Geoff Keighley Says A Few Other Big Video Game Deals Are In The "Final Stages Of Negotiations"

If I had to take a random guess, I'm gonna say Square Enix could be bought by Sony

I hope someone buys EA and gets rid of all that sports and indie junk so they can focus on what really matters. Peggle 3.

well, wonder who it will be. I would like to see Nintendo making an acquisition of some kind but I kinda doubt it will happen but WHO KNOWS

Finishes up with, "stay tuned for the game awards!"

I think these acquisitions only hurt gamers more, not looking forward to it. It’ll just be less flexibility for multi platform.

Won't be long before Geoff starts hosting World Premiere Corporate Acquisitions at The Game Awards.

Lets just hope it doesn't do more harm then good.

@Doofenshmirtz Wouldn’t be surprised it that happens. Sony and Square seems to be close.

Geoff’s going to be acquired next. Can’t wait to buy an NFT of his arsecheeks pressed against the photocopier.

This is basically destructive to its very core.

This is the one gaming generation that I'm not looking forward to being in.

It's being bold down to an arms race. Two companies are buying everything, and the fan's boys are cheering them on while not thinking twice about it.

Sony are going to announce they've bought Capcom any day now. Resident Evil and Monster Hunter are soon to become PlayStation exclusives.

@OorWullie while nothing is set in stone yet, it would be wise for Nintendo to buy Capcom or at least the Monster Hunter IP.

Nintendo is just going to eat popcorn and watch the other two go deeper and deeper into debt.

@Doofenshmirtz Please no. Don't even make me think about that being a possibility. Then again, it doesn't seem that realistic, given that, if talks of a buyout were going on, I doubt that Square Enix would be pushing anything as a Switch exclusive, yet Triangle Strategy and Chocobo GP are still being pushed as such.

Aside from me desperately hoping that none of the Japanese AAAs end up getting bought out, I wonder what unforeseen repercussions it would have. What would happen to Smash, if, god forbid, Capcom or Square Enix did get bought out by Sony? Would Sony be willing to let the game stay up? Would Nintendo have to take Smash off the E-Shop? Would they just push an update to remove whatever content (characters, stages, spirits, etc.) from the company appeared in-game, if you didn't already have them? If they did, would new players be able to buy the removed characters as DLC, or would they be permanently gone from digital copies of the game? So many questions here, that don't really have definitive answers.

I hope Japanese companies are safe and continue to be multi-platform. I find the Switch perfectly suited to play JRPGs as most of them don't need powerful hardware and I can sneak in 30 minute sessions every now and then.

I would never have played SMT V as much as I have if it wasn't on Switch.

@alexybubble Having some PS5 exclusives didn't stop Bethesda from getting bought by Microsoft. In thos hypothetical scenario, I don't think anything would happen to Smash Bros, or any other game currently on Switch if Square or another company was acquired. Microsoft hasn't been taking down games, and I doubt Sony will do it either.

Ugh, not liking this push towards Microsoft and Sony owning everything.

@MsJubilee
Geoff’s part of the culture that cheerleads and eggs this stuff on, dude should have never had his eceleb status survive being exposed as the dorito pope.

Sony to buy Square Enix, and maybe Capcom. Microsoft to buy EA/

@OorWullie

Ugh…I really hope not. I’d even prefer Nintendo own Capcom but even then I don’t see it as a good thing for gaming overall. I could see Square Enix going to Sony, I’m not even sure Sony has the capital to purchase Capcom or EA for that matter. This is starting to get a bit out of hand anyway lol

I’m in the financial services industry, and you’d be hard pressed to move the needle that Microsoft moved with Activision-Blizzard. My prediction is Ubisoft most likely will sell to Sony and PlayStation.

Microsoft will not want to jeopardize the approval of the Activison purchase. Ubisoft has been marred with bad press recently, and a buyout would help reset them. PlayStation could also make a play for Square Enix. That would fit in their wheel house.

There have been rumors floating that EA and Take Two were getting looked at by Apple. If Apple wants to be serious about gaming this would go a long way to proving that.

Of course, none of this belongs on a Nintendo site. Despite the fact that Nintendo is sitting on mounds of cash, they won’t buy any of them, and that’s okay.

I’d be fine with all this if these acquisitions simply turns those two into big 3rd party publishers. But in reality, all I see is these two, MS and Sony, ruining the gaming industry, along with Tencent.
I’m thinking we need another games industry crash and Nintendo to pull it back up again.

@Rainz they could definitely buy capcom if capcom wanted to be sold EA I'm not sure

If Nintendo can buy SquareEnix, Bandai Namco, Capcom and Konami...

Honestly, Capitalism has gone bonkers.

You people are really taking this and overblowing it way out of proportion, Sony has no funds to throw around to make such huge acquisitions as Square, Capcom or Sega(not to mention neither of those companies would sell themselves to Sony who doesn't care about Japan nowadays)

And Geoff likes to overblow "exciting big" stuff all the time, he says that about everything yet for all we know these giant big new acquisitions might be some no name studio who made 1 game being acquired by Amazon lol

Interesting for who? We're moving towards a future where Tencent, Sony and Microsoft dictate the rules, and that's not a good thing.

There's never enough money for these corporations. Endless greed is what's bringing this world down. I hope that monopolization is not a trend in the gaming industry that would stick for long.

@Itachi2099 Sony just bought Bungie yesterday for 3.6 billion and PlayStation boss - Jim Ryan said to expect more acquisitions. Square Enix are worth around 6 billion, Capcom around 5 billion and SEGA Sammy around 4 billion, Sony most certainly can afford to buy any of the three.

@HotGoomba Peggle is wonderful games.

@Doofenshmirtz Ok by me, Square doesn't interest me one bit unless they remake the Legacy of Kain games, finsl fantasy is overrated.

Sony buying Konami or Capcom next?

Basically Microsoft will make all the larger buyouts, leaving the smaller studios for Sony, just very difficult to compete with Microsoft's buying power, Nintendo could buy somebody, but would be better served expanding and adding to their own in house development teams, as It's Nintendo games that push Nintendo hardware.

@OorWullie First, i'm sorry but you're clueless, the fact that Sony just wasted 3.6 billion on Bungie who isn't worth that much SHOULD make you feel that they wont buy anymore aquisitions even BIGGER than this, SONY IS 10 TIMES SMALLER THAN MICROSOFT, THEY CAN'T JUST GO AROUND SPENDING BILLIONS EVERY MONTH, THEY'RE 2 TRILLION DOLLARS IN DEBT.

Second, you're clueless about the buy-in as well, the companies "worth" doesn't determine what it's selling price is, a company's market cap doesn't mean that's what they would sell at. Activision offer was 45% above its current market cap. Bungie is not worht anywhere near 3.6 billion, they have no IP on them besides Destiny, they wanted Microsoft to buy them 2 years ago for 2 billion and even Microsoft said that's not worth it. The only reason Bungie got 3.6 out of Sony is because they managed to bargain it out of Sony with all the recent crazy Microsoft acquisitions happening.

Third, none of these companies have any reason to sell to Sony or Microsoft, they can't just throw around money at them and buy them no questions asked, the company and its shareholders have to actually agree to do it. If Sony was forcing a buy-in it would be considered a hostile takeover.

Fourth, Japan's laws make it really hard for companies gobling up other companies to the point where it's almost not worth the hastle, why would Sony waste billions of dollars on Square if they already easily get exclusivity deals from them for couple of millions of dollars instead? And for that matter, why would any Japanese company would sell themselves to Sony who LITERALLY KILLED THEIR OWN JAPAN STUDIO A YEAR AGO?!?

You people read in to this and think doom and gloom right away spreading literally information you know or understand nothing about, everyone is gonna buy everything! It won't happen, stop fear mongering, just because Sony’s market cap is 200 billion =/= they have 200 billion in pocket change, just like just because Square is 6 billion in market cap =/= they will sell for 6 billion.

@NintendoByNature exactly... A no value added statement to jump into the conversation just to stay relevant and being noticed. Nailed!

@Pungu I hope you are right. Maybe Japanese companies have more pride in themselves than we think. They are generally traditional and nationalistic but I may be wrong.

@Itachi2099 Funny that you mention it. 3.6B is a lotta money for a studio that has a single so-so IP to its name. I think the Sony move was a desperate attempt to reduce the bleeding effects of the MS-Activision deal. Bungie was great during their Halo days but other than that what have they done as of late?

@Octane_st1m my thoughts exactly, it probably wasn’t an activision deal response because it happened too fast after it, but i’m 100% positive this was in response to Bethesda acquisition.

They literally wasted 3.6 billion on a news headline grabber as far as i’m concerned “Playstation now owns the creators of Halo” just to raise their stock value.

Square enix and capcom next. Wouldn't be surprised if they bought devolver as well as they already own part of them. Sony definitely has the funds to buy these no worries. As for bungie it just makes sense as most of the destiny fanbase is on playstation.

@Doofenshmirtz lol you wish right sony boy?

It is not just MS and Sony that are buying up companies. Others are doing it aggressively as well and have been for the last year or two.

This is not a random occurrence, sadly this is happening because they are all chasing the "metaverse".

Hm. So far no one I care about was involved in the acquisitions. Hope it continues that way.

@Itachi2099 Okay. Breathe. Preferably from the abdomen. Calm

@Doofenshmirtz Just coming here to say, your prediction is the best one and if you happen to be right I want to be able to pat you on the back lol

How about somebody buys Bioware off EA? EA can then stick to making Sports Franchise 23, and Bioware can get the support to make interesting games that don’t need a service component.

I’d hate to see any of the big/medium Japanese studios get swallowed up, like Capcom, Falcom, Bamco, Sega or Squenix. Konami, though? They’d be doing everyone a favour by selling their IP to people who actually make games.

My knee jerk reaction would be "Nintendo buys Sega"...but setting aside armchair corporatism, I'm not sure what will happen next, nor if I'm necessarily looking forward to any of it.

@Krull I wouldn't be surprised if EA was the next in line to join Microsoft at this point. They already have a close relationship on Gamepass. I completely agree about the Japanese companies, I want them to remain independent. Most likely, they will, because the Japanese government should be able to block hostile takeover, but we'll have to wait and see....

@Would_you_kindly

They could buy Capcom but they’d likely have to pay closer to what MS paid to acquire Zenimax/Bethesda. Monster Hunter and Resident Evil alone are bigger IPS then Destiny. Sony has $ but they aren’t as financially flexible as MS or even Nintendo for that matter. I’d imagine we see them make some smaller western studio acquisitions. Nintendo runs gaming in Japan at the moment, this could lend them an upper hand when partnering/acquiring Japanese devs. Sony has focused more on the western markets, they haven’t invested much in Japanese studios in some time. Square Enix and Sony makes more sense than Capcom to me, perhaps they take a run at Devolver Digital?

@Doofenshmirtz I hope not, square puts games on Nintendo platforms, I don’t think that would continue if they bought them

I feel like anti monopoly laws might block Microsoft buying EA, since they’re already getting activision if it gets to that point

I'd root for anyone to buy Konami at this point so we could finally see Silent Hill again and maybe a remaster of Snatcher 😁

Sony and Microsoft are no longer the only big players in gaming. Chinese tech giants gobbling up studios is perhaps even more destructive to the industry, along with other malevolent giants like Facebook/Meta.

Disney purchasing EA would be pretty significant, if only for their Star Wars support. However, as with Nintendo, Disney might see more profit in licensing their IP's to publishers rather than buying the companies outright. Furthermore, taking responsibility of EA's more mature franchises like Battlefield/etc probably doesn't sound very appealing to Disney.

Again, the biggest concern is support from publishers like Capcom, Square Enix, Bandai Namco, Koei Tecmo, Gust, etc etc being taken away from Nintendo platforms.

I do not like the trend of the streaming wars bleeding into the platform wars in general, with gaming IP walled off into their own fortresses.

Perhaps it would be prudent for Nintendo to begin brewing up an in-house Monster Hunter killer, just in case. Monster Hunter meets a more light-hearted Nintendo-esque tone, with plenty of first-party crossovers.