UPDATE: In a statement to VentureBeat, a Sony spokesperson has outright denied rumors that the company was look to purchase Take-Two Interactive. "We do not know where the rumor is coming from, but there is no such plan," they said, while Take-Two representatives declined to comment (as is their policy on all rumors). As a result, Take-Two's stock price has dipped ever so slightly following yesterday's sudden spike when talks of a possible buyout were making the rounds.
Original story:
Can you imagine GTA 6 as a PS5 exclusive? It would be a huge shakeup for video games, and it could happen if a recent MarketWatch report is accurate. The stocks-centric news site is citing an industry analyst who says Sony is eyeing a potential purchase of Take-Two Interactive, the parent company of Rockstar. Here's the relevant text:
"Take-Two Interactive Software stock climbed 4.7% on rumors that Sony Corp 'is in advanced board level discussions to acquire Take-Two Interactive in a mostly cash deal,' that would value the company at $130 share, according to Joel Kulina, head of technology and media trading at Wedbush Securities."
On top of the studio behind GTA 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2, Take-Two owns 2K Games, home of games like Civilization and the NBA 2K series. It also started up an indie-focused label called Private Division in 2017, which plans to publish Obsidian Entertainment's The Outer Worlds later this year. In an amusing coincidence, Obsidian was purchased by Microsoft last year.
The Sony-buying-Take-Two talk is very much a "huge if true" situation and the "if" is putting in work there. Companies talk internally about gobbling up other companies all the time. They're like big damn amoebae. Then when you add the additional uncertainty of third-party analysts picking up on bits and pieces of conversations, you start to wonder if anything can ever truly be certain or if we're all just temporarily aligned points of data in a shifting matrix of possibility spaces. As games industry analyst Daniel Ahmad puts it:
This reminds me of Apple should buy Nintendo talk lol. We'll see what happens.March 13, 2019
While we wait, lolling, to see what happens, try out some more games like GTA to fill in the idle hours.
Helldivers 2's mysterious black hole might finally come into play as Arrowhead tweaks its look and the new faction inches closer: "Helldivers, protect your holes"
Putting beta feedback into action, Monster Hunter Wilds devs show off improved hitstop and reworked weapons that feel how you remember them
