If you thought Microsoft was the only company looking to bolster its internal gaming divisions, you’d be wrong. In fact, accounts to Nikkei, it looks that SIE (Sony Interactive Entertainment) CEO Jim Ryan has been looking to bring more studios under the PlayStation umbrella.
According to a statement by Ryan, “Companies new to the games industry looking at the market with hope is something we definitely welcome,” Ryan said. He emphasized, “Sony Interactive Entertainment has 25 years of experience in the games industry and has big assets.”
With the launch of the next-generation of PlayStation possibly being a year away, it makes sense. Not to mention that Microsoft isn’t Sony’s only rival going into the next-generation of console gaming. With Google’s entry into the world of gaming with Stadia, Sony is looking for any way to one-up the competition.
Sony’s no stranger to rumors of acquiring additional gaming studios. A few months back, it was rumored that it was looking to acquire Rockstar Games. Of which nothing ever happened due to a misunderstanding. More recently there has been speculation that Sony could be going after Remedy Entertainment. I suppose we’ll find out more about this, if anything, shortly.
If I’m being honest, I would rather Sony (and by extension, Microsoft) look at companies that didn’t publish titles on multiple platforms. I’ve said this in the past and I still hold on to that. Look at it this way, Sure a big acquisition would be great for any company, but at what cost. Sure, Sony or Microsoft would gain a valuable asset and all of their IPs. At the same time, the gaming space would suffer as something that was once available on all platforms is suddenly gone. We’ve seen this when Microsoft acquired Ninja Theory, Obsidian and more recently, Double Fine. There was a huge outcry when this happened and I hate to see this trend continue. Could you imagine if someone managed to lock down Capcom or Bungie? That’s game-changing stuff right there.
Either way, with both Sony and Microsoft looking to beef up for the next-generation console wars, this is going to be quite interesting.
