Oh I know Hino wants to stay independent, but if Sony (or MS or Nintendo for that matter) offered him 1 trillion yen for L5 and he didn't take it, he'd be borderline stupid as that is way over the value of what his company is probably currently worth. But then again maybe he's like Zuckerberg and knows something we don't know like when Zuckerberg turned down MS offer for U$4 billion for his shares on facebook.

And I know the TS was ridiculous with his options, especially with the options for SCE to "buy" Konami, Capcom or SE. As I said in my original post, SP, RaD, QD, ClapHanz and such are much more likely candidates. 

BTW, MS never tried to buy Nintendo, they said they were actually considering it. Big difference. They tried to buy Yahoo and facebook, but they never even got that close with Nintendo.

Hino cares about more than money.  The reason he and his colleagues founded Level-5 was to make the games they wanted... that's not exactly "borderline stupid" imo.

L5 is also probably pretty valuable at this point... they have two full teams (the original in Fukuoka, and a new studio in Tokyo) with a staff of over 250 at this point, they have multiple million selling IPs (Professor Layton, Inazuma Eleven and soon Ninokuni), a lucrative Dragon Quest contract (which would get flushed if they were Sony owned), a new US office, and even their mocap studio.  Even SSCEWWS doesn't have a mocap studio afaik.

Also, Microsoft actually made a $25B offer for Nintendo.  Yamauchi flatly turned it down.

And not only has Sony never bought another Japanese studio, Microsoft actually hasn't either.  Weirdly, not only has Nintendo bought out other Japanese developers before, they even bought out a Japanese publisher once (HAL).  

I don't think sony should or need to acquire anyone at the moment. companies like Capcom, Konami, Squarenix are to big TBH in fact any publisher is pretty much out of the question. 

IOh it would be borderline stupid because they could take the money and open up another studio to make the games they want to make, how they want to make. L5 has grown to be huge, but not 1 trillion yen huge like I suggested. I'm well aware of how big they have gotten over the past few years, and they are also running into something only big devs run into: Franchise milking and fatigue as shown by the latest IE sales. And actually we don't know who's making DQX Wii, rumors has it that it's another developer that's 2nd party to Nintendo (name skips me right now). And I think ND has a mocap studio available to them, not 100% sure though.

Do you have a link for the MS bid for Nintendo?

isn't 2nd party a company with a contract to develop exclusive games? United Front, Quantic, Level-5, Insomniac, and Sucker Punch, all of them sign a contract with Sony to develop exclusive games... i think so :P

I think 2nd party is more a term for games where the IP is owned by the console maker and the developer is third party than a term for developers themselves.

none and also this thread is stupd and fanboyish

But, they want to make Professor Layton, Inazuma Eleven and Ninokuni.  They've already built up brand equity, both in their company and in their games, they have amazing relationships with Nintendo and Sqaure Enix, they have a state of the art HQ, a brand new US office... sometimes "cashing out" doesn't make sense, especially when you're growing as fast as a company like Level-5.

I do agree they're hitting some franchise fatigue with BOTH Layton and Inazuma at home (annual sequels will do that), but they're bringing in more new IPs like Ninokuni, Little Battlers and Fantasy Life, which will probably help offset that.  Layton's also big as ever outside Japan (thanks to Nintendo), and there's no doubt Inazuma will be equally huge when it hits Europe.

And as for Microsoft offering $25B for Nintendo, it's in Dean Takahashi's book "Opening the Xbox".  Here's a web reference to it.

edit: also, looking at Uncharted 1-2's credits, ND had to use a contracted studio for mocap (House of Moves).  So nope, they don't have their own.

Well Sony acquired Zipper Interactive and will be releasing there big title for the PS3 (not the MAG but S4)

they should acquire umm lets say Splash Damage, they make completely awesome games. 

I'm surprised a thread with an OP like this turned into a somewhat serious discussion.

I'd say these are the only possible options at the moment:

Sicker Punch - Make great games, and Infamous 2 is looking a step above their usual work.  however, Sony has been working with them for over a decade, and they haven't been bought yet, which implies they favor independence.  And it's not like they need to buy them anyway.  I wish it would happen, though, as I think it's he only way they'd finally increase they're team size, increasing their output rate.

Quantic Dream - Not likely to happen.  Yeah, they have a deal with Sony at the moment, but from what I understand they're larger than just a development studio (though I'm not sure what else they do.  license mocap tech?). Also, David Cage seems like the type of guy that'd never give up the reigns of his company now matter what deal was offered.

Honestly though, I'd want them to make some moves on the Japanese front.  I used to think From Software would be an awesome choice, but what with the whole Demon's Souls fiasco, that's looking less likely than ever.

They should at least form some new deals with third parties over there (I feel Platinum Games was a big missed opportunity on their part), or found a new studio in another city, redubbing Japan Studio as Tokyo Studio.

Given the climate in Japan, I think founding a new studio would be looked upon better than buying somebody else, which may be why they're averse to doing so, but it's hard to start a studio without manpower, and that seems like something somewhat hard to come by in the Japanese industry today.