Despite its shares losing quite the value in Japan home soil, Sony intends to face the new gaming giant challenger that is Microsoft.
Shares Fell When Microsoft Announced The Acquisition
Despite being one of the biggest gaming companies in recent years, Sony stock shares still fell by 9% when Microsoft recently made a historical acquisition by buying the whole Activision-Blizzard company, according to Reuters.
Before that acquisition, when it comes to the lead in the gaming industry, Sony had a considerable lead over the competition wherein Microsoft was included due to their Xbox consoles rivaling Sony’s PlayStation. Now, that lead has considerably shrunk a lot, as Microsoft is now considered as the third-largest gaming company, behind Sony (2nd) and Tencent (1st).
Sony Recent Strengthening Its In-Game Library; Market Strategists Sees Sony Will Face an Uphill Battle
When it comes to the library of games, Sony recently strengthened its presence with popular games such as Marvel’s Spider-Man, wherein it left the game library of Microsoft playing catch-up during that time. However, it seems that the tables will soon be reversed once the Game Pass in Microsoft’s Xbox Ecosystem adds the acquired titles from Activision-Blizzard.
Some market strategists see that Sony will have an uphill battle with Microsoft when it comes to both dominating the games market and their game libraries. Amir Anvarzadeh gave a statement about that below:
“Sony will have a monumental challenge on its hand to stand its own in this war of attrition.”
Anvarzadeh is a market strategist at Asymmetric Advisors and he recommended for its clients who have Sony shares in the market to short their stocks.
Sony’s Upcoming Plans to Stay on the Top
Even though other tech and gaming companies such as Meta (formerly Facebook) have announced that they are developing their own virtual reality-related technologies such as their own headsets, Sony has teased their upcoming newer virtual reality headset with newer technology and features over the others in the competition.
Future of Activision-Blizzard Games That Are Associated With Other Platforms
Many of Activision-Blizzard titles such as Call of Duty have versions in other gaming platforms, notably Sony’s PlayStation wherein it is considered as a major source for Activision Blizzard before the said acquisition deal.
However, in a recent tweet from the Head of Xbox Gaming Division, Phil Spencer’s official Twitter page posted the following tweet in regards to the future of Activision-Blizzard titles that will be soon acquired by Microsoft once the acquisition has been completed.
Spence stated that all previous agreements (most likely including upcoming titles with announced platforms to be released on) will be still honored by Microsoft upon acquisition. That means that upcoming titles such as the next Call of Duty game or highly-anticipated Overwatch 2 will still be available for various platforms, such as PlayStation for the former and PC for the latter. It will also apply to older games that Activision-Blizzard has produced in the last decade such as Starcraft, Diablo, Hearthstone, Warcraft, and other standalone titles.
Jefferies analyst Atul Goyal stated that if Microsoft allows the distribution of their upcoming acquired titles to different platforms such as the PlayStation, PC, and Nintendo Switch, that would mean that the company is positioning itself for the upcoming metaverse that most tech companies have been touting about ever since it was announced.
