Major Game Developer Dismisses Sony Acquisition Rumors

4.2

CD Projekt Red denied a recently emerged claim that it's currently in talks about being acquired by Sony. The rumor that Sony is planning this acquisition surfaced online over the weekend.

Sony's merger and acquisition activities have been the subject of much speculation over the last few years. Microsoft's attempt to purchase Activision Blizzard as part of the biggest such deal in the gaming industry's history has purportedly prompted additional investor pressure on Sony to keep up. A report from last week even suggested that more PlayStation acquisitions are on the horizon, serving as a prelude to the claim that CD Projekt Red is negotiating a sale to Sony.

However, the Cyberpunk 2077 developer denied that allegation almost immediately. "We're not in such talks with Sony," company representative Ola Sondej wrote on Twitter a day later. Her comment on the matter arrived in response to a tweet from YouTuber LastKnownMeal, who also dismissed the notion of Sony acquiring CD Projekt Red as baseless, noting that this exact same rumor has been circulating online since before Cyberpunk 2077 released in late 2020.

Yah, we're not in such talks with Sony.
— Ola Sondej (@olasondej) May 29, 2023

While additional PlayStation acquisitions remain within the realm of possibility, many industry watchers anticipate such deals will only happen at a much smaller scale in the near term. According to recent estimates, Sony's remaining acquisition budget is running low nowadays, with the company currently wielding less than one-third of the $18 billion war chest it allocated to M&A activity in 2021. Granted, this would still be enough to finance a hypothetical purchase of CDPR, which has a total market cap approximately 45 times smaller than that of Sony as of May 29, amounting to some $2.89 billion.

Though The Witcher series developer outright debunked this rumor almost momentarily, its stock still saw a substantial boost on Monday, rising by almost six points at the Warsaw Stock Exchange. The denial itself is a major hit to the credibility of a leaker known as Liz, who was previously known for occasionally sharing Destiny-related information on Discord. Apart from wrongly asserting that CDPR is negotiating a sale to Sony, Liz also reported that Days Gone 2 is in development over the weekend. That claim was met with immediate skepticism, not least because Bend Studio previously confirmed it's working on a new IP, thus signaling that Days Gone 2 is not happening anytime soon, if ever.

And while CDPR clearly isn't joining the PlayStation family, Sony could still announce at least one major studio purchase in the next 12 months, assuming it's eager to spend what remains of its previously allocated M&A budget.