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Rumor/Speculation: Market speculates that Sony could buy Take Two (SEE UPDATE IN OP)

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P A Z

P A Z

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Oct 27, 2017
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Unless Sony are now looking to just get independent studios like From & Insomniac to make exclusives for them, then they kinda need to replenish the ranks a little after so many closures and "Sony studios" deals ending like Supermassive, Quantic Dream, which now give one less reason to go PlayStation.

Without new acquisitions, studio expansions or more third party deals then its looking like PS5 is gonna have less output than usual for Sony.

Personally as far as acquisitions go, if they plan to continue making cinematic story driven SP games a focus next gen then I think a studio like Remedy would make sense, if that's possible.
 
SharpX68K

SharpX68K

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Nov 10, 2017
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Just imagine GTA 6 and Red Dead Redemption 3 being exclusive to PS5 and (probably) PS5 Pro hardware.

No Xbox Scarlett - Lockhart / Anaconda versions.
No future xCloud streaming of GTA or RDR games
No improved PC versions. No more PC mods for new games.
No chance for a Switch version of GTA V (aahhhhh!)
 
lazerface66

lazerface66

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Jan 9, 2018
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This will never happen. If it happens, though, this is truly the darkest timeline. I've always considered console exclusives as bullshit, but for a console maker to have such huge multiplat IP's as GTA and Red Dead, we're going back to some console wars crap of the past. It would be incredibly damaging to the industry and profoundly anti-consumer.
 
gofreak

gofreak

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Oct 26, 2017
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Snakeeee said:
This is a not like ebay, does not work like that.
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It's not purely about the dollar value of a bid, but assuming this was true for a moment, undoubtedly if news 'got out' that take two was up for sale, it would probably attract second looks from potential competing bidders. And as ByteSizeRick mentioned in his video, the board would have to weigh up competing offers.

No doubt if there was truth to this, Sony would be unhappy about this chatter breaking out onto the open market. If there is any truth to this, don't be shocked if we hear about other bidders entering the fray, if others see similar value.
 
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Josh5890

Josh5890

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Oct 25, 2017
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If the first 10 weeks of 2019 are any indication with this will be one crazy year with all of these rumors and speculations. Yes I know we always see threads like this, but the past month alone has seen some crazy and interesting things.
 
vivftp

vivftp

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Oct 29, 2017
19,744
gofreak said:
I don't think things like this get accounted like that. But if this is reference to the 'missing' year of operating profit at Playstation, an acquisition like this would happen at a Sony Corp level anyway... it wouldn't be solely on the SIE books.
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Yeah that's what I was thinking of, thanks

Crazy times in the industry indeed. It was fun to daydream about Sony and CD Project Red in those other threads, but the scope of this is just so much bigger. Ah welp, wait and see is all we can do.
 

RedDevil

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Dec 25, 2017
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NitX

NitX

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Wasnt this already debunked as 100% speculation ? The rumor started from an article trying to speculate on why Take 2 stocks were going up and a possible take over was mentioned as one of the reaons. None of the sources ever mentioned Sony.
 
Aters

Aters

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Oct 26, 2017
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I just attended Sony board meeting and can confirm this is true.

edit: no I'm not serious
 
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Deleted member 52190

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gofreak said:
It's not purely about the dollar value of a bid, but assuming this was true for a moment, undoubtedly if news 'got out' that take two was up for sale, it would probably attract second looks from potential competing bidders. And as ByteSizeRick mentioned in his video, the board would have to weigh up competing offers.

No doubt if there was truth to this, Sony would be unhappy about this chatter breaking out onto the open market. If there is any truth to this, don't be shocked if we hear about other bidders entering the fray, if others see similar value.
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Of course, but there is no sale going on.
 
vivftp

vivftp

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Oooo, think about the lineup for PlayStation All Stars Battle Royale 2 if all of these IPs are added! :)
 

EAD Ninja

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I think having GTA, Red Dead and Max Payne under SIE WW and launching a SIE Sports line with 2K is at least interesting to consider.
 
IDontBeatGames

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OrdinaryPrime said:
I think it'd be really dumb if anyone acquired Take Two and didn't release these games on PC.
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Ok so I think with 2K it's *possible* considering a lot of NBA Players speak about owning a PS4 and you see their ads often during games. So if that is something that wouldn't happen now, it could be possible in the future and then Sony has both MLB/NBA.

I think with XCOM, I can see that happen.
But with Civ, I just don't see it.
 
Hydrus

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Aters said:
I just attended Sony board meeting and can confirm this is true.
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sjackso3

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I call BS. But let's say this is somehow true. So what happens is MS gets in on the bidding and makes a better offer? And yes, it does work that way. The board for Take Two has a fiduciary duty to it's shareholders to weigh all reasonable offers. How would the gaming community react to the idea of GTA, RDR, etc. becoming possibly restricted to the Playstation platform? My guess is that the console warriors will come out and say they love it because Sony is dominant right now.

But think about it. Wouldn't it be better for MS to buy them if you are a consumer? MS has shown that they would definitely make it multiplatform (look at Minecraft, plans to bring Gamepass to Switch, Play Anywhere, crossplay, etc). If Sony buys them, absolutely nothing in their history shows that they have multiplatform in their DNA. Just my 2 cents.
 

Lagspike_exe

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Dec 15, 2017
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sjackso3 said:
I call BS. But let's say this is somehow true. So what happens is MS gets in on the bidding and makes a better offer? And yes, it does work that way. The board for Take Two has a fiduciary duty to it's shareholders to weigh all reasonable offers. How would the gaming community react to the idea of GTA, RDR, etc. becoming possibly restricted to the Playstation platform? My guess is that the console warriors will come out and say they love it because Sony is dominant right now.

But think about it. Wouldn't it be better for MS to buy them if you are a consumer? MS has shown that they would definitely make it multiplatform (look at Minecraft, plans to bring Gamepass to Switch, Play Anywhere, crossplay, etc). If Sony buys them, absolutely nothing in their history shows that they have multiplatform in their DNA. Just my 2 cents.
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Take Two value is a stretch at $13b already. Nobody is going into a bidding war over it.
 

Deleted member 52190

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sjackso3 said:
I call BS. But let's say this is somehow true. So what happens is MS gets in on the bidding and makes a better offer? And yes, it does work that way. The board for Take Two has a fiduciary duty to it's shareholders to weigh all reasonable offers. How would the gaming community react to the idea of GTA, RDR, etc. becoming possibly restricted to the Playstation platform? My guess is that the console warriors will come out and say they love it because Sony is dominant right now.

But think about it. Wouldn't it be better for MS to buy them if you are a consumer? MS has shown that they would definitely make it multiplatform (look at Minecraft, plans to bring Gamepass to Switch, Play Anywhere, crossplay, etc). If Sony buys them, absolutely nothing in their history shows that they have multiplatform in their DNA. Just my 2 cents.
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Their is a couple sony games that have come to the pc.
 
MilesQ

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Lagspike_exe said:
Take Two value is a stretch at $13b already. Nobody is going into a bidding war over it.
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I think MS would love to have GTA exclusivity. I think EA would love to have GTA and RDR under their umbrella. They'd be orgasmic at the thought of all the micro transactions.

If this is true, there will definitely be a bidding war.
 
vivftp

vivftp

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If it were to happen I wonder if everything would just get absorbed into Worldwide Studios or if they'd keep it as a separate entity.

Also, don't huge acquisitions like this require regulatory approval by some sort of governmental agencies? Which country (or countries) would probably have to sign off on such a deal?
 
IIFloodyII

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EAD Ninja said:
I think having GTA, Red Dead and Max Payne under SIE WW and launching a SIE Sports line with 2K is at least interesting to consider.
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If this happened it'd probably be TakeTwo under Sony, not PlayStation, so I don't think they'd go exclusive. Long term would be a huge get having Rockstar exclusively to your services though.
 
nib95

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MilesQ said:
I think MS would love to have GTA exclusivity. I think EA would love to have GTA and RDR under their umbrella. They'd be orgasmic at the thought of all the micro transactions.

If this is true, there will definitely be a bidding war.
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Microsoft don't necessarily have the platform presence to facilitate such an exclusive without the loss of a lions share of software sales, thus the bulk of profitability along with it. If Microsoft were to ever bid on such a massive publisher, I think they'd keep the IP multiplatform.
 
Dabanton

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Tetra-Grammaton-Cleric said:
Agreed.

I keep reading posts that seem to suggest Rockstar's formula is broken despite their games being critical and commercial mega-hits.
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Some people on here have a real bee in the bonnet about R* GTA games especially the online elements. If you listen to some people on here no one plays GTA:Online

Another blindspot was/is people on Gaf and now ERA being shocked that Ubisoft games do well all the time.

I remember being told Ghost Recon: Wildlands was going to flop as the casual consumer had no interest in it.
 
Brutalitops

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sjackso3 said:
I call BS. But let's say this is somehow true. So what happens is MS gets in on the bidding and makes a better offer? And yes, it does work that way. The board for Take Two has a fiduciary duty to it's shareholders to weigh all reasonable offers. How would the gaming community react to the idea of GTA, RDR, etc. becoming possibly restricted to the Playstation platform? My guess is that the console warriors will come out and say they love it because Sony is dominant right now.

But think about it. Wouldn't it be better for MS to buy them if you are a consumer? MS has shown that they would definitely make it multiplatform (look at Minecraft, plans to bring Gamepass to Switch, Play Anywhere, crossplay, etc). If Sony buys them, absolutely nothing in their history shows that they have multiplatform in their DNA. Just my 2 cents.
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You think companies are all so fickle to just topple a 12 billion dollar offer just because someone else is thinking about it?
 

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IDontBeatGames said:
Yeah I agree. No way, Civilization or 2K or GTA can suddenly somehow become Sony exclusive. It'd be a fucking crazy world though if it did.
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Maybe they'd let FIreaxis work like they've always done and release the games on PC, just that all profit goes to Sony?

Not that I think this rumor is true, but that would be a solution when it comes to PC-centric games like Civ.
 

UltimusXI

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vivftp said:
Also, don't huge acquisitions like this require regulatory approval by some sort of governmental agencies? Which country (or countries) would probably have to sign off on such a deal?
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This is only the case if there's a risk for a monopoly to arise or when choice for the consumer is getting limited in a big way. In this huge, diverse industry with so many players, Sony + Take Two in total don't even get 20 % of all income if you include mobile, pc gaming, etc, probably not even 10 %. So I don't see a problem there.
 
Aters

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What the fuck? It wasn't obvious enough a joke?

Who seriously entertain the idea of Sony buying T2?
 
Anthony Hopkins

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Say if MS countered and bought from software, insomniac, turtle rock, iO interactive, ready at dawn and square (for a lot less money)?
While GTA would be a huge get for Sony and PlayStation, they would probably lose content PlayStation fans love.
I think Sony would be better off buying smaller studios like the ones I mentioned in the MS retaliation.
 
TheZynster

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does this mean they will finally fix NBA 2k's micro transaction bullshit if it happens??

please tell me its true
 

Deleted member 13645

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Knight in Shining Armani said:
Man, Rockstar and NBA 2K exclusive...talk about a one-two punch.

It's over at that point. Every american buys a PS5.
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I have to assume that if this did happen that they wouldn't retain the NBA license. I can't imagine the NBA wanting it to be platform exclusive, especially since the Xbox's biggest market is USA and it's a safe assumption to assume that's also the NBA's largest market.
 
Arkaign

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I don't want Sony or Microsoft buying any more studios. Hire talent and fund growth of new ones. Win/win.
 
sjackso3

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Snakeeee said:
Their is a couple sony games that have come to the pc.
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"A couple?" That makes my point. I kind of hope it happens. It will be interesting to see the meltdown when I am proven right. Sony is a company with a "proprietary" culture that has some how labeled themselves as super pro-consumer. That just isn't true.

This has nothing to do with what you or I think about MS. Look at Sony's history. They always want their own thing. Betamax, Memory stick, ATRAC, Minidisc, UMD, Bluray, etc. They always want you playing in their garden on their format. They could have been 1st with music streaming ala Ipod, but they hated digital music because they didn't want to allow downloads of their music. There a lot more examples by the way. This is just their history. No way they spend that coin and let those games be played on other platforms. You're kidding yourself.
 
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