I know it's an irritating conversation that's been had before. I'm sure I've even made this exact post before, but it's gets more relevant as time goes on I think.

But with the Activision Blizzard acquisition inching towards a close, I am curious to see how Sony responds. Activision is huge, and I don't see Sony being passive. Even if there's nothing they can really do to match ABK, I think they will still expand a bit to lessen the uncertainty.

Before that acquisition, Sony and Microsoft have around the same number of studios, around ~20 each. Sony is technically like 20 with some separate support studios, and Microsoft is like 23.

Activision is huge, it's difficult to compare. In some divisions, they're not structured up like separate studios. Or at the very least, it's hard for me to figure out what they are. Like Blizzard has like 5000? employees, that are separated into 5 teams; not studios. Activision has 12 studios on Wiki at least.

Sony has some mobile ambitions, and they've hired some big names from Apple and others, but I don't see any world where they try to match ABK; I don't think that exists. I think it's a near certainty that they'll hire on or acquire a few mobile studios sometime in the future.

Sony similarly has PC ambitions, which Blizzard in particular is huge in, but similarly I don't see a situation where Sony buys like 10 PC studios. 

I think it would be likely that Sony would buy ~10 studios (probably focused on console/PC, with a few for mobile and PC.)

But I have no idea who they would try going after.

Some of the likelier names, don't seem to want to be acquired. Larian and Kojima seem to like their independence. 

(And it's probably less of a factor that people think, but Tencent and company are still likely to be competition for acquisitions.)

Those are all great points, would just mention that with some key members of Treyarch going to Sony, also that studio that was founded by former CoD devs and they being bought by Sony without even showing the game in public and that internal e-mail saying that even if MS removed CoD they would be very fine I would say that the main concern over CoD Sony will have something to fill the gap in like 2 years to be launched.

Sony didn't buy that studio.

They bought Firewalk, which has some former Bungie people and some Activision people.

But the Treyarch studio was Deviation Games, and Sony seems to have cut their project instead of buying them.

I've been in a real mood for more Sci-Fi TPS. My friend convinced me to buy Alien Firesteam Elite. I was misled online that I needed to be online to play Single Player. NOT THE CASE! So I have been playing it and sure it's a budget game. It's no Gears or VanQuish but you know what? It's quite fun. It scratches that itch. I do wish it had better healing options.

Oh and woke up to a great email today. Namco shipped my Armored Core VI CE!

As for Sony, we have seen their answer. Forming new studios. Buying Bungie. You don't need to spend 70 billion to answer it. Honestly, that is the MS way of doing shit and I hate it. Making new studios and accumulating smaller ones is the better way to go. Funny how MS bought a bunch of studios in 2018 and so little to show for it for years. Xbox had long droughts and PS5 never did first party. So nothing to worry about honestly. MS is historically poor at managing studios' output and quality control. Not a big fan of either overall first-party output minus a coupe IPs but just how I see it.

I've been hesitant to start Cyberpunk 2077 but the new update seems to be a good point to finally do so.

I don't think anything is off the table for Sony.

There's unlikely options like Take Two and Steam, but I think its safe to say with the acquisitions of Bungie, Crunchyroll, and the Zee merger, with a plan to spin off their financial arm in the future, current Sony is willing to spend billions on their entertainment divisions if it makes sense. 

With Sony's marketing deal in place, a written agreement keeping COD on the platform for the next ten years, and Microsoft's concessions for the CMA, I think Sony has a more comfortable buffer to transition away from Call of Duty. 

With how much Jim Ryan gets criticized for, the fact he worked out a very favorable deal for Sony when it comes to COD, it very well might be a pivotal point in history for the PlayStation brand. 

As much as I love the genre I've kept putting off playing 2077 until now. "Just a few more updates, then it'll be the right time to play." With the new content and reworks that this expansion introduces to the base game I think I've run out of excuses and will finally jump in myself as soon as the expansion releases.

Not missing much. CP2077 isn't special in any way.The writing is poor and it plays like a worse version of any open-city world game ever made. Still crashes a bunch on PS5.