The amount of money they would have to spend on CDPR, I would rather them go and get Capcom or Ubisoft. And I hate Ubisoft
Ubisoft feels likely to be one of the next acquisitions in my honest opinion, even if it isn’t by Microsoft
I can’t see EA selling Hazelight after it won an absolute tonne of awards.
Outside of EA I would say Ubisoft probably churn out AAA games the most frequently.
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In case of a misunderstanding, EA doesn’t own Hazelight, they’re independent, and EA has been publishing their games.
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They need a support infrastructure for thier studios. I think Certain Affinity and Behaviour should be next.
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Ah I never realised, because their games were labelled as EA Originals I just assumed they were owned by EA.
In that case absolutely Xbox should definitely try get them, It Takes Two was my favourite game of the past 5 years.
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Whoops I meant Certain Affinity
I agree, they’re a very talented studio and would be a great get for Microsoft if they are willing to sell. Josef Fares apparently has a good relationship with Xbox and they almost published A Way Out, but he decided to go with EA instead.
I wouldn’t be surprised if they ended up part of EA. Apparently the EA Originals line for publishing indie games has been really great for the developers, I mean Josef Fares had only glowing praise for them and that dude is pretty open with his opinions. If they were looking for acquisition anyway I’d be surprised if Hazelight didn’t look to EA first anyway. That said - they’re also a great fit for game pass so maybe Microsoft will make a push for them.
Yeah, I could see Hazelight ending up with EA. However, they haven’t sold yet, so maybe he likes the independence. I guess we’ll see, after the success of It Takes Two, they can probably ask for a decent buyout.
Dont they have like 30 days to say something? I remember hear that somewhere but I dont remember.
Yeah it does, even though it does nothing for me if Xbox bought them, Ubisoft makes the most sense. Both ABK and Bethesda built a foundation of relying on their own IP, rather than licensed IP like EA or T2. Ubisoft is exactly the same, no licensed IP besides that upcoming Star Wars and Avatar game from Massive Entertainment. And I’m sure the Tom Clancy brand would be very appealing with how many spin-offs they have made from it.
This is actually going a bit quicker given the amount of assets, but the FTC asking for more information is part of their review. There’s nothing abnormal about this stage in the process given the size of the deal.
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What ever happened to the acquisition rumours regarding Avalanche or whatever the parent company is called?
People just throwing their name out there because they are working on an Xbox exclusive.
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Wasn’t their name being thrown out before Contraband was even announced though?
The same place every other rumour went, like remember the crytek acquisition rumour lol
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Before announcement? Yeah, but it got leaked pretty far in advance. It was definitely part of the pre-E3 nonsense.
Basically everyone with any connection to Xbox just gets parroted as a potential acquisition when there is no real rumor or evidence backing it.
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I know of at least one highly reputable source that was under the impression that the 2021 Xbox Showcase would have one acquisition announced.
Not sure if they’ve made that statement public so I won’t share who, but I almost wonder if the Avalanche partnership got confused in the leaks.
Edit: To clarify, iirc it was within an hour of the show that this statement was made. Lol
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Yeah it could be partnerships getting confused with acquisitions. I also think the community plays a game of telephone and things that start as speculation get upgraded into rumors after being passed around enough and nobody can point to a source of anything.
It’s kinda funny how the community (even insiders) have convinced themselves that Microsoft is going to own Crystal Dynamics lol
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