The Old Sony Megathread

[apsham]

https://www.businessinsider.com/sony-buying-take-two-interactive-rumors-2019-3

[Gabriel]

43 minutes ago, apsham said:

https://www.businessinsider.com/sony-buying-take-two-interactive-rumors-2019-3

While I don't believe the rumor to be true in any way, it's funny that this article mentions PS4 exclusivity for the games being a reason why it would be a bad idea for Sony to purchase the studio.

That's exactly why Sony would want to purchase the studio. Yeah, they'd lose the money from the Xbox/PC versions of those games, but purchasing a studio is done to create more exclusivity to the platform making the purchase. If Sony were to buy Take Two, it would be in hopes that the Xbox/PC fans of those games would purchase a PS4 and/or PS5 to continue playing those games.

How huge of a boost would that give Sony when the PS5 releases if they had exclusive rights to Grand Theft Auto 6 or a Red Dead Redemption 3? The 2K sports games? It would be a huge coup for them, and a major strike in the console wars. Of course they won't make all of that money back right away, but a move like that is made with long-term implications in mind, not short-term.

Again, I wouldn't put any stock in the rumor, and I definitely wouldn't be buying any Take Two stock right now... but losing the revenue from other consoles isn't the reason why. You buy studios FOR the exclusives.

[apsham]

Take Two's value as a company is derived almost entirely from being a third party. Some of the licenses they hold wouldn't be overly excited about their sales being cut due to a move like that - while it would drive sales, something like that probably wouldn't make up for what would be possible across Xbox/PC and in some cases the Switch. If it were as simple as that, you would see stuff like this a heck of a lot shots at acquisitions like this.

[Gabriel]

Oh completely. I am in full agreement there, and I think that's the point they were trying to drive home, but when I read the article, the thing that stuck out the most was that they were saying it would be a bad move for Sony because of the exclusivity factor. I think that's exactly why Sony would be interested in the purchase, but the licensed products wouldn't be happy. WWE would probably ride out their license agreement, for instance, and then find someone else to work on their games to make them available across other platforms again.

So, in essence, the exclusivity would be the major problem, but not in the way that the article put across. It would be a huge boost to Sony to be able to lay claim to so many big exclusive titles, but it would be a short-sighted approach, because the licensed products would probably bail from Take Two/Sony at their earliest opportunity. For this to be a good and realistic move, Sony would need to be able to lock all those titles in long-term before they made the purchase, and that won't happen.

It's a Sony fanboy dream for them to be able to acquire studios like this, but it's just not realistic. Yeah, it could help them win the console war, but it could also sink them if it didn't work out. The risk/reward ratio would be way out of whack because of all the variables attached.

[Schlitzbrille]

16 hours ago, OctoberRaven said:

Yeah, I mean, who would want the rights to Duke Nukem?

Not me.

[probablyoliver]

The Division 2 is pretty special.

[probablyoliver]

I'm told I've put 20 hours into The Division 2. It feels more like 2 hours. It's gaming crack and I love it.

[Liam]

On 18/03/2019 at 09:49, Ollie said:

The Division 2 is pretty special.

Is it a game that requires you to play multiplayer, or not really?

I hadn't fancied it, but your thoughts and a review I just watched have at least got me interested.

[Paton]

I'd buy it if I had people to play with.

[probablyoliver]

On 24/03/2019 at 09:41, Liam said:

Is it a game that requires you to play multiplayer, or not really?

I hadn't fancied it, but your thoughts and a review I just watched have at least got me interested.

It's okay alone, it's 1000x better with people. If anyone gets it I'm more than happy to jump on with people though. 

[Liam]

1 hour ago, Ollie said:

It's okay alone, it's 1000x better with people. If anyone gets it I'm more than happy to jump on with people though. 

The downtime on the board and my lack of self control meant I picked it up yesterday.

[probablyoliver]

3 minutes ago, Liam said:

The downtime on the board and my lack of self control meant I picked it up yesterday.

Nice! Let me know when you're on and we'll shoot some mean boys in the face together.

[Kaney]

No Mans Sky VR has been announced, along with an Iron Man game.

I need NMS VR multi, punching Ollie will be so much satisfying.

[probablyoliver]

Bring it. Don't make me shoot your space horse, you damned space zombie.

[Bobfoc]

Conan Exiles and The Surge will be April's Playstation Plus games. Try to contain your excitement.

[9 to 5]

I don't know what they are.

[Baddar]

Eh, will probably give The Surge a go.

[Your Mom]

I thought that Conan game was already free. Am I thinking of something else?

[apsham]

Conan Exiles can be pretty fun solo, ten times the game that Ark ever was.

Surge is a wannabe Dark Souls in a sci-fi world - pretty good as far as I played.

[Gabriel]

I'm pretty excited to give Conan a chance. More so now that Apsham said it's a good solo experience. I don't really like playing online, so that's good to know.