Sony paid $229 million for Insomniac

[Mr Puggsly]

DonFerrari said:

sales2099 said:

It’s a little funny from my perspective because that’s a lot of money for a studio that has been making exclusive games for Sony almost exclusively

With this move they can invest even more on the dev and keep all the profits for it.

Mr Puggsly said:

Do we know any other studios that were purchased for this much while owning no significant IPs though?

Minecraft is one of the biggest video games ever. It has continued to sell great and stay active for about a decade. The story games also did well, merchandise, etc. It certainly doesen't appear to be a bad investment thus far.

Nobody is arguing Sony made a bad purchase. It just seems like a lot of money for no major IPs. Essentially no other studio would pay that much because their big games are in Sony's hands already.

And have you runned the numbers down after to purchase to see if it had paid back within 5 years?

Mr Puggsly said:

They could have exclusively worked with Sony if they would have simply funded all their projects. Sunset Overdrive happened simply because MS paid for it.

Anyway, I just assumed they would have paid less. You'd think a studio worth that much could have funded Sunset Overdrive on their own and made it muliplat.

And Sony was doing it, the reason SO released on MS and not PS was because Insomniac wanted to have the IP (Sony would fund but keep IP), the game didn't do well and all their multiplats also didn't do to good.

It really is a matter of IP without good dev not being good just as good dev needing IPs to work, but the second one is more valuable... how much good have Rare done to MS on they having a lot of IPs?

Again, Sony didnt need to make this purchase to get notable content from the studio. Which is why the amount they paid seems excessive.

Certainly you agree with that because its an obvious fact. They were essentially dedicated to Sony already.

If Insomnic is worth that much it seems like they could have funded SO on their own. Maybe just get some funding from a multiplat publisher as well.

Rare has had success with MS even with new IPs. There is potential for more success using old IPs, like Killer Instinct. Either way many studios purchased by Sony and MS were shut down. Yet Rare is still relevant.

Anyhow you have the impression I am bashing Sony because you're sensitive in regard to Sony. I am simply saying they seemingly paid too much unless other companies wanted to buy them as well.

If this studio is so talented on its own, then MS is dumb for not making this purchase.

Last edited by Mr Puggsly - on 11 February 2020