Jim Ryan Confirms PlayStation Isn't Done With Acquisitions Following Bungie Deal - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 01 February 2022 / 4,183 Views
Sony Interactive Entertainment today announced it is acquiring Destiny developer, Bungie, for $3.6 billion. Bungie will remain "an independent subsidiary" and will remain a multiplatform studio and will have an option "to self-publish and reach players wherever they choose to play."
Sony Interactive Entertainment boss Jim Ryan speaking with the head of GamesIndustry Christopher Dring in an interview revealed PlayStation is not done with acquisitions following the Bungie Deal.
Ryan said "We should expect more" when it comes to more PlayStation acquisition in the future.
Dring did reveal that Sony has been in talks with Bungie for about five or six months and it isn't a reaction to Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard or Take-Two's acquisition of Zynga.
The goal for Sony's acquisition of Bungie is to help grow its own abilities to release live-service, multiplatform games. Bungie will also be able to "strengthen its technical capabilities and the prospect of taking its games to movies/TV," according to Dring.
The motivation behind Sony's acquisition of Bungie is to help boost their own abilities to make live-service, multiplatform games. equally, Sony unlocks the potential to Bungie to strengthen its technical capabilities and the prospect of taking its games to movies/TV
— Christopher Dring (@Chris_Dring) January 31, 2022
And Jim Ryan told me 'We should expect more' when it comes to further PlayStation acquisitions
— Christopher Dring (@Chris_Dring) January 31, 2022
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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Why do people keep asking this question? What are they going to say really? "Nah, we're done."
Because journalist are limited people and they need to put articles to receive money as well.
Hard not to believe that it isn't in some ways a reaction to Microsoft's news but I digress.
Wonder what other studios Sony has it's eyes set on. I imagine there will be a greater Japanese presence than Microsoft. Perhaps we could seem some studio acquisitions of Square, Capcom, Konami, From, etc...
All I know is that we are in the beginning stages of an all out videogame console race. And what has always been the greatest predictor of who will come out on top (other than price and availability?)?
Exclusives!
-GAMES MATTER NINJA APPROVED-
I actually believe it is a reaction to it. I mean, they payed 3.6B for ... one IP, maybe another AAA in dev.. I think they did that to secure at least one good FPS before Microsoft grab them all and to try to have some leverage into keeping COD multiplatform (which will probably not happen anyway)
You are absolutely right :)
I meant active IP that would justify the cost, it is true that they have other IP but I would believe that it does not really matter that much in the final cost of the acquisition.
That's what I believe, while still a bit too high, the 3.6B would make a bit more sense. Also, if Microsoft was lurking around, the 3.6B was probably for a premium to outbid them too.
As I understand it, they have 900 employees. That's a 3, bigtime, AAA game studio. Destiny obviously needs a lot of people, because they have to release about 1/2 a game's worth of new content every year. So, that would probably require the same headcount as a two normal AAA games. But, there are definitely enough people to make the existing, hugely successful game, and one more AAA game every 3-5 years.
Destiny is massively valuable. It is bringing in continuous money from a large, dedicated fan base. This ain't the same as a company that puts out a game every 5 years and sells 2 DLCs and some MTX for several months after launch. Destiny is probably worth several times as much as something like that.
That^
I'm expecting this to happen, Bungie is nowhere to be the next big move from Sony. I think SE is going to be the one (and frankly, while not close to AB, it will be something similar to Bethesda), Sony needs to make this happen
No one can hesitate in this industry... Needs to happen sooner rather than later, otherwise someone else will swoop in.
Also put Capcom on the line, they realy feel like a good purchase for Playstation.
I hope not, my gut tells me that this would be really bad for the entire gaming landscape. Let them be independent.
I agree with you, but Capcom is a big fish and soon somebody will try to "make a move"... I prefer Capcom under Playstation, i would be "kinda ok" with Xbox and ... Please, anything but Nintendo. I realy hope Nintendo will stay "inert" and make no moves on japanese devs. like Capcom, Koei, level 5, Platinum, SE.... Anything but Nintendo.
But who is this "somebody"? It can only be one of the big three, and neither of them should own them. The market needs diversity more than ever now in these times when all games look and feel the same. Having a major publisher like Capcom lose its independence would only make the situation worse.
Acquisitions don’t happen overnight. The announcement might’ve been a reaction, but acquisitions take years of negotiations. .
No, just no. This is just untrue. Do you even for a public company how things changes in years? Including the stock price? Negotiation like that take between few weeks to few months maximum. There is not such thing of "years" of negotiation.
Companies may be talking or trying for years, like Bungie had many offers from MS, Activision, etc... But the decision to buy them and come up with the offer takes days or few weeks max. Never more.
"The mergers and acquisitions (M&A) process has many steps and can often take anywhere from 6 months to several years to complete." Source. Google. The lowbar of 6 months is for acquisitions on the much smaller scale, well below 1b. Let alone how much Sony bought Bungie for. So please. Next time you don't know what you are talking about, look it up or shut up.
ALSO you say "Companies may be talking or trying for years" <--- this process is known as negotiation, and is apart of the acquisition process. Like wow dude.
The intent and commitment to acquire another company can take a few minutes however.
The actual purchase does take time as you need to follow a due process... All the more complicated when you have hundreds of countries with a different process to work around... Investigations to be made, shareholders to placate... And all that other menial rubbish.
The announcement may be a reaction, the purchase not at all as these negotiations do take several months if not years.
No. It does not, for some of those (including Activision, it may take weeks, maybe months. Never years...). I'm not sure from where you are getting this. Any past acquisition (including Activision), they usually said how fast and quick decision was made, it is matter of week usually.
My company acquisition from what I know took over 2 years to have the agreement comes publicly. From what I heard while we were buying one company, there was a discussion of us being bought, and the company that bought us were discussing a merger with another company at the same time. And when you see how they all rolled out and the changes to the company and process that is very much what happened. So the whole process occured in a 3 to 4 years timeframe with multiple negotiations going at once. If you don't want to believe that is on you.
There is multiple articles going that this deal took about 6 months (with Herman saying it as well in one interview), but if you want to believe Sony done the deal in one week out of desperation to make you happier ok.
Negotiations with "many" companies may take months lol. NOT the decision process... Sony makes an offer, they have days, possibly WEEKS maximum to answer to go or not.
You have no idea how things can change in years, it would make no sense at all to take months/years for that, at the end what you agreed on would be completely different.
wow you are reaching. How often does someone have to pop your shoulder back into place?
And you still ignores the company officially saying they were in talks for like 6 months because of reasons. Again if you want to believe they reached to Bungie last Friday bought them and announced on Monday because of panic.... whatever floats your boat.
Reaction? Discussions going on for a few months. Learn to read.
Yeah, because Activision is the only purchase MS has made.
Yeah, because bungie is the only purchase Sony has made.
As far an I am aware, this might be their biggest and certainly unexpected. Maybe something motivated it?
We don't know. But Sony has purchased many studios the last year or 2.
Nothing nearly of this scale and some of those studios they purchased already worked closely with Sony.
I think its funny that people are upset this move is being called reactive. As if Sony doesn't react to MS. Playstation apparently exist in a vacuum.
All companies try to "predict" what their competitors are going to do, years, sometimes even decades in advance.
AMD for example tries to "guess" where Intel and nVidia's CPU/GPU performance is going to be based on historical trends... And of course works to equal or beat that.
And of course, that means there are reactionary measures that companies make in order to retain competitiveness. I.E Pricing, mergers, acquisitions and so forth.
If Sony didn't invest in new studios through "inorganic growth" that they derided their competitors for... Then they would simply loose a competitive edge... Which is not good for them as a business, definitely not good for the consumer.
Ubisoft seems like the next obvious target for either MS or Sony. They have a lot of great IPs and good devs they just need some imagination and ability to learn to change it up.
It was Vivendi, not Activision. Maybe you are confusing it with Vivendi Games which merged with Activision but was only a division of the parent company and had nothing to do with the takeover. By the time Vivendi tried to take over Ubisoft around 2015 they only held a minority stake in Activision Blizzard.
Well there is small difference between a hostile takeover and the company accepting to sell out. And well if it have shares on the market the board is mandated to present the propose to the shareholders and they decide if the sale goes through.
This is a question I would love someone to answer especially the ones who say Sony should buy square Enix… like why? Why waste billions on a company that isn’t gonna make any difference to Microsoft or the gamers on Xbox as does Xbox gamers really care for final fantasy that much. I been trying to find sales figures for final fantasy gamwes on Xbox n to be fair that ain’t really much to talk about even tomb raider with a year exclusive sold more on playstation so am confused .
Nintendo could also buy Square, they also make games like Dragon Quest, Octopath etc.
To avoid MS buying them and making the games leave PS, that is it basically.
Sony needs to rekindle it's exclusivity with Rockstar if they really want to make a permanent mark. Bungie is good but not the knockout punch it Sony needs.
Yes it is obvious they aren't done, as isn't MS. Actually most companies are never done with acquisitions. As long as an opportunity appears and it makes sense and have ROI for their analysis they will consider it.
Impossible, experts on this site said Sony has no games and no money.
Who said Sony has no games and no money, pray tell?
I think you're confused I don't think anyone said Sony has no games (maybe just FPS) and all that was said about money is that Sony doesn't have the money to make a 68 Billion $ acquisition.
Actually before Acti was announced, on the Zenimax purchase people said Sony could never make a purchase that size and that it is impossible for them to buy SE, Capcom or other similarly sized companies.
Market cap of publishers that Sony could theoretically afford, keeping in mind that an acquisition would have to be done at well above share price:
Ubisoft: $7 billion
Square Enix: $6 billion
Capcom: $5 billion
SegaSammy: $3 billion
Borderline but still maybe feasible;
Take-Two: $20 billion (this will go up after their new member with Zynga is complete)
Bandai Namco: $15 billion
Embracer: $10 billion
Probably not possible:
EA: $37 billion
Steam: ??? (Also likely not for sale)
Epic: $60 billion
Between 40%-50% above share price seems to be customary, for what it’s worth. So a Square Enix with a market cap of $6 billion would probably sell for around $9 billion
Indeed. How interesting would it be if Square sold its western studios and Microsoft stepped in and picked them up
Boy, the only good reason to do that is Tomb Raider. Maybe give us that Sleepy Dogs sequel we want.
Also, seems like western Square Enix is focused on Marvel content right now. Which may not be going very well. So there is always a possibility they may want to sell that off. But there are other companies buying IPs as well.
I think at some point you would have to worry about the overhead becoming too big. If MS keep drafting in thousands of developers, if one studio underperforms, we could easily see downsizing, shuttering or merging. There may well be consolidation within this consolidation that nobody is looking at. We saw how Activizion ended up basically turning all its devs into a COD factory.
It may well have been pushed even higher than that with all the recent acquisitions. I've seen one valuation put Bungie at $2 billion at the start of the year, that would indicate Sony paid around a 75% premium for them.
The $2 billion valuation figure was most likely the 2020 MS rebuying Bungie negotiations $2 billion figure that fell over due to Bungie insisting on retaining control over publishing , but consolidation of the industry by MS, Sony, Embracer, Tencent etc since then has seen studio valuations sharply rise in those 2 years
Square is probably the one they should really want to own or have a partnership with. Because that way they make sure they will have the typical JRPG's. They should secure that both Monster Hunter and Persona 6 will release on PlayStation though, even just as a port. I don't really see Microsoft buying Square, though it would do massive damage to PlayStation.
Persona is from Atlus (Sega)
Sony couldn't care less about typical JRPGs. They would care more about the big fat cash cow that is Final Fantasy XIV and the expertise with comics and movie based video games.
Koei Tecmo btw is at 5.8 billion and Capcom market cap is 6.5 billion, not 5.
I'm definitely leaning on Sony buying Square Enix, they been making so many PS exclusive game deals.
They are not done with acquisition but they are definitely not buying another big one this year. Buying any publicly traded company will become more and more difficult for Sony going forward because Sony will be scrutinized more than any other company (them being no. 1 or 2 in gaming.) If they aren't then I guess Microsoft might open its war chest for acquisition to.
It's not about who's number 1 or 2, it's about preventing monopolies. Microsoft is far closer to becoming a monopoly than Sony.
Regulators always look for monopolies on industry by industry basis. Like for example, Microsoft is a leader in Desktop OS space so they can buy any other big desktop OS. But then they are one of the smaller players in web search market so there they can buy as many search engine companies (except Google) as they can. But then they can't buy any other office suite company like Google docs because they are already a monopoly there but for gaming they can buy as many companies as they want until their market share breaches some 40% of the total gaming market. Same rule applies to Sony. They can buy as many mobile phone companies they want and even one big movie studio. But for gaming, it will become harder for them to buy a lot of big gaming companies after a point.
Yes, I was talking about the gaming space specifically. Microsoft owns so many studios and publishers soon that they will be the most scrutinized here, Sony is nowhere near that yet.
