Reuters: Sony Brings A Knife To Global Video-Games Gunfight
- Thread starter Sillegamer
- Start date
Console Warriors can't see anything outside of their petty internet fights.
The acquisition still sucks in the long run due to a massive publisher being swallowed up by one of three major console manufacturers, further instilling consolidation, which isn't good for consumers.
But yeah, Sony this gen, and even last gen, has been doing a great job at expanding their own studios either in size at their locations or to new locations as satellites studios, picking up great support/porting devs that can even branch to do their own games in the future and also bringing up new studios like Kojima Productions and Jade Raymond's new studio by providing a lot of tools, funding and support to get their feet securely through the door and into the gaming ethos (Sony gets the first game, but it's up to the studios from there on what they do). I find that stuff like this also fosters more organic growth.
Sony is just not as big as MS. MS is a 1T dollar company. You really can't expect them to just go on a buying spree.
The biggest concern with Sony is their focus on the retail model. Spartacus is coming, but it doesn't seem to be providing day one access to 1st party titles.
The retail model will continue to become challenged over time.
Think 5. 10, 15 years in the future.
The biggest concern with Sony is their focus on the retail model. Spartacus is coming, but it doesn't seem to be providing day one access to 1st party titles.
The retail model will continue to become challenged over time.
Think 5. 10, 15 years in the future.
I agree with most of this, but I'd add one additional example of a system buyer.
To play games with your friends on the hardware they own
In a world before crossplay was more common, a lot of people bough and Xbox or a Playstation because it's what their friends were buying/had bought. However we may now be approaching a world where the biggest draw for which console people buy based upon what their friends have (Call of Duty) might/will become an Xbox exclusive in 2-3 years. I don't think there's anyway for us to predict how big of an impact that'll have on US console sales in 2023 or 2024 whenever that exclusivity starts. Even in my best case scenario where CoD still comes to Playstation but only via Gamespass and crossplay exist, I still think a lot of US gamers will migrate to Xbox and stay on Xbox perpetually.
It's not just that. It's arguably one of the big salvos amongst the tech giants to buy/create their own (yuck) metaverse.
I am fairly confident rhat not a single third-party on GP would partner with Microsoft with this, like when Forza was taken down from the Geforce Now.
LOL I'd totally forgotten about this
Sony in Feb: "Puff... pant.... hey guys we've renamed PlayStation Now, look out Bil gates"
2.2T
I think some people underestimate how big this deal was. Microsoft just bought a company that's worth 70B. Sony is worth 143B. No matter what Sony does, MS could outbid them.
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I hope so. If they want to compete with Game Pass, they need Day 1 Sony games on it.
This is the new Nintendo = done.
That prediction fell flat on it's face, so will this.
That prediction fell flat on it's face, so will this.
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I would argue it's quite funny, it basically became a meme the MS warchest and it was never ever used and now it is.
All joking and hyperbole aside, this is really a move that will reshape a lot of the industry over the next few years. I'm really curious what Sony will do (probably not much considering their limited options to respond) and how all of this will turn out once the dust has settled.
I guess Sony will add a few more relatively small developers to their portfolio, and then all three companies will simply compete against each other with their exclusive content, problem is that Nintendo has been doing this for years and will be perfectly fine due to their unique position in the market and strong IPs, Microsoft now owns CoD which is a huge advantage because that franchise comes with its own target group included and Sony brings ND, Guerilla, Insomniac etc. to the table, all of which have their fans, but pale in comparison to what Nintendo and now Microsoft have to offer.
I guess Sony will add a few more relatively small developers to their portfolio, and then all three companies will simply compete against each other with their exclusive content, problem is that Nintendo has been doing this for years and will be perfectly fine due to their unique position in the market and strong IPs, Microsoft now owns CoD which is a huge advantage because that franchise comes with its own target group included and Sony brings ND, Guerilla, Insomniac etc. to the table, all of which have their fans, but pale in comparison to what Nintendo and now Microsoft have to offer.
Japans anti foreigner takeover rules make that difficult. If Sony spinned off the PlayStation division that is a different story
EA or Ubisoft are probably next. I could see Square holding out for a while, or selling off certain studios piecemeal like Crystal Dynamics, etc.
You have to be in serious denial to think this is no big deal and Sony can just stay the course.
This is indeed important, and something I tend to overlook because I am mostly a singleplayer consumer. I agree this will also become a major factor.
I can't see a world where Sony doesn't buy a big third party publisher within this year. Either Square Enix or Capcom seem the most likely.
This is a deceleration of war from Microsoft and Sony needs to strike back. They can't match that buying power, but they need to do something to show investers and the world that they are just going to let MS steamroll.
And since Playstation is now the most important sector for Sony, I imagine they have close to free reign to make a big purchase.
This is a deceleration of war from Microsoft and Sony needs to strike back. They can't match that buying power, but they need to do something to show investers and the world that they are just going to let MS steamroll.
And since Playstation is now the most important sector for Sony, I imagine they have close to free reign to make a big purchase.
Clearly the only possible way for Sony to survive this is to buy Nintendo and port their games to pc.
All Sony needs to do is buy Kadokawa and Konami.
AAA first party Castlevania game brought to you by From Software.
Maybe they'll pick up Capcom as well. Love horror games? Gonna need that PS5 if you want Resident Evil and Silent Hill.
AAA first party Castlevania game brought to you by From Software.
Maybe they'll pick up Capcom as well. Love horror games? Gonna need that PS5 if you want Resident Evil and Silent Hill.
The future is looking soooo great for consumers, huh?
No war or something like that, but paradoxically I think it was sony that contributed to Microsoft buying out these big publishers.
Sony deprived a lot of third party content from the competition in the PS1/PS2 era which strongly contributed to the success of these consoles, they started again on a smaller scale with the PS4, but their plan with the PS5 was ambitious, insider said they approached every big publisher for exclusive content and if MS want to have these games they have to pay.
I don't think MS will be that agressive if its third party exclusives were not an important business model at sony.
You can look this thread lot people predicted what MS doing right now
Imran Khan: "Sony has locked timed exclusivity for some huge and widely known multiplatform games" News
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Lol at post #11
I would imagine Microsoft is salivating at the chance to own Take Two and GTA.
Way I see it one of three things happen:
1. Sony does nothing and cedes ground to Microsoft who will probably become market leader next gen as I imagine this isnt their last acquisition.
2. Sony retaliates and buys a big publisher of their own (likely Japanese like Sega, Square or Capcom) creating an arms race
3. Someone big comes in for Sony, most likely Apple or Amazon (also Bonus prediction that Disney comes sniffing around Nintendo but imagine Japanese government would be very defensive of that)
1. Sony does nothing and cedes ground to Microsoft who will probably become market leader next gen as I imagine this isnt their last acquisition.
2. Sony retaliates and buys a big publisher of their own (likely Japanese like Sega, Square or Capcom) creating an arms race
3. Someone big comes in for Sony, most likely Apple or Amazon (also Bonus prediction that Disney comes sniffing around Nintendo but imagine Japanese government would be very defensive of that)
None of those are even a blip on the radar compared to COD
This is... not even remotely true.
How did their smartphone entry go? Do you use Bing? MSN? Even Internet Explorer had to be rebranded, and a lot of people still choose Chrome.
Microsoft has a lot of markets it wants to break into but can't quite manage to. And I imagine they're seeing the interest that Apple, Google, Facebook, Amazon are all showing in the games industry and have realized they finally have a huge future market they can win big time on thanks to their Xbox brand. Though I imagine VR/AR is also a huge part of that future, so HoloLens better be turning into something special.
I'm just worried that some people are gonna stop wanting to buy PS5's. From CoD fanboys to people simply waiting this out to see what the landscape looks like in a year or two. This AB deal isn't done until June of 2023 and that is a lot of uncertainty for a long time. I hate this!
While I'm not a fan of mass consolidation Sony has been making anti consumer deals for some time now and I was worried it would stir up Microsoft. I think Sony was expecting Microsoft to react similar to their own actions by paying for exclusive deals but I don't think they expect them to go nuclear.
This makes a lot of sense.
Or, sell the Playstation division to Disney.
Either way, now that MS is spending money. Sony will either become Sega or Nintendo.
I think MS buying Netflix isn't out of the question. It's in line with their long term goals.
The "Nintendoomed" situation was driven by people who thought Nintendo couldn't compete with weaker hardware and without the big 3rd party support. The flaw of this was ignoring the strength of Nintendo's first party IP and the fact many 3rd parties would still make weaker, cheaper Nintendo exclusives.
The "Sonydoomed" situation is driven by Sony literally losing access to one of it's biggest market moving games in the states (Call of Duty) along with a bunch of other big 3rd party software from AB & Bethesda. It's hard to imagine Sony competing well if they're like "buy a ps5 this holiday 2024 we have Last of Us 1 remake" and Microsoft goes "we have the new CoD, the new Elder Scrolls, the new Halo, and the new Diablo all exclusive to our console".
Obviously calling either doomed is way too strong hyperbole, but this is going to be an ongoing issue for Sony that will snowball with time as these acquisition start to pay out.
What? Sony will be just fine. I say this as a person who plays video games almost exclusively on Gamepass these days. Sony will be just fine, they have tons of great games and studios and options.
lol no. Ever since Sega left the console industry, Nintendo has been the underdog.
Because Sony needs to make money and the console industry has already been disrupted by supply chain woes, and now this happens on the software/development side? That stings.
Predictions of Nintendo dying were based on ignorance. Ignorance as to how financially stable Nintendo is, the utter dominance it has in the handheld market, and the sheer strength of its IPs. These concerns over how industry consolidation will affect Sony simply aren't.