Nothing is too early and nobody cares of solidification of people’s money. Even after release of Starfield people will still speculate regarding its exclusivity and even later people will still speculate regarding TES. You don’t need to wait 10 years to do anything.
Square Enix has a bigger set of IPs on both western and eastern side than T2. T2 has bigger money well made of GTA and NBA and one really huge IP - GTA. But regarding the whole bunch of IPs - Square Enix is better.
I want to see how they integrate Zune
Let’s raise the stakes. MS should buy AMD.
Since when SE has bigger IPs than T2? Even without Rockstar, the yearly NBA2K prints more money than any of SE games, Civilisation is a monument of gaming, Borderlands, Bioshock, etc…
“Talking” doesn’t necessarily mean there’s a willingness. Could be testing the market for the sake of information/data.
As for the rest of your post, people tend to get fixated on the amount of the money that MS has and equate that to the amount of leverage they have in these types of situations. Reiterating that these companies have to WANT to be acquired and WANT to be acquired at whatever MS may be offering, helps bring some users back down to realistic expectations.
Public companies always sell if the money is right, only with private company there is the variable of willing seller. Zenimax was the biggest private owned publisher, the others are all public.
I have the same mindset. MS is totally capable of making again big purchases.
People aren’t realising T2 value on the long term. Great portfolio and greatly talented studios who could help internal 1st party XGS with their knowledge & technology while also impacting the concurrence big time if it was exclusive…Plus give a monumental boost to Xbox GamePass which is what MS is focusing on.
Thanks for the comment. I’ll keep putting a bet on them as usual.
Printing money is a separate matter altogether. Aside third party licenses like NBA, the biggest printer of T2 is Grand Theft Auto. But as long as MS prevents exclusive deals with Sony (and I am not talking about marketing), it is not necessary to own it. Other IPs are CIV, Bioshock, publishing rights on Borderlands, Max Payne, XCOM and Mafia.
If we go with the stuff that was published by Square Enix, on the western side we have stuff like Tomb Raider, Deus Ex. And on the eastern side we have a whole set of IPs - mostly famous JRPGs. Anecdotally all western IPs that Square Enix owns fit quite nicely with Bethesda’s studios.
In sheer diversity, Square Enix is better.
That’s why I question regarding T2, whether they truly have it or not.
IMO of they should choose at gunpoint, they’ll always take T2 over SE, the latter is literally a poster for mismanagement, MS would have to reorganize the company from scratch to make it a functioning one.
Not to be a negative nancy but I cant take seriously any talk of acquiring Take Two, EA or any publishers of that scale. Zenimax has been an outlier, a perfect storm of great developers with underperforming games (save ID and BGS) that just landed on Microsoft’s lap and should be taken as that.
Does Microsoft have financial muscle to pull one of those? Yes. Do I think they will? No.
Mismanagement of Square Enix is a huge issue I agree. It is kinda funny how depending on the generation all that companies - that have western and eastern part - mismanage one part or another.
If you observe carefully, the only japanese publisher which has a clue on how to manage its western arm, it SEGA. Capcom closed its western unit because it was a trainwreck, SE is destroying revered studios and IP for their incompetence, the others never bothered and imo it was for the better.
Yet, it seems like eastern part of Sega had some issues until recently.
But I am very much respect Sega. It is fascinating how despite being relatively old they always have that youthful vigor. I am not sure what it is exactly, but they have always been that “chic” company. Exactly the energy that MS needs and now with new leadership in Xbox and MS they would fit very nicely.
Regarding Square Enix, I think that if MS were to purchase them they would first split it into two publishing branches because the western part literally needs a breather from its japanese overlords. In eastern part I feel like there are 1 or 2 people involved in some corruption activities or something similar. Or maybe operate on some outdated principles. Not sure. Without them I expect that Square will become much more effective than now.
Depends on the prices.
Bungie joining MS makes sense ideologically. They made their name as part of Xbox, so it would be a ‘homecoming’ of sorts and no one could claim there was no history or connection there. They are also a much better Dev. MS could also do an internal restructure with 343i sitting as a studio overseen by Bungie, allowing them to steward the Halo project from an overseeing rather than developing role. Lots of positives.
But if Crytek are cheap and Bungie eye wateringly expensive? Sure. They get Ryse and Crysis. They get some tech. They get a studio not so renowned for creativity that they would need to go down the “we just want them to express themselves” route and actually direct them to take on franchises they want built.
As we don’t know how much each would cost, it’s hard to say which is better value. But Bungie is the better dev. Doubt many would disagree.
So what would you feel if one day you woke up and found out that MS bought this collection?
I would feel like I’m reading some pie in the sky b.s. in the Acquisitions thread
That would be awesome but I would honestly prefer Asobo Techland WB From software spiders Moon
or any combo of
If msft acquires Bungie, they will not work on Halo. Bungie has moved past Halo, Halo has moved past Bungie. Bungie’s value is not the legacy of Halo, but their (new) user base which will be lost if they stop doing what they are doing now to go back to Halo.
In fact, I think the deal will never happen because fan expectations on this topic.
We lost a lot by not having Bethesda acquisition announcement in MS theatre or something.
Wow I can’t wait for the announcement at this years E3!