3 Likes
Bandai wouldn’t be a bad pick-up. Just not as good as those others.
1 Like
Aren’t Bandai’s most games licenses ? I dont think MS would ever want to touch that .
Who owns Naruto IP? A AAA Naruto RPG is my dream
Bandai is important for such a game I guess
1 Like
Shueisha owns it . They own majority of the big manga/anime IPs .
1 Like
Hmmm. I know he says it’s a hypothetical, but I think he might be teasing something here…
Remember when he did a poll about WB vs Bungie and then later revealed that he asked because he knew MS and Bungie were in talks?
For the past few weeks , I’m the only one saying MS is going to buy a publisher next while most of you guys were stuck on turtle rock 
I’d gladly take Bandai…just not over Square.
How can Capcom not be at the top?
7 Likes
I don’t think so. There’s Tales, Scarlet Nexus, the FromSoft stuff, Park Beyond, Little Nightmares, Dark Pictures, Ace Combat, Katamari, Klonoa, Soulcalibur, Tekken, Xenosaga, of course Pac-Man…
3 Likes
Yup, SE West followed by WB Discovery are probably the most likely big acquisitions for MS.
6 Likes
Microsoft buys Bandai to create a AAA Pac-Man game confirmed.
7 Likes
Square ahead of Sega, Capcom and Namco?
15 Likes
This i agree with
SEGA, SE western division & IP, Asobo, ioi and Ryse IP would make me happy.
4 Likes
Sega…
3 Likes
I would love Sega to join Xbox.
But realistically, if they just buy the people they are already working with under second-party contract – Avalanche, IO Interactive, Crystal Dynamics, Asobo, maybe Image and Form – they would already have more than enough studios.
There is a point of diminishing returns, where the relationships between growth and the number of first-party games starts to flatten out – when realistically, they have enough games, and any gaps can be filled with second and third-party deals.
They are arguably pretty close to this point already, once the floodgates open.
1 Like
So maybe the last option is the one being purchased? 
In all seriousness, Capcom’s doing very well and it’s hard to see why they would sell. Same with SEGA and Square.
But for some reason, and maybe I’m just ignorant on how successful they are, but maybe Bandai Namco has more reasons to sell?
Bandai Namco has been active and have some big titles but I feel like they’re just not on the same level as the others. Again, I could be ignorant here. Elden Ring might be their biggest near-future title and they’re simply publishing it with From Software making it. They also publish Supermassive’s games (a developer I think Microsoft should get). Is there anything that they developed themselves that’s on the level of Yakuza? There’s definitely nothing on the level of Monster Hunter or Final Fantasy.
When they don’t have a guaranteed hit developed in-house, it makes for a more uncertain future. BN also seems more feasible and realistic than these other ones from a financial perspective. I realize that Microsoft is sitting on a lot of money but the asking price for these other ones, I imagine, are starting to get pretty high after each hit is released.
Whatever happens, I got to say that the news of the Xbox Series consoles doing relatively well in Japan probably eases some understandable fears that these Japanese publishers would have. There’s going to be some pressure on them to sell these consoles and GP in Japan through their software and that pressure would have been far greater if the platform was next to non-existent.
4 Likes
Square is not doing well, at least not in Sega and Capcom levels.
Bandai market cap(16 billion) is bigger than Square’s(6.2 billion) and Capcom’s(7.5 billion) combined.
7 Likes
Thanks for the info! I’d have never have guessed that last fact.
1 Like