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Kyuu 1 day ago
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BasilZero said:
Kyuu said:

Platform holders shouldn't gain control over massive 3rd party assets no matter the promises or expectations. From a consumer perspective, it's at best a waste of resources.

In the console/PC space, multi-billion dollar acquisitions were initiated by Microsoft with Mojang for $2.5 billion in 2014 (which ironically proved very cheap and arguably their best get). They then got Bethesda ($7.5b) and ABK ($68b). Sony (gaming) never made acquisitions of this scale until 2022 with Bungie ($3b "overvalued"). Before that, their biggest was Insomniac at $230 million.

I very much doubt FromSoftware and Elden Ring aren't a large part of the appeal. 2 years ago, Sony bought 14% of FromSoftware specifically, months after the release of Elden Ring. Both needs aligned and they're trying to get Kadokawa for gaming AND anime/manga.


I don't necessarily think Microsoft will take CoD off Playstation, but how do you reckon Sony would respond to a bluff from Microsoft? The motherfuckers at Sony worship CoD. Also, timed-exclusivity is a reasonably high probability that would barely hurt software totals at the benefit of increased Xbox subscriptions, software and hardware sales, and brand power.  MS can explore temporarily skipping Playstation and see how the market react (but then, Sony will threaten to remove Elden Ring lol).

I agree, platform holders shouldnt gain control over massive 3rd party assets no matter the promises or expectations.

I completely forgot about Mojang lol (and Insomniac as well).

Actually there's discussion that the Kadokawa situation accelerated due to a potential hostile takeover by a Korean Corp.

"Kakao (a large South Korean company) has been buying shares in Kadokawa since 2020. It's possible that Kadokawa approached Sony on an acquisition to prevent a hostile takeover. This may also explain why this deal leaked (so Kakao stops buying shares). "

https://www.reddit.com/r/GamingLeaksAndRumours/comments/1gw0h71/kadokawa_may_have_approached_sony_to_prevent_a/

Either ways, gonna be a paradigm shift for the Anime industry.

I don't think MS would bluff about CoD, too much of a risk for them and I dont think removing Elden Ring would be comparable, pretty much everyone who wants ER has it and the frequency of releases or amount of sales isnt comparable to CoD.

Interesting. Whoever Kakao is, they must be huge. On a related note: would you look at that Kadokawa stock price jump! Is this related to the acquisition news or are there other aspects involved?

A bluff from MS won't damage CoD at all provided Sony starts the fight. But yes, nothing Sony takes off Xbox can hurt combined software sales all that much, because Xbox is just not that big of a platform. I think a bluff is enough to force Sony to keep the biggest FromSoftware titles on Xbox.

"Elden Ring' (including a hypothetical "Elden Ring 2", or whatever FromSoftware is cooking to succeed it) is nowhere near CoD big when you remember that CoD is annual and also massive in the F2P scene. But it would still be Sony's most valuable asset and a tool they can use to influence decisions.

An "Xbox exclusive CoD" would benefit the Xbox platform a whole lot more than a "PS exclusive CoD' benefits Playstation. But conversely, it would sell much worse and hurt the CoD brand at least in the short to medium term. I doubt a 3 month exclusivity would hurt it though. I'd argue the business benefits of timed-exclusivity outweigh the negatives in this case.

The fact of the matter is Sony is too obsessed about CoD to entertain the thought of losing it, whether it's a bluff or otherwise. Fortunately for them, CoD is contract bound to stay on Playstation for several years, so MS doesn't yet have the negotiation upper hand.