Oh, okay. Maybe Focus Home Interactive is more of a “hands off” publisher meaning they do the minimum they have to and that’s it? Because it sounds more like development studio issues than the publisher itself.
Look at all the issues with CDPR and Cyberpunk 2077. Has literally nothing to do with WB Games Interactive. Maybe Focus is the same in general?
Take-Two isn’t going to let Gearbox fall into someone else’s hands without a fight
Microsoft couldn’t care less about Gearbox at this point, unless it came without Pitchford. To say the man is problematic would be a massive understatement, but the best term I could use diplomatically. Gearbox also hasn’t put anything of value out, outside of Borderlands, for more than a decade.
While possible, you’d hope they’d say that to the developers (which is not what it sounds like).
The Frogwares thing is the one that sticks out more to me though.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but WB only distributed Cyberpunk 2077, right? I thought CDPR was the publisher?
I’m not sure if Take Two cares so much about Gearbox, but rather the Borderlands IP. Take Two has shown they’re willing to crumble studios and take their talent with the IP if they have issues with being straight up bought out (look at what happened with the Kerbal Space Program developers).
Gearbox being acquired by Take Two I think is more likely if Randy isn’t there, but I don’t think they’re an absolute necessity to Take Two. As other posters have mentioned, Borderlands is the only major thing they’ve released as of late (and that’s not to diss on Battleborn and Duke Nukem fans, but I have to agree with the sentiment).
This, unless Xbox is willing to make a special case about changing the work culture of Gearbox. I don’t see it happening. I think Take Two would fight for the Borderlands IP and that’d be the end of it.
Yeah, true.
I’m pretty sure WB published and distributed the game in NA. Basically the same as The Witcher 3.
Really nice and logical article on acquisition targets for Microsoft
Fair point, Take-Two could always open a new studio with a bunch of poached Gearbox developers to take over Borderlands
Microsoft still owns a portion of Bungie and has the ability to counter any offer as part of their separation agreement. It would be embarrassing to them and give their competitor a real studio that excels at new IP. Why would Microsoft not match any offer? And why would Bungie not accept a matched offer from Microsoft when Google is much more risky.
I agree with most of these picks.
Iron Galaxy is a tough one though. I think someone there mentioned they didn’t want to keep working on Killer Instinct, but leadership made it sound like they were open to the idea of another one, just that they didn’t have news on a sequel. If they’re interested, absolutely acquire them.
People Can Fly is going public so I don’t see that making much sense unless its a couple years down the line (or something drastic happens to PCF).
Not to mention Bungie has a great partnership with MS right now, and Destiny 2 and its extensions are on Game Pass. Bungie going to Google, or Amazon would be the end of that. I don’t see MS not making any actions to prevent that.
Do we know this for sure? I am aware they got a stake as part of the separation, but I do not know if we have had any updates on it since 2007 or whenever it was. I also don’t know if we ever got confirmation of what was in the agreement. Do you have a source?
I think MS will go big again. they’re on a mission to be the Netflix of Gaming
Netflix spent 20 billion with content in 2020, Apple spent 6 billion and HBO/Max 5 billion
why would they slow down?
If its not Borderlands its bad seems accurate for Gearbox.
Agree. The Bethesda Maneuver was Earth shattering. They can continue to buy up small fry and get small fry boosts or spend big and win big. Another publisher joining Team Green would decide the console market and would make breaking into it much harder for Google and Amazon.
The only thing that worries me is what a desperate Amazon/Google might do.
Microsoft has a lot of money, but they’ll have to pick their battles if Google/Amazon are ready to splurge.
I’m sure if they have a plan for who they’re willing to fight for.
Amazon and Google have some uncertainty about them, Microsoft will do great in every bidding war they dont have to pick their battles wisely. Satya Nadella boldly came out and said yes we will still looking to aquire more studios, hes ready to battle with all the competition I see many victories in Microsoft camp and very few loses.
I’m not just talking about studios though. Amazon/Google could be going after any major publisher too.
Isn’t NetEase funding their next game and/or they put a $100M investment in the studio? I think it’s going to be a long time before Bungie is open to acquisition.
NetEase invested $100M into Bungie in Spring 2018 but they can still be acquired and then pay back the initial investment.