For many years now, I have always thought that Sony should buy one good RPG developer. Sony has been working on strengthening their first party development studios, yet one key ingredient was missing: RPG games. 

Sony has refrained from doing that in order to keep their "good" relationship with Square Enix.

Sony had an RPG development staff. The staff behind "The Legend of Dragoon" which was dissolved later, possibly partially due to their deals with Square.

The lack of a Sony first party RPG studio is a weak point since this generation's consoles rely on first party games rather than the 3rd party games. And now with Square Enix's announcement, I don't see why Sony shouldn't create in-house Japanese RPG games. 

Sony should start with acquiring an already established RPG studio as a jump start and later further develop it to give it a foot in Japan. 

The possible choices are Tri-Ace, Media.Vision, Nippon Ichi, and Level-5.
Level-5 is an excellent choice. They have a good relationship with Sony. They are creative and their future looks promising.

So, what do you think?

They should but now these days Sony dosent seem to secure anything.

Well if they do, wait until after they are done with DQIX.

Nippon Ichi is too much of a niche developer.  Unless Sony decided to force them to make a more "mainstream" style game, Sony wouldn't get a decent return.

Tri-Ace isn't even making a game for the PS3 AFAIK.  It's all on the 360.

Media.Vision only really has Wild ARMs going for it though it could easily create new IPs with its fairly talented devs.  Still, low return rate.

Level 5 has an even shorter list of accomplishments than the above developers and I'm very skeptical of WKC.  There are good odds that game will turn out pretty poor.  As it stands it looks like a fantasy version of Power Rangers (Quick, someone call the White Knight-zord!).

I like what all of these developers are putting out but with the exception of maybe a couple titles, they're not putting out blockbusters.   If Sony buys any of them (except Level 5), they'll have to refocus the developers away from the series I like to some new IPs so really it may be a win for Sony but a loss for us--the gamers.

:O!! SHAME ON YOU!! How dare you compare WKC wit....with....power rangers?!?!?!?!


|OT|
Level 5 is decent...but i don't think Sony can be too wallet-happy atm..

they should,but i dont think they will

Tri-Ace's games are published by SE, so the reason why their games are developed for 360 reflects Microsoft's deals with SE. If FFXIII can go multiplatform, it wouldn't be difficult to release Star Ocean 4 on the PS3 as well.

I am talking about long-term strategy here. The effects of such acquisition may not be fruitful for at least a couple of years.

Akihiro Hino is one of the top 5 favorite game makers in Japan, probably due to his contribution to DQVIII. But what we have seen from Level-5 so far is that, unlike most RPG developers, they are capable of incorporating new elements into RPG games. The company is expanding as well, which makes it a more attractive choice. It's also crucial for Sony to expand the studio.

Nautilus would've been a great choice. Unfortunately it was dissolved and most of its members are working at Feelplus now.

Of course Sony could created their own RPG internal studio and recruit developers, but having a strong base from acquiring a company like Level-5, which they enjoy a good relationship with, would be ideal.

 level 5 hasnt released a game on a sony platform for a while,where did you come up with that they release most o there games on ps systems

Well let's see-The only Tri-Ace games that sold 1 million+ copies are SO2 and SO3.  Media Vision isn't a good choice since Wild Arms doesn't sell very well.

I prefer that Level-5 remains independent and be supported when they collaborated with publishers only.