The deal hasn’t closed yet has it? They announced their intent to acquire Zynga in January but it still has to go through regulatory processes and such. They expect it to close by June.
My point is more Microsoft hasn’t been persuing anyone who doesn’t want to be acquired, I’m sure a good enough offer would overcome that but this hasn’t really been how they operate so far.
no it went though in January, I looked it up
how do we know, most companies are fine being bought for the right price but we don’t know if zenimax actively wanted to be acquired, same with activision. Both were just open to it for the right price and I don’t see why take two would be different in that sense
I think you’re mistaken, but if you have a source that confirms it I’m happy to be proven wrong
Of course, we do know nothing on the subject - I’m simply presenting speculation that if they are making major acquisition moves themselves that they may be uninterested in being acquired. We don’t have any real information beyond making speculation here after all.
That’s why I also said IPs Microsoft could partner with since Tim Schafer did work on the Monkey Island games.
I’m just talking about the present and future because remember Phil Spencer did say that there isn’t going to be a first party game this quarter so there is still work to be done to meet that quota such as more partnerships especially in other countries like in Asia where Xbox could use more growth. And the Activision/Blizzard acquisition still hasn’t happened yet and probably won’t complete until 2023 so what would Microsoft wait that long in order to do everything they can to try to boost their first party lineup?
oh sorry, I am in the wrong, my bad
then how do we know that is all Microsoft has bought for their gaming division, speculation doesn’t feel concrete
Buying IP isn’t going to help a short term lack of content. It takes time and manpower to turn IP into a product.
Pretty sure that we know that in light of all of the issues, the board of Activision became open to being acquired.
Because they’re currently completing games the studios want to work on - both new IP, existing, and old such as Perfect Dark and Fable. Owning more IP isn’t going to help ease the perceived “drought”. Only time will and by the time they’re at a good place, they’ll own ABK.
well yeah, they open to be acquired for right price but if MS didn’t bump their offer up to $95 per share they would of rejected it as MS originally offered $90 per share then bumped it up to $93 if I am not mistaken (in was in that document that basically said this happened in a few months). Of course Activision would eventually sell out for a big premium, even if that premium would be bigger for take two (I think after zynga they would sell about $45 billion) I would imagine take two not being that different
The “premium” required changes based on their willingness to be acquired, and Activision’s willingness was up.
That’s what partnerships are for as well. Microsoft has Xbox Game Studios Publishing and ID@Xbox
Still not going to solve the short term problem, and you don’t really need to buy IP for that. Buying IP has no correlation to quantity of games at all.
Like I mentioned they could partner with studios as well such as a new Vanquish game with Shinji Mikami or a Monkey Island game with Tim Schafer. And what I meant with buying IPs more for games like Enslaved: Odyssry To The West which was made by Ninja Theory.
or their value, publically traded companies need to legally work in favour of shareholders (aka the owners) so it depends. If they are not currently looking to sell that premium would likely be up though but activision is a decent comparison since looking at them, their profits kept increasing despite the drama
Would it be smart to buy Mikage LLC?
They are the company that opened up after Imageepoch closed and if I’m not mistaken own the rights to Imageepoch’s catalog of games like Luminous Arc.
not sure…maybe if they collab with Microsoft on a game
Are they any good? Games on their website don’t look like anything special at first glance.
Right now I’d agree with you, seeing as they mostly only make phone games these days.
Yet in the past the games that they’d own were great on the PSP and DS.
So if they got funding, then I’d hope to see games come out and be like what they were in the past.
Their games are heavy on the fanservice (Stella Glow, which is a great game and the swan song of Imageepoch), or are just outright fanservice games (Criminal Girls, which is getting a new entry under their Mikage LLC name so they clearly haven’t moved on from it).
Really, that can be said for a lot of these “A” level (Wouldn’t say they’re AA though I’m no expert on the difference lol) Japanese studios (Idea Factory/Compile Heart, Aquaplus, Sting, Inti Creates, Falcom to a lesser extent, just to name a few examples). Almost all of them are into it in some level.
Not that I have anything against it (I’ve wrote my fair share of paragraphs saying MS should at least allow “this stuff” like Nintendo does lol), but it’s more like “Would MS really be interested in this dev? Owning this type of content?” A studio being a good fit for the brand is important too IMO. I wouldn’t want them to acquire just any Japanese studio because they happen to be in the region.
It’s just a “cultural clash” I always keep in mind about acquisitions like this. Even with the publishers Koei Tecmo at least is deep into this kind of thing (DOA Xtreme, Gust games).
Besides that, I feel like there are high “expectations” for either an acquisition or exclusive for XGS Japan stuff. People want to see something with production values like Lost Odyssey (or Scalebound to be more recent) I think. Mikage LLC (or some of those other devs I mentioned) with their Visual Novel cutscenes and PS2/3 graphics would miss the bar I feel is in place.