Ybarra didn’t want to be under Phil anymore, anyway within Acti-Bliz there are several investors and interests very far away from MS, including Tencent stakes, I seriously doubt it.
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I AM IMMORTAL
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A lot of rebuilding has to go on with that studio. Activision has destroyed the foundation of it almost
Mahler is a really good dude who I like. I say that scenario, the one where owners lose motivation, has little to do with whether aquisitions are good or bad. Historically speaking, you can find examples that support loss of enthusiasm among leadership during a sale. People do feel more passion towards things they consider theirs. Lots of studies outside of gaming that show that.
So what is the answer to that? Don’t allow owners to sell? Force them to stay in power of companies they built when they’re ready to cash out?
For every owner, like the doctors from Bioware, who were ready to wind it down, cash out and help the transition before riding out into the sunset, there’s many hungry for the opportunity. The cycle that allows someone to ride into the sunset when they’re ready creates incentive for everyone else.
Phil Spencer specifically referred to the cycle. Not the individual studio. How the individual studio fares will have a lot to do with how Microsoft supports them. Who the next round of leaders are that they decide to promote. From a macro level, those eventual decisions have little to do with whether acquisitions are good or bad for the industry.
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I wanna see a little speculation from the thread on what this 20 billion and 2 other 7 billion type acquisitions are? The 7 billion dollar one could be Bandai Namco? Thoughts? i’m thrown off by the 20 billion one i can’t think of anybody yet
Something is around the corner.
20 billion - Valve
7 Billion #1 - SEGA (valued at $4.42 billion)
7 Billion #2 - Not Sure.
Bandai Namco is valued at $6.72 billion USD, but I’d assume they’d pay a premium to obtain. I would think in the $9-12 billion range (or more).
Square ($5.91) and Ubisoft ($4.5) both are around the $7 billion USD range.
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I thought it was 3 under 10 Billion then other one in the 1 billion range
I think Bamco relies alot on Licensed ip and 3rd party games( DarkSouls, Elden Ring, CC2). Heck does Bamco even have an internal Dev team?
Source ?
Later he also said that one was in the 7 billions dollars target and the other 8 billions.
I have a hard time imagining them doing anymore Bethesda sized acquisitions, let alone multiple.
It will happen eventually
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A lot of people had a hard time thinking that anything like Bethesda would happen at all… and look where we are now. People need to realize that in a sea of 2200+ developers and an increase in competition, acquisitions are going to be very commonplace in the industry for a while. Obviously, we’ve seen Embrace, EA, Sony, and plenty of others acquiring studios… so it only makes sense that as that bidding war ramps up, the second-richest company with the fast growing subscription will be there at the front of the line paying top-dollar.
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Ultimately, I don’t know if that rumor from Beyond3D is true or not, but I always refer to Nadella when he is talking about being “all-in” on gaming. To me, it signifies thtat they are ready to put the price to make gaming grow as they need it to grow. With that in mind, I would say it would be possible, but it is just a rumor for now.
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The really interesting thing that both Phil and Satya have kept saying is that Microsoft’s investment will grow as the service grows. This says a lot when they have already bought a publisher for $7.5 billion lol.
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Also wasn’t Nadella or Spencer themselves that made fun of the fact they have the money to do what is necessary, or something like that ?
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With as much as they talk about E rated content I feel like they want it to be right there with shooters and rpgs. This is where I think their big spend will be.
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