I think this is pretty much on the money, and it feels very akin to Moon Studios - wanting to be independent and taking their projects multiplatform. If the opportunity were present to purchase one but not both, I think Moon Studios would be the better studio in my opinion; as I said, given their stance to remain independent, I recognize that as wishful thinking more than anything else.
Yeah definitely, I think IO are also working on a seperate stealth MP game as well.
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I think ms should invest in some support studios. Hearing turn 10 and the coalition helping out makes little sense IMO ( plus all three studios use different engines). Yea it’s cool if they help out if it’s a complete necessity, but one or two support studios would help alot
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This is one of the reasons I think the WB Games purchase makes a lot of sense; they would receive several smaller studios that are primarily focused on mobile that could easily be converted to support studios, thus alleviating the need you mentioned and having an internal tech group that has a bit of familiarity with ForzaTech, Slipspace, UE4/5, etc.
From my perspective I would do everything in my power to get the following.
Asobo Bungie Blooper WB Interactive
Bungie should have never left and I really wonder if going alone with other publishers has left a bad taste in their mouths. Asobo feels like Playground 2.0 to me. Working long time with the company to come on board. Blooper feels like Ninja Theory lite. Good potential there.
WB brings in some high quality studios and some of the support studios that Microsoft lost with Tencent buying up studios.
I mean if we are looking for more I could name another 5 easily.
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I see a lot of wishing for Bungie and I’m just not sold on the idea. I’ve sunk more hours in Destiny 1 and 2 than I care to admit and until a couple years ago would have said I was one of the biggest Bungie fans, however a lot of the repeated mistakes for D2 and the current monetization vs content value problem leaves me wanting a lot from the studio. Aside from the fact that many of the original greats have moved on, I would need to see some major change from the team before supporting the idea.
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If Microsoft really wants Game Pass to be the “Netflix of gaming” they do need more studios and more content. Ideally, there would be at least 1-2 AA XGS studio game or update/DLC to ongoing games (Minecraft/SoT/SoD/Grounded) released every month and at least one AAA game released every quarter.
Currently Microsoft is in an arms race, both with Sony and Tencent. They have to operate under the assumption that any studio/property that they don’t gobble up will be used to make the competition’s platform better.
It’s kind of a pipedream, but Xbox Games Studios + Sega + WB Interactive would be an absolute juggernaut-
SEGA-- Xbox and Sega already have a good relationship and they bring a lot to the table (Yakuza, Shenmue, Sonic, PSO, etc). Sega could essentially serve as Xbox’s Japanese publishing arm, with the idea that they are (for the most part) just going to let “Sega be Sega.” That way they can leverage Sega’s relationship with Japanese studios to ease the Xbox Skepticism. Also, one of the things with Gamepass is that it will allow more niche content-- Streets of Rage, Panzer Dragoon, JSRF, Billy Hatcher, and Crazy Taxi flourish. Microsoft could even use SEGA branding in regions (like Japan) that have been resistant to Xbox in the past.
WB Interactive–Monolith and Rocksteady are two AAA studios that have proven it over multiple development cycles. NetherRealm has one of the most venerated franchises in gaming history (which is a crazy thing to say given MK’s history as being the embodiment of the fall of western civilization in the 90’s), and would give them the fighting game studio that they lack. Turbine could go back to making Asheron’s Call (and an MMORPG is actually something missing from XGS’s portfolio). I could go on, but there is just so much talent with these studios.
Others–
Mistwalker–They fit the mold of dev’s who Microsoft has worked with before, plus launching into Gamepass seems like it would make the user base more receptive to games like Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon than when they were sold on their own.
Playtonic–Xbox definitely needs more family oriented and console oriented studios/content. Yooka-Laylee were decidedly “budget” games; if they give them Banjo, Xbox would need to invest to make it the high quality, innovative game that fans have been asking for.
Dlala–If Battletoads works out, I would like to see Xbox invest in Dlala and allow them to grow the studio and the franchise. At the very least, there seems to be a lot of creativity there. Other studios in this vein would be DotEmu/LizardCube/Guard Crush who did Streets of Rage 4.
Larian Studios–makers of Divinity and Baldur’s Gate III. If Xbox is looking to make themselves the de facto home of the Western RPG, Larian would be perfect. They would basically have a AAA Western RPG coming out every year, if not two.
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Same, at this point I’m not sure what Bungie would bring to Xbox has a 1st party studio. Maybe they could help 343i with Halo? Outside of that I don’t know.
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We still don’t know they have it. There have been conflicting reports. Some say Square owns it, but agreed to license it exclusively to IO. And others say Square just gave it to them (which honestly, I find hard to believe). When IO left Square it was said IO “controls Hitman”…which could mean either way.
Pretty sure that HITMAN III is not an episodic game. Wasn’t that setup just for the 2016 game?
This is what I had seen, albeit a little older, is there some newer conflicting report?
Giving my opinion on your picks.
Asobo - I like them, but someone made a point here (or somewhere else) that the studio still needs to show they really have a creative force, something else besides A Plague Tale, that is great (I played it and loved it so much). Yeah, they are very, veeeery talented on the tech side, but the creative side is really the driving force of a studio. But it’s a promising studio, no doubt about that.
Frontier - I didn’t know them, had to take a look. I’m not enthusiastic about this one.
Bloober - yeah, I like that. I would love them joining XGS, since it needs a more classic horror studio, something that isn’t in the survival/zombie thing.
IOI - yeah, I like that - again. Well done stealth, I love the genre so much.
Remedy - it’s a publicly traded company, a much harder deal. I don’t think it will ever happen. A great studio, but it’s really a complicated business.
11-bit Studios - had to look that one too. Not entirely enthusiastic too.
4A Games - days have passed, this one has been gone.
WB Games - oh, this one is hard. I just think it is toooooo much money.
The problem here is that Sega is both a parent company and half of the Sega-Sammy holding, which is publicly traded. It would be a massive, complex hassle to acquire it.
Just to be clear, they already work extensively with other support studios. It’s not as though Coalition and Turn 10 were the first option here.
But in-house support studios could still help, plus external ones. Like someone who quoted me earlier, a support studio who would know the engines all the studios use( unreal /slipspace/forzatech/bedrock(Minecraft?) ) would be helpful. The in-house support studios would help the external ones with how tech works and stuff like that
Didn’t another group buy 4A? MS needs to pick up Asobo, and probably a good platformer developer. Maybe the Battletoads guys if it is a hit …
Yes, this week.
Yeah I thought I had posted the link about 4A in here after seeing the announcement the other day and posting in that thread, but I forgot. It’s a bummer but hopefully THQ will be good for them; the other options listed are also great potential buys.
4A is off the market. Microsoft really needs to be a bit more aggressive. Thankfully I think they’ll get first dibs on Asobo because they’re in a 10 year contract for Flight Sim but the sooner they get them the better
AAA
Techland, Asobo, Bloober (maybe) People can Fly, IO Interactive. these would round out their AAA development studios and let them hit that 3-4 AAA games per year mark.
On the smaller side
Unknown Worlds (Subnautica) Mobius Digital (Outer Wilds) Astronauts (Witchfire) they already have a great game under their belt with Ethan Carter.
I can see Dontnod on their list especially if Tell me Why takes off and they have a pretty huge following, they’d really be good for pushing Game Pass and they have a fairly large work force already
Frontier Development who make the Planet Coaster and Zoo series, I think they can really make a killer Viva Pinata game
11 Bit Studios have 2 great games under their belt with This War of Mine and Frostpunk, can really help push Game Pass on PC like studios like InXile and Obsidian will.
Some people might say Studio MDHR but they’re literally like 12 people and not worth buying.
On the off note, they really should be expanding certain studios. Coalition should really be a 2 team studio like Playground and Obsidian are.
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