Not really. They might be interested (and they were) in specific studios like Gearbox but that’s basically it. Embracer has a lot of IPs but despite having 100+ studios do not produce much and most of their IPs are either old or not popular anymore. They don’t have big IPs with long legs or high engagement value (aside Borderlands) and they don’t even own IPs with huge following either.
Let’s see what they put out first then make the call
I disagree, as a Xbox fan it’s disappointing yes, but from a business perspective it makes absolute sense.
Between PS & Xbox they are more likely to get 70% or more of their sales from PS anyway (due to more consoles) so why not take a payday on top for that for exclusivity? Everyone walks away happy and more importantly your main business partner (revenue earner) is happy.
If there were a fairer market console share say 55:45, then you would want to appeal to the 45% of Xbox owners. This is because you could potentially sale more than whatever lump sum you would get from a exclusivity deal and can also grow your IP (like you say) by appealing to more people.
Currently with around 140 million PS4/PS5’s and 60 million Xbox One/Series it’s around 70:30 to PlayStation. Most third parties will be aware of this and will be more inclined to take a deal with PS while the market share is so bias towards one platform.
Obviously this ignores Switch which dominates both, but doesn’t have enough power to run these big AAA games.
I think by the end of this gen Xbox will have caught up alot of ground and most of these third parties won’t want to do exclusivity deals with PS, therefore (to bring it back on topic) won’t need to acquire publishers in Japan such as Square Enix.
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From business point of view they sacrificed long term revenue by quick cash grab. It is even an expression that “they sacrificed a long term growth to short term profits” or something like this.
You can write off PS4 because neither FF7RP2 nor FF16 are coming to PS4 anyway.
Depends what you consider major holes? Personally I’d say the biggest genre/style they are missing are the ‘Sony Ubisoft clones’. It’s the main area where Xbox always gets compared against PS and pretty much the only genre/style that PS offers in exclusivity (e.g. what you miss by choosing to buy an Xbox over a PS).
Although I enjoy fighters they are very niche overall in terms of market.
Horror is a pretty decent market but Capcom’s Resident Evil would be the one to go for.
Sports they also have Riders Republic, Sports Party, Roller Champions and Just Dance.
With regards to the other genres you mentioned I would say the big third person action adventure games that Ubisoft make appeal to and sale more than most of these genres including JRPG’s. The only exception being perhaps horror as RE usually sells well (as will Castillo Protocol IMO). On a side note I don’t know why Xbox needs a JRPG studio when PS doesn’t.
The other big hole I think Xbox has is family friendly content. Ubisoft also has Rayman, Rabbids, TrackMania and Just Dance which Xbox could do with. Everyone seems to think Toys 4 Bob (as talented as they are) can release Banjo, Crash, Spyro and and other family content every year on their own (rather than realistically every 4-5 years…)!
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- JRPG will be fixed one way or another and soon
- fighters will be fixed one way or another and soon
- visual novels are relatively niche to a point where it cannot be even considered a hole
- sports games are multiplatform titles anyway
- hack and slash are partially related to third person action games
I still think that Capcom would be the best acquisition
- lean and mean
- no other ties
- diverse catalog of active IPs with strong following
- legitimacy in Japan
Square Enix would be neat too, but unfortunately they have too much ties with Sony and moneyhatted to the core + a lot of their IPs are either small or owned by third parties. They do have FF14, but that’s basically it. So SE is not a particularly interesting acquisition. They would have solved JRPG and legitimacy problem for Xbox immediately though.
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Looking at it, I do think Capcom would be a good foot in Japan. As their IPs appeal to both the west and east like square. T2 or Ubisoft would definitely be good buys in general.
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As much as I am not a fan of t2 for not having to much to offer like ea or ubisoft, atleast I cant deny that no matter what gta is the biggest ip in western
The potential that gta 6 could have in gamepass is quiet scary
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Wonder if xbox will be interested in working with disney to make another marvel vs capcom but with a higher budget and the xmen characters returning, that will be a dream
Technically MS already own the biggest IP in the west in Minecraft.
Minecraft as a single title has sold over 200 million copies. GTA V has allegedly sold 165 million copies.
As a franchise Call of Duty is currently the biggest western IP, selling over 425 million copies. GTA is close behind with 375 million copies (and likely to surpass CoD if they don’t do something special).
GTA would be huge for Xbox but I’m not sure it would be big for GamePass with their games releasing so infrequently (coming up 9 years since GTA V).
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Thats the thing, if they make a good job with the marketing it could bring a ton of people, especially on xcloud
For years people where dreaming on playing gta 5 on a portable, and it will happen again with 6, also that you can always add some features with gamepass like xbox has been doing with their other titles
Absolutely, there is a ton of variety on ubisoft, is just that we cant see it with the many live service titles they have been making
You got action adventure open world games with assasins creeds or watchdogs, platformers with rayman, party games with rabbids and just dance, survival with zombi, stealth with splinter cell, a stronger position on shooter with rainbow six
The possibilites are endless, just give those studios freedom and you will see diversity, like come on the rooster fighting minigame in farcry 6 is more polished than the entire game, the best tekken parody I have seen
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Yep Ubisoft are so undervalued IMO, just need a change of senior management to get back to themselves.
This is going to get me into trouble but I think Splinter Cell is also a better stealth game then Metal Gear!
Just started FarCry 6 so will give that a go tonight 
That’s a good point, having the portability of Xcloud with both campaign and online would be a huge marketing feature, I didn’t think about that, they would need to stay subscribed to GP to have Xcloud too.
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Try to tempt people with perks and other things to give it a go on gamepass, or even letting people know that they can play the game without the console, just the service
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Hard to say because Marvel IP is a specific thing and Microsoft does not want to rely on third party IPs in general.
I don’t think people on this board take Metal Gear close to the heart. It is not Resetera 
Haven’t seen a single Ultimate video because their behind the patreon paywall…
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I’d say it’s worth it. Especially when they have interviews. The Ultimate episode with Mark Darrah is incredible and really puts perspective into the decline of BioWare and what caused it
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Always love seeing the Dukes during their rounds…. Especially when both Dukes love SEGA like a certain fanbase I know….
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Yeah, there are good videos that but I don’t want to pay for anything. So what did Lord Sovereign predict this time?
No predictions really, although he does mention that Ubisoft at the right price is a no brainer.
Essentially they’re both team WB if it comes with the licenses and IP, if not then SEGA.
Sov and Cog also agree that the currently blossoming SEGA/ATLUS relationship seems like an absolute possibility down the road.
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