Summary
- Sony is under pressure to respond to Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard, which some argue gives Xbox too much power in the gaming space.
- The Microsoft-Activision Blizzard deal is the largest ever in the gaming industry, worth $68.7 billion, and has major implications for the tech sector.
- Sony is expected to make its own acquisitions in order to compete with Microsoft's game-making setup, and the company has been signaling interest in new acquisitions throughout 2023.
Sony is currently "under pressure" to respond to Microsoft's Activision Blizzard acquisition, an industry analyst said. His comments on the matter were offered as part of a wider outlook at the PlayStation maker's prospects following the conclusion of the deal that some argued would give Xbox too much power across the gaming space.
After almost two years' worth of regulatory reviews, Microsoft officially acquired Activision Blizzard on October 13. The $68.7 billion transaction is by far the largest such deal in the history of the gaming industry, as well as the biggest-ever acquisition in the wider tech sector.
Ubisoft Details Activision Blizzard Game Deal Following Microsoft Acquisition
Now that Microsoft's Activision Blizzard acquisition is complete, Ubisoft reveals what exactly that means for its own game offerings.
Now that Activision Blizzard is part of Microsoft's family of game studios, Sony is "surely" feeling the "pressure to react," according to Ampere Analysis' Head of Games Research Piers Harding-Rolls. Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, Harding-Rolls opined that this recent turn of events will likely push the PlayStation maker into more acquisitions of its own, including high-profile deals that would offer a "meaningful" way for Sony to continue competing with Microsoft's ever-growing game-making setup.
Harding-Rolls is hardly alone in his predictions, not least because Sony itself has been signaling interest in new acquisitions throughout 2023. The conglomerate was reportedly even considering spinning off its financial services unit as a public company back in May, all with the goal of funding its future M&A activity. Whether such a move would be necessary for Sony to maintain its inorganic growth momentum moving forward is unclear, but what's certain is that its acquisitions in the gaming space slowed down over the last 12 months; after completing five such deals in 2022, Sony acquired just one game developer in 2023, the Washington-based Firewalk Studios.
As for what's next for Microsoft, Harding-Rolls expects that the tech giant won't attempt altering Activision Blizzard's core structure in the foreseeable future. While Bobby Kotick already confirmed he'll be stepping down as Activision Blizzard CEO come 2024, a change in leadership won't necessarily have an immediate impact on the rest of the company. As things stand right now, Harding-Rolls expects that Microsoft will leave Activision Blizzard to operate as a separate entity, similar to how it handled ZeniMax Media after acquiring it in early 2021. Such a strategy would leave Microsoft with three independent game publishing arms: Activision Blizzard, ZeniMax, and Xbox Game Studios.
And while PlayStation is now starting to feel the sting from Microsoft's ZeniMax acquisition, this newly concluded deal might take longer to start yielding palpable advantages for Microsoft. That's largely due to a July deal that saw Microsoft vow to keep Call of Duty—Activision Blizzard's flagship franchise—on PlayStation for the foreseeable future.
Source: GamesIndustry