Why are people celebrating studio acquisitions?

As gamers should we not want console manufacturers to invest in creating new studios and new IP instead of buying existing ones just to take games off of competing platforms?

Sony invests in new triple-A IP such as The Last of Us, Horizon Zero Dawn, Bloodborne, Ghost of Tsushima and Returnal. All are highly rated and highly successful and none of these games would have happened without Sony's commitment to providing gamers with high quality, unique and innovative experiences that set their platform apart from the others.

Take a look at what Microsoft is doing. After years of failed IPs and studio shutdowns they have completely given up on trying to create their own studios and IPs and are now attempting to buy their way to relevancy. This is anti-consumerism at its finest. Instead of providing new content to players and bringing something to the table of the gaming industry they are throwing money around in a fit of rage to buy up studios and companies just so they can cancel PS versions of games. Phil's trying to punish gamers for buying the console with good exclusives over the one littered with shovelware like Crackdown 3 and Bleeding Edge.

I can't see how any real gamer would cheerlead over this sort of business practice.

Sony acquired Guerrilla Games, Insomniac, Naughty Dog and Sucker Punch. 😎 /thread.

It's simple tribalism. People on these forums have their camps and many in one camp hate those in the other camps to the point where any positive for their camp, regardless that the coin could flip for them in the future, is celebrated.

Same thing happened in politics with hyper-tribalism. You have nut jobs now speaking at Yale stating white people show their shame and guilt of being racists by not eating bread and how she wants to kill them. Not a peep from most people. That should be telling enough where America is headed.

Game development studio acquisitions should really not be a concern for anyone when the above is occurring.

Gamers: Microsoft needs more exclusives

Microsoft: ok, we will expand our first party studio lineup to increase our exclusive lineup.

Gamers: No, No, not like that!

It sucks but they all do it. Microsoft, Sony, Activision, EA, etc. Hell even Nintendo. If you have a gaming PC though then Microsoft acquisitions shouldn’t bother you at all. I just thank god that Google and Amazon aren’t running around scooping up a bunch of great studios.

What we should want is more games in general. If Microsoft opens their own studios instead of buying them that would create more industry jobs and would mean new games that would not have existed otherwise. Think of the new studios and new IP they could have created with 7.5b.

It should be a simple concept for gamers to understand, but y'know there are too many corporate fanboy cheerleaders who just want to "stick it to Sony." It's sad to see.

Name anyone other than people mocking cows (even then most of them weren't celebrating) that were actually celebrating Microsoft acquiring a developer.

I'll wait.

These corporate fanboy cheerleaders do not know how they become useful idiots for the corporation they blindly support.

Personally I do not think exclusives or acquiring studios is a good thing ... BUT if it makes toxic Sony Fanboys like you bitter then I like it

I dunno, why do people celebrate sports teams acquiring new players?

Because lems needed a "win" so badly.

Meh, every respective fanboy faction does it. Cows here were getting ready to throw a parade at the rumors of SquareEnix being bought out by Sony just a couple months back.

TC, isn't it worse that you celebrate paying $70 per game? Isn't that stranger? :-S

What Sony is doing is "anti consumerist". Full exclusives are not pro consumer. Forcing people to buy hardware they probably don't want or need isn't pro consumerist.

Where as MS is releasing all their exclusives day one on Gamepass and offering that to anybody. That's not anti consumerist. You don't need to buy Xbox hardware. Just an affordable monthly fee and you get a ton of stuff.

You can't support Sony and successfully put that argument forwards.

I agree, Sony should have never acquired Naughty Dog or Insomniac. They should be ashamed!

Unless buying a studio brings games to your system of choice that weren't coming as it was, I just don't get it.

This just equates to Microsoft bad for doing the same thing you celebrate Sony for doing

@iamdavey: "Name anyone other than people mocking cows (even then most of them weren't celebrating) that were actually celebrating Microsoft acquiring a developer."

You should take a look at resetera. Personally I believe that forum is filled with corporate shills. But they celebrate MS acquisitions.

@Pedro said:

@fedor said:

Meh, every respective fanboy faction does it. Cows here were getting ready to throw a parade at the rumors of SquareEnix being bought out by Sony just a couple months back.

Twice in one day... ;-)

Or Sucker Punch Or Guerrilla Games Or Media Molecule Or Evolution Studios (which they closed if I remember correctly). That is if we followed OP logic. 😂

tc speaks of 'real gamers' something he knows nothing about.

*Speaking with gravelly voice* because this is war. faction X must win. no matter the cost, no matter the fallout. as long as faction X wins nothing else matters. grrr.

in all seriousness though its not ideal but its not a big deal either. Sometimes a studio acquisition can be a bit of a bailout. sometimes a company wants to mitigate the risk of spending billions on content by spending it on, what should be, a sure thing.

Getting bought out by a bigger fish has its advantages too. Obsidian was on its last legs at one point for example. very precarious on the jobs front. pitches to publishers not landing. Now MS have bought them. jobs are a bit more secure and they will have a bigger budget to produce ideas that they may have had before but would just not be possible on a shoestring budget.

Bayonetta 2 and 3 wouldnt exist without nintendo. no one else was biting. that deal probably also helped platinum during one of their leaner periods (now of course they are very busy). i suspect Monolithsoft were also in a similar position to obsidian when nintendo took over and that has worked out well.

studios change hands, IP goes different places over time, Studios fade, Games disappear into history, talent shifts around and the wheels of the industry keep turning regardless. I wouldn't worry too much about it.

yes i would love the hardware, services and content sides of the business to be completely decoupled across the board but there are economic realities that make that idea a non runner unfortunately.

While I wholeheartedly agree with the sentiment there is a glaring issue with your post that pedro already outlined: Sony does that too. So does Nintendo and major publishers.

I am opposed to these acquisitions because it destroys competition and it drives us all the more closer to what now seems like an inevitable oligopoly. Your hypocritical cherry-picking is part of the problem IMO; turning a blind eye to your favorite corporation to "do battle" with another corporation is just as bad as the idiots who actively cheer for those acquisitions.

When we're left with a very small group of companies that are basically THE vg industry and when innovation/quality no longer becomes a necessity because no one else will ever threaten these companies' positions in the market I suspect a lot of people will start eating their words... or fall deeper into ignorance.

@osan0: These kind of exceptions (where a studio is about to go under, no longer has funds/ressources to make games, etc.) are IMO the only acceptable reasons for an acquisition. Something, for example, the Microsoft acquisitions of Rare and Bethesda or Sony's acquisitions of Insomniac and Naughty Dogs are not.

Because Lems gave up hope on MS to create an exciting new IP on their own. Since MS lack creativity, the only option they now have is to buy up studios

Typical dumb, hypocritical cow thread...

As said above, Sony (and other major gaming companies) do this too. And MS did create a studio from scratch recently, The Initiative. And from my count, MS has created more studios than Sony.

When did Sony last create a new studio?

You cows really need to spend more time actually playing games instead of thinking about what anti-Xbox sh*t you can post every 5 minutes.

Ummm...pretty much all Sony studios were acquired:

Naughty Dog

Insomniac

Sucker Punch

Guerilla Games

Media Molecule

Bend Studio

Nowhere near the same as buying a company like Bethesda who developed, published, and was already a successful multiplatform company. Sony bought most of these developers while they were still growing and independent. Only exception really was Insomniac they were practically a 2nd party developer for them for years. Any more weaksauce arguments for today? You're on par for the course as usual.

Here's a reality check for you:

The Last of Us is made by Naughty Dog which sony acquired in 2001 (before that they used to develop games for other platforms), Horizon Zero Dawn is developed by Guerrilla Games (previously known as Lost Boys Games) was acquired by sony in 2005 (they also used to make games for other platforms), Bloodborne is just on sony because of the exclusivity contract, if they didn't spend time on this game the studio could have developed a game just as decent, Ghost of Tsushima is made by Sucker Punch Productions another studio acquired by sony, they made 1 game for another platform than they had a long exclusivity contract with sony and then they were finally bought out. Retunral is the same as Bloodbore.

All console manufacturers employ these anti consumer tactics, in this day and age microsoft is the least anti consumer so singling them out doesn't serve any purpose, they all suck and they will continue to do so as long as these "exclusives" are celebrated.

All of that to say that it is OK only when Sony does it. You shills are a so funny. 😂

He's not saying Sony doesn't do it hes just saying these aren't great idea's to do it.

So you're saying there's no difference between finding a small indie company, buying them and developing their talent, vs buying a huge successful conglomerate like Bethesda? Man, I've been too busy in kitchen today with these ownage sandwiches.

He is saying it is only good when Sony does it. 🤷‍♀️ You are a shill so I understand why you agree. 😎

One thing is, Microsoft acquires and believes in their studios. Look at Rare, they could easily force them to make a new Banjo Kazooie or Conker. Instead, they allow them to make a new IP in Everwild, after the weird Sea of Thieves. They believe in their IP as well, with the reboot of Fable. They didn't acquire an RPG team to make it, instead they looked inwards and gave it to Playground. Sony basically gutted Japan Studio to focus on Astro, even when sales are high.

Neither approach is good or bad, but one is definitely more consumer-friendly. With Xbox, cows are still missing the point. It isn't about hardware sales for MS. MS is a software company and XGP/cloud is further proof that they are shifting focus to software and UX. Day one on Game Pass is a game-changer. Their metric for success is not console sales, Phil even said this. If you read his interviews about the market of gaming, it's beyond buying X system to play Y game. They are focused on getting the games where the players are.

Hell, Sony existing as a console maker in 2021 can be traced directly back to its buying yet another multiplatform developer: Psygnosis, which then made the development tools/library that made working on the original PlayStation so appealing/easy for creators.

Sony has acquired almost every studio they have ever owned.

/thread.

Also, the reason TC is not excited for studio acquisitions is because Sony is not doing them.

But let me be absolutely clear, its not for lack of trying. Sony is simply doing what they can afford to do. Don't let Cows convince you the reason Sony isn't doing acquisitions is because they exist on some higher plane of "nobility", or "morality", or other such nonsense. They wanted to buy Bethesda btw. They're spending all this money on timed exclusives deals because its what they can afford to do. If Sony could've bought FULL exclusitivity (and it made business sense) they would have.

TC and Cows know they will not win this war with MS, so they aren't playing.

Who is? Where?

Sounds like something you've just made up.

@StrongDeadlift: "TC and Cows know they will not win this war with MS"

But there is no war. MS already lost. 🤭

I don't celebrate it even when Nintendo does it. Sorry, but this is one case where my politics override my gaming fanboyism.

Hell, I hate when people say MS should buy SEGA.

Some folks love their acquisitions like OP.

^^^

You do realize that Sony had to buy those developing companies, right? 🤦‍♂️

Mods, lock this thread please.

Seriously. lol :P

Lems are deflecting with Naughty Dog, Sucker Punch, and Insomniac? Devs that work almost specifically with Sony? Yeah, that's exactly the same as buying multiplat devs. Get some logic guys.

Those studios had made virtually nothing of note before Sony bought them. It's likely that they wouldn't have survived had Sony not taken them under their wing and given them the money and resources needed to achieve their visions.

This thread has backfired hard.

Sony spent a lot of money on Insomniac Games, a developer that created an exclusive for Xbox, primarily to develop new games and thats ok.

Microsoft spent more money on developers to develop new games and that's not ok.

Both have spent small amounts of money on smaller developers to develop new games and that's ok.

What would be good is if you could access all games no matter what system you are on. :)

Aquire studios. That's fine. People will leave and make their own.