Sony shares plunged 9.3% this morning at the opening of the Tokyo Stock Exchange just hours after the announcement of the purchase of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft.
The loss of almost a tenth of Sony’s market capitalization in a single day makes it clear who will be the main defenestrated of one of the highest cost business operations in the history of video games: 68,700 million dollars in cash.
Since Satya Nadella replaced Steve Ballmer as the head of the Microsoft executive, the company has bought 105 companies (no less), investing mainly in areas such as software development, Cloud or Artificial Intelligence. He had also bought game studios, but never like now. It must be said that this purchase operation It is the largest in the history of Microsoft..
This gives an idea of the relevance that video games have today. It is the world’s leading entertainment industry, pulverizing the income of others such as music or video, and Microsoft wants to position itself in a privileged position, both to strengthen sales of its Xbox consoles and subscription services. Also important the consolidation of the monopoly it has in PCs (in case you need something else) from the hand of Windows and development for personal computers with DirectX 12 libraries.
Sony, what consequences will it have for PlayStation?
It is clear that Microsoft has made a Spectacular commitment to the gaming sector and a show of unparalleled economic power, winning some of the most important and profitable franchises in the industry (see Call of Duty) and some of the best studios in the industry, id Software, Bethesda, and the same Blizzard.
Although the head of the Microsoft Gaming division, Phil Spencer, has announced that Activision Blizzard will continue to operate independently, we all know how these operations end. This is how investors who have shaken Sony hard at the first change think. They think Microsoft will make all Activision Blizzard games exclusive (to Xbox), hurting PlayStation sales and helping Microsoft close the hardware sales gap., say most consultants.
With the purchase of Activision Blizzard, Microsoft will become the third company in the world of video games by turnover and it will only be surpassed by the Chinese giant Tencent and by Sony itself. The Japanese company swept Nintendo and Microsoft in the previous generation of consoles, but Nintendo has regained ground with the Switch and Microsoft is in the process of closing the distance as we are seeing with its ambitious goals.
If he turns off the tap (as expected) of all the franchises that he now gets in this operation, Sony can suffer a good bump and PlayStation losing leadership in console sales. In time, Microsoft’s already best-in-class gaming subscription services will receive a monumental boost. And in PCs what to tell you, Microsoft has no rival. On Mac little is played and on Linux (although we would like many users) the limitations are evident compared to what Windows moves.
Bad times for PlayStation… and for the average consumer. In my experience, no operation of this type benefits us. And neither is this. Microsoft can turn off the exclusives to Sony, but it can also limit distribution to digital stores like Steam or Epic to force us to go through the Microsoft Store. It is just an example. Pricing (up) is another. The alternatives will be reduced and Microsoft will be much more powerful in the all-important segment of video games.
Finally, note in a related news that our colleagues from MCPRO tell us: The CEO of Activision, Bobby Kotick will leave the company when its sale to Microsoft is closed. It was sung that after the serious scandals, Microsoft would not allow the executive to remain in office.
