Except for the very real possibility that MS was aware way before ABK deal was even negotiated about. MS hired CD for Perfect Dark, but I’m not sure when they did so if the ABK deal was already ongoing, probably was then.
Of course they will, but it certainly wouldn’t be the first time something like that would have happened; also, I’m not saying this is what happened here, I’m just illustrating for people that there are plenty of other elements at play other than “Microsoft is asleep at the wheel”.
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With a public company? Unless there is a single biggest stakeholder there, has such thing really happened?
did Square Enix just finish a financial quarter? Maybe they got desperate after seeing some Guardians of the Galaxy numbers or Avengers and only just finalized a deal with anyone they could as fast as possible.
Regardless, if you are a gamer this is a great thing. Embracer Group is a good partner for them.
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People need to realize that MS can’t own everything. They are still going to get games from these developers.
Lamenting ABK or whatever else is pointless. Because there is no world, as a business, where doing this would be worth jeopardizing the ABK deal. Whether you like ABK or not, they are a revenue juggernaut and as a business bringing that into the fold makes about 226x more sense.
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Are people really still saying “Microsoft is asleep at the wheel”? Like they didnt just drop over 68b in January and are listed as one of the parties interested in the WB gaming division. People need to realize that Microsoft isn’t going to acquire everything, and even some studios that make sense for MS are going to be acquired by other parties.
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IMO my bet for Japan is Sega if Sammy agrees on separating, or second Bamco because their pachinko business is not core for all I know and many amusement locations were sold/closed and they have a huge participation in non gaming sector entertainment.
The “irony” is that right now seems that Sega is not that much interested in being bought as their partnership with MS leans more on the serive side with GP and Azure currently for their financial ambitions with Super Game(s), while Bamco from the speculation could be going to the development side and Scarlet Nexus really made itself as much more leaned to Xbox third party IP.
Well looks like Hindle was right, just the wrong publisher bought Square West
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I don’t see Bamco at all. Bamco relies too much on licensed IP. And has nothing with high engagement values.
I do get the feeling that at some point Microsoft was at least in the running to buy CD/Eidos, I mean the numbers ain’t great for these studios but with game pass it’s more about variety/quality than traditional sales numbers, I’d be shocked if Microsoft weren’t seriously looking at this especially for the price SE were looking at. It’s a no brainer normally, at least when there aren’t other studios in the running. But with the Activision deal and hell the possibility of WB Games I’d say there was just better options.
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I understand that, I’m also not a business, and as a consumer ABK does nothing for me and probably won’t for a long time.
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I used too think this too, but seeing how Forspoken, FF16 and FF7R are major parts of Sony’s future line up I would assume they want to keep them exclusive and the only way too guarantee these games never hit Xbox again is to buy them.
With all the work Sony is putting into making people consider FF a quintessential Playstation franchise the sheer prospect of them launching on Xbox would be or even worse in their perspective launching on Xbox without delay would damage Sony as a brand. Like FF13 launching on Xbox 360 back in the day(The Great Betrayalthon).
People on the forums don’t play COD, Fortnite,GTA online and Candy Crush 
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I don’t know about other people here, but I haven’t touched CoD in a decade.
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And that is fine, and preferences are important and valid. They just need to be separated from situational realities.
And if Embracer makes, for example, a new Legacy of Kain game (which would rule btw) and i get to play it on my xbox…what is there to be upset about?
There is another angle to Embracer’s purchasing that i haven’t seen mentioned much, what if they view being a content farm for other services, like Game Pass and PS+, as a sustaining force for their business. It is essentially a perpetual revenue stream providing subscription content to other businesses.
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Guess that what might be the potential Sony acqusition that was rumored.
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Sony seems way more likely yeah, but I can’t deny the hilarity if MS were to snag them and at E3 they announce FF7R for Xbox, and just FF becomes exclusive.
Dem ponies would go berserk I tell ya
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Yep, Sony is getting them for sure.
At least this should be their last big acquisition and Capcom is safe.
We’ve been guessing a lot about their budget, but do we know this at all?
They should have something close to 10 billion.