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<\/article>\n\u201cI was really anxious to go out on my own and kind of pick and choose my partners and pick and choose the things I was excited about because you get exposed to so many great things on the corporate side, but you kind of have to universally love everything they love whether you do down in your heart or not,\u201d Tretton tells Game Informer<\/em>. \u201cIndependently, assuming you\u2019re not chasing a dollar\u2026you can really pick and choose the things that you\u2019re passionate about, and indie game development was certainly, I think, the most exciting thing that\u2019s happened in my career. To go from, 20 or 25 big companies around the world that control 85% of the business in the console space, and the need to have a big company with big budgets and the resources to distribute your games around the world to a brick and mortar retail\u2026[and] with the advent of digital publishing and digital stores, all of a sudden, every creator could become a publisher. To me, that was incredibly exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n That excitement led to Tretton becoming the CEO of PowerUp Acquisition Corporation, which includes other industry veterans like former Activision Blizzard vice chairman Bruce Hack, in 2020. PowerUp is a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, that looks to play in the behind-the-scenes space of the industry, but in talking with Tretton, PowerUp\u2019s current objective is best defined as: find a studio or publisher and lend to it the experience, support, mentorship, and financial investment behind the team at the company. PowerUp is already a public company, launching a $250 million initial public offering on February 17. PowerUp closed the IPO six days later on February 23, reaching roughly $288 million. Now, Tretton says it is looking to merge with a company that holds a $1-2 billion valuation.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe already are public so by merging with us, they would become public,\u201d Tretton says. \u201cSo we\u2019re giving them access to public markets, as opposed to trying to file an IPO, raise money, and go public on their own. And then obviously, the shareholders would vote on the company that we elect to merge with, and assuming that all goes well, then that public entity is the combination of the two companies, and obviously, we would keep the name of whatever the company is that we merge with.\u201d<\/p>\n Tretton says merging with utility companies, media companies, and other adjacents is a possibility, but due to his background, he\u2019s really pushing for the merge to happen with a publisher or a developer. Citing how big the pond is of this $200 billion industry, Tretton says his bet is that video games are where PowerUp lands, but that really, any company with positive revenue, a competitive market position, and a good vision on how to grow a business down the road would work as a great option for PowerUp.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cBy going with us, we can help them raise money and we obviously bring the access to the public markets and we bring our relationships and expertise in growing businesses and raising money specifically in the video game space,\u201d Tretton says. \u201cI think that\u2019s what really makes us unique to\u2026other forms of fundraising or growth.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n While PowerUP is a SPAC, Tretton says the organization is not looking to eat up multiple companies, or even one company, and change entire dynamics. That\u2019s why PowerUP is looking for a developer or publisher that\u2019s already well-established and firing on all cylinders.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI think we want somebody who\u2019s got a long-term view,\u201d Tretton tells Game Informer<\/em>. \u201cWe\u2019re certainly not going to join this company and walk away from the venture in any way, shape, or form, but we also want to make it crystal clear that we\u2019re not looking to take it over either.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n However, Tretton is fascinated with the acquisitions that have largely defined the gaming landscape in 2022 thus far, both as the CEO of a SPAC and as a former PlayStation boss. It started with Take-Two Interactive, the parent company behind the Grand Theft Auto series, announcing back in January that it was acquiring mobile giant Zynga for nearly $13 billion<\/a>. Then, a week later, Microsoft announced that it was acquiring Activision Blizzard<\/a>, the company behind Overwatch and Call of Duty, for a colossal $68.7 billion, and then two weeks later, Sony revealed it was buying Bungie for $3.6 billion<\/a>. A few weeks after that, Sony announced it had acquired Jade Raymond\u2019s new studio, Haven Studios<\/a>. Acquisitions continue to happen, as do rumors of additional purchases like these, and Tretton says 2022 is \u201cthe most amazing year for acquisitions\u201d he\u2019s ever seen.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a way to look at virtually everything that happens as being glass half-full or glass half-empty and you can find ways to come up with negatives about these acquisitions, but I think the positives far outweigh the negatives,\u201d Tretton says. \u201cAnd the positives are that it brings attention to an industry that\u2019s already $200 billion and growing, and even though it\u2019s more than double the size of the box office and the music industry combined, I still think you find a lot of people out there that don\u2019t appreciate how big and sophisticated and\u2026mainstream entertainment gaming is.\u201d<\/p>\n Tretton says a multi-trillion dollar company like Microsoft purchasing a company like Activision Blizzard for nearly $70 billion is a testament to how big this industry is and how big Microsoft is betting on it. He recognizes the negative, or glass half empty, perspectives on acquisitions happening this year, but overall, they\u2019re good for the industry, he says. Some talk about acquisitions happening between companies like Sony and Microsoft as competitive, as if one company is acquiring in response to another\u2019s acquisition, but Tretton doesn\u2019t see it that way.\u00a0<\/p>\n He says that back in the day, when PlayStation and Xbox were just starting out, the competition was certainly there. But now, the two have grown to be so big that each is executing its own strategy personalized to its goals.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI think back in the day, when I was back at Sony and we were trying to establish this PlayStation brand, and Xbox came out and we\u2019re trying to compete with such a formidable company in Microsoft, it very much was \u2018win at the expense of the competition, counter what they\u2019re doing, block what they\u2019re doing,\u2019 but I think the businesses have grown so big now that it isn\u2019t that way anymore.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n However, Tretton says Nintendo always followed the beat of its own drum and could never be accused of trying to imitate anybody else. And now, today, Microsoft and Sony could be lumped into the same kind of business mindset, he says. For example, he doesn\u2019t believe Microsoft will make Call of Duty an Xbox exclusive, something he\u2019s confident it would have done had it purchased Activision Blizzard 10 years ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n He points to Microsoft\u2019s commitment to releasing games on PC, and Sony\u2019s commitment to an extent as well, as an indicator that things are different. He also points to a Sony studio developing MLB The Show, a game that\u2019s no longer exclusive to PlayStation consoles and now released on Xbox consoles and Switch, too.\u00a0 It\u2019s not about keeping your IP solely proprietary to one place anymore \u2013 it\u2019s about doing what makes the most sense and helping the bottom line, according to Tretton.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cRising tides lift all boats,\u201d Tretton says. \u201cThe competition in the video game industry is not Nintendo versus Sony versus Xbox. It is video games as an entertainment form against watching TV, going to concerts, whatever other forms of entertainment you have. So the gaming industry is competing for people\u2019s time and mindshare, and the more great entertainment experiences there are, the more that people in the video game business and the people that enjoy playing video games have to choose from.<\/p>\n \u201cI think I would much rather a competitor invest in the video game space than a competitor invest in the movie industry or the music industry because to me, investing in the movie industry isn\u2019t necessarily going to help grow the video game business.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Acquisitions have defined 2022, but since Tretton\u2019s departure from PlayStation in 2014, which was the same year Destiny was released, the gaming landscape has been transformed perhaps most drastically by games-as-a-service, otherwise known as live service games. While these types of experiences have been around for quite some time, Bungie\u2019s Destiny popularized the definition most people likely think of when they hear \u201clive service\u201d today. Games like Fortnite have presented their own spins on it, too, introducing battle pass-related microtransactions that have largely overtaken the loot box model, although the controversy surrounding loot boxes and their relation to gambling<\/a> helped speed that up too. Now, Sony, which has a video game portfolio defined mostly by narrative-driven single-player experiences, is diving headfirst into games-as-a-service. In February, PlayStation revealed plans to launch 10 live services games by 2026<\/a>, and acquisitions of studios like Bungie<\/a> and Haven Studios<\/a> speak directly to that.\u00a0<\/p>\n With Tretton leaving PlayStation right as live service games as a genre really began to take off, he said he couldn\u2019t have foreseen PlayStation\u2019s 10-game commitment, but he\u2019s still not surprised. To him, it\u2019s just about whether or not these games turn out to be great experiences.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI think ultimately, if it\u2019s a great entertainment experience and a great value for the consumer, then it will succeed,\u201d Tretton tells Game Informer<\/em>. \u201cIf it is a money grab, and [if it\u2019s] trying to take old content and make people pay for it, then it won\u2019t. Everybody looks at their entertainment dollar value and whether they\u2019re choosing between an indie game, a major release from a major publisher, whether they\u2019re paying $60 or $30, whether they\u2019re paying a subscription service, it\u2019s all going to come down to how much they enjoy it, how they choose to spend their time, and the amount of entertainment they get per dollar versus other alternatives. One thing that remains constant is there are still only 24 hours in a day, right? So if the value is good, the gamer is going to respond.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n If the value of a PlayStation-developed live-service game is good, Tretton believes the market will respond positively. He says the one thing you need to do as a console maker is find ways to keep your controller in consumer’s hands, and he sees the appeal of live service games in that regard. These types of games are designed to keep you playing, or at least checking in daily, and that\u2019s a win for studios and publishers.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe more that [console] is left on, the more opportunities that companies have to make money and the more people spend time on it and find joy in it, the more value [publishers] get out of the investment they\u2019ve made,\u201d he says. \u201cThere\u2019s this marriage between the consumer and the manufacturer or the publisher that has to exist, where both parties have to be happy, or it doesn\u2019t work out.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Another major talking point in gaming that\u2019s sprung up since Tretton left PlayStation almost a decade ago is cloud gaming. PlayStation Now launched right before his departure and since then, well, it hasn\u2019t really done too much in the discussion of cloud gaming. Sure, there are a lot of PS Now subscribers, but it\u2019s fair to say Microsoft\u2019s more recent expansion to cloud gaming is already a more attractive option than PS Now when comparing the two side-by-side, at least in the zeitgeist. Perhaps Sony will shift the scales a bit when its revamped PlayStation Plus service, which bundles in PS Now, launches this June<\/a>, but that remains to be seen.<\/p>\n When asked if he thought cloud gaming would become as prominent in games as it is today, Tretton said he always saw the potential but didn\u2019t expect it to happen so fast. He says Sony led the charge with its then-Gaikai purchase<\/a> while Microsoft took a wait-and-see approach. He doesn\u2019t think Microsoft\u2019s approach hurt it in any way, either.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIf you look back at that time, Sony made a pretty significant investment to get in that business and get a first-mover advantage,\u201d Tretton says. \u201cAnd Microsoft\u2019s attitude was kind of more of a wait and see, and I guess the fundamental question is, \u2018did that investment in early-mover status really benefit Sony? Did it hurt Microsoft?\u2019 I think the reality of the situation is it certainly didn\u2019t hurt Microsoft.\u201d<\/p>\n He says he ultimately saw the journey to cloud gaming being a 7 to 10-year journey before it became anything significant at all because he didn\u2019t think the technology was really there during his final years at Sony. However, he recognizes the exponential growth of technology and believes the timing of cloud gaming today to be \u201cpretty good.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe experience is getting better for gamers, the value is getting better, and both companies have pretty good offerings,\u201d Tretton says before stating that Nintendo\u2019s own service is getting better too.\u00a0<\/p>\n In between PowerUp, thoughts about acquisitions, cloud gaming, and more, Tretton says he\u2019s been thinking a lot about E3 and lately, the way it\u2019s seemingly coming to an end. Tretton was the face of Sony at many E3 conferences during his time as SCEA president, and he says it was always one of his favorite parts of the job. He remembers seeing all kinds of expos pop up for this industry and that, and yearning for one focused on video games. When E3 came around in 1995, he was excited, citing that it \u201cfelt like it was a real coronation for the industry.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt really went through probably a 10-year period where it was really a celebration of the industry and you had major parties with major rock bands performing,\u201d Tretton tells Game Informer<\/em>. \u201cYou had a large amount of press from around the world, not just from the United States going to it, and it certainly didn\u2019t start that way.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n It then swung the other direction, with companies feeling too much money was being spent on the event.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThen it went to big companies having to mind their bottom line and saying, \u2018My god, we\u2019re spending all this money on a trade show to get PR. Do we really need to do an event like this for the press? We want to drive our bottom line and we want to scale back our commitment to E3\u2019 and that was very disappointing to me.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n And the pendulum swung back the other way once more, to a big E3 again, he says.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s when you had the big press conferences between the Microsofts and the Nintendos and all the big publishers, and people were waiting to hear what was going to be announced and what the big news was, and I certainly enjoyed that a great deal,\u201d Tretton tells Game Informer<\/em>. \u201cIt was a massively-stressful event to put on, but it was the marquee event for your company for the year. If you had a good E3 showing, you were going to have a good year, and if you had a bad E3 showing, it was going to be a rough year. It had a lot of pressure on it, but I really enjoyed it.\u201d<\/p>\n Tretton says he doesn\u2019t think E3 is as valuable and as necessary as it has been in the past, but he believes video games need their own marquee event, much like music has The Grammy Awards and movies, The Oscars. Some would argue that Geoff Keighley\u2019s annual show, The Game Awards, has become that<\/a>. Still, Tretton says if E3 is done for, as many have speculated with E3 2022 canceled altogether<\/a>, \u201cit\u2019s a loss for the industry and its ability to\u2026really celebrate and trumpet all the innovation and great things that it does so I\u2019d love to see it come back.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n As for where companies are heading today, with many holding their own miniature E3-like conferences, Tretton says the lens you view these approaches determines whether they\u2019re successful or not. If you look at Sony\u2019s State of Plays or Nintendo Directs from a financial viewpoint, you will probably be in favor of these individual showcases. But if you\u2019re someone who\u2019s about marketing, you might be pro-show, like something seen at E3, he says.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s really going to come down to your financial wherewithal and your priority of where you think the brand is at, and whether or not you think you want to do events like that,\u201d Tretton says. \u201cI think you can look at it as an outsider and go, \u2018okay, the motivation here is clearly financial.\u2019 Companies get to make those decisions [and] it clearly comes at a financial cost to do an event like that, but it does drive visibility.<\/p>\n \u201cIt comes down to whether or not your bottom line can handle it and whether or not your bottom line is your number one priority. I think ultimately, that\u2019s where the decision gets made.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\nFrom SCEA To SPAC<\/h2>\n
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<\/article>\nThe Year Of Acquisitions<\/h2>\n
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<\/article>\nAn Era Of Live Service<\/h2>\n
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<\/article>\nA New Way To Game<\/h2>\n
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<\/article>\nTretton On The Rise And Fall Of E3<\/h2>\n
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