I wouldn’t be surprised if this was Sony’s new strategy going forward. They could leverage certain publishers IP for anime and film in an effort to cross market certain games, possibly have exclusive DLC or even jostle for an exclusive game here and there without having to purchase the whole developer and avoid the overhead cost of having another team. It would certainly be cheaper this way and as SE also confirmed they are also looking to sell stakes in their studios. So this type of investment seems to be only growing from here on out. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Sony invest in some of SE’s studios next in this same manor.
The Tencent investment may throw a wrench in things if they attempt to raise their stakes further or attempt a whole buyout. Sony already lost the bidding attempt of Leyou to Tencent 2 years ago as they weren’t willing to go that high. From maybe a different story though as their relationship with Sony is a closer one than that of Leyou. Sony has also been more aggressive to invest in the 2 years since then with Crunchyroll and Bungie being in the billions so maybe they would actually attempt to counter offer any potential buyout from Tencent in the future.
