Wedbush Securities' Michael Pachter doubles down on criticism of 'terrible company' Sony's gaming business

In a recent Yahoo Finance panel discussion prompted by EA’s $55 billion acquisition by a consortium of Saudi Arabia’s PIF, Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners, Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter delivered a verdict on Sony’s gaming prospects.

When asked if investors should buy Sony stock amid the industry’s consolidation, Pachter took no time to fire back, “No, Sony for sure not, Sony is a terrible company, and they actually are blowing it in the games business.”

For obvious reasons, Pachter’s comments went viral after being highlighted on ResetEra, as the business analyst has been known for his long-standing bearish stance on traditional console makers like Sony, whom he previously dubbed a “bad company” in comparison to Nintendo. Earlier, he also stated that the PlayStation division is “doomed” in past analyses.

Michael Pachter believes that the future of gaming lies in cloud gaming on TVs instead of dedicated hardware, stating:

“Look, games are moving to connected TV. So, think about all the participants that are going to deliver games the way we get movies via Netflix, and forget the subscription model. Just think about iOS becoming available on your TV. So free-to-play games on your TV, who’s going to deliver that? Cloud providers, AI, anybody who's investing in making that happen is where you want to be.”

Pachter continued to comment that if people are looking to invest in the video game industry, they should steer clear of console giants and zero in on mobile game company, Playtika Holding Corp., a social casino developer in which he personally holds 500,000 shares. Trading at what he states, “about a four and a half multiple” of earnings, Playtika could make Pachter “several million dollars” if it were to get an EA-level multiple.

This isn’t the first time Pachter has evangelized cloud and non-traditional models, as he has repeatedly touted Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass as the industry’s north star.

Pachter once predicted that the addition of Activision Blizzard titles post Microsoft’s acquisition would balloon the service to 100 million subscribers overnight, later doubling down, forecasting 200 million Game Pass users by 2034. He later walked back his claims in July 2025, mentioning stiff competition from PlayStation exclusives as the reason for the drag on growth.

However, Xbox has been making efforts to bolster Game Pass subscriptions by announcing the addition of Xbox Cloud Gaming to select vehicles through a partnership between Microsoft and LG, facilitated by LG’s webOS ACP.

On the flipside, Xbox's push for more profitability has resulted in prices for its Game Pass subscriptions going up recently as well as a cull in its Game Studios division, making it likely that it sees some level of developer and consumer pushback in the coming days.