you don’t need thousand employee plus studios to make linear third person games, or even open world games
Sega is my dream but if they get them i hope they grab a few Indies to integrate into Sega.
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Lizardcube (Streets of Rage 4/Wonder Boy) - Can Handle Streets of Rage 5/Wonder Boy/Alex Kidd 2D Games
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Guard Crush Games( Streets Of Rage 4) - Can Handle 2D Games(Golden Axe/Altered Beast)
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Modus Games( Maximum Football 23)- Can Make A Sega Branded Power 5 College Football Game Since NFL License is Exclusive to EA ( Could Feed the Gamepass Day1 Football Fix)
- Steel City Interactive( Undisputed Boxing) - Can Make Undisputed which is in active development but with Sega Branding it would draw in more people also can be a live service game with new boxers as DLC (Would Be A Big Draw To Gamepass)
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EA Tiburon’s NBA Live Team( Or Set Up Another Team inside Undead Labs Orlando to draw in Ex EA Sports Devs - Could Make A Sega Branded College Basketball Game To Draw In Casuals And Sports Fans
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Platinum Games(Beyonetta/Vanquish)- Can Put them on Shinobi/Vanquish & Beyonetta( Depending on the rights)
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Think Microsoft had about $100bn cash in hand at the end of the last financial quarter. If the ABK purchase goes through and the money they put into open AI that leaves about $20bn. With the way they’re pushing AI, I’m expecting the next big investment to line up either directly or companies that would really benefit from having a parent company with Microsoft’s AI capabilities. I’m not expecting another publisher in the short term(6-18 months). If there are more gaming purchases I would expect it to be more in line with the 2018/2019 studio purchases
Well since the market definition made by the FTC has proved that Sony is a monopoly on JP that means that the JFTC has violated the terms of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework(IPEF) MS now is free to buy someone big on JP.
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Lets be honest MS after ABK wont be able to get Take 2, EA or Ubi. The most possible acquistions are now:
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- -WB
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- -CDProjekt
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- -Asobo
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- -IOI interactive
||Due Sony´s violation of the IPEF||
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- -Capcom
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- -SEGA
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- -SQEX
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- -Bandai Namco
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- -Koei Tecmo
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I think it’s very interesting that now Paradox is the largest European publisher by market cap. They also are only ahead of CDPR by about 100 millon usd right now. I’m not so sure Ubisoft is off limits with how theyve fallen.
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I had no idea how significant they are. Might have to do a bit more digging into them other than what people post on here.
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I think it’s less that they are signifigant and more that all the other publishers have seen their value nosedive.
if isn’t possible scrutiny, the employee count is a obstacle
Embracer Group is the largest, though they have some non-video game ventures (board games, Lord of the Rings etc.). But if we routinely treat Sega Sammy as mostly a games publisher that MS could buy (despite Sega being the friendly front end for the shady Sammy gambling business), so would be Embracer.
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Xbox should do more licensed IPs. Also if they can’t buy sega maybe they should pay for someone like rgg to develop an exclusive game for Xbox like contraband. A 3rd party exclusive.
I’m not sure about Ubisoft, I think it could still work with some concessions (cross-platform AC).
I would say that there are several key factors to consider regarding the most likely acquisition of a publisher:
- Long-term relationship with Xbox
- Good productivity (several games per year)
- Game catalog and variety of content added to GP
- Big seller (+ 10 million)
- Geographical location
- Opportunities / Publisher in difficulty
Xbox’s biggest weakness is in Asia (content/marketing/sales), so the next publisher is likely to be Japanese. Beyond geographic location, Microsoft still needs to develop regular and exclusive content for Xbox and GP. We know that in the long term it will be cheaper for Microsoft to acquire the studios and publishers than to sign partnerships for the GP with them. It is therefore likely that Microsoft will simply end up acquiring its long-standing partners (studios or publishers) with whom it shares good working relations and a similar vision of the market with GP.
Based on these elements, I think the publishers most likely to join the Xbox family are:
- SEGA
- Ubisoft
- Paradox
- Warner Bros Discovery
- CDPR
- Capcom
For studios, it’s a bit more complicated. I would say all Xbox partners and talented studios with a positive view of GP can be considered. And beyond the game, I think companies like Spotify, Discord, Warner Bros Discovery or Disney can be interesting if Microsoft wants to expand its activity in the subscription service.
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I feel like if Xbox cant get a place in Japan they will target South Korea.
All of those are smaller than ABK. I think they could get them as long as they did 10 year deals for gta, Fifa and Rainbow Six Siege. Remember…they got CoD past the EC and CMA who both defined it as non-essential in the end.
It’s impossible to know exactly where the line will be drawn, but every new acquisition is scrutinized with the previous acquisitions taken into account, so it’s additive. I would classify EA and Take Two as the most likely to push them over that line, but even slightly smaller companies may wind up with more scrutiny than you’d expect.
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Yep that is why is future acquisitions might be Bethesda level publishers like Sega,Capcom,Bandai Namco or single studios like CDProjekt, Asobo and IOI
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After ABK closes, I see Microsoft acquiring studios for the next few years that they want to bring into the fold which would be the better way to go because if they acquire a big publisher, it’s going to be another 12-18 months where they can’t do anything else so hopefully, they go get the studios that they want to get.
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Microsoft needs to go more into mobile. I know that ABK is huge for mobile, but this is where the gaming industry is skyrocketing. This is also where their biggest opportunities are. There’s also very little chance for regulatory pushback here.
Theres a lot of difference in genre interest for mobile too, they need to identify that and get mobile oriented IP.
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Xbox still needs a lot more studios that can deliver high visual fidilety AAA games, the reaction a simple Hellblade video showing facial animation got compared to Redfall previews says a lot.
CDPR could be a very good get, considering they are substantially increasing their output. They are the only other RPG developer that can compare with Bethesda, having both would be a slam dunk. The GOG store could be a stickling point.
Capcom would give Xbox a lot of strong AAA IP, with strong relevance, but SEGA would be cheaper and offer a much more diverse selection of games. I wouldn’t mind any, but I think SEGA is going to be way easier to acquire.
Most likely in the near future is Xbox buying a lot individual studios, maybe even a mobile publisher or studios, because I don’t think King alone is going to cut it to realize their gaming app store ambitions, they might even have to partner with someone like tencent to get things going.
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A mobile gaming acquisition seems logical but there isnt an obvious choice.
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