Does Sony need to respond to Microsoft’s $69 billion purchase of Activision Blizzard? That’s the question on everyone’s mind in the video game industry as the Xbox maker throws money at the big game.
This month, Microsoft finally closed the deal on its long-running quest to acquire the maker of Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, and Candy Crush games, and is now working to integrate Activision Blizzard’s business into Microsoft’s console.
While Xbox executives have insisted that Activision Blizzard’s games won’t arrive on the likes of Game Pass until next year, Microsoft’s position in the console war, which it has admitted it’s losing, looks set to rise.
Sony, with the huge success of the PlayStation 5 and its first-party games setting sales records, is not in a position to spend the kind of money that Microsoft has on mergers and acquisitions. But it has opened up its wallet in recent years, purchasing Destiny maker Bungie for $3.6 billion, and before that, acquiring Spider-Man 2 developer Insomniac for what now appears to be a modest $229 million.
Does Sony now need to respond to Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard purchase with more acquisitions of its own? This is a question CNBC It was brought up to Sony Interactive Entertainment business president Eric Lempel, who explained that PlayStation is still looking for partners to work with, but not necessarily with a view to buying them first.
“We have a number of ways to look at this,” Lempel said, adding that “in terms of great content, that’s what we’re focused on.”
“We have done more mergers and acquisitions [mergers and acquisitions] “More in the last decade than we have ever done before,” he added. “We’re always looking to work with new partners, whether that’s someone as an outside provider…or working with a developer along the way and then later acquiring them.”
According to CNBC, Lempel cited Insomniac as a good example of this strategy. Sony partnered with Insomniac as a “second-party” studio before buying it outright. In 2021, Sony bought PC port specialist Nixxes, Returnal developer Housemarque, VR developer Firesprite, and Bluepoint Games, the studio behind the remasters and remakes. Last year, Sony bought Fairgame$ developer Haven Studios, and this year it bought Firewalk Studios.
While the industry wonders whether Sony will continue its spending spree, another question arises: Is Microsoft finished, or are other major video game companies next?
Wesley is IGN’s UK news editor. You can find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can contact Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].
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