Current Events > Sony stock value drops $20 billion in wake of Microsoft's Activision purchase

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-01-19/sony-drops-9-6-in-wake-of-microsoft-activision-deal?sref=Yg3sQEZ2

Sony Group Corp. shares fell 13% in Tokyo on Wednesday, their biggest drop since October 2008, after PlayStation rival Microsoft Corp. announced a $69 billion deal to acquire games publisher Activision Blizzard Inc.

The blockbuster acquisition escalates Microsofts spending spree to secure intellectual property assets for its Xbox Game Pass service, wiping $20 billion off Sonys valuation in a day. The push to attract paying subscribers with an overwhelming portfolio of games challenges Sonys traditional console business model that relies on high-profile exclusive titles and hardware sales. Games and network services account for about 30% of Sony revenue.

Microsoft announced Tuesday that it has more than 25 million Game Pass subscribers and will offer as many Activision Blizzard games as we can within Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass, spanning both existing and new titles, according to Xbox chief Phil Spencer. Call of Duty, Diablo and World of Warcraft are among several highly successful franchises developed under the Activision Blizzard umbrella.

Sony will have a monumental challenge on its hands to stand on its own in this war of attrition, said Amir Anvarzadeh of Asymmetric Advisors. With Call of Duty now most likely to be added exclusively to the Game Pass roster, the headwinds for Sony are only going to get tougher.

Elsewhere across the games industry, publishers rallied in the wake of Microsofts announcement, with Capcom Co. and Square Enix Holdings Co. up by more than 3.7% in Tokyo. Analysts, including Jefferies Atul Goyal, saw the move as raising valuations for game companies with strong content and IP portfolios.

Sony has maintained a consistent lead in sales and exclusive games over Microsofts competing offerings across several PlayStation and Xbox generations. Now that its Redmond, Washington-based rival has signaled its determination to spend freely to close that gap, Sony will be under pressure to respond.

Sony will struggle to match Microsoft in terms of money it can spend to buy popular game IP, Morningstar Research analyst Kazunori Ito said. Falling shares illustrate investors are worried that Sony may not be able to keep winning if indeed the industry shifts away from the hardware-based model.

Buy low

Sell! Sell! Sell!

PS5 no games.

They better step up bigger time, they need hang with the big boys now

Sony should buy From Software

Corporate Sony is incredibly dysfunctional, and has been for decades. PlayStation has been successful despite the corporate influence, not because of it. I highly doubt they will ever be able to flex this kind of spending. But I also think Microsoft has greatly over expanded itself here, and I suspect we will see EA style studio consolidation at some point.

In reading on this, I just learned that Sony is also jumping into the electric car market? That sounds risky.

The thing that worries me is that there is no way Microsoft has enough resources to have all of the studios they've purchased be working on projects simultaneously. Especially if they want to maintain the approach of always publishing things on game pass.

Sony knows what its doing, this is just a moment for MS to look strong while Sony does things behind the scenes.

Seems like a overreaction

Which is a shame because Sony is pretty solid with its single player narrative titles

They're just bad at the multiplayer/games on demand stuff that Microsoft has locked down

RiKuToTheMiGhtY posted...

Sony knows what its doing,

hmm

Jabodie posted...

Seems like a overreaction

Stocks in a nutshell

AngelicRadiance posted...

Sony should buy From Software

That would be one of the absolute worst things to happen to the industry

MarthGoomba posted...

That would be one of the absolute worst things to happen to the industry

Shut the fuck up

Sony about to buy Tesla and make the first Console Car

MarthGoomba posted...

That would be one of the absolute worst things to happen to the industry

It would be a smart move on Sony's part

Sony loses the ability to sell future Call of Duty titles or whatever it's called, on their systems now, right? They're absolutely fucked. If Microsoft can somehow lure EA to their side, which is unlikely, it's over for Sony.

PS5? moar lek PS 5 Games lmaooooo

DarkRoast posted...

Corporate Sony is incredibly dysfunctional, and has been for decades. PlayStation has been successful despite the corporate influence, not because of it. I highly doubt they will ever be able to flex this kind of spending. But I also think Microsoft has greatly over expanded itself here, and I suspect we will see EA style studio consolidation at some point.

DarkRoast posted...

The thing that worries me is that there is no way Microsoft has enough resources to have all of the studios they've purchased be working on projects simultaneously. Especially if they want to maintain the approach of always publishing things on game pass.

Get the livejorunal outta ya system:). Xbox's spending money is directly coming from the top, they have access to the big checkbook and don't have to justify why they're spending what. MS want gamepass subscription everywhere and so far they're getting it.

The Xbox team can spend money right off of the Azure, MS Office, System Center(shit last time I looked at the numbers it was $3000 per CPU core in a data center) and Windows enterprise subscription money printer.

Sony decided to pay a few key devs and try to pay for timed exclusivity with Bethesda and a few others. MS just decided to show them what can happen when a 2.5 trillion dollar company decides to throw money around.

Doom_Art posted...

Which is a shame because Sony is pretty solid with its single player narrative titles

They're just bad at the multiplayer/games on demand stuff that Microsoft has locked down

Sony used to have all the good 3rd party games, until they priced PS3 out of the fans' reach and for some reason fell out with Japanese devs. I think the Japanese market really just wanted to cash in on Nintendo's resurgent popularity after the Wii.

In any case, Xbox has a better platform and especially for historical games. Nintendo has over 99% of the essentials that wouldn't come to Xbox/PC. There's really less and less need for Sony anyway. Their few exclusives will eventually come to PC now.

Also, MS has been negotiating a buyout of Take-Two for about 6 months now.

Good

RiKuToTheMiGhtY posted...

Sony knows what its doing

I once read that separate divisions of Sony funded both sides of the Napster lawsuit. I have doubts about your statement.

Crazyman93 posted...

I once read that separate divisions of Sony funded both sides of the Napster lawsuit. I have doubts about your statement.

No you're probably just crazy man

SMH MS paying $69b only to make Sony lose $20b

FAIL

Now is the time to bust down the AO-rating wall.

RiKuToTheMiGhtY posted...

Sony knows what its doing, this is just a moment for MS to look strong while Sony does things behind the scenes.

You mean like putting games on steam?

OH WAIT LOL

AngelicRadiance posted...

Sony should buy From Software

If they try Microsoft will just swoop in with 5B more than what Sony offered.

Of the two consoles, I prefer to play my Series X simply because the Elite controller is so much better than DualSense.

Sony always loses, baby!

Tyranthraxus posted...

If they try Microsoft will just swoop in with 5B more than what Sony offered.

Sony already owns part of them

AngelicRadiance posted...

Sony should buy From Software

You shut your fucking mouth right fucking now.

Unless Sony also releases Fromsoft games on PC as well.

Shit like wexdust keep those games popping. Ducking playing those games on console.

This is always pretty typical for any acquisition though. The company getting acquired shoots up, acquiring company goes down.

what can sony even do at this point? all their games are on the PC and the PS5 still has no games

Sony will probably buy a bunch of those middling Japanese studios that always have their games censored on Playstation, and then censor them more.

Microsoft pulling all these baller moves. Sony needs to step their game up!

CE_gonna_CE posted...

This is always pretty typical for any acquisition though. The company getting acquired shoots up, acquiring company goes down.

but thats..not what is being talked about >_>

ZevLoveDOOM posted...

Microsoft pulling all these baller moves. Sony needs to step their game up!

I don't think enough people realize or appreciate the fact that Microsoft's net worth is literally almost 20 times larger than Sony.

Sony's entire net worth is about twice what Microsoft paid to buy Activision. They don't have the kind of money to throw around on acquisitions like Microsoft does, which is why they seem to have been focusing more on timed exclusivity and smaller deals that they can afford.

ZevLoveDOOM posted...

Microsoft pulling all these baller moves. Sony needs to step their game up!

Easy enough, considering Sony makes better games. For as much as I love my series x, I can't think of any exclusives other than Halo infinite that really got me interested.

thronedfire2 posted...

but thats..not what is being talked about >_>

Shit, yeah, my bad, sorry. Im an idiot and severely failing on reading comprehension today.