It is different because not all private companies are reaching out to every connection.
For example, do you think every studio Xbox picked up asked Sony if they were interested? If it was a public scenario, Sony could’ve ourbidded (our attempted), but then you’d have the bigger companies to worry about.
If I would sell i would ask everyone for sure. Why not?
In my experience in other industries I have never seen a major deal where a company (whether public or private) only considered one offer without at least hiring an outside firm/consultants to assess whether there was interest from other competitors or financial institutions. That is just doing your due diligence.
While I agree “why not” it doubt they asked every potential partner under the sun. Public leaves it all out the table for all parties.
Above statement.
Exactly. Even if a company is private it almost definitely has private investors who want a return on investment just as much as an investor in a public company. It is therefore due diligence, as you say, for the company to get as high as a price as possible.
I’d argue it’s probably easier to get a higher price with a public option though, right? Especially after seeing how CodeMasters went down between Take Two and Activision.
And so we’re all on the same page, I’m only asking because I’m genuinely curious.
Yeah, but wouldn’t you say that for a public conpany it is your obligation to make as much money for your investors as possible, where private that is not the case?
There are things that they would be looking at like how they’ll integrate, what is the culture, what degree of freedom will they have, will they be able to continue working on so and so. All of things could result in taking an offer from one and not the other, even if it was less $.
Totally unrelated, but I wish Microsoft acquired TrueAchievements and used it to improve its achievements system
I definitely think they’d be nice to have a more dedicated team toward achievements and their implementation on profiles and such. I feel like this get overlooked too much in the grand scheme of things, but I also understand Xbox doesn’t want to clutter the UI either.
My only question is, what would have to TA subscriptions though? Converted to Game Pass and then all Game Pass members are also TA subs? Something interesting to think on…
the next publisher to fall will probably be WB. As the parent company AT&T just has so much debt. the restructuring they did placed the gaming division in an odd place within the company. The gaming division was also excluded from a lot of the cuts the other divisions saw.
Not saying any kind of timeline as betheseda being for sale was talk for years. But If I had to put money on what publisher was next to fall it would be WB. Its an easy sale for some much needed money and licensing out the IP to gaming companies is a better play as then AT&T has none of the overheard to worry about.
I always wish that man. Trueachievement like work on Xbox would be amazing as it is but if the forums and walkthroughs are integrated into the Xbox and PC app UI, we can finally have features that rival steam
That’d be interesting but im not sure they’d need to outright purchase them just to improve the achievements system. They have talented people at Microsoft who could implement that kind of stuff themselves. I’m hopeful that 2021 is the year we get a meaningful announcement about the future of achievements.
Their value is greatly based on what sort of licensing deal you get on the underlying IPs. WB could be really lucrative if it comes with 10 year exclusive licenses on the underlying IPs.
The value of any studio is the people. As talent is what is able to produce the game at a high level. They could create new IP or create games with licensed IP. It’s why you can’t just plop down a studio hire a bunch of people to make a great game. As your not guaranteed what kind of people you are going to be able to attract or how well they will work together.
They wouldn’t necessarily need exclusive licensing. The most important part would be the financial aspects of the licensing and just gaining the ability to make games with the license.
I gotta say, if what Brad Sams is true about the gaming industry really pushing money towards IPs and teams then I can really see some of these names joining Xbox (or someone) in the near future…
Studio Wildcard (Ark is huge, DLC in game pass)
Bungie (Destiny, obviously)
Studio MDHR (Cuphead is a huge brand, has its own Netflix show, for some reason not on Game Pass)
IO Interactive (Hitman, working on 007 as well)
Behaviour Interactive (Dead By Daylight is one of the more popular Game Pass titles out there, consistently updating the game with new content and is probably a solid profit driver for add-ons in the store)
Asobo (Flight Sim, Plague Tale)
DONTNOD (Life is Strange is one of the biggest episodic games out there)
Remedy (could see Epic going for them)
FromSoftware (if Kadokowa is willing to give them up, that’s going to be a huge boon for someone)
Then we also have the indie darlings that are consistently bringing out beloved titles (SuperGiant, The Behemoth, Playdead, etc.)
Another publisher or two might be acquired this year (Codemasters is 1 already), not sure who it’ll be…
Studio wildcard is a good call. I could absolutely see a scenario like that.
Studio Wildcard is… the wildcard.
I dont even think they would need to acquire it, would be enough MS reaching them and giving them access to the tools and a green light to improved everything they can about achievements. I’m sure they would do a much better job than the Xbox team is doing and in a good faith. Xbox efforts on improving achievements have been pathetic at best, honestly.
While high level talent is important, IP is definitely the prized jewel and is a major determining factor in the overall price. Minecraft sold at 2.5 billion because of the IP first and foremost. Popular gaming IP continues because they sell, and it’s why Xbox has diversified games based on owned IP (Gears Tactics, Halo Wars, Minecraft Dungeons, etc)
Xbox has been very judicious with their acquisitions. Initially grabbing studios who are small to medium-large, who’ve shown they have creative talent, and have a good project workflow. They’ve been great acquisitions, but I imagine all of them would’ve cost at or (much more likely) below what Sony purchased Insomniac for in 2019 ($229 million), where Insomniac only has one (substantial) owned IP (Sunset Overdrive). Zenimax/Bethesda made perfect sense for them because it has talent, diverse owned IP (including 10 million+ selling IP), technology (engines, cloud), multimedia potential (Fallout TV show), and to top it off it was privately owned.
If a WB acquisition doesn’t include IP, it’s not worth it. I really can’t see another publisher which would offer the bang for the buck that Zenimax did. Therefore I think future acquisitions will more likely be from mid to large independent studios (inline with their prior acquisitions), with a potential big purchase made if the right IP is included.
I think when your business model is gamepass. IP is not the most important thing. At the end of the day content would be what is most important and that content doesn’t need to be based on WB IP for those studios to be successful.
In fact, when your content is based on an IP you don’t own you are always going to be beholden to someone else. Look at insomniac they made sunset overdrive which is literally the template for spiderman gameplay we see today. They got to make all that tech and experiences on Microsoft’s dime and then sell themselves to Sony and make spider-man games with that experience.
The talent and experience those people have at insomniac are invaluable. In gaming terms, the spiderman IP isn’t worth as much as it would be without insomniac. As they have the unique talents to make it work.
If you have the talent you can always make new IP. However, talent and experience on the level of a rocksteady and netherrealm, etc aren’t something you can just buy everyday. Look at killer instinct. People are clamoring for a killer instinct game but there isn’t one as the is no one to make it. Yes, Ip is great, but it’s nothing without talent. As Talent can make its own IP but IP can’t make its own talent.
Now, If you are Microsoft and your goal is to grow gamepass your end game would be to have be a new coming in approximately every month. What is the number one problem Microsoft has had the past few years. Holding studios they don’t own accountable when they are working in 2nd party relationships. They have had some great relationships but they have had just as many failures.
If you are Microsoft and you have the chance to secure talented teams you should. As it’s not like you wont be able to negotiate some kind of deal if one of your teams wants to make a game. But securing an IP without a talented team to make it is just pointless.
If you look at what AT&T is doing, and its situation. WB game studios are an actual possibility to acquire. As you don’t have one of your largest layoffs affecting nearly every division but the gaming division unless you are trying to ultimately sell it. As the only reason to avoid layoffs in that division is so that anyone interested in buying it wouldn’t have to re-evaluate the studio worth post layoffs. AT&T has a lot of debt and needs a lot of money because of 5G. It’s why they sold Crunchyroll.
So yes, if every studio is a possibility there are better choices than WB games studios. However, of the options that are realistically available and the talent, Microsoft could realistically obtain. There aren’t that many better options.