I think we’re gonna get along awesomely.
Besides:
Everybody knows the #1 Reboot needed by Xbox is that one that came from 
himself:
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Starlancer was awesome, but then not by Chris Roberts. It would never come out otherwise.
The reason why people talk about WBIG is because they match on high grounds with what Spencer wants, TT develops Lego Games, Avalanche Software develop Disney games, and NRS develop fighting games. Getting them would fill the spot perfectly, and second to that? Only Sega comes to my mind.
Regarding smaller studios, i’m 100% in favor of it, and before Zenimax, most of the Microsoft acqusitions were composed by AA studios such as DF and Inxile, and studios who worked on AA to AAA games like NT and Obsidian, only Playground Games was the plain AAA developer. Neon Giant is interesting as they managed to do such game as The Ascent with a small staff, with a bit more resources, the sky would be the limit and still be small sized.
For fighting games, there are plenty of options on the smaller scale, Reverge Labs, Ecole, French Bread, Eighting, Team Reptile and Ludosity. But for E rated games? I don’t know much.
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its not really buillshit as you say. Look at the CEO’s track record and what he does. Look at the point of the merger and what has been said on both sides. Then just follow the tea leaves. Its generally not to hard to figure out what companies are doing its just listening and putting two and two together. Yes, sometimes things to astray and things can change.
WB and Discovery aren’t going to say we are spinning these studios off into this new company so we can sell them to pay down debt as then a lot of the staff will just leave and part of the value of a studio is the people and the organization. As it takes a long time to build a team. Look at how long its taking to build out the fable team, and the initiative. They are still staffing upa nd its been years.
What you are looking for as far as statements go or information wont ever happen. As thats not how business is done. Thats not how the markets are setup.
Looking at what is being done, reading the signs is a lot like sports talk radio. You aren’t guessing. You are making educated statements based on the information available. Its not foolproof. But its definitely not bullshit either.
Microsoft has many people working on acquisitions company wide. They aren’t wasting time or missing out becasue they can do multiple things at once.Its not like all of Microsoft focuses solely on one acquisitions and only once that one is completed can they even do anything else. They have people going around kicking the tires constantly.
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Lol, it’s not like Phil is hanging around the phone, waiting for a call from Batman.
There probably was some contact and Microsoft knows pretty detailed, if these studios are for sale or not after the merger.
And they are for sure, following other opportunities in the meantime. Microsoft is a big company, with many employees and the ability to focus on more than one thing.
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Shit, if I knew there was chance for Batman to call, I’d hang around from the call.
While true, I’d much rather Microsoft focus on what it can get, even if what it can get at this time is AA.
There’s alot of untapped talent in the AA market and Microsoft needs to get in there.
I want them to go back to 2018 levels of acquiring AA to lite AAA companies to grow like crazy.
Well written, but I really don’t think Discovery-Warner is going to sell at this point.
There last statement was very clear, and Jez even clarified that the documents were old. Things change all the time, so maybe at one point they were focusing on selling off stuff that was out-of-scope, but it seems like Discovery-Warner has figured out what it wants to do with it’s game devision, and that’s focus on making games on the IP they own.
If Discovery-Warner sells off it’s major studios to anyone, including Microsoft, I’ll once again live-stream grilling my nards on a george Foreman grill, just like I said I would if and when (which is never) Microsoft buys Avalanche from Nordisk.
The CEO David Zaslav who is the current discovery head who will be the new CEO of the merged company of warner media and discovery has specifically said:
“We believe it will be the best and most exciting place in the world to tell big, important and impactful stories across any genre – and across any platform: film, television and streaming,” - David Zaslav CEO Discovery
He specifically listed the platforms he is focused on for the business. No where in his statement or press release does he mention the gaming division. The gaming division working on IP. Or excitement in having the gaming division or its future. Because he is focused on growing HBO max into a relevant streaming platform. Making video games doesn’t factor into that equation.
In these cases what isn’t said is just as impactful as what is said. Its a prepared statement. So nothing was left out by accident. He clearly included the platforms he wanted to include. He has been very consistent on what his focus is.
The biggest detractor of gaming is that the income you make from gaming is very much a balloon payment type system. You get little to no income for years then you have a few month period where you make the majority for your money then you see a sharp decline in income. Yes there are titles who can break that mold. However, you are talking about a very small number of titles compared to the thousands of games that get released each year.
So a new company with a bunch of debt they are trying to get out from under. Who is trying to grow a streaming platform that also has a certain amount of cost involved until you reach a certain subscriber threshold. Why would they invest in gaming in which they won’t see any immediate returns on. They will have enough new debt being taken on just from film, tv, and streaming plus there already existing debt.
An easy way out of some debt and get an injection of funds is to spinout and sell all or some of the game studios and for the titles in progress you partially funded either negotiate terms where you get a percentage of those sales based on your investment or the company buys out what you invested in plus a projected percentage of profits.
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You should never take denial accounts with sure, no one will come out and say “we’re dealing with X company, yes”, they will only do that when the right time comes, sometimes the denials are damn obvious to happen like asking Spencer on a podcast what’s the meaning of the shelf. What seems to be happening is that AT&T is pinballing around if they should sell it or not, because it gives profit. but because they’re so indebted, selling it for a huge flow of cash might be an option, but apparently back then they wanted to sell the studios without the IPs and licenses which devaluates the offer.
Playdemic were never gonna be part of the new company anyway that’s why they was sold. When they announced the merger was reported the gaming division was split with the main studios going with this new company and the mobile staying with AT&T. I don’t know why this point keeps coming up tbh
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Also I see people keep mentioning they need a fighting game for gamepass, Wouldn’t it be easier to strike a partnership with Bandai and get the Tekken franchise on there for a while? Fills that gap and provides Japanese support within Gamepass.
I mean hypothetically let’s say Xbox get Bandai Namco that would make getting Netherealm a little bit obsolete right?
The fighting game thing is just solved making sure the games hit xbox which they dont arbitrarily and not because Sony isnt paying them aside from maybe Street Fighter.
MK11 sold 12M copies. If Netherrealm is available, that should be the play. All else is probably best as partnering.
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After seeing the marvel that MSFS is on Xbox, the acquisition of Asobo Studios is a necessity, it’s the first studio to “weaponize” the cloud in such a incredible way that letting them go would be absolutely dumb, their expertise is needed.
If the Kojima deal is true, then Asobo is even more essential for their talent with the cloud.
MS should never let another “Double Helix case” happen again.
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Can always take a trip to New Zealand to play the game early
Plus Flight Simulator is the Xbox Series X game with the highest Metacritic score at the moment, the critical reception has been amazing. Microsoft should not let such a talent studio slip by without an acquisition.
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But i was told that bethesda acquisition= monopoly
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Yep, it’s not a case where Asobo should want it or not, MS has to do everything in their disposal to sweeten that deal to make them jump in.
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