© Sony
It's done. Since last week, Activision Blizzard has officially become part of Microsoft. This is a unique event in the video games market, and we remember that Sony contested this transaction as much as it could. This exchange of arms therefore did not slow down the Redmond firm which was able to win its case. Many are now wondering how the Japanese company will react to this new situation.
Sony must not rush
The question was addressed by Gamesindustry.biz in a fascinating article. The analysts interviewed by our colleagues have a clear opinion on this subject. Thus, Serkan Toto, consultant at Kantan Games, believes that the entertainment giant will be encouraged to make a big buyout:
Sony is surely under pressure to respond, even after the Bungie takeover. I expect further investments and acquisitions from PlayStation, including something big to shake things up in a meaningful way.
Karol Severin, analyst at Midia Research, adds: “Sony has one of the most impressive content catalogs in the world. Bringing them all together under one subscription could be a solid answer to Xbox's cross-platform efforts. It will be increasingly difficult for PlayStation to compete with Xbox in games alone. And in this area, the only viable response would be the acquisition of a very large company like Take-Two, but that is unlikely”.
In fact, the parent company of Rockstar, which oversees the GTA and Red Dead Redemption franchises, is not for sale. And if that were the case, we can imagine that prices would soar as GTA 6 should be released soon.
In any case, it will be necessary to see to what extent the acquisition of Microsoft will affect Sony's business. The Japanese firm remains dominant in the console market where Xbox is pale. In addition, the new Call of Duty games will not be exclusive to the Xbox ecosystem, and PlayStation will be able to benefit from the windfall of this video game goose.
Finally, we can think that Sony will think twice before making a big buyout. The acquisition of Bungie for $3.6 billion in 2022 was not necessarily very wise, according to some analysts.
For example, Michael Pachter, a financial expert at Wedbush Securities, explained :“Bungie went for $4 million per developer. And most deals are between $250,000 and a million dollars. I've seen deals as close to, you know, as $2 million per developer. This is crazy”.
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