Topic: PlayStation 5 --OT--

@JohnnyShoulder The first 3 make sense. FromSoftware did show Elden Ring at MS's show but generally, are more pally with Sony. Bluepoint having made anything themselves - not really - just known for ports and remasters and lately, mostly for Playstation - the last 'port' they did for Xbox was Titanfall to 360 and Housemarque might as well be a Playstation Dev anyway as they haven't done anything for other platforms at all this gen. You could argue that it doesn't make any difference if Sony where to snap up Housemarque or Bluepoint at this junction as they aren't doing anything on other platforms anyway. FromSoftware would make a difference as Dark Souls, Elden Ring and Sekiro are multi-platform releases. Its like MS buying Playground games, it didn't matter too much because they were only making games for Xbox anyway (although there was mention of them expanding to make other genres and considering developing for more platforms before MS acquired them)

According to Forbes, Sony paid $229m for Insomniac - sounds like a Bargain compared to $7.5bn for Zenimax and the $2.4bn for Mojang...

Sony may just want to strike up deals with 3rd Parties to secure timed exclusivity, extra content or even full exclusivity rather than buy up studios with all the running costs, staff etc that also comes with it. Securing the marketing rights to the 'biggest' releases also sells consoles - I have seen some think games like Hogwarts, REviii, Deathloop, Ghostwire etc were full 'exclusives' before this deal and games like FF, Kena, Demon Souls etc are still very ambiguous about their 'timed' release - whether that means they will be released on other consoles or just PC at a later date but in any case, its still all 'positive' for Sony without having to buy Studio's for literally a 'single' platform. MS has Console, PC and Mobile gamers to appease.

Sony doesn't need to do anything at the moment - other than PR. They are about to launch a new platform that will 'lose' money for a period of time - let alone all the marketing and advertising costs for their console and the games that only have 'PS' branding....

@Kidfried Oh they mentioned From Software are owned by another group so they were not being ignorant, but that doesn't mean that they can't be bought. Being independent doesn't make that much difference really, everything is for sale and money talks.

It makes perfect sense for Sony to purchase Bluepoint for the reasons you stated, and stops them being bought out by another company. It is similar to why Sony bought Insomniac.

I think Square Enix are way too big for Sony to buy, I'm not sure if they have the bags of money to do that.

Buying FromSoft is more of a headache than ill-informed people realise. They aren’t an independent studio. They’re owned by Kadokawa and I don’t see them selling because that’s not just a profitable subsidiary, it’s one that generates awards and kudos.

@nessisonett I'm not sure how much that matters though, as long as you offer enough money, they can be bought. Whether Sony would do that though, I do not know.

@JohnnyShoulder I hate this mentality of tit-for-tat studio acquisitions. It’s like fangirling for your favourite conglomerate. This generation will be defined by the exclusives that were bought for each console, not created by traditional Sony or Microsoft studios.

I think the best thing they can do is just expand the studios they already own. If it's true that PS5 cuts AAA development time from 5 to 3 years, it's feasible that every studio could be pumping out a game every 2 years.

Getting into a tit for tax exclusivity war probably isn't the best thing for gamers.

Obviously it depends on your genre preference, but the studios Sony already own are amongst the most talented in the world. So increase staff size, and their output is probably the best thing to do.

@phil_j To be honest that is the most sensible. If you look at the size of Insomniac, they turn round a lot of games considering that they have put out Spiderman PS4, new Ratchet and Clank, Miles Morales and I suspect a PS5 full Spiderman game a few years down.

If you have a working studio, funding more work streams makes more sense. It is only the IP's you are missing.

To be honest, I hate the whole MS acquistion of Bethesda. Studios are one thing but a publisher with so many studios is another. I wouldn't be cheering if it was Sony either. I don't like Bethesda as a company, per se, but third party publishers are important.

@nessisonett Its not really tit-for tat though, like I said Sony can't possibly compete with MS. Its just a bit of harmless speculation. MS just made a BDM so its only natural really that people would start talking about what Sony could do next. I thought it would be interesting to discuss it.

And are you saying titles like Spider-man, God of War, Horizon Zero Dawn etc won't have a big as impact as say Deathloop, Ghostwire Tokyo, Final Fantasy 16? I think it will be the opposite, as proven in this generation.

I think this is Sony's chance to invest some real time and money into their existing studios and maybe look at building some NEW ip's that are amazing than scrabbling around trying to hoover up exsisting studios. Let's innovate.

@JohnnyShoulder Well Horizon’s going to be multiplat at least, give it a couple of years 😉

Yeah, I agree with expanding their existing studios, so going from one team to two full-sized teams, or setting up new studios. Sony could definitely use a couple more smaller games to fill in the gaps. I'd take a Last of Us or God of War over anything else, but a bunch of smaller games wouldn't hurt either. I'd like them see expand Japan Studio, because they have a ton of creative ideas, but it sometimes feels that they don't have the resources to develop it all in time.

@JohnnyShoulder Yea, apparently I looked up the wrong number. Square Enix is way bigger than I expected.

@BAMozzy "According to Forbes, Sony paid $229m for Insomniac - sounds like a Bargain compared to $7.5bn for Zenimax and the $2.4bn for Mojang..."

That was definitely a huge bargain for Sony. And I agree that Sony doesn't nessecarily need new studios at all.

@nessisonett Oh you scamp, you! Ha ha 😂

Sony definitely need to buy BluePoint and help then ship new IPs.
They dont NEED response to Ms moves though. That's bs.
Unrelated but there are still xbox SS available on Amazon uk if someone interested.

@nessisonett PC? It's so bizarre that people get worked up about this. I don't even think the markets cross over that much. I have a stupidly powerful PC paid for by my work in my home office. But I just can't get excited for playing games on PC. I'm surely not alone.

@Iroha Agree completely. It's like these Silent Hill rumours. I'm interested, because I want a new survival horror game. But would be just as interested if it was a new IP. Just put out a trailer with 'From the Creator of Silent Hill', if you need the Silent Hill fanbase onboard. It works for movies. I mean Toyama already works for Japan Studio.

@Octane Apparently they have already started doing this with a new studio set up to make the next Uncharted game.

@Kidfried Yeah I don't think Sony could afford anyone like Activision, EA, Ubisoft or any of the the big players. MS could potentially go again though.

@Rudy_Manchego Yeah when I first heard about it, it didn't sit right with me. Hopefully most of the bigger games will still come to other platforms.

Acquiring From Software from Kadokawa might seem difficult, but actually they've been willing to wheel and deal throughout their history, and have divested from gaming in general over the last 5 years. Do I think they'd sell them? Probably not.

In terms of Sony "responding" I really hope they don't, because this isn't competition that benefits the consumer, it's competition that makes consumer choice worse. I've made that clear before on here, I just don't like this sort of exclusitory capitalism.

As to what Sony could respond with? Well, there are a number of smaller studios people in the industry, apart from the obvious (Bluepoint and Housemarque), think Sony have been sniffing around, I can list them and you make of them what you will:

IO Interactive
Remedy
Dontnod
Illfonic
Level-5

There are others, but I think they're far fetched, they were sniffing around 4A apparently before THQ Nordic or whoever it was bought them. The most outlandish rumours concern Koei Tecmo and Crytek, both of which smell very fishy to me. However, the ones I've listed above they've definitely had lots of contact with over the last few years.

Sony's purchases in the past have tended to be with Studios they've had a relationship with, so maybe Sumo Digital, Kojima Productions, Tarsier and genDESIGN could be added to any list, but apart from say Insomniac, their purchases have all tended to be financially precarious, or in need of support from a much larger company.

I'm just not sure straight up acquisitions are Sony's thing though. Over the past 18 to 24 months we've seen Studio London literally acquire lots of talented people, Guerilla develop a second full team and a third design team. We've seen Insomniac also develop a third team, Sony Santa Monica get lots bigger and rumours of a new Studio in San Diego, and rumbles of things afoot in Vancouver or Seattle depending on who you believe. Sony seem more keen to bolster their current studios with more internal teams, than acquire entirely new studios.

@SirAngry I love Level-5 but I worry that they’d rein in their Nintendo support of Sony bought them!

@Rudy_Manchego I don't particularly like Bethesda games either (outside of Tango Gameworks), but I think it was telling that the fella said in his press release we will continue to publish our own games. All other Xbox exclusives are published by Xbox Game Studios.

I don't think they particularly need to make them exclusive if they are on Gamepass either.