Well it was basically a decade ago. Since then Tomb Raider IP has declined.
So far Microsoft went after the publishers only. I am pretty sure that could grab studios in-between BGS and ABK purchases. But they did not. There is something more to it.
My bet is that Microsoft is looking for big IPs and high engagement numbers. Together.
I figure the work on this Perfect Dark title is ongoing for atleast the next year and a half, hence the Embracer statement about expecting these studios to break even for 2022 and 2023. There’s plenty of dev time left on this PerfectDark title. Then you need to see gamer reactions and engagement before figuring out what a second title in the series would even be.
You’re forgetting the part were they went for studios first.
They did it when they started rebuilding the first party in 2018-2019. We don’t know if publishers were at the table at that time. Probably only BGS. After that they went from publisher to publisher. Bethesda and then ABK. They did not buy anything between them. And ABK was pretty much unexpected acquisition. Even for Microsoft.
Yeah sure, there’s a ton of uncertainties at play here, one thing I’m sure is that it’ll take a long time until any studio that’s working on CoD right now gets any semblance of freedom from it, maybe more time to develop the game, but freedom from it is another matter.
This is a hard to swallow pill…
Silver lining is that games from these studios will remain multi-platform
Could be they prefer having ownership of the back catalog so that it provides a ton of content for Game Pass.
I agree with you in some parts, it would indeed have been much worse if Sony picked them up. But I would also have to push back a bit about the doom n gloom part, being annoyed that a much better deal from my perspective is missed out on is not the same as doom and gloom.
You are right in that we don’t know the politics or if the AKB-deal is stopping MS from buying more, but to be fair we also don’t know if it doesn’t. Both guesses are valid, since we don’t know after all. My impressions with the size of the ABK-deal and all the legal shit in the US is that Microsoft is trying to be careful, and I guessed that could impact other deals. This seems to indicate that is the case, or could be.
Buying those studios (with those IP!) would have been perfect for Xbox, it fills a gap in the lineup so many are complaining about. They are great studios, great IP and MS is allready having one of them working on Perfect Dark. I can’t see how MS wouldn’t be interested in this. I really can’t. So I assume something is holding them back.
Embracer is fine, nothing will change. But I would have liked to see those studios with Xbox budgets creating awesome games for Xbox and Game Pass. I think it’s fair people are disappointed.
Probably also due to that. Big back catalogs. Remember how many BGS went there at once. And how many will come with ABK.
Yep all of this.
If MS is trying to build a diverse library for Gamepass, these studios would’ve helped a lot with that, and for that price… A complete steal for Gamepass.
Anyway that’s what I think as well, ABK is holding them back at this moment, until further data gets out there, this is the most likely scenario.
What’s holding EA back? They have a service comparable to GP.
What was holding Facebook, Google and Apple back in the case of ABK? No one knows and it doesn’t matter, it matters that the one trying to build a diverse catalog of games for GP couldn’t get it for whatever reason.
And the most likely one is the ABK deal, since they did the same with Bethesda, letting the deal settle and they have time to adjust to the new publisher.
My point was why weren’t these other players (you listed above) interested in SE West?? It just sold for $300 million. EA has many of the same interests as Microsoft.
Probably a good thing, there needs to be a resurgence of new ideas and companies
Some will disagree but I’d like to see some AA tier Thief games, Tomb Raider games, etc. out of this. A new Thief game with more of a focus on labyrinth maps and core gameplay again instead of production values? Same with Tomb Raider and well, tombs? Sign me up. Something that made me fall out of love with AAA games lately is that they take like 6+ years to make and take less risks to focus on production values and such.
I don’t know if Embracer will handle these IPs like this but it’s the way I’d like to see it done.
Oh I totally agree, I know text can mask intent and I didn’t have time to highlight every example of the ‘doom and gloom’, but there absolutely is a delta between being disappointed and doom-and-glooming. Like you, I am definitely disappointed (regardless of the circumstances) because like so many of us have said Eidos and CD are perfect for Xbox, and having those studios able to flourish (not to mention having their titles in GP) under them would have been a sight to see. I just think that the accusations of being asleep at the wheel, or MS fucking up, when we have no idea what those internal details are, isn’t constructive and has been borderline toxic in online discourse.
If ABK was “so cheap” and “made sense” for all these other companies and they all “had the cash easily” for it, then, everyone should ask what was holding them.
It doesn’t matter what others think or their reasons for not getting in, the same happened with Bethesda.
To me personally, these studios are worth more than ABK, I understand that MS won’t ever think like this, but I’m thinking as a consumer, these studios are worth more to me.
MS should be the most interested in it since they’re in a partnership with one the studios and the games they make fill a void in gamepass, so yeah… It doesn’t matter if others didn’t have enough reason, MS has enough to get them.
I’m gonna guess you are speaking subjectively when you insinuate this deal would be better for microsoft than the abk deal, because objectively you’d need 10 deals like this one to get close to the value of abk in gamepass.
Because at the end of the day it’s still $70B for gaming? Edit: let me clarify a bit. Even if a company has the money and the value is good for what they’re receiving doesn’t mean they want to drop the cash. It’s a lot, even in the world of mega trillion dollar corporations.