Acquisitions in the Gaming Industry - Discussion, Evaluation and Predictions

[Mendinso]

Can we stop thinking Sony will go after Square Enix, when we've had no real evidence to suggest that? Square Enix is a major business that has numerous businesses under their wing and as long as they have various divisions that specialize in video games, mobile, merchandising, music, animation, comics, advertising etc., they're not likely to sell their business. The only way this would even be likely is if Square Enix would sell off their other non-games development branches, but I just don't see that happening.

Plus, remember: Sony just bought Crunchyroll. If they tried to get Square Enix, I feel significant red flags would happen because of the businesses that Square Enix themselves are aligned in, especially since the sale would likely need approval in Japan, given that's where Square Enix is based in. The Japanese animation and comics industry already isn't particularly happy with the Crunchyroll buy out as is, this would just add to the mess.

Again, it's not happening.

Sony (general, not just SIE) and Square Enix will likely continue to work with each other on various brands, deals, etc., and that's probably enough for Sony.

 

[Jorge]

Can we stop thinking Sony will go after Square Enix, when we've had no real evidence to suggest that? Square Enix is a major business that has numerous businesses under their wing and as long as they have various divisions that specialize in video games, mobile, merchandising, music, animation, comics, advertising etc., they're not likely to sell their business. The only way this would even be likely is if Square Enix would sell off their other non-games development branches, but I just don't see that happening.

Plus, remember: Sony just bought Crunchyroll. If they tried to get Square Enix, I feel significant red flags would happen because of the businesses that Square Enix themselves are aligned in, especially since the sale would likely need approval in Japan, given that's where Square Enix is based in. The Japanese animation and comics industry already isn't particularly happy with the Crunchyroll buy out as is, this would just add to the mess.

Again, it's not happening.

Sony (general, not just SIE) and Square Enix will likely continue to work with each other on various brands, deals, etc., and that's probably enough for Sony.

It seems some people love to fantasize about square and capcom acquisitions because they havent been able to move on from MS eating one publisher and now is im the middle of doing it again (although x10 times bigger).

In summary, its only for console wars.

 

[unkindlynice]

People still have this hung up idea that certain brands are ‘PlayStation’ - its no different than people cheering Disney taking Fox just because they want them to own X Men and F4. Ignores wider context. Fanwar nonsense.

It also ignores Sony’s internal direction. Sony right now have two focuses:
- Premier quality first party releases.
- Expansion of GAAS

Sony will be hunting for GAAS.

 

[SuperPotato]

No it must mean they are acquiring a studio like Capcom or SE. even though Sony frankly doesn’t care all that much about JP. Among some other problems.

They cared enough to make FF16, FF7 Rebirth (and Forspoken) exclusive. They may not care about the JP domestic market but they do care about it's software output.

 

[Person]

I have no idea of what their next acquisition is going to be, but I don’t want to rule anyone out. The last two major acquisitions by Sony and Microsoft were both similar in that in retrospect you can’t really say there were any indications that’s what they were going to acquire next.

SE definitely gets disproportionate attention, but I’m not gonna rule out the idea.

 

[tentacle-tropes]

They cared enough to make FF16, FF7 Rebirth (and Forspoken) exclusive. They may not care about the JP domestic market but they do care about it's software output.

Do they? It’s great Sony still cares about a handful of games they are primarily interested in to sell to Western audiences. Don’t think the local market is jumping up in joy about what they are seeing & hearing though.

 

[SuperPotato]

Do they? It’s great Sony still cares about a handful of games they are primarily interested in to sell to Western audiences. Don’t think the local market is jumping up in joy about what they are seeing & hearing though.

They want japanese content for their eco-system and global audience. If Sony gets Square Enix, it won't be for the japanese market. Them not caring about their domestic market doesn't really mean much in regards to acquisitions. Just look at Crunchyroll.

In general, Sony won't do much to improve their situation in Japan as long as they're getting the games.

 

[MegaXZero]

They want japanese content for their eco-system and global audience. If Sony gets Square Enix, it won't be for the japanese market. Them not caring about their domestic market doesn't really mean much in regards to acquisitions. Just look at Crunchyroll.

In general, Sony won't do much to improve their situation in Japan as long as they're getting the games.

If SIE buys SE, you get a lot of Japanese domestic market "bagage". DQ, both console and mobile, have their home there and SE has a lot of other ventures that are focused in Japan. Sony makes more sense than SIE for a theoretical acquiring of SE. But then games would not be exclusive to PS.

 

[SuperPotato]

If SIE buys SE, you get a lot of Japanese domestic market "bagage". DQ, both console and mobile, have their home there and SE has a lot of other ventures that are focused in Japan. Sony makes more sense than SIE for a theoretical acquiring of SE. But then games would not be exclusive to PS.

They could acquire SE's japanese gaming division, kill off the "bagage" and focus on the stuff that works worldwide, lol. I know it sounds crazy but after Activision, anything is possible.

 

[Kirby]

Sony tried to acquire Leyou before Bungie, and when they acquired Bungie it was clear they wanted the developers and not just Destiny. I'm betting on more targeted acquisitions like Deviation, Pearl Abyss.

 

[tentacle-tropes]

They want japanese content for their eco-system and global audience. If Sony gets Square Enix, it won't be for the japanese market. Them not caring about their domestic market doesn't really mean much in regards to acquisitions. Just look at Crunchyroll.

In general, Sony won't do much to improve their situation in Japan as long as they're getting the games.

They could acquire SE's japanese gaming division, kill off the "bagage" and focus on the stuff that works worldwide, lol. I know it sounds crazy but after Activision, anything is possible.

These sound like the worst ideas. If I’m SE why in the world would I even consider being acquired then if these are the arguments.

 

[SuperPotato]

These sound like the worst ideas. If I’m SE why in the world would I even consider being acquired then if these are the arguments.

My point is that it doesn't really matter how Sony/SIE views the japanese market performance, all they want is the content for western JRPG audiences. Sony acquiring a japanese dev isn't out of the question just because they don't care about Famitsu sales anymore.

 

[Fiendslayer]

My point is that it doesn't really matter how Sony/SIE views the japanese market performance, all they want is the content for western JRPG audiences. Sony acquiring a japanese dev isn't out of the question just because they don't care about Famitsu sales anymore.

What western JRPG audience does Sony care about enough for them to take up the financial risk owning a company that replicates some of their existing buisnesses in Japan, which they have to spend significant money on both accquiring SE and trying heavily reorienting SE's existing buisness in a direction that has synergy with existing Sony?

Why this, instead of spending the same money on another western dedicated game studio that is much easier to integrate, and makes the type of games Sony stated they want to make?

Sony's current goals are 10 mil+ sellers and GaaS games, both which are not SE's forte. SE has not a single "easy" 10 million seller in recent history on one platform, and none of its GaaS games are big hits in the west beyond FF14, and FF14 that is not done in a model that Sony seems to be interested in right now ( sub-based MMOs are notoriously hard genre to succeed in, and Sony's direct inspiration are GaaS models like Fortnite).

Everything they want to do with SE now, is easier and cheaper to achieve with exclusive money..which they already do with SE. There is no need to buy SE unless some black swan even like MS/Amazon is trying to buy SE (which is frankly speaking very unlikely) happens.

So pardon me if your entrie string of posts on SonyxSE sounds alot like wishful thinking.

 

[enpleinjour]

Can we stop thinking Sony will go after Square Enix, when we've had no real evidence to suggest that? Square Enix is a major business that has numerous businesses under their wing and as long as they have various divisions that specialize in video games, mobile, merchandising, music, animation, comics, advertising etc., they're not likely to sell their business. The only way this would even be likely is if Square Enix would sell off their other non-games development branches, but I just don't see that happening.

Plus, remember: Sony just bought Crunchyroll. If they tried to get Square Enix, I feel significant red flags would happen because of the businesses that Square Enix themselves are aligned in, especially since the sale would likely need approval in Japan, given that's where Square Enix is based in. The Japanese animation and comics industry already isn't particularly happy with the Crunchyroll buy out as is, this would just add to the mess.

Again, it's not happening.

Sony (general, not just SIE) and Square Enix will likely continue to work with each other on various brands, deals, etc., and that's probably enough for Sony.

This is a non answer. You will never get "real evidence" on public mergers and acquisitions. If you did you would be an insider lol
Listing SE's other businesses just makes it more attractive to Sony tbh:

• Playstation would own a tremendous catalogue of IPs and RPGs
• Playstation would have one of the top 10 if not closer to top 5 GaaS in the world (FF14)
• SE's successful mobile division could join FGO division or integrate with Playstation mobile
• Playstation merchandising is already a thing, SE will add to that further
• Sony is one of the biggest players in the music space
• Sony adds another CGI studio to its slate
• Sony could make CGI TV shows, TV series, anime, movies on SE IPs, something SE has attempted numerous times with mediocre results
• Sony would love having SE's anime/manga IP

SE is the most synergistic M&A Sony can make in the gaming space.

Also your read on Crunchyroll is wrong. Netflix and Amazon Prime are also anime distributors and have magnitudes more subs than CR.

Do they? It’s great Sony still cares about a handful of games they are primarily interested in to sell to Western audiences. Don’t think the local market is jumping up in joy about what they are seeing & hearing though.

Playstation has invested more in JP third party exclusives than any other platform. If you look at the deals they have done:

• FF7
• FF16
• Forspoken
• Babylon
• Ghostwire
• FF7R2
• Valkyrie Elysium

Software similar to:

• Project EVE
• Lost Soul

Upcoming rumoured/speculation:

• Persona 6
• ReFantasy
• Nier
• Silent Hill
• Team Ninja game

Sony/Playstation care tremendously about Japanese software and IP and since most of these games have most of their fanbase be on Playstation, its an easy way for Sony to get exclusives.

 

[fiendcode]

They want japanese content for their eco-system and global audience. If Sony gets Square Enix, it won't be for the japanese market. Them not caring about their domestic market doesn't really mean much in regards to acquisitions. Just look at Crunchyroll.

In general, Sony won't do much to improve their situation in Japan as long as they're getting the games.

Crunchyroll's an American company that was bought by Aniplex and Sony Pictures. What was the last Japanese based industry investment SIE made?

They could acquire SE's japanese gaming division, kill off the "bagage" and focus on the stuff that works worldwide, lol. I know it sounds crazy but after Activision, anything is possible.

Yeah, the Fukushimas aren't cashing out just for Dragon Quest, essentially considered a national treasure, to be buried. Maybe take a step back and consider there may be meaning beyond money at play here.

Playstation has invested more in JP third party exclusives than any other platform. If you look at the deals they have done:

• FF7
• FF16
• Forspoken
• Babylon
• Ghostwire
• FF7R2
• Valkyrie Elysium

Software similar to:

• Project EVE
• Lost Soul

Upcoming rumoured/speculation:

• Persona 6
• ReFantasy
• Nier
• Silent Hill
• Team Ninja game

Sony/Playstation care tremendously about Japanese software and IP and since most of these games have most of their fanbase be on Playstation, its an easy way for Sony to get exclusives.

PlayStation invests less in Japan than Nintendo. Far less.

 

[Abzeronow]

Looking like Sony is probably going to buy Ubisoft. It fits their goals and you have someone who really wants to sell. Square Enix and Capcom are console warriors fantasties because there's no sign the founding families want to sell.

 

[Blue Monty]

Playstation has invested more in JP third party exclusives than any other platform. If you look at the deals they have done:

• FF7
• FF16
• Forspoken
• Babylon
• Ghostwire
• FF7R2
• Valkyrie Elysium

Software similar to:

• Project EVE
• Lost Soul

Upcoming rumoured/speculation:

• Persona 6
• ReFantasy
• Nier
• Silent Hill
• Team Ninja game

Sony/Playstation care tremendously about Japanese software and IP and since most of these games have most of their fanbase be on Playstation, its an easy way for Sony to get exclusives.

Nintendo just 2021-2022: (not going to list all plus Nintendo nowadays gets a lot more of de facto console exclusives than Sony does)
No More Heroes III
Shin Megami Tensei V
DQ Treasures
Rune Factory V
Story Of Seasons
Braverly Default II
Triangle Strategy
MH Rise (+Sunbreak)
Disgaea 6 Western exclusivity
MH:Stories 2

And this is without taking into account the multiple collaborations Nintendo does with 3rd party JP studios for 1st party games like Bayonetta 3 or New Pokemon Snap or JP indies where Sony even with the recent efforts still doesnt even come close to Nintendo.

 

[Mendinso]

Listing SE's other businesses just makes it more attractive to Sony tbh:

• Playstation would own a tremendous catalogue of IPs and RPGs
• Playstation would have one of the top 10 if not closer to top 5 GaaS in the world (FF14)
• SE's successful mobile division could join FGO division or integrate with Playstation mobile
• Playstation merchandising is already a thing, SE will add to that further
• Sony is one of the biggest players in the music space
• Sony adds another CGI studio to its slate
• Sony could make CGI TV shows, TV series, anime, movies on SE IPs, something SE has attempted numerous times with mediocre results
• Sony would love having SE's anime/manga IP

SE is the most synergistic M&A Sony can make in the gaming space.

Also your read on Crunchyroll is wrong. Netflix and Amazon Prime are also anime distributors and have magnitudes more subs than CR.

This is completely wrong. Amazon effectively got out of distributing anime directly outside of licenses shared with them and Netflix only holds a small percentage of the anime market, though they've become somewhat aggressive. The problem is they've burned a lot of partners (not just Japanese, mind), which has resulted in a lot of studios/rights holders not working with them.

As for the last bit...

Crunchyroll effectively owns 80-90% of the anime market outside of Japan. This has been met with serious concern of rights holders back in Japan. Yes, Netflix and Amazon have more subs, but the thing is, we're not talking about subs. We're talking about how much of the market one entity owns, which Sony effectively has a monopoly across almost every market outside of Japan.

This itself would be incredibly raised by concerns by various parties in Japan.

Also, I want to bring up something:

• Sony could make CGI TV shows, TV series, anime, movies on SE IPs, something SE has attempted numerous times with mediocre results

Sony's Aniplex branch is effectively their TV and Movie production unit in Japan and works with various studios, sometimes using their own internal studios (Cloverworks and a few others they own directly). They've had significant successes over the years. Heck, one of Square Enix's very successful IP's, Fullmetal Alchemist, was co-produced anime and movie-wise, with Aniplex and Sony Music.

They've produced a LOT of successful projects over the years, too many to list. Notably among them being Sword Art Online, which is still ongoing.

They haven't had many mediocre results, like you are suggesting.

Regardless, Square Enix is a huge business. They invest in so much. To me, they are a multi-media company that nowadays just happens to invest in video games. Sony going after them would raise so many significant flags that I can't see offers being treated seriously. Plus, while I understand this doesn't have full correlation, but Square Enix is doing well enough that I feel a sale would only happen is if something catastrophic were to happen to them as a whole.

Playstation has invested more in JP third party exclusives than any other platform. If you look at the deals they have done:
<snip>
Sony/Playstation care tremendously about Japanese software and IP and since most of these games have most of their fanbase be on Playstation, its an easy way for Sony to get exclusives.

Okay, this is just fanfiction at this point. This may have been true in the past, but not anymore. As another user pointed out, Sony's Japanese IP investment for PlayStation has been significantly down compared to Nintendo. Many of the titles you listed are just either deals they made or are temporary deals. Plus with the pivoting to moving their main branch to America and even shutting down internal studios over at Japan, that alone to me shows they don't see Japan as much of a future as they once did.

 

[tentacle-tropes]

My point is that it doesn't really matter how Sony/SIE views the japanese market performance, all they want is the content for western JRPG audiences. Sony acquiring a japanese dev isn't out of the question just because they don't care about Famitsu sales anymore.

The company that they will attempt to acquire will though because being acquired by Sony is a death knell in the domestic market currently. Also if Sony didn’t care then the CEO should stop coming out & “allegedly” trying to refute that they don’t.

Playstation has invested more in JP third party exclusives than any other platform. If you look at the deals they have done:

• FF7
• FF16
• Forspoken
• Babylon
• Ghostwire
• FF7R2
• Valkyrie Elysium

Software similar to:

• Project EVE
• Lost Soul

Upcoming rumoured/speculation:

• Persona 6
• ReFantasy
• Nier
• Silent Hill
• Team Ninja game

Sony/Playstation care tremendously about Japanese software and IP and since most of these games have most of their fanbase be on Playstation, its an easy way for Sony to get exclusives.

That list alone should show you that Sony does not in fact invest in JP nor JP exclusives. You are right that they “care tremendously” about JP as a production factory for certain IP.

 

[Remember_spinal]

People still have this hung up idea that certain brands are ‘PlayStation’ - its no different than people cheering Disney taking Fox just because they want them to own X Men and F4. Ignores wider context. Fanwar nonsense.

It also ignores Sony’s internal direction. Sony right now have two focuses:
- Premier quality first party releases.
- Expansion of GAAS

Sony will be hunting for GAAS.

FFXIV is one of the biggest GAAS on the planet and can potentially be a lot bigger.

Also square enix legacy content would be a really good get for playstations classic library.

 

[Blue Monty]

FFXIV is one of the biggest GAAS on the planet and can potentially be a lot bigger.

Also square enix legacy content would be a really good get for playstations classic library.

The issue with buying SE is that a lot of it's value comes from SE buisness ventures that SIE/Sony have no interest on it, they would be overpaying to get access to couple of things that SIE wants from SE (FF,FFXIV,catalog and maybe mobile). This is a common trait for most JP publishers and why things like Microsoft buying SEGA make little sense

 

[Koni]

I know you guys are having a different conversation at the moment, but something came to mind that I don’t want to forget about and I didn’t have any better place to write this.

So I recently learned about the cancellations and delays of 4 Ubisoft games, which is just another huge blow to add to the pile of huge blows the company has gone through over the last year or so. All they have for this fiscal year now are Rainbow Six Extraction (remember that?), Skull and Bones (which allegedly has to come out due to a deal the company made with the government of Singapore cause otherwise it would’ve been cancelled) and Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope. The company is in such shambles that their best hope for the year is the video game equivalent of Despicable Me’s Minions.

I’m not the biggest fan of acquisitions and the industry consolidation that is seemingly defining the 9th generation of video games, but if I’m to be honest… I wouldn’t mind if Nintendo acquired Ubisoft Milan. Working on two Mario games should give that studio the “Nintendo DNA” needed for them to consider it. I feel like it would be better for the studio in the long term. Maybe it’s just me, though.

 

[Blue Monty]

I know you guys are having a different conversation at the moment, but something came to mind that I don’t want to forget about and I didn’t have any better place to write this.

So I recently learned about the cancellations and delays of 4 Ubisoft games, which is just another huge blow to add to the pile of huge blows the company has gone through over the last year or so. All they have for this fiscal year now are Rainbow Six Extraction (remember that?), Skull and Bones (which allegedly has to come out due to a deal the company made with the government of Singapore cause otherwise it would’ve been cancelled) and Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope. The company is in such shambles that their best hope for the year is the video game equivalent of Despicable Me’s Minions.

I’m not the biggest fan of acquisitions and the industry consolidation that is seemingly defining the 9th generation of video games, but if I’m to be honest… I wouldn’t mind if Nintendo acquired Ubisoft Milan. Working on two Mario games should give that studio the “Nintendo DNA” needed for them to consider it. I feel like it would be better for the studio in the long term. Maybe it’s just me, though.

Nintendo would just fund a startup by Ubisoft Milan/Paris members if they want to leave Ubi and be part of Nintendo (which I doubt they want when most have been working there for 20+ years).

 

[tentacle-tropes]

I know you guys are having a different conversation at the moment, but something came to mind that I don’t want to forget about and I didn’t have any better place to write this.

So I recently learned about the cancellations and delays of 4 Ubisoft games, which is just another huge blow to add to the pile of huge blows the company has gone through over the last year or so. All they have for this fiscal year now are Rainbow Six Extraction (remember that?), Skull and Bones (which allegedly has to come out due to a deal the company made with the government of Singapore cause otherwise it would’ve been cancelled) and Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope. The company is in such shambles that their best hope for the year is the video game equivalent of Despicable Me’s Minions.

I’m not the biggest fan of acquisitions and the industry consolidation that is seemingly defining the 9th generation of video games, but if I’m to be honest… I wouldn’t mind if Nintendo acquired Ubisoft Milan. Working on two Mario games should give that studio the “Nintendo DNA” needed for them to consider it. I feel like it would be better for the studio in the long term. Maybe it’s just me, though.

This is also recent news.

Ubi Milan would probably be a decent pickup for Nintendo though I’m sure Ubisoft wants to do à la carte instead of piecemeal. Unless somehow Nintendo gets another Monolith Soft type situation which seems unlikely.

 

[Blue Monty]

This is also recent news.

Ubi Milan would probably be a decent pickup for Nintendo though I’m sure Ubisoft wants to do à la carte instead of piecemeal. Unless somehow Nintendo gets another Monolith Soft type situation which seems unlikely.

Ubisoft wouldn't sell one of the only studios that is actually making them money now also.

 

[jacsoncr]

ubisoft is going through a really difficult time

 

[enpleinjour]

Nintendo just 2021-2022: (not going to list all plus Nintendo nowadays gets a lot more of de facto console exclusives than Sony does)
No More Heroes III
Shin Megami Tensei V
DQ Treasures
Rune Factory V
Story Of Seasons
Braverly Default II
Triangle Strategy
MH Rise (+Sunbreak)
Disgaea 6 Western exclusivity
MH:Stories 2

And this is without taking into account the multiple collaborations Nintendo does with 3rd party JP studios for 1st party games like Bayonetta 3 or New Pokemon Snap or JP indies where Sony even with the recent efforts still doesnt even come close to Nintendo.

Not really. Sony's investments are just far bigger. FF16 and FF7R2 alone probably outspend most of those titles.

That list alone should show you that Sony does not in fact invest in JP nor JP exclusives. You are right that they “care tremendously” about JP as a production factory for certain IP.

By being the biggest investor if not 2nd biggest investor/marketer in Japanese software they show they do not invest in JP exclusives?

Sure lol

The issue with buying SE is that a lot of it's value comes from SE buisness ventures that SIE/Sony have no interest on it, they would be overpaying to get access to couple of things that SIE wants from SE (FF,FFXIV,catalog and maybe mobile). This is a common trait for most JP publishers and why things like Microsoft buying SEGA make little sense

This is very wrong. SE has near $3B revenue at $5B marketcap, one of the worlds biggest GaaS and around 6 AAA teams. Bungies was bought at $3B with revenue of around $0.3B, and 2 AAA teams as of now.

SE's value is tremendous, without even taking into account the multimedia aspect that fits with Sony which itself is one of the biggest movie, music, anime publisher/distributor in the world.

 

[Simar]

Ubisoft would likely prefer a wholesale deal instead of selling only certain teams but the company is way too big (and not successful enough) to be bought.
I wouldn't be surprised if Milan gets bought by Nintendo and Blue Byte and some other european teams get bought by Embracer.
Otherwise Ubisoft will probably have to lay-off many studios (which would likely create some indie studios with funding from the platform holders).

 

[Thiefcoal]

All the "Sony will acquire Square talk" is nonsense said by PlayStation fans who want to pretend that Sony still cares about the japanese market. Sony wants japanese games but the overall japanese market does not matter to them. There's no reason for Sony acquire Square as it does not align with any of their goals. Sony already gets all of Square's Triple AAA content as timed exclusives.

 

[enpleinjour]

This is completely wrong. Amazon effectively got out of distributing anime directly outside of licenses shared with them and Netflix only holds a small percentage of the anime market, though they've become somewhat aggressive. The problem is they've burned a lot of partners (not just Japanese, mind), which has resulted in a lot of studios/rights holders not working with them.

As for the last bit...

Crunchyroll effectively owns 80-90% of the anime market outside of Japan. This has been met with serious concern of rights holders back in Japan. Yes, Netflix and Amazon have more subs, but the thing is, we're not talking about subs. We're talking about how much of the market one entity owns, which Sony effectively has a monopoly across almost every market outside of Japan.

This itself would be incredibly raised by concerns by various parties in Japan.

Also, I want to bring up something:

As long as Netflix and Amazon continue streaming anime, they are classified as anime distributors.

Your market definitions are completely wrong. Even TV channels are considered distributors and compete with VOD services on anime IP.

They haven't had many mediocre results, like you are suggesting.

I said SE, not Sony Music, referring to stuff like FF movies.

To me, they are a multi-media company that nowadays just happens to invest in video games.

80%+ of their revenue comes from games (not even including the merch from game IPs). This is categorically false.

Sony's Japanese IP investment for PlayStation has been significantly down compared to Nintendo.

Not true, PS5 is getting more JP third party exclusives from Sony deals than PS4 from what I see.

Many of the titles you listed are just either deals they made or are temporary deals.

A deal is a type of investment...

 

[awng782]

Outside of Assassin's Creed and games with licensed properties/content (Mario + Rabbids, Just Dance, etc), Ubisoft is in shambles

This is a very stark contrast to the 1st half of the PS4/XBO generation when almost all the big new Ubisoft games - WatchDogs 1, Rainbow Six Seige, For Honor, The Division 1, Ghost Recon Wildlands, FarCry 4/5, etc - were totally killing it. (Funny enough, it was Assassin's Creed that struggled with Unity/Syndicate underperforming.)

I think they will be the next big target for M&A.

 

[tentacle-tropes]

By being the biggest investor if not 2nd biggest investor/marketer in Japanese software they show they do not invest in JP exclusives?

Sure lol

You hit the nail on the head, glad that we can agree. They invest in certain franchises, even then they really don’t, and everything else languishes under their watch in that region. So who honestly cares if they are the 2nd biggest when that means little to nothing overall in the market.

 

[Blue Monty]

Not really. Sony's investments are just far bigger. FF16 and FF7R2 alone probably outspend most of those titles.

MHRise is a bigger deal than FF7R and FF16 sales wise, and all others combined should easily outspend Sony. Nintendo has also said that they find a lot of value on these 3rd parties exclusivity deals and considering the increased 3rd party support of JP publishers of Switch they will only increase as we have seen in the last partner Direct while the amount of efforts done only for PS/PC consoles is everytime lower with most now going full multiplatform if they are not Switch console exclusive outside of SE titles while Nintendo on the other hand gets exclusives from all JP publishers.

 

[enpleinjour]

You hit the nail on the head, glad that we can agree. They invest in certain franchises, even then they really don’t, and everything else languishes under their watch in that region. So who honestly cares if they are the 2nd biggest when that means little to nothing overall in the market.

You're not making sense here. Investment in Japanese software, i.e publisher like SE =/ trying to move the domestic market.
Japanese software is loved and sells very well globally.

MHRise is a bigger deal than FF7R and FF16 sales wise, and all others combined should easily outspend Sony. Nintendo has also said that they find a lot of value on these 3rd parties exclusivity deals and considering the increased 3rd party support of JP publishers of Switch they will only increase as we have seen in the last partner Direct while the amount of efforts done only for PS/PC consoles is everytime lower with most now going full multiplatform if they are not Switch console exclusive outside of SE titles while Nintendo on the other hand gets exclusives from all JP publishers.

Nintendo paid $6M for MHR iirc, without a doubt FF7R is more than that, let alone FF16, FF7R2, Forspoken, Nier. We're talking about money invested, in which case Sony's spend on AAA/AA titles likely outdoes Nintendo's focus on AA/A releases.

They're both the biggest investors, you can't just ignore Sony's contribution.

Conversely many 3DS/DS exclusives have now become multiplatform as well, Ace Attorney, MH, DQ, KH spinoffs, TWEWY, Yokai Watch, Inazuma, Harvest Moon, Story of Seasons/

Game development in general has gone towards multiplatform, which is why Nintendo and Sony now make more deals.

 

[Suis La Lune]

considering Netflix and Amazon anime distributors as the likes of Crunchyroll and Funimation seem to be as wrong as putting mobile and console gaming in the same bag

 

[Astrogamer]

You're not making sense here. Investment in Japanese software, i.e publisher like SE =/ trying to move the domestic market.
Japanese software is loved and sells very well globally.



Nintendo paid $6M for MHR iirc, without a doubt FF7R is more than that, let alone FF16, FF7R2, Forspoken, Nier. We're talking about money invested, in which case Sony's spend on AAA/AA titles likely outdoes Nintendo's focus on AA/A releases.

They're both the biggest investors, you can't just ignore Sony's contribution.

Conversely many 3DS/DS exclusives have now become multiplatform as well, Ace Attorney, MH, DQ, KH spinoffs, TWEWY, Yokai Watch, Inazuma, Harvest Moon, Story of Seasons/

Game development in general has gone towards multiplatform, which is why Nintendo and Sony now make more deals.

Those exclusives mostly weren't paid for originally. They came from Nintendo DS and Wii being the market leader. Nintendo's strategy of investment is mostly not to obtain the most exclusives but, to cultivate the Japanese industry that results in Nintendo gets a stronger library of games. Stuff like Ace Attorney or TWEWY may not be exclusive but because Nintendo funds and promotes the smaller titles in a similar audience, the majority of the audience remains on Switch where those games sell best.

Edit: Accidentally posted when I closed by laptop so now I fixed my post

 

[tentacle-tropes]

You're not making sense here. Investment in Japanese software, i.e publisher like SE =/ trying to move the domestic market.
Japanese software is loved and sells very well globally.



Nintendo paid $6M for MHR iirc, without a doubt FF7R is more than that, let alone FF16, FF7R2, Forspoken, Nier. We're talking about money invested, in which case Sony's spend on AAA/AA titles likely outdoes Nintendo's focus on AA/A releases.

They're both the biggest investors, you can't just ignore Sony's contribution.

Conversely many 3DS/DS exclusives have now become multiplatform as well, Ace Attorney, MH, DQ, KH spinoffs, TWEWY, Yokai Watch, Inazuma, Harvest Moon, Story of Seasons/

Game development in general has gone towards multiplatform, which is why Nintendo and Sony now make more deals.

But we can ignore Sony’s contributions because they mean little. Who cares if they spend the 2nd most for things that already would have come to their systems. They only invest into a handful of big franchises that do well in the West or are live services; everything else for them is deemed unimportant. JP games are loved globally but you wouldn’t know it on PS unless your a bigger name.

 

[MegaXZero]

SE's value is tremendous, without even taking into account the multimedia aspect that fits with Sony which itself is one of the biggest movie, music, anime publisher/distributor in the world.

SE being acquired by Sony is far different then SE being acquired by SIE

 

[Tokuiten]

MHRise is a bigger deal than FF7R and FF16 sales wise, and all others combined should easily outspend Sony.

Do you think MHRise would not have released on Switch without Nintendo investing in it?

 

[Blue Monty]

Do you think MHRise would not have released on Switch without Nintendo investing in it?

It would have anyway the plans to make MH:Rise were prior to World success and mantaing MH presence in Japan strong matters a lot more than just sales, merch/mobile game/multimedia in general is really important and having main MH entries on the market leader boost all around it and gives younger audiences a MH for them to grow with the franchsie. My point is that Rise exclusivity is much bigger deal than FFXVI or FFVIIR

 

[Tokuiten]

It would have anyway the plans to make MH:Rise were prior to World success and mantaing MH presence in Japan strong matters a lot more than just sales, merch/mobile game/multimedia in general is really important and having main MH entries on the market leader boost all around it . My point is that Rise exclusivity is much bigger deal than FFXVI or FFVIIR

I understand, but my point is that Nintendo's investment in MHRise cannot be compared to Sony's investment in FF16 1:1. If Nintendo doesn't invest in the former, they'd only have lost day 1-exclusivity to a system they don't care about. If Sony doesn't invest in FF16, they'd lose an important asset to the PlayStation's ecosystem to PC and Xbox. Sony needs those investments more than Nintendo. So using MHR as an example of "Nintendo actually invests more than Sony" has more nuance to it.

In terms of the overall ongoing debate of acquisitions, I think that Square Enix, Sega and EA are the next ones (from the popular choices) that will be acquired by someone. Ubisoft won't. They're done for, Yves will sell off individual franchises and then close the company. Maybe the most terribly managed video game publisher in existence.

 

[Kmds]

I understand, but my point is that Nintendo's investment in MHRise cannot be compared to Sony's investment in FF16 1:1. If Nintendo doesn't invest in the former, they'd only have lost day 1-exclusivity to a system they don't care about. If Sony doesn't invest in FF16, they'd lose an important asset to the PlayStation's ecosystem to PC and Xbox. Sony needs those investments more than Nintendo. So using MHR as an example of "Nintendo actually invests more than Sony" has more nuance to it.

In terms of the overall ongoing debate of acquisitions, I think that Square Enix, Sega and EA are the next ones (from the popular choices) that will be acquired by someone. Ubisoft won't. They're done for, Yves will sell off individual franchises and then close the company. Maybe the most terribly managed video game publisher in existence.

Xbox doesn't really matter for FF16 in the scale of things and then Sony would have the same predicament as Nintendo of having PC as a competing platform. So wouldn't it basically be the same especially as monster hunter is more popular on xbox than final fantasy.

 

[Kmds]

Also another thing is that due to the past, Nintendo doesn't like to typically pay for content to be on their system unlike Microsoft and Sony.

 

[Remember_spinal]

ubisoft is going through a really difficult time

I feel like most third party publishers are

 

[Jorge]

I feel like most third party publishers are

Japanese ones seems to be doing good no?

 

[tentacle-tropes]

Japanese ones seems to be doing good no?

Yup the JP industry as seen a pretty good revival thanks to Nintendo having a strong presence there. Imagine if they didn’t.

 

[awng782]

I feel like most third party publishers are

Really?

Ubisoft is a total disaster and Activision Blizzard struggled in the last year due to COD Vanguard underperforming + harassment allegations going public, but I feel like all the other major 3rd party publishers are doing fine if not great.

 

[tentacle-tropes]

Really?

Ubisoft is a total disaster and Activision Blizzard struggled in the last year due to COD Vanguard underperforming + harassment allegations going public, but I feel like all the other major 3rd party publishers are doing fine if not great.

I would also throw in EA as well.

 

[fiendcode]

From what I can find SE's revenue is close to 80% from gaming (Digital Entertainment). What I didn't realize was over 60% of their total revenue also came from Japan.

Sector shares
76.6% Digital Entertainment
12.0% Amusement
07.9% Publishing
03.5% Licensing, other

Region shares
61.6% Japan
22.2% North America
11.0% Europe
05.2% Asia, other

Nintendo paid $6M for MHR iirc, without a doubt FF7R is more than that, let alone FF16, FF7R2, Forspoken, Nier. We're talking about money invested, in which case Sony's spend on AAA/AA titles likely outdoes Nintendo's focus on AA/A releases.
They're both the biggest investors, you can't just ignore Sony's contribution.

Conversely many 3DS/DS exclusives have now become multiplatform as well, Ace Attorney, MH, DQ, KH spinoffs, TWEWY, Yokai Watch, Inazuma, Harvest Moon, Story of Seasons/

Game development in general has gone towards multiplatform, which is why Nintendo and Sony now make more deals.

Nintendo paid $6m just to delay PC promo on Rise going by the big dataleak. If they actually paid just $6m for complete console exclusivity on a 10-20m seller like Rise (and it's similarly huge update) that'd be the deal of the century.

Also apparently Nintendo paid an enormous sum to Sega for MD on NSO, potentially a huge cut of the sub revenue. Nintendo's not shy about investment in Japan and it's not limited to basic ad spends to delay or block Xbox ports. They're essentially co-funding and co-publishing 3rd party games like Octopath, NMH3 or DXM, games that basically wouldn't exist at all if not for their involvement. And really these kinds of deals just vastly outnumber the competition (combined), nevermind even closer IP collabs (Pokken, Hyrule warriors, M&S Olympics, etc), licensed IP (Bayonetta, Tetris, Culdcept, etc) or straight up contract deals (Smash, Astral Chain, Fire Emblem, etc). Nintendo's spending in the Japanese development community, even outside their own gigantic internal R&D, absolutely dwarfs PlayStation and really anyone else.

 

[awng782]

I would also throw in EA as well.

EA's net revenue and bookings in FY2022 were up 24% and 21% YoY respectively. They're doing quite well.