Microsoft literally announced Bethesda like a week after the last Sony show and like the day before pre-orders.
I mean it wasn’t exactly a counter-punch but it’s close enough to talk about.
If they bought take two would they own the borderlands ip?
I believe that Gearbox owns the IP and 2K the publishing rights.
No, but they would own the publishing rights. If MS acquired T2 I could easily see Microsoft reaching an agreement with Gearbox for Borderlands to be exclusive/gamepass day one.
If any studios are acquired this year I think its IOI. I doubt anything happens until next year though
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Put GTA in Game Pass, give Game Pass Ultimate users 1M GTA online cash per month as a perk BAM.
haha I’ve also been saying it would be a good idea and shake the industry, GTA exclusive would legit melt people. I also think Take Two will set Xbox up and they probably won’t need any more big buys after that, they could purchase single studios but only if they are really good like IOI for example.
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To what you associate the most with, for the ‘Reason’ behind an acquisition?
- Gamepass
- Exclusive
- Counter Competition
- Future investment
- Already invested (asobo, moon studios etc)
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GTA would be big, for moving Xbox’s not Xbox Game Pass. A TakeTwo acquisition would mean one GTA/Red Dead every six years. Game Pass wouldn’t be getting close to enough of the content it needs to succeed. Not only that we have already seen the biggest areas in which Game Pass needs in order to grow and it’s mobile and Eastern content. Just doesn’t make sense for Game Pass’s sake. Makes a lot of sense in the old console war outselling consoles mindset.
I know TakeTwo has other studios but the second biggest game TakeTwo has is NBA2K which would never be exclusive just like MLB forced Sony to make the game multiplatform.
TakeTwo would be a hype purchase but it wouldn’t be close to enough for what MS needs which is diverse high-quality content. This would just give them more shooters if we count Bioshock and even then there is already a ton of similar overlap with what Compulsion was trying to do and what Dishonored is doing.
They need something different and I think indie studios and Eastern devs better deliver on the missing pieces. Sataya Nadella,MS CEO, was sold on the idea of Game Pass not on the idea that Xbox would outsell all other consoles.
To let GP shine MS has to crack the invicible veil around PS brand and nothing like denying GTA would be a harmful blow. I know many people here think that gaming is no zero sum game and MS is targeting new customers, but Sony will always be the number 1 roadblock to Xbox and GP growth, we all know this, moreover if Tencent is being blocked by its own government and the other us big tech don’t even know how to make an actual game to begin with. Denying new Zenimax games is a mid range blow in the grand scheme of things and MS has had no problem in doing it, denying Take Two portfolio would be a long lasting damage to PS brand.
The whole “we don’t need actual exclusives, GP day one is enough” actually is not nearly enough, Sony has played dirt as long as PS has existed and there is no “kumbaya” way of letting Xbox be successfull, nowadays MS is making more money than ever with Xbox because the industry is bigger, but they have still not reached golden 360 days, when they played on Sony’s terms (egregious moneyhats and unpredictable partnerships, like the GTA IV one) and it worked, because those systems actually work, Rise of the Tomb Raider backfired only because Xbox was weak, if they would try a similar move now it would succeed imo (an egregious moneyhats with GP day one on console, pc and cloud is radically different from X1 only like in 2015). If only they had continued that route instead of the dumpster fire Kinect was, men, there would not have been the disastrous 2013 which still haunts the brand with its long lasting damages (Japan weak position, 1st party in disarray until 2018, 3rd party partnership weakened or even severed, public perception of unworthy brand, etc…).
Moving consoles is still the most lucrative way of doing things, because console customers are locked down and purchase everything from you, pc and mobile people are not locked down to your ecosystem (or anyone else ecosystem, only Apple is the exception and we know why) and are generally smaller spenders (outside gacha and freemium games gamers on mobile, which are a segment MS is incapable of exploiting, their mobile games are generally crap).
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Regarding Warner Company, I don’t think Microsoft will buy the whole thing because movies are a different beast that requires much higher investment, therefore, a higher ROI, the money that Netflix spends on few movies can pay most of the Xbox Studios projects in a generation. Another thing is that games can have a ROI at the mid and long term at worst, movies tend to rely on paying it back in weeks. Not to mention Microsoft wants to sell the software too for those who want and the DLCs.
About Take Two, I remember the rumor that Sony was about to buy it and the shares soared LOL, if Microsoft was after T2 it would be a massive blow, but I think they would let them off the idea because… They’re so valued that Sony would need to spend a bloat of cash, perhaps their whole PS Studios budget to get GTA 6 exclusive for a year, same with not buying EA when they have been in the bed since Xbox One.
The whole “MS buying WB altogether” is fanfiction imo, they would never deal with Hollywood madness to begin with, then yea, blockbuster movies all cost like GTA or RDR, but they are not as lucrative as a standard AAA release, not even close outside cultural phenomenons which are very rare.
Sony would not risk its financial stability for a $20B+ deal when they already get prominence marketing for T2 games, Rockstar Games and NBA2K have PS marketing and even if they knew MS would do it, they can’t realistically counter offer at that level.
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I’d love Sony to counter bid Microsoft for a studio in the future and Microsoft to throw a cheeky bid in for Sony 
I feel like Gamepass, Future Investment, and Already Invensted can kinda go hand in hand.
I put future investment because teams like Asobo, Moon, Supergiant, Behaviour, etc. are already releasing hits, but Microsoft/Xbox could potentially extend that further and grow their teams, budgets, additional resources, and let them become even more well oiled machines.
In the case of Behaviour, I’d love to see Dead by Daylight continue to grow, but also get some much needed polishing done that just hasn’t really happened yet.
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Game Pass is the end goal, but in order to nurture it exclusivity is the immediate goal of acquisitions, they can always cut some sort of deal in exchange for the right amount of money, the problem is when you don’t own the game, the bigger it is, the bigger will be the price, maybe more than what it’s sensible. It’s the reason why 3rd party GP day one deals are rare. Otherwise they would not have progressively severed all the multiplatform output of every studio acquired.
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They could spend more than usual, but the question is if it’s worth at the long run, they could have it for a year, sales skyrocket, but then it all goes back to where it was once it is over because a chunk of releases would be Xbox only and GP day one if MS continue to use their warchest. They would need a detailed plan to counter Xbox at all duration long and not for a short term goal.
If MS won’t make another acquisition of Zenimax caliber of bigger (they can try, but nothing is guaranteed when you deal with billion acquisitions), PS will never have too many troubles, the brand it’s just too big and even if they do something heinous, the defence force is too strong. If Xbox could get T2 or something similar, then ok, I can see Sony making defensive moves of publisher level, but smaller ones, people tend to forget how much money MS has and how many can counter it (answer: you can count it on the fingers of one hand).
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You do know that MS makes Surface Hubs, right. 88’ conferencing monsters. It is a super-TV or super-monitor with touch-controls conference-cameras etc. and is a super premium device. You will be surprised at the devices that MS creates.
Anyway, the main competition for MS (not just Xbox) who-are-not-Sony are already into streaming. I’ll leave it at that. Sony was just for illustration as the two are already in the same competitive space for value added services.
Anyway, there is a separate thread for MS investing in movie/video streaming. Best discussed there.
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New TED talk time. The last one was pretty short.
Jez mentions such things so casually. 
And he said that it was an “industry rumour” as in - people knew about this particular unsubstantiated rumour not just him.
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No worries. I’ll start typing up one now.
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Shown 0 interest in doing so and I dont think anything happens until Project Dragon is out.
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