PlayStation Studios |OT14| Let's be honest: |OT13| could have been a lot smoother

[vivftp]

God I hate feeding into this tiresome acquisition talk, but exactly. These things don't just automagically happen.

These acquisitions take a long time. I can't say a lot about my experiences because of NDAs, but I've experienced first hand (multiple times) the acquisition process, and it. is. long.

Chances are, this Microsoft/Zenimax acquisition has been in the pipeline for a very long time. It's also more than likely that Microsoft wasn't the only company bidding for Zenimax. I wouldn't be surprised if Sony was also in the running at one point.

What Zenimax will do is produce a packet of what they're selling. It's a very broad strokes, high level packet touting the value of their company. This is what they will send out to prospective buyers (ie, companies that have shown an interest in acquiring the company, like Microsoft). That's round 1.

After receiving the "sales pitch" so to speak, any interested parties will request a more deep dive into the company they're looking to acquire. That's when Zenimax would have provided an even more detailed packet with a breakdown of the company's goings on. Things like general financials, upcoming projects and their projected costs and returns, and other details that are confidential, but not "corporate secrets" level confidential. That's round 2.

And once again, the pool of potential buyers will shrink, as those companies are then weighing the benefits of the acquisition, and if it fits into their overall business plan/goals for their company long term. At this point, a bidding war can develop. Especially if multiple buyers decide that purchasing Zenimax fits into their long term financial goals. All of this is happening behind closed doors, and can take months as Zenimax, and the prospective buyers deliberate amongst themselves whether or not they want to get into business with each other. That's Round 3.

Then, at some point, the "final" round begins. Zenimax will try to leverage as much of their actual and perceived value as possible to get the highest possible bid for their company. It's at this point that any remaining buyers will opt out, or, Zenimax decides to make a decision on whom they want to go with, based on how well the individual meetings with prospective buyers went (ie, do these guys seem cool, not shitheads, and have the best interest of the company at heart) and the deal is struck between the party they decide. That's just a super general breakdown of the process, in part, based on industry experience with acquisitions. Then the actual time frame of the closing of the deal can take additional weeks/months, and once both parties have received that approval, and the process of finalizing the acquisition is set in stone (ie, contracts are established, and discussions about how to integrate the company into their now parent company are underway), they'll announce it publicly.

Chances are high that within Sony, for example, it was known that Zenimax was up for acquisition. It's also more than possible that they were aware of who the interested acquirers were. It's also more than possible that Sony, knowing their own long term plans for the PlayStation division, either opted to participate in the acquisition of Zenimax, and chose to walk away from bidding, or didn't bother to participate in the bidding at all, and moved on to other plans to offset the potential loss of the content Zenimax would normally be releasing on their platform. For example, locking down timed exclusivity of Deathloop for PS5 while they could, so even if another company buys them, they would benefit in some way from that acquisition, without having to drop billions on the company as a whole, and take on the costs of running that publisher, and making sure it was a profitable investment.

Just because this was out of left field for us, the consumer, doesn't mean it was out of left field for Sony. They will respond to this, though not in a direct way, is my guess. They aren't going to come out and say, "Well, since Microsoft did this, we're doing this to counter!" They'll mix it in with marketing speak about "The future of PlayStation," or some such shit. I obviously don't know what's going on behind closed doors at Sony, but I doubt they're running around like chickens with their heads cut off, panicking at the loss of Fallout, Elder Scrolls, Doom, Wolfenstein, etc, etc. I'm sure they're more concerned about making sure the launch of the PS5 is successful, and meets the demand, as any plans to "counter" the Zenimax acquisition will have been kickstarted the moment they learned of the acquisition, which could have been months ago, if not longer, depending on how long Zenimax let it be known within the industry that they were up for sale. This is all speculation on my part, however, and I doubt we'll learn of the intricacies of this deal anytime soon, if ever.

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Very informative, thank you for that post :)

Yeah, we were getting random Reddit rumors as far back as January that Sony was looking to acquire Zenimax so they very well may have been in the running at some point and opted out.

I do have to ask though, with the process that you outlined is it possible for all of that to go through very close to the end with public companies without word getting out via the shareholders? I'm wondering at what point it would be impossible to keep word of acquisition talks from getting out. We saw with WB Games and Leyou that word got out months before anything would have possibly been settled. If Sony or anyone else were going after a company like Capcom or Square then I'd have to imagine we'd heard about it months in advance as well.

I'd give anything to know what sort of plans are going on behind the scenes at SIE and Sony, but we'll just have to wait for more news. At least we can only hope that people will stop running around screaming like the sky was falling ;)

 

[Saberus]

a question, why is the thread not labeled OT yet?

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[Nilou]

I absolutely love it. One of the few standout games for me from the PS3's first year. Resistance, Uncharted, Ratchet & Clank: Tools of Destruction, Warhawk, Heavenly Sword, and Folklore were great year one titles for me. Folklore was just so gorgeous, and I loved the music, art design, and the soul capture gameplay was really fun. I loved capturing more souls to rank up my Folks, and then figuring out which ones were the best to use in combat. I really want a Remaster. Or at least have it on PS Now. I still have my original disc, but I hate having to hook up my PS3 to my TV if I want to revisit some of those PS3 games that don't have a presence on PS4 as Remasters or part of PS Now.

I also find it curious that the Ratchet and Clank HD Collection on PS3 hasn't been put on PS Now yet. Like, The Sly Cooper Collection is there, as is Jak & Daxter, but not Ratchet. That's my not so subtle way of saying I hope we get a PS4/PS5 re-release of the Ratchet Collection. lol

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It really was a unique and beautiful game, the art direction while not having aged perfectly was really charming when it released too. I'd love a remaster as well though sadly it seems like the game/IP has been forgotten about for a very long time. I do still have my disk as well, have quite a few PS3 games. I don't use it often but my PS3 is still hooked up to my TV, mainly use it as a bluray player though.

Oh it hasn't? I had assumed it would have been added to PS Now long ago. You never know, maybe one day!

 

[vivftp]

I don't think Sony needs to freak out but this is a turning point in the industry, the Zenimax move is the beginning of the war we all knew was gonna happen but not exactly when.

I agree with Bundy, this is a time to go big. Sony has an advantage over others, they already have an excellent portfolio with studies that are already capable of producing GOTY caliber games, and that gives you a great foundation to grow.

Sony has several options:

- The nuclear option: Buy Take Two, insanely difficult to pull that off and really expensive with other companies joining the battle.

- The aggressive and logical option: Secure Japanese publishers, SE and Capcom main candidates, Sega would be a great option too and cheaper if Sony want some extra presence on PC with the western studios.

I think SE would be an excellent fit because they cover both Japan and western markets, imagine a Deux Ex Remake by Bluepoint.

After this Sony could add some extra studios that fit the weaknesses that could still exist after the publisher arrival.

- The conservative option: If leadership is not open to allocated so much money to publishers acquisitions then the option to buy a group of studios would be the alternative, Bluepoint I think is gonna be one no matter what other acquisitions they do but they would need to search to studios that allow them a bigger amount of quality games every year.

Is a shame that studios like Sanzaru and Ready at Dawn were bought by Facebook, they were great fits covering classing gaming and VR.

I see that WRPG are a big topic, in that sense Larian would be a great studio to add, they are talented and with a bigger budget there is no reason to think they can't be a top tier RPG studio.

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Be still my beating heart. A Bluepoint remake of the original Deus Ex would leave a permanent grin on my face til the day I die :D If the day ever comes that Sony picks up Bluepoint I hope they manage to expand them to 2 or 3 teams so we can enjoy even more remakes from them.

lol, for the price of Take Two you could buy both Capcom and Square and probably still have enough left over to moneyhat GTA6 for some sort of timed exclusive deal.

I'll be honest though, for some reason I thought Ubisoft was worth way more than the ~11 billion figure I've seen some people post. I thought they were roughly EA or Activision sized. Still, I don't see many people looking to buy Ubisoft considering they've got about 18,000 people on their staff. Capcom's got about 2,800 and Square's got about 4,600. Kadokawa's got about 4,500, damn that's a lot! THQ Nordic has about 4,000, which is REALLY surprising considering they've got about 43 internal studios according to Google. For comparison all of SIE right now has 2,700 employees.

To answer one of my earlier questions, it looks like THQ Nordic has a market cap if about 6.38 billion dollars so they'd be a pricey pickup for anyone as well.

 

[Nilou]

a question, why is the thread not labeled OT yet?

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JuanLatino could have just forgotten to add it when creating the thread or simply didn't want to add the tag. It's not added by default, it's a manually selected tag you can choose to add. I did go ahead and edit the thread to add it just now though.

JuanLatino if you would like me to remove it please feel free to let me know!

 

[shinobi602]

God I hate feeding into this tiresome acquisition talk, but exactly. These things don't just automagically happen.

These acquisitions take a long time. I can't say a lot about my experiences because of NDAs, but I've experienced first hand (multiple times) the acquisition process, and it. is. long.

Chances are, this Microsoft/Zenimax acquisition has been in the pipeline for a very long time. It's also more than likely that Microsoft wasn't the only company bidding for Zenimax. I wouldn't be surprised if Sony was also in the running at one point.

What Zenimax will do is produce a packet of what they're selling. It's a very broad strokes, high level packet touting the value of their company. This is what they will send out to prospective buyers (ie, companies that have shown an interest in acquiring the company, like Microsoft). That's round 1.

After receiving the "sales pitch" so to speak, any interested parties will request a more deep dive into the company they're looking to acquire. That's when Zenimax would have provided an even more detailed packet with a breakdown of the company's goings on. Things like general financials, upcoming projects and their projected costs and returns, and other details that are confidential, but not "corporate secrets" level confidential. That's round 2.

And once again, the pool of potential buyers will shrink, as those companies are then weighing the benefits of the acquisition, and if it fits into their overall business plan/goals for their company long term. At this point, a bidding war can develop. Especially if multiple buyers decide that purchasing Zenimax fits into their long term financial goals. All of this is happening behind closed doors, and can take months as Zenimax, and the prospective buyers deliberate amongst themselves whether or not they want to get into business with each other. That's Round 3.

Then, at some point, the "final" round begins. Zenimax will try to leverage as much of their actual and perceived value as possible to get the highest possible bid for their company. It's at this point that any remaining buyers will opt out, or, Zenimax decides to make a decision on whom they want to go with, based on how well the individual meetings with prospective buyers went (ie, do these guys seem cool, not shitheads, and have the best interest of the company at heart) and the deal is struck between the party they decide. That's just a super general breakdown of the process, in part, based on industry experience with acquisitions. Then the actual time frame of the closing of the deal can take additional weeks/months, and once both parties have received that approval, and the process of finalizing the acquisition is set in stone (ie, contracts are established, and discussions about how to integrate the company into their now parent company are underway), they'll announce it publicly.

Chances are high that within Sony, for example, it was known that Zenimax was up for acquisition. It's also more than possible that they were aware of who the interested acquirers were. It's also more than possible that Sony, knowing their own long term plans for the PlayStation division, either opted to participate in the acquisition of Zenimax, and chose to walk away from bidding, or didn't bother to participate in the bidding at all, and moved on to other plans to offset the potential loss of the content Zenimax would normally be releasing on their platform. For example, locking down timed exclusivity of Deathloop for PS5 while they could, so even if another company buys them, they would benefit in some way from that acquisition, without having to drop billions on the company as a whole, and take on the costs of running that publisher, and making sure it was a profitable investment.

Just because this was out of left field for us, the consumer, doesn't mean it was out of left field for Sony. They will respond to this, though not in a direct way, is my guess. They aren't going to come out and say, "Well, since Microsoft did this, we're doing this to counter!" They'll mix it in with marketing speak about "The future of PlayStation," or some such shit. I obviously don't know what's going on behind closed doors at Sony, but I doubt they're running around like chickens with their heads cut off, panicking at the loss of Fallout, Elder Scrolls, Doom, Wolfenstein, etc, etc. I'm sure they're more concerned about making sure the launch of the PS5 is successful, and meets the demand, as any plans to "counter" the Zenimax acquisition will have been kickstarted the moment they learned of the acquisition, which could have been months ago, if not longer, depending on how long Zenimax let it be known within the industry that they were up for sale. This is all speculation on my part, however, and I doubt we'll learn of the intricacies of this deal anytime soon, if ever.

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Good post.

You should listen to Figboy.

 

[Malkier]

A bummer that WilD isn't a thing anymore. Maybe it's time to GET SOME FOLKLORE 2.

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Wait what? Didn't Michel Ancel announce hus retirement the other day but said both WiLD and BGE2 are doing well, did i miss something?

 

[tmac456]

Tweaked my back pretty bad on the golf course today so today has kinda sucked. Laying down and reading some level headed posts in here has been nice. I'm chomping at the bit for November.

Still a little uneasy about the arms race and whatnot. But whatever, these next 18 months are gonna be so good.

 

[Saberus]

Good post.

You should listen to Figboy.

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That would be the simple way out.. but its to easy

 

[Deleted member 15973]

Good post.

You should listen to Figboy.

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What we need to know is if Sony will acquire REVIII in PSVR

 

[andresmoros]

For example, locking down timed exclusivity of Deathloop for PS5 while they could, so even if another company buys them, they would benefit in some way from that acquisition, without having to drop billions on the company as a whole, and take on the costs of running that publisher, and making sure it was a profitable investment.

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This makes total sense! That's why every timed exclusive they have are recent upcoming games from Bethesda, and they were also trying to do the same with Starfield, and we don't know if they succeeded (probably not). Great post, btw. That is very informative and completely logical.

 

[andresmoros]

A bummer that WilD isn't a thing anymore. Maybe it's time to GET SOME FOLKLORE 2.

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Was it canceled officially? I saw that goodbye post from Michael Ancel and he said that BG&E2 and Wild were left in good hands.

 

[Malkier]

Wondering if Demon's Souls has photo mode and is it the first game where you can be back stabbed while in photo mode.. no ones asking the hard questions.

 

[Rosebud]

Good post.

You should listen to Figboy.

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Game sites: "SONY IS ACQUIRING WUSHU STUDIOS" :p

 

[ElephantShell]

Wondering if Demon's Souls has photo mode and is it the first game where you can be back stabbed while in photo mode.. no ones asking the hard questions.

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Invasion chance +500% while in photo mode.

 

[Nilou]

Wondering if Demon's Souls has photo mode and is it the first game where you can be back stabbed while in photo mode.. no ones asking the hard questions.

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Bluepoint has been pretty good with adding photomode into games with their remasters/remakes. I feel it's a safe bet to assume Demons Souls will be the same, though of course hopefully we get an official confirmation as well before long.

 

[Modest_Modsoul]

Holy hell 900+ posts after I wake up. 😄

 

[vivftp]

This makes total sense! That's why every timed exclusive they have are recent upcoming games from Bethesda, and they were also trying to do the same with Starfield, and we don't know if they succeeded (probably not). Great post, btw. That is very informative and completely logical.

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I'm not familiar with Starfield, when's it supposed to be coming out? If the MS acquisition isn't set to be finalized until mid 2021 then maybe there's a chance Sony squeaked out one more deal?

 

[Angie]

I had a quick go but not enough to get any sense of anything. My son played for almost 3 hours straight on my account on my pro, jumping off mountains, flying around in creative, swimming, spinning around like a loon. Not a problem.

When we first put it on though, it had some really, REALLY shitty defaults set up and I thought it was just terrible performance or the initial world populating. But... segmented turning?! WTF is that shit lol. Turn left and right in these tiny little choppy choppy movements - utterly horrible. It made it look sub 30fps. I got him to remove all these apparently "comfort" setting nonsense things and have it all set to free/natural/classic whatever it was called, then he was away and didn't look back. There seemed to be a second update shortly after the first at some point 'cause he couldn't figure out why he could no longer join his friends. Think it only took seconds to patch so must have been something and nothing.

He was particularly impressed with the sense of scale, how other players appear human-size in front of him and just how massive rabbits are :D Creepers, Husks and a Witch freaked him out while I was watching. Locking on to mining while looking around was also something he liked.

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That is exactly that. The segmented turning and felling choppy that made me sick. I will try the setting later today and see how i feel.

 

[Angie]

Also what the hell. 42 pages already?
Who did MS buy this time?

 

[Malkier]

Bluepoint has been pretty good with adding photomode into games with their remasters/remakes. I feel it's a safe bet to assume Demons Souls will be the same, though of course hopefully we get an official confirmation as well before long.

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I assume so as well more so just pondering the humor of sabotaged photo shoots. Now im curious why it changed to the create button again.

 

[NLCPRESIDENT]

Bluepoint has been pretty good with adding photomode into games with their remasters/remakes. I feel it's a safe bet to assume Demons Souls will be the same, though of course hopefully we get an official confirmation as well before long.

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I hope it's only accessible in NG+. Otherwise, I feel like, you'd be able to cheese your way through the game.

 

[Modest_Modsoul]

A home run in animation.

 

[The Last One]

Also what the hell. 42 pages already?
Who did MS buy this time?

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According to era? Who aren't they buying?

 

[Kirudo]

JuanLatino could have just forgotten to add it when creating the thread or simply didn't want to add the tag. It's not added by default, it's a manually selected tag you can choose to add. I did go ahead and edit the thread to add it just now though.

JuanLatino if you would like me to remove it please feel free to let me know!

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oh I didn't know, thank you very much for the clarification <3

 

[Richardi]

Invasion chance +500% while in photo mode.

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Lovely, hope this happens

 

[delete]

Honestly with what microsoft is doing with gamepass and xCloud it makes even more sense to get a PS5. Microsoft are pushing gamepass and xcloud hard, a lot harder then what Sony is doing with psNOW. Sony won't offer it's exclusives at launch on the service as that would eat into their own profit, which is something that Microsoft can handle but likely Sony has less capacity to do.

I mean if they get xCloud right it makes even more sense to get a PS5, that way you can more easily enjoy exclusives across both platforms. People shouldn't fret.

 

[Deleted member 15973]

Also what the hell. 42 pages already?
Who did MS buy this time?

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Nice WW Avatar, do you have one planed for Joels Birthday?

 

[NekuWitTheDraco74]

Also what the hell. 42 pages already?
Who did MS buy this time?

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The Wu-Tang clan, heard they ain't nothin to fucc with
( sorry I been watching the Wu-Tang hulu show lately 😅)

 

[FFNB]

Very informative, thank you for that post :)

Yeah, we were getting random Reddit rumors as far back as January that Sony was looking to acquire Zenimax so they very well may have been in the running at some point and opted out.

I do have to ask though, with the process that you outlined is it possible for all of that to go through very close to the end with public companies without word getting out via the shareholders? I'm wondering at what point it would be impossible to keep word of acquisition talks from getting out. We saw with WB Games and Leyou that word got out months before anything would have possibly been settled. If Sony or anyone else were going after a company like Capcom or Square then I'd have to imagine we'd heard about it months in advance as well.

I'd give anything to know what sort of plans are going on behind the scenes at SIE and Sony, but we'll just have to wait for more news. At least we can only hope that people will stop running around screaming like the sky was falling ;)

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I'm glad you found it informative!

I can't say for sure, to your question. It's probably different for each company. A lot of that stuff is generally kept between very, very few individuals within the company. Usually just the owners of said company and the highest level people at the bidding companies. Strict NDA's are signed, and because of how sensitive the information is, leaks of any kind could cause those deals to fall apart completely. The last thing a prospective buyer or seller wants is to think the company they're investing in/planning to go into business with has loose lips. I doubt a shareholder would want to put the whole deal at risk by sharing any information about it, even just the idea that they are looking into selling/buying. Not to mention that the deal still has to go through the proper government channels that could also torpedo the acquisition should the government take issue with certain aspects of the acquisition. Most of the time, outside of those high level stakeholders, who the bidding companies are is unknown, and won't be known. Unless maybe someone blabs during a drunken bender at a company party.

I honestly don't know much about the difference between publicly owned and privately owned companies when it comes to buying/selling, and how much of the process is affected by being one or the other.

There are really only two scenarios in this situation with Zenimax:

1) Sony was aware of the Zenimax acquisition for months (maybe longer), and have taken steps to assure the health of the PlayStation division through acquisitions of their own (that we will only hear about when those acquisitions are solidified), and is probably why they've been so aggressive in their software output for the PlayStation 5's first year (like, seriously, the PS5's first year is looking impressive as fuck, and those are only from the games they've revealed thus far).

2) They were unaware of the Zenimax acquisition until very recently (I find that hard to believe that this news hit them at the same time that it hit the media, and thus, us), and they are currently working on steps to assure the health of the PlayStation division through aggressive pursuing of acquisitions of their own to shore up for a battle of content with Microsoft.

In either scenario, I don't see much reason for all of the handwringing and doom and gloom. If you think a multi-billion dollar corporation like Sony isn't going to fight to remain a multi-billion corporation, especially seeing as how PlayStation is one of their strongest divisions, I don't know what to tell you. Sony wants to make lots of money. Period. Just like Microsoft. They will do what they need to to make lots of money.

As a gamer, I honestly don't give a shit. I just want to play awesome games. I'm confident that I will be getting awesome games on PlayStation. I'm hopeful that this acquisition from Microsoft will bear fruit that entices me to pick up an Xbox Series X, or finally build a new gaming PC, as my current one is old as dirt, and in need of an upgrade. As a non-stakeholder in any of these companies, I just don't care about this stuff. I want my fun vidya games!

As someone who works in the gaming industry, I want it to continue to grow and do well. We are, unfortunately, at the mercy of the people that hold the purse strings, so we do the best we can with what we have, and focus on making cool games that players enjoy. What the suits do is largely out of our control. When a megacorporation like Microsoft set its sights on the gaming industry, this outcome should have been expected. On the plus side, I think MS has contributed to gaming in a positive way during their time in the industry. Ditto for Sony. Ditto for Nintendo and Sega. The industry isn't going to tear itself apart at the seams. It hasn't so far, and as a business, it is doing better than ever. We have access to more games than we've ever had access to in the history of gaming.

So I may have to buy an Xbox in the future. So what? So I may have to buy a PlayStation or Nintendo in the future. So what? So I may have to build a new gaming PC in the future. So what? The industry will keep moving forward. It will keep evolving and pushing technology forward.

What I ultimately care about is what I'm realistically able to experience in my already limited free time. I can't play every awesome game that releases, even if I only owned one console. I already own a PS4, Switch, and a PC (albeit one that can't run the latest games at max settings). Gaming is made up of more than just megaton AAA gaming experiences. There's a lot of amazing content out there. Right now. Not coming in 2 months, or a year, or 2 years. Now. And I haven't played any of them. It doesn't stop me from being excited about the new stuff coming out. Oh, I am. I just try to put things in perspective for myself. I could fret over not being able to play an Elder Scrolls or Fallout on the PS5 in 2+ years. Or, I can just enjoy the things I can play now, and the things I'll be able to play on my PS5 on launch day, and cross that other bridge when I get to it. And by that point, I'll either have built my new gaming rig, or I'll have already purchased an Xbox Series X anyway, so it's even less of an issue. Or, it may turn out that I'm just not interested in a new Fallout or Elder Scrolls. I'm only speaking for myself here, mind you. Everyone is free to feel how they want to feel about this news, but it's just not something I'm personally going to lose sleep over.

The ramifications on the industry as a whole are too far out for me to concern myself with either. I'm not a fortune teller, and outside of this encouraging companies like Sony and Microsoft to try to buy up whatever privately owned publishers are willing to sell, I don't see anything changing for me as a gamer. I go where the games are. I'd probably be more upset if gaming went streaming only, or were limited to being played on mobile phones only. Something actually paradigm shifting that fundamentally changes the way we play games. Not being able to play Bethesda games on a PlayStation console isn't that. Again, for me.

 

[Angie]

Nice WW Avatar, do you have one planed for Joels Birthday?

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Tahnk you.
I do not. My next avatar is probably for the hallowen.

 

[Kirudo]

It's not? What are you seeing?

I see: PlayStation Studios |OT14| Let's be honest: |OT13| could have been a lot smoother

Is that not correct?

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I meant the purple label, the title is fine.

is that I use that tag when there are too many threads to find it quickly.

 

[vivftp]

I saw someone mention this in one of the threads, but was it rumored that Arkane was making an exclusive for Sony? Or was that just nonsense?

 

[Deleted member 15973]

I saw someone mention this in one of the threads, but was it rumored that Arkane was making an exclusive for Sony? Or was that just nonsense?

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Deathloop?

 

[Kirudo]

God I hate feeding into this tiresome acquisition talk, but exactly. These things don't just automagically happen.

These acquisitions take a long time. I can't say a lot about my experiences because of NDAs, but I've experienced first hand (multiple times) the acquisition process, and it. is. long.

Chances are, this Microsoft/Zenimax acquisition has been in the pipeline for a very long time. It's also more than likely that Microsoft wasn't the only company bidding for Zenimax. I wouldn't be surprised if Sony was also in the running at one point.

What Zenimax will do is produce a packet of what they're selling. It's a very broad strokes, high level packet touting the value of their company. This is what they will send out to prospective buyers (ie, companies that have shown an interest in acquiring the company, like Microsoft). That's round 1.

After receiving the "sales pitch" so to speak, any interested parties will request a more deep dive into the company they're looking to acquire. That's when Zenimax would have provided an even more detailed packet with a breakdown of the company's goings on. Things like general financials, upcoming projects and their projected costs and returns, and other details that are confidential, but not "corporate secrets" level confidential. That's round 2.

And once again, the pool of potential buyers will shrink, as those companies are then weighing the benefits of the acquisition, and if it fits into their overall business plan/goals for their company long term. At this point, a bidding war can develop. Especially if multiple buyers decide that purchasing Zenimax fits into their long term financial goals. All of this is happening behind closed doors, and can take months as Zenimax, and the prospective buyers deliberate amongst themselves whether or not they want to get into business with each other. That's Round 3.

Then, at some point, the "final" round begins. Zenimax will try to leverage as much of their actual and perceived value as possible to get the highest possible bid for their company. It's at this point that any remaining buyers will opt out, or, Zenimax decides to make a decision on whom they want to go with, based on how well the individual meetings with prospective buyers went (ie, do these guys seem cool, not shitheads, and have the best interest of the company at heart) and the deal is struck between the party they decide. That's just a super general breakdown of the process, in part, based on industry experience with acquisitions. Then the actual time frame of the closing of the deal can take additional weeks/months, and once both parties have received that approval, and the process of finalizing the acquisition is set in stone (ie, contracts are established, and discussions about how to integrate the company into their now parent company are underway), they'll announce it publicly.

Chances are high that within Sony, for example, it was known that Zenimax was up for acquisition. It's also more than possible that they were aware of who the interested acquirers were. It's also more than possible that Sony, knowing their own long term plans for the PlayStation division, either opted to participate in the acquisition of Zenimax, and chose to walk away from bidding, or didn't bother to participate in the bidding at all, and moved on to other plans to offset the potential loss of the content Zenimax would normally be releasing on their platform. For example, locking down timed exclusivity of Deathloop for PS5 while they could, so even if another company buys them, they would benefit in some way from that acquisition, without having to drop billions on the company as a whole, and take on the costs of running that publisher, and making sure it was a profitable investment.

Just because this was out of left field for us, the consumer, doesn't mean it was out of left field for Sony. They will respond to this, though not in a direct way, is my guess. They aren't going to come out and say, "Well, since Microsoft did this, we're doing this to counter!" They'll mix it in with marketing speak about "The future of PlayStation," or some such shit. I obviously don't know what's going on behind closed doors at Sony, but I doubt they're running around like chickens with their heads cut off, panicking at the loss of Fallout, Elder Scrolls, Doom, Wolfenstein, etc, etc. I'm sure they're more concerned about making sure the launch of the PS5 is successful, and meets the demand, as any plans to "counter" the Zenimax acquisition will have been kickstarted the moment they learned of the acquisition, which could have been months ago, if not longer, depending on how long Zenimax let it be known within the industry that they were up for sale. This is all speculation on my part, however, and I doubt we'll learn of the intricacies of this deal anytime soon, if ever.

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This is the best post about the acquisition issue.

Thank you very much for your informative post.

 

[Expy]

I saw someone mention this in one of the threads, but was it rumored that Arkane was making an exclusive for Sony? Or was that just nonsense?

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Perhaps they were just referring to the times exclusivity of Deathloop.

 

[Chaos Legion]

Very informative, thank you for that post :)

Yeah, we were getting random Reddit rumors as far back as January that Sony was looking to acquire Zenimax so they very well may have been in the running at some point and opted out.

I do have to ask though, with the process that you outlined is it possible for all of that to go through very close to the end with public companies without word getting out via the shareholders? I'm wondering at what point it would be impossible to keep word of acquisition talks from getting out. We saw with WB Games and Leyou that word got out months before anything would have possibly been settled. If Sony or anyone else were going after a company like Capcom or Square then I'd have to imagine we'd heard about it months in advance as well.

I'd give anything to know what sort of plans are going on behind the scenes at SIE and Sony, but we'll just have to wait for more news. At least we can only hope that people will stop running around screaming like the sky was falling ;)

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Shareholders wouldn't be the ones leaking potential acquisition discussions.

M&A discussion typically gets leaked by:
- It is an auction type process, in which the seller's investment bank reaches out to a group of potential buyers and someone doesn't adhere to the NDA after they drop out of the process
- The seller or the seller's investment bank are looking for a better offer/bid in what was originally closed talks with the counterparty
- Investment banks that aren't the financial advisors, but are trying to get a piece of the financing or introduce another party into the conversations so they can claim advisory fees

The amount of employees for a company that are brought "under the tent" with regards to an M&A is extremely small, and it's usually only as needed to prevent leaks.

Many public companies are in talks regarding acquisitions or mergers constantly and it never leaks. M&A also depends on the deal and the parties. Some can take years to announce as talks start and stop for varying factors. I've also seen multi-billion dollar mergers take less than a month from initial conversations (if you're merging with one of your competitors who is also public, due diligence can be expedited since 1) A lot of the information is public and available 2) You know your competitor very well.

Sony very well could be having conversations with Capcom/Square Enix and it may announce with as little warning as the Zenimax deal. All depends.

 

[vivftp]

I'm glad you found it informative!

I can't say for sure, to your question. It's probably different for each company. A lot of that stuff is generally kept between very, very few individuals within the company. Usually just the owners of said company and the highest level people at the bidding companies. Strict NDA's are signed, and because of how sensitive the information is, leaks of any kind could cause those deals to fall apart completely. The last thing a prospective buyer or seller wants is to think the company they're investing in/planning to go into business with has loose lips. I doubt a shareholder would want to put the whole deal at risk by sharing any information about it, even just the idea that they are looking into selling/buying. Not to mention that the deal still has to go through the proper government channels that could also torpedo the acquisition should the government take issue with certain aspects of the acquisition. Most of the time, outside of those high level stakeholders, who the bidding companies are is unknown, and won't be known. Unless maybe someone blabs during a drunken bender at a company party.

I honestly don't know much about the difference between publicly owned and privately owned companies when it comes to buying/selling, and how much of the process is affected by being one or the other.

There are really only two scenarios in this situation with Zenimax:

1) Sony was aware of the Zenimax acquisition for months (maybe longer), and have taken steps to assure the health of the PlayStation division through acquisitions of their own (that we will only hear about when those acquisitions are solidified), and is probably why they've been so aggressive in their software output for the PlayStation 5's first year (like, seriously, the PS5's first year is looking impressive as fuck, and those are only from the games they've revealed thus far).

2) They were unaware of the Zenimax acquisition until very recently (I find that hard to believe that this news hit them at the same time that it hit the media, and thus, us), and they are currently working on steps to assure the health of the PlayStation division through aggressive pursuing of acquisitions of their own to shore up for a battle of content with Microsoft.

In either scenario, I don't see much reason for all of the handwringing and doom and gloom. If you think a multi-billion dollar corporation like Sony isn't going to fight to remain a multi-billion corporation, especially seeing as how PlayStation is one of their strongest divisions, I don't know what to tell you. Sony wants to make lots of money. Period. Just like Microsoft. They will do what they need to to make lots of money.

As a gamer, I honestly don't give a shit. I just want to play awesome games. I'm confident that I will be getting awesome games on PlayStation. I'm hopeful that this acquisition from Microsoft will bear fruit that entices me to pick up an Xbox Series X, or finally build a new gaming PC, as my current one is old as dirt, and in need of an upgrade. As a non-stakeholder in any of these companies, I just don't care about this stuff. I want my fun vidya games!

As someone who works in the gaming industry, I want it to continue to grow and do well. We are, unfortunately, at the mercy of the people that hold the purse strings, so we do the best we can with what we have, and focus on making cool games that players enjoy. What the suits do is largely out of our control. When a megacorporation like Microsoft set its sights on the gaming industry, this outcome should have been expected. On the plus side, I think MS has contributed to gaming in a positive way during their time in the industry. Ditto for Sony. Ditto for Nintendo and Sega. The industry isn't going to tear itself apart at the seams. It hasn't so far, and as a business, it is doing better than ever. We have access to more games than we've ever had access to in the history of gaming.

So I may have to buy an Xbox in the future. So what? So I may have to buy a PlayStation or Nintendo in the future. So what? So I may have to build a new gaming PC in the future. So what? The industry will keep moving forward. It will keep evolving and pushing technology forward.

What I ultimately care about is what I'm realistically able to experience in my already limited free time. I can't play every awesome game that releases, even if I only owned one console. I already own a PS4, Switch, and a PC (albeit one that can't run the latest games at max settings). Gaming is made up of more than just megaton AAA gaming experiences. There's a lot of amazing content out there. Right now. Not coming in 2 months, or a year, or 2 years. Now. And I haven't played any of them. It doesn't stop me from being excited about the new stuff coming out. Oh, I am. I just try to put things in perspective for myself. I could fret over not being able to play an Elder Scrolls or Fallout on the PS5 in 2+ years. Or, I can just enjoy the things I can play now, and the things I'll be able to play on my PS5 on launch day, and cross that other bridge when I get to it. And by that point, I'll either have built my new gaming rig, or I'll have already purchased an Xbox Series X anyway, so it's even less of an issue. Or, it may turn out that I'm just not interested in a new Fallout or Elder Scrolls. I'm only speaking for myself here, mind you. Everyone is free to feel how they want to feel about this news, but it's just not something I'm personally going to lose sleep over.

The ramifications on the industry as a whole are too far out for me to concern myself with either. I'm not a fortune teller, and outside of this encouraging companies like Sony and Microsoft to try to buy up whatever privately owned publishers are willing to sell, I don't see anything changing for me as a gamer. I go where the games are. I'd probably be more upset if gaming went streaming only, or were limited to being played on mobile phones only. Something actually paradigm shifting that fundamentally changes the way we play games. Not being able to play Bethesda games on a PlayStation console isn't that. Again, for me.

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Another great post :)

Also, loose lips sink ships eh... we need to find that motherfucker who leaked the rumor of Sony acquiring Zenimax on Reddit! That motherfucker probably sunk the whole deal!!!
lol, kidding, of course ;)

Personally I have no current intention to pick up an Xbox console or get Game Pass, but if the day ever came that they had a game that was just too good to pass up I wouldn't be adverse to getting a month of GPU to stream it. In the meantime the output on PlayStation is WAY more than enough to keep me and my friends busy.

 

[vivftp]

Whoops, double post

Deathloop?

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Perhaps they were just referring to the times exclusivity of Deathloop.

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Ahh, forgot it was Arkane making it. That makes sense now :)

Shareholders wouldn't be the ones leaking potential acquisition discussions.

M&A discussion typically gets leaked by:
- It is an auction type process, in which the seller's investment bank reaches out to a group of potential buyers and someone doesn't adhere to the NDA after they drop out of the process
- The seller or the seller's investment bank are looking for a better offer/bid in what was originally closed talks with the counterparty
- Investment banks that aren't the financial advisors, but are trying to get a piece of the financing or introduce another party into the conversations so they can claim advisory fees

Many public companies are in talks regarding acquisitions or mergers constantly and it never leaks. M&A also depends on the deal and the parties. Some can take years to announce as talks start and stop for varying factors. I've also seen multi-billion dollar mergers take less than a month from initial conversations (if you're merging with one of your competitors who is also public, due diligence can be expedited since 1) A lot of the information is public and available 2) You know your competitor very well.

Sony very well could be having conversations with Capcom/Square Enix and it may announce with as little warning as the Zenimax deal. All depends.

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Very informative, thank you :)

 

[FFNB]

It really was a unique and beautiful game, the art direction while not having aged perfectly was really charming when it released too. I'd love a remaster as well though sadly it seems like the game/IP has been forgotten about for a very long time. I do still have my disk as well, have quite a few PS3 games. I don't use it often but my PS3 is still hooked up to my TV, mainly use it as a bluray player though.

Oh it hasn't? I had assumed it would have been added to PS Now long ago. You never know, maybe one day!

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It's so sad that Game Republic had to close its doors. I often wonder if Folklore would have done better if it released a little further along in the PS3's life cycle, when the install base matured more.

Honestly, I think the art direction holds up pretty well still! I think the stylized look of the main characters, and the "Jim Henson Creature Shop" feel of the Folks could scale up nicely. Really only some environmental textures would need touch ups. The game had a very fairy tale book look to it that I think it would be beautiful if remastered. It's definitely never going to happen, unfortunately :(

And yeah, I actually checked PS Now the other day to see if they had added the Ratchet and Clank Collection, and it wasn't there! Major bummer, unless we get a surprise PS5 re-release, then it's all good. lol

 

[Gordon's Tulpa]

I will cancel mine, I have to go to store to finalize it. And bought a the series X.
Never had a non Sony console, but the gamepass and Sony not respond to it, instead they make the games more expensive. It's like they are in their shell and believe that no player will move from the playstation, they will react when they felt the loss but XBox its better prepared that the 360/PS3 generation.
Since the gamepass appear I looked at it with some envy.

And had to eat some crow, Yakuza, FF , Kingdom Hearts games were on the offer, meanwhile I bought some of them in PS. Sony made a segment of untitled goose game on SOP , and the game went day one to gamepass. With Bhestheda, and having already inxile, obsidian, rare, the proposition is to good to pass.

in Xbox they talk of game upgrades and all will be free, on PS we know that almost everygame runs, but they run like they run on the PRo, Better? Whouldn't be gennius to upgrade the flagship First party games for free. If i knowed that I would play the remastered (never thought it would be a thing on PS4 games with the BC) Spiderman , Tlous 2 with better graphics and at, 60 FPS, same for Horizon, GoT, etc I would be egger to get the chance to play it on PS5, but instead sony made the remaster I full price game and is sillent on the others..

t was difficult to me to make the decision, I was invested on Sony FP games and on ecosystem, I have Plus until end of 2022, and had some hope that Sony would do a service revamp and merge, I bought the 12 months on last Days of Play. It was a bet on a move like MS were we could pay 1$ to turn it on the new service...

Just to summarize , the silence, the last PS5 event (and that post show) put me on alert , the acquisition of Bhestheda was the cataclysm for the change. IF I have time and need I will buy a PS5 in the end of generation to play the FP games of the generation.

I think that the user migration will be significant.

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You try to justify an emotional decision with all these rationale's when in fact you dont have a clue what's happening behind the scenes. Fact are:

-playstation 5 year one is packed with fantastic software;

-Sony knew about this aquisition for months and have taken steps to respond. We simply don't know what it means just yet.

- The merger will be solidified on January 2021. It will take years before the Bethesda deal will bear fruit that a playstation gamer can't partake of.

You could've easily continue to enjoy your investment for a few more years but you let your feelings cloud your judgement.

 

[Shadow_FFVI]

No one gives a fuck if PS and Nintendo are excluded.

MS releasing all GamePass titles on PC gives everyone an option to access those games.

I can't imagine Sony or Nintendo doing the same, hence why most folks are "ok" with MS's acquisition.

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Every company is pro consumer when they're dead last in the console race.

Look at PlayStation during the PS3 generation.

The instant game collection seemed like something too good to be true at the time. Sure, it ended up being sort of a trojan horse for payed online, but that was a great deal still.

Ps Plus freebies and the fact they were now market leaders during the PS4 gen, forced MS' hands to make Games with Gold, which in turn brought forth Game pass.

But what will happen if MS is actually successful in overtaking Sony as market leader. Will the pro consumer mentality prevail? I didn't like how MS behaved during the end of the 360 era, when they were riding high, and they were content with the money coming in from the success of the Kinect, making for some very lackluster E3s.

That being said. Phil Spencer is no Don Mattrick, so, maybe they maintain their pro consumer approach even while they report record breaking profits for the xbox division.

 

[amstradcpc]

- The merger will be solidified on January 2021. It will take years before the Bethesda deal will bear fruit that a playstation gamer can't partake of.

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Maybe in 2021 with Starfield the fruits could star to show.

 

[Berserker976]

I'm glad you found it informative!

I can't say for sure, to your question. It's probably different for each company. A lot of that stuff is generally kept between very, very few individuals within the company. Usually just the owners of said company and the highest level people at the bidding companies. Strict NDA's are signed, and because of how sensitive the information is, leaks of any kind could cause those deals to fall apart completely. The last thing a prospective buyer or seller wants is to think the company they're investing in/planning to go into business with has loose lips. I doubt a shareholder would want to put the whole deal at risk by sharing any information about it, even just the idea that they are looking into selling/buying. Not to mention that the deal still has to go through the proper government channels that could also torpedo the acquisition should the government take issue with certain aspects of the acquisition. Most of the time, outside of those high level stakeholders, who the bidding companies are is unknown, and won't be known. Unless maybe someone blabs during a drunken bender at a company party.

I honestly don't know much about the difference between publicly owned and privately owned companies when it comes to buying/selling, and how much of the process is affected by being one or the other.

There are really only two scenarios in this situation with Zenimax:

1) Sony was aware of the Zenimax acquisition for months (maybe longer), and have taken steps to assure the health of the PlayStation division through acquisitions of their own (that we will only hear about when those acquisitions are solidified), and is probably why they've been so aggressive in their software output for the PlayStation 5's first year (like, seriously, the PS5's first year is looking impressive as fuck, and those are only from the games they've revealed thus far).

2) They were unaware of the Zenimax acquisition until very recently (I find that hard to believe that this news hit them at the same time that it hit the media, and thus, us), and they are currently working on steps to assure the health of the PlayStation division through aggressive pursuing of acquisitions of their own to shore up for a battle of content with Microsoft.

In either scenario, I don't see much reason for all of the handwringing and doom and gloom. If you think a multi-billion dollar corporation like Sony isn't going to fight to remain a multi-billion corporation, especially seeing as how PlayStation is one of their strongest divisions, I don't know what to tell you. Sony wants to make lots of money. Period. Just like Microsoft. They will do what they need to to make lots of money.

As a gamer, I honestly don't give a shit. I just want to play awesome games. I'm confident that I will be getting awesome games on PlayStation. I'm hopeful that this acquisition from Microsoft will bear fruit that entices me to pick up an Xbox Series X, or finally build a new gaming PC, as my current one is old as dirt, and in need of an upgrade. As a non-stakeholder in any of these companies, I just don't care about this stuff. I want my fun vidya games!

As someone who works in the gaming industry, I want it to continue to grow and do well. We are, unfortunately, at the mercy of the people that hold the purse strings, so we do the best we can with what we have, and focus on making cool games that players enjoy. What the suits do is largely out of our control. When a megacorporation like Microsoft set its sights on the gaming industry, this outcome should have been expected. On the plus side, I think MS has contributed to gaming in a positive way during their time in the industry. Ditto for Sony. Ditto for Nintendo and Sega. The industry isn't going to tear itself apart at the seams. It hasn't so far, and as a business, it is doing better than ever. We have access to more games than we've ever had access to in the history of gaming.

So I may have to buy an Xbox in the future. So what? So I may have to buy a PlayStation or Nintendo in the future. So what? So I may have to build a new gaming PC in the future. So what? The industry will keep moving forward. It will keep evolving and pushing technology forward.

What I ultimately care about is what I'm realistically able to experience in my already limited free time. I can't play every awesome game that releases, even if I only owned one console. I already own a PS4, Switch, and a PC (albeit one that can't run the latest games at max settings). Gaming is made up of more than just megaton AAA gaming experiences. There's a lot of amazing content out there. Right now. Not coming in 2 months, or a year, or 2 years. Now. And I haven't played any of them. It doesn't stop me from being excited about the new stuff coming out. Oh, I am. I just try to put things in perspective for myself. I could fret over not being able to play an Elder Scrolls or Fallout on the PS5 in 2+ years. Or, I can just enjoy the things I can play now, and the things I'll be able to play on my PS5 on launch day, and cross that other bridge when I get to it. And by that point, I'll either have built my new gaming rig, or I'll have already purchased an Xbox Series X anyway, so it's even less of an issue. Or, it may turn out that I'm just not interested in a new Fallout or Elder Scrolls. I'm only speaking for myself here, mind you. Everyone is free to feel how they want to feel about this news, but it's just not something I'm personally going to lose sleep over.

The ramifications on the industry as a whole are too far out for me to concern myself with either. I'm not a fortune teller, and outside of this encouraging companies like Sony and Microsoft to try to buy up whatever privately owned publishers are willing to sell, I don't see anything changing for me as a gamer. I go where the games are. I'd probably be more upset if gaming went streaming only, or were limited to being played on mobile phones only. Something actually paradigm shifting that fundamentally changes the way we play games. Not being able to play Bethesda games on a PlayStation console isn't that. Again, for me.

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Thanks for bringing some much needed level-headedness to the thread. Your posts have been both reassuring and very informative!

I'm glad you specified "for me" at the end there, because speaking personally, as someone who is a huge fan of the TES series and Bethesda's style of game, someone who is financially limited, and someone who loves the pants off of Sony's first party studios, this is basically a nightmare scenario for me. And even so, it's going to be years until I have to deal with the problem, so for now I'm choosing to be happy with the announced games for PS5, and excited to play them and experience all the newfangled next gen goodies!

 

[tzare]

Were you trying to make your post look like an absolute joke? I mean, you succeeded. I give it it 10/10.

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It was sarcasm. I tried my best 😅

 

[tzare]

God I hate feeding into this tiresome acquisition talk, but exactly. These things don't just automagically happen.

These acquisitions take a long time. I can't say a lot about my experiences because of NDAs, but I've experienced first hand (multiple times) the acquisition process, and it. is. long.

Chances are, this Microsoft/Zenimax acquisition has been in the pipeline for a very long time. It's also more than likely that Microsoft wasn't the only company bidding for Zenimax. I wouldn't be surprised if Sony was also in the running at one point.

What Zenimax will do is produce a packet of what they're selling. It's a very broad strokes, high level packet touting the value of their company. This is what they will send out to prospective buyers (ie, companies that have shown an interest in acquiring the company, like Microsoft). That's round 1.

After receiving the "sales pitch" so to speak, any interested parties will request a more deep dive into the company they're looking to acquire. That's when Zenimax would have provided an even more detailed packet with a breakdown of the company's goings on. Things like general financials, upcoming projects and their projected costs and returns, and other details that are confidential, but not "corporate secrets" level confidential. That's round 2.

And once again, the pool of potential buyers will shrink, as those companies are then weighing the benefits of the acquisition, and if it fits into their overall business plan/goals for their company long term. At this point, a bidding war can develop. Especially if multiple buyers decide that purchasing Zenimax fits into their long term financial goals. All of this is happening behind closed doors, and can take months as Zenimax, and the prospective buyers deliberate amongst themselves whether or not they want to get into business with each other. That's Round 3.

Then, at some point, the "final" round begins. Zenimax will try to leverage as much of their actual and perceived value as possible to get the highest possible bid for their company. It's at this point that any remaining buyers will opt out, or, Zenimax decides to make a decision on whom they want to go with, based on how well the individual meetings with prospective buyers went (ie, do these guys seem cool, not shitheads, and have the best interest of the company at heart) and the deal is struck between the party they decide. That's just a super general breakdown of the process, in part, based on industry experience with acquisitions. Then the actual time frame of the closing of the deal can take additional weeks/months, and once both parties have received that approval, and the process of finalizing the acquisition is set in stone (ie, contracts are established, and discussions about how to integrate the company into their now parent company are underway), they'll announce it publicly.

Chances are high that within Sony, for example, it was known that Zenimax was up for acquisition. It's also more than possible that they were aware of who the interested acquirers were. It's also more than possible that Sony, knowing their own long term plans for the PlayStation division, either opted to participate in the acquisition of Zenimax, and chose to walk away from bidding, or didn't bother to participate in the bidding at all, and moved on to other plans to offset the potential loss of the content Zenimax would normally be releasing on their platform. For example, locking down timed exclusivity of Deathloop for PS5 while they could, so even if another company buys them, they would benefit in some way from that acquisition, without having to drop billions on the company as a whole, and take on the costs of running that publisher, and making sure it was a profitable investment.

Just because this was out of left field for us, the consumer, doesn't mean it was out of left field for Sony. They will respond to this, though not in a direct way, is my guess. They aren't going to come out and say, "Well, since Microsoft did this, we're doing this to counter!" They'll mix it in with marketing speak about "The future of PlayStation," or some such shit. I obviously don't know what's going on behind closed doors at Sony, but I doubt they're running around like chickens with their heads cut off, panicking at the loss of Fallout, Elder Scrolls, Doom, Wolfenstein, etc, etc. I'm sure they're more concerned about making sure the launch of the PS5 is successful, and meets the demand, as any plans to "counter" the Zenimax acquisition will have been kickstarted the moment they learned of the acquisition, which could have been months ago, if not longer, depending on how long Zenimax let it be known within the industry that they were up for sale. This is all speculation on my part, however, and I doubt we'll learn of the intricacies of this deal anytime soon, if ever.

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It is just common sense. As you said these deals ain't like going to the supermarket to buy some milk when you find out you didn't have any. There's a process, and many are probably aware too

 

[FFNB]

Good post.

You should listen to Figboy.

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Thanks, Shinobi! That means a lot, man!

That would be the simple way out.. but its to easy

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LOL I don't know why, but this made me laugh, probably more than it should.

What we need to know is if Sony will acquire REVIII in PSVR

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Fuck. That. I only played the demo of REVII, and not even in VR, and that shit was horrifying. I don't think I'd be able to handle REVIII in VR. As much as I love survival horror games, I don't think I'm ready for VR survival horror. Hell, that Dangan Ronpa VR demo they had on PSVR scared the shit out of me. In other news, I never got Resident Evil VII, so I'm actually looking forward to that PS+ Collection on PS5. I may finally give REVII a proper go this time. Maybe. With the lights on.

This makes total sense! That's why every timed exclusive they have are recent upcoming games from Bethesda, and they were also trying to do the same with Starfield, and we don't know if they succeeded (probably not). Great post, btw. That is very informative and completely logical.

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Thank you so much! Yeah, it's definitely possible that's why they were trying to get Starfield (if that rumor is true). Contracts have to be honored, so if they could nail that contract down before the acquisition with Microsoft closes, then it'd be worth whatever they were spending on timed exclusivity. Since not much is known of Starfield, at all, it could also be a reason why negotiations fell through. Maybe Sony or Zenimax backed out of the deal. If it was a 2021 title, I could see Sony really trying to push for a deal, but if it's still further off, I imagine they'd want to focus on other prospects to spend their money on to boost the PlayStation Division as a whole. This is, of course, assuming they were courting Starfield timed exclusivity at all.

Game sites: "SONY IS ACQUIRING WUSHU STUDIOS" :p

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LOL

"SONY IS ACQUIRING FIGBOY, RANDOM RESETERA POSTER"
I mean, if you want to throw a few million dollars my way, Sony, I wouldn't complain...
I do love my job, though, so it'd have to be quite a large amount, dammit! Okay, fine, how about some PSN Credit and some Cinnabons! It's a steal!

Speaking of Wushu, I'm looking forward to hearing more about Destruction All Stars. There was a little snippet of it at the event last week that looked really fun (I like the idea of being able to run around on foot while other vehicles are battling it out). I'm generally not into car combat games (sorry Twisted Metal Fans), but I'm definitely digging the vibrant colors and art style of DAS. I have a feeling I'm going to end up buying it and Godfall. I haven't depleted my PS5 spending budget of $1000 yet (I'm close, but still have enough for an extra game or two come launch).

 

[FFNB]

I meant the purple label, the title is fine.

is that I use that tag when there are too many threads to find it quickly.

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Ohhhh. Yeah, that makes perfect sense! I've never used the tag system on this site, funnily enough.

This is the best post about the acquisition issue.

Thank you very much for your informative post.

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Thank you so much! The fearmongering and doom and glooming of the past... *checks notes* 41 pages and the end of the last OT, has been quite an exercise in how many Excedrin I need to pop to relieve my headache.

The Bethesda thing doesn't affect me quite as much, because I'm not a diehard Elder Scrolls for Fallout fan, but I totally understand many fans of those series being disappointed by that news. I'm a big Obsidian Entertainment fan, so I already made up my mind that I'd get an Xbox Series X when their next title releases (if I don't spend on building a new gaming PC, but to be honest, I'm not super eager to drop a ton more money on a new rig so quickly after buying a PS5).

I definitely feel bad for the people that live in country's where the price of these new consoles is absurdly high, as well as the people who can't afford multiple consoles (believe me, that was the story of my life for decades until just recently). I'm speaking from a rare point of privilege for me, in that if necessary, I will buy the platforms I need to to play the games I want to. I'm not used to being in that position, but I can definitely understand how fans of Bethesda games who can't get every console that releases could feel distraught over this news.

 

[Kaleide]

Metal gear remake rumours now circulating.
I want to believe. But it could be a mess

 

[PlanetSmasher]

Metal gear remake rumours now circulating.
I want to believe. But it could be a mess

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Who the hell would even make an MGS remake?