don’t tecent own 20% of the company with an option to buy the whole company.
3 Likes
Yeah had to google that, they own 20% so not sure how that’ll work. So many companies have a % stake in so many other companies it’s becoming extremely hard to keep track of lol. It’s surely possible for MS to buy out the company even if multiple other companies own a share of the company though I would have thought, they’d obviously have to agree.
2 Likes
Sega is at least cheapish for a publisher, I think the real out there stuff is the number of people who keep floating Valve.
8 Likes
Acquisition List 3.0 coming tonight or tomorrow. 
Oh, and for Tencent and Embracer this barely scratches the fucking surface. And don’t read anything into the smell lines, just the meme format. These are great studios that make A+ games.
14 Likes
I guess it’s that time again…
UPDATED LIST OF POTENTIAL ACQUISITION TARGETS
Note: These are primarily private firms barring the Major International Firms section. Also, firms like EA, Tencent, Take Two, Netease and Activision sure as hell are not selling. But an arrangement for a studio or two from them? Not 100% impossible.
Major International Firms
Activision
Annapurna Interactive
Bandai Namco
Blizzard
Capcom
CD Projekt Red
Digital Bros. (505)
Electronic Arts
Embracer Group (THQ Nordic, Deep Silver, a shitton of other studios)
Focus Home Interactive
Koei Tecmo
Konami
Krafton Game Union
Level-5
Nacon
NetEase
Nippon Ichi Software (NIS)
Nordisk Film Games
Paradox Interactive
SEGA
SEGA Europe (Creative Assembly, Relic, Two-Point, etc.)
SEGA-Sammy Group (SEGA + Sammy + ATLUS)
Smilegate
Square Enix Europe (Crystal Dynamics, Eidos Montreal, etc.)
Square Enix (Super Unlikely)
Sumo Group
Take-Two
Team17
Tencent
Thunderful
Ubisoft
Valve
Virtuous (Good team of support studios and asset/animation creators)
Wargaming
WB Games
United States of America:
1047 Games
3D Realms
Absurd Ventures (Dan Houser’s Studio)
Acid Nerve
Armature Studio
Athena Worlds (New studio just founded by Nolan FUCKING BUSHNELL!!! Founder of Atari and Chuck E. Cheese! Damn this rabbit hole is fun!)
Bungie
Bluepoint
Deck Nine
Deviation Games
Dreamhaven
Farsight Studios (pinball)
Forgotten Empires (I think. I have no idea what is going on between it and World’s Edge whether they are the same)
Harmonix
Hi-Rez
Hidden Leaf (Remote technically)
Hidden Path Entertainment
Hopoo Games
Innersloth
Iron Galaxy
Jackbox Games
Jumpship
Lightforge Games
Monomi Park
Mountaintop Games
Niantic
Oddworld Inhabitants
Panic Button
Probably Monsters
Singularity 6
Stoic Studio
Sun Machine Games
Supergiant Games
ThatGameCompany
The Tetris Company
Theorycraft Games
Tripwire Interactive
Turtle Rock
Twin Suns
Velan Studios
WayForward
Yacht Club Games
Canada:
Behaviour Interactive
Bunnyhug
Drinkbox Studios
Extremely OK Games (Formerly Matt Makes Games, developers of Celeste)
Haven
HB Studios
Humanoid Studios
Next Level Games
Other Ocean Group
Phoenix Labs
Ratloop Games
Skybox Labs
Studio MDHR
Torn Banner
Tribute Games
Yellow Brick Games
Japan:
Arc System Works
Arika
Artdink
Artepiazza
Arzest
Aquria
Bokeh Game Studio
Camelot Software Planning
Cattle Call
Cave Interactive
Clap Hanz
CyberConnect2
Dimps
Felistella
Game Freak (Not Happening)
Grasshopper Manufacture/Gungho
h.a.n.d.
Idea Factory
Ikumi Nakamura Studio
Intelligent Systems (Not Happening)
Inti Creates
JP Games
Kemco (Lots of games at a minimum, they have their fans)
Kojima Productions
HAL Labs (Not Happening)
Matrix Software
Media.Vision
Mistwalker
Nihom-Falcom
Natsume
Tamsoft
Platinum Games
Q-Games
Rabbit and Bear
RED Entertainment
Sandlot
Success
Valhalla Game Studios
Vanillaware
White Owls
Yuke’s
United Kingdom:
4J Studios
Bossa Studios
Build a Rocket Boy Games
Chucklefish
Climax Studios
FacePunch Studios
Hello Games
Interior/Night
Playtonic
Rebellion Developments
A Sam Barlow studio
Sad Cat Games
Three Fields Entertainment
Poland:
The Astronauts
The Farm 51
One More Level
Techland
Teyon
Thing Trunk
Vavel Games
Rest of Europe
1C Entertainment
Asobo
The Bearded Ladies
Colossal Order
Crytek
DotEmu
Frictional Games
Frogwares
Frozenbyte
Gaijin Entertainment
GSC Gameworld
IO Interactive
Iron Gate Studio
Larian
Mimimi Games (They did Desperados 3)
Moon Studios (if willing)
Motion Twin
Mundfish
Naps Team
Pendulo Studios
Quantic Dream
Red Thread Games
Slipgate Ironworks
Starbreeze Studios
Two Tribes
WolfEye
China
24 Entertainment
Animoca Games (owns Nway, developers of the Power Rangers fighter y’all seem to love)
FYQD
Game Science
Mihoyo
Perfect World Games
Recreate Games
South Korea
Blueside Inc.
ESA
Pearl Abyss
Phantagram
Miscellaneous
ACE TEAM (Chile)
Big Ant Studios (Australia)
Krome Studios (Australia)
Tantalus Media (Australia)
Wicked Witch Software (Australia)
Video Game Adjacent
Discord
Firelight Technologies (Makers of FMOD)
Games Workshop (Pretty cheap all things considered. Maker of tabletop games, owner of Warhammer(40k) and more)
Guilded (Discord Competitor)
IDV (Makers of Speedtree)
Sonantic (Adaptive AI voices to fill in for voice actors and allow greater testing of dialogue. Obsidian uses them)
Tripleclix (This is the partner agency MS has used for a lot of their co-promotional efforts like Gears/Chips Ahoy and Series X/Taco Bell)
17 Likes
Sega. That is all.
Summary
But seriously, now is the time to strike. I’m looking at Sega’s portfolio and output, and I’m bullish of their trajectory. (Just look at their releases for 2021 in totality.)
The moment Persona becomes platform agnostic is the day this franchise becomes a household name globally. Sega’s PC arm is incredibly promising.
They’re now capitalizing on their back catalog. Yakuza is in a strong place. Sonic has room for relevancy now than in previous years due to its cross-media exposure. Creative Assembly is working on a AAA GaaS title with a huge backing behind it.
I’m of the mind that Sega is on the cusp of blowing up as a publisher. All the pieces are there. They themselves have made strong strategic acquisitions these past several years. This wouldn’t be Xbox buying a floundering company but one that has yet to peak.
8 Likes
My bet is WB Games. Considering the priorities of the CEO of Discovery:David Zaslav, the focus of the merger (which is oriented to strengthen HBO MAX) and the size of the debt they have, it is almost illogical to think that they will not sell the division after the merger.
Phil has said that his priorities are games for children (TT games), bring back Killer instinct (NetherRealm) and bring more narrative games (Rocksteady, Avalanche and Monolith)
If Xbox just bought Absobo and then said they were done with Aquisitions I would be happy.
My top ones are Absobo, Remedy, Techland, from software, spiders, I know mostly pipe dreams lol
1 Like
Square Enix, and Asobo are mine; also there’s yellow brick games, jp games, pearl abyss, 2 others too new to add.
3 Likes
Microsoft buys Tencent and all concerns are over. World Peace in the gaming industry.
Spoiler
My bet is Sega (if they decide to go through all the hoops including Sammy or Sammy agrees to separate), Marvelous Inc, KojiPro, Konami, and lastly Bamco, which I doubt on the last due to the 14 billion dollars marketcap. For the West I bet on IO Interactive, Asobo (a man can dream) and Avalanche.
1 Like
I think Capcom (if realistic) is probably the best possible acquisition (among what’s in the realm of possibility):
- Ace Attorney
- Dead Rising
- Devil May Cry
- Dino Crysis (reboot!)
- Mega Man
- Monster Hunter
- Resident Evil
- Street Fighter
If Capcom is my 1A, my 1B would definitely be Warner Brothers:
- Netherrealm (incl. MK) - Having the top-grossing fighting game would be huge. Could cycle development between MK and KI. Would be interesting to see what they could do with the KI lore.
- TravelersTales - Lots of E-rated games experience. Would be interested to see how they might approach Banjo. (Personally I don’t like the Lego games, and given how formulaic they are I would think TT would want to stretch their legs a bit.)
- Monolith - Epic third-person open-world games are somewhat of a hole in MS’ first-party stable. (I guess Playground might change the narrative on this though, with Fable?) Would be a huge get to add them.
- Rocksteady - Third-person action games are, again, another hole-of-sorts in MS’ first-party lineup. Rocksteady’s pedigree is great here, even without the Batman license. Like with TT, I’m certain that the minds at Rocksteady have been sitting on a fresh idea or two of what they could do outside of the Gotham IP.
- Avalanche - Another good studio for churning out E-rated content. They did all the Disney Infinity games prior to being acquired by WBIE, and a ton of licensed content before that. Definitely a highly competent, reliable studio. Disney Infinity games proved their ability to create a platform and regularly iterate on it effectively. This would bode well for Game Pass, in terms of providing a steady stream of content.
[Hey, break out the REALLY BIG GUNS and get them both! (LOL.) I’d love to see Monolith make a new Dead Rising, and Rocksteady would be a great choice to do the Dino Crysis reboot.]
3 Likes
2 Likes
That’s quite a significant move. Not that it changes anything in the console space right now, but long term Tencent is definitely going to become an increasingly large factor in all gaming spaces.
6 Likes
Just like that Sumo is off the board.
Shit.
Was holding out hope that MS would eventually scoop Sumo up. Its about 1000 people and a group that is versatile in their content creation. Ideal for game pass.
4 Likes
Just let this be stated for the record, this is Tencent’s second publisher in 7 months. That’s before we get into all the studios too. And the stakes.
But Microsoft’s the big bad monopoly we need to worry about apparently. Lol.
14 Likes
MS will have made a mistake if they get neither Sumo or Asobo. I felt like they needed to go for both of them if they were not going to make a play for Sega.
The options get slimmer by the day. I get people when they say that Beth only just finalized and they should give time for integration but it is a feeding frenzy out there. Need to make your moves and be bold about it. They absolutely must capitalize on their early advantage with game pass. The 2019,20,21,22 moves are going to help decide the coming subscription war.
8 Likes
Well things are tense geopolitically with Chiha, sanctions could stop tencent down the road.
1 Like
At this point tencent should have its own gaming sub service
Asobo may not want to sell.