Sony has three key options following Microsoft’s announced takeover of videogames maker Activision Blizzard, says article in The Conversation by Hamza Mudassir, a Visiting Fellow and MBA alumnus (MBA 2012) at Cambridge Judge Business School.
Shares in Sony have taken a hit since rival Microsoft announced that it will buy popular videogames maker Activision Blizzard for nearly $70bn, but Sony has three key options to respond boldly over upcoming months as regulators assess the deal, says a new article in The Conversation by Hamza Mudassir, a Visiting Fellow and MBA graduate (MBA 2012) at Cambridge Judge Business School.
Sony’s biggest threat from Microsoft is subscription service Xbox Game Pass, which has 25 million subscribers, so Sony could buy Google’s Stadia streaming service to boost the 3.2 million subscribers now on Sony’s PlayStation Now service, says the article, entitled “Three ways for Sony to avoid getting left behind by Microsoft”.
Sony could also reduce dependence on semiconductors at a time of global shortage that is hitting console sales, by making its titles run on most if not all smart TVs, phones, set-top boxes and computers. And Sony could move aggressively in the market for virtual reality technology such as VR headsets.
“Sony has long been cautious about new markets and usually waits for others to develop them before swooping in,” the article says. “But that is unlikely to work against competitors as large, networked and powerful as Microsoft, Meta and Apple (which is also rumoured to be developing a VR headset). Sony needs to move fast and with a clarity of purpose – otherwise the next decade will see it lose even more ground to these tech giants as they recreate the very reality we live in.”