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PlayStation Studios |OT24| All I Want For Christmas Is Shu
- Thread starter JuanLatino
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- Sony OT
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That's an option, though I agree with some analysts that Zaslav and Malone are hoping to build up WBD over the next few years and sell it piecemeal in the future for maximum profit. I plan to buy some new shares once the merger closes. You are right in your thinking and this would give Sony major IPs for gaming and scale in the streaming space circa 2027 when their current Pay 1/Pay 2 deals are set to expire. There'd be a huge amount of other bidders though, from Disney to Amazon to Netflix and others, and I doubt Sony would be able to get it all.
IMO Yoshida-san and Jimbo should be looking really hard at TTWO and EA if for no other reason because I think that'd be MS' next targets as well. We all see MS strategy now and it's to squeeze Sony. They want to be the leaders in gaming and are taking aggressive actions to achieve it. They want gamepass to be the Netflix of gaming and to own the living room space. XBox finally has access to the parent's company warchest. TTWO won't entertain anything until the closing of Zynga later this year, so EA looks mighty good right now.
The issue is how you frame something like this.
Console gaming is not something that "needs" protection and you are not likely to get much movement there. So you would need to show that Microsoft is purchasing so much of the market that competition is being stifled and consumers are harmed. I think with the PC and mobile space being so large - thats not likely to happen either.
Then you start to get into the "are videogames their own segment or part of "entertainment" - which is part of the Disney strategy for the Fox purchase.
For us this feels really bad and likely concerns all of us about the future of home console gaming - but for antitrust purposes there is nothing about this purchase that is corning a marketing. The real concern is when someone owns the distribution channels, sales channels and can force consumers into pricing structures they don't want. We're nowhere near something like that here.
The amount of people taking PR talk as some sort of gospel is too high
SE and PS are too much in bed with each other. But that would be such a weird thing to see like......really weird in regards with FFXIV.
I don't think we're seeing a now problem. And eventual one, yes. But it could all come down to how Sony responds to all of this. How long have they known about the AB purchase? Are there plans already going on with eyeing other publishers to buy? Weird times we live in I tell ya.
So in other words MS could practically buy out all the major publishers without any legal trouble..
Activision shares were more expensive than what Microsoft just bought them for before the meltdown they had with the sexual harassment
The best thing for gamers and the industry right now is for Sony to put up a fight rather than go quietly into the night while MS smother them with money by starving them of third party content.
Gaming is not really that important of an industry that a monopoly would be destructive, unlike something like entertainment (Disney-Fox) or the home computer market in the '90s (Microsoft itself, ironically). And even in both of those situations the government let the buyouts go through.
There is very little MS could do in gaming that would force the government to intervene and shut them down.
Honestly I think there's no happy ending to this. MS broke the seal.
Don't get me wrong, they are going to feel this one for sure and lose market share in America, but I think they will be fine. At least I hope so, but they have to counter GP or this one. They can't keep silent because both of these are going to put MSFT in a very good position with gamers.
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Madden for sure would be multiplatform. FIFA is more complicated since there isn't really a thing like the NFL or MLB EA negotiates with
By making their gaming accessible on console, PC, and mobile with physical, digital, or streaming.
I'm not personally losing much from this acquisition (except Crash and Spyro if those ever come back), but I hate what this means for the industry and the future of Sony. I don't really see how anything good can come of this.
The level of polish and production quality we get consistently from PS Studios is still unmatched and that's more than enough to keep me on Playstation. But I don't know how long that will last among the general public. Especially with Ubisoft, EA, T2 theoretically up for grabs. I'm not expecting Playstation to die anytime soon, but I have no idea how they'll keep up 5+ years from now.
The level of polish and production quality we get consistently from PS Studios is still unmatched and that's more than enough to keep me on Playstation. But I don't know how long that will last among the general public. Especially with Ubisoft, EA, T2 theoretically up for grabs. I'm not expecting Playstation to die anytime soon, but I have no idea how they'll keep up 5+ years from now.
We heading to where hardware won't matter as much any more.
Sony \ PS will be around as service in the next few years .
Them going 3rd party won't because hardware won't matter as much .
Fifa would likely be safe from going exclusive. EA puts a Fifa game out on Switch and they do not like working with Nintendo for some reason. Granted it is a barebones release but they still do it.
Them making more deals with studios for big new multiplayer IP's makes all the more sense now, but that's not going to be enough. If anything, they have to be at least considering investing in (or acquiring) publishers just to secure some of their largest third party brands. Imagine if MS swallows up EA, Ubi, or Take Two in few years. This alone is definitely going to make waves in NA at least.
I see the inevitable conclusion to this being that MS is probably at some point going to own almost every major western publisher. Playstation will continue being a console that many people will want, because their first-party lineup will be super high quality. I can see Playstation trying to be the HBO of games to MS's cable. I think they'll push for strict quality control and probably continue purchasing smaller talented independent studios and building them up.
MS is definitely changing what console gaming is. It used to be, you buy a PS or you buy an Xbox, but either way 90% of the games are on both. A few years from now, it will be that the console you buy completely determines the games you will be playing.
More than ever it will be worth having both and not one-or-the-other.
MS is definitely changing what console gaming is. It used to be, you buy a PS or you buy an Xbox, but either way 90% of the games are on both. A few years from now, it will be that the console you buy completely determines the games you will be playing.
More than ever it will be worth having both and not one-or-the-other.
We will see. Also GP won't be forever so cheap as it is now.
Also I see another issue rising up, if GP model becomes the main driving force in the industry - severe quality drop, as we see on movie / series streaming platforms.
Nah. We heard the same thing when Bethesda got acquired which may have been fair enough then, but this is industry shattering news and paints Microsoft's ambitions in broad strokes. It's not doom and gloom to point out that Microsoft now have an insane amount of leverage over Sony which have historically relied on third-party support to move consoles.
I'm not saying it's over for the PlayStation brand, that's silly, but this isn't something you can just brush off easily (not saying you are). Sony are definitely feeling the heat.
The NBA wouldn't allow Microsoft or Sony to make a huge game like NBA2K exclusive…And they're a huge part of Take two portfolio.
Microsoft won't stop at Activision, so yeah, Sony should prepare themselves. They won't compete in capital.
My rationale is that it's uniquely positioned to not have a lot of rival bidders. Disney would face antitrust concerns, not to mention the combined Company would be extremely overlevered. Comcast would face antitrust concerns. Amazon is facing pushback for just MGM, neither Trump nor Biden administrations would let that go without a fight. Netflix doesn't really need WBD and Apple has turned down buying Warner numerous times, I just don't think they're going to pull the trigger on a large traditional media company.
Sony on the other hand, would likely face more competition for EA or TTWO (not just from MS) and Yoshida is very much against bidding wars. Same if they looked at Roblox and Epic. Honestly, I'll be curious to see if Sony pursues a western publisher.
Microsoft is working towards a long term goal that is pretty different from Sony. Even if you buy a PlayStation knowing you won't have those games on your console, they want their services to be so ubiquitous that you always have some way to touch one of their games. Whether that's through streaming on your phone, pc, or smart TV, whatever. 5 years from now we could have TVs with Series S hardware integrated, Game Pass on PlayStation system, etc. It's really wild.
Are the current people in charge equipped to deal with it? It took a change in leadership at SIE to respond to the PS3's failings. I'll give Jimbo a chance but he's not working from a position of strength anymore
The only way I see Sony can compete with this is if they release a multi-player game and it becomes massively successful with day 1 pc release.
Yep. Anyone awaiting the day where regulators step in and stop MS should probably just not get their hopes up. If your concern is about console gaming, there's nothing to stop this kind of consolidation. The average consumer in this scenario is simply expected to accept new paradigms because you still have the option to play the games on a PC or on your phone, and everyone has one of those. Regulators will not see that as anti-consumer practice.
I don't really think there's actually a coming back from this. Sony recovered from the PS3 disaster with a coupling of major third party software and a couple of first-party hits and then Microsoft faceplanted hard at the beginning of last gen, letting them sweep in as the de facto console. This gen, the third party scene is just shrinking and shrinking for Playstation and their first party games already kind of have their market carved out for them.
Sony will probably never be market leader again after this, and they may have to significantly rethink how they make and release their games if they no longer have the third party juggernauts providing revenue for their platform to keep the ball rolling while their first party teams work on games for four or five years a pop.
They aren't doomed, but the Playstation platform is going to look VERY DIFFERENT in 3 or 4 years than it does right now.
I don't think that Sony is financially capable or willing to respond on this scale. Very few corps on earth can throw money around like MS, you'll never keep up with it.
I think Sony already expected this to be happening.
If we look at the music and movie industries (they're a lot older and the gaming industry is quite a bit bigger, so the comparison might not work), but in both industries there are basically 4 or 5 companies that control 80+% of the market.
As it stands in the gaming market, the top 7 gaming companies make up less than 80% of the market.
As sucky as it is, it seems likely that:
1.) We're going to be seeing that number change to 4 or 5, perhaps even this generation.
2.) It's funny to say it, but Sony is one of those 4 or 5 companies in both of those other industries.
Overall I think Sony is going to be fine.
I think chances are high that MS won't make another big acquisition like this (at least for a good long while). And I'm sure I'm going to end up being way wrong on this, especially if Facebook becomes a big player in the gaming industry.
And I think chances are high that Sony will make a big acquisition this generation that no one will expect.
If Xbox bought out Activision, does that mean Sony/ PlayStation could buy out Kojima Productions?
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This is my worry with Sony potentially going all-in with a streaming service down the line. I'm pretty slow to get through games and only play one at a time, so I'm perfectly happy buying 2-3 high quality $70 games a year with some smaller/cheaper titles in between. Even if GamePass was on Playstation, I don't think I'd subscribe unless my gaming habits changed.
That being said, I do think Sony prides themselves in being the "prestige gaming" HBO-esque brand, so it may not have much impact in that regard.
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