Yeah, seems unlikely to be the reason to me too. GOG just isn't that popular, not even half as popular as Epic Game Store, let alone market leader Steam, Sony could literally make their own PC gaming client for their games and open it for 3rd parties to use and it would probably top GOG in marketshare within a year or two. And $3b is just too much if they primarily care about CD Projekt for their games, Cyberpunk hurt their reputation alot, and they specialize in singleplayer games so there is less revenue potential with CD Projekt than buying a similarly expensive developer of successful GaaS games.

Sony buying Bungie for $3.6b absolutely made sense for them, Destiny 2 is one of the biggest GaaS games on the planet, currently the 6th biggest GaaS game on the Xbox US most played games list behind only Fortnite, CoD Warzone, Apex Legends, Roblox, and GTA Online, and Bungie also came with a few other IP including Marathon, which they are currently rebooting as a GaaS multiplayer shooter. CD Projekt for $3b makes alot less sense for Sony than Bungie for $3.6b did. Sony has plenty of singleplayer strength in their 1st party stable already, they are seeking multiplayer strength and GaaS monetization opportunities right now, Jim Ryan has been all about GaaS ever since he took over. This leak just seems inconsistent with Jim Ryan's vision for Playstation's future.

Have we learned nothing when it comes to rumors? I'll believe it when I see it.

Not sure where this rumor about Sony buying CD Projekt came from as I dont see it any of the sources/places I go for news talk about it.

Anyways, the reason why GOG isnt as popular is because they are strict in wanting DRM-Free versions of games.

If they had lifted that requirement years ago, GOG would have been as big of a store as Steam but because they kept that requirement, it caused a lot of publishers from turning away from GOG.

Its the reason why majority of games are not released on GOG, not because of marketshare issue, but because of their DRM-Free policy.

AAA Publishers (mostly Japanese ones) dont want DRM-Free copies of their games out in the open especially when they dont have some sort of security policy implemented like Steam's DRM/EGS DRM, Denuvo, etc.

There's no SEGA games, no Capcom games (aside from Dragon's Dogma and Street Fighter Alpha 2 - which btw isnt even on Steam/EGS), no Squareenix games, etc

Ironically I just checked and noticed that there is a DRM Free version of Sony's Horizon Zero Dawn - surprised that got released on GOG , though its the only Sony game that is on GOG

https://www.gog.com/en/game/horizon_zero_dawn_complete_edition

An insider by the name of Liz who usually leaks Destiny 2 information which has proven mostly accurate so far, possible she has some strong Bungie connections considering the accuracy of her Destiny 2 leaks and Bungie is of course Sony first party now, so it's possible that a Bungie source would have heard internal rumblings of Sony acquiring CD Projekt. However, in the same leak she also claims that Sony has greenlit Days Gone 2, which seems just as unlikely as Sony acquiring CD Projekt.

Sony was very clearly unhappy with the sales of Day Gone, it was reported by Jason Schreier in 2021 that Bend had unsuccessfully pitched Days Gone 2 to Sony shortly after the first game released in 2019 and had been turned down by Sony, and instead were forced to assist Naughty Dog with a new Uncharted game during the remainder of 2019 and 2020 until Bend was finally able to convince Sony to remove them from Uncharted assistance and allow them to work on a new IP. That was the last thing we heard about Bend Studio, that they've been working on a new IP since sometime in late 2020 or early 2021. Would be highly unusual for Sony to cancel that new IP 2 years into development and put them back on Days Gone 2, especially since it was reported that Jim Ryan, unlike Shawn Layden, was not a fan of Days Gone at all, and that one of his first acts upon winning the Playstation power struggle between himself and Shawn Layden was to turn down Bend's pitch for Days Gone 2. Why would Jim Ryan suddenly change his mind on Days Gone 2 a few years later, cancelling a new IP with 2 years of development time just to revive Days Gone 2? It just doesn't make sense.

Ahh

Wouldnt be surprised if some of these rumors were falsely passed to find the moles who were leaking info out within these companies lol.

Oh yeah like when MS outbid embracer for Tomb raider kappa. 

CD Projekt PR person just confirmed the acquisition rumor is false, says they aren't even in talks with Sony:

https://twitter.com/olasondej/status/1663045589343371265?t=Eqjok2-DuMyF3JLfNVPANg&s=19

Never believe rumours about acquisitions of public companies, especially ones in the billion dollar region, unless it comes from an extremely reputable business publication such as Bloomberg and only then it is usually leaked a day or so before the announcement because the moment an offer is made it has to be legally announced. Twitter randoms don't know shit, it would imply they have sources at the very top of the company, they'll keep throwing out the same old acquisition rumours in the hope that it actually happens one day and then claim they were right.

Interesting Stats

Course Linkedin so take with a grain of salt.

For example, I'm fairly certain The Coalition is bigger than that but with the added note that maybe not a massive AAA studio as they've always co-developed Gears with Splash Damage who are a large AAA studio (400+) so I'd estimate The Coalition is around 250-300.

Tango is around 100ish IIRC. Japanese employees don't tend to use Linkedin so that is why it's off.

World's Edge I'm pretty sure is wrong too, mainly because their Linkedin studio page was only recently formed so there was no connection to a studio page prior, IIRC I believe I read from Shannon herself once that World's Edge is around 30-40 employees.

So the count is probably off by a few hundred, give or take.

Crazy to think that would still be less than Nintendo's 6,500 though.

Nice growth at XGSP, from 99 to 195.