Microsoft has been grabbing most of the acquisition-related headlines recently, what with their purchase of Bethesda and highly-contested plans to snap up Activision Blizzard, but Sony has been quietly doing some shopping of their own. Over the past couple years, PlayStation has grabbed Bungie, Housemarque, and more, and it seems they’re not putting away their checkbooks yet.
Back in 2021, Sony said they were setting aside ¥2 trillion (or around $18.4 billion) for “strategic investments” in the entertainment industry over the course of three years. During a recent Q&A at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference, Sony CFO Hiroki Totoki provided an update on how that plan is going. 2 years into the program, they have spent around ¥1.3 trillion, leaving around ¥700 billion (or $5.1 billion) for further investments. Based on what Totoki says, it sounds like they aren’t strictly sticking to ¥2 trillion they originally pledged to invest either, as they may further allocate operating cash flow to strategic investments.
“We spent almost ¥1.3 trillion by the end of last year. We have another year more. We would like to create more than ¥3 trillion cash flow in three year’s time. Next year is the last year in our current mid-range plan. We’re going to allocate operating clash flow to strategic investment and capital expenditure, as well as share buy back.”
So, what might Sony be planning to buy over the next year? Of course, it should be noted the money set aside is for Sony as a whole, not just the PlayStation division. That said, I will note that the current market valuation for Square Enix is in the $5 billion range. Just saying!
As a reminder, since Sony made their strategic investment announcement, they’ve purchased Housemarque, Nixxes Software, Firesprite, Bluepoint Games, Valkyrie Entertainment, Savage Game Studios, Haven Studios, and Bungie. Additionally, they’ve increased their investment in companies like Devolver Digital, FromSoftware, and Epic Games. They’ve also purchased companies like Crunchyroll that provide non-gaming content on PlayStation platforms.
What do you think? What will Sony buy in 2023? Will a major name like Square Enix join the PlayStation stable or will they focus on smaller strategic investments?
