I agree with everything you are saying. MS needs a japanese publisher more than it needed Bethesda. It will happen. Japanese publishers will open more doors for MS and expand its potential customer base. With xCloud MS finally has a gaming solution that it can target towards S Korea and Japan and more. It just needs the content.
We also know MS is srsly trying to break into these countries. It made S Korea a hot spot for xCloud testing and currently has a huge marketing deal with SK Telecom. Also, it has been touting growth in Japanese users.
I think Capcom is the target. Monster Hunter is huge over there and I think they are more open to being acquired than Sega. I saw this fairly old article but still relevant imo:
Indeed Capcom is one of the best if not the best japanese fit for Xbox. I have already mentionned why numerous times so I won’t repeat myself again lol
MS should buy Capcom if they can…why? Because they would easily be able to strongarm Jim Ryan into letting Game Pass on the PS5
You’re already getting a Playstation with no Doom, TES, Fallout now imagine a Playstation with no Resident Evil, Street Fighter, MH, Mega Man, Devil May Cry etc Jim won’t have any choice but to allow Game Pass on PS5 which is probably MS goal.
I think with Xbox console, PC and mobile streaming as viable platforms, I don’t think MS aims to get Game Pass to PlayStation at least not with Series X blades going into the cloud DCs and plans for further consoles down the line.
Yeah, I think people forget that they have all of these other avenues that can potentially eclipse any user base Playstation could provide. I still think Sega is the better option, though Capcom could be a good get, since their path is about expanding their audience and reach; not competing with some console war that’s passé.
I hope we see another move soon, it’d be best to start locking up that xbox ecosystem exclusive content now. The longer they wait the more commitments these companies are going to have and as we’ve seen Microsoft honors all those.
Still hoping the below 4 get announced:
IO Interactive
Asobo
Techland
Bungie
And for publishers there’s no better fit than Sega (yes even up against Capcom) so if they’re going to do it, better to do it soon to get the integration and additional resources thing to help with game development.
Phil has already stated they won’t put Game Pass where they can’t replicate the full Xbox Live experience, like they do on xCloud, so no other consoles will have it.
I’m sure once 2 major publishers are gone from the Playstation platform, ol’ Jimmy will be willing to compromise, probably would have to be curated to be Xbox first party games only though
Why would Microsoft put their first party games on PlayStation and on top of that put them in gamepass, where they’d have only their first party games? That’d be the dumbest move ever. I’d sell my Xbox in an instant and just buy a PlayStation.
I never said put their first party games on PS5, I was talking about just Game Pass. As in if you have a PS5 and want to play TES6 the only way to do so would be through a Game Pass app. There’s no way to just buy the game on PS5.
You have seen the games and franchises they have made in the past right ?
Dream move by MS would be to acquire Bungie and announce crossplay for XSX | XSS launch. This would mean PS players could move to Xbox and keep playing with their mates.
I would say I am in the minority but nothing about the SEGA acquisition really interests me. Yeah you get a whole bunch of I.P. with it but these studios can only make a certain amount of games. I could think of far better ways to spend the money.
Capcom would cost a hell of a lot more but would be an awesome get with how popular their ip is now.
I finally caught up with a develop buddy of mine for the first time since the Bethesda buyout. Asked his thoughts. Few interesting things came from the conversation. He said beyond just the studio acquisitions, Microsoft has been hiring at a shocking pace like he and his peers haven’t seen from a single company before. That Microsoft is creating a vortex for talent based on how fast they’re acquiring people. I asked him how that has made him and his friends feel. He said devs really like Matt Booty.
Thought it was worth mentioning because often the conversations are around studio acquisitions but what’s under the radar is how much talent they’re gathering and Matt Booty appears to be a more important player to their trajectory than he gets credit for.