Sony Has Spent $329 Million On New PlayStation Studios Games From Third Parties Since April 2020

In its latest financial report, it has been revealed that Sony has spent $329 million on developing new PlayStation Studios games since April 2020.

[Jin_Sakai]

“Sony has committed to spending $329 million on publishing agreements and partnerships for PlayStation, which will be payed out over seven years.”

$329 million over 7 years isn’t much. Wish they’d buy some studios such as Bluepoint Games and Housemarque. They could also build a few great studios over time.

Either way I’m excited to see what happens going forward.

[RaidenBlack]

"payed"?
this is not nautical related right?

[bouzebbal]

It's all about them games 👍🏽

[smashman98]

hahaha, it's funny because he misspelled it, and even though you knew what he meant you acted like you didn't anyway. OMG, I'm so dead!!!!!!

/s

[Rimeskeem]

I mean, MS paid like 10-20 million for Rise of the Tomb Raider which was a massive deal at the time. So I think 329 million could be a large amount of high-profile games for the next 7 years.

[autobotdan]

I wonder how much MS paid for Phantasy Star Online 2 New Genesis for America and UK

[chiefJohn117]

MS payed like 50 million idk where you got 10-20 from

[Rude-ro]

This math has absolutely nothing to do with advertising.
Purely game focused.
The “big” numbers you hear for A game is with advertising etc included.
And yes, it adds to the cost that much.
Example, let’s say it is a big game/release and said company does a super bowl ad..
That is close to $100 million added to the budget of a game.
That is a severe example, but that is just ONE day and ONE commercial.
Hyping up over time, like most games, would still see the same budget just for commercials alone over time.

[SlothLordPootus]

Super Bowl ads are more like $5 million for 30 seconds, not $100 million. The later amount is about the cost to produce a AAA game.

[Rude-ro]

I stand corrected..
My point still stands.
Every cent used gets put into a games budget.
A $500 million game budget has a lose blueprint per budgeting.. marketing/advertising, quality control, assistants etc..
Businesses just like to tout the big dollar signs to build up hype and to increase revenue per price adjustments.

[Atom666]

We heard those rumors that Sony was shopping for a lot of 3rd party and timed deals leading up to launch. Putting a number to it is interesting.

That's 40-50m a year. It doesn't seem too crazy. That's how you get deals for things like Deathloop and FF16.

The original reports made it sound like Sony was almost overpaying. But this kind of budget isn't crazy to me. I can see where the rumor that MS wasn't willing to outbid Sony is probably true too. That may end up being a big mistake on MS's part though.

I know a lot of people frown on this, but as much as we may dislike "moneyhatting" and paid exclusivity, if your studios are focused on delivering 2 or 3 acclaimed blockbusters each gen, you need to fill out your exclusive libraries somehow. Plus, many of their 3rd party deals still release on PC, so non-PS owners aren't completely left out most times.

So to me, this seems like a great sign for the PS5's library and a good business move again.

Now, if we hear that 1/2 of this budget is for COD map packs, or exclusive DLC nonsense, I'll change my opinion.

[neutralgamer1992]

That was smart business decision by buying up the timed exclusives sony in-return will be able togive their internal studios more time to develop/polish their games. A very smart strategy depend on third parties for the initial two years then unleash your first party studios like they did with PlayStation 4

[Tetsdah]

This isn't for 3rd party deals. This is for Playstation IP outsourced to 3rd party developers aka 2nd party games. Essentially Returnal, Demon Souls Remake, Sackboy adventures.

[Atom666]

I saw that, but still worded it poorly. But you are correct.

Point is still similar for me.

[Tetsdah]

@Atom666

Yea, they rest of your point is valid. I wonder what the rest of their 3rd party deals are and how much they paid for that. But the deluge of content is incredible. Time exclusive content, 1st party content, and 2nd party titles. The amount of content pouring out the gates is wild

[ABizzel1]

Well if you look at it from MS point, they weren't interested in spending $50m for timed exclusive content (Tomb Raider didn't really work out for them or Square at the time), when they could simply buy entire studios for a couple hundred million, or Bethesda for 7.5 billion along with their entire catalog.

From a business perspective neither are wrong. I will say that the Bethesda deal will open the flood gates to more publishers being bought which is problematic for the industry, and especially for single console owners, that's why it's time to end the fanboying for many people and make sure you own all platforms.

Sony could have paid Square $50m for FF16 timed exclusivity, but 100x that cost ($5 billion) and now they're discussing owning the entire company which means Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, Tomb Raider, Life is Strange, Just Cause, Deus Ex, Star Ocean, Chrono games, etc...

This is why IMO publishers should be off-limits, because if Bethesda goes through, and if Sony does try to acquire Square, then we can probably expect Microsfot to buy Warner, and then all of Japan is going to be up for grabs between Nintendo (Sega, Namco-Bandai) and Sony (Capcom, Temco, Konami, From Software) because foreign acquisitions are highly scrutinized with constant appeals to block them.

[Atom666]

I agree somewhat. I don't have issues with either method. Everyone can benefit from these deals, including devs and Sony.

MS has been burned, but there's merit to paying for these 2nd and 3rd party deals. TR wasn't smart. But their entire early 360 success came from doing (smart) deals.

With Gamepass, they definitely want IP control over just having timed windows. So I get it. They're looking at publishers due to content need more than anything (and the report about Stadia shows that they know they need to hedge off Google and others if they can).

Just stop all of the DLC crap, and I'm good with it.

MS is in the hunt in Japan though. Japan has opened up significantly to foreign mergers and acquisitions. But also don't forget, 'Microsoft Japan' is already an established subsidiary.

So a triangular merger using MS Japan is how they'd probably do it with relatively minimal pushback.

[autobotdan]

329 million but Sony didn't spend a penny to get Phantasy Star Online 2 New Genesis in America

[autobotdan]

You are comparing FF14 to the much OLDER PSO2. Now that 2021 New Genesis is getting some additional funding from Microsoft, it has the opportunity to be a much bigger MMO than 2012 Phantasy Star Online 2 ever was from its 2012 start and during the Las 8 years. PSO2 did not have any Microsoft funding untill its very last year. Microsoft is involved in New Genesis at the very beginning and potentially could be a much bigger MMO than PSO 1 and 2 ever were. We won't really know how good New Genesis will be.

[Silly gameAr]

Of course PSU is going to make it sound slimy and underhanded. I guess it just seems slimy because this site is so slimy.

[SullysCigar]

It really is an awful, desperate site.

[Imalwaysright]

..

[nommers]

This sounds awesome. Personally I can't wait to see all the output SE will have. They tend to do much better and are more focused when somebody else is fitting the bill; like when Squaresoft dominated the PS1.

[andron]

Have to spend money to make money man....

[shabz666]

Getting games like persona 5, bloodborne, judgement. Money well spent. Those were some amazing games, hopefully even more better ones to come. And not weird early betas or dlc. But since its ps studio games, it's probably games like demon souls and returnal

[Ravenkiss]

If I compare it to Star Citizen, it's a much better investment in the long run.

[Babadook7]

I don't understand how people keep paying for that.

[Rambokind]

Spoiler: they've made billions in revenue as a result.

[neomahi]

Timed Exclusives aren't and NEVER will be enough. Once consumers know, as they're not stupid, the games coming to their console at some point, typically a year, gamers have shown time and time over they can be extremely patient. I know Phantasy Star Online 2 is innivetibly coming to PlayStation, it's just a waiting game. I'm not paying Microsoft $120/yr to play games online when I primarily play on PlayStation hardware. My Xbox consoles are only for Single-Player first-party exclusives I'm interested in playing and with the price hike of software and the consoles limited supplies, I'm learning I can be incredibly patient waiting for price drops on software. Patience the one thing the big three have a mortal enemy at this particular juncture. They can't afford to let consumers wait. I don't plan on paying any more than $40 for current gen software, I'm learning I can wait, which also is the battle against scalpers. If consumers can learn to be patient, scalpers will have to back off with overstock they can't sell or have to sell at a major loss, left with stock they can't get rid of and massive debt. Timed Exclusives are not in Sony's interest. Buy it or don't.

[Platinum_k]

That's nothing compared to what MS has spent. I bet it is def a wiser purchase than acquiring Bethesda (et al)

[garos82]

worth it for demon souls alone. the only game at the moment that pushed me to get ps5 early on

[FlintGREY]

So what. I'm sure MS spent more just to get games on Gamepass