Downvoted. 
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It’s really easy when most of your money comes from third party sales on your platform. Sony (and Microsoft and Nintendo) can subsidize these kinds of games to grow their platform for forever. They’re focusing on GaaS because their platform has kind of peaked, and they need to extract more revenue per user.
I would not say acquire, but a partnership is beneficial for them by a long shot.
Good minds think alike.
Now if we were to regard publishers, the safest bet would be on Sega or Bandai Namco(With the later becoming a massive win on Microsoft if that were to occur in any shape or form). However if i were to dream, i would imagine a partnership with Koei Tecmo, Kadokawa Corp., and Level- 5 Concempt.
As for potential Ip acquisition, honestly speaking: Scarlet Nexus by a long shot.
What are your thoughts?
Now on a different matter entirely, if any publisher is to be later acquired by Xbox: my bet is Paradox Interactive.
None of these publishers produce the content with high engagement numbers.
Im shook.
Hindle is right on who is gonna be acquired, but wrong on the parties 
I still think that Microsoft will acquire Certain Affinity because rather than a support studio they are responsible for the recurring revenue coming from Halo MCC and Halo BR in the future. Same potentially with IO due to MMO in the making.
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Why is it that I always sleep late on a days like this? C’est la vie je suppose. Alright, a lot to unpack.
First and foremost, I am a glass half-full kind of guy and it’s weird to see some of the doom and gloom about the deal already, as Embracer is quite literally the best possible outcome if Microsoft wasn’t going to acquire them. Embracer, for all their enigmatic practices thus far, have shunned console exclusives and have shown they are willing to invest in lesser-known IP and elevate those that are already popular (unlike Square-Enix, most certainly).
Secondly, and this is perhaps the most important, I think it’s presumptuous to jump to blaming Microsoft and the ABK deal for Xbox “missing” the pickup when none of you have any details, especially the big one being the possibility that Square-Enix maybe simply didn’t want to sell to Microsoft. We are talking about the same publisher that spent much of the 360 and early Xbox One generation supporting Xbox, and making decent revenue on titles that otherwise would have been “even more disappointing” from SE’s skewed sales perspective, only to shun them overwhelmingly for the last three years. There’s a lot of politics involved that many of us aren’t aware and there have been numerous times through M&A history where a lower bidder was accepted and/or where a party’s offer was given blanket-refusal.
Thirdly, I’m not going to say it’s directly analog to the Take 2/Codemasters situation, but people need to remember that this is the point for which SE could accept other bidders. Not saying that anyone is going to, but it is possible at this point, and if the aforementioned is true, I’d rather Sony not pick them up; unless they were already in the bidding and turned down a wholesale SE buyout until they trimmed the fat… for which I actually mean, their best studios. It could also be the case that Square Enix wants to fish for higher offers (see the eventual EA/Codemasters buy).
At the end of the day, am I disappointed that Microsoft didn’t pick up CD and Eidos? Sure, but as I said Embracer is the best outcome if it wasn’t going to be Microsoft, and given all the moving parts that you all, and I in this case, aren’t privy to, I think it’s weird how some of you can somehow twist this into some doom and gloom. Sony’s not picked them up, those franchises aren’t going exclusive, and plenty of other weird takes I’ve seen have not happened, so I fail to see what’s there to be upset about. I will say, as someone who’s watched the industry like a hawk since acquisitions really started taking off, I don’t know why some of you thought SE wouldn’t sell their Western division, especially after letting IOI simply go independent; @Hindle and I called this one 
In closing, I don’t see what there is to be so upset about. Microsoft may have missed the mark on this one (if they made an offer and it was even considered), but Embracer has shown no indication historically that they’ll lock up their titles behind a single platform, so it’s still a win for us considering the alternatives. I think this kind of moment does make first-refusal clauses for the independent studios Xbox is working with extremely important though; Xbox is indicating that they’re looking for the biggest splash, bang-for-buck acquisitions, but they can’t forget how pivotal some of these smaller studios can be, and are.
P.S. - I may have missed the original post referring to CD as a support studio, but whoever started that or repeated it may want to take a look at how that term is defined because CD is very much not a support studio.
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To be fair, numerous parties in here have correctly predicted the parties that were being acquired… some of which weren’t predictions.
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Partnering with Sega for something… They have kind of done that. PSO2/PSO2NG, and the super game partnership thing. Them partnering for an XGS published game is a good dream. Though I struggle to think of what it could be. With Sega wanting to revive dead IPs my want is Xbox funding a Panzer Dragoon Saga remake from them, there’s Xbox connection on that IP anyway since PD Orta is a thing. Cult classic JRPG remake exclusive to Xbox, it’s music to my ears haha.
Bandai Namco - Well apparently they are doing this if the Killer Instinct 2 rumors are to be believed. Honestly the smartest thing to do with them, good fighting game expertise. If you are talking about an acquisition then Bandai Namco is completely off the table. They aren’t even a gaming company first and foremost, toys are their biggest money maker and they are deeply more entrenched in the anime industry than the other publishers. They do contract work for Nintendo so I’d see them working together with Xbox on a contracted work like KI2.
Koei Tecmo - I want to say bring back Ninja Gaiden, though I wonder if it would still turn out good without Itagaki. Nonetheless this IP is often considered a pillar of the OG Xbox and early 360 (they did a crossover with Halo 3 even) so I think bringing this back would very much turn the heads of hardcore gamers. Just like Bamco they do a lot of contract work with Nintendo so again, probably wouldn’t say no to Xbox funding.
Kadokawa - Well I’m sure any company would love to have a From exclusive after Elden Ring. I’m cool with From just continuing their multiplat releases really. Whether or not MS partners with them, a cool game will still release. I guess I don’t know what MS could bring to the table for them that they weren’t already going to do.
Level 5 - Never played any of their games but I know the history between them and MS is sour. I also know they’ve been kinda failing lately. Not really sure how to comment, it’s low priority for me anyway.
I read that as partnering with them for XGS published games not really acquisitions.
300 million bucks for all the western Square Enix, they could have waited for MS to pay significantly more than that, surprised that not even Sony was on the talks or interested. All to finance blockchains and NFTs lol.
If the tomb raider ip is reallt involved im suprised even non gaming companies didnt get involved. Thats a solid set of movies thst have been profitable. Thought wb or disney or paramount/viacom want in on that? Just shocked.
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Shocked MS seemingly isn’t interested. It’s so cheap Xbox could do it if they wanted with change they find in Phil’s couch. Would have brought so many more games to Game Pass and brought CD in under Gallagher.
I can’t help but wonder if SE is trimming the fat to get acquired.
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Embracer Group isn’t a traditional publisher. They own multiple publishers but also let their own in house studios work on partnerships with other companies. example, they own Aspyr who is working with PlayStation Studios on Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic Remake.
I’m about to crowd source a holdings company to buy video game companies. Apparently we don’t need THAT much capital.
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Read my post above; I’m not sure “MS isn’t interested” is the take that I would lean into. As some of us have said time and time again, it’s not just about the money but whether the potential seller wants to sell, and more importantly if the potential seller wants to sell to MS.
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Yeah, I think by 2023-2024 Square Enix is no more.
Don’t think Sony is gonna bite for this if that’s who you’re implying SE will be acquired by. DQ is not big in the West which is what Sony spent the last many years completely fixated on, Sony would probably just dissolve Team Asano because their games sell a million - 2 million tops. FF is already Playstation’s. They don’t need to buy them for this. KH isn’t THAT big, is it?
They made it clear why they did this, it’s to invest on NFT bullshit.
I don’t think the problem has anything to do with Square not wanting to sell to Microsoft, they literally let microsoft keep Rise of the Tomb Raider exclusive with a $100 million dollar 1 year contract.
It most likely has to come down to the activision blizzard deal they are tied up in. As for Microsoft not having Tomb Raider and Deus Ex as their IP, sure that’s a dissapointment. But for the Xbox audience we won’t be missing out on Tomb Raider, its better than Sony swooping in and acquiring all of Square Enix including the Tomb Raider/Deus ex.
As for the future of Perfect Dark sequels…we’ll have to first see how Perfect Dark Reboot does. Microsoft always has High Moon Studios and Beenox if they need additional help on Perfect Dark sequels.
Square Enix will have to explain to the stakeholders why SE did not accept the bigger offer from Microsoft for example. And they cannot lie in the documents implying that “nobody else was interested” as MS can sue for that. If they were private, it would be a different matter. Not to mention they allowed to hire CD for Perfect Dark too.
We have to wait for SEC.
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It’s not just Microsoft. EA, T2 and Tencent could easily afford this acquisition. It speaks more to the perceived value of these studios and assets (IPs).