Microsoft’s acquisition of Bethesda has brought about a major shift in power in the industry, with eight studios and several major AAA IP suddenly joining the Xbox Game Studios pipeline. Regardless of how long it will be before we start seeing the proper results of that, there’s no doubting that the results will be felt sooner or later.
According to Pachter, interestingly enough, should AT&T choose to sell the WB Games division in the future – after recently having decided against it following reports that those assets were indeed up for sale – that Sony could be in a good position to tap up those assets and licenses, and that IP such as Batman and Mortal Kombat could fit very well with their first party portfolio- though he expects that in all likeliness, Sony’s acquisitions will continue to be relatively smaller, along the lines of last year’s Insomniac deal.
“Their acquisitions have been smaller, like Insomniac, and those are the kinds of acquisitions that I would expect,” Pachter said. “I do think Sony is in a good position to buy Warner Bros. Interactive assets should they ever go on sale again. Depending on whether AT&T chooses to sell them, and how. If they just want to license their IP out, they will probably not go with exclusivity deals, because they won’t want the games limited to just one platform, but if they sell perpetual rights to Batman or Mortal Kombat, I think those assets would be pretty cool for Sony to fold into their lineup. They already did it with Spider-Man, so we know they would be interested in something like that. I really hadn’t considered this scenario, since we had heard WB was off the table, but now that Bethesda just got bought for $7.5 billion, you have to think AT&T are thinking, ‘could we get $7 billion?'”
Sony In A Good Position To Buy Warner, Buying Metal Gear Solid IP Isn’t Worth Much Without Kojima – Michael Pachter
According to Pachter, interestingly enough, should AT&T choose to sell the WB Games division in the future – after recently having decided against it following reports that those assets were indeed up for sale – that Sony could be in a good position to tap up those assets and licenses, and that IP such as Batman and Mortal Kombat could fit very well with their first party portfolio- though he expects that in all likeliness, Sony’s acquisitions will continue to be relatively smaller, along the lines of last year’s Insomniac deal.
“Their acquisitions have been smaller, like Insomniac, and those are the kinds of acquisitions that I would expect,” Pachter said. “I do think Sony is in a good position to buy Warner Bros. Interactive assets should they ever go on sale again. Depending on whether AT&T chooses to sell them, and how. If they just want to license their IP out, they will probably not go with exclusivity deals, because they won’t want the games limited to just one platform, but if they sell perpetual rights to Batman or Mortal Kombat, I think those assets would be pretty cool for Sony to fold into their lineup. They already did it with Spider-Man, so we know they would be interested in something like that. I really hadn’t considered this scenario, since we had heard WB was off the table, but now that Bethesda just got bought for $7.5 billion, you have to think AT&T are thinking, ‘could we get $7 billion?'”
Sony In A Good Position To Buy Warner, Buying Metal Gear Solid IP Isn’t Worth Much Without Kojima – Michael Pachter