IOI especially fit in well with a lot of those studios. They essentially make third person immersive sim games. Zenimax have a big presence in mainland europe as well
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Its just for administrative purposes.
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PCF’s track record for quality is reasonable - Gears Judgement and Bulletstorm are certainly both held in higher regard than, say, We Happy Few. It ain’t like this is somehow beneath Microsoft even just based on what they’ve done before.
Signs are that this will sell pretty well. And unlike Anthem, this is neither a long tail service game nor a gargantuan expensive project (~250 staff in Poland).
For acquisition considerations, this is sort of moot, they’re going public imminently and it would be really odd for them to go public then go private like three months later for a sale.
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The one thing We Happy Few has over anything PCF has released though is people remember We Happy Few… the creativity is there at Compulsion and it really shows, they just need help in the gameplay and quality control department (and it sounds like the DLCs improved on that a lot).
People Can Fly make great games, but they’re not memorable. Again, that’s not a knock against their quality, they just seem to go with very… erm… generic style? And this is coming from someone that loved Bulletstorm and enjoyed parts of Judgment. I am waiting for reviews of Outriders before I make my final decision on it, because I do think it has promise, I just don’t want to get burned.
The witcher series? Now cyberpunk 2077? Those are not ips?
Dont own either
Since the Paradox talk the past few days, done more digging into what they have. I agree that there’s a lot of potential there. They have cult followings on multiple, diverse IP. I have a high level of curiosity to see what happens when developers who are good at game design, systems and creating addictive game loops are given resources to build games with mainstream production values.
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I know that a minority stake was just purchased by Tencent, but Dontnod still makes a ton of sense. Particularly if you could bring them on board and have them make episodic type games with your biggest franchises like Halo, Gears, Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Doom, Perfect Dark, Banjo, Minecraft etc. I feel like they could really grow the franchises and the style of game would fit amazingly in game pass.
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A lot of people like Crytek because of how impressive their visuals have been in the past. My game dev buddy said that their engine isn’t nearly as easy to use as UE and that’s why it’s not that popular within the industry despite how pretty Crytek games tend to be. That said, they’ve staffed up to nearly 500 employees recently and one has to wonder where that money is coming from. This recent growth happened after they leaned out considerably last gen and then made a smaller game that was a commercial flop. Not impossible that with more resources, Crytek could improve their engine or combine it with other tech to make it more user friendly to work with. So while not someone I’d clamor for, there is potential.
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Yeah I’ve been wondering where the cash influx is coming from. Hint did okay but it’s not finding this expansion and they were just recently on the ropes.
The next expansion or aquisition should be about content for kids and families, there is still a lot missing for this huge part of the audience.
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MS existing studios have the potential to make games for all ages. Phil always comments how he respects Nintendo, I think this is due to thier ability to be flexible. Look how Retro made the Metroid trilogy then did Donkey Kong which is aimed at everyone
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Sure, there is potential with Compulsion, Doublefine, Mojang, Playground, Rare, Turn10 and maybe Alpha dog. But most of them are already working on established titles. I mean some studio who can widen the Game Pass portfolio, idk like Sega, Frontier or Sumo.
I feel like there are some other indie studios that could be of interest in this realm 
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I think Dontnod is in a precarious situation - I’m getting shades of Telltale Games. Life is Strange 2 was a dramatic decline in success from the first game, and even compared to “Before the Storm”. The developers of BTS have been given the future reigns of that IP now as a result.
Their latest two games, Tell Me Why (Microsoft) and Twin Mirror (self published) have sold very poorly, and generated negligible discussion in the media or hype in the gaming community. Yes they both had various hustles (TMW being on Gamepass, Twin Mirror getting an epic deal), but that seems to be indicating a trend, i.e. that they seem unable to recapture anything like the hype and success of their debut adventure title.
Vampyr is their most successful game since Life is Strange 1, if they can’t follow up on that with equal-or-greater success, this would be one of their last remaining lifelines drying up.
Would they sell? Probably, I don’t know who’d be interested specifically beyond more investment by Tencent. They have a lot of staff but not a lot in the way of lucrative IP or recent successes. Maybe Focus Home will try for them, and as a French company they’d also have an easier time of it. I wouldn’t guess they’re high on Microsoft’s shopping list, but who knows.
Acquisition will happen. There really is no need to do so right now. Maybe after E3 time.
CDPR renewed The Witcher license over a year ago in regards to future games. I’m pretty they have the same setup for Cyberpunk 2077 which I believe is owned by Mike Pondsmith but im not 100% sure on this. Either way, as long as they keep the licenses for the games, they’re easily worth the cost in my opinion.
I know some here dislike them for varying reasons but they would bring in so many consumers and fans plus they’re HUGE on PC which is definitely an area Microsoft wants to improve upon.
As for People Can Fly, im pretty sure that they’re off the table for a while as they have either two or three games contracted between Square Enix and if I remember correctly, Take Two Interactive.
I have played the Outriders demo and it’s day one for me. I do see it selling very well especially since it’s releasing on several platforms and there’s nothing else releasing around April 1st. Review wise though, im expecting low to mid 70’s. I see Outriders as one of those games where consumers/gamers completely ignore the reviews.
I think Microsoft will still attempt to get someone in Poland
Paradox has an event called Paradox Insider returning March 13th (Saturday). Probably just a coincidence but either way, will be paying more attention to them based on the idea that they’d be a logical fit.
With a public company, there’s really no way to hide it until E3. They would have to make it public before they sign. There’s not another publisher I can think of who’s private.