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Soundwave on 23 September 2023
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PotentHerbs said:
Soundwave said:

Sony is not really under threat of a take over because no one would really want to spend to buy them. They're a bloated 80s/90s company that basically just rides the Playstation brand using tactics from 1995. Unlike Nintendo, where MS, Apple, and probably a half dozen other companies would be interested. That's why you don't really hear much chatter about a Sony merger or buy out. 

Sony are sort of a one trick pony at this point, they know how to play the game of winning the traditional stationary console race, but their streaming service attempts have gone no where, they haven't had any huge consumer electronics hit since the Playstation line and like the Walkman in the 80s? They know how to pay off 3rd party developers and take advantage of Nintendo/MS making mistakes with home consoles which is basically the same thing they've done since 1995 or so, but they don't really have any playbook for doing anything else. They're like the kid on the playground who beats everyone at basketball, but ask them to play football or some other sport and they get exposed fairly quickly. 

Even in the dedicated hardware field, what happened when they tried to take Nintendo on in the portable space and all the same things from the console space didn't translate 1:1? They lost, and then lost badly. 

Their gaming IPs are just not that valuable either. Compare what Super Mario Bros. did as a movie box office wise compared to the Uncharted and Gran Turismo movies. Not even close. 

You hear more chatter about a Nintendo buyout than a Sony one because Nintendo is the easier company to acquire and integrate. If Sony was willing to sell their gaming unit, you can bet there would be a ton of interested suitors willing to pay the premium, and Super Mario Bros success at the box office would have no bearing on that. Your whole post is misguided because you still think of Sony as a major player in the consumer electronics space when they have pivoted into being an entertainment conglomerate more than a decade ago.

The Sony-Zee merger is valued around 10B for instance and puts Sony in position to dominate a massive market like India. Sony Television has Netflix, Amazon, Disney and Paramount bidding against each other for their content, which includes Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, The Boys, The Last of Us, Twisted Metal, The Wheel of Time, Seinfield, Cobra Kai, among many other popular shows. Sony Music is one of the largest publishers in their industry, and they also own Aniplex, the leading anime subscription in an untapped market, who also published one of the most popular mobile games of all time, Fate Grand Order. 

By integrate you mean they have a bunch of crap baggage that other companies wouldn't care for. 

I think potential suitors like an Apple also know they're a bit of a mirage with their gaming division because it basically really is driven by 3rd party content and that doesn't come with the Playstation brand per se. If you were to get into a war with like Microsoft or Amazon, that 3rd party support can crumble and fall apart because those developers can be acquired as Microsoft just did with Activision-Blizzard. 

How much value does the Playstation brand really have when its divorced from the traditional gaming market and we're into a new kind of streaming war business? Can't really money hat a publisher that's owned by your competition. 

The interesting thing is, Sony might actually have an "in" with a partner one wouldn't expect. That being Nintendo. The reason why is two-fold basically, one if we are headed towards some kind of industry "consolidation" of some kind, it's pretty clear Microsoft is going to be on one side of it, and probably another massive conglomerate on the other side (Apple?). So where does that leave Sony and Nintendo? Well in that scenario if they were to team up, as unthinkable as it seems in a traditional gaming market, they are also the two companies that most benefit from the industry staying (well) traditional. Microsoft is not as successful so they have no qualms about just burning the whole thing down and making it something else. 

The other reasons is Nintendo is a bit of a diva and is likely going to be very hard for anyone to court into a relationship. Sony is the only one of these companies that is Japanese, and I think for Nintendo that is important. And maybe more than that, Sony isn't big enough to buy Nintendo. If Nintendo were to get into a relationship with a Microsoft or Apple, they could eventually just turn around and try to buy them. But Sony can't really do that, they are barely 2x the market cap that Nintendo is. And past that Sony has experience working in partnerships like this before, the Blu-Ray format, DVD format, etc. etc. 

Also past that pretty much everyone that was involved in the 90s Playstation-SNES fall out is retired from both companies outside of Miyamoto, so it becomes a "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" type of thing.