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[Bryank75]

Question is, did they bought that stake post 2020 ?

Nope, they've owned it for nearly 10 years.

 

[jakinov]

Normally this means that some people will loose their jobs.

And there will get jobs elsewhere.

 

[DenchDeckard]

Disney to buy PlayStation?

 

[yurinka]

Not sure what you guys think about consolidation but when I think consolidation It makes me think they will close down some of the less productive studios and allow the employees to get positions at the better ran studios.

That is what consolidation usually means.

Nah, to fire unproductive people or shut down umproductive/unprofitable teams are normal things they also do outside consolidation. Same goes with people moving to another studio if they shut down the one where they were working.

But Sony's gamedev studios are killing it, they are doing a great job. So they are growing them instead of shutting them down or firing people. The only one with a consistent bad performance was Japan Studio, so they restructured changing its leadership, putting the Japan Studio XDEV team now reporting to XDEV instead of to Japan Studio and focused their Japan Studio internal teams into their Team Asobi and rebranded it. After the restructuring, both the XDEV Japanese team and Team Asobi now are hiring to grow like the other Sony studios.

In this case, by consolidation he meant Sony and other blg platform holders and big publishers have been acquiring companies during the recent years and will continue doing it for at least some years more. So the cool kids now will be in the hands of a few (less) giant corporations.

Disney to buy PlayStation?

Not happening. Sony doesn't have any reason to sell and the Japan goverment doesn't allow foreigners to acquire huge strategically important Japanese companies like Sony.

Get Playstation headquarters back to Japan

Enough fkn up by Jim Ryan

By PlayStation you mean SIE (formerly known as SCE), which has two companies: one created in 2016 with HQ in USA and the other one -the original one- that continues having their HQ since 1993 in Japan: https://www.sie.com/en/corporate.html

 

[DenchDeckard]

Nah, to fire unproductive people or shut down umproductive/unprofitable teams are normal things they also do outside consolidation. Same goes with people moving to another studio if they shut down the one where they were working.

But Sony's gamedev studios are killing it, they are doing a great job. So they are growing them instead of shutting them down or firing people. The only one with a consistent bad performance was Japan Studio, so they restructured changing its leadership, putting the Japan Studio XDEV team now reporting to XDEV instead of to Japan Studio and focused their Japan Studio internal teams into their Team Asobi and rebranded it. After the restructuring, both the XDEV Japanese team and Team Asobi now are hiring to grow like the other Sony studios.

In this case, by consolidation he meant Sony and other blg platform holders and big publishers have been acquiring companies during the recent years and will continue doing it for at least some years more. So the cool kids now will be in the hands of a few (less) giant corporations.


Not happening. Sony doesn't have any reason to sell and the Japan goverment doesn't allow foreigners to acquire huge strategically important Japanese companies like Sony.

I thought Playstation was now American?

 

[Rien]

TakeTwo

Why not three?

 

[Kokoloko85]

No, MS did it because Sony had way more internal development teams and (currently) important IPs and generates more money, so they needed to catch up and generated way more money.

Sony continues breaking gaming history records for any console platform holder regarding generated revenue, consoles sold and games sold for their consoles. They also release more exclusives than MS, exclusives that sell more, get better reviews and earn more GOTY awards than the MS ones. Zenimax represented less than 5% of the games sold for PS4, so won't miss them if they go full exclusive in the future.

Sony doesn't have any reason to acquire a big publisher. Their plan is to continue growing their existing internal development studios, to open new ones and acquiring some that have a long, successful relationship with them working on PS exclusive games.

I think Sony won't buy Square, Capcom, Take 2, Sega, etc. even if it could make sense and Sony could have enough money. The other also has to want (or need) to be acquired. They all are in a good financial shape and have a mostly multiplatform approach where even in some cases PS is their main revenue source, to stop releasing future stuff on Switch, PC (at least at launch, PC port could be done several years later) and Xbox would be a major negative impact on their revenue cutting away in some cases over half of their game revenue.

It think they may acquire instead someone like Bluepoint, Kojipro, Quantic Dream, Supermassive, ARC System Works, etc. Game development studios whose revenue mostly was from PS exclusives, so to be acquired would mean a growth giving them more budget, resources and stability. Or due to strategical reasons, some Asian studio that may be unknown for console gamers but is huge in F2P mobile or PC Asian/worldwide market since they also want to grow there.


Source? I think it isn't the case.

Sony already has more big game IPs than the ones they can develop. And around half of the games they are developing are new IPs. Sony also mentioned they wanted to see more collaboration between divisions, so we could see them using some movie/anime IP they own on games.

When Hermen or Ryan said they were considering or open to acquisitions always mentioned studios or companies, not IPs, and sometimes specified they are particularly interested on people with a long relationship with them, so people who did work for them.

For Sony is more important Uncharted, TLOU or GoT, or their own cinema/anime IPs than Spider-Man because they get a full revenue from the games, movies, tv shows or anime. Considering Disney's cut on Spider-Man games, nside SIE their own IPs generate way more money for them than that licensed IP.

They have room to improve on how they milk these existing internal big IPs as it would be acquiring dev studios or growing the internal ones to develop them with more sequels or to use them for movies/tv shows/anime, or to use some existing big movie/tv show/anime IPs they have that may have a big potential if using them in games. And they are working on that. In addition to this, they produce new big gaming or movie IPs almost every year, so I don't see why they would want to buy more IP.

An option would be to enlarge their catalog for PS Now, their anime streaming apps or -if they ever make it- their own 'Netflix' to put there all their movies, tv shows and anime under a single app/subscription. I think they always welcome more big IPs but to grow hard PSNow and make their own Netflix isn't their priority now.

I never said why MS said it had to buy studios so I dont get the no at the start?

Of course MS needed to buy it because of how successful Sony and Nintendo are doing. Tbh if they didnt buy Bethesda they would probably be dying after this gen, Gears, Halo and Forza wasnt cutting it anymore. Thats why they went big.

Sony’s model of enlarging their catalog of studios slowly is successful and would carry on being so…..BUT if MS is gonna buy a bunch of IP that use to be on Playstation and Nintendo and buy studios that have worked exclusively with Playstation ( Ninja Theory ) then Sony is gonna have to be doing the same.
The industry is changing and this hasn’t happened before. A major console service like MS/Sony/Nintendo buying huge publishers and IP they had nothing to do with building like MS did with Bethesda etc. Its a first and its aggressive.

The market and the game changed and its not just about games and studios but about beloved IP being taken away. Sony could go and buy Kojima and Bluepoint etc but that won’t take anything away from MS and Ninedo like how buying Bethesda did.

Buying Bethesday didnt just mean new studios to make games for them, it meant a bunch of IP’s that won’t be on Playstation or Nintendo anymore. Doom, Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Quake etc. Huge IP’ that are popular and will not be on other consoles again.

Next MS could go buy IP’s like GTA, Mortal Kombat, EA, Rockstar and take those IP’s away from Playstation and Nintendo etc? And they probably will be looking to buy another big Publisher and having all there IP exclusively like Ubisoft, EA, Take2 etc by the start of next gen.

Sony not only needs to carry on doing what they are great at ( working exclusively with studios and creating IP and organic growth like Insomniac and Housemarque etc ) but they also need to acquire some beloved IP’s before MS buys them all. Otherwise Sony in 10 years will be missing major western 3rd party games Like Doom, Elder Scrolls, Fifa, Battlefield, GTA, Far Cry, Call of Duty etc.

This is the future for companies like MS, Amazon, Tencent and Google. They‘ve proven they aren’t good at creating games like Nintendo and Playstation but they can certainly buy major studios and publishers and more importantly beloved IP’s so they dont need to do the hard work

 

[ihavezippers]

disney/marvel acquired some pretty big ip from sony pictures. could disney be acquiring playstation ip? maybe sony is spinning it off? maybe the two companies are merging

 

[yurinka]

Buying Bethesday didnt just mean new studios to make games for them, it meant a bunch of IP’s that won’t be on Playstation or Nintendo anymore. Doom, Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Quake etc. Huge IP’ that are popular and will not be on other consoles again.

Zenimax game sales were under a 5% of total PS4 game sales (assuming all thei games combined sold ~50M, which is very generous), and I assume even less on Switch/WiiU/3DS. So Sony and Nintendo won't miss them.

Then we have the Xbox CFO saying their strategy with Zenimax was having their games 'first or best on Xbox' (hinting at multiplatform and timed exclusives), then Phil saying they were going to continue supporting the fanbase Zenimax has in other platforms, that it wasn't about keeping games out of other platforms, etc. So I assume some games will be full console exclusive, some will be timed exclusive and other ones will be multiplatform since day one as we saw with Quake 2021 and all the DLC and updates they released for PS after the acquisition for Doom Eternal, Fallout 76 or Elder Scrolls Online.

Next MS could go buy IP’s like GTA, Mortal Kombat, EA, Rockstar and take those IP’s away from Playstation and Nintendo etc? And they probably will be looking to buy another big Publisher and having all there IP exclusively like Ubisoft, EA, Take2 etc by the start of next gen.

Yes, they could. Or Sony and Nintendo also could make them, but I think they won't do them because they don't need them.

And they also could stop making big acquisitions until they recoup at least a portion of the huge investment they did on acquisitions and are making every month in Gamepass. Or well, I also think EA, Ubisoft, Activision or Take 2/Rockstar won't want to sell because they don't have any reason to do it specially if it means to chop a substantial part of their revenue as would be to stop releasing games on their best selling platform: PlayStation.

Sony not only needs to carry on doing what they are great at ( working exclusively with studios and creating IP and organic growth like Insomniac and Housemarque etc ) but they also need to acquire some beloved IP’s before MS buys them all. Otherwise Sony in 10 years will be missing major western 3rd party games Like Doom, Elder Scrolls, Fifa, Battlefield, GTA, Far Cry, Call of Duty etc.

This is the future for companies like MS, Amazon, Tencent and Google. They‘ve proven they aren’t good at creating games like Nintendo and Playstation but they can certainly buy major studios and publishers and more importantly beloved IP’s so they dont need to do the hard work

Sony doesn't need to make big changes or acquisitions at all.

They have the fastest selling console ever that is breaking gaming history records set by their previous console, which has records like the biggest amount of games sold for a console. And are also generating more revenue than any other console platform holder ever did. And they are the best positioned ones for potential next big markets like streaming or VR having pioneered them, building tech, expertise, catalog and fanbase for hypothetical future scalation.

They sold over 1600 million games (most of them 3rd party) and if Zenimax would have sold 50M games for it (I honestly think they sold less) it would be a 3.1% of that. So Sony doesn't have any issue with 3rd party games. And regarding exclusive games Jimbo said PS5 will have the biggest amount of exclusive games any previous console ever had.

disney/marvel acquired some pretty big ip from sony pictures. could disney be acquiring playstation ip? maybe sony is spinning it off? maybe the two companies are merging

Sony doesn't have any reason to want to sell PlayStation since it's their main business, and the Japanese goverment doesn't allow to sell Sony to foreigners. Sony is using two Marvel IPs to make games, that's all.

Thousands of other companies did it in the past or are making now games using Marvel/Disney/Star Wars IP, it didn't mean Disney bought them. Marvel/Disney gets money by licensing their IPs to other companies to make games, movies, merchandising, etc. with these IPs as another revenue source. Is Disney supposed to buy Square, Ubisoft, Activision, MS or NIntendo because they published or will publish games using Disney IPs too?

 

[lh032]

Sony doesn't need to make big changes or acquisitions at all.

They have the fastest selling console ever that is breaking gaming history records set by their previous console, which has records like the biggest amount of games sold for a console. And are also generating more revenue than any other console platform holder ever did. And they are the best positioned ones for potential next big markets like streaming or VR having pioneered them, building tech, expertise, catalog and fanbase for hypothetical future scalation.

I would say that if Microsoft stop at Zenimax acquisition, however if Microsoft kept doing this, this would become a major issue for Sony.
Its REALLY hard to build a huge fanbase under new IP.
I wont deny we received blockbuster IP (GOT) or unique IP like Returnal under Sony management, however there are other failed projects as well (Japan studio).

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

Its REALLY hard to build a huge fanbase under new IP.

False.

Gaming is the one medium where, if your game is good + in the right genre, you can build a huge fanbase quite easily. Other mediums aren't so lucky.

Valheim was made by 5 people. It looks like crap. The IP is (was?) worthless. It sold over 8 million copies. Horizon Zero Dawn was good and the right genre, plus it was marketed well, and it sold 10+ million.

PUBG, Fortnite, Human Fall Flat, Cyberpunk 2077, Fall Guys, Among Us...were all meaningless IPs that produced hugely successful games.

Gamers follow the fun first and foremost.

That being said, it does seem like single player gamers are more influenced by IP than their multiplayer counterparts.

 

[Thirty7ven]

Consolidation is happening to drive new comers like Google away. When Google says they called it quits because of the Bethesda deal, it’s because they would have a big problem growing amidst all the consolidation going on.

Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo, they are set. The only major acquisition that makes sense is Microsoft buying Valve and essentially buying the whole PC market for themselves, but they would be buying customers, not IP, which makes it a really crazy business deal.

 

[yurinka]

I would say that if Microsoft stop at Zenimax acquisition, however if Microsoft kept doing this, this would become a major issue for Sony.
Its REALLY hard to build a huge fanbase under new IP.
I wont deny we received blockbuster IP (GOT) or unique IP like Returnal under Sony management, however there are other failed projects as well (Japan studio).

To build a fanbase maybe it's complicated for MS, but Sony kept creating big selling new IPs and they keep improving:
-Horizon is the best selling Guerrilla Games ever (sold over 10M+ in less than 2 years)
-Death Stranding is on track of (maybe already is) becoming the best selling Kojima game ever (~6M and will sell more with its Director's Cut)
-Quantic Dreams new IPs for Sony also were very successful, with their most recent one being their best selling game ever (Detroit, 6M+)
-Days Gone is the best selling Bend Studios game and should be in the 7-10M range now
-It's an external license but with Spider-Man it's like a new IP/franchise/series/genre for Insomniac and became their best selling game and should be in the 15-20M range now
-Sucker Punch also got their best selling game with GoT
-Returnal isn't a huge hit by Sony standards but seems a good step as the first Housemarque AAA and very likely will be their best selling game until now, plus had other goals as launch window console exclusive, to make more varied their catalog with unique stuff, etc.
-ND needs patience for new IPs, but their most recent ones (Uncharted and TLOU) have been huge critical and commercial hits so pretty likely their next big project after the TLOU2 MP game will be a new and very successful IP
-Team Asobi bundled their most recent game with the console so didn't add sales but for sure created a lot of fanbase that now wants a full sized Astro sequel, which is very likely what they will do in addition to a game to showcase the PSVR2 tech
-Before releasing Dreams Media Molecule mentioned that all their previous games were profitable (understandable considering their small size)
-PS Studios is working in over 25 games being around half of them new IPs, Sony is very confident with them. Not only with their own studios, but also with external talent like the studios created by key Destiny, AC o CoD BO talent
-On top of all these new IPs Sony also has many IPs with potential for huge sales like GoW (the previous one sold over 10M in the first year), GT (the previous one sold an estimated ~8M), TLOU (fastest selling PS4 exclusive and was released last year, still is selling well), Uncharted (the previous main one sold over 15M)...

Obviously not all their new IPs are huge hits and sometimes they fail (specially Japan Studio, this is why they restructured it), but Sony constantly delivers super successful new blockbuster IPs. And on top of that they a lot of existing ones that as today are relevant enough to get a super successful sequel. PS exclusives are selling now better than ever and have been dominating the GOTY awards for the last decade.

MS instead struggled to create periodically super successful new blockbuster IPs and some of their classic ones became stagnant or at least not as relevant as they were before, so unlike Sony they needed to buy currently relevant big IPs and people with talent to create very successful new IP.

If we're generous and estimate Zenimax sold 50M units on PS4, it would be around 3% of the over 1600 million PS4 games sold until now, so will be less than that at the end of the PS4 sales cycle. Part of these sales come from deals with Sony to get timed exclusives/marketing deals/store featuring that now Sony will continue getting them making these deals with other ones, and their game sales keep growing, so they won't miss Zenimax it they decide to go full console exclusive in the future.

 

[nikolino840]

Isn't he speaking about movies? Tlou series uncharted movie....
He talks about superheroes movie and not games