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[Gudji]

They need cash for the CMA.

Its a joke don't kill me.

 

[Loxus]

Are you implying Sony already secured take two without anyone in the world knowing so Microsoft went after ABK?

That's absolutely not possible imo.

Could be possible or some kind of unknown deal.

All I know is Sony is going to want to keep this legacy going.

 

[DenchDeckard]

Could be possible or some kind of unknown deal.

All I know is Sony is going to want to keep this legacy going.

They can do that with third party deals without taking on the whole studio. I fully expect it to be showcased next week and it will have some "beta first" on playstation...Exclusive content of some kind i think

 

[Varteras]

They need cash for the CMA.

Its a joke don't kill me.

 

[sachos]

Man all this acquisition bullshit wont end well. At this point it seems even if MS fails buying ActiBlizz they would go running for other publishers forcing Sony to react, so it seems its inevitable either way. Timed exclusivity for GTA6 seems lame, much prefer if they used that money to grow some of their studios or fund new IPs...
Since we can not do anything to stop all this bullshit only thing left to do is hope for the respective new owners to at least manage to improve the quality of their new shinny studios or revive some of their respective IPs if any.

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

Seen some really great posts in here on the topic, and I didn't even know Sony did this until reading the thread today . It's a big move, but I have had some thoughts about it.

Personally, I don't think they're doing this to acquire Take-Two or a publisher of that size, so that would also rule out EA. The likelihood MS's ABK deal falls apart is massive at this point, the only hope they really have there is if shareholders and board members of both companies decided to renegotiate a deal that does not include certain markets, but that would be so troublesome and cumbersome it probably isn't worth it.

What I think Sony are more likely to do is a mix of targeted smaller studio acquisitions, maybe one or two medium-sized (market caps between $4 - $8 billion) publishers, and use a portion of the rest of the funds allocated to gaming, for buying shares and making investments in key 3P publishing partners, as well as to secure more 3P exclusivity deals and game funding opportunities. And, I do believe 100% Take-Two are one such publisher they'd definitely look to both buy a lot of shares in and also inject with capital investment, but they aren't the only one.

Take-Two, EA, Ubisoft, CDPR, Capcom, Square-Enix, Koei-Tecmo, Konami, Sega-Sammy, Bandai-Namco, Kadokawa, Epic...and on the developer front, studios like From Software, those would all be obvious 3Ps to buy shares in and inject with capital investments. They may also seek out some 3P co-development partnerships either through SIE directly or XDEV to work with some of the IP the 1P teams may not be equipped to or desire to work with, and for those games also make a push for mobile with some of them at least.

Through that they may acquire some additional 3P studios, including maybe a few known ones (Ember Lab, for example. Dunno about Arc System Works unless they & Bandai-Namco worked something out to co-own the studio, given popularity of DBZ Fighterz where Bandai-Namco own the IP rights. Shift Up could be another.), but I think they could target one or two of the 3P publishers. Capcom, Square-Enix, Ubisoft, Koei-Tecmo, Konami, and Sega-Sammy fit in the $4 - $8 billion market cap range, but realistically if it came down to two, and they wanted to be acquired, it would be Capcom & Square-Enix.

Meanwhile what would remain after the smaller 3P studio acquisitions, (maybe) 1-2 medium-ish 3P publisher acquisitions, and various 3P share purchases & financial investments, would go towards 3P marketing & exclusivity deals, plus further funding for the current 1P teams in addition to what they would normally already receive. And in terms of the 3P publisher acquisitions (if those were to happen), Sony would go out of their way to ensure things remain mostly the same as they currently do, i.e they wouldn't take Monster Hunter away from Nintendo if they did in fact acquire Capcom. But, if they were to say fund a new Dino Crisis or Onimusha, they'd have no incentive to bring those to Xbox or Nintendo since those IP have no legacy there.

But a 3P publisher acquisition would to be for more reasons than simply funding new installments to older IP, otherwise they could just co-fund and develop those similar to what they're doing with Konami. Speaking of which, I also think some of this might be so that Sony can purchase gaming rights to some of Konami's key IP, namely MGS, Castlevania and Silent Hill, but where Konami still has a say in who may work with the IP hence say if they & Sony agreed to reach out to Bloober Team for the SH2 Remake, and Sony providing technical support and ensuring QA among other things.

Or I could be completely off-base on all of this, it's anyone's guess at this point honestly.

 

[Loxus]

Seen some really great posts in here on the topic, and I didn't even know Sony did this until reading the thread today . It's a big move, but I have had some thoughts about it.

Personally, I don't think they're doing this to acquire Take-Two or a publisher of that size, so that would also rule out EA. The likelihood MS's ABK deal falls apart is massive at this point, the only hope they really have there is if shareholders and board members of both companies decided to renegotiate a deal that does not include certain markets, but that would be so troublesome and cumbersome it probably isn't worth it.

What I think Sony are more likely to do is a mix of targeted smaller studio acquisitions, maybe one or two medium-sized (market caps between $4 - $8 billion) publishers, and use a portion of the rest of the funds allocated to gaming, for buying shares and making investments in key 3P publishing partners, as well as to secure more 3P exclusivity deals and game funding opportunities. And, I do believe 100% Take-Two are one such publisher they'd definitely look to both buy a lot of shares in and also inject with capital investment, but they aren't the only one.

Take-Two, EA, Ubisoft, CDPR, Capcom, Square-Enix, Koei-Tecmo, Konami, Sega-Sammy, Bandai-Namco, Kadokawa, Epic...and on the developer front, studios like From Software, those would all be obvious 3Ps to buy shares in and inject with capital investments. They may also seek out some 3P co-development partnerships either through SIE directly or XDEV to work with some of the IP the 1P teams may not be equipped to or desire to work with, and for those games also make a push for mobile with some of them at least.

Through that they may acquire some additional 3P studios, including maybe a few known ones (Ember Lab, for example. Dunno about Arc System Works unless they & Bandai-Namco worked something out to co-own the studio, given popularity of DBZ Fighterz where Bandai-Namco own the IP rights. Shift Up could be another.), but I think they could target one or two of the 3P publishers. Capcom, Square-Enix, Ubisoft, Koei-Tecmo, Konami, and Sega-Sammy fit in the $4 - $8 billion market cap range, but realistically if it came down to two, and they wanted to be acquired, it would be Capcom & Square-Enix.

Meanwhile what would remain after the smaller 3P studio acquisitions, (maybe) 1-2 medium-ish 3P publisher acquisitions, and various 3P share purchases & financial investments, would go towards 3P marketing & exclusivity deals, plus further funding for the current 1P teams in addition to what they would normally already receive. And in terms of the 3P publisher acquisitions (if those were to happen), Sony would go out of their way to ensure things remain mostly the same as they currently do, i.e they wouldn't take Monster Hunter away from Nintendo if they did in fact acquire Capcom. But, if they were to say fund a new Dino Crisis or Onimusha, they'd have no incentive to bring those to Xbox or Nintendo since those IP have no legacy there.

But a 3P publisher acquisition would to be for more reasons than simply funding new installments to older IP, otherwise they could just co-fund and develop those similar to what they're doing with Konami. Speaking of which, I also think some of this might be so that Sony can purchase gaming rights to some of Konami's key IP, namely MGS, Castlevania and Silent Hill, but where Konami still has a say in who may work with the IP hence say if they & Sony agreed to reach out to Bloober Team for the SH2 Remake, and Sony providing technical support and ensuring QA among other things.

Or I could be completely off-base on all of this, it's anyone's guess at this point honestly.

Good point, but I think this maybe about a big acquisition.
Sony considers financial services spinoff and listing, shares surge; BofA positive on growth
"We have a positive impression of Sony’s corporate strategy meeting held on 18 May morning. This is because Sony 1) announced that it is considering partially spinning off the financial services business, which has few synergies with other businesses, 2) said that the scale of its in-house non-consolidated business is lacking compared with global competitors, so it could take active steps to close that gap, such as M&As in the future," the analysts said.

According to Geoff Keighley, these are some potential acquisitions and their market cap.


According to Sony's latest financial reports, the company has $14.41 B in cash and cash equivalents.
With $14.41B, Sony could aquire 3-4 of the smaller studios. No need to sell off the Financial Services.

Geoff Keighley again, said he heard there are a few other big video game deals in final stages of negotiations.


Sony is selling off the financial services to raise funds for mergers and acquisitions. So this is more likely for a big acquisition.

Playstation is Sony’s most important sector. It helps generate revenue in all the other sectors.

Sony maybe looking at increasing Playstation's dominance to increase revenue in all these sectors.
Only acquisition that would cause Sony to take these kind of steps is Take-Two with GTA & Red Dead series.

 

[SneakersSO]

S SneakersSO What's your take on this development? I know you told me a few weeks ago that you fully expect Sony to continue making smaller acquisitions and investments to grow their content cadence and IP creation. But spinning off their financial arm to focus resources into entertainment and electronics within the next couple years is really a big move that indicates a greater desire to do so than I think was expected at the time we spoke on this subject.

I mean, goes back to what we were saying in that thread, but in a broader sense on where Sony itself sees Playstation in their corporate and profit-generating portfolio. Right now, Sony, specifically Playstation, has that Midas touch. The movie business is doing better, the games business is doing great, and now their transmedia approach is paying dividends.

It makes sense to go ahead and cut off some underperforming groups or groups who just don't fit in with the larger direction that the company has been heading in for awhile now. It doesn't sound like Sony Financial was an exactly cheap endeavor, either. I'm not quite sure how much Sony Financial is bringing in relative to Playstation, but its quite obvious that increasing their creative output capacity is going to be something they need to do for the foreseeable future. As safe of an investment strategy as any executive group could possibly make given the market factors Sony are working with.

 

[SneakersSO]

Good point, but I think this maybe about a big acquisition.
Sony considers financial services spinoff and listing, shares surge; BofA positive on growth
"We have a positive impression of Sony’s corporate strategy meeting held on 18 May morning. This is because Sony 1) announced that it is considering partially spinning off the financial services business, which has few synergies with other businesses, 2) said that the scale of its in-house non-consolidated business is lacking compared with global competitors, so it could take active steps to close that gap, such as M&As in the future," the analysts said.

According to Geoff Keighley, these are some potential acquisitions and their market cap.


According to Sony's latest financial reports, the company has $14.41 B in cash and cash equivalents.
With $14.41B, Sony could aquire 3-4 of the smaller studios. No need to sell off the Financial Services.

Geoff Keighley again, said he heard there are a few other big video game deals in final stages of negotiations.


Sony is selling off the financial services to raise funds for mergers and acquisitions. So this is more likely for a big acquisition.

Playstation is Sony’s most important sector. It helps generate revenue in all the other sectors.

Sony maybe looking at increasing Playstation's dominance to increase revenue in all these sectors.
Only acquisition that would cause Sony to take these kind of steps is Take-Two with GTA & Red Dead series.

Just to add to this - a few of these are out of date from Keighley's breakdown, which was done in the wake of the ATVI deal. Capcom and Take-Two are both worth more now than they were then. The Saudi investment into Capcom would put the value of the company at or near the $10b range.

I really don't find Sony purchasing Take-Two a far-fetched notion, especially given what they are doing in leaning the company down in other areas to focus in on what is essentially transmedia IP creation and distribution across multiple medias (Music/Games/TV/Film). Whether or (most likely) not the ATVI deal goes through, Sony still needs to secure a revenue stream that is on par with CoD, minus the threat of being bought out. With MS still wanting to pursue the ATVI to its ultimate end no matter what, its really going to handcuff their ability to secure any more purchases, meaning MS wouldn't be able to drive up the price for any potential M&A offer Sony could make in the current environment.

Square-Enix, CD Projekt Red, Remedy, Capcom, Take-Two, FromSoftware, in my humble opinion, are all viable candidates for Sony to expand with, that all have great IPs and revenue streams that are rife for transmedia expansions. I am not saying that Sony would buy all of them, but I could see some combination of these names being purchased in the next 18 months or so.

 

[Varteras]

I mean, goes back to what we were saying in that thread, but in a broader sense on where Sony itself sees Playstation in their corporate and profit-generating portfolio. Right now, Sony, specifically Playstation, has that Midas touch. The movie business is doing better, the games business is doing great, and now their transmedia approach is paying dividends.

It makes sense to go ahead and cut off some underperforming groups or groups who just don't fit in with the larger direction that the company has been heading in for awhile now. It doesn't sound like Sony Financial was an exactly cheap endeavor, either. I'm not quite sure how much Sony Financial is bringing in relative to Playstation, but its quite obvious that increasing their creative output capacity is going to be something they need to do for the foreseeable future. As safe of an investment strategy as any executive group could possibly make given the market factors Sony are working with.

Just to add to this - a few of these are out of date from Keighley's breakdown, which was done in the wake of the ATVI deal. Capcom and Take-Two are both worth more now than they were then. The Saudi investment into Capcom would put the value of the company at or near the $10b range.

I really don't find Sony purchasing Take-Two a far-fetched notion, especially given what they are doing in leaning the company down in other areas to focus in on what is essentially transmedia IP creation and distribution across multiple medias (Music/Games/TV/Film). Whether or (most likely) not the ATVI deal goes through, Sony still needs to secure a revenue stream that is on par with CoD, minus the threat of being bought out. With MS still wanting to pursue the ATVI to its ultimate end no matter what, its really going to handcuff their ability to secure any more purchases, meaning MS wouldn't be able to drive up the price for any potential M&A offer Sony could make in the current environment.

Square-Enix, CD Projekt Red, Remedy, Capcom, Take-Two, in my humble opinion, are all viable candidates for Sony to expand with. I am not saying that they'd buy all of them, but I could see some combination of these names being purchased in the next 18 months or so.

Obviously any of those purchases, save for maybe Remedy, would likely face significant regulatory scrutiny. As well they should. But how likely do you find any of them blocked? I believe you did point out that regulators don't seem phased by the console business as Nintendo has shown a viable competitive strategy without big franchises like CoD or GTA. But I believe we spoke in the context of Sony buying Square Enix. Not something as large as Take-Two.

Further, do you feel that Sony will hit a point any time soon where they are satisfied with their pipelines or could we see them in a perpetual expansion mode for, just to toss a number out, 10 years or so?

 

[Thirty7ven]

Sony buying a company like Lionsgate is more likely than buying Take Two.

 

[SneakersSO]

Obviously any of those purchases, save for maybe Remedy, would likely face significant regulatory scrutiny. As well they should. But how likely do you find any of them blocked? I believe you did point out that regulators don't seem phased by the console business as Nintendo has shown a viable competitive strategy without big franchises like CoD or GTA. But I believe we spoke in the context of Sony buying Square Enix. Not something as large as Take-Two.

Further, do you feel that Sony will hit a point any time soon where they are satisfied with their pipelines or could we see them in a perpetual expansion mode for, just to toss a number out, 10 years or so?

Honestly, after reading loads of the opinions on regulators regarding Console SLC in the wake of the ATVI merger, and notes on what happened with Bethesda, I truly do not believe Sony would face much of any significant pushback from regulators should they try to purchase any of the companies I have listed.

I do not see a scenario where Sony buys Take-Two, for example, and then turns around and makes GTA6 PS-exclusive. It'll come out on PC in the same timetable that Rockstar already releases there. And as long as publishers feel that releasing on Xbox is viable, they would allow Take-Two to keep releasing their output on there. Most importantly, Sony has evidence of behaving precisely like that with their M&A strategy, whereas MS does not. So the likelihood, in my opinion, that any of these would be blocked by regulators should Sony go for it is almost impossible, unless Sony starts becoming an OS developer, a network services provider, or a services company who sells access to their output exclusively through services.

As for when Sony would want to stop consolidating? I mean, the market is still very much in a consolidation phase, even with the unlikelihood of ATVI going through. Sony more than most others has seen just how lucrative transmedia expansions can be for their gaming IP. And although they are going to have some questionable output later this year (Twisted Metal), there is no reason to think we won't see sophisticated attempts out of the Horizon show (Netflix) or GoW show (Amazon Prime), or any of the stuff they have planned for their other IP.

To speak to this from a larger industry perspective for a moment, transmedia IP expansion in games is something they've yearned for for years but have only now found solid attempts at reaching out beyond games for revenue. What I mean by that is, games take increasingly long to make right now. 3-5 year dev cycles for AAA is the norm, and although AI will probably help curb that somewhat in the next 5 years or so, theres still the reality of all that time spent making a game is time the IP is not generating income; transmedia expansions allow publishers to make money during a game's development, whether by boosting sales of legacy titles or generating revenue from the transmedia content itself.

So for someone like Sony, they now have far more added incentive to increase the production capacity in the games space, in a way that they've never had before. This is a strikingly different reason than why MS expanded their studio portfolio for, which was to ensure content into GamePass in order to sustain growth rates and stem their outrageously high user churn rate.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

Obviously any of those purchases, save for maybe Remedy, would likely face significant regulatory scrutiny. As well they should. But how likely do you find any of them blocked? I believe you did point out that regulators don't seem phased by the console business as Nintendo has shown a viable competitive strategy without big franchises like CoD or GTA. But I believe we spoke in the context of Sony buying Square Enix. Not something as large as Take-Two.

Further, do you feel that Sony will hit a point any time soon where they are satisfied with their pipelines or could we see them in a perpetual expansion mode for, just to toss a number out, 10 years or so?

SIE just hasn't grown very quickly. Obviously, the PS3 hasn't helped, but their business model though far superior to Microsoft's is just extremely limited. The revenue in gaming right now isn't in console gaming, it's in mobile, and eventually, it may be in the cloud.

That isn't to say that you should eschew console gaming, but the reality is that Sony doesn't make much money from selling their box. That could change with the PS5 Slim (or I could be wrong and they'll continue selling it at a loss). But imagine the PS5 Slim at cost is 400 and they continue to sell it for 500. Over the course of two years, that would be 4 billion dollars in profit less tax, maybe even more if PS5 starts averaging 25 million per year. Could be as much as 5 billion dollars less tax (and more if they can further reduce costs).

You release PS5 Pro with similar margins in order to keep overall PS5 sales high and software sales high as the generation continues.

If I'm the Sony board and I'm looking at an acquisition that would entirely change my company, T2 is 23 billion in market cap, sony is 123 billion in market cap. You're going to look at what T2 can do for you that no other company can and it just checks ALL boxes and with big check marks.

How many of these companies gives Sony an immediate mobile presence? I've been saying for a while but Sony has to transform as platform holder on Consoles, PC, Mobile, and the Cloud in order to fully maximize their revenues in the gaming space. T2 does that. Square Enix, Capcom, Sega, CDPR, FromSoftware don't.

With massively increased revenue and more importantly operating income, you can start to buy some of these smaller publishers as well. The reason Sony can't do that now is because their operating income has always been so limited.

They need to model themselves in gaming after Disney who massively grew their market cap in just 10 years.

Their market cap in in 2009 was as low as 30 billion dollars and then they bought marvel, and then they bought star wars, and then they bought fox. They could afford to buy Fox because of their Star Wars and MCU money.

Sony Pictures could have bought either of those two and didn't.

Sony Pictures is entirely dependent on Spider-Man as it lost Bond and Jumanji probably isn't going to have legs. Adding franchises from SIE and T2 would change that for them. You either expand aggressively, or you watch others eat your lunch.

If Sony buys T2, leverages them in mobile, PC, cloud, pictures, and continue to expand in console, they'll probably double in size in the next 5-10 years.

I get why people say look at Square Enix, but Square Enix doesn't change ANYTHING for Sony and Sony can buy them once they're larger. Right now the don't move the needle. If Sony bought T2 and lost 3rd party support from every publisher being bought out and foreclosed, SIE + T2 could survive without any other 3rd party support.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

Sony buying a company like Lionsgate is more likely than buying Take Two.

Lionsgate is worth 2.4 billion dollars, their best franchises are Twilight and Hunger Games, both of which have seen their value diminish.

John Wick is at Chapter 4... and Keanu Reeves is 58 years old.

Lionsgate isn't a good buy. If Sony wanted to buy Lionsgate, they wouldn't need to divest from their financial group to do it.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

Honestly, after reading loads of the opinions on regulators regarding Console SLC in the wake of the ATVI merger, and notes on what happened with Bethesda, I truly do not believe Sony would face much of any significant pushback from regulators should they try to purchase any of the companies I have listed.

I do not see a scenario where Sony buys Take-Two, for example, and then turns around and makes GTA6 PS-exclusive. It'll come out on PC in the same timetable that Rockstar already releases there. And as long as publishers feel that releasing on Xbox is viable, they would allow Take-Two to keep releasing their output on there. Most importantly, Sony has evidence of behaving precisely like that with their M&A strategy, whereas MS does not. So the likelihood, in my opinion, that any of these would be blocked by regulators should Sony go for it is almost impossible, unless Sony starts becoming an OS developer, a network services provider, or a services company who sells access to their output exclusively through services.

As for when Sony would want to stop consolidating? I mean, the market is still very much in a consolidation phase, even with the unlikelihood of ATVI going through. Sony more than most others has seen just how lucrative transmedia expansions can be for their gaming IP. And although they are going to have some questionable output later this year (Twisted Metal), there is no reason to think we won't see sophisticated attempts out of the Horizon show (Netflix) or GoW show (Amazon Prime), or any of the stuff they have planned for their other IP.

To speak to this from a larger industry perspective for a moment, transmedia IP expansion in games is something they've yearned for for years but have only now found solid attempts at reaching out beyond games for revenue. What I mean by that is, games take increasingly long to make right now. 3-5 year dev cycles for AAA is the norm, and although AI will probably help curb that somewhat in the next 5 years or so, theres still the reality of all that time spent making a game is time the IP is not generating income; transmedia expansions allow publishers to make money during a game's development, whether by boosting sales of legacy titles or generating revenue from the transmedia content itself.

So for someone like Sony, they now have far more added incentive to increase the production capacity in the games space, in a way that they've never had before. This is a strikingly different reason than why MS expanded their studio portfolio for, which was to ensure content into GamePass in order to sustain growth rates and stem their outrageously high user churn rate.

Sony can't buy Marvel Studios, it's too late for that, but they can make PlayStation Productions the next Marvel Studios, and that is only enhanced by buying T2 and taking GTA, Red Dead, Bioshock, and Mafia into TV, Movies, and Animation.

I think the consolidation goes a long way after this. And I agree based on what regulators have said, other than MAYBE the FTC, I don't see anyone blocking this. It's a significantly smaller company than Activision and the concerns in Cloud don't exist. Sony at worst can probably get away with affirming GTA6 will release on Xbox and PC, and the numbers and behavior Sony already exhibits will back that. NBA 2K, WWE 2K, and Tiger Woods 2K would remain on Xbox as well.

I think Red Dead 3 may end up exclusive though (PS5 and PC).

Regulators will obviously probe this, but they'll find little reason to block it outright.

They could also use the tech from GTA6 to make another Getaway game. But regardless you have a steady stream of content and we haven't even touched on Zynga. This deal would be Sony buying their future from future foreclosures from Microsoft and others.

I think before or after this, Sony still goes after FromSoftware and MAYBE eventually Square Enix. Outside of that, you're probably eating into your own sales and royalty revenue. Depending on profitability in the next 10 years, maybe you look at buying Warner Bros Discovery if their books are better balanced and Max becomes profitable.

 

[Heisenberg007]

Good point, but I think this maybe about a big acquisition.
Sony considers financial services spinoff and listing, shares surge; BofA positive on growth
"We have a positive impression of Sony’s corporate strategy meeting held on 18 May morning. This is because Sony 1) announced that it is considering partially spinning off the financial services business, which has few synergies with other businesses, 2) said that the scale of its in-house non-consolidated business is lacking compared with global competitors, so it could take active steps to close that gap, such as M&As in the future," the analysts said.

According to Geoff Keighley, these are some potential acquisitions and their market cap.


According to Sony's latest financial reports, the company has $14.41 B in cash and cash equivalents.
With $14.41B, Sony could aquire 3-4 of the smaller studios. No need to sell off the Financial Services.

Geoff Keighley again, said he heard there are a few other big video game deals in final stages of negotiations.


Sony is selling off the financial services to raise funds for mergers and acquisitions. So this is more likely for a big acquisition.

Playstation is Sony’s most important sector. It helps generate revenue in all the other sectors.

Sony maybe looking at increasing Playstation's dominance to increase revenue in all these sectors.
Only acquisition that would cause Sony to take these kind of steps is Take-Two with GTA & Red Dead series.

Excellent post. Just would like to add one thing.

The 'Games' segment represents 3.65 trillion. But with the new synergies that Sony is looking to create, this should be viewed as an even bigger "entertainment" segment that's not just worth 3.65 trillion but is instead worth 6.4 trillion (3.65 + 2.75).

This change in approach and mindset is the final push Sony needed to go for these big acquisitions, I believe.

 

[Heisenberg007]

Could be possible or some kind of unknown deal.

All I know is Sony is going to want to keep this legacy going.

There is a mid-to-strong possibility at this point that GTA 6 may be a PS5 exclusive (timed or permanent).

If GTA becomes like a Final Fantasy (which doesn't release on Xbox), and Sony later buys Take-Two, how much of a problem GTA's potential exclusivity on Xbox will be for regulators?

A game that already didn't release on Xbox may not release on Xbox if Sony acquired Take-Two?

1-2 years of this and Sony buys Take Two after that ... I think the regulators won't have much issue especially if Sony releases statements like they did with Bungie.

If the assumption of Sony wanting Take-Two is true, I expect some form of noticeable PlayStation exclusivity attached to GTA 6. Jim Ryan's name-dropping GTA in the 2020 showcase and opening their biggest show this generation with GTA were also signs in hindsight.

 

[bitbydeath]

Depending on profitability in the next 10 years, maybe you look at buying Warner Bros Discovery if their books are better balanced and Max becomes profitable.

Buying Warner before DC takes off/reboots under James Gunn could also be beneficial despite the debt that comes with it.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

Buying Warner before DC takes off under James Gunn could also be beneficial despite the debt that comes with it.

I don't see anything taking off under James Gunn, but you'll see that coming with the first couple of releases, which should hopefully go to the reduction of debt as well.

 

[bitbydeath]

I don't see anything taking off under James Gunn, but you'll see that coming with the first couple of releases, which should hopefully go to the reduction of debt as well.

Many thought the same about Marvel as well. I’m just saying it’s not something you want to arrive late on.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

Many thought the same about Marvel as well. I’m just saying it’s not something you want to arrive late on.

I think when you get into WBD, that's when you're going to face some regulatory scrutiny. Sony Pictures and WBD combined would be massive and the industry is already quite consolidated.

We'll see though. I just don't see them jumping into it right away, though the success of The Last of Us does support their partnership with HBO and the success of Hogwarts Legacy and the promise of future movies and tv goes a long way as well.

Wouldn't be surprised, just think T2 is a much better fit for the price and synergies. The debt for WBD is staggering.

I do think it would complicate things with Marvel's Spider-Man, Marvel's Wolverine, and Street Fighter though. Those relationships basically end as a result.

 

[XesqueVara]

In a couple of years, Sony will be closer to a Trillion dollar company.

Sony being on Nikkei locks them of achieving that.

 

[Fabieter]

Sony being on Nikkei locks them of achieving that.

Yea! It's the same for Samsung. As an American company they would probably have the same value as apple.

 

[Markio128]

Speaking of Rockstar, what the hell happened to The Agent? Like that game, I think an acquisition seems like a pipe-dream.

 

[Shi11]

Less than Netflix? Damn

 

[Jen_yakzua]

There is a mid-to-strong possibility at this point that GTA 6 may be a PS5 exclusive (timed or permanent).

If GTA becomes like a Final Fantasy (which doesn't release on Xbox), and Sony later buys Take-Two, how much of a problem GTA's potential exclusivity on Xbox will be for regulators?

A game that already didn't release on Xbox may not release on Xbox if Sony acquired Take-Two?

1-2 years of this and Sony buys Take Two after that ... I think the regulators won't have much issue especially if Sony releases statements like they did with Bungie.

If the assumption of Sony wanting Take-Two is true, I expect some form of noticeable PlayStation exclusivity attached to GTA 6. Jim Ryan's name-dropping GTA in the 2020 showcase and opening their biggest show this generation with GTA were also signs in hindsight.

I do remember that they had that board meeting in 2020 that had analysts buyin up stock

 

[Mibu no ookami]

Sony is in a different position than MS though. The marketshare argument that doesn't work against MS could possibly work against Sony, which is fairly dominant rn.

I think that might be true of Activision who is TWICE as large as TakeTwo, but I don't think that would be true of TakeTwo for Sony.

I think you're caught up in wishful thinking. Sony's best future isn't to leverage debt up to 25% of their market cap to buy one company.

I don't think it's wishful thinking, and again you're misreading it.

They wouldn't have to leverage debt up to 25% of their market cap. Sony's market cap is 123 billion dollars. If they had 0 dollars in cash and did 0 stock, a deal entirely funded by debt would be a 30 billion dollar loan.

That would represent 24.3% of their market cap, but I don't think anyone is suggesting that be the case.

First, they have cash and second, they can do a stock deal.

They considered buying Fox for 50 million dollars, how do you suppose they were going to do that?

 

[Baki]

Yea! It's the same for Samsung. As an American company they would probably have the same value as apple.

Samsung would not be a 2 trillion company but would certainly be closer to a trillion or at least more valuable than Nvidia.

 

[nosoynadie22]

Until recently I didn't know this existed. Do you know if it was a successful business or it was like their mobile division and barely surviving?

It is curious how diverse Sony Corp is, I know they achieved it through acquisitions but it is an electronics company that entered the film, music and video game industry with great success.
They also developed a car with Honda. If this is successful, I wouldn't be surprised if they bought Honda and fully entered the automotive industry.

Is there a better example of unrelated diversification than Sony? How many unknown businesses does Sony have?

 

[ReBurn]

Until recently I didn't know this existed. Do you know if it was a successful business or it was like their mobile division and barely surviving?

It is curious how diverse Sony Corp is, I know they achieved it through acquisitions but it is an electronics company that entered the film, music and video game industry with great success.
They also developed a car with Honda. If this is successful, I wouldn't be surprised if they bought Honda and fully entered the automotive industry.

Is there a better example of unrelated diversification than Sony? How many unknown businesses does Sony have?

Sony is a public company. They don't have any unknown businesses.

 

[bitbydeath]

Until recently I didn't know this existed. Do you know if it was a successful business or it was like their mobile division and barely surviving?

It is curious how diverse Sony Corp is, I know they achieved it through acquisitions but it is an electronics company that entered the film, music and video game industry with great success.
They also developed a car with Honda. If this is successful, I wouldn't be surprised if they bought Honda and fully entered the automotive industry.

Is there a better example of unrelated diversification than Sony? How many unknown businesses does Sony have?

Everything’s listed out in their financial reports.

 

[nosoynadie22]

Sony is a public company. They don't have any unknown businesses.

sorry, I meant little known by common people

 

[vivftp]

sorry, I meant little known by common people

Have you heard about their adult toy business? I'm keeping an eye on the DildoStation 6 that should penetrate the market next year.

 

[Raonak]

sorry, I meant little known by common people

I hear sony have an undisclosed animal breeding program.

I keep hearing the phrase sony ponies and wonder if it's just the tip of the iceberg.

 

[pasterpl]

Sony doubling down on playstation is always a good thing.

More Money for these GaaS games.

 

[Hudo]

what the hell happened to The Agent?

Incompetent project management, most likely.

 

[Kerotan]

What sort of number's would this business sell for? With MS buying Bethesda and soon Activision (call of duty) Sony have responded with Bungie. While that's nice and something like From Software would be too they'll need to own something that rivals COD and that's GTA.

If they don't buy R* MS in 5 or 10 years probably will and at that point Sony could be in trouble. If it costs them 30BN they should do it and selling off part of their business will no doubt help.

 

[Audiophile]

Sony buying T2 wouldn't just be a case of gaining a major revenue stream and some direction over their franchise management but it might make for a good bargaining chip with MS/Xbox..

Sony offers to keep GTA/RDR multiplat indefinitely in return for MS keeping COD multiplat indefinitely..?!

Many games in this space could go exclusive to one platform or the other, but I think GTA, RDR & COD (plus sport franchises) are the only ones the industry and consumers would find really hard to swallow going exclusive. I think its in everyone's they stay as widely available as possible (within any given console generation).