PlayStation’s boss says its recent acquisition spree is ‘not at all finished’
Jim Ryan says further inorganic investment will be required to help grow the business
Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan has said that the company is still on the hunt for new acquisition targets that can help grow the PlayStation business.
During its fiscal year ended in March 2022, SIE acquired five studios including Returnal developer Housemarque, PC port specialist Nixxes Software, UK-based Firesprite, Demon’s Souls remake studio Bluepoint, and Seattle-based Valkyrie.
It also invested in Discord, Devolver Digital and live service game platform AccelByte, while talks are also ongoing to fully acquire Bungie and Haven Studios.
PlayStation Plus Monthly Games - PS5 & PS4 - May 2022
“We’ve been extremely active in the area of M&A and investment,” said Sony’s Ryan (transcribed by VGC) during a PlayStation business briefing session on Thursday.
“The purpose of these investments is to increase our core strength at PlayStation Studios, but also to acquire 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,” he said, reiterating that Sony wants the Destiny studio to help it gain a greater presence in the live service market.
Ryan said Sony expects half of its releases to be on PC and mobile by its fiscal year ending in March 2026 and that acquisitions will likely be necessary to achieve this target.
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“In terms of future M&A activity, the answer to that is we are not at all finished with our strategy of trying to grow PlayStation Studios inorganically,” he said during a Q&A session.
Ryan added: “As we transition from our historic game development strategy to a much broader and much wider market reach than we enjoy today, it is very likely that inorganic stimulus will be required to help us to realise these dreams.
“And to the extent that potential targets fit with our strategy, to the extent that potential targets allow us to accelerate the way in which we are able to deliver on our strategy, we will certainly consider farther M&A activity to add to our business portfolio.”
