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[Elbow Identity Shallow]

In the long run I think a studio to concentrate on RPGs could be useful to them but that could also happen internally although I'm not sure who would do that. I know that Guerrila did take on people from Obsidian who worked on Fallout: New Vegas and they've been advertising for new staff with that sort of experience so maybe they'd be of use at some point.
At the moment though, they're not exactly short of RPGs the games they have coming from Square.

 

[yewles1]

Dealer: Troll trap!

 

[vivftp]

What a load of barnacles.

1. Who even gives a fuck about this studio what is sony's obsession with competitive fighting games?
2. Sony has never worked with this studio in the past this would go against the "organic growth" PR phrase Jim Ryan and Hermen love using.

1. Sony's already got a dominant position in the fighting game scene by being the default platform for the genre and apparently wants to further strengthen that position, likely because they see additional growth in that segment. Hence their investment in EVO.

2. Sony was also interested in acquiring Leyou last year, and they had no prior relationship with them either.

It feels like folks are forgetting that whenever Sony has mentioned organic growth that they've also said, "and select acquisition" alongside it. We've got more than enough evidence for organic growth with all their studios expanding and partnerships like Haven, Firewalk and Deviation. Select acquisition doesn't run contrary to that, it's in addition to that. Odd that folks would take that as an example of an inconsistent message when they've been saying it for many, many months now.

 

[Team Andromeda]

To be fair, they never actually have.
The luxury of having the succesful parts of the company always on call to bail out the gaming divisions competition outselling them each generation is an advantage that only Microsoft has had. Without that support from the more affluant parts of the company it's entirely likely that they could have well gone the same way as Sega's console business did when they got left behind by their competition.
It's really nothing new that neither Sony or Nintendo would be able to do that but I suppose neither of them have ever really needed to.

You mean like Playstation had the luxury to outspend SEGA thanks to SONY other divisions bringing in billions of cash. What was the budget of the PS again, over $500 million.
It's nice to see MS is back to spend its cash on its gaming studios, hopefully, more of that cash is going to SEGA way on Wenesday LOL

 

[yurinka]

What a load of barnacles.

1. Who even gives a fuck about this studio what is sony's obsession with competitive fighting games?

So uh.. why? they create NICHE fighting games.. a genre that is niche in itself

this seems weird on so many levels

Anybody who likes Arc systems games owns a Playstation. It does nothing except give stability to the developer. There is no market share gain or mindshare gain with this purchase. Arc systems has always struck me as pretty independent so this would surprise me but development costs are high and I would guess the games Arc sells are selling pretty low numbers in 2021.

Two thing make sense.

Sony buying EVO
Sony buying all editors of Japanimation (Funimation, Crunchroll)

But hard to believe this acquisition, arc sys don't hint sales at 10M.

Most Sony and MS teams didn't reach 10M sales. But a few fighting games combined this generation sold over 60 million copies and generated with DLC maybe that or even more money:

Arc System Works recently achieved over 6M copies (+seasons of DLC) it with Dragon Ball with Bandai as publisher. Maybe with Sony's marketing efforts as publisher, which know includes EVO, plus some other very popular IP from Sony's games or animes (or even from Kadokawa) they could perform even better.

In addition to this, the console exclusive Street Fighter V sold 5.5M (and counting) + pretty likely more money from the fuck ton of DLC released. MKX sold 11 million sales and MK11 had a better sales start. Tekken 7 sold over 7 million units + DLC and counting. Smash Ultimate sold over 23 million copies + DLC.

So as of now fighting games are a juicy, interesting niche but not only that, there's a big business growth potential in the fighting genre for many reasons:
-Arc System Works is working on Dungeon Fighter Duel, fighting game of a Korean beat'em up MMORPG game that has an insanely huge userbase and has been in the top 3 top grossing PC games worldwide during years, often becoming top 1 above LoL
-There's a League of Legends game fighting game in the works made by the EVO creators, so very likely will grow the genre and pretty likely will be PS console exclusive
-FGC and FGC eSports viewship keeps growing year after year, making them a great potential marketing channel
-eSports are becoming bigger and now Sony and the UFC guys will be backing EVO, so it will become bigger
-Netherreal, Capcom, Bandai Namco, ASW and maybe even SNK are in a good shape and can continue growing themselves inside the genre
-Fighting game publishers have been increasing their bets on eSports in the recent years
-Now fighting games with ASW's Guilty Gear Strive as the latest and best example are betting for a proper quality rollback netcode, which will improve online multiplayer experience
-PSN speeds on PS5 doesn't seem to be a shit anymore, which will improve online multiplayer experience
-PS5 wifi is awesome in terms of speed and latency unlike the base PS4 wifi, which was crap, which will improve online multiplayer experience
-Sony is investing on online tournaments and eSports related stuff like betting ingame stuff, NFT or even money on eSports results

So it makes sens to see Sony buying Arc System Works, specially considering that since Sony is now pumping fighting games genre and its eSports will want to milk it with 1st party games, and now that also has a ton of top anime brands like Demon Slayer (top 1 box office in USA and Japan etc) and now even has access to anime Kadokawa IPs will want to make some anime games because it would also help them market their Crunchyroll, Funimation, etc branches.

The cost of maintaining a studio is not cheap.

It depends on the size of the studio. Arc System Works has 164 employees, which isn't too big specially considering they work on multiple games at the same time, so that cost gets split into more projects.

2. Sony has never worked with this studio in the past this would go against the "organic growth" PR phrase Jim Ryan and Hermen love using.

2. Sony was also interested in acquiring Leyou last year, and they had no prior relationship with them either.

Arc System Works has a long tradition on making PlayStation console exclusive games that goes back to the first PlayStation consoles.

In the long run I think a studio to concentrate on RPGs could be useful to them

They don't need to have a Sony studio to make RPGs when they have all the Square Enix exclusives plus smaller JRPG exclusives and tons of multiplatform western and Japanese RPGs, most if not all of them selling best on PlayStation. If Zenimax future games stop being released (even after a timed console exclusive) on PS, Sony won't miss them because their sales on PS4 were a tiny portion of the over 1500 PS4 games sold.

I wonder if this happens if we will get Dragon Ball FighterZ 2 as a PS5 exclusive or not at all? I was hoping to see a similar game for Naruto or My Hero Academia too, so this should be interesting. Honestly, I’m not interested in Guilty Gear. The franchise has always bored me to tears, so if they keep pumping that shit out I won’t need to buy a PS5.

Namco Bandai was the Dragon Ball FighterZ publisher, the one who has the rights to make DB games. Buying ASW wouldn't give them access to the Dragon Ball IP. Sony has their own brands via Crunchy Roll/Funimation/Aniplex/Sony Pictures plus now has access to the Kadowaka brands. So they could do Naruto, Demon Slayer, Cowboy Bebop, Kill la Kill, Evangelion, Fullmetal Alchemist, Fate/Stay Night and many other ones whey own these brands or their animes, so may be interested on promoting them making games.

 

[Beer Baelly]

I wanna be a leaker.

 

[Mabdia]

Dear God, please, don't let that happens.

I could be happy with it on PS3 era. But now? No way!

 

[Celcius]

I just hope this doesn't stop them from releasing games on PC simultaneously with PlayStation

 

[Fake]

I wanna be a leaker.

You already are.

 

[Tripolygon]

Yeah but its not always about the IPs they own.
Insomniac didnt own any IPs apart from sunset overdrive.
But they made many games for Playstation exclusively.

Its about the previous partnership2 relationship they had before.

It is not always about the IPs sure but it is a major reason to buy a studio. Like you said, it is about the studio itself and insomniac has a proven track record of over 20 years making Sony IPs. Because of previous partnership, business-wise it would be more lucrative to fund a project by Kojima than buy the Studio. In my opinion anyway.

 

[ManaByte]

I wanna be a leaker.

Wait until your senior years.

 

[Kokoloko85]

It is not always about the IPs sure but it is a major reason to buy a studio. Like you said, it is about the studio itself and insomniac has a proven track record of over 20 years making Sony IPs. Because of previous partnership, business-wise it would be more lucrative to fund a project by Kojima than buy the Studio. In my opinion anyway.

Your probably right, I just love Kojima games and don’t want them taken away lol

 

[yurinka]

It is not always about the IPs sure but it is a major reason to buy a studio. Like you said, it is about the studio itself and insomniac has a proven track record of over 20 years making Sony IPs. Because of previous partnership, business-wise it would be more lucrative to fund a project by Kojima than buy the Studio. In my opinion anyway.

The last Arc System Works generated more money and has been more profitable than any Metal Gear or Hideo Kojima game.

The last Arc System Works, Dragon Ball FighterZ game sold over 6 million copies (and counting) plus a lot of DLC. The biggest amount of copies sold of a Metal Gear game is 6 million, with no DLC. So DBF made more money.

The ASW game was also way more profitable because it wasn't a big AAA game: their studio has 164 employees and developed this game when also developing other games at the same time and with no big outsourcing help.

 

[JoeBudden]

Not a fan of these companies buying established studios with a reputation of delivering multiplatform games, though it was suspicious how Guilty Gear was exclusive. A lot of pre-existing fans get screwed like this.

I prefer when Sony and MS purchase studios that they help build from the ground up, i.e. Insomniac or Bungie.

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

Was just going thru my Twitter feed and saw this. Interesting but anyways like anything posted by twitter gaming personality Take it with a Grain of Salt.

Wait, Dealer has insiders and gets PS-related info? This is new to me.

Anyway, given it's a rumor I've taken a new stance to not pay them much any mind until some credible evidence or outright confirmation starts to come through (insiders kind of spoiled the fun of e3 IMHO), BUT...

Just off generally speaking, I can see this happening. Sony does have co-ownership of EVO and they have been investing in the FGC ore than any other platform holder by far. They're now synonymous with fighters the way Sega was during the late '90s and Dreamcast years IMHO, especially with some of the more niche ones. It only makes sense they'd want some first-party fighting game content under their belt, but realistically expecting them to buy, say, Capcom, Bandai-Namco or Sega is..incredibly unrealistic at this current time.

However, Arc is a much smaller developer compared to those three, and specialize exclusively in fighting games. They've proven themselves not just with GG but also games like Blazblue and DBZ Fighterz, and their games have the vast majority of their audience on PlayStation platforms (with PC as a distant second though it would be higher on PC if they bothered porting more there ). They also specialize in anime-style fighters which fits well for some of the anime properties Sony has that they'd like to maybe develop a fighting game out of, like Demon Slayer, and there's always the chance Arc could work with another 1P team and bring their fighting engine to, say, a noticeably healthy-budgeted JRPG; imagine a 2.5D JRPG based on Guilty Gear or Dragonball Z/Super with Arc's fighting game engine used for the battles.

Again, I never root for acquisitions since that ends up looking fanboyish and desperate, but I have no problems looking at possibilities if they seem somewhat reasonable. Given some of Sony's actions of late with the FGC, prior investments/sponsorships in tournaments, wanting some multiplayer focus in the 1P sense that can differentiate them and Arc's general presence and audience on PS consoles going back to the PS1, as an acquisition it'd make natural sense similar to the Zenimax acquisition did for Microsoft, if you're using those type of metrics as ways to say if it's "justified" or whatnot.

But I guess we'll see what happens ...

If Sony was into buying multiplatform devs just to keep IPs away ftom Xbox, it would indeed be pointless.

Right, because that's the only reason Microsoft purchased Zenimax, right? Couldn't of been because of a long-running relationship that goes back decades, goes back to Microsoft helping fund Bethesda to create Zenimax and ensure Morrowind got made, stuff like that right?

Your logic's as bugged as the game your avatar comes from.

 

[KAL2006]

The last Arc System Works generated more money and has been more profitable than any Metal Gear or Hideo Kojima game.

The last Arc System Works, Dragon Ball FighterZ game sold over 6 million copies (and counting) plus a lot of DLC. The biggest amount of copies sold of a Metal Gear game is 6 million, with no DLC. So DBF made more money.

The ASW game was also way more profitable because it wasn't a big AAA game: their studio has 164 employees and developed this game when also developing other games at the same time and with no big outsourcing help.

You keep using Dragonball Z as an example. The rumour/leak doesn't suggest Sony will have access to Dragonball Z IP. Dragonball Z is it's own big thing, the franchise is on a icon level so any game that reviews well enough using that IP will sell.

I'm sure BlazBlue and Guilty Gear are profitable as they keep making them but not as substantial. Those IPs are not worth much so Sony would only buy Arc for the talent, but the talent can easily just migrate. The only IPs Sony can leverage using are theur own anime games (if they own any, according to posters they do) but those animes are not iconic like Dragonball Z. They can also use their own IPs like make a PlayStation Allstars fighting game but I'm still not too sure if that would sell well.

 

[yurinka]

You keep using Dragonball Z as an example. The rumour/leak doesn't suggest Sony will have access to Dragonball Z IP. Dragonball Z is it's own big thing, the franchise is on a icon level so any game that reviews well enough using that IP will sell.

I'm sure BlazBlue and Guilty Gear are profitable as they keep making them but not as substantial. Those IPs are not worth much so Sony would only buy Arc for the talent, but the talent can easily just migrate. The only IPs Sony can leverage using are theur own anime games (if they own any, according to posters they do) but those animes are not iconic like Dragonball Z. They can also use their own IPs like make a PlayStation Allstars fighting game but I'm still not too sure if that would sell well.

Yes, Dragon Ball is a great example and can explain why Sony is interested of them: Sony now has access to a ton of top anime IPs and is interested on promoting them first due to their deal with Kadokawa and second to promote their own anime IPs and streaming services.

But the current Sony gamedev studios are already busy with their own new and existing gaming IPs, so they need to buy or create some studio. So how about if they buy the ones who made the most successful anime game in the recent years? Arc System Works, who on top of that makes fighting games, a genre where they don't have 1st party projects but recently they are pushing hard with EVO, online tournaments and have future eSports plans.

A genre that soon will pretty likely grow because the two top grossing PC of the last decade and beyond will debut there with fighting games so even if only a tiny part of their insanely huge userbase get hooked there will make the genre grow a lot. Who's developing one of these two games? The EVO founders, who are working with Sony overviewing everything is ok with the new EVO. And who is developing the other game? Arc System Works.

This other game is huge mostly in Asia, a region where Sony mentioned recently several times that they want to grow. So how about growing there by working on the most successful PC IP there?

So Sony would be interested on them to exploit their own or Kadokawa's anime IPs, to grow in Asia via Dungeon Fighter and anime, to enter the fighting game genre and take advantage of the related plans they have been working on (EVO, online tournaments, eSports related patents like the betting feature, etc.).

Sony wouldn't be really interested on Guilty Gear or Blazblue, but being beloved series by some people and very likely the team itself, and since the team even if relatively small can work in 2 or 3 games at the same time, they could ask them to have 3 game tracks (and to grow a bit the studio if needed) to keep doing:

• Sony/Kadokawa anime IP based fighting games
• Dungeon Fighter fighting game stuff
• Guilty Gear/Blazblue/new IP/whatever the team wants since the other two teams would keep the studio profitable

Not a fan of these companies buying established studios with a reputation of delivering multiplatform games, though it was suspicious how Guilty Gear was exclusive. A lot of pre-existing fans get screwed like this.

I prefer when Sony and MS purchase studios that they help build from the ground up, i.e. Insomniac or Bungie.

This studio published over two dozen PlayStation console exclusive games since the first Guilty Gear game, released for the first PlayStation console. And many of them were Guilty Gear games.

So Strive being exclusive wasn't a clue of them possibly buying the studio for itself, it was just another one. In fact, it's a clue for the opposite: this studio has a long history of making PlayStation exclusive games, and Sony prefers to buy studios with a long tradition of PlayStation exclusive games.

 

[Kokoloko85]

Not a fan of these companies buying established studios with a reputation of delivering multiplatform games, though it was suspicious how Guilty Gear was exclusive. A lot of pre-existing fans get screwed like this.

I prefer when Sony and MS purchase studios that they help build from the ground up, i.e. Insomniac or Bungie.

Same here.
People seem to think MS buying Bethesda is the same as when MS bought Undead Labs Or when Sony bought Insomniac.

But I think its gonna happen more and more now that MS has started itl. As long as Sega, Capcom, Square and Konami IP are safe Im good.

Nintendo owns shares in Namco so there not getting bought out completely either which is good

 

[johnjohn]

Who? Never heard of this studio.

 

[kingpotato]

Who? Never heard of this studio.

Arc System Works – The Official Website of Arc System Works America

arcsystemworks.com

Arc System Works - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

https://youtube.com/c/ArcSystemWorksU

 

[Dacon]

I think Sony might be more interested in the technology they use in their games than the games theyre making.

I mean have you see Strive? They've done the cgi anime thing better than movies and tv shows.

 

[Bruno_Arrais85]

I think Sony might be more interested in the technology they use in their games than the games theyre making.

I mean have you see Strive? They've done the cgi anime thing better than movies and tv shows.

I would say it's more talent and artistic direction than anything else

 

[KAL2006]

It just doesn't make sense to me. Sony don't even bother to promote Guilty Gear Strive even though it's a exclusive. They could have thrown a bone and debuted one of the trailers in a State of Play. The game even had a native PS5 version.

I love the graphics but man the characters are way too wacky for me. I wouldn't mind Arc making a non anime game. A PlayStation Allstars with Kratos, Ratchet, Aloy as a 2D fighter would be so good. And Sony would have the leverege to get alot of 3rf parties in board with characters like Cloud, Lara Croft and etc.

I think the only problem with the engine they use is not being able to sell costumes. Which I personally think a publisher like Sony wouldn't like to do. Unless they can figure out making a nice looking fighting game tha tallows microtransactions like costumes I can't see it working out.

 

[SSfox]

You'll that still didn't make the jump on GG Strive need to do so, this game is super dope, it's my first GG, actually my first Arcsys game i bought and i love more each time i play it.

 

[[Sigma]]

i'm surprised this thread is still going based off something Dealer said.

 

[KAL2006]

The only way this would work is to do a Versus game.

We already know PlayStation characters can't carry a game as seen on PlayStation Allstars.

Sony own a ton of anime, but none as big as Dragonball Z so that also wouldn't make sense to do.

The only thing that makes sense is to make
PlayStation Vs Anime

Throw crazy characters from Kratos to a anime character owned by Sony and Kadokawa. Throw in some 1 Guilty Gear and 1 Blazblue character in there while they are at it to make a crazy crossover game.

 

[mejin]

The only way this would work is to do a Versus game.

We already know PlayStation characters can't carry a game as seen on PlayStation Allstars.

Sony own a ton of anime, but none as big as Dragonball Z so that also wouldn't make sense to do.

The only thing that makes sense is to make
PlayStation Vs Anime

Throw crazy characters from Kratos to a anime character owned by Sony and Kadokawa. Throw in some 1 Guilty Gear and 1 Blazblue character in there while they are at it to make a crazy crossover game.

PlayStation All Stars doesn't represent what Sony WWS games means nowadays.

A new PlayStation All Stars being developed by a talented dev would be a sure hit today.

 

[Elbow Identity Shallow]

You mean like Playstation had the luxury to outspend SEGA thanks to SONY other divisions bringing in billions of cash. What was the budget of the PS again, over $500 million.
It's nice to see MS is back to spend its cash on its gaming studios, hopefully, more of that cash is going to SEGA way on Wenesday LOL

I'm assuming that you either didn't read or understand what I said, what you're saying doesn't really tie in with what I was claiming.
Sega's issue was always Sega and their unmatched penchant for competing against themselves and somehow still losing.
What I suggested was that every console generation that Microsoft has taken part in so far has left them behind their competition in terms of how much the public is willing to spend on their hardware/software. The are very much the default last place console manufacturer irrelevant of how much the more succesful parts of the company.
This happened even when PlayStation seemed to go out of their way to not break records with their consoles by releasing a console which nobody knew hopw to code for and decided to sell the 60Gb version for $599.99 at launch which with inflationary adjustments would be over $800. It was Xbox's best selling generation by a long way, almost twice as much as their next best selling generation which was the Xbox One, (That in itself must surely ebe humbling for them) and yet, they still ended up having less public interest in their hardware than both Nintendo and PlayStation.
Their best selling console, sold almost twice as many as their next best selling console, a massive list of exclusives, a console that was $200 cheaper at launch than their competition,the "best online infrastructure"©, a hardware defect that cause many (not all) customers to buy at least a second console and yet they still failed to capture the general public's interest enough to make them spend on their hardware/software in the way that their competition do.
I do hope that they do get better in what they do but in reality we will at least be approaching the end of this generation or moving into the next. It's healthier for anybody who plays console games to have as many options as possible, it creates competition and that is always a positive for the people who play the games.

 

[Bojanglez]

What Dealer is actually trying to say here is that MS are buying Capcom, and Sony are scrambling to retain a foothold in the fighting scene after the Evo acquisition.

 

[Rhazer Fusion]

This would be a quite nice acquisition for Sony, but I highly doubt it, especially since they basically make PlayStation exclusives anyway. Also, Sony to my knowledge very rarely, if ever buy studios. That’s why I think all those Sony acquisition rumors are a huge load of crap.

 

[Black_Stride]

This would be a quite nice acquisition for Sony, but I highly doubt it, especially since they basically make PlayStation exclusives anyway. Also, Sony to my knowledge very rarely, if ever buy studios. That’s why I think all those Sony acquisition rumors are a huge load of crap.

Bend Studio
Guerrilla Games
Evolution Studios
Insomniac Games
Media Molecule
Naughty Dog
SuckerPunch

Rarely? If ever?

Insomniac wasnt even that long ago.

Considering Arc Sys pretty much only makes games for Playstation as is, Sony might as well make them first party and pump them with money to perfect their rendering techniques.

 

[martino]

Bend Studio
Guerrilla Games
Evolution Studios
Insomniac Games
Media Molecule
Naughty Dog
SuckerPunch

Rarely? If ever?

Insomniac wasnt even that long ago.

Considering Arc Sys pretty much only makes games for Playstation as is, Sony might as well make them first party and pump them with money to perfect their rendering techniques.

Arc systems work pushes games on pc now and have made more exclusives for Nintendo (is it more a Nintendo nurturing then ?). Let's not forget that when usual warrior whining when they lost a IPs are nowhere to be seen or worried for gamers here.They are as inconsistent as ever (or sudently lacking interested/knowledge to what this would mean for others platform)

 

[Rhazer Fusion]

Bend Studio
Guerrilla Games
Evolution Studios
Insomniac Games
Media Molecule
Naughty Dog
SuckerPunch

Rarely? If ever?

Insomniac wasnt even that long ago.

Considering Arc Sys pretty much only makes games for Playstation as is, Sony might as well make them first party and pump them with money to perfect their rendering techniques.

Yes that is true and correct me if I am wrong, but weren’t most of them essentially making games primarily for PlayStation anyway with a few exceptions like Sunset Overdrive anyway? Arc mostly makes PlayStation games, but I’m fairly sure they support Nintendo as well. I actually meant more multiplatform third party developers/studios like a Capcom, Ninja Theory, IO Interactive or Sega. I probably should of worded it a little better.

 

[yurinka]

So this Xbox marketing guy was right with the Ghost of Ikishima leak (but I think the other Xbox guy leaked it before so maybe just copied it from him), so maybe he's right with Sony being in talks to buy ASW.

Yes that is true and correct me if I am wrong, but weren’t most of them essentially making games primarily for PlayStation anyway with a few exceptions like Sunset Overdrive anyway? Arc mostly makes PlayStation games, but I’m fairly sure they support Nintendo as well. I actually meant more multiplatform third party developers/studios like a Capcom, Ninja Theory, IO Interactive or Sega. I probably should of worded it a little better.

Arc made some multi games, sometimes PS+Xbox, sometimes PS+Switch, sometimes for all. But they also published over two dozens of PlayStation console exclusive games since the first PlayStation console. Like half or a third of all their games have been PS exclusives.

In recent times, all 3rd party companies rely less on exclusive games because with the increased costs they need to release their games on more platforms to have extra revenue. So Arc, like everyone else, now make more multiplatform games. Specially when it's a work for hire like Dragon Ball, where it's the publisher who decides the platforms and in many cases they prefer to go multi.

But yes, even if nowadays 3rd party studios make less than back when ND, Evolution, Bend and so on were purchased, Arc has made more PS console exclusive games before being purchased than all the other previously purchased 3rd party studios combined.

This would be a quite nice acquisition for Sony, but I highly doubt it, especially since they basically make PlayStation exclusives anyway. Also, Sony to my knowledge very rarely, if ever buy studios. That’s why I think all those Sony acquisition rumors are a huge load of crap.

There's many reasons of why this purchase would make sense:

• Sony now has a ton of anime and anime streaming services plus a deal with Kadokawa to help them bring their IPs via anime and games to a global audience, so they need a successful anime games studio and ASW has been the mot successful one in the recent years
• Sony wants to expand to the PC market and to the Asian market. The top 1/top 2 top grossing PC game worldwide during the recent years is huge a Korean beat'em up MMORPG that has an upcoming fighting game being developed by ASW. This will grow the fighting game genre
• LoL, the other top1/top 2 top grossing PC game is also coming to fighting games. So will grow the genre even more. And the EVO creators, who are now also working with Sony overviewing the new EVO, are working in that LoL fighting game
• This generation the fighting game genre has been growing selling over 70 million copies + tons of DLC with only a few top titles so the niche is becoming important
• Sony is investing hard in fighting games: teaming up with the UFC guys to buy EVO, pushing fighting game tournaments, making their own online ones, patenting eSports related stuff for the future... but they don't have 1st party fighting games so may want to have some to directly milk it
• Unlike MS and Nintendo they don't have their own fighting game IP, even if Sony has the biggest amount of exclusive fighting games of all 3. But these exclusives are 3rd party so they or their sequels may end in the competition being ported or acquired
• After downsizing Japan Studio they may want to compensate it with a few Japanese gamedev teams
• ASW only has between 100 and 200 devs and a few not so super selling IPs, so to buy them must be cheap. And they must be a profitable team because they work in like 3 games at the same time and one of them sold over 6M copies + plenty of DLC (in a big part thanks to the insane popularity of the anime IP, but it's something can provide plus a way bigger marketing support). This figure may not sound so huge, but it's more money than Kojima games ever did developing their games with a big, expensive AAA team (while ASW develops their games with only some dozens of devs)
• In addition to continue making their big ass AAA single player games, Sony now wants to make multiplayer games, big and small. Seems Guerrilla, ND, Insomniac, London, Polyphony, Have, Firewalk and Deviation are working on MP games (or game modes, and many of them in a SP game too) so maybe they want to have non-big ass AAA multiplayer game too
• When acquiring Sony prefers to buy studios who had a tradition of making PS exclusive games, and ASW published over two dozens on PS console exclusive games more than all the previously acquired studios did before being purchased combined

 

[vivftp]

This would be a quite nice acquisition for Sony, but I highly doubt it, especially since they basically make PlayStation exclusives anyway. Also, Sony to my knowledge very rarely, if ever buy studios. That’s why I think all those Sony acquisition rumors are a huge load of crap.

SIE have outright stated multiple times in the past year that they're looking to also grow via acquisition. Who and what that will be is anyone's guess. Most feel that Bluepoint and Housemarque are the most logical choices, but Arc System Works could make sense too based on the direction Sony are going with fighting games and anime.

 

[JimRyanGOAT]

I like Sony's currency system

Reach out to studios and ask them to develop games for them, and over the long term if it makes sense to fully buy out this studio, then do it.

 

[yurinka]

SIE have outright stated multiple times in the past year that they're looking to also grow via acquisition. Who and what that will be is anyone's guess. Most feel that Bluepoint and Housemarque are the most logical choices, but Arc System Works could make sense too based on the direction Sony are going with fighting games and anime.

Yes, in fact they did open a specific HR related job offer at SIE to help integrate new workers from recent acquired studios. Which means at least one acquisition is close.

 

[Prof. Tivor Tontomo]

What would this do for Sony? Add 5 more people to sales? Surely there is a more beneficial studio for them to buy.

 

[djkimothy]

Has there been talk with BluePoint Studios? I recall people saying that this was happening in the background. Haven't heard anything from them since Demon's Souls release.

 

[Team Andromeda]

I'm assuming that you either didn't read or understand what I said, what you're saying doesn't really tie in with what I was claiming.

I put to you that if SEGA was able to put $500 million dollars towards the Saturn development, It would have been in a better position.
SONY used funds from its other divisions to spend $500 million dollars on the PS development. So it's a little rich when people talk about MS using funds from other parts of its empire to fund Xbox

 

[SSfox]

They should buy PG too and then make Bayonetta 4, it's pain in the ass to see Bayo still stuck in the outdated Nintendo hardwares.

 

[Three]

They should buy PG too and then make Bayonetta 4, it's pain I'm in the ass to see Bayo still stuck in the outdated Nintendo hardwares.

Don't nintendo own the IP now?
EDIT: it's apparently owned by sega

 

[xiseerht]

Sounds fake, they are incredible talented, but I can’t see current Sony buying a fighting anime studio

The same Sony that is still in talks to buy Crunchyroll and Funanimation , and now bought Evo fighting tournament. And you don't think they would buy a fighting anime studio ?

 

[NahaNago]

This is probably fake. I can't see Sony actually buying something that makes anime like games. Buying the streaming rights to anime sure but actually making the anime not so much. ( I've been curious if Sony actually does make anime but I'm too lazy to check.)

 

[KAL2006]

So this Xbox marketing guy was right with the Ghost of Ikishima leak (but I think the other Xbox guy leaked it before so maybe just copied it from him), so maybe he's right with Sony being in talks to buy ASW.


Arc made some multi games, sometimes PS+Xbox, sometimes PS+Switch, sometimes for all. But they also published over two dozens of PlayStation console exclusive games since the first PlayStation console. Like half or a third of all their games have been PS exclusives.

In recent times, all 3rd party companies rely less on exclusive games because with the increased costs they need to release their games on more platforms to have extra revenue. So Arc, like everyone else, now make more multiplatform games. Specially when it's a work for hire like Dragon Ball, where it's the publisher who decides the platforms and in many cases they prefer to go multi.

But yes, even if nowadays 3rd party studios make less than back when ND, Evolution, Bend and so on were purchased, Arc has made more PS console exclusive games before being purchased than all the other previously purchased 3rd party studios combined.


There's many reasons of why this purchase would make sense:

• Sony now has a ton of anime and anime streaming services plus a deal with Kadokawa to help them bring their IPs via anime and games to a global audience, so they need a successful anime games studio and ASW has been the mot successful one in the recent years
• Sony wants to expand to the PC market and to the Asian market. The top 1/top 2 top grossing PC game worldwide during the recent years is huge a Korean beat'em up MMORPG that has an upcoming fighting game being developed by ASW. This will grow the fighting game genre
• LoL, the other top1/top 2 top grossing PC game is also coming to fighting games. So will grow the genre even more. And the EVO creators, who are now also working with Sony overviewing the new EVO, are working in that LoL fighting game
• This generation the fighting game genre has been growing selling over 70 million copies + tons of DLC with only a few top titles so the niche is becoming important
• Sony is investing hard in fighting games: teaming up with the UFC guys to buy EVO, pushing fighting game tournaments, making their own online ones, patenting eSports related stuff for the future... but they don't have 1st party fighting games so may want to have some to directly milk it
• Unlike MS and Nintendo they don't have their own fighting game IP, even if Sony has the biggest amount of exclusive fighting games of all 3. But these exclusives are 3rd party so they or their sequels may end in the competition being ported or acquired
• After downsizing Japan Studio they may want to compensate it with a few Japanese gamedev teams
• ASW only has between 100 and 200 devs and a few not so super selling IPs, so to buy them must be cheap. And they must be a profitable team because they work in like 3 games at the same time and one of them sold over 6M copies + plenty of DLC (in a big part thanks to the insane popularity of the anime IP, but it's something can provide plus a way bigger marketing support). This figure may not sound so huge, but it's more money than Kojima games ever did developing their games with a big, expensive AAA team (while ASW develops their games with only some dozens of devs)
• In addition to continue making their big ass AAA single player games, Sony now wants to make multiplayer games, big and small. Seems Guerrilla, ND, Insomniac, London, Polyphony, Have, Firewalk and Deviation are working on MP games (or game modes, and many of them in a SP game too) so maybe they want to have non-big ass AAA multiplayer game too
• When acquiring Sony prefers to buy studios who had a tradition of making PS exclusive games, and ASW published over two dozens on PS console exclusive games more than all the previously acquired studios did before being purchased combined

Throughout the thread i thought it doesn't make sense to buy Arc. But you have good points and have convinced me.

 

[KingT731]

It just doesn't make sense to me. Sony don't even bother to promote Guilty Gear Strive even though it's a exclusive. They could have thrown a bone and debuted one of the trailers in a State of Play. The game even had a native PS5 version.

I love the graphics but man the characters are way too wacky for me. I wouldn't mind Arc making a non anime game. A PlayStation Allstars with Kratos, Ratchet, Aloy as a 2D fighter would be so good. And Sony would have the leverege to get alot of 3rf parties in board with characters like Cloud, Lara Croft and etc.

I think the only problem with the engine they use is not being able to sell costumes. Which I personally think a publisher like Sony wouldn't like to do. Unless they can figure out making a nice looking fighting game tha tallows microtransactions like costumes I can't see it working out.

You must not see all the Guilty Gear tournaments they host.

 

[SNG32]

I just hope this doesn't stop them from releasing games on PC simultaneously with PlayStation

Fighting games are a different breed. Street Fighter 5 wouldn't do 5 million sales if it wasn't released on PC. In fact I think fighting games selling pretty good right now is because of PC ports so i don't see why Sony wouldn't want to release games on PC or simultaneously.

 

[yurinka]

Fighting games are a different breed. Street Fighter 5 wouldn't do 5 million sales if it wasn't released on PC. In fact I think fighting games selling pretty good right now is because of PC ports so i don't see why Sony wouldn't want to release games on PC or simultaneously.

Games like SFV sell around 25% of their copies on PC. It's important specially if the game supports crossplay, or for the countries where console gaming isn't very big.

This is probably fake. I can't see Sony actually buying something that makes anime like games. Buying the streaming rights to anime sure but actually making the anime not so much. ( I've been curious if Sony actually does make anime but I'm too lazy to check.)

What would this do for Sony? Add 5 more people to sales? Surely there is a more beneficial studio for them to buy.

The latest Arc System Works game uses a popular anime brand, has been developed by a relatively small team while they were working on at least a couple of games more and sold over 6 million copies plus tons of DLC. So it generated more money and has been more profitable than any Hideo Kojima game.

Sony owns Sony Pictures, Sony Music, Aniplex, Funimation or Crunchyroll. And on top of that, recently they made a deal with Kadokawa to bring Kadokawa manga/anime/games brands to a global audience via anime and games. So yes, Sony owns or has access to a big amount of top anime brands and is interested on promoting them with games.

Sony is interested on growing in PC, and the top 2 top grossing years during the last decade, games with a giant fanbase, will release a fighting game in the near future, so the genre will grow a lot. And Arc System Works is developing one of these two games that is huge in Asia, where Sony wants to grow.

A genre where Sony has been investing a lot recently like making tons of tournaments, buying EVO, improving the tech stuff the genre needed on PSN and PS5 or filling eSports related patents, and that it's the most console centric eSports.

Don't nintendo own the IP now?
EDIT: it's apparently owned by sega

Yep, Nintendo moneyhatted/funded Bayonetta 2 and 3 but Sega owns the IP.

 

[NahaNago]

The latest Arc System Works game uses a popular anime brand, has been developed by a relatively small team while they were working on at least a couple of games more and sold over 6 million copies plus tons of DLC. So it generated more money and has been more profitable than any Hideo Kojima game.

Sony owns Sony Pictures, Sony Music, Aniplex, Funimation or Crunchyroll. And on top of that, recently they made a deal with Kadokawa to bring Kadokawa manga/anime/games brands to a global audience via anime and games. So yes, Sony owns or has access to a big amount of top anime brands and is interested on promoting them with games.

It's kinda weird they didn't promote Aniplex a lot more before buying Funimation or Crunchyroll. Playstation and anime pretty much went together for awhile so it would have made sense to combine the two somehow. I'm not really sure of what control they have over their anime. If they own the rights to the anime I would have thought Sony would have at least made some anime games or had somebody else do it. Sony is realy weird about how they handle anime.

 

[yurinka]

It's kinda weird they didn't promote Aniplex a lot more before buying Funimation or Crunchyroll. Playstation and anime pretty much went together for awhile so it would have made sense to combine the two somehow. I'm not really sure of what control they have over their anime. If they own the rights to the anime I would have thought Sony would have at least made some anime games or had somebody else do it. Sony is realy weird about how they handle anime.

Sony has a lot of companies spread across their different divisions in a way they don't make a lot of sense. I'd put all their gaming stuff under the Sony Interactive Entertainement branch, all their cinema and tv stuff under Sony Pictures (with a special anime+animation section) and all their music stuff under Sony Music.

And then make them work together within their groups (games, movies, music) with proper coordination even if each team/company uses their own label/brand.