Sony's announced purchase budget, which is expected to stretch until 2024, only has a little amount left. The Japanese business declared in May 2021 that it had set aside the equivalent of almost $18.39 billion for "strategic investments" across the board. This includes a campaign by Sony to increase the number of PlayStation Plus subscribers as well as the potential purchase of development companies. 

Consequences of the campaigns

In that vein, many will recall that this resulted in several significant game studio acquisitions by Sony in 2021, which would include Returnal developer Housemarque; Bluepoint Games, the studio behind the well-received remakes of Demon's Souls and Shadow of the Colossus; as well as the lesser-known Firesprite, Nixxes Software, and Valkyrie Entertainment. In 2022, a few additional studios, including Jade Raymond's Haven Studios and Bungie for $3.7 billion, were brought under the PlayStation banner. 

What we learnt from the Morgan Stanley Conference

Sony's latest Morgan Stanley web conference disclosed that only $5 billion of its initial $18 billion budget allocation is still available. Up to 2024, this money will be used to support investments and acquisitions; following that, additional funding is anticipated. The $5 billion figure is significant, though, as it practically lays to bed a lot of speculations that have been floating regarding Sony buying several gaming firms. 

Particularly in the past year or so, there have been several sizable acquisitions speculated to be occurring. This appears to be influenced in part by the continuing debate over Microsoft's proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard. Sony is rumoured to be in the process of acquiring Take-Two Interactive, Square Enix, Capcom, Konami, Epic Games, and Square Enix at any given time. 

To put the sums into perspective, as of March 2023, Square Enix has a market price of $5.57 billion and Take-Two Interactive has a changing value that hovers at approximately $20 billion. Only CD Projekt Red and perhaps Konami come under or on that $5 billion budget of the top studios Sony is rumoured to be eyeing. So, it is unlikely that the Japanese corporation will acquire any of those larger developers anytime soon. It also indicates that there is still a chance that another, smaller studio acquisition announcement will be made before the year is over. 

The massive discrepancy between Microsoft's and Sony's gaming acquisition spending

The data also brings home the massive discrepancy between Microsoft's and Sony's gaming acquisition spending. ZeniMax Media and its well-known studios, notably Bethesda, were purchased by Microsoft for $7.5 billion in 2021. That figure appeared astounding until Microsoft revealed its $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard less than a year later. Sony and Microsoft approach acquisitions and exclusivity in slightly different ways. PlayStation continues to be set on keeping exclusivity of blockbuster properties that should make its ecosystem the more alluring one, in contrast to Xbox, which currently appears focused on acquiring parent businesses and all of its golden goose subsidiaries.