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[reksveks]

EA's market cap is only ~$38 billion.

The fundamental issue with EA is that's its biggest property is a licensed sports game.

If Sony buys EA, do you really believe that Fifa would allow the game to be exclusive to PS platforms?

Also wasn't there stories about Fifa trying to shop around the license to multiple publishers or at least unhappy with the negotiations with EA?

EA does however bring a decent mobile segment if I remember correctly.

 

[Kagey K]

I had to join the fun.

Sony is just going to buy more music rights, and playstation fans on twitter are going to go bananas.

Bryant75 where are youuuuuuu

I wish we could get Bryank75 unbanned for one last post just so we could see his take on this situation.

 

[e0n]

How big is WB Games? Seems like a good get with MK, Lego, etc.

 

[Warablo]

CD projekt red, Io interactive, Techland

 

[Gameplaylover]

I wish we could get Bryank75 unbanned for one last post just so we could see his take on this situation.

I hacked his webcam:

 

[Orpheum]

Let Sony buy From Software and continue the meltdowns.

A more serious prediction is definitely Square Enix.

 

[Oddvintagechap]

I wish we could get Bryank75 unbanned for one last post just so we could see his take on this situation.

It’s a must.

“Andrew House wouldnt let this happen!”

He would have bought TAKE TWO and SEGA on a fucking wednesday!

 

[Oddvintagechap]

Their market cap says otherwise.

And MS paid like 30% over market cap for Activision.

Microsoft got a sexual harassment discount.

Microsoft paid the market price before the Wall Street Journal article about Activision. I have no idea why Activision sold at a low.

But hell no EA isnt worth anywhere close as much as Activision. Most certainly, not more.

 

[I Love Rock 'n' Roll]

EA and Take2 by MS.

 

[Ass of Can Whooping]

Warner Bros or Ubi for MS

Square or Capcom for Sony makes the most sense. They have additional leverage they can use with them

 

[mansoor1980]

everyone has a price

 

[ACESHIGH]

i hope someone buys Konami, all those IPs they have should be revived.

 

[Max Payne’s Baretta]

Sony can easily buy Capcom or Sega, even both.

Hell they can buy Take2.

They can’t buy EA, they are involved in the Music Wars right now.

Take two after Zynga would be around ~30b , would fetch upwards of 45-50 in a sell off. Sony can’t do that. But Microsoft …

 

[Mattyp]

Their market cap says otherwise.

And MS paid like 30% over market cap for Activision.

No they paid unders, their stock has tanked since this sexual harassment shit. They got a bargain if anything.

Was over $100 USD down to $58USD, the shares are already back up to $82 at this news they bought at $95 per share cheaper than what the company was trading at less than a year ago.

 

[UnNamed]

Sony should buy Capcom for the games and Square for gatchas.

 

[Buki1]

It also bears mentioning that some countries, like France or Japan have protectionist policies in place that make it hard for foreign companies to buy them.

Yeah, in France it is specially in terms of culture. Ubi is French foot in the door of global gaming, gov will most likely try to block buying Ubi by Americans.

 

[BattleScar]

Ubisoft is an easy one for MS. Fuck man, all those IP's. Far Cry, Division, Rainbow Six??

Then there's EA too. Not sure where they're valued at but Phil with daddy Satya's credit card is dangerous prospect for Sony and Nintendo if they keep going at it like this.


I can see them buying EA but not Take Two. Surely there's no fucking way they'll get Take Two but then we live in weird times.

But yeah Call of Duty and GTA under Xbox is crazy. I'll volunteer to clean out Jim Ryan's office myself.

Why would you fire someone over something they have no control over.

If Microsoft buys EA, Take two, Ubisoft. That's a monopoly. And if antitrust don't prevent that level of consolidation I'll officially be done with gaming.

 

[TrebleShot]

Looking at the trend set by these acquisitions MS will target a company who’s stock is on the downturn and franchises have soured or gone a bit stale.

Based off of that I think they will purchase BOTH of EA and Ubisoft, both can be acquired for less than Activision combined.

EA recently lost the rights to use FIFA branding and don’t seem to be too panicked into getting it back, BF2042 is an unmitigated disaster and their next biggest franchise Madden is a US focused game with limited pull worldwide I think they will be next in a similar big move.

Next up Ubisoft, their biggest franchise Assasins Creed is at an all time low with Valhalla being ultimate cookie clutter game and FarCry being a very similar rinse and repeat job, considering the relatively low cost of taking them on I think they’ll look into a swift acquisition.

Hoovering up all the content studios is essential to a streaming platform where content is king therefore I think it’s extremely likely these will be next.

Sony won’t focus on large acquisitions, if anything I can see some strategic partnerships being written up for significant money with square for example, their focus will be in their first party which is industry leading and no amount of mergers and large takeovers will stop them producing the kind of content and quality most people want.

Essentially Sony turns into Nintendo 2.0.

 

[Leyasu]

I said it in another thread, Take 2 would turn into a bidding war. Nobody wants to lose GTA and everybody would want to keep it.

An exclusive GTA would be the crown jewel and is worth millions of hardware sales and everything that comes with people buying into your ecosystem. Take 2 investors must wondering when someone comes knocking and just how big will their payouts be

 

[mansoor1980]

take-2 is next in line surely .

 

[SkylineRKR]

Sony doesn't really have to purchase publishers. They have a steady supply of content delivery, something MS is lacking and tries to make up for with these aqcuisitions. Thats what Spencer said after the Bethesda deal. At worst they turn into a Nintendo, delivering a core gaming experience while MS is all Meta.

But I wonder if such a deal can backfire. I mean EA was always battling Activision, they're now an MS subsidiary. Their Battlefield has to combat CoD on the MS ecosystem while the latter is Microsoft owned. EA could flock to Sony in response. I don't know whats going to happen.

 

[NahaNago]

Sony isn't buying any large gaming company. I wish they would but that isn't their style. I can still see Microsoft acquiring a couple more studios but probably something smaller.

 

[RJMacready73]

Sony isn't buying any large gaming company. I wish they would but that isn't their style. I can still see Microsoft acquiring a couple more studios but probably something smaller.

Why? Sony go for individual studios that fit with the current Sony ethos, they don't have the sheer purchasing power as MS nor would i imagine the board would agree to these types of purchases if they did, Sony is all about talented studios making original exclusive games (well Playstation first then PC) rather than hoovering up existing i.p.'s

 

[Cyborg]

For ~70B this would have been a better deal

EA: $38B
Take Two: $18B
Nexon: $15B

 

[Little Chicken]

I absolutely think MS will angle for a Japanese publisher, it's the only hole in their portfolio. SEGA is most likely because it's low-hanging fruit, but I think they'd go after Square Enix or Capcom.

 

[Stuart360]

If Microsoft buys EA, Take two, Ubisoft. That's a monopoly. And if antitrust don't prevent that level of consolidation I'll officially be done with gaming.

Well thats not going to happen, but if it did you would rather quit gaming than just buy an Xbox?

 

[NahaNago]

Why? Sony go for individual studios that fit with the current Sony ethos, they don't have the sheer purchasing power as MS nor would i imagine the board would agree to these types of purchases if they did, Sony is all about talented studios making original exclusive games (well Playstation first then PC) rather than hoovering up existing i.p.'s

I get that but if your competition is evolving(gamepass) and buying every studio under the sun while you are slowly expanding and looking for studios that are good fit don't be surprised when your competition straight up crushes you. With that said Sony still has like a little less than 2 years before Microsoft starts going ham on them. Sony could still make some moves but they always go in weird directions when they do make a move half the time.

I absolutely think MS will angle for a Japanese publisher, it's the only hole in their portfolio. SEGA is most likely because it's low-hanging fruit, but I think they'd go after Square Enix or Capcom.

Yeah, I can see something like that happening.

 

[VAVA Mk2]

Why would you fire someone over something they have no control over.

If Microsoft buys EA, Take two, Ubisoft. That's a monopoly. And if antitrust don't prevent that level of consolidation I'll officially be done with gaming.

Microsoft already has a contract for EA Play on GamePass. That is all they need. My money is UbiSoft and Sega or Take Two and Sega. Sega is nothing in terms of price and has a lot of good IPs MS could potentially revive. They already have hinted at it and have a partnership.

 

[RJMacready73]

I get that but if your competition is evolving(gamepass) and buying every studio under the sun while you are slowly expanding and looking for studios that are good fit don't be surprised when your competition straight up crushes you. With that said Sony still has like a little less than 2 years before Microsoft starts going ham on them. Sony could still make some moves but they always go in weird directions when they do make a move half the time.

Yeah, I can see something like that happening.

Crushes Sony in what? Studio numbers? that's not a great metric.. people will flock where the quality is not quantity and Sony appears to be putting quality first and picking studios that fit its eco system, no doubt Sony are cooking up their own competitor but with hardware sales on both PS4 & PS5 dwarfing Xbox and Sony moving into the PC space, i wouldn't count them out just yet, remember Sony can also draw on a huge back catalogue of existing i.p's throughout the playstations life to bolster numbers on its eventual gamepass competitor, not to mention its other branches in television and movies.

Its an interesting turn of events thats for sure, who knows this acquisition by MS is probably nothing to do with competition from Sony and more to do with Amazon/Google/Apple who it probably sees as a future threat

 

[Ozrimandias]

I really can't understand why Konami is worth more than Capcom or Square Enix.

Konami's value is in its IPs, But their development teams are diminished, Square and Capcom teams on the other hand are full, seems more logic to go in that direction.

 

[oldergamer]

For ~70B this would have been a better deal

EA: $38B
Take Two: $18B
Nexon: $15B

that isn't what those companies would sell for. It would be a lot more. Also they don't appear to be for sale.

 

[Kokoloko85]

Playstations buys another unknown PC porting studios while MS buys the rest of the industry….

Whatever side you support it kinda sucks having 1 company own and control all the IP’s you love

 

[rofif]

MS buys Ubisoft

hahaha they can have their shitty games

 

[Tickonsociety]

Square Enix, Capcom, Sega, and eventually Take Two would make the most sense for sony in my humble opinion

 

[NahaNago]

Crushes Sony in what? Studio numbers? that's not a great metric.. people will flock where the quality is not quantity and Sony appears to be putting quality first and picking studios that fit its eco system, no doubt Sony are cooking up their own competitor but with hardware sales on both PS4 & PS5 dwarfing Xbox and Sony moving into the PC space, i wouldn't count them out just yet, remember Sony can also draw on a huge back catalogue of existing i.p's throughout the playstations life to bolster numbers on its eventual gamepass competitor, not to mention its other branches in television and movies.

Its an interesting turn of events thats for sure, who knows this acquisition by MS is probably nothing to do with competition from Sony and more to do with Amazon/Google/Apple who it probably sees as a future threat

Microsoft were already nearly comparable in my opinion to Sony after they bought Bethesda with their studios. A large number of average or not so average exclusive games on gamepass can trump the 3 $70 games Sony would release in a year. That was pretty much Sony's playbook during the ps3 era except for the gamepass part. I don't have much faith on Sony drawing on their back catalogue of ips. They tend to only release a couple a gen just to garner some nostalgic hype. What did they have last gen. I think it was Medieval and shadow of the colossus. Plus most of the nostalgic games for playstation are third party games. Which is why they should have tried for at least one large acquistion.

 

[Beechos]

I personally cant wait till ms vision is realized right now everything is so easy and painless. I got 2 series x, series s, gaming pc and mobile. I can switch between any device and continue playing my game.

 

[CatLady]

I'd like to see Xbox buy the western division of Square and Sony can have the weeb division. I suspect MS would love to buy a Japanese publisher, but it would be far more difficult for them than it would be for Sony money notwithstanding. Personally, I'm good with that since I have no interest in Japanese games.

My personal wishes for the next Xbox acquisition aside, I think if they are going to buy more big publishers, WB is the most likely.

 

[Fare thee well]

All hail the monocorp

o n e c o r p f o r a l l !

 

[The Incarnation]

Pretty sure a lot of sporting licenses EA have attained have the requirement of being multiplatform.

Wish the NHL would do that as well regarding the PC.

 

[assurdum]

Playstations buys another unknown PC porting studios while MS buys the rest of the industry….

Whatever side you support it kinda sucks having 1 company own and control all the IP’s you love

Let's see the bright side: Sony is obligated to build new ip and innovate. No more excuses to stay stagnate to the old ones. MS to the other side..

 

[tmlDan]

I don’t get Sonys logic in terms of buying old music artists catalogues at stupid numbers

I get the music rights and royalties for life part but $500 million for a bunch of old songs is a pretty big stretch on return on investment and then you factor in the artist could go on a coke and hooker binge and be cancelled by social media it’s a pretty big risk

I get what you're saying but trust me - these artists/owners charge out the ass for music.

It may be old, but you'll notice that it'll be used in TV ads, movies and licensed out to make big bucks. Music in TV ads cost a shit ton to license.

$500M seems like a lot but over time i wouldn't be surprised if they make a profit from that amount over time.

 

[Vognerful]

Microsoft acquiring another company?! You are not thinking big enough.

Phil has one target in mind

 

[Badlucktroll]

Realistically, i don’t think Sony is going to do anything, and there is no point on fantasizing about it, but i could see them maybe picking up From, Square Enix, and Take Two.

 

[BennyBlanco]

People act like every publisher wants to sell and only platform holders want to buy. Activision was MS being opportunistic and buying when they were in the middle of a PR shitstorm. Bethesda was doing bad financially. Ubisoft fought a hostile takeover tooth and nail from Vivendi.

I think Amazon/Tencent/FB are way more likely to make huge splashy moves over Sony.

 

[yurinka]

I don't see Sony making a big acquisition. They don't need to do it:

• MS gaming revenue -now with ABK- will continue being under Sony revenue even if they continue publishing all their Activision games on PS (at least some of them will be exclusive)
• Sony has the double of the market share in console hardware over MS
• Sony makes way more console game revenue
• If Spartacus is real, merging Plus & Now means their game sub with have the double of subs of the MS one
• Each CoD sells 20-30M units, and if we assume around half or less of them on PS, we have that these 10-15M or less CoD fans are around 10% or less of the 120M PS4 owners
• If PS loses CoD, a good chunk of these PS CoD fans won't care and will continue with PS. They will play other games instead or they may also have an Xbox or PC and will play CoD outside PS, but will continue with PS
• Part of these sales came from marketings or exclusivity deals with Sony, that now Sony will spend in other top publishers instead so party won't lose part of the related sales
• The main revenue source of Sony is their console, so PC focused stuff like Blizzard or mobile focused stuff won't affect them. Both their main revenue source and their plans for these (for them) secondary revenue platforms
• Sony will have new unaffected secondary revenue/profit sources, as the movies, tv shows, PC ports or VR
• Sony has been highly growing the manpower of their internal studios, plus making aquisitions and new 2nd party deals. This would result on increasing the PS Studios output
• They already have a number of 3rd party exclusive and according to Jimbo they will have more than ever in PS5. Since most exclusives always are 3rd party, means they will have more 3rd party exclusives than ever
• To buy a company, that company has to want to sell. ABK very likely saw an opportunity of using an acquisition to avoid the PR shitstorm since now they would say they improved a lot (while their investors would earn a ton of money). Bethesda probably became too big and didn't have a huge hit since Skyrim and Fallout 4 while ago, so maybe needed to sell to get money. All these other candidates to be acquired don't seem to be on a position of wanting or needing to sell their company.

So I expect Sony to continue making 'smaller' acquisitions specially partners who previously did work on multiple PS exclusives (Kojipro, Kadokawa, ARC, Arrowhead, Quantic Dream, some other porting or outsourcing studio...) or that may help them in some strategical areas where they want to expand and where maybe don't have enough expertise. And example would be a company focused in mobile/PC F2P.

Unlike MS Sony doesn't need to buy huge IPs or a lot of dev teams. They basically need manpower, secure partners and expand in places like China, Russia, India an Korea and basically via PC F2P, mobile and movies, plus continuing with their current plans and strategy on console.

 

[BattleScar]

Microsoft already has a contract for EA Play on GamePass. That is all they need. My money is UbiSoft and Sega or Take Two and Sega. Sega is nothing in terms of price and has a lot of good IPs MS could potentially revive. They already have hinted at it and have a partnership.

That would still be an effective monopoly, so I hope it doesn't happen.

 

[Warnen]

sega

 

[BattleScar]

Well thats not going to happen, but if it did you would rather quit gaming than just buy an Xbox?

Yes. I will in no way support a monopoly. I'm happy enough playing older games.

 

[Riky]

Microsoft are probably looking at the more casual and mobile end of the market if they purchase anyone else, I don't think they will buy another core game publisher.
Maybe a studio like Crystal Dynamics when Perfect Dark is done.

 

[EverydayBeast]

Sony buying Konami, or Rockstar could work, imagine GTA or Metal Gear Solid (notorious PlayStation games) being exclusive to PlayStation, Microsoft fanboys in the room are falling off their chairs thinking about that scenario.