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PlayStation Is Hiring For A Manager To Identify "Inorganic Growth Opportunities Through Acquisitions & Investments"

Gorgon

Member
Sony doesn't have immense mismanagement and communication issues like SEGA had to even start the ball rolling to their doom. Losing a couple WRPGS doesnt immediately take away the immense market share and brand recognition they have

Sure, but all will depend on the extent that these aquisitions will ultimately take. Right now it's all up in the air. But give it a generation or two and things may change beyond anyone's expectations.
 

Heisenberg007

Gold Journalism
Counter point, MS acquiring Zenimax / Bethesda has at least guaranteed all of their future games will be on PC day 1.

Any studio acquisition by Sony leaves it at a huge chance that their games will be on PC day 1.

Won't someone think of our fellow PC brethren.
As I said earlier, a console company has no obligation to PC users. Steam or Epic should jump into the acquisition wars to secure content for the PC brethren.
 
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Ginzeen

Banned
As I said earlier, a console company has no obligation to PC users. Steam or Epic should jump into the acquisition wars to secure content for the PC brethren.
so Larian and CDPR are off the table for Sony. Those companies wont leave their pc players to rot.
 

Heisenberg007

Gold Journalism
so Larian and CDPR are off the table for Sony. Those companies wont leave their pc players to rot.
Absolutely not off the table. If that's their requirement, and if Sony really wants them, Sony can allow them to release their games day one on PC.

Sony is happy to accommodate the companies' requests and wishes if they really want to acquire them - like they did with Bungie.
 

Ginzeen

Banned
Absolutely not off the table. If that's their requirement, and if Sony really wants them, Sony can allow them to release their games day one on PC.

Sony is happy to accommodate the companies' requests and wishes if they really want to acquire them - like they did with Bungie.
hmmmm, they can easily say, we're done with pc once they own them. Talk is cheap. CDPR and Larian is very unlikely to happen with Sony.
 

Ginzeen

Banned
i dont think it works that way lol
sure it does. If their is no contract in place, pc is screwed. Talk is cheap. Need to get that shit in writing. That's why Sony signed the deal even though Phil took a oath to keep bringing COD to PlayStation
 

DenchDeckard

Moderated wildly
I'd like Sony to fully embrace PC day one. They bought nixxes and its wasting their talents on floundering sales on not giving people the games they want and late ports.

I've just heard ratchet has flopped pretty hard. When are sony going to learn that only a small number of players are going to buy their games on pc late. They need the day one media cycle hype / shill hype that drives their engagement across social media and websites. Stop treating the fastest growing, most dedicated platform as a second class citizen.

So if they encorperate day one PC, and get a more open approach to more people playing their games eg continued support of switch as a platform...if they buy capcom or square, then buy who ever you want I say. The worst they are going to do is cut off xbox and they are doing that anyway.

Plus, all purchases will go the way of ABK now. To get this shit through you will need to sign like 10 year contracts so it will give everyone time to adjust and hopefully ramp up support of PC and whatever platforms will get the games to hundreds of millions of players like big Jimmy wants.
 
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Panajev2001a

GAF's Pleasant Genius
Stop treating the fastest growing, most dedicated platform as a second class citizen.
Also the land where nobody buys an online multiplayer subscription (less money) and where you get 0% of the revenue from third parties which are key to your platform… yeah, let’s incentivise migration.

Sony is not MS, what MS is doing does not necessarily benefit anyone else that does not have their size, control of the platform, and want to setup an online subscription (Netflix style). Not saying you intentionally want to give them bad advice due to some conflict of interest (vs a company that cares a lot less about HW sales of their platform ;)), but I think this approach works.

Plus, all GaaS games will likely be day and date and you are making tons of assumptions about what Nixxes is wasted at or not (the fact that their first party studios can focus on a single platform and the game instead of porting it around is already a big thing for them and for us as gamers), overall they are happy with their PC sales presence and their console business is doing very well and growing.
 
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Panajev2001a

GAF's Pleasant Genius
hmmmm, they can easily say, we're done with pc once they own them. Talk is cheap. CDPR and Larian is very unlikely to happen with Sony.
Look at the Bungie purchase and the freedom and help they give them (a good mix of hands-off and involved engagement), look at the growing presence on PC platforms too. I do not think I would be worried.
 

yazenov

Member
I'd like Sony to fully embrace PC day one. They bought nixxes and its wasting their talents on floundering sales on not giving people the games they want and late ports.

I've just heard ratchet has flopped pretty hard. When are sony going to learn that only a small number of players are going to buy their games on pc late. They need the day one media cycle hype / shill hype that drives their engagement across social media and websites. Stop treating the fastest growing, most dedicated platform as a second class citizen.

So if they encorperate day one PC, and get a more open approach to more people playing their games eg continued support of switch as a platform...if they buy capcom or square, then buy who ever you want I say. The worst they are going to do is cut off xbox and they are doing that anyway.

Plus, all purchases will go the way of ABK now. To get this shit through you will need to sign like 10 year contracts so it will give everyone time to adjust and hopefully ramp up support of PC and whatever platforms will get the games to hundreds of millions of players like big Jimmy wants.

Im sure Sony is watching MS's sales very closely and how well their strategy worked out for them with Gamepass and day 1 PC titles. Their hardware is tracking well below the Xbox One, so why would Sony emulate the clearly flawed business model?

Sony's main priority is selling their own hardware, and keeping their consumers locked into their ecosystem. They will stick with their current strategy then led them to sell 40 million PS5s as of now. Unless things are broken, why fix them?
 

Three

Member
If Sony bought any of those publishers, it'll be carnage not because Xbox fans would lose out, but EVERYONE other than Playstation owners would lose out. I'm sure PC-only owners would love to wait a year plus for a shitty GTA port to be available where no one would know the exact date of the end of Sony's "console exclusivity", since you know, they like to sell consoles first.
You say this as if all GTAs didn't release year(s) later on PC under an independent T2.
 

Clear

CliffyB's Cock Holster
I'd like Sony to fully embrace PC day one. They bought nixxes and its wasting their talents on floundering sales on not giving people the games they want and late ports.

Why would they ever do that beyond GaaS? They have a successful console business and there's way more money in mobile if they were looking to grow another pillar.

I've just heard ratchet has flopped pretty hard. When are sony going to learn that only a small number of players are going to buy their games on pc late. They need the day one media cycle hype / shill hype that drives their engagement across social media and websites. Stop treating the fastest growing, most dedicated platform as a second class citizen.

Its a port. Which means low-impact in terms of budget and timescale, and a far lower floor in terms of profitability especially when factoring in cross-promotion with the console "mothership".

So if they encorperate day one PC, and get a more open approach to more people playing their games eg continued support of switch as a platform...if they buy capcom or square, then buy who ever you want I say. The worst they are going to do is cut off xbox and they are doing that anyway.

Why expend capital that could/should be used to strengthen their core business to get in on a market which although larger is highly competitive and offers them less revenue per unit sold? Again, mobile is way more appealing a proposition for a multitude of reasons.

PC gets support downstream of console because the technological similarities make it relatively cost-effective. For third parties the same applies but in reverse, they can branch out from PC to console relatively cheaply and benefit on both fronts from the marketing and profile console ecosystems provide.

Plus, all purchases will go the way of ABK now. To get this shit through you will need to sign like 10 year contracts so it will give everyone time to adjust and hopefully ramp up support of PC and whatever platforms will get the games to hundreds of millions of players like big Jimmy wants.

ABK is a special case. MS were forced to make concessions in order to mitigate the argument that they are significantly shrinking the market in service of their own goals, because that is inarguably monopolism. Promises of "business as usual" are worthless because the owner cannot be constrained against doing anything they deem necessary to safeguard the venture. The threat of long-term policing to ensure compliance is one thing, but enforcement is another entirely. Alleged infractions need to be argued independently and on their own merits.
 

cireza

Member
AHH I see you have nothing to say. Just like that clown silent viper or whatever his name is. Also made the same claim Sony blah blah 100s of millions of dollars ma poor Xbox, but also couldn't provide receipts.
Disliked my emoji so you edited your post to get a "second chance" ? Now that's hilarious.

What is there to prove to someone like you ? Keep pushing the narrative you like to read on this forum and turn a blind eye to everything that displeases you. The most comical thing about this whole situation is people who think they are proving things on internet forums with quotes, internal email excerpt, tweets, cleverly selected sentences from interviews and whatever.

Please, show me receipts so I can add to that endless list of things that don't mean shit, in order to further enforce my narrative against whatever company I dislike.

These games are not for me, excuse me but I won't participate. I am good with the world that is happening before my eyes, this is proof enough. Games being released or not, timing, consoles, deals happening. Last week, a very good friend of mine who is not into internet forums at all, and plays only very few games, told he had bought a PS5. Why ? Because of FF XVI. He is a huge fan of the series and loves every single entry. He played FF XV on Xbox one (as well as all others through BC). There is no war here, no stupid narrative, these are things that don't even exist in his mind. Someone who loves Final Fantasy was simply forced into buying a PS5, which is precisely what Sony wants and does, and this has been true ever since they entered the market. Either by forcing you through exclusives (full, timed, DLC) or by flooding the communication scene as much as possible so that you didn't even know said game was available elsewhere. All very valid strategies that bought them their current place, which is second behind Nintendo by the way ;)

With all of this being said and done, tomorrow, the console player who wants to play Starfield will forced to buy an Xbox. Seems perfectly reasonable by me. You see, we don't need any receipts.
 
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adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
As I said earlier, a console company has no obligation to PC users. Steam or Epic should jump into the acquisition wars to secure content for the PC brethren.

But neither company is console only, both release their titles on PC, one releases day and date and the other anywhere from day 1, to 6 months to 1, 2 years give or take.

Objectively speaking, PC only gamers would have the short end of the stick in a potential Sony acquisition versus an MS acquisition, depending on the studio.

hmmmm, they can easily say, we're done with pc once they own them. Talk is cheap. CDPR and Larian is very unlikely to happen with Sony.


Oh, I don't know about very unlikely. A good offer can sway anyone.
 
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DenchDeckard

Moderated wildly
Why would they ever do that beyond GaaS? They have a successful console business and there's way more money in mobile if they were looking to grow another pillar.



Its a port. Which means low-impact in terms of budget and timescale, and a far lower floor in terms of profitability especially when factoring in cross-promotion with the console "mothership".



Why expend capital that could/should be used to strengthen their core business to get in on a market which although larger is highly competitive and offers them less revenue per unit sold? Again, mobile is way more appealing a proposition for a multitude of reasons.

PC gets support downstream of console because the technological similarities make it relatively cost-effective. For third parties the same applies but in reverse, they can branch out from PC to console relatively cheaply and benefit on both fronts from the marketing and profile console ecosystems provide.



ABK is a special case. MS were forced to make concessions in order to mitigate the argument that they are significantly shrinking the market in service of their own goals, because that is inarguably monopolism. Promises of "business as usual" are worthless because the owner cannot be constrained against doing anything they deem necessary to safeguard the venture. The threat of long-term policing to ensure compliance is one thing, but enforcement is another entirely. Alleged infractions need to be argued independently and on their own merits.

Jim Ryan wants 100s of millions of gamers to play their games...that can not happen in the console space, which isn't seeing growth anywhere near that level.

Sony are lucky to reach more than 120 million units sold in a console generations lifetime. Without day one PC and potentially other options it's never happening.

Bloating dev costs will force them to look for alternative forms of revenue income. Or game budgets have to remain the same or even shrink.

Selling 15 to 20 million is not good enough for Sony any more. What happens if one game flops and it only sells 5 to 8 million and its cost 400 million? Its not going to work for them.
 

nial

Gold Member
If they ever touch From with their west bullcrap I quit gaming. I don't want Sony people near them, yuck.
It's actually more a matter of individual studio culture than the entire company itself. And it would be under the Japanese branch (SIE Inc.) at the end of the day, just like Polyphony Digital.
 
Sony has gaming market share of around 15%, MS around 8% and ABK around 4%. Take 2 (Rockstar) and EA are even smaller.

So no, potential ABK, Take 2 or EA acquisitons wouldn't cause a monopoly in gaming. Even if alll 3 would be bought by the same company, MS or Sony.

Even in console: CoD PS MAU and revenue is for Sony under 8% of their MAU and revenue so to lose it wouldn't be a disaster. EA and Take 2 are smaller, so to lose them would be less important. In any case, for now they all will continue multiplatform.
You can throw all the percentages and numbers around, I just don’t buy it. It’s not gonna happen.
Book mark this, for when Sony’s gaming division crumbles.

I’m not trying to argue with you, I’m a PlayStation fan also have been since day one when I bought a launch system all the way back in 95’.

But I call a spade a fucking spade when I see it (it’s more fun when it’s face to face)
The hypocrisy is off the fucking charts and everyone is eating up.
 

Sanepar

Member
Job description says join ventures as a possibility. So maybe playstation will look for a partner with cash.
 

Griffon

Member
Massive acquisitions and locking down a market for a couple of big players is not capitalism. It's just poisoning the well and destroying what should be success through quality and competition.

Fuck MS and fuck Sony for following down that path.
 
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Disliked my emoji so you edited your post to get a "second chance" ? Now that's hilarious.

What is there to prove to someone like you ? Keep pushing the narrative you like to read on this forum and turn a blind eye to everything that displeases you. The most comical thing about this whole situation is people who think they are proving things on internet forums with quotes, internal email excerpt, tweets, cleverly selected sentences from interviews and whatever.

Please, show me receipts so I can add to that endless list of things that don't mean shit, in order to further enforce my narrative against whatever company I dislike.

These games are not for me, excuse me but I won't participate. I am good with the world that is happening before my eyes, this is proof enough. Games being released or not, timing, consoles, deals happening. Last week, a very good friend of mine who is not into internet forums at all, and plays only very few games, told he had bought a PS5. Why ? Because of FF XVI. He is a huge fan of the series and loves every single entry. He played FF XV on Xbox one (as well as all others through BC). There is no war here, no stupid narrative, these are things that don't even exist in his mind. Someone who loves Final Fantasy was simply forced into buying a PS5, which is precisely what Sony wants and does, and this has been true ever since they entered the market. Either by forcing you through exclusives (full, timed, DLC) or by flooding the communication scene as much as possible so that you didn't even know said game was available elsewhere. All very valid strategies that bought them their current place, which is second behind Nintendo by the way ;)

With all of this being said and done, tomorrow, the console player who wants to play Starfield will forced to buy an Xbox. Seems perfectly reasonable by me. You see, we don't need any receipts.

Wow what a post.
Essentially you make garbage arguments and won't back them up. Then try and act all high and mighty about how arguing on a forum is beneath you. Followed by some story about a friend buying a ps5.. then the same crap about Sony marketing .
Just so you can gloat about starfield exclusivity.. you need help.

I've asked a very simple question, where have Sony in the last 20 years spending 100s of millions of dollars to block games going on Xbox. You made this claim and won't answer. Just another deluded green rat trying to justify Xbox buying the entire industry. Whereas most rationals gamers here would prefer if neither company were buying publishers so we wouldn't get any of this exclusive shit.
 
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Clear

CliffyB's Cock Holster
Selling 15 to 20 million is not good enough for Sony any more. What happens if one game flops and it only sells 5 to 8 million and its cost 400 million? Its not going to work for them.

Its plenty good enough when a sizable chunk of that revenue is from digital sales on a storefront that they control! Note its people outside of these big vertically integrated platforms that are complaining about sustainability.

No retailer/store-owner cut to contend with, no manufacturing or warehousing overhead, no cannibalization by the used market... in a majority digital ecosystem its simply way more revenue per unit than the traditional model.
 

Generic

Member
Counter point, MS acquiring Zenimax / Bethesda has at least guaranteed all of their future games will be on PC day 1.

Any studio acquisition by Sony leaves it at a huge chance that their games will be on PC day 1.

Won't someone think of our fellow PC brethren.
Yeah, both Microsoft and Sony are evil, but Microsoft is the lesser devil since they release all their games day-1 on PC (and they are well optimized)
As I said earlier, a console company has no obligation to PC users. Steam or Epic should jump into the acquisition wars to secure content for the PC brethren.
But the PC version of a game is the best version, locking games on consoles is a disservice to consumers.
 
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I’ll agree with that. I just don’t see them ripping a limb off, and putting themselves in sizeable debt to do it. I could be wrong about that though.
I think they’ll play it clever and go for something that’ll have synergy:

Good stable of IP associated with PlayStation historically.
Worldwide appeal.
Opportunities for Mobile growth
Opportunites for PlayStation Productions.

Hit three out of those four (Capcom and SE do for example) and it’ll be a worthily buy. PlayStation is Sony’s most valuable asset. If they don’t put up some defences the whole company is vulnerable.
 

Unknown?

Member
Yeah, both Microsoft and Sony are evil, but Microsoft is the lesser devil since they release all their games day-1 on PC (and they are well optimized)

But the PC version of a game is the best version, locking games on consoles is a disservice to consumers.
Their games are only day 1 on a shitty operating system called Windows. Wake me up when they support more than just their trash before saying they are more consumer friendly.
 

yurinka

Member
You can throw all the percentages and numbers around, I just don’t buy it. It’s not gonna happen.
Book mark this, for when Sony’s gaming division crumbles.
Lol! With the current strategy, pattern of their numbers and inertia make sure they won't crumble, for at least a decade or two.

Their PlayStation division is performing better than ever witth record division revenues and profits, game subs revenue, PS5 soon to become again the fastest selling console in gaming history, their blockbusters selling over 20M each as they never did before, earning a lot of money via their expansion via PC or the movie/tv show adaptations, PSVR2 started selling better than PSVR1, they earn a lot of GOTY awards, made several acquisitions including 2 studios with tthe makers of Destiny or Halo, their already existing teams have been growing a lot to work in more games at the same time than before...

Everything leads to think they will continue growing and breaking gaming history records they already set by themselves in recent years, improving all their numbers growing in all areas, current and new ones. Soon Sony will grow hard also in shooters, MP, GaaS and mobile. And pretty likely after that other top game types where Sony isn't too strong will follow.

Regarding their PS vs Xbox fight, Sony will continue increasing their market share. 2 and a half years after acquiring Bethesda, look at where MS is compared to before.

Job description says join ventures as a possibility. So maybe playstation will look for a partner with cash.
Square Enix said they plan to branch out some of their studios to become subsidiary companies and allow other investors take a part of them. Some of these new companies being a joint venture with Sony seems something more realistic to me than to see Sony acquiring the whole Square Enix.

It would be way cheaper because Sony wouldn't overpaying buying parts of Square Enix they don't want, and also would skip issues with regulators because Sony wouldn't be buying a huge company but instead creating a new one with Square as a partner.

Imagine Sony getting co-ownership of Creative Unit III (FFXIV, FFXVI) and Creative Unit I (FFVII Remake, Rebirth).
 
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adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Their games are only day 1 on a shitty operating system called Windows. Wake me up when they support more than just their trash before saying they are more consumer friendly.

Using Steam surveys as a reference, 97% of PC gamers use Windows. If it was as shitty as you desperately want it to be, it wouldn't be this extremely lopsided. More people would be switching to Linux (or Mac OS lol)
 
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Unknown?

Member
Using Steam surveys as a reference, 97% of PC gamers use Windows. If it was as shitty as you desperately want it to be, it wouldn't be this extremely lopsided. More people would be switching to Linux (or Mac OS lol)
That's because they've tried hard to monopolize the market and gamers are forced to use closed source junk.
 
Lol! With the current strategy, pattern of their numbers and inertia make sure they won't crumble, for at least a decade or two.

Their PlayStation division is performing better than ever witth record division revenues and profits, game subs revenue, PS5 soon to become again the fastest selling console in gaming history, their blockbusters selling over 20M each as they never did before, earning a lot of money via their expansion via PC or the movie/tv show adaptations, PSVR2 started selling better than PSVR1, they earn a lot of GOTY awards, made several acquisitions including 2 studios with tthe makers of Destiny or Halo, their already existing teams have been growing a lot to work in more games at the same time than before...

Everything leads to think they will continue growing and breaking gaming history records they already set by themselves in recent years, improving all their numbers growing in all areas, current and new ones. Soon Sony will grow hard also in shooters, MP, GaaS and mobile. And pretty likely after that other top game types where Sony isn't too strong will follow.

Regarding their fight PS vs Xbox fight, Sony will continue increasing their market share. 2 and a half years after acquiring Bethesda, look at where MS is compared to before.


Square Enix said they plan to branch out some of their studios to become subsidiary companies and allow other investors take a part of them. Some of these new companies being a joint venture with Sony seems something more realistic to me than to see Sony acquiring the whole Square Enix.

It would be way cheaper because Sony wouldn't overpaying buying parts of Square Enix they don't want, and also would skip issues with regulators because Sony wouldn't be buying a huge company but instead creating a new one with Square as a partner.

Imagine Sony getting co-ownership of Creative Unit III (FFXIV, FFXVI) and Creative Unit I (FFVII Remake, Rebirth).
I see what the issue is, I’m not picking sides. I’m a fan of the games, regardless which platform they release on.
If one of the current platforms crumbles to ash, there will always be another to take its place.

Do I have preference’s, of course I do.
That doesn’t mean I obsessively hate the other platform in an unhealthy manner. Besides why would hate something I went out and bought?

Your run paragraphs of trying to explain/articulate the way you “see” things 7 different ways…… we all see through you.
 

Gojiira

Member
hmmmm, they can easily say, we're done with pc once they own them. Talk is cheap. CDPR and Larian is very unlikely to happen with Sony.
Sony have proven they keep to their promises with studio acquisitions, literally just look at Bungie…
The only one so far who has broken promises is MS..So theres no reason to doubt if Sony chose to purchase CDPR or Larian and one of their stipulations was day 1 pc, Playstation would honour it.
 

Ginzeen

Banned
Sony have proven they keep to their promises with studio acquisitions, literally just look at Bungie…
The only one so far who has broken promises is MS..So theres no reason to doubt if Sony chose to purchase CDPR or Larian and one of their stipulations was day 1 pc, Playstation would honour it.
As as said before, talk is cheap. Sony keeping Bungie 3rd party isn't saying anything because Bungie makes live service games. Also what promise has MS made with zenimax? They said case by case basis.
 

Edgelord79

Gold Member
Makes sense to me. I mean, they would be silly to not have the foresight to look into “inorganic growth” as well.
 

Ronin_7

Banned
Bungie has 90 positions opened.

Safe to say Bungie will transform into a huge publisher by 2030, probably owning support studios would be my guess.
 
As as said before, talk is cheap. Sony keeping Bungie 3rd party isn't saying anything because Bungie makes live service games. Also what promise has MS made with zenimax? They said case by case basis.
It just so happens that all of the cases are exclusives and they didn’t even honour the Indiana Jones contract.

Microsoft have form here - Sony don’t.
 

Fabieter

Member
Counter point, MS acquiring Zenimax / Bethesda has at least guaranteed all of their future games will be on PC day 1.

Any studio acquisition by Sony leaves it at a huge chance that their games will be on PC day 1.

Won't someone think of our fellow PC brethren.

Was there a Bethesda game ever skipping pc or is this a joke iam missing
 

Varteras

Gold Member
I'd like Sony to fully embrace PC day one.

I'd like you to just shut up and fully embrace me.

Jimmy Fallon Flirt GIF by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon
 

jonnyp

Member
They really need a separate position for that? If that's the case, then they have some deadwood in management.
 
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