QD buy out to be a sony 1st party studio will be a terrific move by sony, they are a promising developer and if they can get out unique games every 2 years they get my support, cant wait to see thier new game at E3

And that I don't disagree with. I do however disagree that it's a good idea for them to lock themselves to one platform(holder) for all eternity. Maybe Microsoft's next console will be far better suited for what QD wants to do, or Nintendo's will.

The last thing I want to see is QD being locked down to a platform, if there are platforms much more suited for their goals out there. And right now, the PS3 is a great match for them, which is why it's great that they're making PS3 exclusive games with Sony. But that's only the way things are now.

they should try to aquire Sucker Punch first 

I think that is naive.  Microsoft is clearly too dominearing in directing it's devs, but working for Sony is nothing like being an independent dev.  Sony only acquires you to fill a perceived current or future gap in their line-up, and that is the position you're then expected to occupy.

Wrong! If that were the case, why are release dates on sony games constantly changing? If what you're implying is true, when 1 game changes release dates, all the games slated to come after would be pushed back also. If that were the case we would have had LBP2 during the holiday season, GT5 would have been out years ago, Twisted metal would be out, we would be playing Last Gaurdian. Sony obviosly doesn't put much pressure on their developers to get games out in a certain time frame. Until you work for sony you have no ground to stand on with that comment. When's the last time you heard a dev complain about sony's treatment of them? You know what devs say about sony, in general they say they are great. Even when the dev is leaving. Unless you're a jackass named Cliffy B (a wholey owned subsidiary of MS). That doesn't make sony the best. They just know how to treat the people that make their hardware viable.

was/is insomniac really in that great of a position?  they don't own any of the IP they were working on which means now as they try to move independent they don't own any of their own work.  for years and years now they've been working on the same R&C IP.  From what I read bungie is breaking from MS for really the same reasons Insomniac is breaking from Sony -- as a second party they don't have much freedom to pick with projects they want to work on.  after a while working on the same project time and time again is boring. 

basically this post sums it up very well.  there are pros and there are cons but when a studio wants to go first party it can end up very very good for consumers.  make a list of the top 10 - 15 of the studios that are making the biggest, baddest, most innovatative, most impressive games on consoles.  then make a list of all of the studios working on consoles.  first party studios are going to be over-represented on the "best of" list when compared to the "total" list and for good reason.  there are a ton of advantages in being first party especially when it comes to creative freedom.  the freedoms that come with 3rd party are more economic -- being able to sell a larger quantity of games ala CoD and GTA.

Sony are actually well known for their attitude towards maintaining their studios' individual freedom, and David Cage already said that Sony have agreed that QD never needs to do another Heavy Rain game if they don't want to.

Okay, I was honestly a bit confused by the first paragraph, because that sounds exactly like an argument for why you should not be owned by a publisher. The same arguments apply to first party studios, but the difference is that Insomniac are in fact building their own portfolio of IPs now, so second party studios can in fact branch out.

Insomniac never said that they were tired of making R&C games. When they were making A Crack in Time, many fans were going "Come on, we need something different!", and now they're doing a four player coop R&C game. When they wanted to create a first person shooter, they made Resistance, and Sony were happy to help out.

Sucker Punch was allowed total freedom in making a new IP and they made inFamous. I don't see how being a second party developer puts you in a worse position than being a first party developer, provided you can make good games at least.

As for your comparison between first party studios and everyone else, I think you would find that there is an incredible amount of skilled developers who are not first party developers. I personally think it has nothing to do with being a first, second or third party developer, it's all about how much talent, skill and time each developer has to create their game, and non of those are exclusive to first party developers.

And I totally agree with you, there's no reason why he shouldn't be happy with Sony, and many of the developers Sony have picked up have been succesful, but I don't think buying QD will be good for the studio in the long term.

I see the next generation as being fought over interface rather than how powerful your hardware is, and if that holds true, QD should be free to choose where to put its games. I'd love to see where they could take Kinect for example, but that's unlikely to happen. If Microsoft delivers a big improvement on Kinect and brings things like bio feedback to the NextBox, the NextBox could seem like a perfect fit for QD.

Saying they're being backed into a corner is probably a bit too drastic, but a buyout would certainly lose them options, and I don't think that's a good thing in the long term.

Sony won't purchase Insomniac. Not now, it would be in bad taste and Sony doesn't want to do that.