no.

Shutting down studios probably not. Laying of workforce probably.

No, but i could see them buying out Level 5, FromSoftware, and GameRepublic at some point in time.

Sony don't need to buy Insomniac; the relationship there is already tight.
Sony don't need to buy Media Molecule; they have a 3 game exclusivity contract.

It's been rumoured Sony will buy Level-5 if WKC is a success. Japanese sales look good so far (first day 130k, first week 212k). Possible. Maybe merge them into SCE Japan?

As for their current studios, I don't see any problems.
I don't think SCE Korea are particularly helpful atm. Hopefully they have a project.
I also hope that SOE are working hard on The Agency.
I'd like to know what BigBig are working on atm.

If I were to prune anything, I would just cut NBA from San Diego's portfolio, as others have suggested.
Also, maybe give Evolution a new direction? They've said they'll churn out lots of Pacific Rift DLC, and if they do that then I don't feel they need to bring out a 3rd Motorstorm. I wouldn't suggest going back to rally sims; not high profile enough. Maybe give them Eight Days and let them use their relationship with BigBig to harness the lessons learned from the Pursuit Force series!

Selling off or spinning off studios would probably be a better approach.

Shutting down studios would indicate that their franchises are worth more to Sony than the studio's value on the open market, which based on the current poor sales numbers for First Party games probably isn't true (GT5 excluded of course).

Level 5 is awesome. I hope Sony does buy them. Game Republic is decent, too -- they've certainly made some decent RPGs, and Genji is fun. I don't think Sony would buy From Software, though. They're pretty mediocre, if you ask me.

I still ponder why on earth anyone would be excited about Ninja Blade (X360 exclusive in 2009) -- from the makers of Tenchu, Armored Core, and Enchanted Arms? Not exactly stellar franchises (AC is decent, but the others... not so much, imo).

I was trying to point out how long it has taken GT5 to come along, and that the studio is in development hell.  Would you rather have a gaming studio that can release a game every 2 years that sells nearly 5 million copies per, or 1 game every 4+ that may sell 4-5 million?  Gears of war, 1 and 2 have a combined total of nearly 10 million (in a few weeks it will be 10million) sales so I would seriously doubt GT5 will do 20 million during its life.  That would be the double you were talking about in the original thread.

You can spout all you want about previous GT #'s, there is simply no way it is going to have an attach rate of 50%.  4-5 million sales over its life would be good and more than a lot of people expect.

ITT, he was saying that GT5 could do double either Gears 1 or Gears 2; not double Gears 1 and 2 combined.

Personally, I expect GT5 to sell far more than 5 million. It's the rare sort of game that will just keep selling in high numbers, since it has a timeless quality, i.e. whether you buy it on launch or 2 years later, it's still incredibly impressive and supremely expansive.

the thing about GT5 is it will sell this whole generation, not only will it open with stellar numbers it will have legs. and im pretty sure this will be the only GT game this generation. imo GT5 will hit atleast 10 million at most 20 million.

With the current  # of PS3 sold, it is highly unlikely that it will do double gears 1 #'s either.  That would still be over half of the PS3's sold to date picking up a copy.  I have owned several GT games in the past, I never said it was a shit product.   

I honestly do not know how I got so far off topic anyways.