14 DAY TRIAL // It looks like Sony wants to further expand its PlayStation 5 offering with well-established franchises rather than working on new IPs. The Japanese company showcased a handful of upcoming PlayStation 5 games, but nothing truly revolutionary.
The most interesting title in development at Sony is Horizon Forbidden West, which will not be launched this year though. A standalone expansion in the Spider-Man universe featuring Miles Morales will probably be released along with the PlayStation 5 later this year, but these are the only major titles Sony revealed until now.
To justify the purchase of a PlayStation 5, Sony needs a lot more, and we'll probably get more reveals throughout the year. However, rumor has it that the Japanese giant plans to buy a handful of well-known franchises by acquiring Hong Kong-listed gaming firm Leyou Technologies Holdings Ltd.
Leyou owns a couple of gaming studios that are responsible for games like Warframe, Brink, and Dirty Bomb. Apparently, the owner the company has been looking for a buyer since last year and was already in talks with Shenzen-listed rival Zhejiang Century Huatong Group Co. and iDreamSky Technology Holdings Ltd., Bloomberg reports.
Unfortunately, the coronavirus pandemic brought these talks to a stalemate, so Leyou's controlling shareholder Charles Yuk is now accepting new bids on his company. The report claims Sony is considering a bid for Leyou Technologies Holdings Ltd., which is now evaluated at around $1.1 billion.
It's unclear how much Sony wishes to spend for Leyou, but the last joint offer that Yuk might have received back in April valued the company at about $1.23 billion, slightly more than the market value.
With the addition of Leyou, Sony won't just add a handful of valuable IPs to its portfolio, but also some prominent studios that could take on new IPs if the Japanese company wishes so. On a side note, Warframe developer Digital Extremes already confirmed plans to bring its game to next-generation platforms next year, so that would another benefit.