Yeah that would have been my choice as well from a games perspective
True to an extent, but they also have to deliver on their goal of reaching 3 billion gamers or at least a lot of them. The best long term way to do that is to get in and work with devs in the regions that currently don’t have much, like Latin and South America, Africa, India, etc. If more games were made in those regions and were available on Xbox, the platform becomes more interesting to a bigger portion of the populations there. That’s why so many people want them to get Japanese devs too, because so many Japanese games miss the platform. If they can avoid that mistake with other areas that will want games that show their stories, there’s huge potential for growth.
Yep I’d love to have seen Eidos, CD and IOI all back together again… IOI is still a possibility, hopefully we hear more about their Xbox project in a few weeks.
You reach 3bn gamers by owning the most played series in the world. Games that are played everywhere. Nothing in India or Africa is played anywhere, not compared to say COD or Apex.
I’m not sure, Apex just prints money on a regular basis, the last I heard it had made over $1.6 Billion in revenue.
EDIT - It’s now over $2 Billion.
The yearly licensed games definitely appeal to the casuals and the casual market is substantially bigger than our gaming minority . They are normally also in the top 20 sellers each year along with T2’s NBA so being the exclusive subscription service would be huge.
I think thats thier aim. To have as many as they can get under one roof, all multiplat and being played by everyone whilst MS kick back and watch the money come in.
I’ve long said EA would be a strong get. They’ve got an interesting and diverse upcoming line-up between Dead Space, Skate 4, Dragon Age 4/Mass Effect 5, Star Wars Jedi Survivor makes and their massive racing game division (now including the entirety of Codemasters), their sports studios (The game series formerly known as FIFA would be a huge get in the UK), their mobile teams, and Maxis (Sims would also be a fantastic get for PC game pass) and on top of all that you’ve got their great EA Originals publishing division. It’s perhaps not the most interesting acquisition, especially given they already have a deal for EA Play on Gamepass but it’s certainly a strong one.
It’s not currently, no. My point is that they should be trying to create studio partners in those areas before they get big. You can’t disrupt by just doing what has been done, so while you’re still right that it’s good to tie up big franchises and existing devs, the potential for the undeserved markets is vast.
I agree, I often feel like they need better regional presence in both studio locations and regional specific content, however like you say if they have all the big IP’s the audience will come regardless.
Once they have the audience and acquisitions become more difficult they can always create new studios in ‘X’ location and work with local studios to create regional specific content.
The former would take much longer and likely cost much more to do.
I don’t believe the FTC pose any threat to MS really, and the ABK deal should go through with ease. As long as its all multi plat, there won’t be any issue with MS buying ABK, EA, Take Two.
Edit. I noticed that’s the new agenda in twitter. The FTC this time have it out for MS etc. The reality it’s just Sonys fans and thier supporters in the media.
The optics of this would be horrible and Microsoft doesn’t want to get in the same spotlight other tech companies are in. That could not only affect Microsoft’s gaming ambitions, but Microsoft as a whole.
Maybe two or three years after ABK, but who knows if EA is still available then.
. They are normally also in the top 20 sellers each year along with T2’s NBA so being the exclusive subscription service would be huge.