What was that last bit at the end there?
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How can anyone mistake Phil for Jim? 
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Color me somewhat skeptical that MS will make an acquisition of a Japanese publisher. I feel like the optics on something like that would be bad.
I know there’s been rumblings about MS making a “big investment” in a Japanese publisher, and my guess is that any major deal in Japan would be a co-publishing / back catalogue deal. Something like MS would co-fund development on the publisher’s games on terms very friendly to the publisher in exchange for perpetual Game Pass / Xbox rights. And perhaps some kind of agreement where MS would have rights to the publisher’s IP in exchange for some kind of royalty / residual non-Xbox/Game Pass rights.
Only played like 2 Sonic games in my life, maybe that’s why I’m immune to the charm of Sega.
But that soundtrack from that GameCube Sonic game was fire tho.
Oh and I forgot Tabata get his studio staff it up, give him budget and let him create his version of Final Fantasy.
To be fair, I didn’t grow up on Sonic either, nor Sega for that matter. Their portfolio is just exactly what Xbox would need to fill their remaining gaps. I guess Microsoft will just have to buy both Sega and Capcom… it’s only fair.
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Not at all. I guess they’re just being brought in as the sub later in the game
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Optics are inherently subjective according to the person or group of people and how each view the situation. Sure, there might be one group of people who don’t want MS to acquire a Japanese developer or publisher so it would look bad to them, but there will be another group that do want that to happen and want to see Xbox invest in that ecosystem in a significant manner.
The optics will only matter in how they affect the chances of profitability and mindshare for Xbox. The group of people that really don’t want to see Xbox invest in Japan are generally going to be the least likely to invest in the Xbox ecosystem anyway, and the group that do want to see Xbox invest in Japan would be happy to see the acquisitions. I don’t see optics as being a primary concern for Xbox when it comes to acquisitions in Japan.
Furthermore, everything Phil has discussed wanting to improve for Xbox over the past few years has occurred. They’ve been laying out the road map in a fairly transparent manner. They’ve talked a lot about wanting to invest further in Japan, and mentioned wanting to own Japanese developers. I don’t think Tango was the extent of that desire, so I think it’s just a matter of time until they have a significant acquisition in Japan.
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If Microsoft was nearly buying Capcom in 2018, they clearly don’t care that much about the optics.
Xbox was not in the best shape back then.
They bought the makers of Elder Scrolls and Fallout, sales wise much bigger IP’s than Capcoms top sellers.
Edit: I was wrong not bigger than Resident Evil that series sold +90 million games.
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RE has sold 90M because of 20~ games, any singular RE or MH are way under any ES or Fallout, the only comparable title was MHW.
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Yeah, the Resident Evil IP sold more than The Elder Scrolls and Fallout, but that’s because the RE series has 20+ games. Resident Evil 5, the best selling game in the franchise, sold less copies than Fallout 4 and way less copies than Skyrim.
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Curious to find out what Grubb’s ‘Western company making a large investment in Japan’ ends up being. The fact he’s hearing about it hopefully suggests it’s close to being finalised.
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Yeah, I know but I specifically wrote sales wise, so I thought I edit it in.
I hope Microsoft goes for it. And for the optics from the fanboys? They get over it. Times are changing and if not they can always claim they never liked their games anyway.
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MS will acquire in September, and I doubt its Sega or Capcom
Cometh the Man… cometh the hour…
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Last time Grubb spoke about a big investment, without much detail it was Zenimax just saying. 
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MS will acquire the month of September, but Sony has its eyes on October.
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The only group of people that would complain about a Capcom acquisition would be console warriors, and they are a small group of people that wouldn’t buy a Xbox anyway, so they’re totally irrelevant for MS.
If Microsoft is truly acquiring a Japanese publisher than i hope it is Capcom, they are the best option.
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I don’t think it will be Capcom not after the success of Monster Hunter World & Rise & RE7 and RE8.
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No they get sale statement out as soon as they say yes, before they can get cold feet or a better offer elsewhere. Phils asked in a podcast about zenimax. He did.nt wait immediately zreleased it.
I find it hard to believe that, the Zenimax acquisition was announced a day before the pre orders opening, this had to be planned. MS probably acquired them before and only announced it before the pre orders.