I agree that plans change. Just not quickly when talking about large sums of money like 1 billion. Unless the money is already set aside and falls under an investment umbrella, I don't see them otherwise changing plans to make an increase to investment.
FYI, I've more recently been exposed with planning at the company I work for ( note its not publicly traded as of yet, but also comes with less scrutiny then a public traded company ) and i'm seeing companies don't change plans easily. I'm certain this came out of the money they set aside ( note they went on record saying it wasn't all for development acquisition, or even gaming specifically). This seems like investment to make certain they are not left out of the "metaverse" ( I fucking hate that term btw ) in some manner.
Oh for sure! I do not believe in any way that this particular investment Sony is making into Epic will, alone, have them change their budget plans. After all, this is exactly the kind of thing that budget was made for and Sony was likely already considering such an investment into Epic a long time ago. Contrary to popular belief, it was not a budget purely for acquiring studios for PlayStation. I seriously doubt someone at Sony suddenly went, "Hey! Fuck it! Let's throw more money at Epic. How does a billion sound??"
My comment was more aimed at how some people might get the impression that the $18 billion budget they planned out last year is something set in stone that can never be changed and that this investment means Sony is "running out of money" to potentially buy anyone else.
And yeah, a few years ago I worked for a company that had clients on a global scale and operations all across the country. I worked under the head of the sales division who frequently had meetings with the chief financial officer. Who was a total prick, by the way. But the head of sales loved me, so he would let me in on things they discussed sometimes. I worked there for over 6 years, so I got a good feel for how companies ebb and flow. How they would plan budgets and how those budgets would have to adjust over time. Very rarely, I think only once in all that time, was it a sudden course correction we needed to make. Competitors making moves we didn't expect. Outside interferences on the industry. Opportunities popping up we hadn't planned for. All of these scenarios contributed to a change in plans at one point or another. Though they were almost always carefully planned and executed over years. Like I said, with that one exception. Which was actually thanks to the owner's idiot son who should have never been allowed to make any company decisions.