Where does the successful closure of Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion leave Sony, easily the most vocal opponent of the merger in the whole games industry? GamesIndustry asked a bunch of analysts, including our friend Karol Severin from MIDiA Research, who suggested that Sony should build a multimedia subscription service as it can't fight Microsoft head-on in the games department after the acquisition.
Sony has one of the most impressive content catalogs on Earth. Bringing it together in a subscription offering, for example, could pose a solid competitive answer to Xbox’s cross-platform efforts. It will be increasingly difficult to compete with Microsoft on games only. The only response for Sony on the games-only side would be buying something really big like Take-Two, but that is unlikely.
Given Sony's strengths in TV and movies (with a dedicated PlayStation Productions division that adapts the biggest gaming IPs) and even music catalogs, it's an interesting take that makes a lot of sense. Truth be told, there have been rumors of something similar ever since Sony acquired Crunchyroll. At the time, it was believed that the yet-to-launch pricier PlayStation Plus tiers would include access to the popular anime-focused streaming service.
Such an offer for PS Plus users didn't materialize until very recently with the arrival of Sony Pictures Core (formerly Bravia Core) on PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 consoles. PlayStation Plus Premium and Deluxe members have gained access to a 'curated selection of up to 100 movies' from the Sony Pictures library via the new app. However, the current selection is quite disappointing, to say the least; you can find it here, though it varies a bit depending on the region. In the US, it includes Final Fantasy VII Advent Children, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV, Resident Evil Vendetta, Resident Evil Degeneration, Starship Troopers Invasion, Starship Troopers 3 Marauder, and Looper, to name a few. The only recent movie included appears to be The Covenant.
Needless to say, Severin's suggestion referred to a much broader, more interesting offering than the one currently available via Sony Pictures Core. We'll see if Sony ends up expanding it over time.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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