Former managers of Sony's gaming division gave an interview to the portal The Game Business, where they shared memories of working at the company in the 1990s. Among other things, they spoke about two deals that fell through.
Former senior producer at Sony, Martin Alltimes, recounted that three decades ago, Sony was very close to purchasing Bullfrog Productions—the studio of Peter Molyneux.
According to him, at the time, Molyneux approached Sony with a request to publish some games: specifically, he presented Dungeon Keeper and the unreleased The Indestructibles. After hearing the proposal, the company decided it would be simpler and ultimately cheaper to acquire the entire Bullfrog Productions. However, Sony wasn't the only company interested in the studio—Electronic Arts (EA), which had previously collaborated with Molyneux, also wanted to buy it. As a result, it was EA that signed an agreement with Bullfrog Productions in 1995 and became the studio's owner.
The second deal that fell through involved FIFA. Former Vice President of Software Development for PlayStation, Juan Montes, recalled that around the same time, Sony was working on its own football simulator. The company considered releasing it under the FIFA license and even negotiated with the International Federation of Football, but here too, they lost out to EA.
"Ultimately, we decided to walk away from this deal to maintain good relationships with third-party teams," Montes admitted.