I would love to see Microsoft somehow someway snag away Crystal Dynamics and Eidos Montreal from Square Enix along with the Tomb Raider, Deus Ex, Thief, Legacy of Kain/Soul Reaver and Gex IP’s. I’m also hoping that Microsoft acquires CDPR from that list.
Surprised that EA is worth that much. Holy crap.
I love Ubisoft and since they’re my favorite publisher/developer, I don’t want anyone to acquire them and I don’t believe that anyone will simply because it’s a family founded and owned business so I don’t see them ever selling it off.
I don’t see Capcom selling to anyone because they’re at the highest level they’ve been in a very long time. I love Resident Evil and after Devil May Cry 5, im all in for that franchise going forward. Other than those two franchises, they don’t have anything for me personally.
If Square Enix were to be bought out, it would be by Sony. Not sure if they still do but Sony did own a decent amount of stock in their company. And to be perfectly honest, Square Enix is a far better fit for Sony and PlayStation than they would be for Microsoft and Xbox.
Surprising that Codemasters was worth over a billion. Not that it matters now since EA acquired them. I see Sega being acquired by Nintendo more than anyone, with Sony being second. I don’t see why Microsoft would acquire them. Plus, Jez/Rand and others have already said that Microsoft looked into acquiring Sega and that they concluded that they have too many other interests that Microsoft has no interest in.
Remedy has an Epic deal for a few games so I don’t see anyone buying them and considering the deal they received from Epic, why would they sell?
Dontnod is of no interest to me unless they give me Vampyr 2 which as of now, I sadly don’t see it happening.
MS have no interest in WB due to the licensing that comes with. If it wasn’t for this, they’d snap up those studios in a heartbeat. WB wont sell without the licenses
But this flies directly in the face of what others in the know have said which is Microsoft was indeed kicking the tires on WB. Nobody knows why or why not things didn’t progress from there outside of those directly involved. I also wouldn’t go as far as saying WB wouldn’t sell without the licenses because just about every company has a price in the end.
FYI - The way you state a lot of things comes across as if you know them as fact. I’m doubting that’s your intent, but it does often read that way.
If we’re talking about public companies that have affordable market caps, Starbreeze is 200 staff in Sweden (pretty close geographically to MachineGames I think?), and they own the Payday IP. Their market cap is 130 million USD, which honestly isn’t that bad since Payday 2 is a pretty popular game even now and it’s a decent sized studio. They had a disasterous run of management, but the old boss has quit, and they’ve gone through a successful restructure. They are 2.5 years into development on Payday 3.
They’re not actually likely though, since they’re like 25% owned by Digital Brothers (505 Games). It’s likely 505 will attempt to secure a full purchase eventually.
I think MS passed on WB due to licensing issues. Chose to buy Zenimax and look elsewhere instead. I dont know this or anything as fact, it’s just I’ve been following MS/Xbox for years and know what trends they follow
What Nethherealm have done with MK is astounding, and the same with Rocksteady with Batman. Mostly agree however I think Arkane are the genuinely the most genius studio out of them all
Agree, but also, I think people underestimate Avalanche and TT Games due to being mostly on Disney Infinity and LEGO games for a long time. But those are really good teams whom I think could do more. Avalanche could make a great Conker.
Well that was kinda my point. I wanna see them do other stuff because their quality can’t be denied. Stuff that can associated with Xbox from the beginning, the same way Halo, Gears, Forza is. Lots of potential there.
A new studio group was founded in 2016 called “ProbablyMonsters” by Harold Ryan, the former CEO of Bungie.
They are now at 3 studios, the first two around 70ish people each with the third being a pretty recent addition I believe.
Cauldron Studios (“Storytelling at the heart of every experience we craft”)
Firewalk Studios (“Building world class multiplayer experiences”)
‘Next-Gen Co-op RPG studio’ (“Boundless adventures that bring us together”)
Despite all being at one location they seem like they are seperate legal entities. Harold Ryan had the following to say in an interview in 2019:
An unspoken advantage there is that having them as seperate entities would also make it a lot easier to spin them off for sale if they wanted to. Even so, the overall company will likely be a target for acquisitions by a variety of companies. His comment about there being a need for new AAA studios is basically true, all the big boys are thirsty for more development bandwidth.
Shadow of War was a bit sloggy (I should really get back to it), Arkham Knight had its issues, Arkham Origins was alright, the LEGO formula has gotten a bit dry imo.
I have no doubts most of those teams can really shine, but Bethesda has already proved that they are bringing some amazing quality stuff.
I’m still struggling to see why people seem so excited about Microsoft gobbling up major western publishers when they just did that. Something out of Asia like a capcom or Sega could be exciting, sure, but they have av lot of western teams with western IP and western mindsets already.
I’d rather see them support creative studios, smaller in size that are in need of that extra financial push to see their wildest creations come to life and see the largest audiences possible. Purchases and financing that grows the industry creatively rather than more of the same.
I think they going aggressively counter any proposal on Bungie/Asobo/Roblox. These 3 are great picks for Xbox. Roblox may not appeal the hardcore crowd in forums and stuff, but it is one of the most played game on Xbox, losing it would be a major blow, imo. Destiny is still big, but anything new from Bungie has big potential of being a hit. Asobo is very talent dev and has a close relationship with MS.
As a big publisher/dev I would like them to go for Ubisoft (if they are willing to be sold). Ubisoft is very consistent with their keys franchises and also brings new stuff often. I just finish Valhalla and, despite the discussion on game mechanics and all, I think it is impressive they pulled a such massive game amid this pandemics in a good state.
My guess the excitement around the major publishers is gamepass. People like more games for the same price.
I’m more excited to see them acquire developers they have history with and can use more funding to really polish their experiences, take the next step, get more freedom without worrying about funding or to create dream projects or ambitions they couldn’t because lack of funding. The other thing I’d be excited for is for them to grab 1 really top tier studio to make into an absolute powerhouse in the industry outside of RPGs. Maybe that’s a Bungie or From Software or Crystal Dynamics, but that would be very exciting to me.
There are some publishers that fit the need more freedom and funding too, I’d put Sega and Koei into those categories.
