Is entertainment becoming heavily monopolized?

Kolby Spomer
Staff Writer

Wednesday, rumors started circulating that Sony, the tech giant responsible for the PlayStation line of consoles, is looking into buying Take-Two Interactive. 

Take-Two might not be immediately recognizable to most, but the products they create will be. Games like Grand Theft Auto, NBA 2K, and Red Dead Redemption are just a few of the numerous titles the company is responsible for. If Sony ends up actually buying Take-Two, it would most likely mean that any sequel game, like GTA 6 for instance, would only be playable on Playstation consoles. 

Conversely, nearly all of Fox’s media properties were bought up by Disney, excluding the News and Sports portions of the company. As March 20th, the official day the deal goes through, many are airing concerns that Disney controls too much of the entertainment industry. A popular saying was that the deal could effectively make “Disney the Walmart of movies”.

These two deals are at the very least troubling many consumers. The implication deals like this entail is that one company will be controlling a vast majority of the medium it is in, effectively creating a near monopoly. 

While it doesn’t look like any sort of monopoly is coming anytime soon, it does create a new problem. If large companies like Disney and Sony keep eating up smaller companies, it will cause their main competitors like Warner Media and Microsoft to do the same. 

For instance, if Sony does buy Take-Two, Microsoft would most likely try to purchase a company like EA in retaliation. This would cause consumers to be effectively cut off of half of the gaming landscape while also making it harder on new companies to get started in the industry. 

Some may not have a problem with a company like Disney having control because they, by most accounts, aren’t a giant evil corporation from a Saturday morning cartoon. However, all it takes is a big payday or change of the guard for morals to get twisted and messages to change. 

Is it time to panic? I’d say we’re good for now. However, if this goes through, start watching out for even more deals like it to come rolling in. 

Header photo courtesy of Flickr.