I think MS is not going to buy publicy traded studio in Poland so I think it is Techland or Farm51
Agree they’re not going after PCF. Techland has management issues so probably not a focus. Whoever Microsoft purchases, they need to have strong and stable leadership. Studio needs to be autonomous. As for Poland, might be a good spot for 2nd party projects which turn into more long term. I think the XGP is over-looked in terms of why Microsoft visits these studios and regions. A lot of rumors may sprout from when Microsoft is negotiating a partnership or 2nd party deal.
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I still think Bloober is a possibility. Multiple companies are bidding on them, Microsoft would be dumb to not be going for them. They’ve already partnered for two games.
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That is why I dont think bloober is possible, public company and multiple potential buyers. Dont get me wrong, I think MS would like to get them, but not enough to get in on a bidding war for them and I am glad that is the case, I dont want them getting on that bidding war for bloober. CDPR and techland I dont even need to explain why they are not happening.
3 possibilities: Farm 51 (or someone smaller), build a studio, forget poland. I think they should still invest in polish studios though.
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Fuck it, I’m too groggy to play games right now. Let’s take a look at some of the major markets and the devs/publishers available in each, shall we?
The criteria is as follows: Not publically listed, not owned by another publically listed gaming firm (investment firm is fine), even partially with a few exception elaborated on below and at minimum a decent reputation.
Major International Firms
Embracer Group (THQ Nordic, Deep Silver, a shitton of other studios)
Focus Home Interactive
Level-5
SEGA
Smilegate
Square Enix Europe (Crystal Dynamics, Eidos Montreal, etc.)
Sumo Group
Valve
Virtuous (Good team of support studios and asset/animation creators)
WB Interactive
United States of America:
3D Realms
Armature Studio
Aspyr (mostly Mac ports though)
Bungie
Bluepoint
Deck Nine
Farsight Studios (pinball)
Forgotten Empires (I think. I have no idea what is going on between it and World’s Edge whether they are the same)
Gearbox
Harmonix
Iron Galaxy
Jackbox Games
Panic Button
The Tetris Company
ThatGameCompany
Turtle Rock
WayForward
Yacht Club Games
Canada:
Behaviour Interactive
Drinkbox Studios
Extremely OK Games (Formerly Matt Makes Games, developers of Celeste)
HB Studios
Next Level Games
Phoenix Labs
Skybox Labs
Studio MDHR
Tribute Games
Japan:
Arc System Works
Camelot Software Planning
Dimps
Grasshopper Manufacture
Idea Factory
Inti Creates
JP Games
Kemco (Lots of games at a minimum, they have their fans)
Kojima Productions
Mistwalker
Natsume
Platinum Games
RED Entertainment
tri-Ace
tri-Crescendo
Valhalla Game Studios
White Owls
Yuke’s
United Kingdom:
4J Studios
Bossa Studios
Chucklefish
FacePunch Studios
Hello Games
Interior/Night
Mediatonic
Playtonic
Rebellion Developments
A Sam Barlow studio
Supermassive Games
Team17
Poland:
The Astronauts
The Farm 51
One More Level
Techland
Teyon
Thing Trunk
Vavel Games
Rest of Europe
Asobo
The Bearded Ladies
Bohemia Interactive
Crytek
Frictional Games
Frogwares
Frozenbytes
GSC Gameworld
Housemarque
IO Interactive
Mercury Steam
Mimimi Games (They did Desperados 3)
Moon Studios (if willing)
Naps Team
Pendulo Studios
Quantic Dream
Slipgate Ironworks
Starbreeze Studios
Two Tribes
Wargaming
China
FYQD
Game Science
Mihoyo
Perfect World Games
South Korea
Blueside Inc.
ESA
Pearl Abyss
Phantagram
Miscellaneous
ACE TEAM (Chile)
Big Ant Studios (Australia)
Krome Studios (Australia)
Tantalus Media (Australia)
Wicked Witch Software (Australia)
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Great list, if I could choose, I will take :
- SEGA or at least Relic
- Bungie or Turtle Rock if they can’t have Bungie
- Valhalla Game Studios
- White Owls
- Hello Games
- Techland or GSC Gameworld if Stalker 2 is good
- Asobo
because they have history with MS and they are talented dev
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Hmmmmmmm, “too groggy” huh DeoGame? I don’t know man. You seem pretty alert to be typing out that long ass list. lmao. 
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Fair enough! 
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The studios/publishers listed above are those that are of interest to me.
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Yeah, my personal 5 picks from the list are
- Square Enix Europe
- Asobo
- IO Interactive
- SEGA/ATLUS
- A smaller studio like Interior Night to nurture under their wing.
For 10
- WB Interactive
- Bungie
- Turtle Rock
- Valve
- Valhalla
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Holy cow
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My friend, what an amazing post that’s given me some new studios to dive into their work. Bookmarking for future reference; fantastic research here
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WB and SE Europe
that’s it
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Thanks. Can’t say I did too much more than a wiki crawl but tons of good studios out there.
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Jesus man, awesome work!
Let’s try to narrow it down a bit:
- Embracer Group: No way. It is spending a lot of money buying lots of AA studios lately. It spent $525 million earlier this year to buy Saber Interactive. This month it acquired 13 more new companies, including Zen Studios. I believe they own more than 40 companies at this point.
- Focus Home Interactive: It is a publisher that has a great relationship with Microsoft, putting the majority of its games on Game Pass. But since it is simply a publisher it would not add much for Microsoft. Plus, it was accused earlier this year of IP theft by a indie studio.
- Level 5: It has a bad history with Microsoft, but I believe that’s in the past. Level 5 has been struggling lately, and it would benefit a lot from Microsoft quality control. Plus, it has the rights for lots of interesting IPs, including Yo-kai Watch, Ni no Kuni, Dark Cloud, Professor Layton and Inazuma Eleven.
- Sega: Great recent relationship with Microsoft, including putting the Yakuza and Football Manager series on Game Pass, not to mention the next-gen version of Like a Dragon hitting exclusively the Series X and the newest iteration coming to Xbox after a long hiatus. Lots of great IPs and an indescribable presence in Japan.
- Smilegate: Nothing much to offer since it focus on mobile and PC online games and the interesting part of CrossfireX is actually being developed by Remedy.
- Square Enix EU: Great studios and great IPs from a company that is struggling to make profit. It just makes too much sense.
- Sumo Digital: Meh. I like the studio since it has developed many games that I like, like Sonic & All Stars Racing. But it has a closer bond to Sony since it has been handling the LittleBigPlanet franchise since Media Mocule started focusing on Dreams. Plus, it is working on a new game to be published by Focus Home next year.
- Valve: I don’t think I need to explain this one.
- Virtuos: It is a great support studio and that’s it. No need to have it under XGS.
- WB Games: This one is on my wishlist! AT&T was looking to sell WB games with a possible price tag of $4 billion earlier this year, but backed off. It has some amazing studios under its umbrella, including TT Games (LEGO games), NetherRealm Studios (Mortal Kombat, Injustice) and Rocksteady (Batman Arkham). The downside is that most of the IPs would not be part of the deal.
I might continue this later 
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I find Valve very interesting; I wonder how long Gabe will wait before he sells it, don’t know if he will let his son takeover since he is already running his own studio IIRC. Valves would be only be bought by really big player, for MS valve would give them a strong foothold in PC gaming, IPs and even esports. MS could use steam to offer cloud gaming like GeForce now does, so any game you own on steam could be played online (publisher allowing), this would allow MS to lock and expand players to the Xbox ecosystem.
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Microsoft + Valve probably wouldn’t pass regulatory approval
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