I feel like MS and maybe Sony are just as likely. All of them are just as likely to benefit from such a deal, but I don’t really see what the external factors are that could have derailed this for Amazon or Tencent. The biggest thing to me is the CMA block threw a bit of a wrench in everyone’s plans and neither MS or Sony want to be making an announcement of this big a deal at the moment. This is entirely my speculation though.
Microsoft would send all kind of paperwork for a deal and not some handshake agreement.
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You think the first step of a deal is dropping off a pile of paperwork with the other side?
Of course not, but Microsoft care to have a contract for everything and a handshake agreement feels very untypical for Microsoft.
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You’re basing this on what?
The Embracer CEO (?) talked like he keeps pressing on his partner to finalize the deal and the partner keeps delaying it.
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That’s not the part I was questioning. You imply you have knowledge of how MS typically handles their deals. Just wondering where that’s coming from.
The external factors are economic downturn and lesser investments in gaming all around. After the pandemic was over things swung back around and growth stopped and borrowing money is now more expensive. Suddenly all investors, shareholders and managers got very risk averse and layed of workers and/or closed studios. Seems like Embracer had bad timing and too much confidence in this business partner.
They have an army of lawyers and are one of the biggest companies in the world so every little detail for a deal or whatever should be on a contract.
Anyways it’s just my take.
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That seems like it would be obvious, but downturn has been an issue now for almost a year. I’m not saying it’s not the cause, but it just doesn’t seem like it would have been a shock to anyone and this deal negotiation started last fall/winter which was at the height of the layoffs.
As are just about any company that would be involved in a $2 billion deal.
For sure, but i have seen some delays even in my job where some ripple effects are manifesting now instead of last year 
Who knows what happened and with whom. Maybe some gaming journalist can do his job instead of writing clickbait?
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Wonder who the $2B acquisition was.
I don’t mean to disappoint, but that is their job.
I dont want Microsoft going anywhere near this lot. Judt buy CD