You know…if you took your time and chose your words a little more carefully you’d avoid a lot of grief. Just one word can make a world of difference.
“You don’t bring in millions of people to Xbox with Dishonored and Gears”
Vs
“You don’t bring in millions of people to Xbox with just Disonored and Gears”
WB games could be next after MS digests Zenimax, it makes too much sense.
AT&T’s financial issues haven’t suddenly disappeared.
They have 6 AAA studios staffed & ready to go (Rocksteady, WB Montreal, Netherrealm, Avalanche Software, Monolith & TT Games), plus at least 1 support studio (WB New York)
Those studios have 4 games already at the end of the development pipeline (WB Montreal\Gotham Knights, Rocksteady\Suicide Squad, TT Games\Lego Skywalker, Avalanche\Harry Potter), all likely 2021 releases (in a year where MS 1st party is likely still not up to speed yet) and ready to release on Game Pass Day 1. Even if they release on PS5 as well, the fact that they could go into Game Pass for Free is a huge win for MS
Monolith is working on a new IP that would come with them, also located in Kirkland, WA & also comes with their proprietary nemesis tech
Netherrealm is rumored to be working on a new game IP as well and would come with the Mortal Kombat license
MS would also likely get the Midway IP, plus Asheron’s Call (WB Boston\Turbine), & FEAR IP
AT&T & MS have a good working relationship
Combine all of that and it makes way too much sense. Yes, they don’t come with the IP that Zenimax does, but a licensing deal b\t MS & WB does not seem like a major roadblock and solves some of the Sony vs. Xbox narratives.
They still could release WB licensed games on Sony, and still, win by releasing them free on GamePass. Some of these studios could work on old IP MS owns or have the freedom to work on their own IP like Monolith & Netherrealm.
AT&T is also reportedly close to auctioning DirecTV, so who really knows what’s going on there.
I think WB Games was just trying to value their IPs since they went back on the idea of selling pretty quickly.
Just think about it. They had Hogwarts Legacy, Gotham Knights and Back 4 Blood lined up for 2021 and Suicide Squad for 2022, all unannounced. Not to mention LEGO Skywalker Saga and Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate. Those are big titles that have been on development for a long while. Why would they even think of putting the gaming division for sale?
That’s different from what happened with Bethesda, for example, in which Microsoft approached them, so they could work out a better deal.
I would put money on their next game being Alan Wake 2. They own the IP now and you do not bring back attention to the IP via Control unless you have further plans for it.
I have a feeling Bloober is considered if The Medium is a critcal hit. also they have another timed game in the pipeline.
Yeah, WB Interactive remains #1 on my wish list. So many great development studios all with a good or better history behind them plus they would definitely have to work out a 10 year minimum licensing deal because just imagine having the entire DC Universe and all of their games exclusive to Xbox for this entire generation? Hell yeah!!
You get great Batman games from WB Montreal, new games using the DC Universe from Rocksteady, they have the Harry Potter game, still have Lords of the Ring even though im pretty sure Monolith’s next game isn’t LOTR related but still, a great developer, they solve their fighting game genre conundrum with Mortal Kombat/Injustice via NetherRealm and could even have a new Killer Instinct from NR and cross-overs between MK and KI. There’s also a bunch of other studios and IP’s that im missing.
Bloober told the stock exchange they were in talks with a bunch of companies to buy them. That was in June of this year.
Stock exchange documents reveal that the publicly listed company has entered a second round of talks with “a dozen or so” companies, including three from the United States, two from Poland and one from the UK.
Nothing has been publicly announced yet about an acceptance or specific offers. Microsoft is definitely one of the people who would have been in talks, although that’s no guarantee they made an offer or that it was the best offer.
I get Bloober seems interesting but none of their games aside from like Layers of Fear have been relatively good. I hope The Medium is a hit tho.
And AT&T could even sell the licenses of the characters they have only for games if they want to make some fast money ~I don’t think that would happen, but this is a possibility and I usualy don’t see being mentioned that often~ since the debt they have is massive.
They’re not interesting to me personally and don’t have the best track record, although I felt the same way about Undead Labs and Compulsion Games. The pace of release at Bloober is high which seems to be attractive, although they do heavily rely on outsourcing to achieve it (as per their own comments).
Wb has family game pedigree and could immediately start production on our sitting ips like jet force gemini if we don’t get the character licenses. They make way too much sense if they are indeed available
Totally agree. I’d go further and moneyhat the damn things to make them exclusive.
That said, the WB studios have such pedigree in the genres I wish MS would push harder into. I don’t even mind if they don’t get the IP. Skill is worth much more than IP ever is.
Losing the IP only means they get to work on totally new stuff, which is perfect.
While I agree, I think at the rumored price points IP is going to need to come along with it. You can own IP but you never really own staff. It would be much cheaper to build new studios and aggressively recruit, but would take extra time.
I do think that Microsoft has grown and acquired enough that they have earned the luxury of time though. 2022 and beyond will be crazy and no acquisition is going to help fill 2021.
I agree. But I think the Zenimax acquisition can help 2021 because I believe Starfield is 2021 and should be exclusive. In fact I’d say that the Zenimax acquisition was very important for the short term because Zenimax will have ready to release games and the pre Zenimax studios are needing time to develop their games, many of which from scratch.
Well I hope this is better for them in the long run; equal examples of either at this point in the game. At the very least, it will make any potential buyouts (from any party) more difficult; not impossible.
Wolf 3 may be 2021 as well.
WB. Take the talent, leave the licenses and IP (except MK).
Couldn’t they just poach the staff without buying the studios? Surely it would be cheaper 