Sony is far from done buying new studios

If you’ve been browsing this infamous internet lately, you might have noticed that quite a few acquisitions and mergers have taken place in the video game industry. For example, Microsoft bought the Bethesda development studio and is in the process of adding Activision Blizzard as well. Take-Two recently completed its acquisition of Zynga for close to $13 billion, and Sony has also bought a few studios in the past, including Bungie and Haven Studios, and anime platform Crunchyroll hasn’t been safe from Sony’s wallet either.

Potential targets continue to be bought up by Sony

At the moment it almost seems like bigger studios like Microsoft and Sony are buying up the entire games industry bit by bit, and as Head of SIE Jim Ryan said in a recent briefing, which was kindly transcribed by VGCexplained, these acquisitions are far from over.

“We are very active in mergers and acquisitions and investment. The purpose of these investments is to reinforce our core strength at PlayStation Studios, but also to gain expertise in areas of game development where historically we have not had a significant presence. The planned Bungie partnership is a great example of the latter.”

Sony would like to further expand its position as a gaming giant by tactically buying up promising studios. According to Ryan, for example, the acquisition of Destiny maker Bungie should ensure that Sony becomes an important player in the field of live service games.

“As we transition from our historic game development strategy to a much broader market reach than we enjoy today, it is highly likely that inorganic incentives will be required to help us achieve those dreams. And to the extent that potential Targets align with our strategy, to the extent that potential targets allow us to accelerate execution of our strategy, we will certainly consider further M&A activity to complement our business portfolio.”