PlayStation Boss Jim Ryan Says "More Acquisitions" Are Coming

The war's are only getting started! All the wile nintendo is sipping there tea.

Gimme Barbie and other girlie games on PS5 just like PS4 already have.

Nintendo are the only ones looking good amidst all this. Which is saying something given how corporate they can be.

Nintendo are definitely going to acquire McDonald’s at this rate. They already did that collab with the DS for staff training purposes, and Mario and friends are always cropping up in Happy Meals.

And to be honest, they’re gonna need all the fryer-power they can get to compete with not only Sony and Microsoft, but the upcoming KFConsole.

The console wars sure are heating up! Who will emerge from the deep-fat fryer a crispy morsel, and who will come out a soggy disappointment!?

ONLY TIME WILL TELL!

I doubt any of the future Purchases will hold a candle to Microsoft buying Activision.

The Spanish Acquisition

I honestly don't even care. I think Activision is in good hands with Microsoft, and even though I have no interest in purchasing an Xbox, all their cartoony games that I care about wind up coming to Switch, anyways. And I really want to get a PS5 at some point for their first-party platformers like Astrobot and Sackboy. Unless all the games I care about randomly become exclusive to PC or something, which I don't think will happen, I'm golden.

People will say Nintendo needs to buy companies to keep up. Even though this legit does nothing to Nintendo. The console wars are now Sony and Microsoft with Nintendo just minding their own business.

“…o..oh yeah? OH YEAH? Well we were already buying companies before it was cool! So… there!….”

This is Nintendo vs. GENESIS times ten.

@blindsquarel Nintendo WILL NEED to buy up a company if Sony or MS are going to attempt to buy a Japanese developer.

Also regarding Bungie, it is said they will be remaining multiplatform for all future games I think.

@anoyonmus
Aren’t their laws preventing a American company from buying a Japanese based one, or something like that. I remember people talking about it when nintendolife convinced themselves Microsoft would buy Nintendo.

I don't mind acquisitions when it's between studios that have established a very close relationship (Sony and Insomniac or Housemarque) or a major studio seeing a promising smaller one and acquiring it to give them the resources necessary to flourish (Nintendo and Monolith Soft). Microsoft and Sony are just tossing money around trying to compete to see who can get the more impressive lineup now, though. It's honestly ridiculous. None of these major third party studios need to be acquired, nor does Nintendo need to fire back by going after another major studio. Nintendo has a sound strategy for acquisitions and I'd prefer for them to stick to smaller studios they've established a strong partnership with like Monolith, Retro, or Next Level Games. I hope that this dumb acquisition war between Sony and MS comes to an end soon as well.

Stop wasting time with acquisitions and get Bloodborne on PC!

As primarily a Nintendo gamer myself, this is like telling me that the sky is blue and grass is green

I just wish one of the big three would buy up Konami. At least then maybe somebody would actually do something with those IPs. Sega also had a bunch of unused IPs that I wish they would revisit, but I think a Konami sale feels way more plausible for some reason

@Not_Soos Nah i disagree Sony doesn't have Bethesda which Microsoft now owns Games like Fallout, DOOM, Dishonored Games , Skyrim, Wolfenstein, The Elder Scrolls, Starfield
Redfall, Rage, Rage2, the evil within games, Prey, and the Quake games.. plus Microsoft will soon own all of activision/Blizzard with too many game... none will never been seen on sony console again except maybe call of duty for atleast the first year anyways now yes Sony has god of war, uncharted, The last of us, Horizon: Zero Dawn and a few other i can't even remeber as i stopped playing PS for 3 years now and have no plans to buy a PS5 why do that when the real good games are on Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo which right now is king of the console fight.. Im sorry but playstation just doesn't have the magic no more and with what Xbox has now sony is going to be hurting in the future and im going where the real games are at but please enjoy PS5 Im going to be playing on the most power console on the planet Xbox Series X and Nintendo..Sony is now eating dust lol

Whats the point in buying a company if they're staying multi-platform? Like yeah you'd get more money then just being their games on the platform, but wouldn't it get more profitable for people to stay on your platform by making it a playstation exclusive?

Microsoft bought Bethesda and Activision Blizzard.
Sony bought multiple studios plus Bungie.

Nintendo will buy a mid-range developer and/or publisher.
I'm calling it now, it's Bandai Namco. Nintendo is buying Bandai Namco.

Well, Bungie has never made a Switch game, Activision had gotten rid of all it's Switch developers in exchange for more COD, and Blizzard ported it's only old console games already. I don't think any of this will affect Nintendo any time soon. Blizzard barely ever puts games on their systems anyways.

@blindsquarel
I believe if a foreign company attempts a hostile takeover of a Japanese company, then the JP government will intervene.

If both parties agree to the aquisition, then it can go through.

@HotGoomba
Bandai Namco is the largest 3rd party publisher in Japan. They are not "mid-range."

I'm so happy that the owners of these companies can finally achieve their dreams of synergetic unity bringing people together connectivity through platform opportunity creativity exciting journey choice.

@NWC

I'm just saying it doesn't effect me from my subjective point of view. I don't play Mature games or very many shooters, so none of the games you mentioned really make a difference to me. I completely understand why this would be a big deal or cause for concern for others, though--specifically those who play exclusively on PlayStation. It's hard to say what the future holds; I know Microsoft games like Cuphead and Psychonauts are on PlayStation, so I really don't know what Xbox's strategy is.

I've heard from not just you but a lot of people that the Sony magic is apparently gone, and I'd really like to know what that means, if you don't care to explain it. I've never followed Sony very closely, but growing up, I loves games like Crash Bandicoot, Spyro, and Jak and Daxter that I played on my brother's PS2. From my perspective, it seems like Sony is going back to their 3D platformer roots, which is all I really want.

As long as Sony or Microsoft doesn't try to buy PlatinumGames I'm okay with whatever else tbh.

With the direction gaming is going, the Switch might be the last console I buy.

If Nintendo buys anyone, I'd say they would buy PlatinumGames. Bayonetta is basically a Nintendo IP at this point, why not just make it official.

Bandai Namco, Capcom and Square Enix are the three companies I'm most worried about. Those three represent Nintendo's most important third-party support.

This is... getting kind of ridiculous now. I do hope they don't start taking companies that have big support on Switch where it WILL start affecting Nintendo.

Time will tell I suppose but it's going to be an interesting development to follow I reckon. Depending on who they'll acquire next.

@Oh_Well Konami needs to stay as small an entity as possible in order for it’s store of IPs to make any financial impact either through development or licensing out. If part of a much larger business we’ll never see the likes of Hudson Soft again, for example

Companies buying up swaths of IP eventually serves to average things out. Games you like from various publishers may be given different priorities when all under one roof. Smaller projects may vanish altogether, which would be a real shame. Scale and variety in ownership is good for variety in gaming, and good for not having past IP go into legal vaults

Surprise surprise and people ironically thought MS would have “monopoly”.

Anyway hopefully Sony and Microsoft doesn’t buy a Japanese company. They both would install Western values day 1.

As long as they leave Bandai Namco, Capcom, Square Enix, Atlus/Sega, Team17, Level-5, Wayforward, Chucklefish, Rising Star games and Devolver digital alone, Nintendo will be fine.

They can have Konami. Because we might actually get new games out of it.

And apparently there’s a game publisher with the name Broccoli. They can have that one too.

Ugh, I just hope Japanese companies are safe. Only one I would be fine with is Konami I suppose.. Overall though, hopefully Sony sticks with smaller studios or studios that were second party studios anyway. I just don't like/trust current Sony with the way they shifted away from Japan.

Sony should buy Konami next, so we can have good Castlevania/Silent Hill game again.

@NWC cmon dude. All those games are forgettable side pieces and distractions except for the BGS games. You in here trying to spit shine Rage as a proud piece of gaming.

Activisons games aren’t a big deal except for COD. The Blizzard games are primarily pc gamers not console.

A lot of talent will leave over the years if they haven’t already, games already in development might turn out well but MS has shown almost no history of being able to manage a game or studio that they got involved with after they’ve claimed success. Halo and Forza are the only ones MS has had some consistency with and those weren’t ones they got involved with after the success, Forza is just recycling same stuff every year so thats easy formula if nobody cares its the same

People on here acting like this doesn't effect Nintendo, not until one of them buys capcom, sega or square enix and you lose their exclusives such as monster hunter, phoenix Wright, dragon quest, Sonic, Shin megami, bravely default and octopath style games

Though if I had to pick one for Sony to acquire it would be level 5, revive them in the west with yo kai watch 4, fantasy life remake and no no kuni 3

Wow is this the middle finget from Sony to Microsoft and they guessed Microsoft future roadmap?

Man let’s just hope Nintendo picks up Capcom. Before a disaster happened to them.

War… war never changes

I see this and other acquisitions linked to what Spenser said about cloud companies penetration into gaming, and that they’re the real threat. So the more traditional gaming companies gobbling up other traditional gaming companies, the less they appear on Stadia etc.

They’re basically trying to wipe Google, Amazon and Apple between them.

This is exactly the reason Nintendo got out of the arms race years ago, you have a company like Microsoft with a 2.29 trillion business throwing money around, and even Sony can't compete on a level playing field with this.

This deal was as big as Nintendo budget for game team expansion and acquisition of game studios…. The Microsoft deal was as big as Nintendo itself

I wonder if Nintendo is worried at all cause funnily enough, I don’t think they should be

@Not_Soos I didn't expect that.

Sony and Microsoft are rolling their Katamari's, hoping one wil eventually role up the other. Meanwhile at Nintendo...

Seems like a new generation of "console wars".

This is not good for gaming.

@Friendly Nintendo should buy Square Enix, just to mess with Sony.

Much as I don’t think this effects us Nintendo gamers. I’m worried that companies like Capcom, Square Enix, Sega, Konami, Level 5…..could look very appealing to Sony.

@blindsquarel Sony is a Japanese company, so they actually could.

@Lord Capcom maybe, but Sega? No, not really. Sega hasn't really done anything noteworthy the last decade.

@iLikeUrAttitude Or even Bethesda.

@blindsquarel Sony is a Japanese company though. 😂

This is how the world ends.

Before the end of this year;

Xbox will buy SEGA
Sony will buy Square Enix
Nintendo will buy FromSoftware

Called it right here.

There isn't gonna be any Indies left in a few years at this rate...😞

lol it will be funny to watch sony fanboys praising bungie games now after trashing them for years.

@Ulysses I was about to say the same thing. Whenever I think of Capcom, I think of Nintendo. Granted, they’ve achieved major success on other platforms, but Capcom has been with Nintendo since the beginning.

This is awful for the industry. I would be happy if Nintendo just opened more of their own new studios.

@sanderev It doesn't matter that Sega has not been the best in recent years. They have a tonne of dormant franchises that are worth a lot, that would benefit from the Nintendo development magic.

@HollowSpectre On the contrary, all that will be left will be indies. There won't be any 3rd party AAA studios at this rate, all of them are being absorbed. At least the ones based in the US. This consolidation is not good for the industry.

As long as Capcom, Square Enix, and Atlus don't get eaten up I don't care about these too much.

@CupidStunt The reason this is happening is exactly because opening an entirely brand new studio is an extremely slow process in the AAA space. In my opinion, Nintendo should also acquire a few developers in Japan and overseas. They do have a war chest, and having money just laying around is not smart business.

Ugh, an M&A arms race between MS and Sony was exactly what I was afraid of. I just pray neither starts assimilating Japanese devs like Sega, Capcom, Bamco, Koei-Tecmo, Sqeenix, Konami, Platinum, etc, which would directly impact Nintendo’s business.

Didn’t I hear that PS Gaming is based in the US now? Maybe they’d face the same restrictions as MS if trying to aggressively snap up Japanese studios.

@Scrubicius if so this is the smallest middle finger I’ve ever seen 😂

I don't think Sony acquisition of Bungie is because of their games, I think they just wanted to make some Destiny movies or shows in the future and that's why they pay for it. Remember Jim Ryan wants to get Sony IPs into Hollywood or be Hollywood-like. Next they probably may want to acquired Ubisoft or an EA studio down the line so they could make more movies or shows out of those too so to compete with Blockbuster Video, Netflix, Crunchy Roll, HBO Max, Disney Plus, Peacock, YouTube, and Hulu. I don't think this is game related cause why would Sony bought Bungie and not make Destiny exclusive, you just pay $3.6 billion and still had them be independent, if it's not for a Hollywood deal then I don't know what is. People sometimes forget that Sony is not only a game and electronic company but also an entertainment company as well like Paramount and Columbia.

@Eddyson i don’t think anybody is buying fromsoftware when they’re about to release Elden Ring

@Uska
It's more or less that extra profit from licensing fees and also the opportunity to control exclusivity if needed to. Timed exclusivity, for example, is a very powerful way if marketing which game performs best on which platform.

I don't think Nintendo have anything to worry about but I do think they should buy some of their own but only to help grow their own library with their closest allies. PlatinumGames would be perfect. Would love to see more Astral Chain and Bayonetta.

If anything was to happen to some of the big publishers like Square Enix or Capcom or Bamco or even Konami, I think they would be left independent too which would allow Nintendo to continue working on exclusive deals. Whatever happens next, I just hope they all remain independent and do business as usual. It only means that Sony/MS would also profit from sales on the Switch.

I don't like the way things are going but we can't do anything about it. So all we can do is hope that the ones we like the most are safe. And should they be acquired then remain independent

"Console wars are a relic of the past," they said. "We've long since moved past these childish arguments," they said.

Sure, there aren't any openly hostile smear campaigns anymore, but these companies seem to be stoking those fires with these acquisitions and the highly polarized fanbases are just lapping it up like dogs. Yeah yeah, Sony said Bungie will remain independent and multiplatform, but Twitter comments sections care not for such trivial details! Sony owns Bungie, therefore Xbox and their fanbase of cretins can **** off, that's all they need to know~

@HotGoomba Nintendo won’t spend 15 billion dollars for BN
But it is a pretty good fit

If they want to go this way,maybe platinum games will be the right choice for them

... and Nintendo will buy Sony . Case closed

I am just a little worried that Nintendo might in effect be put in the position they were in with the WiiU….no 3rd party support.

This doesn’t really affect me, as I have a series x and pretty much all the games I need between the Switch and GamePass. I will probably get a PlayStation eventually too.

@kingbk Even if Nintendo buys Platinum, they still wouldn't own Bayonetta. For whatever reason Sega still own the IP while Nintendo publishes.

My question is why didn’t microsoft buy bungee as well. I mean if you’ve got 70 billion then surely they can afford another 3.6 billion? Xx I’m sure Sony and Microsoft talk to each other and agreed terms xxxx

@GannonBanned
Why would a game release stop them from being acquired?!

Compared to waht Microsof bought two weeks ago, this seems more like a fart, that was taken away by the wind.

@HollowSpectre .....or does this mean there will be more indie developers in a year or two?

@blindsquarel well yes I believe some of those laws do prevent MS from buying certain Japanese companies (Idk which ones)

But Sony can still buy them I think. Despite being HQ in CA

So Bungie games will remain multi platform? I'll predict that they will first appear on Sony consoles, then a 6 months later or a year later, release on PC/Microsoft. Nintendo wasn't seeing Bungie games anyways.

If Nintendo were to acquire a one of the remaining big producers/developers, which would you want them to acquire? I would want them to acquire Capcom.

The only company I can see Nintendo buying would be sega.

Sony and Nintendo can't beat Microsoft in Monopoly, their pockets are not as deep. I don't want Sony to buy Namco and keep Monster Hunter etc only for themselves. Maybe Sony and Nintendo could team up not merge

@westman98 Well I couldn't think of anyone else, but if Nintendo was to ever pull a Microsoft, they'd buy Bandai Namco.

I hate this industry so much

@blindsquarel The only company I want Nintendo to lockdown is Platinum Games. Though Nintendo does not have a history of acquiring studios unless they have a strong working relationship like Monolith Soft, Retro or Next Level Games. Nintendo rather works with companies as partners like Platinum, Camelot, GameFreak, etc.

I don't think Nintendo wants to acquire large publishers. I mean they had their chance when Atlus was on for sale and rather it was Sega who acquired them. I don't think that plan is going to change as I think they feel that they'd rather become Disney/Marvel Studios of the early 90s-late 00s through establishing extended media through films, theme parks and merchandising rather than acquiring the computation.

@Teddie-bear If Nintendo is going to acquire a publisher it would be Koei Tecmo. Though even then I'd rather Nintendo not just acquire companies like Square Enix, Capcom or Konami as all I feel like that does is limit creativity in the industry.

So the newest form of the console wars is just the acquisition wars, then. How painfully boring.

nintendo needs to aquire platinum studios before anyone else attempts to do so.

@Wexter konami needs to be bought out they have treated their ips like trash or just leave most to gather dust in a corner.

@blindsquarel If they ever bought anyone, it would be cheap. They don’t have money like Sony or Microsoft. Nintendos value is 50$-60$B. Compared to $3T and $150B.

@Oh_Well lets not forget, whoever acquires Konami also will have the benefit of getting the Hudson catalog well

@theGamerPad cmon dude? lol Dude Dude hate to tell you but your wrong like other sony fanboys before you... You know nothing about gaming child and in fact i was gaming long before you were born... Metroid Dread was total trash and people like you can't handle the fact some people hated the mess Now as far as Microsoft buying all these awesome companies shows times are changing and you better get to accepting it kiddo.. Frankly Sony has been going down hill for years and im glad to see it happening to a more hateful company and i never rage i just state facts. sorry if that hurts your feelings but i just don't care.. Im a gamer who games and tell it like it is.. Bye!

@Uska it's multi-platform for now they didn't say it would be forever at most there probably keeping it like that until they can finish structuring it to make exclusives

@FishyS but are they still technically a Japanese company they're based in California in the United States

@Wexter @RiasGremory I'm just gonna say it, I think Platinum is overrated. I don't think it would be worth the billions for Nintendo to spend. Their game ideas are uninspired, and Kamiya's leadership is, in my opinion... quite poor. However, those two failings theoretically could be corrected under Nintendo's direction.

They are capable of making stellar games under exterior leadership, using others' creative ideas, like Nier Automata. But left to their own devices... And they handle their games like Sol Cresta and Wonderful101.

@Eddyson instead of having yearly releases and extended corporate tentacles FromSoftware has been working on EldenRing since 2017 and the company’s valuation will almost certainly increase after a successful launch of highly anticipated software that is both a new IP and a collaboration with a mega-celebrity (George RR Martin) so until the dust starts to clear on that around Q4 this year I don’t think the shareholders would approve a sale unless it’s a sparkling big one

Sony will need to buy Capcom to make a dent, anything less isn't worth reporting against Microsoft's Blizzard-Activision acquisition.

@blindsquarel
There’s no such law, but it is difficult to do and the Japanese would rather not agree to a buyout. Though they are more open to partnerships than outright buyouts.

@Ulysses you do realize platinum did really well with astral chain along with bayonetta as well.

@NWC I’m not a Sony fanboy. They’re headed in a bad direction too, attitude and decisions. Their games are becoming too formulaic and too cinematic. They’re definitely not doing anything great except selling systems. I own a PS5, XSX and Switch. I don’t care if you’ve been gaming longer than me or not, I doubt it.

I actually worked on Rage and it could barely be considered mediocre. For you to tout it as something even worth mentioning, shows me your bias

@blindsquarel @locky-mavo Japan has laws that restrict foreign purchases, but they do not outright prevent them. This is since around 2018. Foreigners simply have to go through the Japanese government if they want to buy Japanese market shares or attempt acquisitions. The laws extend to all foreign countries; not just America. You can read further details, here:

https://www.financierworldwide.com/new-regulations-on-foreign-investors-acquisition-of-japanese-companies

@RiasGremory Astral Chain is a good point. And I'm not opposed to their acquisition entirely, but I have serious doubts about their ability to manage themselves. They are not a studio I would trust to do their own thing. Admittedly one major bonus in acquiring them would be to make use of their game engine technologies for more action-oriented games Nintendo may want to make.

@Draxa it’s possible they have a small one. 😂

@FishyS Oh I thought Sony moves their headquarters at the same time sometimes I forget that Sony has more than just PlayStation