hire him, he's as bad as SuperMan and Spiderman writers and their retcons.

 

[nominedomine]

Sony don’t have a footprint in Japan as a publisher right now after dissolving Japan Studio and transforming what was left into Team Asobi.

Sony seems most interested in anime and have been spending billions in that space and SE have the likes of Full Metal Alchemist, Soul Eater and others.

Sony don’t need franchises that are just going to compete with one another internally - for e.g. Uncharted sells and reviews better per title than Tomb Raider and just did quite well at the box office too so it makes sense that they wouldn’t be interested in those IP.

SE also said earlier in the year that they are not interested in selling any part of their company and yet here we are with their European division being sold off seemingly to no one with contacts on the insides’ knowledge.

I still don’t believe that Sony are going to acquire them because I think they’re still too obsessed with thinking that because they’re the market leader in whatever contexts they are aware of they think they can pick and choose what games to pay for exclusivity for and that it is somehow a good idea because it’s cheaper than buying the publisher that owns those IP but the last time that happened Nintendo swooped in scooped up MonHun for the 3DS effectively killing the Vita so it appears Sony still hasn’t learned their lesson.

If they bought any Japanese publisher I’d be pleasantly surprised but I still doubt it. They get every major AAA that SE puts out anyway if not exclusively.

What do they really get out of buying SE? They already get to pick and chose what they deals, the games are already associated with PS and would be releasing on PS regardless.

I guess that if Sony is committed to moneyhatting more SE games going forward and strengthening the association these games have with PS it makes sense, but it is still a lot of money and a big challenge to absorb them into the PlayStation current structure.

In the event Sony buys SE they need to wipe out SE leadership and empower the studio heads and producers. Jimbo sucks, but these guys at SE suck even more.

 

[nocsi]

Mergers and acquisitions almost never leak since they work at the executive level. I will say though that it’s very convenient that Sony dumped their Japan studios and Square dumped their western studio. It’s like they made a void in one another to eventually marry without overlap.

 

[nominedomine]

Mergers and acquisitions almost never leak since they work at the executive level. I will say though that it’s very convenient that Sony dumped their Japan studios and Square dumped their western studio. It’s like they made a void in one another to eventually marry without overlap.

Or maybe they have completely opposite strategies making an acquisition even more unlikely. I don't see how the studios and IPs SE got rid of makes them more attractive to Sony.

I also can't understand how Embracer paid so little, so I'm just lost in this one.

 

[yurinka]

Now I'm thinking regarding the timed exclusives that Square Enix has with PS like FFVIIR or Forspoken but that we don't know when are they going to be released on Xbox. I understand that for Forspoken they may not want to announce it until way after release, but for FFVIIR?

It was released over 2 years ago and as far as I know there are no signs of the Xbox port. Maybe it's true Sony and SE are in talks for an acquisition and they are holding the port back because of it, to change its faith depending on a possible acquisition?

Or maybe they have completely opposite strategies making an acquisition even more unlikely. I don't see how the studios and IPs SE got rid of makes them more attractive to Sony.

I also can't understand how Embracer paid so little, so I'm just lost in this one.

In terms of business, makes sense to get rid of unprofitable stuff to make your company more profitable and less risky, which means more valuable and appealing for a future acquisition. It could also mean that as part of the deal of the acquisition, the acquirer isn't interested on some assets and asks the acquirer to sell them before making the deal.

But for me it's really hard to believe Sony wouldn't be interested on these 3 studios, their past catalog and at least the Tomb Raider and Deus EX IPs. I know they weren't profitable, but with a better marketting, management and more realistic espectations that Sony could offer they could address it. They would provide good new AAAs, a great catalog for PS+ and stuff to make movies, tv shows, anime or comics.

Why Sony wouldn't be interested on them? I think Sony would be interested on them, but if we have to find potential reasons maybe they are:

• Maybe Crystal Dynamics (and who knows if Eidos Montreal too) is too invested and busy with MS and Perfect Dark and who knows if had signed to help MS with more projects
• Unprofitability of their recent AAA and mobile games
• Maybe the Avengers and Guardians failure created a very bad relationship between Marvel and these studios, blocking any future relationship between Marvel and whoever owns them, so Square and Sony would avoid them
• Maybe in addition to unprofitability and delays they had serious internal management issues like too crazy crunch, harassment, ugly and unrespectful fights between studio management and SE management or something like that
• Maybe Sony doesn't care about all their IPs and back catalog games and only is interested in Tomb Raider, maybe MS already signed some kind of exclusive (like day one on GP+blocking PS+) for the future(s) enries and maybe is movie/tv shows/anime are already sold to someone else
• Maybe Sony thinks they already have too covered with their 1st and 2nd party the genres covered by these studios and is interested instead in acquiring something else that SE could bring as new to 1st party games, like JRPG.
• Maybe they consider Tomb Raider is too similar to Uncharted specially now that Sony is getting rid of all their white male protagonists (so maybe they plan to have only female or trans leads for future Uncharted games)

 

[Kokoloko85]

I don't see what Sony could get in buying Square-Enix that they don't already get from Square-Enix as it is. It didn't even seem like a big loss when FFXIII went multiplat.

That would get 3 big Jrpg’d along with a bunch of other ips and jrpgs.
Something as a 1st party the are lacking

 

[DeepEnigma]

VP, Head of Global Third Party Relations
@PlayStation
, Former Corp Officer/SVP at Capcom USA and more.

PS had their own mole!

 

[nominedomine]

Now I'm thinking regarding the timed exclusives that Square Enix has with PS like FFVIIR or Forspoken but that we don't know when are they going to be released on Xbox. I understand that for Forspoken they may not want to announce it until way after release, but for FFVIIR?

It was released over 2 years ago and as far as I know there are no signs of the Xbox port. Maybe it's true Sony and SE are in talks for an acquisition and they are holding the port back because of it, to change its faith depending on a possible acquisition?


In terms of business, makes sense to get rid of unprofitable stuff to make your company more profitable and less risky, which means more valuable and appealing for a future acquisition. It could also mean that as part of the deal of the acquisition, the acquirer isn't interested on some assets and asks the acquirer to sell them before making the deal.

But for me it's really hard to believe Sony wouldn't be interested on these 3 studios, their past catalog and at least the Tomb Raider and Deus EX IPs. I know they weren't profitable, but with a better marketting, management and more realistic espectations that Sony could offer they could address it. They would provide good new AAAs, a great catalog for PS+ and stuff to make movies, tv shows, anime or comics.

Why Sony wouldn't be interested on them? I think Sony would be interested on them, but if we have to find potential reasons maybe they are:

• Maybe Crystal Dynamics (and who knows if Eidos Montreal too) is too invested and busy with MS and Perfect Dark and who knows if had signed to help MS with more projects
• Unprofitability of their recent AAA and mobile games
• Maybe the Avengers and Guardians failure created a very bad relationship between Marvel and these studios, blocking any future relationship between Marvel and whoever owns them, so Square and Sony would avoid them
• Maybe in addition to unprofitability and delays they had serious internal management issues like too crazy crunch, harassment, ugly and unrespectful fights between studio management and SE management or something like that
• Maybe Sony doesn't care about all their IPs and back catalog games and only is interested in Tomb Raider, maybe MS already signed some kind of exclusive (like day one on GP+blocking PS+) for the future(s) enries and maybe is movie/tv shows/anime are already sold to someone else
• Maybe Sony thinks they already have too covered with their 1st and 2nd party the genres covered by these studios and is interested instead in acquiring something else that SE could bring as new to 1st party games, like JRPG.
• Maybe they consider Tomb Raider is too similar to Uncharted specially now that Sony is getting rid of all their white male protagonists (so maybe they plan to have only female or trans leads for future Uncharted games)

Sony doesn't seem to value IP as much but still, it seems like there is something we don't know about what it going on.

It's odd the value is so "low" and that no other big publisher was willing to pay more or to buy specific studios or IP for a premium.

 

[yurinka]

Sony doesn't seem to value IP as much but still, it seems like there is something we don't know about what it going on.

It's odd the value is so "low" and that no other big publisher was willing to pay more or to buy specific studios or IP for a premium.

The pricing is too suspicious, there must be multiple huge issues there that we aren't aware of.

The Tomb Raider IP alone is worth way more $300M, a top big publisher like Sony would recoup that with the profits of a single game. In fact, Empracer plans to recoup the $300M in a couple of years with the over 50 back catalog games acquired in the transaction.

The value of the package is so clearly way above $300M. Even to tell SE 'don't worry about the $200M you lost with their last couple of games, I'll pay you $600M instead of 300M to cover it'. Still would be an awesome deal.

I could see Tencent, MS, Sony, EA, Take 2 or even Ubisoft paying way over $600M for that package.

I assume their recent mobile games were also unprofitable, and that many of the previous AAA games they made before Avengers and Guardians were also very unprofitable, rising the total loses caused to SE way above these $200M. They may also have very bad relationship with to SE staff or Marvel.

Maybe rights for Tomb Raider or Deus EX non-gaming stuff like movies and so on are sold to someone else so the acquirer can't exploit them. Maybe these studios are too invested with MS helping in Perfect Dark and maybe additonal future projects to the point that to create other new internal games for the acquirer they would need to hire an entire team.

Embracer Group has Koch Media, who handles the PR and distribution for companies like Square, Capcom and many top publishers more for at least Europe. So that meant that part of the job for the acquired games was already made by them so who knows if they did use this to reduce the price.

Who knows, maybe the devs even made satanic rituals sacrifying kitties and newborn kids or somehing like that xDD

I don't know, it's very strange and can't find a proper explanation.

 

[nominedomine]

The value of the package is so clearly way above $300M. Even to tell SE 'don't worry about the $200M you lost with their last couple of games, I'll pay you $600M instead of 300M to cover it'. Still would be an awesome deal.

I doubt that is true, I wish I knew how much MS paid for the Gears of War IP to use as a reference but I did a quick search and didn't find it.

 

[TheGodfather07]

Why would it be bad news? So you mean Sony should just sit and wait until all the others big industry ogres will eat everything?

you mean microsoft? there isnt anyone else eating up huge publishers.

I agree it would be out of character for Sony. Based on their history, nothing suggests they would want to take on a company thats as big and diverse as Square Enix or Bandai Namco. I may be wrong, but I think Capcom is much more streamlined than the former two, and would be easier to integrate into SIE.

Still, if I'm Sony, then I'm going after WB aggressively (Mortal Kombat IP alone is huge). Plan B would be Capcom (Resident Evil and Street Fighter). Plan C is Square Enix (Sony already has a big stake in SE, good relationship, and can easily continue to lock down exclusivity deals without acquiring them).

Yeah I agree that Sony need to counter Microsofts purchase of two big Western publishers. Microsoft won't stop there either. Sony better get in there while they can.

 

[SSfox]

you mean microsoft? there isnt anyone else eating up huge publishers.

Yeah I agree that Sony need to counter Microsofts purchase of two big Western publishers. Microsoft won't stop there either. Sony better get in there while they can.

Microsoft, Embracer, Facebook, and soon other will join, Sony need to act and not just keep watching big devs that made Playstation being eaten but the big Ogres.

 

[yurinka]

I doubt that is true, I wish I knew how much MS paid for the Gears of War IP to use as a reference but I did a quick search and didn't find it.

MS bought Gears ages ago, prices were super different back then. And it was a very different case, since that IP was already exclusive and published by them.

 

[Fredrik]

Well the embracer deal could be the result of a full acquisition with Sony not working out, so SE shed some stuff they don’t like to be more agile again.

Perhaps the Sony full acquisition is already off the cards and what we’re seeing is SE trying to take a different path.

Maybe, or they’re selling off some studios so Sony can buy them easier, maybe Sony just want their japanese studios.

 

[Astral Dog]

They don't even have to buy them, Sony can close deals to promote the big Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest and Kingdom Hearts games(since the Switch can't even run them) without having to burn their cash or dirt their hands managing that mess

 

[SSfox]

They don't even have to buy them, Sony can close deals to promote the big Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest and Kingdom Hearts games(since the Switch can't even run them) without having to burn their cash or dirt their hands managing that mess

You guys underestimate Microsoft, if they weren't already busy with Acti/Blizz purshase they would already bought 2 others publishers by now

 

[GHound]

They don't even have to buy them, Sony can close deals to promote the big Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest and Kingdom Hearts games(since the Switch can't even run them) without having to burn their cash or dirt their hands managing that mess

That's one strategy. It'll probably even work for them right up until the point someone buys them that won't play ball or has their own platform.

 

[SentientStone]

Sony does need more characters for their PlayStation All Stars smash bros clone after all.

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

I agree it would be out of character for Sony. Based on their history, nothing suggests they would want to take on a company thats as big and diverse as Square Enix or Bandai Namco. I may be wrong, but I think Capcom is much more streamlined than the former two, and would be easier to integrate into SIE.

Still, if I'm Sony, then I'm going after WB aggressively (Mortal Kombat IP alone is huge). Plan B would be Capcom (Resident Evil and Street Fighter). Plan C is Square Enix (Sony already has a big stake in SE, good relationship, and can easily continue to lock down exclusivity deals without acquiring them).

Correct me if I'm wrong but how is SE any more diverse in terms of business markets than WB? WB of course have their games, films, tv shows, comics, animated projects, etc. AFAIK that's about the extent of SE's markets, unless there are some I'm forgetting.

MS storefront is sub 10% of ABK net revenue. Ignoring how much of that would be dlc/mtx which will be unaffected by GP.

Again, don't think that MS needs to recoup the cost, that money has turned into an asset.

In 2021, net revenues splits.
Apple - 17%
Google - 17%
Sony - 15%
MS - Sub 10%

OK I'm not a big finances guy so I need you to explain to me how net revenue splits work and why lower is seemingly better (if I'm reading that right).

35 years old and not even close to hitting the wall. Good genes.

If she were real she'd look better than most women in their 20s'

I still don’t believe that Sony are going to acquire them because I think they’re still too obsessed with thinking that because they’re the market leader in whatever contexts they are aware of they think they can pick and choose what games to pay for exclusivity for and that it is somehow a good idea because it’s cheaper than buying the publisher that owns those IP but the last time that happened Nintendo swooped in scooped up MonHun for the 3DS effectively killing the Vita so it appears Sony still hasn’t learned their lesson.

Said a while back when replying to yurinka on a similar topic, but if that's what Sony are going to be leveraging then it's only going to work if they can significantly increase supply of PS5s. Which it seems like they are doing, but then again we keep hearing new reports about continued chip shortages that just make the problem sound like it's worsening.

Anyway, yeah Sony are going to need to bump up PS5 availability and keep that consistent going forward, because you can only really leverage that install base marketshare with the generation of device that is actually current, in the long run. So eventually whatever many PS4s are out there won't matter, because that generation will cease being actively supported. There's probably going to be a massive shift of current-gen only AAA games definitely by 2023, I also suspect for Sony that GoW Ragnarok will be the final cross-gen game, and that is still on track for this year, so I'm expecting they must be very confident about increased PS5 supply by then if not even earlier (hopefully; I'm still going to try picking one up hopefully in the summer).

So soon enough, publishers are going to be viewing the marketshare more along the lines of PS5/Xbox Series/Switch WRT consoles; PS4 and XBO will become irrelevant. If PS5s remain very difficult to come by but Xbox Series systems are easier to find, that could have a longer-term effect on market share between the systems. That said, it seems that MS have already forecasted a drop in Series hardware sales for the next quarter, so I'm guessing at the very least they and Sony are having some biddings for chip priority, until chip availability is more plentiful.

 

[ahtlas7]

The market sure is

Consolidating

 

[yurinka]

Sony don’t have a footprint in Japan as a publisher right now after dissolving Japan Studio and transforming what was left into Team Asobi.

Fake news, Sony didn't dissolve Japan Studio. Restructured it changing its management and splitting it into two separated offices:

• The internal development team was downsided and rebranded to Team Asobi because all the devs from their other internal development teams were merged into Team Asobi, whose management has been promoted to lead the studio.
• Their XDEV 2nd party Japanese team was branched off into a separate team/office. They kept and will keep doing the same job than before but now being the Japan & rest of Asia arm of their global XDEV team instead of reporting to a local gamedev studio. XDEV teams from America and Europe did the same than Japan many years ago.

Sony also has 4 other Japanese game teams:

• Polyphony Digital: with two offices, GT Sports sold over 15M copies and GT7 had the best launch in the series
• Lasengle (previously known as the game division of Delightworks): developed Fate/Grand Order, mobile game that generates Sony over a billion USD per year, and published some console game like EVO 2022 featured Melty Blood: Type Lumina
• Aniplex: publisher and producer of anime console and mobile games like Demon Slayer, Fate/Grand Order or Melty Blood: Type Lumina
• Forwardworks: adapts Sony game IP to Japan only mobile games

Sony has been a top 10 mobile game publisher in the world during 2020 and 2021, so must be so top in Japan since Japan's gaming market is mostly mobile and Sony's mobile games are pretty much Japan only oriented (note also how to acquire Bandai Namco, Square, Cyber Agent, Nexon, mixi, GungHo or Konami would help them grow in mobile):

I still don’t believe that Sony are going to acquire them because I think they’re still too obsessed with thinking that because they’re the market leader in whatever contexts they are aware of they think they can pick and choose what games to pay for exclusivity for and that it is somehow a good idea because it’s cheaper than buying the publisher that owns those IP but the last time that happened Nintendo swooped in scooped up MonHun for the 3DS effectively killing the Vita so it appears Sony still hasn’t learned their lesson.

If they bought any Japanese publisher I’d be pleasantly surprised but I still doubt it. They get every major AAA that SE puts out anyway if not exclusively.

Said a while back when replying to yurinka on a similar topic, but if that's what Sony are going to be leveraging then it's only going to work if they can significantly increase supply of PS5s.

Reasons for not buying a publisher require the publisher wanting to sell. Maybe Sony wants to buy Japanese publishers and has the money for it but they don't want to sell.

Activision is way bigger than SE, and CoD is way bigger than anyhing SE has. But each individual yearly CoD are bought by aprox ~10% or less of the PS monthly active userbase and their aprox. revenue generated for Sony is way smaller compared to Sony's software revenue. So SE games must be bought by a way smaller percentage. And sales in PS4 are super spread among tons of games, PS4/PS5 game sales don't rely mostly on a few super seller IPs/games as they did in Vita, which in the case of Japan relied too much on MH.

That scenario of 'MH exclusive killing Vita in Japan' can't be repeated in a global scale for PS with CoD, so way less can't be repeated with any SE game/IP. Plus, as Japan gaming market has been moving to mobile and the western kept growing, now Japan is way less important for console than it was before.

This is why many Japanese companies like Sony or SE kept moving their focus out of Japan only or Japan focused games and to a more profitable focus on games with a global appeal.

If they have the opportunity to buy SE it would be a great idea for both due to many reasons I think I listed before in this thread. But to leave it into invest instead on moneyhatted exclusives it's a way safer bet for them: they can still get exclusives or make deals for movies or anime even if other 3rd party buys them, and maybe even if -very unlikely- would be acquired by MS they still would get the SE games on PS. And even if MS or Nintendo buy them and stop getting SE games, it wouldn't almost affect their business.

So the best option for them could be to buy them, but they are more than ok having them as 3rd party.

 

[Captain Toad]

Square shot themselves in the foot with that, they haven’t been the same since then because they didn’t publicly apologize.

Are you an expert on Japanese culture?

 

[Kilau]

Are you an expert on Japanese culture?

I don’t know about you but…

 

[reksveks]

OK I'm not a big finances guy so I need you to explain to me how net revenue splits work and why lower is seemingly better (if I'm reading that right).

I am not saying that it is better really, just sharing that information. You can probably do some bad maths to guesstimate how much of ABK comes from each platform holder.

The reason I raised it cause you can see that MS seems to represent 1bn worth of ABK revenue. That's what GP would need to cover for some people to justify cod games being on GP.

 

[nominedomine]

Would be terrible, the low poly pixel art style is half that games appeal

That game still looks great to me somehow.

 

[Astral Dog]

That's one strategy. It'll probably even work for them right up until the point someone buys them that won't play ball or has their own platform.

Sony sold their Square Enix shares years ago, and i really doubt Microsoft or Nintendo would try to buy them(ok i guess Microsoft is a wild card, but Nintendo would never ever want to manage Square). i don't see anything drastically changing their relationship tbh, only reason i see Sony buying Square is because Microsoft is planning to buy them first, but most likely Square will remain independent for many years (GAF can ban me if they are bought this year )

 

[Editaur]

Funny how these "journalists" have new insider info just after real news is posted.

The faint smell from this kind of sleaziness.

 

[MikonJuice]

Topic is interesting, but Jeff Grubb has absoilutely no credit. That being said... and not crunching numbers, my opinions:

- SquarEnix was always a mess from a management perspective. You just have to read about how they came up with FFVII for example (buying super computers and stuff). Even today, I do belive they are trying to recoup some of their brand reputation after FFXIII, FF XIV (original launch), Drakengard 3, The Quiet man... although... some revitalization from old games are actually pretty incredible, like the Pixel Final fantasy line, or the Mana series, which a lot of people thought were dead.
And what about expecting to sell 15 million Tomb Raiders 3? These are Nintendo levels of selling. The management is delusional.

The potential is there, but... the management of their products SUCKS. How much would cost to make it a more organized company?

- Capcom, on the other hand... suffered a lot with some pretty underwhelming Resident Evils (5, 6...), some not so good decisions with Street Fighter... BUT, around 5 years ago they pretty much started striking gold every single year. Somehow, it feels like they reorganized the company's structure, and Resident Evil 2 Remake, with that awesome new engine just shows that the company, somehow, has a really reputable name again.

Somehow, I think that Squarenix has more products, franchises, but Capcom is already on the cusp of taking any of their franchises and turn it/them into a multimidia billion dollar thing. And they wouldn't need a monstrous re-organization, internaly, like Square.

Then there's Konami... goddamit. I do believe that the owners are sitting in a giant gold mine, but are too greed or afraid to invest. So... if the price is low, I would definitely buy konami first, even with all the problems.

 

[Zeroing]

My track record is more accurate than all those twitter insiders, months and months ago I said Sony would buy 3 studios and they did so, also almost 2 years ago I said Sony would merge ps plus and ps now!


Either I’m really good at guessing or in a insider!!!! Lol anyway my guess is that Sony’s next purchase will be a surprise and it’s been in talks for quite some months…. And nobody will guess it. Also let’s throw a PlayStation show in late October mid November….

 

[Hawking Radiation]

Thought that after Jeff turned GAF into a joke, his content or posts here would be banned.
I thought wrong.

 

[killatopak]

I don't see what Sony could get in buying Square-Enix that they don't already get from Square-Enix as it is. It didn't even seem like a big loss when FFXIII went multiplat.

They deprive some Switch exclusive games and get them instead.

DQ being exclusively Sony is pretty big for their dwindling Japanese audience.

 

[remember_spinal]

Topic is interesting, but Jeff Grubb has absoilutely no credit. That being said... and not crunching numbers, my opinions:

- SquarEnix was always a mess from a management perspective. You just have to read about how they came up with FFVII for example (buying super computers and stuff). Even today, I do belive they are trying to recoup some of their brand reputation after FFXIII, FF XIV (original launch), Drakengard 3, The Quiet man... although... some revitalization from old games are actually pretty incredible, like the Pixel Final fantasy line, or the Mana series, which a lot of people thought were dead.
And what about expecting to sell 15 million Tomb Raiders 3? These are Nintendo levels of selling. The management is delusional.

The potential is there, but... the management of their products SUCKS. How much would cost to make it a more organized company?

- Capcom, on the other hand... suffered a lot with some pretty underwhelming Resident Evils (5, 6...), some not so good decisions with Street Fighter... BUT, around 5 years ago they pretty much started striking gold every single year. Somehow, it feels like they reorganized the company's structure, and Resident Evil 2 Remake, with that awesome new engine just shows that the company, somehow, has a really reputable name again.

Somehow, I think that Squarenix has more products, franchises, but Capcom is already on the cusp of taking any of their franchises and turn it/them into a multimidia billion dollar thing. And they wouldn't need a monstrous re-organization, internaly, like Square.

Then there's Konami... goddamit. I do believe that the owners are sitting in a giant gold mine, but are too greed or afraid to invest. So... if the price is low, I would definitely buy konami first, even with all the problems.

I just want insomniac to make a 3d mega man game with feel good platforming and shooting. Capcom dropped the ball on properly expanding the mega man franchise I mo

Megaman should be sitting next to sonic and mario as far as recognizable multi media IP. I dont mean mega man legends or that weird 3d mega man x game either. I’m talking straight up classic megaman in 3d with Pixar graphics and good shooting

Combined with this

But make it more mega man like this