I’ll now make a ritual to keep WBgames and Capcom safe.
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That’s the thing though. Even if they were to get SE, they can still get some WB studios too, Capcom I would imagine not. But, what if the big rumored one isn’t SE at all?
All in all, the next Microsoft acquisition will be the one that will make sense for Microsoft.
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I believe SE has a fair chance of being it, but let’s see…
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I’ll say, given the pattern of Microsoft buying publishers that have exclusive deals with Sony (both ABK and Bethesda), it would certainly be hilarious for MS to be the buyer of Square-Enix proper…
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I just had the same thought, lol.
People keep going on about “what makes sense for MS” and well, SE proper would. I personally don’t care at all for them so it is probably exactly what is going to happen lol.
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Which one would you want Mort if you had to pick?
MS owning WoW and FFXIV would be something.
WoW, FF14 and ESO. The holy trinity of MMORPGs.
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Out of what?
I thought so at first too, but they already pretty much have FF mainline as exclusive, that’s SE’s biggest IP left for sure. However, we don’t know how much Sony pays for this stuff though, so a acquisition to be done with it would make sense and that way SE can’t ever change their mind since they will be theirs then.
I only want it to happen to see the reactions by some truly terrible fanboys, lol. FF mainline in my opinion has been going downhill for several years now. 15 wasn’t all that and the debut of 16 for me didn’t do much. FF7 would be great to have though.
They would also finally have their Japanese publisher. But nah, if Grubb is in the know about this, I think he means Sony.
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Would not be surprised if Microsoft passed on this because they were going to try buy embracer group down the road and didn’t want any added pressure on the abk deal at the moment
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You’re right. It makes even more sense now. MS will be the Embracer of MMOs.
I really don’t see it, Embracer has some good studios but most of it is just small teams that don’t really fit with Microsoft.
Publisher, I guess anything out of Japan is not your cup o tea
You need to feed gamepass on a monthly occurrence. Doesn’t matter the size of the teams aslong as they produce the games
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Ah yeah, as far as publishers go Square Enix West was the only publisher, or rather part thereof, that was actually on my list of studios/pubs I’d like MS to acquire. WB i guess is on there too now, I thought they were off the table there for a while. But yeah, with those studios and even some DC licenses that’s a no brainer.
Other than that, Ubisoft and EA, T2 as defensive purchases if the alternative is Sony.
As for Japan… SEGA I guess is the best option.
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Quality matters as well though, they only have a small number of studios that have made good games.
They need content in bulk, sure, but I don’t think padding it out with a few dozen studios that don’t even have wikipedia pages for me to tell you what they do is the answer.
It may sound crazy but I have a Theory on Microsoft’s future acquisitions
They started in 2015 by acquiring Mojang and the IP Minecraft which is the best selling game of all time but represents the Sandbox genre.
They bought Playground Games which, with Turn 10, is today the most famous Studio in the world for Arcade/sim racing games with the Forza license.
They also wanted to invest in RPGs and bought Obsidian / InXile which for Harcore RPG players are the Studios with the most experience and the most reputable. But that wasn’t enough, it needed the biggest RPG license of all time and that’s of course The Elder Scrolls followed by Fallout
They also got Arkane which is considered the best Studio in the industry in the Immersive Sim genre (but the representative of the genre is probably Bioshock which is owned by Take Two)
They also obtained the most iconic FPS licenses (Wolfenstein, DOOM, Quake)
They also acquired Double Fine which is probably the most creative Studio in the industry they have this reputation
They then bought Activision to have the most popular FPS license of all time Call of Duty
They also got platform icons like Crash and Spyro in addition to Banjo and Conker (the rep is still Mario and they can’t do better) But they have all the biggest icons behind Mario and many find that Banjo Kazooie is still today the best platform game that exists.
They bought Blizzard which produced the greatest games of certain genres and are today references, Diablo Hack n’ Slash, Warcraft / Starcraft strategy, World of Warcraft MMO, Hearthstone Tactical Card Game, Overwatch Heros Shooters…
We agree that there is really this desire at Microsoft to own what is best and what is the most popular by genre?
Concretely I think that at Warner they may be interested in NetherRealm because Mortal Kombat is the most sold Vs Fighting license in the industry and therefore the most popular (Smash Bros being a party game)
Rocksteady is the best Super Hero Studio with Insomniac Games but Rocksteady has really democratized the genre, invented the mechanics and produced better games even if Spider-Man is excellent the reference remains Batman
I don’t think they need other Studios (although the Nemesis system would be interesting for Bethesda / Obsidian / InXile RPGs)
On the other hand, the media criticizes Microsoft a lot for not making 3rd person narrative games and who is considered the master of the genre? It’s not Sony it’s Rockstar Games with GTA and Red Dead Redemption we can also talk about Max Payn, L.A Noire, Bully…
Take Two also has Bioshock which is the license of the Immersive Sim with System Shock and of course the games Arkane and Valve
they also have strategy games like XCom, Civilization
Then there would be the Japanese games
Platinum Games might offer the best BTAs
SEGA could bring Atlus J-RPGs which are top rated on Metacritics but less popular than Final Fantasy
SEGA could offer a Mario level icon with Sonic as well as plenty of Arcades and PC games.
Then I imagine they might be interested in Studios doing their own stuff like Undead Labs with State of Decay which is like no other survival type game, or Hellblade which is a narrative game but deals with mental suffering like the Mara project and Project Insight and Project Dreadnought they are doing their own experimental genres.
In these Studios I can see IO Interactive Hitman easily stands out from other stealth game genres.
I think it’s a good avenue to explore in Microsoft’s strategy (to own all genres of games to offer the greatest possible diversity and to acquire the developers who best master the genre or developers like IO Interactive who have their own genres)
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