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Forums - Sony Discussion - Sony aquires "Insomniac Games"

thismeintiel on 20 August 2019
Hiku said:
starcraft said:

I think there is an inherent contradiction in that statement, given Insomniac games have been producing PS exclusives since PS1 without being purchased.

There are new advantages in the current games market environment to making this purchase, including the PR win in light of Microsoft's recent significant purchases, and the reduction of risk - i.e. while I agree with other posters that the value of Insomniac to MS would be less than their value to Sony, an MS purchase given their current attitude would be impossible to rule out.

We would never know definitively how much Microsoft's recent actions in the market played in to Sony's decision to purchase Insomniac without Sony telling us, which they have no obvious incentive to do (both of these companies are very fond of pretending they don't react to each other's actions). In the current context though, some cognisance of Microsoft in making this purchase can be very reasonably assumed. 

I don't think that's a contradiction, for a few reasons.

Insomniac have gone on record saying they "value their independence" when previously asked about being acquired.
And looking at their past 13 games during this generation, only 2 of them have been PS exclusive. So that makes sense.

I think it's likely they did not want to be purchased before for the price Sony offered them at the time.
But I think what changed was mainly the massive success of Spider-Man, which Insomniac said surprised them. It has now sold over 13m units.

The price for their acquisition is now likely something beyond the value of their independence.

On the subject of PR win, I don't think Sony would need to do anything, until, or unless, the upcoming games from MS's new studios live up to the critical acclaim of Sony's first party studios, and surpasses them. It's subjective, but depending on who you ask, (and Phill Spencer himself said as much) MS are not doing as well in this field as they would have liked, and are still playing catch up. 
And there's no guarantee those upcoming games will be the 'God of War' or 'Spider-Man' that some fans would like to see.

But as CGI mentioned, Sony tend to do this anyway. Naughty Dog was acquired in 2001 for example.

And we must not forget, the studios MS bought are still making multiplats as their first game releases under MS. It may be years before they put out system sellers on the Scarlett. Who knows, MS may choose to allow them to continue making multiplats.



 

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JRPGfan on 20 August 2019
colafitte said:

Edit: Oh, and by the way, 13'2M units SOLD to consumers in less than a year for Spider-Man...., just simply amazing. The game keeps selling and it's going to be one of the best selling exclusives for any platform in the end. More than 20M with a PS5 version in the future seems like a safe bet.

Which is the crazy part.

Even "The Last of Us" only did like 11.8m (as of march 2019) (combined with PS3 version, its over 19m)
But this puts smiderman potentially into the same realm (if theres a PS5 version, or remaster).



JRPGfan on 20 August 2019
JamesGarret said:
the-pi-guy said:
Relevant:

I wonder if Insomniac was in MS´s crosshairs and Sony got wind of it and quickly closed the deal.

If you where Insomniac,.... would you want to be bought by MS? Sunset Overdrive only did like ~1m-2m on the xbox.
While Spiderman is over 13.2m and could end up doing like 20m lifetime sales.

Plus the safety net, that is Rachet & Clank (sony owns IP).
Their two best selling IP are in Sony's hands.



Barkley on 20 August 2019
JRPGfan said:


While Spiderman is over 13.2m and could end up doing like 20m lifetime sales.

GOTY version was supposedly briefly up on Amazon which should boost sales some more. Could beat Uncharted 4 to become their best selling 1st party game (on a single platform).

15m+ lifetime is guaranteed anyway. Incredible. Shows the importance of building install base and a fan base through high quality titles. Who would have thought at the start of the generation that Sony would be putting out multiple games that sold more than Halo 5 and Gears 4 combined.



LudicrousSpeed on 20 August 2019
Mr Puggsly said:
HollyGamer said:

Wow Insomniac games worth 5 studios Microsoft purchase recently

PS5 will be another winner and next will be Kojima production , believe it 

Don't get me wrong, I think Insomniac is a great studio. However, they aren't better than Playground games, Ninja Theory and Obsidian combined.

It has been a very significant studio for PlayStation exclusives, this makes sense. But I'm not gonna pretend their games have been industry defining.

Yeah I mean the one real big hit they had was a licensed superhero game. Any time you can snag a studio with talent it’s a big deal, but nothing changes much for gamers because they were already a de facto standard PS exclusive company. At least now people can stop worrying about a Sunset 2 that wasn’t coming anyway.

I don’t see Control lighting up sales charts, wouldn’t be surprised to see them snatch up Remedy either. They fit the design of Sony games nowadays.



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JRPGfan on 20 August 2019
Barkley said:
JRPGfan said:


While Spiderman is over 13.2m and could end up doing like 20m lifetime sales.

GOTY version was supposedly briefly up on Amazon which should boost sales some more. Could beat Uncharted 4 to become their best selling 1st party game (on a single platform).

15m+ lifetime is guaranteed anyway. Incredible. Shows the importance of building install base and a fan base through high quality titles. Who would have thought at the start of the generation that Sony would be putting out multiple games that sold more than Halo 5 and Gears 4 combined.

Uncharted 4 - A Thief's End at 16.2 million (march 2019)..... might soon get some competition for that #1 spot.



DonFerrari on 20 August 2019
Hiku said:
starcraft said:

I think there is an inherent contradiction in that statement, given Insomniac games have been producing PS exclusives since PS1 without being purchased.

There are new advantages in the current games market environment to making this purchase, including the PR win in light of Microsoft's recent significant purchases, and the reduction of risk - i.e. while I agree with other posters that the value of Insomniac to MS would be less than their value to Sony, an MS purchase given their current attitude would be impossible to rule out.

We would never know definitively how much Microsoft's recent actions in the market played in to Sony's decision to purchase Insomniac without Sony telling us, which they have no obvious incentive to do (both of these companies are very fond of pretending they don't react to each other's actions). In the current context though, some cognisance of Microsoft in making this purchase can be very reasonably assumed. 

I don't think that's a contradiction, for a few reasons.

Insomniac have gone on record saying they "value their independence" when previously asked about being acquired.
And looking at their past 13 games during this generation, only 2 of them have been PS exclusive. So that makes sense.

I think it's likely they did not want to be purchased before for the price Sony offered them at the time.
But I think what changed was mainly the massive success of Spider-Man, which Insomniac said surprised them. It has now sold over 13m units.

The price for their acquisition is now likely something beyond the value of their independence.

On the subject of PR win, I don't think Sony would need to do anything, until, or unless, the upcoming games from MS's new studios live up to the critical acclaim of Sony's first party studios, and surpasses them. It's subjective, but depending on who you ask, (and Phill Spencer himself said as much) MS are not doing as well in this field as they would have liked, and are still playing catch up. 
And there's no guarantee those upcoming games will be the 'God of War' or 'Spider-Man' that some fans would like to see.

But as CGI mentioned, Sony tend to do this anyway. Naughty Dog was acquired in 2001 for example.

You don't react after the other had success, you need to take preventive measures as well. Because if they wait MS to succeed then they will do what MS done this gen, lose an entire gen to react only on the next.

And in this case Sony isn't making a blind bet.



duduspace11 "Well, since we are estimating costs, Pokemon Red/Blue did cost Nintendo about $50m to make back in 1996"

http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/post.php?id=8808363

Mr Puggsly: "Hehe, I said good profit. You said big profit. Frankly, not losing money is what I meant by good. Don't get hung up on semantics"

http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/post.php?id=9008994

Azzanation: "PS5 wouldn't sold out at launch without scalpers."

DonFerrari on 20 August 2019
Barkley said:
JRPGfan said:


While Spiderman is over 13.2m and could end up doing like 20m lifetime sales.

GOTY version was supposedly briefly up on Amazon which should boost sales some more. Could beat Uncharted 4 to become their best selling 1st party game (on a single platform).

15m+ lifetime is guaranteed anyway. Incredible. Shows the importance of building install base and a fan base through high quality titles. Who would have thought at the start of the generation that Sony would be putting out multiple games that sold more than Halo 5 and Gears 4 combined.

I remember the threads were it was given as certain that Halo 5 and Gears 4 each one would do much better than basically any PS4 exclusive. Those were the days. Most have left VGC, hide away or pretend that it isn't important anymore.



duduspace11 "Well, since we are estimating costs, Pokemon Red/Blue did cost Nintendo about $50m to make back in 1996"

http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/post.php?id=8808363

Mr Puggsly: "Hehe, I said good profit. You said big profit. Frankly, not losing money is what I meant by good. Don't get hung up on semantics"

http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/post.php?id=9008994

Azzanation: "PS5 wouldn't sold out at launch without scalpers."

think-man on 20 August 2019
LudicrousSpeed said:
Mr Puggsly said:

Don't get me wrong, I think Insomniac is a great studio. However, they aren't better than Playground games, Ninja Theory and Obsidian combined.

It has been a very significant studio for PlayStation exclusives, this makes sense. But I'm not gonna pretend their games have been industry defining.

Yeah I mean the one real big hit they had was a licensed superhero game. Any time you can snag a studio with talent it’s a big deal, but nothing changes much for gamers because they were already a de facto standard PS exclusive company. At least now people can stop worrying about a Sunset 2 that wasn’t coming anyway.

I don’t see Control lighting up sales charts, wouldn’t be surprised to see them snatch up Remedy either. They fit the design of Sony games nowadays.

The rumors are pointing towards them buying up Remedy, and a couple of other studios. I think in the coming months they'll announce a couple more buy outs. 



 

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starcraft on 20 August 2019
CGI-Quality said:
starcraft said:

I think there is an inherent contradiction in that statement, given Insomniac games have been producing PS exclusives since PS1 without being purchased.

There are new advantages in the current games market environment to making this purchase, including the PR win in light of Microsoft's recent significant purchases, and the reduction of risk - i.e. while I agree with other posters that the value of Insomniac to MS would be less than their value to Sony, an MS purchase given their current attitude would be impossible to rule out.

We would never know definitively how much Microsoft's recent actions in the market played in to Sony's decision to purchase Insomniac without Sony telling us, which they have no obvious incentive to do (both of these companies are very fond of pretending they don't react to each other's actions). In the current context though, some cognisance of Microsoft in making this purchase can be very reasonably assumed. 

You originally were positive this had to do with Microsoft. Now it can be ‘reasonably assumed’. It just as easily being reasonably argued against, making that a ‘no shit’ sort of comment. ;)

No one was ever told they couldn’t assume it, I’m saying, with my own reasons, that I disagree with said assumption. This type of thing has been going on since before Xbox was even swimming with the others.m

And positive I remain, I was just using softer language to be polite. I think the difference in our arguments is this. I am saying Microsoft will have factored in to this - that is a 'no shit' comment, to use your terminology.

You're arguing they had nothing to do with it. Even under normal circumstances it would stretch credulity that a company would spend tens of millions (if not more) they dont have to spend on a studio if they didn't have one eye on the competition When that competition is busy buying up studios, even moreso.

Hiku raised an excellent point - Spiderman did incredibly - but incorrectly (or perhaps, incompletely) applied a conclusion. With that game I've no doubt Insomniac did cement their value. They certainly will have commanded a higher price than previously. And Sony who have previously not given strong indications they'd buy Insomniac suddenly after decades found a hell of a lot of money, purchasing a company at a time when it would otherwise make the least fiscal sense.

This type of thing has been going on forever - you're right. Its always had something to do with competition. Just moreso than usual atm.



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