Sony Reportedly Open To Adding Studios Ahead Of PS5 Launch

Could Sony be looking to grow its first-party studio lineup ahead of (what we assume will be called) the PlayStation 5? That's the word, according to an interview Sony's Jim Ryan gave to the website Nikkei.

DualShockers is reporting that the translated interview breaks some pretty important news: Sony sees content as becoming "more important than ever before," and could potentially acquire some additional studios to head off new competitors like Google. That's a big deal. That could potentially mean some still-independent third-party studios come off the table once Sony gets its checkbook out.

The problem we're running into, however, is that most websites citing the Nikkei piece are referencing the same small slice of Ryan's interview, and by the looks of it, there's something more substantial behind the Nikkei registration wall that we can't access because a) we've fallen behind in our Japanese lessons and b) Google Translate can't guide us through to successfully create an account.

What was the question Nikkei asked Sony that prompted the response about buying studios? Does Ryan say anywhere specifically that Sony might add some studios in the future, or is his answer about content a cagey dodge? These are the questions we're dying to have answered, because a lot can get lost in translation, and if you're only working off of a portion of an interview and not the full body, you're also going to lose some context.

So with that, we encourage you to maintain a slight skepticism about Sony going on a buying spree. The company already has a fair amount of first-party studios that have done tremendous work this generation and last. And as Ryan reportedly touts in that same interview, "Sony Interactive Entertainment has 25 years of experience in the games industry and has big assets."

That doesn't sound like a man who's terribly concerned about the competition.

We'll be sure to update you with any new information that comes to light.