Sony Will Acquire More Developers - Bungie is Not the End
PlayStation is going on a shopping spree - possibly preparing another big acquisition comparable to Bungie. According to the head of Sony Interactive Entertainment, acquisitions are the wheel that drives success.
- Sony Interactive Entertainment's president announces more gamedev acquisitions, claiming that they keep the Japanese giant growing;
- Informant Jeff Grubb believes that, as in the case of Bungie, it may be about a studio dealing with high-budget games. However, he has not received confirmation on this issue;
- Sony's policy regarding the release of PS Plus exclusive titles remains unchanged, as this approach serves the Japanese company.
Sony Interactive Entertainment head announces that it will continue its offensive based on buying up new companies which will help the PlayStation brand to grow and become stronger. Among the latest acquisitions of the Japanese giant we can mention such studios as Housemarque (Returnal), Bluepoint Games (Demon's Souls), Haven (created quite recently by Jade Raymond) and of course Bungie (the Destiny series). It is very possible that talks are underway to acquire the next big developer.
"We grow through acquisitions"
Thanks to a recent episode of the official PlayStation podcast we received confirmation of plans about which we could hear from representatives of the Japanese corporation. They claim further acquisitions are just a matter of time. According to Jim Ryan - CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment - through the acquisition of developers, games created for the PS4 and PS5 consoles become bigger, more beautiful and richer.
"We're in a really good place with PlayStation Studios and have been for several years now. The artistic and commercial success of the games they've made... that's enabled us to invest heavily in content creation. We're expanding our studios organically and growing through acquisitions. We've acquired five studios in 2021, we're in talks with Bungie and we have plans for more. This puts us in a positive cycle where success breeds success."
Jim Ryan's words may mean further acquisitions of smaller development teams or companies currently cooperating with PlayStation. It is possible, however, that the plans also include the purchase of the studio responsible for AAA segment games. This is according to a well-known source of information, Jeff Grubb, who commented on this subject during a recent episode of the Kinda Funny Games podcast, hosted by Greg Miller. He emphasized that these are just speculations, because in this case Sony is very careful to keep everything under wraps.
Wccftech editors went a step further and tried to predict the next move of SIE, which could be the purchase of one of the partner teams: Deviation Studios or Firewalk Studios. It also takes into account investments in such recognizable corporations as Capcom, Square Enix, Sega or Konami. Leaving aside the likelihood of buying one of these companies, it would certainly cause quite a stir in the industry.
"We're going to stick with the approach that has served us well over the years"
Ryan also again referred to the lack of exclusive title launches in PS Plus. President of SIE still maintains that it would affect the quality of Sony games. In a similar vein he spoke on the subject during an interview given for GamesIndustry.biz, about which we wrote a few days ago.
"I have to say that putting these games in there [the PS Plus subscription - ed. note] immediately upon release would break that virtuous circle and we wouldn't be able to invest in games the way we do now. That's why we're not doing it. We will stick to the approach that has served us for years."
After these words, it's hard to expect a change in Sony's policy anytime soon. The conservative modus operandi simply pays off, so is there anything to argue with?
