Key Takeaways
- PlayStation has spent $4 billion over the past four years, acquiring nine studios.
- PlayStation’s priciest acquisition was Bungie, known for the Destiny series and its work on the Halo franchise.
- Sony has set aside $11.5 billion for future acquisitions.
While Xbox has acquired massive studios in recent years, including the $69 billion purchase of Activision-Blizzard, PlayStation has spent just $4 billion over the past four years, acquiring nine studios.
Although PlayStation’s spending during this period pales compared to that of its competitors like Microsoft and Tencent, the company has made significant strides by releasing numerous first-party titles.
PlayStation Acquired 9 Companies for More Than $4 Billion Over Four Years
*(Editor Note: Some details have been amended, as Sony did not buy Ballistic Moon nor disclose purchase prices on some of the acquired studios. We have amended the article and apologize for any inconvenience this might have caused).
According to the LinkedIn profile of PlayStation Studios’ Director of Strategy and Portfolio, Eric McCall, the company has spent a total of $4 billion in the last four years as part of a larger strategy to strengthen its first-party portfolio. It’s hard to say which nine studios this refers to, as SCEE has made more than nine acquisitions in the last four years.
- Housemarque
- Bluepoint Games
- Nixxes Software
- Firesprite
- Firewalk Studios
- Fabrik Games (integrated into Firesprite, technically bought by Firesprite while under PlayStation’s ownership)
- Valkyrie Entertainment
- Haven Studios
- Neon Koi (formally Savage Game Studios)
- Bungie
Some non-gaming studios were also bought during this period, though it’s hard to say if any of these are among the nine being referred to.
The big notable purchase was Bungie, which cost Sony $3.6 billion in 2022, making a bulk of that $4 billion. Of course, they are beyond that now with some of the additional non-gaming specific studios like iSIZE, Audeze, Repeat.gg, and others being purchased in the last few years.
In addition, it was reported that Sony had a budget of $11.5 billion for future acquisitions in May of 2024. So, it remains to be seen how the company will use its budget to acquire the studios in the coming years.
In other gaming news, U.S. is now imposing a 46% tariff on products from Vietnam, impacting gaming consoles like Nintendo Switch, Switch 2, PlayStation 5, and potentially Xbox. In addition, President Trump will impose a 10% tariff globally, with some countries seeing a much more severe increase, including Vietnam (46%), China (34%), Cambodia (49%), Japan (24%), and the EU (20%).
