PlayStation Is Pushing Ahead With More Acquisitions, Judging By This Job Ad

A new job position at PlayStation suggests that the big timers are preparing for more gaming acquisitions in the future.

I’m sure by now you’ve seen the news regarding the countless acquisitions of game developer studios by Xbox and PlayStation, as well as the more recent news of the Embracer Group acquiring three of Square Enix’s western studios. Now it looks like PlayStation, like Xbox, is looking to hire someone to identify future acquisition targets.

First reported by Video Games Chronicle, business analyst Robert Serrano spotted a job listing for a Director in Corporate Development at PlayStation Global.

Sony Interactive Entertainment (@PlayStation) is seeking a Director, Corporate Development to be responsible for identifying inorganic growth opportunities through acquisitions, investments or joint ventures, attractive M&A and investment opportunities

> https://t.co/1GA7zkswbC pic.twitter.com/t3lgypADDx

— Roberto Serrano’ 🇺🇦☮️🙏🏻 | 📊🎮🍿 (@geronimo_73_) May 2, 2022

As described by the job listing itself, the Director role of the Corporate Development team will ‘work closely’ with Sony Interactive Entertainment’s management team to identify ‘inorganic growth opportunities through acquisitions, investments or joint ventures.’ Based on this job listing, it looks like more acquisitions are in PlayStation’s future.

Only two weeks ago, Microsoft posted a job listing on LinkedIn for a Manager of Gaming Strategy & Development, with the job description also outlining their further desires for gaming development acquisition. This reflects Xbox Gaming head Phil Spencer’s comments in November to Wall Street Journal, saying that the company was ‘definitely note done’ in its acquisitions of development studios.

Lending more weight to these listings, The Game Awards creator Geoff Keighley also tweeted a couple of months ago that ‘there are a few other big video game deals in the final stages of negotiations.’ It’s clear that the current trend of developer acquisitions and industry consolidation really shows no signs of stopping any time soon.

Are we witnessing the slow demise of solo publishers and independent development studios? Only time will tell.