What if Disney bought PlayStation?

Microsoft made the entire gaming world go bananas when the giant corporation confirmed it wants to buy Activision Blizzard last week. This lead to a ton of speculation and questions. One of the most popular examples of the latter has been "How will PlayStation counter or answer?" A very interesting and fun question, even if I don't think Sony needs to do anything drastic to "respond". I'm one of those who prefer quality over quantity, and PlayStation Studios has definitely delivered in that department. Just look at the games we've got the last few years: Horizon: Zero Dawn, God of War, Spider-Man, Days Gone, The Last of Us: Part II, Ghost of Tsushima, Returnal, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart and so many other amazing games that have won a bunch of Game of the Year awards. The future seems extremely bright as well with stuff like Bloodborne II, Horizon Forbidden West, Gran Turismo 7, God of War: Ragnarök, Final Fantasy XVI, Marvel's Spider-Man 2, Marvel's Wolverine, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Remake, Naughty Dog's secret project, Bend's new IP, PlayStation VR2 and quite a few shows and films from PlayStation Productions. Still, it's fun to think about who Sony could buy, so let's talk alternatives.

Square Enix
I considered doing this alphabetically, but that would just be weird when the biggest and most likely candidate is Square Enix. The two companies have been BFFs ever since Sony basically saved Square in 2001, and the Forspoken, Final Fantasy XVI and secret third deal would make it seem like they aren't far away from marriage. Square Enix's market cap is also low enough that Sony probably wouldn't have to break the bank to acquire it, which is why this is my most likely candidate of the biggies.

But would this be good enough for investors and the very vocal gamers? While Square Enix doesn't have as many studios the average gamer know by name as Activision Blizzard does, getting Crystal Dynamics and Eidos Montreal sounds great even if it'd be weird because the former is helping out with Perfect Dark. The biggest thing Square Enix can brag about is IPs. PlayStation owning Dragon Quest, Deus Ex, Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, Chrono, Just Cause, Sleeping Dogs, Thief and Tomb Raider would get attention across the world.

Konami
This is the one outlier in this article, as I doubt Sony would consider buying Konami, but it's an open secret that they're already working close together to revive some of the company's beloved IPs. Then why not try acquiring all of them? Giving Bend, Bluepoint, Guerrilla, Housemarque, Insomniac, Naughty Dog, Santa Monica, Team Asobi and crew access to Bomberman, Castlevania, Contra, Frogger, Gradius, Metal Gear, Silent Hill, Suikoden and Zone of the Enders would be extremely interesting. Unfortunately, Konami hasn't seem interested in selling them the last six years, so I wouldn't hold my breath. It doesn't help that buying Konami wouldn't exactly bring in much in terms of new developer talent either...

Ubisoft
The same can't be said about the French giant. Enormous Ubisoft Montreal is far from the only studio owned by Ubisoft. Ubisoft has very talented developers all over the world, and there's never been a better time to grab them. Why? What did ZeniMax and Activision Blizzard have in common when Microsoft sealed the deals? Both companies were on a fairly steep downward trajectory, and Ubisoft is in a similar situation now after a mass exodus due to a plethora of allegations about sexual harassment, crunch and other really bad stuff. It would be fantastic if Sony was able to fix this and reignite the passion in thousands of developers so that they could make amazing new games in franchises like Anno, Assassin's Creed, The Crew, The Division, Far Cry, Ghost Recon, Heroes of Might and Magic, Just Dance, Prince of Persia, Rabbids, Rainbow Six, Rayman, Splinter Cell, Trackmania, Trials and Watch Dogs, or completely new ideas like Child of Light, Grow Home, Steep and Valiant Hearts were.

Capcom
This is one of the companies that have actually turned things around lately after some rough years, so the rumours about it being for sale have vanished. That doesn't mean it won't happen. PlayStation and Capcom are already making Pragmata together, and it seems like the Japanese companies prefer working together even if Microsoft got the Dead Rising games and a couple of other goodies. There's no doubt that PlayStation would love to get their hands on some incredible developers and franchises like Ace Attorney‎, Devil May Cry, Dino Crisis, Mega Man, Monster Hunter, Onimusha, Resident Evil and Street Fighter. There are only two questions: Would Capcom be willing to sell now that things are looking up?

Electronic Arts
Speaking of looking up. Let's take a closer look at what's probably the biggest acquisition Sony could make, because EA is without a doubt the highest valued gaming-focused company that can be approached now. Not just in terms of market cap, but also when it comes to well-known studios and IPs. Sure, you can complain about DICE not being as great as it used to be, but those teams still know how to make impressive technology. Many have also lost some respect for BioWare, but both studios have huge potential to rise again.

Not all of EA's studios have made mistakes lately, however. Respawn has finally got some of the respect it deserves after EA screwed the team by launching the amazing Titanfall 2 between Battlefield 1 and Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare. Apex Legends and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order show the astounding talent and diversity in these teams, so having Vince Zampella share his philosophy and ideas with other EA studios might lead to incredible results in the future. You shouldn't forget about Criterion, the entire Codemasters department, EA Sports, Maxis, Motive, PopCap and the new studios in Seattle either.

One thing no one will forget about if Sony bought EA is the IPs. Anthem (could be amazing in the right hands), Army of Two, Battlefield, Bejeweled, Burnout, Command & Conquer, Dead Space, Dragon Age, F1, FIFA, Madden, Mass Effect, Medal of Honor, Mirror's Edge, Need for Speed, NHL, PGA Tour, Plants vs Zombies, The Sims, Skate, SSX, Titanfall and so many, many beloved series could make a return, and that's before mentioning new ideas and the exciting EA Originals initiative that gave us It Takes Two last year.

The only problem is that this would be a very expensive acquisition, so it's safe to say Sony would have to think long and hard about the financial risk before going forward with such a purchase even if it's probably the best counter to Microsoft's.

Disney
Because I doubt that more than one or two of these would be enough to satisfy investors and big-dreaming gamers, which brings me to this opinion piece's headline: What if Disney bought PlayStation instead? That's one of the few scenarios that can even come close to Microsoft's Activision Blizzard deal. Sony just doesn't have Microsoft's almost infinitely deep pockets, so the Japanese console maker would have to put its own existence on the line if it was to gamble on acquiring as much as the Americans.

Then it might be wiser to go under Disney's golden wing, and with that also get to play around with such an astounding number of IPs that I won't even bother mentioning some of them here. Disney already trusts PlayStation Studios with Marvel, so they know there's talent there and cash to be made. Maybe that would silence those who claim that PlayStation is doomed unless it does something similar to Microsoft?

Personally, I don't want that. Sure, it would be cool if PlayStation bought Take-Two and added 31st Union, Cloud Chamber, Firaxis, Hangar 13, Rockstar, Roll7 and Visual Concepts to their first-party studios while owning IPs like Bioshock, Borderlands, GTA and NBA 2K, but it would most likely have many negative consequences as well, like Xbox-owners not being able to play, resources being spread thin and more. No. I hope PlayStation doesn't try to follow in Microsoft's footsteps. By all means, maybe buy FromSoftware, Capcom or something else relatively small, but don't put your entire existence on the line by gambling your entire fortune. Sega tried something like that, and it didn't end well. I'm more than happy with getting three or four games like Bloodborne, Concrete Genie, Days Gone, Dreams, God of War, Horizon, Spider-Man and all the other already beloved franchises and new ideas mentioned at the top every year. Quality over quantity will always rule, but Microsoft has definitely started something very exciting and hopefully positive that I think will change the games industry forever, and not everyone needs to do that.