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Reuters: Sony Brings A Knife To Global Video-Games Gunfight

Sillegamer

Sillegamer

Member
Oct 27, 2017
344
Markets and press are not responding well to the Microsoft acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

Sony (6758.T) has just been dragged into a fight where it's heavily outgunned. Investors on Wednesday erased up to 10% of its market value after Microsoft's (MSFT.O) $68.7 billion swoop read more on video-games developer Activision Blizzard (ATVI.O). The Japanese group may lose access to some content but that looks manageable for now. The bigger worry is that Sony is no match against its far-larger rival as gamers look beyond consoles.
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Microsoft's purchase, the largest in the industry, is likely to kick off a war for content. The deal will give the Xbox console maker a stable of popular titles from mobile hit "Candy Crush" to the lucrative "Call of Duty" shooter franchise. Already, larger studios are circling smaller peers: Earlier this month, Take-Two Interactive (TTWO.O) snapped up Zynga in a $12.7 billion deal. Titans like Meta (FB.O), Alphabet (GOOGL.O) and Netflix also have ambitions in the sector.
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That puts Sony, whose roughly $140 billion market value pales in comparison to its U.S. rival, in a difficult position. The company's low-key strategy of acquiring relatively niche and small studios has helped propel its PlayStation console ahead of the Xbox. But the latter may now gain an edge. Activision's "Call of Duty: Vanguard", for instance, was the second most downloaded title for the PlayStation 5 in North America and Europe last year; analysts at Macquarie reckon the franchise accounts for a "major" portion of Sony's in-game transaction sales. While it's unlikely that Activision's new owner would cut off access, Microsoft will be looking to gradually lure PlayStation gamers to its own console with new content down the line.
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Link: https://www.reuters.com/markets/asia/sony-brings-knife-global-video-games-gunfight-2022-01-19/
 
Irrotational

Irrotational

Prophet of Truth
Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,182
No one cares about last-gen, or previous gens, or cross-play...they only want premium first party single player games from Naughty dog...that much is clear!

In all seriousness - I am intrigued to see what Sony do - they must have been considering subscriptions and strategising on where the market is going for quite awhile now.
 
FriendlyNPC

FriendlyNPC

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,606
MS is so rich they can basically just force the gaming industry to submit by buying out everything. Fun times.

I don't think there is a player in the industry who can compete in this, so yeah, the industry is basically at MS' every whim at this point. MS has shown it is willing to just go for it with the recent acquisition.
 
CarterTax

CarterTax

Member
Oct 25, 2017
709
Will definitely be interesting to see how Sony handles itself for the content war that is raging. Microsoft has an impressive amount of buying power that Sony doesn't Sony will have to be very creative in order to achieve continued success I think. Losing a large portion of their add-on content sales from COD will definitely hit them hard in their wallet.
 
TheRealTalker

TheRealTalker

Member
Oct 25, 2017
21,520
FriendlyNPC said:
MS is so rich they can basically just force the gaming industry to submit by buying out everything. Fun times.

I don't think there is a player in the industry who can compete in this, so yeah, the industry is basically at MS' every whim at this point. MS has shown it is willing to just go for it with the recent acquisition.
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Only companies would be Google, Amazon and Apple if they ever decide to enter the gaming acquisition war.
 
Mr Swine

Mr Swine

The Fallen
Oct 26, 2017
6,047
Sweden
I only wonder what happens if a future PlayStation console flops out of the gate where an Xbox console comes out as the Victor. I know it won't happen since Sony is too big to fail
 
dbcyber

dbcyber

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,409
UK
In hindsight I always thought it was weird how MS would only compete the traditional way of buying and making exclusives, marketing etc. I mean, like, yo you're sitting on 100s of billions.
 
Axumar

Axumar

Member
May 13, 2020
427
I'm not looking forward to a market where gigantic, crazy valued corporations compete in the video game market. The likes of Apple, Google, and Amazon are still on the outskirts. I hope they'll stay there.
 
Glio

Glio

Member
Oct 27, 2017
24,567
Spain
If Nintendo has proven anything all these years, it's that you don't need to be the biggest if you play your cards smart in the video game industry.
 
BlackheartVinyl

BlackheartVinyl

Member
Jun 15, 2020
7,125
T0kenAussie said:
apple makes 20x more sense

Sony pictures for their streaming
Sony lens's for phones
sony tech stack for IoT and smart cars
Sony PlayStation to grow Apple Arcade and gaming

from a meta verse perspective Disney could just buy PlayStation itself
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Fair, but Amazon has that Luma service they're gonna need content for. Unless they kill it… which could totally happen.
 
FriendlyNPC

FriendlyNPC

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,606
CarterTax said:
Will definitely be interesting to see how Sony handles itself for the content war that is raging. Microsoft has an impressive amount of buying power that Sony doesn't Sony will have to be very creative in order to achieve continued success I think. Losing a large portion of their add-on content sales from COD will definitely hit them hard in their wallet.
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I don't think this is a particularly interesting battle to be honest. MS is regularly evaluated as the most valuable company on the planet, so they'll just crush whoever. There won't be much of a war happening when one of the two players has that much more resources to play around with.

No amount of creativity will let you win in this.

TheRealTalker said:
Only companies would be Google, Amazon and Apple if they ever decide to enter the gaming acquisition war.
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None of these have shown much interest since the start of the most recent wave of consolidations, so it doesn't look like that'll happen right now.
 
wingkongex

wingkongex

Member
Aug 25, 2019
2,189
There's not much that they can do in the short term other than entering the subscription services game, opening up to the PC space earlier and continuing to make good games. Their focus on pivoting their game franchises into multimedia properties also differentiates themselves and could allow them to cut streaming TV/movie deals with bigger players.

I find their bid at a next generation VR device to be a tremendous risk at this point considering Meta has already entrenched itself in the space and has a relatively cost-effective device eating up mindshare. How many people that are casually interested in VR experiences are going to own multiple VR headsets, one of which requiring another $400 console (that's really hard to get) to even start using?
 
brawndolicious

brawndolicious

Member
Oct 27, 2017
4,934
BlackheartVinyl said:
Don't hate me, but I think Amazon might buy Sony within like 3 years.
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That would bolster the Prime Video library but I'm not sure Amazon is the best fit for an electronics giant.
T0kenAussie said:
apple makes 20x more sense

Sony pictures for their streaming
Sony lens's for phones
sony tech stack for IoT and smart cars
Sony PlayStation to grow Apple Arcade and gaming

from a meta verse perspective Disney could just buy PlayStation itself
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Click to shrink...

Apple is kind of committed to having a very integrated ecosystem between all devices. They probably would have to drop support for a lot of the Sony products out there and start from s clean slate. I'm not sure what the value is of the new tech patents they would gain though.
 
crazillo

crazillo

Member
Apr 5, 2018
8,188
Axume4 said:
I'm not looking forward to a market where gigantic, crazy valued corporations compete in the video game market. The likes of Apple, Google, and Amazon are still on the outskirts. I hope they'll stay there.
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While I agree with you, Sony and Nintendo are no charity clubs and certainly not indie either. Sony would do the same if they could. They have done it on the smaller scale with timed and full exclusives for a long time. But this current fight, they cannot win.

It just seems as if Microsoft wants to be in position in the gaming space that the other big tech companies have in other segments of the digital economy. They see it as their chance to be the Netflix of Gaming.

The industry probably was always headed this way, it was just a question of when not if.
 
YuyoMoriarty

YuyoMoriarty

Member
Oct 29, 2017
301
This is the start of the new era for games... i can see this being the last playstation generation...

Unless a amazon or apple takes over I dont see sony surviving
 
Fredo

Fredo

Member
Oct 30, 2017
1,033
Smells like the beginning of all gaming content getting firewalled into ten different subscriptions.
 
GooberDooberCBC

GooberDooberCBC

Member
Sep 7, 2020
2,340
Glio said:
If Nintendo has proven anything all these years, it's that you don't need to be the biggest if you play your cards smart in the video game industry.
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This, leverage what you are strong in. Nintendo is the best selling console off of their massive IP, creativity, and nostalgia. Sony has a mountain of that as well but they will not be preventing MS from getting content if it comes down to just a pure dollar for dollar bidding war. Sony should double down on first party, bring back older franchises with back compat, leverage PC and a subscription service and they will be more than fine.
 
danm999

danm999

Member
Oct 29, 2017
17,155
Sydney
Capital accumulation at work. This is the economic system we live in; eat or be eaten.

Eventually, Sony and Nintendo will be acquired by someone too.
 
Solid SOAP

Solid SOAP

One Winged Slayer
Member
Nov 27, 2017
8,287
your mom's house
This generation is off to such an uneven start. I was ready to place all my bets on the PS5, but MS really are coming out swinging. I really don't care much for their 1st party offerings, but having access to nearly their entire backlog is such a stupidly great move.

Remember Puzzle Fighters from 10 years ago? It's on their store for $2.

Want to relive Red Dead Redemption? Go grab it for $10.

Everything is available for cheap and runs better than it ever did.
 
Lego Killer Moth

Lego Killer Moth

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
1,292
This is because Xbox and Sony are competitors, but MICROSOFT's competitors are Amazon and Apple and Google and Facebook (not calling it meta). 70 billion dollar acquisitions aren't just Xbox money, that's 45 year old original tech giant money.
 
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