If The Order does well, then ReadyAtDawn. Otherwise I would guess either thatgamecompany or Housemarque. I think Sony is going to target smaller studios as they're less of a financial risk.

I would love them to buy/create a jRPG studio to make slightly westernised jRPGs, but still with that bit of Japanese craziness

Ready at Dawn is possibly the most likely, but given that they just laid off some staff members at Sony Santa Monica, I'm not sure they're in the buying mood. They have quite recently bought Sucker Punch and Media Molecule

Joke thread? Expect more layoffs sadly.

The most likely case is Quantic Dream, the Frenchman with a name I won't spell already said he could see them becoming Sony's first party dev. But I guess after Beyond's lukewarm critical reception and commercial success Sony may think twice about it.

Ready at Dawn and especially Ru (another impossible fuckin name here) very much emphasises that they want to be independent but I'm sure that a good offer and promise of creative freedom could change his mind. Success of The Order may be critical here.

Other candidates would be imo Futurlab, Housemarque, Tarsier, Double Eleven, Sanzaru Games.

I can accept Ru, but the crazy Frenchman is called David Cage.... But I agree that there are very weak economic arguements for buying Quantic Dream

Cage is one of the COO's, the one that made the comment was Guillaume de Fondaumière (now I'm on PC so could easily look it up)

Edit. You were right, Cage made the comment about being open for being a first party dev

Ready at dawn would be my bet. The Order will probably be a sucess and Sony will want to keep them. They also proved themselves with the GoW games, so they have flexibility aswell.

Rockstar or Nintendo EAD I can't decide.

I can forgive you for not knowing his name...

Overall we can agree on one thing. You've got to have a CEO with a crazy name to be Sony's first party developer