Sony says it will consider acquiring new studios to bolster the PlayStation 5 lineup of video games. As for now, Microsoft is acting more aggressively in that regard, as the company has recently purchased ZeniMax Media with several prominent development studios on board.
While Sony is seemingly doing fine with PlayStation exclusives, Xbox lacks a considerable amount of titles that could’ve been considered strong selling points. To counter this unfavorable situation, Microsoft has bought and established roughly a dozen studios in the course of recent years. The latest acquisition proved to be the biggest for the company so far - Xbox bought ZeniMax for $7.5 billion, which helped secure talents of Bethesda, id Software, Arkane, and other world-famous teams. While Microsoft hasn’t announced any specific plans regarding these studios, the company is expected the development assets to invest in Xbox exclusives.
Despite competitors' attempts to turn the tables, Sony's PlayStation 5 pre-order period has been immensely successful. During the first 12 hours of pre-orders, the company managed to pre-sell more consoles than it did during the first 12 weeks of the PS4 life cycle. The community seems to be greatly interested in the newest device, and as of yet, Sony hasn't been looking at acquisitions as much as Microsoft. Still, according to SIE CEO Jim Ryan in an interview with Reuters, the company might consider doing so in the foreseeable future if there’s a strong demand for more exclusive games, in a break from its usual policy of building up existing in-house studios.
According to the industry analyst Michael Pachter, Sony might indeed seek salvation in a potential acquisition of Warner Bros. Interactive, a huge publisher that owns Batman Arkham and Mortal Kombat IPs among others. For the time being, there’s no evidence that the company is actually considering such a huge deal, but given the fact that Microsoft has already made a significant step forward with the ZeniMax acquisition, Sony might reevaluate its market strategy and prepare for an appropriate response.
Sony has a record of releasing brilliant exclusive games and franchises for its family of consoles, and there’s no reason to think that PS5 might lack a strong lineup in coming years. Existing in-house teams are capable of producing high-quality titles that can satisfy the community’s demand. On top of that, the solid start of pre-orders clearly indicates that Sony could rest on its laurels for quite some time since gamers are hugely interested in PS5 despite Microsoft’s aggressive acquisition strategy, which it doesn't seem interested in following.
Source: Reuters