I dont think Sony is buying a big publisher anytime soon. I dont even think they are going for smaller publishers.
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Good, Iād prefer we donāt see any more publishers get purchased by anyone. There are plenty of studios who would likely love the security and support of an acquisition.
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I canāt envision an scenario in which Sony aquires a publisher.
MS subscription business model requires a lot of content and that content is cheaper if produced in-house. Hence the need for 30+ studios.
Sonyās model is to distinguish their platform with 2-4 high quality titles every year and make money from third party sales.
How then does Sony aquire SE or Capcom and take on the responsibility of funding 8-10 new studios? Sony would need to make sure that every game is a hit. If not, these new teams go back to the drawing board ( like Bend) or close down (like Japan Studios).
Thatās a lot of risk to take when you are dealing with budgets of 100 million per game and you operate a mostly console exclusive business.
I donāt see it.
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Agree. Bungie will probably be their biggest gaming acquisition for the foreseeable future.
With the current interest rates being the highest theyāve been in quite a while, I canāt see them raising funds to make a purchase by borrowing. The one thing that I have no idea about is how many of their own shares they own because theoretically they could also use those to make a purchase. Still I think it unlikely they spend more then a couple of billion in the short term to beef up their gaming division
I know no one wants to hear this but I think Capcom would be the best bet for Sony.
First in class polish single player & multiplayer experiences in genres theyāre missing. Resident Evil, DMC, Monster Hunter, Street fighter.
Not to mention Street fighter is a big part of their fighting tournament stuff they own.
Then youāve got the film/animation partnership where Sony work with Capcom on film (Resi, Monster Hunter). Including the newly announced Resi animated film.
Only really spammers I can come up with are Legendary has the Street Fighter movie rights & my favouriteā¦ā¦ money.
Iām absolutely fine with Sony buying Capcom.
But I donāt approach a game console expecting every single release to be on that box, i.e. Iād be super happy with an industry where COD & a whole load of other shooters & western titles are on Xbox (shooters are why I play Xbox first), whilst Japanese titles & stuff like Resident Evil are on PlayStation.
Thereās no foreclosure for me from the moment Iām free to purchase both systems. And honestly, itās not like multiplatform AAA games are good for the consumer right now in terms of performance, i.e. just look at Resident Evil 4: it has image quality & performance problems on both platforms.
This is the sort of conversation about the gaming industry which regulators have never heard or taken part in, i.e. games arenāt movies or tv shows: they require curating to specific hardware to work best.
A world where games are made specifically for the target hardware is a better world for me as someone who cares about how a game runs & looks. Weāll see this when Starfield lands & itāll be a showcase for the Series X, whereas if it was releasing on the PS5 as well the performance across the board would likely be worse.
Sony has 5.1 Billion left, for the entire company, for investments. Capcom currently has a value of about 10 billion, a buy out would be somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 billion.
It is also highly unlikely that Sony as a whole is going to leverage its entire business for Playstation specific purchases.
Lastly, they are publicly traded. I donāt know how things work in Japan, but generally it entails maximizing shareholder value which means it goes to the highest bidder. If they are up for sale, they will be fielding offers from all interested parties. It is highly unlikely Sony is going to be able to compete with MS, the Saudis, or other interested large parties on the acquisition front. There is a reason they are shitting their pants about ABK, they know they arent able to compete at that level.
Its not impossible, just unlikely.
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No chance Sony buys Capcom. They canāt afford to outbid competitors. Heck they couldnāt even outbid Nintendo in a cash offer let alone other interested parties.
I personally donāt see Sony acquiring any publisher whatsoever. I do however see them acquiring more studios faster than expected as they canāt afford to wait 10/20 years like they have done in the past.
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Just because Xbox has been making moves does not mean sony have to respond. Itās funny that some folks think itās not possible for PlayStation studios to remain there current size.
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Many see Xbox buying 10 studios with Zenimax and another 10 Studios with ABK and potentially another 8-10 studios with the next publisher and think there will be an equal and opposite response from Playstation. There wonāt be.
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No one is going to overpay by an amount that Sony couldnāt afford for Capcom.
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What do you mean Sony will respond by buying all of the Japanese publishers and wonāt face any scrutiny because of their market cap compared to Microsoft. Thatās how this works, right ?
Its not about overpaying, it is about Sony not having the capital to make the best offer. The biggest players can offer full cash payouts. That isnt something Sony can offer. Sony would only reasonably be able to offer a mix of cash/stock. Or, take on debt to finance the purchase. But taking on a bunch of debt, and effectively leveraging the whole corporation, to try to keep up with the joneses in a single segment of their business isnt practical.
Theres no overpayment. Right now Capcom would go for 12 to 15 billion based on their current market cap alone. Sonyās acquisition budget for their entire company sits at 5.1 billion (lower with their recent anime company purchase). Sony doesnt even have enough cash on hand in order to make the purchase of Capcom, theyd need to take out a loan or use shares instead (which is much less attractive than cash) in a very high interest market in a struggling economy.
If you look at others, Nintendo is just as incentivized as Sony to get Capcom under their wings as a defensive acquisition and Nintendo only has their gaming business to worry about and they have more cash on hand. Thats without even considering the other companies that could make all cash offers like the Amazons, Apples, Tencents, Microsofts, etc.
Sony could surely make an offer, but they wonāt be the most attractive offers for shareholders thats for sure.
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If Capcom was interested in selling, both Microsoft and Sony would be interested. There is no indication that they are interested in selling though, which means buying them would likely be an āoffer we canāt refuseā situation.
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They would do their homework on what others would offer if they got such an offer anyways
Yes they would lol, get real.
Microsoft can easily outbid Sony if they see the value. We know Bungie was in talks with Microsoft but MS passed as the asking price was too much for them but wasnāt for Sony. The cost/benefit analysis for each company looks differently. Eg. in Bungieās case, if you already have successful in-house multiplayer shooters and are looking to acquire Call of Duty and Overwatch, Destiny 2 doesnāt significantly expand your portfolio.
Looking from outside in, Capcom would be a better get for Microsoft then for Sony, so I bet MS would be willing to outbid whatever Sony were willing to pay for Capcom.