Although I see it smooth sailing, this would prove CMA isn’t untouchable.
I was looking at the IPs Activision owns, and it’s huge! just look at these publishers, Activision owns their IPs:
- Universal Interactive
- Fox Interactive (licensed titles)
- Sierra Entertainment
- Infocom
So can we get simpsons hit and run on gamepass?.
2 Likes
I do think Xbox needs to remaster, rerelease, and add backwards compatible games from Activision’s back catalogue. Even the stuff with difficult licensing needs to be figured out and over come.
Aracade1up, EA, and RockStar have all done the hard work for some games.
Even Xbox managed to make Goldeneye available so don’t tell me the Activision 007 games are impossible. EA got Skate backwards compatible and Activision themselves remade Tony Hawk 1&2 with most of the same music, so don’t tell me the Tony Hawk games are off limits either. EA has been making Burnout games backwards compatible and remaking Need for Speed games so don’t tell me Xbox can’t figure this stuff out. Finally Simpsons Hit and Run is a big enough cult hit for a remake, if Arcade 1up can figure this stuff out why wouldn’t Xbox be able to?
No excuses 
1 Like
Why wait? 
https://youtu.be/kNsnGYnSnzg
1 Like
I think it would happen. IP health is very important and MS would absolutely be extremely careful about PR in Japan I feel.
Look at their TGS showcases. They always are showing that you don’t need an Xbox console to be in the Xbox ecosystem. MS knows at this point that selling vast amounts of Series consoles in Japan is an absolute fool’s dream.
Nintendo can also be a beast if provoked. People like to think they live in their bubble and don’t care about what’s going on but they absolutely do care about third parties. Nintendo made a point to lock down Monster Hunter on the 3DS to harm the Vita and the DQ team was literally one of the first, if not the first team to be sent a Switch devkit (DQXI was the first “Nintendo NX” game ever announced). Nintendo doing whatever they can to shut MS out of their home turf if they feel threatened would be so unbelievably easy it would be like a finger snap.
Nintendo is also very good at poaching talent… Now imagine MS buys Capcom and decides to make MH exclusive. Nintendo poaches the major talent (and let’s not pretend that talent retention will not be a tough problem if MS wants their JP acquisitions to be exclusive. Tango isn’t comparable because their games have never been popular in Japan in the first place and do not even target the Japanese market.) and then makes a first party game called Creature Slayer with their new team led by former MH talent. MH IP plummets in Japan (and probably takes a big dent worldwide) and everyone moves to Nintendo’s game. You also now have a damaged relationship with Nintendo. Oops, should have just given Nintendo their MH.
I still don’t think they’re getting any Japanese publishers and won’t believe it till I see it, but I think Nintendo would keep getting content. In fact, all the JP publishers are doing fine, they might not even -want- to sell to MS unless MS grants them platform freedom.
4 Likes
If they do end up getting a Japanese publisher, iId fully expect at the absolute minimum for some franchises to stay multiplatform
MS buying a publisher there will be to make GP more appealing worldwide, not to make everything exclusive so people in Japan will suddenly want an xbox, I think MS is banking on PC/cloud over there more than anything else anyway
1 Like
But I thought the CMA couldn’t be touched and that an appeal to the CAT was just a formality? 
Too many armchair analysts, not enough crow.
13 Likes
CMA isn’t invincible it seems, Microsoft can win with CAT if it comes to that.
Ex CMA regulator here.
14 Likes
Literally what I was about to say. Some silent voices rn…
9 Likes
When people like Christopher Dring were saying that the CMA has the power to kill the deal I don’t blame them for thinking that, they can but it isn’t that simple obviously lol.
I agree with this, it makes me think about the CMA’s research into Call of Duty - they ran surveys to determine how players would actually respond if Call of Duty was no longer on Playstation and the number of people who would actually switch to Xbox was fairly…slim. And that was Call of Duty - one of the biggest gaming franchises in the world! I don’t think Xbox is going to suddenly gain a strong market share by making franchises that have been a part of Japanese gaming culture for decades exclusive to a console owned by a tiny fraction of the audience, I think that only serves to lose a large chunk of the core audience and won’t exactly do much to draw developers to Xbox either. Keeping games multiplatform, getting the good PR that comes with it and letting players come to Xbox in time with the promise of what the ecosystem offers (the low price Series S, XCloud etc.) is the way to go. At least in my opinion.
Plus, if they really wanted to get some exclusives out of it they could make the Playstation/Switch ports Japan only 
It’s less cost efficient but get’s the job done.
1 Like
Best to master the copium, haters.
Activision already tried to bring back some older IPs, King’s Quest (2015) and Geometry Wars 3 (2014) I think the sale number wasn’t really that good so they stopped it, but with Game Pass they can do that again. but overall MS really need remaster/remake studios, the number of titles they can remaster/remake is huge, and I’m sure there’s an audience out there for those.
1 Like
IF a japanase publisher were to happen I think MS would completely support at least Nintendo.
I think MS have been building their CAT case since last year when the CMA published their phase 1 findings if they try to blocked it.
Nintendo can try. Do they have 4 -5 years to build their own MH from scratch? Would it sell or be seen as a knock off?
Monster Hunters a smaller IP than Elder Scrolls and thats locked out for other platforms.
And Phil explained Xbox+PC+Xcloud is enough in terms of install base.
If Japanese gamers want Monster Hunter they would need an Xbox, PC or Phone…or they can stop playing monster hunter. Either way, Xbox would be slightly more desirable in Japan.
Monster Hunter would still be big in the West and launching on gamepass even bigger than before.
Its no more damaging to the IP brand then removing Elder Scrolls from Playstation. Just change Monster Hunter to Elder Scrolls, Switch to Playstation and Japan to Europe and its the same rationality.
remake!
Hey but one day MS might increase gamepass 1 dollar a month, so its ok that Sony is doing these price hikes. /s
4 Likes
Sorry if already mentioned in here but the interview with Florian Mueller by Rand and Jez is really worth a listen 
11 Likes
14 Likes