Yeah, its tough to see who the clear cut large mobile publisher would be. I struggle to see whether it would be more beneficial to acquire mobile development studios or big mobile publishers.
If they do look at mobile publishers, there’s really three that standout to me.
NCSoft
Machine Zone
Krafton
Machine Zone may ‘fit’ the best of those three if they go that way and they are privately owned which helps.
If they want to go for a really bold move, they could always go with Roblox too. That would be a real bet on what Roblox is trying to achieve and aligning with the metaverse.
Mobile gaming is huge and more accessible then console or PC
Microsoft’s upcoming mobile store is a great chance for them
Mighty doom is great example to make a mobile game out of popular franchise
I am hoping maybe then can add easy play modes in there exsiting xCloud games. Where you basically have to control the characters just with your thumbs and he do the rest
Imagine playing gorgeous Forza Horizon 5 via xCloud on your mobile but all you have to do is perform qte’s to drive you car. Such a relaxing game that would be.
AAA games with 100 million dollar budgets (often way more) are a cul-de-sac. They’ll be Sony’s downfall. For example I read yesterday that Bloober team want 10 million sales for Silent Hill 2 on the PS5. This is unsustainable & completely unrealistic (Resident Evil is a much bigger franchise & it barely ever reaches that number when released on multiple platforms). There’s no future in rising costs. MS needs to go in the opposite direction: drive down costs, reduce development cycles & allow their now vast array of studios to develop projects for Game Pass without the pressure of needing 10 million sales to turn a profit.
Personally I also just want Xbox to no longer be treated like dirt & get poor ports. I want the Series consoles to not be an afterthought for developers just because the PS5 is the top selling console. I want reviewers to get an Xbox version & test it, instead of always reading (what seems like 80% of the time) “reviewed on the PS5 version of the game”.
The industry has been twisted into Sony’s little plaything in their own back pocket. Influencers & mainstream media alike are by & large Sony fanboys. It’s tiresome. This Activision deal can reset that landscape.
I think Microsoft has enough rpg studios, they don’t need CDPR. If anything, they should be covering their bases. I’m sure obsidian and playground can equally develop third person cinematic level rpgs. If anything, I’d say get Crytek for a Ryse sequel and the engine.
I don’t think Capcom would bite but if they could get Sega for their IPs that will cover a lot of bases then there are developers like Platinum that have pretty much made it clear they are open for acquisition so I wouldn’t be surprised if a TGS Scalebound is shown with Platinum joining XGS.
I feel like it’s almost an guarantee that Microsoft buys SEGA, I would actually put money on it at this point. They’re cheap, they have a ton of good studios for PC and consoles and they would be the ground floor for Japanese push.
It’s never enough when it comes to a genre as diverse as RPG. MS has a lot of RPG studios but I don’t expect any of them to make games like Cyberpunk or Mass Effect.
There is a ceiling. Personally, I prefer the ASCENT developers making a cyberpunk game than CDPR. Isn’t STARFIELD in some ways similar to mass effect, if not perhaps THE OUTERWORLDS 2 will be. Also, they could always do a deal with studios that are doing something similar like the original team that have now formed Archetype studios Archetype Entertainment (archetype-entertainment.com)
TOW2 will be better and have more scope than TOW1 for sure but it won’t be anything like Mass Effect. The Ascent dev doesn’t have the capacity to make a Cyberpunk game and MS isn’t going to give them a blank check to hire the people they would need to do it.
Agree that MS should partner with those studios that are emerging from veterans like they did with Respawn at the time.
