Michael Pachter Likes Warner Bros. But Not Konami
During a recent interview, industry analyst Michael Pachter was asked about PlayStation acquisitions and who they’re looking at purchasing after the recent ZeniMax Media acquisition at Microsoft. Pachter suggested that Sony is in a good position to purchase Warner Bros. Interactive while mentioning that Konami isn’t worth much without the brilliant mind of Hideo Kojima included. Pachter also mentioned that they shouldn’t be looking at popular Japanese franchises because PlayStation is already massively successful in Japan.
“Their acquisitions have been smaller, like Insomniac, and those are the kinds of acquisitions that I would expect,” said Michael Pachter. “I do think Sony is in a good position to buy Warner Bros. Interactive assets should they ever go on sale again. Depending on whether AT&T chooses to sell them, and how.”
“I really hadn’t considered this scenario, since we had heard WB was off the table,” continued Pachter. “But now that Bethesda just got bought for $7.5 billion, you have to think AT&T are thinking, ‘could we get $7 billion?’” With prices in the $7 billion region, it’s hard to think of any studios that are off the table, but Sony doesn’t have as much in the bank as Microsoft.
“Well, Metal Gear without Kojima might not be worth very much, and Final Fantasy, when did the last one come out? 2016?” he said. “I’m not sure anyone really cares there, I think that that’s just a couple of million units we are talking about, that’s not a system seller. It probably is in Japan, but the Japanese aren’t buying Xbox, so Sony doesn’t really have to worry there, especially since all those Japanese games will be on PlayStation anyway, so Sony isn’t at risk of losing those titles.”
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