Sony was apparently in advanced board level discussions to acquire Take Two this week, which would grant it ownership of blockbuster franchises such as Grand Theft Auto, Red Dead Redemption, and BioShock. Of course, we told you it was all nonsense, and no sooner than the speculation has started has it all collapsed into a big pile of fake news.

The source of the rumour, a Wedbush Securities analyst named Joel Kulina, quickly poured cool water on the escalating flames, claiming that it all started with “unconfirmed market speculation”. Hearsay, in other words. A Bloomberg Tech reporter named Yuji Nakamura later followed up with the Japanese giant itself, which said that there is “no truth” to the story.

Of course, this is all to be expected. While it’s not financially impossible, it’s unreasonable to expect Sony to purchase a publisher of Take Two’s colossal size. Not only would this kind of purchase result in a lot of lost jobs, but the value of brands such as Grand Theft Auto would be diminished should they switch to a single format. It never really made sense.

[source gamesindustry.biz, via twitter.com]