So this is a rumour making the rounds but a fascinating one at that. According to a site called Market Watch, Sony are in negotiations with Grand Theft Auto publisher Take-Two. According to Game Informer Sony are in "advanced board level discussions to acquire Take-Two Interactive in a mostly cash deal," such a deal would certainly have a massive impact on the industry. We've seen Microsoft making some big moves over the past year or so, are Sony about to follow? Under the Take-Two umbrella are the likes of Rockstar Games, Firaxis and Hanger 13.

Here is a link to the Game Informer article which goes into a little more detail. But this could potentially be huge. What do you think?

Yeah I just don't see this happening. Wikipedia has Take Two listed at a $13B market cap, I doubt Sony would drop that for GTA / Civ / Red Dead. Especially if it means cutting off 3/4s of the market.

Would be one helluva power play but I can't see it happening. I would sort of love to see it though...

Even if it could happen I wouldn't want it to seeing how Sony tends to lock away a lot of stuff behind exclusivity.

It seems a little too crazy to be real, thus I'm calling fake. I feel like Take-Two makes so much god damn money they'd be laughing at the idea of selling to anyone.

..but that's also why I want it to happen. I love when insane shit like that happens and shakes up the whole industry. Everyone would be talking about it. And I love exclusives. Exclusives make it a real competition. Exclusives make a huge difference and maybe the only one that matters. If your platform has a lockdown on the games people need to play, then you "win". They should buy From Software as well and nail down the Souls series. That is a system seller because those fans are the most core audience.

I also don't really care whats exclusive because I've always had all platforms. Well, not counting Nintendo, because the only decent stuff they have are their exclusives and they are so few and far between it doesn't matter.

Sony would demolish if this happened, but also force Microsoft to step up and stop dicking around and wasting time with boring old Halo, Gears of War, and Forza. They have nothing at this point.

Could you fucking imagine if this actually played out?How would Microsoft even respond to such a deal?

Buying Sony.

Companies acquisitions can happen with less than the market capital if Sony could strike a deal.

I'm pretty sure that Sony won't sit around while Microsoft is acquiring developers studios left and right but i doubt that they could go for a big publisher like take two unless the negotiations made really convenient for them.

@seikenfreak: you are advocating a scenario where we as the target audience lose the most while companies gain very little. It is in the best benefit of a developer to have as many revenue streams as possible from a 2-3 year investment on game development. Imagine how much more money Sont would have made if Uncharted came out on PC and Xbox - it was already a great game with critical acclaim. I love Bayonetta, but I’m not buying a Wii U just to play Bayonetta.

Literally no one wins anything with exclusives, that is a very system wars mentality.

Take 2 is probably the most expensive publisher out there you can buy with there portfolio of huge successful games. I don't think Sonys higher ups are willing to spill that money maybe a PS5 Exclusive deal for a few games makes more sense.

@humanity

I love Bayonetta, but I’m not buying a Wii U just to play Bayonetta.

But you can buy a Switch to play Bayonetta 2 :D.

note: think about the Outworlds cluster fuck they would be in. Owned by Microsoft made a previous deal with Take 2 for a multiplatform RPG (Outerworlds) then they would be owned by Sony (only for the Outerworlds game) So Outerworlds would be a PS4 exclusive?

I dont belive sony can afford them. Now if u were to say microsoft or google were looking to aquire them id believe you.

@humanity: sony microsoft and nintendo produce exclusives to sell systems and services, not units of software.

@humanity: And yet people rant and rave about Uncharted and other Sony exclusives. They can make some money and also make your platform the "cool" place to be which is what they try to do spending all that money on pointless marketing and advertisements.

Also, the successful Sony first party devs seem to be doing more than alright for themselves. I haven't seen Naughty Dog out there complaining how strapped for cash they are.

All sounds exciting to me. I've got nothing wrong with console wars per say. The thing people complain about is the idiots on the internet who get too worked up about it. Then again, passionate people is what you want. I can't imagine the luke-warm, buys 2 games a year and 1 is a sports title type of person, and who doesn't really know or care what they are playing on is where devs or manufacturers are making their money at.

Highly doubt this purchase is possible anyway though.

@humanity: To get this out of the way before I get into my point, I am not advocating for Sony to buy Take Two.

However, you said this is a "scenario where we as the target audience lose the most... Literally no one wins anything with exclusives"

I disagree. Look at Sony and Nintendo's game lineup. Largely single player focused. Minimal and in many cases no microtransactions. For the most part, games that are sold as complete quality products for $60 with high production value and a complete experience day 1.

Sony and Nintendo can fund games like this because, while turning a profit on software sales is a goal, the big picture goal is to drive hardware sales by making their platform an enticing place to play quality games. There's a reason there are very few games like this that aren't made by Sony or Nintendo, because the big publishers are trying to squeeze every cent out of every player and a 20 or 30 hour single player experience with no opportunity for "recurrent user spending" is not the best way to do that.

So, while the idea of a first party company buying one of the biggest third party publishers would perhaps not be the best thing for the industry, I absolutely disagree that exclusives are only ever bad for consumers. Many of my favorite games of all time would have never been greenlit, or would have been altered negatively, if the industry were comprised of only third party publishers.

@ll_exile_ll: To piggyback on the hardware-oriented nature of Sony, where does that leave them if streaming is the future? Nintendo is obviously fine, but what does Sony have to offer if that's where the business goes?

Don't they need a lineup like Take Two's in that case, simply to remain one of the top 3 players?

@ll_exile_ll: I would agree with you more if there was an insurmountable gap between first and third party games. While I agree that generally first party Sony exclusives are quite good like Last of Us or God of War, there are plenty of third party games like the most recent Reaident Evil 2 remake for example or Titanfall 2 from a few years ago that are equally good. It depends why your flavor in gaming is really. Sony never had a great first person shooter, while third party has been great on that front.

As @mavs pointed out as well, if we are moving in the direction where a "platform" is no longer isolated to a piece of hardware, that may or may not have more powerful specs or features, then the only real way these companies can differentiate themselves and stand out is IP and software. Other than that, it's like.. Customer service and pricing?

Venting tangent..

In the broader picture, I am not a fan of all this digital platform nonsense. The amount of companies/people who are trying to offer a subscription based service is insanity. Why someone like Disney is so egotistical or arrogant or whatever, that they need to have their own service for example is absurd to me. I kinda liked the Netflix Marvel stuff but no way in hell am I signing up for another service. Also why I think having ten different digital storefronts on PC is idiotic and everyone should just be on Steam, BUT, Valve should adjust their % taken based on that. I do not want to use Origin or Epic or Ubisoft etc etc. Netflix, Hulu, Prime, Youtube, HBO.. PSN, Xbox, Nintendo.. It's beyond annoying and the person/company who first comes up with a good way to aggregate it all and charge one fee will win on that front.

If you think Valve becoming a complete monopoly would result in them lowering their percentage on sales, have I got news for you. Competition is only a good thing for the digital entertainment marketplace. Valve has become complacent, and the Steam storefront is an over-saturated mess stuffed to the brim with garbage. Them finally having real competition is the thing needed to get them to improve. If they keep losing big name games to other services, you can bet they will some make some changes that will benefit consumers.

On the steaming TV front, competition there has already brought improvements to the end user. Netflix was content to coast along with their catalog of old network shows when they had little competition. When Hulu and Amazon Prime started signing deals to get shows to switch from Netflix to their platforms, Netflix shifted their efforts to original programming. We likely wouldn't have a lot of the great Netflix Originals if they hadn't been pressed to innovate by their competition. Now we see great original programming on all these services.

Who knows, if Epic starts to take a significant chunk out of Valve's pocket, that may prompt them to start focusing on game development more heavily again. I think its a near certainly Valve and Steam would win a lot of goodwill if they put out any game with a 3 in the title.

Sony are saying this isn't the case: Source

@ll_exile_ll: Not saying Valve would do that now with Steam, but they'll end up having to do it if more stores keep popping up. They should get ahead of it and do it now of course, but they won't. Then again, I can't imagine Epic's store surviving any more than Origin or Uplay, yea they exist but.. no one is using them if they don't have to. This is another reason I've enjoyed playing most of my games on PS4.

The bubble has to burst for all these digital services at some point. They've talked about this multiple times on Tested's podcast, the "What is your #? How many services is too many for you to be subscribed?" discussion and they've pretty much already hit saturation. I have Prime and don't even watch anything on it. I don't understand who are the people out there who are subscribed to five different show services. Petrolicious (a Youtube channel) just started up some premium member service that's $60 a year I think. The shows they are offering with it look awesome.. And I still said hell no. Just on principle.

I participated in the closed alpha testing for that Satisfactory game a couple months ago and just heard it's only coming to Epic's store? No thanks. I want the game but I'm not building a whole other library on a entirely different service when Steam works PERFECTLY for me after using it for 15+ years. I have no issues with the store front or finding stuff I want to play. No billing issues and I've "returned/refunded" games with no hassle. Am I in love with Steam? No, but it already exists, I already have a hundred games there, it's stable and reliable, and there is no reason for me to move to another digital platform.

Honestly, the sad answer is that I am far more likely to pirate a game if it's something I want to play and I can't get it on the biggest game sales platform in existence. Dumb move on the devs part IMO. Others will disagree. They could sell it off their site and I'll PayPal them the money. Valve should adjust their fees to avoid these frail competitors cropping up. They'll still make money hand over fist anyway.

Way off topic but also it's a dead thread anyway.