They’re going to IPO at a $1.4B valuation: Devolver Digital reportedly preparing IPO at £1bn valuation | GamesIndustry.biz
Hard to imagine Xbox wouldn’t be better off spending that money just funding indie games directly. I do feel like Devolver and Annapurna have a great eye for projects, but not an eye worth paying $1.4B for!
devolver publishes games but they don’t own alot of studios(3). They aren’t doing anything Xbox couldn’t do on their own.
I think indie publishers rarely, if ever, retain IPs, the best move would be buying a group of small developers. There’s not much reason in a publisher if you could just expand ID@Xbox as a publisher, even DF publishing division was shut down because there was no need anymore.
Wasn’t it phrased as an Absorption type merger of some kind? I remember that phrase specifically
Buying a group of small, but talented developers is not a bad idea. Allow them to grow like MS has done with Ninja Theory, Compulsion, InXile, and others
All I’m seeing is that they sold just about 85% of Sega Entertainment’s shares to a company called Genda but will continue to provide logistical support as well as produce arcade machines.
Separate rant:
SegaSammy has so many subsidiaries though, and while they’ve restructured the organization to be more compartmentalized, I think it’s still pretty incestuous in the context of whether they’d sell of the games division or not.
I don’t know how tied their game IP are to the pachinko business or the resort business or the animation studio they own or their toy business, etc. You would think very. I think letting their arcade business go really was just COVID more so than prepping for an acquisition because they still have a ton of bloat. (Does that mean they sold their FOG cloud tech, too?)
Would Xbox buy their consumer business (games) with probably a ton of separate contracts in place in-house and externally to use the Sega name and IP (if they’d even get that) for toys, shows, movies, gambling, etc? Maybe they would just grab the studios and have to really worry about the Sonic brand if anything.
Speaking from ignorance here, I really don’t know. Sega is at the top of my acquisition wishlist but it just seems complicated. I’m also not sure how much revenue their games division makes up of their total income, but probably a lot. Would they sell off that strong diversification of their business and try to make a struggling resort business work for a quick payout? Not sure.
It’s complicated, corporate restructures in Japan every few years aren’t uncommon, COVID broke arcade legs and they decided to ditch it to Genda (they closed one venue in Akihabara), but it is regarding they physical facilities and distribution, SegaSammy will still develop and sell software and cabinets.
Will we actually get new studios during this thread?
They’re waiting on you getting a new avatar…
The last acquisition was so long ago that valve decided to launch another console.
Do you think people like Phil and Sarah Bond can individually push for an acquisition of a studio they personally like even if doesn’t make the best business sense?
Acquiring Bungie if it was possible for an example. Sarah Bond recently praised Team17 in one of her tweets.
They may push for that, but they still need approval from the CFO and make a somewhat sensible business reasoning for it. I don’t think they can just call a shot based on personal feeling. They are a public company, after all.
What would make it not the best business sense? Sometimes u don’t always go for a niche and just go for best available.
Like acquiring Bungie would not really feel any gaps in their portfolio or be the best value for money but would still be a nice addition.
Bungie is ok. I think the priorities now are filling the lacking genres on Gamepass and those are Fighting and E games
It’s really not complicated, per the actual declaration provided by Sega Sammy. The declaration clearly states that it’s a split and absorption restructuring which states that the video game (and arcade) functions would reside under Sega Corporation, and the pachinko and other amusement, resort, administrative businesses would fall under Sammy Corporation. As I mentioned, this is a move that can be in efforts to make Sega Corp. more streamlined for a potential acquisition, but it’s not a guarantee of one. Moreover, I definitely wouldn’t make the claim that corporate restructures are common in Japan, especially not restructuring efforts like these (or Sony’s, for example) unless there’s an underlying financial issue.
Alongside Asobo, locking down continuity for Flight Sim going forward and getting a good adventure game franchise in Plague Tale, would say Netherealm is my #1 most wanted.
Phil and the xbox team on their way to buy a studio like
Personally would love Microsoft to go after the studios they’re building relationships with now like IOI, Asobo and Avalanche in the short term then look at the WB studios once the discovery WB deal is finalised. I have a feeling those studios get spun off and the new company focuses on streaming content while reducing the debt. If they can negotiate a good deal without ip they have some talented Dev teams that could make great games. Plus if the new company does spin off their games studios they’re much more likely to license out ip much like Disney are doing at the moment so deals can be struck with both
