Gaming News - Page 330

Sony currently has about $10 billion left to spend on future acquisitions, buyouts, and share buybacks.

Back in May 2021, Sony outlined its spending budget for its fourth mid-year plan which stretches from FY21 - FY23 (March 2024). The company's board of directors authorized a 2 trillion yen budget (roughly $17.4 billion) for strategic investments, acquisitions and buyouts, and share repurchases.

Sony has now revealed it has spent 850 billion yen (roughly $7.4 billion) of its allocated budget, leaving about $10 billion left for further purchases. Sony's current bill includes the substantial $3.6 billion buyout of Bungie, as well as billions in share buybacks.

Sony's current- and next-gen console duo have sold nearly 2 billion games combined, new figures reveal.

Although console shipments (and sales) are dropping, software is rising exponentially with over $3 billion earned from digital games and add-ons in Q3. Sony also provided updated figures on PS4 and PS5 combined software sales...and the numbers are quite surprising.

According to our findings, the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 consoles have sold 1.817 billion games as of December 31, 2021. This data is based on the 1.181 billion software sales figure Sony provided in Q3'19 added to the sum of FY20's full-year software sales and FY21 Q1-3 data.

Sony's $3.6 billion acquisition of Bungie includes a hefty incentive program for the Destiny-maker's workers.

In its recent Q3'21 earnings report, Sony confirmed it plans to spend a sizable portion of its Bungie buyout offer on retention. Sony says it is prepared to pay 1/3rd of its $3.6 billion buyout proposal, or roughly $1.2 billion, on a long-term incentive plan that will reward Bungie employees who stay with the company.

Sony will pay the remainder $2.4 billion for a direct buyout of Bungie's private shares. The bonus is aimed at keeping Bungie's current staff intact after the acquisition.

Sony's latest Q3'21 earnings report delivers updated PS4 and PS5 shipment numbers...and they're not incredibly impressive.

The worldwide semiconductor shortage is taking a big bite out of consumer hardware sales. Sony's video games consoles are being hit particularly hard by the scarcity, leading to constrained supply of its PlayStation 4 and newer PlayStation 5 consoles.

Choked supply lines have dropped overall sales of the PS5, which has not met the PS4's shipments during the same period. The PS5 has now shipped 17.3 million units worldwide in its first 13 months, as compared to the PS4's 20.2 million units sold during the same period (a 2.5 million difference).

Delay season strikes again: Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, the new game from Batman Arkham series developer Rocksteady, has been pushed back to 2023.

Warner Bros. Games, a subsidiary of WarnerMedia, has delayed one of its most anticipated games to next year. Sources tell Bloomberg that Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League has been moved from its expected 2022 launch to an undetermined release in 2023.

Just days ago WarnerMedia CEO Justin Kilar said the company would deliver "full slate of highly anticipated games" in 2022, and re-iterated original launch windows for Gotham Knights and the new Harry Potter game Hogwarts Legacy. We noted Suicide Squad's absence, and we also noted that any one of the 2022 games could be delayed.

Sony's once-mighty PlayStation 4 console has petered out considerably as the company delivers the lowest shipment figures for the second quarter running.

Sony just published megaton results for Q3'21, raking in $7.1 billion in revenues (second highest quarter in PlayStation history) and $817 million in operating profit (the best Q3 in history), all driven by strong software and hardware sales.

Sony also set a not-so-impressive record in the period by shipping less PlayStation 4 consoles than any other holiday period in the platform's history. The games-maker only shipped 200,000 PS4s during Holiday 2021. This is the second quarter in a row that Sony shipped this particular low PS4 volume.

EA recently spent more than $3 billion to acquire Glu Mobile and Codemasters, but it's not done with acquisitions just yet.

The interactive games industry is currently in a content feeding frenzy. Buyouts and acquisitions are running rampant, with acquisitions hitting $85 billion in January 2022 alone between Activision-Blizzard (acquired by Microsoft for $68.7 billion), Zynga (acquired by Take-Two for $12.7 billion), and Bungie (acquired by Sony for $3.6 billion). Gaming's biggest companies are getting snapped up left and right.

Electronic Arts is one such company that could either be a builder or consolidator. The publisher is currently open to new acquisitions and will be "looking at everything," EA CFO Blake Jorgensen says.

EA has confirmed its new Skate 4 game will support user-generated content.

EA says its new Skate project will "launch soon," and that UGC, or user-generated content, will be at the very center of the new game. It's likely the title will have a park editor similar to Skate 3 that allows gamers to create and share their own unique and custom skate parks online.

The full quote from Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson can be found below, transcribed from the Q3'22 earnings call:

EA confirms it will continue bringing its core games to EA Play, and the subscription service may one day serve non-gaming content too.

In a recent Q3'22 earnings call, EA CEO Andrew Wilson teases that EA Play could get content that goes "beyond gaming."

Wilson doesn't elaborate, but it's possible EA could use its subscription service to deliver transmedia content such as TV shows and even smaller films based on wholly-owned franchises like Apex Legends or Battlefield.

EA plans to release as many as 4 new projects in FY23, which aligns with previous comments made by the publisher.

EA confirms it has 3-4 new unannounced projects that it will release in the Fiscal Year 2023 period (April 2022 - March 2023).

"There are 3-4 more games coming in FY23 that we haven't announced yet. We are trying to grow our portfolio year-over-year with new titles, new IP, new expansion,"