Your preferences are fine, I would trade a dozen studios for Bungie, but the Bethesda v SE West comp is not the same at all. Bethesda was a massive financial acquisition compared to SE West from a price perspective. The lack of interest from EA, T2, Tencent, Facebook etc seems surprising and is reflected in the sale price of SE West.
Other companies interest shouldn’t gauge your onw interest for these studios.
I’m sure MS would love to acquire them, else they wouldn’t partner with CD, something happened to hold them back and my bet is the ABK deal that’s all I’m saying.
First thoughts are that it’s good for those studios because SE has always been a poor manager of their western teams, but unfortunate that MSFT is locked up currently.
The impact to CD/Initiative could go either way, where maybe Embracer is friendlier/smarter than SE, or maybe they’re going to honor those contracts as stingily as possible. Not doom and gloom by any means, but it’s another question mark.
Just woke up to a bunch of texts from my friend telling me this and im like, how the fuck does Microsoft not outbid Embracer Group? More importantly, only $300M for all of that? Are you kidding? That’s a bigger fucking steal than Insomniac. Holy shit!!!
Very disappointed that Microsoft didn’t come away with these studios for that cheap of a price. With that said, I am happy that Embracer Group has gotten Crystal Dynamics/Eidos Montreal as opposed to them staying with Square Enix. Embracer (and Focus) are my top 2 AA publishers so im happy they’re gone from Square Enix but I really don’t understand how Microsoft despite the ABK deal going on didn’t outbid Embracer. Microsoft should have taken the chance.
Now I get to see a few publishers (Ubisoft/WB) and studios (Crystal/Eidos) not go to Microsoft because of a deal that’s going to take 18 months. SMH. As a business move, ABK is the better move but as a gamer, it does nothing for me and I wish they never acquired ABK.
Oh well. Hoping Embracer Group doesn’t fuck up Crystal/Eidos. SMH.
See my post above before freaking out. Also, Embracer is the next-best option and by all accounts they’ve been very laissez-faire with their studios; despite their enigmatic motivations, they’ve been great for their studios thus far.
Had it only been one studio it probably wouldn’t have been much of a risk for MS but several studios and IP for 300m would have been risky I’m sure. Let’s just assume it was ABK keeping them from it, otherwise it’s just a decision I don’t get at all. WB we don’t know for sure yet, Imran did say they were one of the interested parties. I completely agree with you though.
I just hope budgets for a Tomb Raider and the other IP won’t be significantly smaller than what SE was giving it. Do we know what Embracer’s most expensive game is?
What? There is a handful of companies in the world that can afford ABK deal in the first place. Basically either big tech giants or mergers.
The partnered with CD before ABK deal. They did not acquire them earlier for a reason.
Just shows that Borderlands IP and revenue from it is much bigger than whatever Eidos and CD was offering. Not to mention Avengers money pit that Embracer inherited
Apologies. Don’t get me wrong. I like Embracer Group. I just don’t know how Microsoft doesn’t walk away with Crystal/Eidos and those IP’s for $300M. It just makes no sense to me.
And as a gamer, outside of Diablo IV, im not getting anything from ABK as of now and let’s be honest, what happens to Perfect Dark AFTER the first game? UGH.
I just don’t get it. Very disappointed that Microsoft didn’t come away with this fucking steal BUT again, I do like Embracer Group. I’m just baffled how out of Microsoft, Sony, EA and others, how does Embracer come away with them? Out of the publishers that could have gotten them, Embracer would have been near the bottom of my list only because you would think other companies would easily outbid them. SMH.
I don’t think $300m is risky at all. That’s a cheap acquisition and unless you start reaching billions, those deals go through quick plus Crystal is working on Perfect Dark so it makes perfect sense for Microsoft to acquire them.
Agree 100%. I just can’t get past $300m and it’s Embracer Group over Microsoft. It’s just funny to me.
A bit bummed MS didn’t get them. Would have been a perfect match honestly, with CD on PD, and also both CD and Eidos do great third-person games, which MS could use. GotG blew up on Game Pass as well. I think their talents would have filled a great void for MS.