That’s a big reason there. I know people say “Well MS can just do the Kiryu Kazuma thing and open that money briefcase” but honestly I don’t think MS values Japanese content to the extent where they would do this.
If any of them did want to sell then MS would start approaching though.
There’s the issue of anyone who isn’t Capcom having many non gaming sectors as well. When people said “Square Enix is looking pretty streamlined for an acquisition now” after the Embracer thing, my thoughts were “…No they aren’t, what about their manga/book publishing and amusement divisions?” I sometimes see Bandai Namco pop up, and like, that’s a toy company first and foremost, not a gaming company lol. Yes, these sectors can be sold off… lotta effort for something I addressed in paragraph 1 (MS is not interested to this extent)
As for Capcom it’s doing very hot over the last many years, big successes all around, and no major game since SFV has skipped Xbox from them. I think MS is fine with just receiving their games. I see the talk of MH as a GaaS game, I talked about how it’s not really one already and the devs don’t want to make it into one (also I’d bet this IP specifically will be asked to be still allowed on Nintendo hardware, maybe even Sony as well), so that kinda axes that.
That leads into the GaaS thing itself which there aren’t many JP console ones, even less so for successful ones. It’s not a business model they do as heavily. FFXIV obviously pulled it off very successfully but what else?
Many of the publishers there are family owned as well which brings a whole “pride” aspect into it. Again, Capcom, The Tsujimoto’s control it with an iron fist. There was a “danger” of investors being real pissed with them (voting to remove buyout protections) in the 360 era (the time to buy Capcom would have been then) but Capcom recovered and the Tsujimoto’s have regained their dominance, and well, with the company doing pretty damn good over the last few years I doubt they’re motivated to sell.
I’ve always kept up the thought that the acquisition war will not come to the Japanese publishers (Sony nor MS) and I am still standing by that.
And I’m with Hindle that Xbox in Japan will be through publishing and that new team… Which is all I ever asked for anyway. I’ve posted before about all I think MS will (and should) do is JP multiplat hunting and publishing exclusives.
way.