While we have made much of the console wars of late, electronics giant Sony (SONY) is about to make a major new move into territory formerly almost entirely occupied by rival Nintendo (NTDOY). A new Bloomberg report noted that Sony is planning its own portable console that can handle PlayStation 5 graphics. Investors were enthusiastic, and shares were up nearly 2% in Monday afternoon’s trading.
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Bloomberg stated that the move is still in the “early stages.” It would ultimately serve as a way to not only take market share away from Nintendo but also pre-emptively cut off mobile developments from Microsoft (MSFT), which is also said to be working on portable hardware to get a bit of the mobile gaming market. Of course, Sony has gone after mobile gaming before.
The PlayStation Portal came out back in 2023 and used streaming technology to allow users to play PS5 games strictly over the internet. And well before this, Sony had the PlayStation Portable, which was released in 2004 in Japan and then in 2005 in the United States. Given that the PlayStation Portable depended on the Universal Media Disc (UMD) format for games and media, though, its combined total of over 80 million units sold in 10 years is actually a solid result.
Sony Gets Support for Its From Software Acquisition
Just last week, we heard about Sony’s plan to potentially buy From Software, the developers of Elden Ring and the Armored Core series, among others. But new support for such a move recently came in from Mike Ybarra, former Blizzard president.
Ybarra declared the move to be a “top 2 acquisition in video gaming in the last 15+ years, if not ever.” Ybarra actually considered this move to be on par with Microsoft’s acquisition of Minecraft and noted that only buying Nintendo or possibly Valve, would be a bigger buy.
But given that From Software is only a part of Kadokawa, which Sony is also considering picking up, that may represent an even bigger coup for Sony than expected. After all, Sony already owns Crunchyroll, one of the biggest anime names around, and getting into Kadokawa’s manga presence would be a natural fit, considering how many anime are based on manga titles.
Is Sony Stock a Good Buy Right Now?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Moderate Buy consensus rating on SONY stock based on two Buys assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 12.17% rally in its share price over the past year, the average SONY price target of $24 per share implies 23.78% upside potential.
