| the-pi-guy said: I know it's an irritating conversation that's been had before. I'm sure I've even made this exact post before, but it's gets more relevant as time goes on I think. But with the Activision Blizzard acquisition inching towards a close, I am curious to see how Sony responds. Activision is huge, and I don't see Sony being passive. Even if there's nothing they can really do to match ABK, I think they will still expand a bit to lessen the uncertainty. Before that acquisition, Sony and Microsoft have around the same number of studios, around ~20 each. Sony is technically like 20 with some separate support studios, and Microsoft is like 23. Activision is huge, it's difficult to compare. In some divisions, they're not structured up like separate studios. Or at the very least, it's hard for me to figure out what they are. Like Blizzard has like 5000? employees, that are separated into 5 teams; not studios. Activision has 12 studios on Wiki at least. Sony has some mobile ambitions, and they've hired some big names from Apple and others, but I don't see any world where they try to match ABK; I don't think that exists. I think it's a near certainty that they'll hire on or acquire a few mobile studios sometime in the future. Sony similarly has PC ambitions, which Blizzard in particular is huge in, but similarly I don't see a situation where Sony buys like 10 PC studios. I think it would be likely that Sony would buy ~10 studios (probably focused on console/PC, with a few for mobile and PC.) But I have no idea who they would try going after. Some of the likelier names, don't seem to want to be acquired. Larian and Kojima seem to like their independence. (And it's probably less of a factor that people think, but Tencent and company are still likely to be competition for acquisitions.) |
The sad part about discussing or predicting Sony's response is that it basically comes down to Sony buying out an established 3rd party developer or publisher and making them exclusive to some extent.
I think Take-Two Interactive is really the only move that makes sense for so many reasons: established IPS, a proven track record, mobile footprint, PC footprint. Beyond those reasons I think the other reason Sony should go for them is because GTA can be used as a bargaining move. Having GTA as exclusive would force players to buy into the PS Ecosystem the same way that COD exclusivity would - and to some extent Starfield (and ES6 if that becomes exclusive). This might force MS to rethink making established IPS exclusive if Sony can respond with GTA exclusivity or the next big IP from Rockstar.
That being said having the industry in this state is really unfortunate. Furthermore I can't see how Sony would be able to afford Take Two. They also don't seem to have the same negotiating power (and definitely not buying power) that MS has. Bungie somehow managed to force Sony to allow them to be multiplat and at a premium price - so even if Marathon becomes as big as Fortnite (which it probably wont) it wont be a reason to buy into PS.
The other option would be Sony purchasing smaller publishers that have perhaps one or two large scale must have IP (such as From Software, CD Project etc.) and solidifying there "hardcore" console base and again making PS a must have platform.
Personally I feel like one of the above strategies is needed at this point - but I don't see them doing any of it. They will most likely continue as is, investing in GAAS with the hope that one sticks (this is such a risky strategy though - Ubisoft has been trying this for decades), and also continuing with their single player cinematic strategy that has gotten them where they are, although I feel this is more dependent on new IP and Sony has become stagnant in that regard going for more sequels.
I can understand the Bethesda purchase from an MS fan perspective - I think it was needed. But the Activation purchase really doesn't have any positive influence on the industry. At this stage we should all just hope Sony is too complacent and poor to respond, MS keeps some of the established IP multiplat (ES, COD, Diablo 5 etc.) and starts to rake in big profits from Xbox and nobody buys anything major going forward. Thats probably whats best for everyone.
