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Sony investor opines SIE in growth mode and could have a budget of $13-$18B for acquisitions

Any cheeky passive aggressive “accusations are good now?” comments in this thread yet? Those people are always the funniest.
Maybe not in those exact words but the language and tone overall very much conveys that sentiment. And, yeah, it's kind of easy to see who it is.

When you're "theorizing" acquisitions like an NFL draft pick, you've already gone well off the deep end with this.
 

FMX

Member
They need to acquire full hdmi 2.1 features and dolby vision on their 2021 television before I give my money to someone else.
 

Lognor

Banned
As you said -- and as I said -- it has to make sense.

Something like Square Enix or Kadokawa, for example, does not make sense for Xbox.

Why wouldn't MS be interested in Bluepoint or HouseMarque? HouseMarque Head even confirmed that they received offers "from the usual other major players" but they accepted Sony's offer. When you think of "usual other major players", does Microsoft not appear on that list? Of course, it does.

Exactly. As I said, they can't and don't end up buying every one they want to. That's the point.

You are thinking MS vs. Sony. When in reality, in the long-term it will always come down to Xbox vs. PlayStation. The entirety of MS money isn't to supplement Xbox. The profits that other divisions make are not there for Xbox to spend on acquisitions (until Xbox shows massive growth and profitability). Same goes for PlayStation or literally any other division/company.

That's what I (and Bryank) said. If Gamepass/Xbox division shows massive growth, they will surely receive a ton more money to spend on more devs and publishers. If they don't show growth, they likely won't get any big cheque to buy another big publisher, even if Sony is swooping in.

The companies that Sony will likely target are all Japanese -- Capcom, Square Enix, Sega, Kadokawa, Konami. MS will have an impossibly hard time buying any of these companies if both Sony and MS are interested in it. If it is an American company, MS will have an upper hand vs. Sony.
There's nothing to support that Microsoft went after bluepoint. Highly unlikely in fact. They own no ips. They've really only worked on remasters which Microsoft has no need for. So yeah, that makes NO sense.

SE would make sense. Why do you think it wouldn't?

You might know it, but ms is all in on Xbox. The ceo said as much. If there is an acquisition there that they think will benefit them, they'll absolutely do it. Their warchest is no joke.

Sony probably wouldn't go after a Japanese dev. Not sure why you think that when all their actions are counter to that. Shutting down their dev ops in japan, moving their hq out of Japan, etc. They don't seem to have an interest in internal development of Japanese games. Spencer goes to Japan all the time and they've gotten some big Japanese games on game pass. Ms is more likely to go after a Japanese dev
 

Heisenberg007

Gold Journalism
🤣🤣You don't need to go on a shopping spree for devs and pubs to "defend" your business. Otherwise you're just validating the talking point that their acquisitions have been defensive this whole time.
Yes, they have been defensive. And?
No. Embracer Group and Tencent did, but this just goes to show you were only paying attention when a platform holder did it. Kinda shows where your priorities were tbh.
Come on, you're a smart man. Don't pretend that you don't know what I mean. Embracer and Tencent acquiring studios DO NOT affect Sony or Microsoft anyway as those games have and continue to come on all these platforms. But when MS purchased those studios (Obsidian, Zenmiax, Ninja Theory, etc.) their games (previously multiplatform IPs) stopped coming to PlayStation. Hence, the response.
Meanwhile, Tencent and Embracer Group have acquired more studios in a shorter span of time than Microsoft and Sony combined :pie_thinking: ....
And that doesn't affect either MS or Sony. See above.
That you know of. And I guess any studio acquisitions pre-PS4 suddenly don't count because...?
That we all know of. List any studio -- let alone previously multiplatform studios with multiplatform established IPs -- that Sony purchased during this period. I'll wait.
 
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Yes, they have been defensive. And?

There is no "defensive" or "offensive" nature to any of these acquisitions, dude. They're just acquisitions, plain and simple. The companies selling want to be purchased, trying to frame them as "defensive" makes it sound like Sony are entitled to a given dev or pub just because. No company is entitled to any business relationship, regardless of prior history. They go (i.e get acquired) where they feel it makes sense and if the two happen to line up (makes business sense & historical relationship), then fine.

But that's incidental, not a motivating factor.

Come on, you're a smart man. Don't pretend that you don't know what I mean. Embracer and Tencent acquiring studios DO NOT affect Sony or Microsoft anyway as those games have and continue to come on all these platforms. But when MS purchased those studios (Obsidian, Zenmiax, Ninja Theory, etc.) their games (previously multiplatform IPs) stopped coming to PlayStation. Hence, the response.

Uh, they can...potentially? Lol, if Tencent or Embracer Group shut down a studio they acquire, and that studio was contracted to develop a game for Sony or Microsoft (or just made games for their system in general), then Sony and/or Microsoft have now lost a 3P studio for their software ecosystem. We've already seen some turmoil with a recent Tencent acquisition that affected individual talent at the studio, causing them to leave, that in turn affects the software product of the studio and that can in turn affect Sony, Microsoft etc.

If a studio Tencent or Embracer Group purchased ends up cancelling software, that's less software a platform holder can get their 30% cut on. So, no, if you're going to move goalposts around at least take it to its logical conclusion. Not only that, but AFAIK various Zenimax studios are still releasing games for PlayStation (also why no "concern" here for Nintendo, you've only been mentioning Sony the whole time :pie_thinking: ) due to pre-existing contracts. Unless Microsoft yanked Deathloop off PS5, or the upcoming Skyrim re-release, or the recent DOOM Eternal update, maybe I missed that news somewhere? Did they not release a Quake remaster (with VR support, no less) on PS5 recently? Have they yanked Ghostwire Tokyo off PS5 or reneged on the timed exclusivity deals Sony have for that and Deathloop?

Oh, none of that's happened? Okay then, can we stop with the fraudulent claim that MS's yanked Zenimax games off PlayStation as if ALL those games have been yanked? If you're going to complain about titles like Starfield, the next Elder Scrolls etc. now being Xbox/GamePass-exclusive, well it's not completely unprecedented for Bethesda/Obsidian etc. games to be Xbox console-exclusive (Morrowind, KOTOR 1 and 2, etc.), and the talking point of MS having no organic history with Zenimax is also false considering it's their money that helped fund the creation of Zenimax two decades ago :/

And that doesn't affect either MS or Sony. See above.

No, it very clearly can affect MS and Sony, I showed why.

That we all know of. List any studio -- let alone previously multiplatform studios with multiplatform established IPs -- that Sony purchased during this period. I'll wait.

moving-goalpost.gif


Insomniac objectively counts, as Sunset Overdrive was an Xbox One game and a new established IP. "Established", as in that IP exists and was created to now exist. Unless you want to move the goalpost further to have that mean IP stature/status/size which....that doesn't matter. Literally.

You're still here trying to frame some acquisitions as justified and others as not based on nothing but semantics. But at the end of the day, whether it's a purchase of a big publisher, a singular developer who's had any history on multiple platforms, exclusivity (full or timed) of software releases in franchises that have at any point been multiplat or established with prior history under a different platform holder (MS with KOTOR, Nintendo with FF, Dragon Quest before "lucrative opportunities" occurred with Sony and Square leading up to the PS1, etc.), an acquisition's an acquisition, and it's absolutely dumb to support one but not the other over "convenient" reasons.

Unless these acquisitions involve hostile takeovers or violation of human/civil rights of people directly affected in the acquisition process, then there is ZERO grounds to justify any given one as being more or less valid than the other, full stop.
 

SaucyJack

Member
Sure, i just don't see them purchasing Konami's video game division...i mean, for what? for the names of the IPs? It's not like there are amazingly talented dev tems pumping out games at Konami today.
The arcade division is successful and adapting to the times, but nobody seems to want to go in there right now, Sega just sold 80% of their arcades this year.
If we are talking a japanese spending spree by Sony, i think the sensible options is SquareEnix, lots of famous IPs and dev teams actively working on games with good reception already.

Yes.
 
If they are going to spend billions I hope they spend it on games I’m not really interested in (JRPG’s, single player adventures that are more cinematic than gameplay etc etc)

like I own a PS5 but it’s tough to justify paying $70 for a game day one on this system when my other system has these big games on a sub.

Konami, Square, Capcom wouldn’t impact me…..Bungie however would.
 

Heisenberg007

Gold Journalism
There is no "defensive" or "offensive" nature to any of these acquisitions, dude. They're just acquisitions, plain and simple. The companies selling want to be purchased, trying to frame them as "defensive" makes it sound like Sony are entitled to a given dev or pub just because. No company is entitled to any business relationship, regardless of prior history. They go (i.e get acquired) where they feel it makes sense and if the two happen to line up (makes business sense & historical relationship), then fine.

But that's incidental, not a motivating factor.

Uh, they can...potentially? Lol, if Tencent or Embracer Group shut down a studio they acquire, and that studio was contracted to develop a game for Sony or Microsoft (or just made games for their system in general), then Sony and/or Microsoft have now lost a 3P studio for their software ecosystem. We've already seen some turmoil with a recent Tencent acquisition that affected individual talent at the studio, causing them to leave, that in turn affects the software product of the studio and that can in turn affect Sony, Microsoft etc.

If a studio Tencent or Embracer Group purchased ends up cancelling software, that's less software a platform holder can get their 30% cut on. So, no, if you're going to move goalposts around at least take it to its logical conclusion. Not only that, but AFAIK various Zenimax studios are still releasing games for PlayStation (also why no "concern" here for Nintendo, you've only been mentioning Sony the whole time :pie_thinking: ) due to pre-existing contracts. Unless Microsoft yanked Deathloop off PS5, or the upcoming Skyrim re-release, or the recent DOOM Eternal update, maybe I missed that news somewhere? Did they not release a Quake remaster (with VR support, no less) on PS5 recently? Have they yanked Ghostwire Tokyo off PS5 or reneged on the timed exclusivity deals Sony have for that and Deathloop?

Oh, none of that's happened? Okay then, can we stop with the fraudulent claim that MS's yanked Zenimax games off PlayStation as if ALL those games have been yanked? If you're going to complain about titles like Starfield, the next Elder Scrolls etc. now being Xbox/GamePass-exclusive, well it's not completely unprecedented for Bethesda/Obsidian etc. games to be Xbox console-exclusive (Morrowind, KOTOR 1 and 2, etc.), and the talking point of MS having no organic history with Zenimax is also false considering it's their money that helped fund the creation of Zenimax two decades ago :/

No, it very clearly can affect MS and Sony, I showed why.

Insomniac objectively counts, as Sunset Overdrive was an Xbox One game and a new established IP. "Established", as in that IP exists and was created to now exist. Unless you want to move the goalpost further to have that mean IP stature/status/size which....that doesn't matter. Literally.

You're still here trying to frame some acquisitions as justified and others as not based on nothing but semantics. But at the end of the day, whether it's a purchase of a big publisher, a singular developer who's had any history on multiple platforms, exclusivity (full or timed) of software releases in franchises that have at any point been multiplat or established with prior history under a different platform holder (MS with KOTOR, Nintendo with FF, Dragon Quest before "lucrative opportunities" occurred with Sony and Square leading up to the PS1, etc.), an acquisition's an acquisition, and it's absolutely dumb to support one but not the other over "convenient" reasons.

Unless these acquisitions involve hostile takeovers or violation of human/civil rights of people directly affected in the acquisition process, then there is ZERO grounds to justify any given one as being more or less valid than the other, full stop.
As always, too many words saying nothing. The fact remains:
  • That Sony only jumped on the acquisition bandwagon because Microsoft (their direct competitor) did.
  • Insomniac? It was purchased in 2019, after MS had started acquiring studios in 2018. Insomniac was a reaction by Sony. All these studios they are buying and will buy are now a reaction to what Microsoft did. Otherwise, as I said, Sony didn't buy any studio since PS4 launched and until MS started buying studios.
  • Again, Tencent/Embracer does not affect MS or Sony. You're now talking based on hypothetical scenarios that they MAY have an effect.
  • MS hasn't yanked Zenimax games and IPs off PlayStation? In what world are you living in! The next Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Wolfenstein, Doom, Redfall, Starfield: all these games are not releasing on PlayStation anymore. They would have released in Zenimax continued operating as an independent multiplatform entity.
 
You must have missed the 3k reply thread about an acquisition that gaf is celebrating about.
You must be misremembering that thread because there were a LOT of people who definitely weren't celebrating "that" acquisition.

Some of those same ones are probably salivating at the prospect of acquisitions now tho following this...pseudo-news?


As always, too many words saying nothing. The fact remains:
  • That Sony only jumped on the acquisition bandwagon because Microsoft (their direct competitor) did.
  • Insomniac? It was purchased in 2019, after MS had started acquiring studios in 2018. Insomniac was a reaction by Sony. All these studios they are buying and will buy are now a reaction to what Microsoft did. Otherwise, as I said, Sony didn't buy any studio since PS4 launched and until MS started buying studios.
  • Again, Tencent/Embracer does not affect MS or Sony. You're now talking based on hypothetical scenarios that they MAY have an effect.
  • MS hasn't yanked Zenimax games and IPs off PlayStation? In what world are you living in! The next Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Wolfenstein, Doom, Redfall, Starfield: all these games are not releasing on PlayStation anymore. They would have released in Zenimax continued operating as an independent multiplatform entity.

And now you've devolved into bullet points for your talking point responses, that's glorious. Twist reality however you need in order to confirm your biases and preferences, whatever. You're clearly in a headspace where you want to believe what narrative tastes best to you. Do you.
 

Lognor

Banned
As always, too many words saying nothing. The fact remains:
  • That Sony only jumped on the acquisition bandwagon because Microsoft (their direct competitor) did.
  • Insomniac? It was purchased in 2019, after MS had started acquiring studios in 2018. Insomniac was a reaction by Sony. All these studios they are buying and will buy are now a reaction to what Microsoft did. Otherwise, as I said, Sony didn't buy any studio since PS4 launched and until MS started buying studios.
  • Again, Tencent/Embracer does not affect MS or Sony. You're now talking based on hypothetical scenarios that they MAY have an effect.
  • MS hasn't yanked Zenimax games and IPs off PlayStation? In what world are you living in! The next Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Wolfenstein, Doom, Redfall, Starfield: all these games are not releasing on PlayStation anymore. They would have released in Zenimax continued operating as an independent multiplatform entity.
Facts? You're not talking facts. Where is your source that Sony's acquisitions were in response to Microsoft's own acquisitions? You're talking shit.
 
As always, too many words saying nothing. The fact remains:
  • That Sony only jumped on the acquisition bandwagon because Microsoft (their direct competitor) did.
  • Insomniac? It was purchased in 2019, after MS had started acquiring studios in 2018. Insomniac was a reaction by Sony. All these studios they are buying and will buy are now a reaction to what Microsoft did. Otherwise, as I said, Sony didn't buy any studio since PS4 launched and until MS started buying studios.
  • Again, Tencent/Embracer does not affect MS or Sony. You're now talking based on hypothetical scenarios that they MAY have an effect.
  • MS hasn't yanked Zenimax games and IPs off PlayStation? In what world are you living in! The next Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Wolfenstein, Doom, Redfall, Starfield: all these games are not releasing on PlayStation anymore. They would have released in Zenimax continued operating as an independent multiplatform entity.
Most Sony acquisitions right now were obvious and predictable though. For them to react to MS acquiring studios and a publisher they would have to play the same game. And I mean acquiring studios that were doing multiplatform games based on multiplatform IPs so they (Sony) wouldn't lose access to said games. That would be a reaction to those acquisitions.

They don't seem bothered by that so far.
In what way did MS lost by Sony buying Insomniac, Housemarque, Bluepoint, Nixxes? Nothing. Not a single multiplatform IP in there. Sunset Overdrive was also a flop so nothing of value there. The most recent Sony acquisition is also not a studio that has done multiplatform stuff. Then there's the 3 new studios they just made deals which haven't released anything yet.

Housemarques acquisition was in talks since early 2020, before anything big was done from MS in this area as well.

Isn't this typical Sony? Acquiring smaller studios close to them with no known IPs?

I do feel like their narrative is changing. They stopped mentioning "organic growth" with this last acquisition for a reason. I wouldn't be surprised if something bigger was on the way.
 
I do feel like their narrative is changing. They stopped mentioning "organic growth" with this last acquisition for a reason. I wouldn't be surprised if something bigger was on the way.

It's almost as if "organic growth" was a talking point that could be thrown around to give a facade to be framed as the "good guy" in a classical two-party narrative, but at the end of the day both Sony and Microsoft will want to acquiesce as much power through use of their monies as possible. Classic corporatism.
 

yurinka

Member
Come on, you're a smart man. Don't pretend that you don't know what I mean. Embracer and Tencent acquiring studios DO NOT affect Sony or Microsoft anyway as those games have and continue to come on all these platforms. But when MS purchased those studios (Obsidian, Zenmiax, Ninja Theory, etc.) their games (previously multiplatform IPs) stopped coming to PlayStation. Hence, the response.
All these studios combined represented a tiny part of PS4 game sales, so Sony shouldn't worry about losing them.

Specially when Sony has a very important lead against MS regarding making revenue and profit, selling consoles, selling games for these consoles, more exclusive releases/sales/reviews/awards and so on.

Sony has a pretty distant lead versus MS in most areas, so don't need to be defensive if MS buys some studios and IPs at all.

They simply are using that huge amount of money they earn with this division to reinvest it in all their areas to grow more. And one of these areas is to grow their internal studios and to acquire some more that already were their partners since long ago to make their relationship with them more profitable and to control them more while offering them more resources, stability, tools and helping them to grow.

It's almost as if "organic growth" was a talking point that could be thrown around to give a facade to be framed as the "good guy" in a classical two-party narrative, but at the end of the day both Sony and Microsoft will want to acquiesce as much power through use of their monies as possible. Classic corporatism.
By organical growth they mean to grow their existing their internal studios to make 2 to 4 games at the same time instead of only one, and to acquire external teams who already were working for them for a while in several successful projects as natural part of their relationship, like marrying a girlfriend they have been dating for many years.

And specially partners who can help them grow in areas where they want to expand and don't have enough expertise internally. They don't need to buy super popular IPs or studios, already have them. This is a different growth strategy than to buy many super popular 3rd party big IPs and gamedev studios to grow their catalog and output of exclusives.

None of them are "good boy" or "bad boy" strategies. They are simply different strategies for different needs.
 
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Heisenberg007

Gold Journalism
All these studios combined represented a tiny part of PS4 game sales, so Sony shouldn't worry about losing them.

Specially when Sony has a very important lead against MS regarding making revenue and profit, selling consoles, selling games for these consoles, more exclusive releases/sales/reviews/awards and so on.

Sony has a pretty distant lead versus MS in most areas, so don't need to be defensive if MS buys some studios and IPs at all.

They simply are using that huge amount of money they earn with this division to reinvest it in all their areas to grow more. And one of these areas is to grow their internal studios and to acquire some more that already were their partners since long ago to make their relationship with them more profitable and to control them more while offering them more resources, stability, tools and helping them to grow.
In the grand scheme of things, I agree it doesn't make any dent in Sony. PS5 has already taken a big lead with hardware and software sales, and the real good stuff is coming in 2022 and beyond. This gen will most likely. be another repeat of the previous one in terms of success -- and industry consolidation and acquisitions aren't affecting PS5's success at all.

Having said that, Sony will make moves (with more aggression than before) because of its direct competitors' role in industry consolidation. To be honest, that's a good thing for PS gamers, because an aggressive Sony/PlayStation is freakin' awesome that buries its competitors by offering so much good stuff to its fanbase, as we have seen before. Competition is good for all.
 
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Kdad

Member
I didn't know that they'd acquired Bad Wolf Production/Wolf Studios. There one of my local studios and I've done some work for them in the past, they seem to have exploded since they were founded. Fair play to them, some good people there.

EDIT
Ah, it was only a few days ago, a £60 million acquisition.
I see a bunch of 'about to acquire' stories....do you have a press release that says the deal is signed?
 

yurinka

Member
In the grand scheme of things, I agree it doesn't make any dent in Sony. PS5 has already taken a big lead with hardware and software sales, and the real good stuff is coming in 2022 and beyond. This gen will most likely. be another repeat of the previous one in terms of success -- and industry consolidation and acquisitions aren't affecting PS5's success at all.

Having said that, Sony will make moves (with more aggression than before) because of its direct competitors' role in industry consolidation. To be honest, that's a good thing for PS gamers, because an aggressive Sony/PlayStation is freakin' awesome that buries its competitors by offering so much good stuff to its fanbase, as we have seen before.
I think Tencent, Embracer, Microsoft and Sony (maybe EA, Take 2 and Activision too) will continue acquiring during the next years, and also think PS5 will dominate the generation with a similar -or as Sony estimated, a bigger- market share than in the PS4 generation.

Sony won't care about Tencent, Embracer, EA, Take 2 and Activision or any other 3rd party making acquisitions because PlayStation will continue being the main AAA game revenue source platform for these 3rd parties, so they will continue releasing their games on PlayStation.

Sony only would worry if MS acquires a few of the top 3rd party console game publishers (which are Activision, EA, Take 2, Epic, Ubisoft, Bandai Namco, Square), something I think won't happen. I think in the following years MS may buy a smaller publisher or maximum one of these top ones. But I think it's more likely to see them buying single studios.
 
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Some definitely have been defensive.
Putting stakes in Epic and Kadokawa could easily be seen as a defensive measure to prevent others from buying them.
By that measure though Sony's investment in Square back in the '90s could also be argued as defensive because they as a company could've been acquired then as they could be today.

That's all on a very technical level, doesn't take into consideration context between then vs. now but some people have been framing certain acquisitions a certain way almost in terms of absolutes. Even beyond that let's say Sony did make those investments for the reasons you mention for example...who would they have been defensive in reaction too?

Some people like Heisenberg007 Heisenberg007 want to paint Microsoft as that boogeyman but I don't think they'd suddenly look there and go "we need to buy, too!" simply over the Zenimax purchase because, at a certain level, there's not much different between that and the culmination of studios companies like Tencent and Embracer Group have purchased into/outright over the years, and Microsoft's 2018 purchases came after years of practically nuking the Xbox division's budget.

All the same, though...how does a purchase like Nixxes fit the definition of being "defensive", or "organic" for that matter? That's the problem when some people try labeling a whole suite of acquisitions in terms really only meant to dignify or vilify them, IMO.
 

bitbydeath

Member
By that measure though Sony's investment in Square back in the '90s could also be argued as defensive because they as a company could've been acquired then as they could be today.

That's all on a very technical level, doesn't take into consideration context between then vs. now but some people have been framing certain acquisitions a certain way almost in terms of absolutes. Even beyond that let's say Sony did make those investments for the reasons you mention for example...who would they have been defensive in reaction too?

Some people like Heisenberg007 Heisenberg007 want to paint Microsoft as that boogeyman but I don't think they'd suddenly look there and go "we need to buy, too!" simply over the Zenimax purchase because, at a certain level, there's not much different between that and the culmination of studios companies like Tencent and Embracer Group have purchased into/outright over the years, and Microsoft's 2018 purchases came after years of practically nuking the Xbox division's budget.

All the same, though...how does a purchase like Nixxes fit the definition of being "defensive", or "organic" for that matter? That's the problem when some people try labeling a whole suite of acquisitions in terms really only meant to dignify or vilify them, IMO.
The Square investment was to help them out their money problems after the Final Fantasy movie tanked.
 
If I were Sony I would acquire all the major IPs that can easily be made into TV series and films.
That means GTA, Metal Gear, Castlevania, Final Fantasy, Silent Hill, and Souls series will all be PS owned. PSwned.
 

yurinka

Member
Well Firesprite and Nixxes were real headscratchers for me.... Firesprite made nothing of note previously and Nixxes actively diminishes value of exclusives IMO.

I thought they would make acquisitions that elevated the reputation and status of Sony 1st party.
Excluding the Evolution folks that went to Codemasters and people at Lucid, Firesprite+Fabrik are mostly Liverpool Studio+Evolution+Bizarre Creations+young staff.

Nixxes were simply bought to have a PC porting studio in-house and to don't need to outsource PC ports of old games.
 

Bryank75

Banned
Excluding the Evolution folks that went to Codemasters and people at Lucid, Firesprite+Fabrik are mostly Liverpool Studio+Evolution+Bizarre Creations+young staff.

Nixxes were simply bought to have a PC porting studio in-house and to don't need to outsource PC ports of old games.

Yeah but neither push PS forward or elevate the status / quality IMO.

Just a bit of a waste from my perspective.
 
Hahaha it's entirely about money. Money buys you the talent and time required.

Wut?!

Tell that to MS who spent the better part of an entire generation buying up talent and forming new studios to essentially end up with nothing to show for it.

Look at all the best dev teams in the industry... (yes "teams" being the operative word)... these devs have all been around for a very long time and have built up a company culture, work processes and streamlined work-flows, engine and dev toolchains, together with fostering their talent and honing their craft over the course of multiple console generations. Money had very little to do with their success.

On the flip side, virtually every new upstart studio that has been hailed as the second coming due to the talent they've been able to amass from across the industry, have never been able to deliver top tier, GOTY-quality games on a consistent basis.

There is not a single example of a studio in this industry that you can point to, that was acquired providing immediately greater resources and thus was able to instantly put out GOTY-level games because of a bigger dev budget. Most that worked up to producing top tier games put out a string of middling to mediocre titles before they reached that level. So the additional resources weren't the facilitator. The time and opportunity needed to hone their craft was.
 
Wut?!

Tell that to MS who spent the better part of an entire generation buying up talent and forming new studios to essentially end up with nothing to show for it.

Look at all the best dev teams in the industry... (yes "teams" being the operative word)... these devs have all been around for a very long time and have built up a company culture, work processes and streamlined work-flows, engine and dev toolchains, together with fostering their talent and honing their craft over the course of multiple console generations. Money had very little to do with their success.

On the flip side, virtually every new upstart studio that has been hailed as the second coming due to the talent they've been able to amass from across the industry, have never been able to deliver top tier, GOTY-quality games on a consistent basis.

There is not a single example of a studio in this industry that you can point to, that was acquired providing immediately greater resources and thus was able to instantly put out GOTY-level games because of a bigger dev budget. Most that worked up to producing top tier games put out a string of middling to mediocre titles before they reached that level. So the additional resources weren't the facilitator. The time and opportunity needed to hone their craft was.
All those words can be simplified by saying money and time.
 

Fafalada

Fafracer forever
Money buys you the talent and time required.
While that is true, the common misconception is that buying a bunch of talent and mushing them together equals high quality studios/teams.
This industry is littered with corpses of failed attempts at exactly this, some very recent ones and some that are still hanging on for dear life, burning money in the process.
 
While that is true, the common misconception is that buying a bunch of talent and mushing them together equals high quality studios/teams.
This industry is littered with corpses of failed attempts at exactly this, some very recent ones and some that are still hanging on for dear life, burning money in the process.
Oh I don't disagree, but the best games are pretty much always built with lots of money and time. Regardless of everything else though if they don't have money and time it probably won't be special.
 
Whatever grain of salt you decide to take It with... Shawn Layden recently said that AAA games cost something like $100 million to make last gen, and expected that perhaps double this gen.

My question is this. Going forward, will AAA games really cost somewhere between $100-$200 million? Is that the total cost or does that include things like marketing as well?

I ask because it might help explain the justifications for such acquisitions as large as those being discussed here. It might seem prohibitively expensive to purchase something as large and expensive as a Konami or Capcom or whatever. But when juxtaposed next to the crazy trajectory of future game production costs... It might not seem all that expensive after all in the long run.
 

Mobile Suit Gooch

Grundle: The Awakening
kFrc8PU.jpg
hD511lr.jpg


Hypocrite GIF by Lagoona Bloo
Did we repeal the 13th Amendment? Cause you just owned him.
 
Oh I don't disagree, but the best games are pretty much always built with lots of money and time. Regardless of everything else though if they don't have money and time it probably won't be special.

You can have all the money and time in the world and it won't equal a top tier game.

You need talent, which is the most important factor that you seem to want to insist on leaving out of the equation.
 

GhostOfTsu

Banned
It's almost as if "organic growth" was a talking point that could be thrown around to give a facade to be framed as the "good guy" in a classical two-party narrative, but at the end of the day both Sony and Microsoft will want to acquiesce as much power through use of their monies as possible. Classic corporatism.
You always fail to mention the only thing that matters in your (endless) posts about this subject. The IPs.

Sony didn't buy any big IPs with their acquisitions so there's no impact at all. Organic or not, it changes nothing for Xbox.

Also, Embracer and Tencent are not platform holders so again nothing changes for their releases on consoles. Most them are small AAs, PC only or mobile anyway. You will never convince people to get angry about it. There is no double standard with them vs MS. You can drop it.
 

onesvenus

Member
You can have all the money and time in the world and it won't equal a top tier game.

You need talent, which is the most important factor that you seem to want to insist on leaving out of the equation.
From the outside you also seem to want to insist on leaving money and time out of the equation but they are equally important.

I hope what you said about GOTY-level games being done by teams that have been working together for a long time is taken into account when hipping Haven, Firewalk and other studios PS have reached an agreement with
 
I'm pretty sure Kadokawa is a target, and Sony will acquire it sooner or later.

Hermen Hulst keeps mentioning FromSoftware as an "almost first-party PlayStation studio". No way that they don't even make an attempt to buy it. Something is in the works, for sure.

when did Hermen mention this?

I agree strongly with you though. Kadokawa would be a crossover strategy with their anime goals. Such an aquisition would cost 4-5B at current valuations. A bit high, depends on if they could maybe buy off the anime/video games separate from the rest of the publishing business which I suspect Sony has little interest in
 

Heisenberg007

Gold Journalism
when did Hermen mention this?

I agree strongly with you though. Kadokawa would be a crossover strategy with their anime goals. Such an aquisition would cost 4-5B at current valuations. A bit high, depends on if they could maybe buy off the anime/video games separate from the rest of the publishing business which I suspect Sony has little interest in
He has done it multiple times now -- name-dropping Kojima and FromSoftware in the same sentence. Here is one example:

Yeah. You know, these partnerships are very exciting. You could, I guess, make a distinction between development teams who are part of Sony — like Naughty Dog, Insomniac, Media Molecule, Sucker Punch, and so on — and then development teams who are working with us like partners… Haven, Firewalk, but also teams we’ve worked with over years, like Kojima Productions, From Software. To me, in many ways, there really is no difference. They’re all PlayStation Studios. (Source: PS Blog)
 
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