Who knows who might step in and fill the void these publishers left?
In Japan you have Bandai Namco, Capcom, Cygames, GungHo Online Entertainment, Hamster Corporation, Koei Tecmo, Konami, Nexon, NIS, SNK and probably many more.
And in the Rest of the World you have EA, Embracer Group, Valve, Take2, Rebellion, Devolver Digital, Annapurna Interactive, 505 Games, Frontier, Humble Games, Microids, Nacon, Paradox Interactive, Raw Fury, Team17, tinybuild, Thunderful and also many more.
I admire that you care so much for the health of the industry, but that won’t stop Microsoft to acquire more.
After the Zenimax Acquisition we heard that the first question from the board was “who’s next” and i’m sure that it will be the same after the ABK Acquisition.
There’s also Project Sekai (Hatsune Miku) which is definitely Sega’s biggest mobile game that actually does contend with other Asian mobile giants.
Worthless in the West, I know. And Sega’s has massive mobile failures before like Sakura Wars gacha (I still get depressed that the Sakura Wars revival project was a failure but that’s another conversation lol)
I am probably in the minority but I get more excited about acquiring studios overt publishers. I get more excited in the idea of developers finally getting the funds to produce what they want and deal with less constraints
It is the same for me. I’m not a believer in Xbox reviving all the dead IPs whenever people bring up publisher acquisitions and I don’t think publishers games change under Xbox. The only thing that changes is day 1 GP which isn’t that exciting to me
I think people like publisher acquisitions because of the “moment” of it happening
I can see your point the big negative for me is studios usually don’t have a big backlog and they take too long to make games after an acquisition (as a result of increased funding and scope). Bethesda would have released 4 AAA games (Deathloop, Ghostwire, Redfall, Starfield) before Obsidian has released a single one (Avowed) after being acquired by Xbox for example
I’m pretty enthusiastic about acquisitions, but I think you have to be reasonable with publisher acquisitions. It’s not about buying the entire industry, that wouldn’t make sense, a limit will be set, either by Microsoft or by the regulators.
I think that 2 more publishers would already be very optimistic and more than enough. I think there is a real need for acquisition in Japan. With SEGA and Ubisoft, you already cover more than 95% of Xbox’s needs. You also have SEGA and Capcom which are very complementary. There are interesting combinations to be made, but I don’t see Microsoft going beyond two publishers after ABK.
Yeah, a studio acquisition (unless Xbox is already publishing) will take 5+ years to give any output. A publisher will give you new games within 6 months.
That said, Xbox should hopefully be at a point with ABK that they don’t need to worry about short term as much.
Ever since the ABK announcement, I get the impression MS isn’t too bothered about individual studios anymore, or at least isn’t a priority
I think people saw big buying spree in 2018/2019 for those studios and figured that would continue, I know I did
But nobody was expecting them to buy Bethesda, ABK even more so and after those 2, it seems that they are more focused on things with big guaranteed impact over smaller studios that might put a game out every 4 years
I don’t know when it will be but I fully expect their next purchase to be another publisher
I’m still not certain how good a buy that is for anyone because I’m not sure what the fate of all those outsourced AA games Square publishes are and that’s a massive bulk of their output.
I think we all have our preferences and very interesting opinions, but in the end it’s more about opportunities and good relationships between companies. Instead, I see Square Enix joining Sony in the next few years. This would probably be the most surprising and WTF acquisition if Square Enix joined the Xbox family lol
For my part, I think that all publishers have something interesting to bring to Xbox. I think that sharing good relationships and a common vision of the industry is above all the key to a good acquisition. It’s no coincidence that everyone wants SEGA to join the Xbox family. I like the idea of acquiring long-time partners and growing together.
I agree that Sony would be the more natural fit, but when Sony don’t want to or can’t acquire Square Enix, then Microsoft should absolutely step in and acquire them.
If you talk about who to acquire next i always look back at the past and Microsoft tried once before to acquire Square and failed.
I really think, that the next (publisher) target is a japanese one and i think (and hope) that it will be the one that currently struggles the most and always complains about their sales figures. (Square Enix)
Square without its western studios doesnt do much for me. FF output is nostalgia or waiting 6+ years for new entry. There other RPGs are great but there more AA and I don’t think it would move the needle much for Microsoft.
If we’re talking about Japanese publishers I feel only Capcom and Sega meshes well
With Xbox.
I think the 2018-19 was more of a litmus test and Microsoft saw massive potential on the results of gamepass with those studios. Probably $500 million spent on them and it showed the model was working and sustainable.
Probably convinced Satya to go even bigger with Zenimax and ABK.
I still think they will buy individual studios when it makes sense. Ripples in ponds. Publishers are about making waves.
Square simply don’t have enough variety in their line up, it seems to be almost entirely JRPGs which I’m sure some people would have no problem with but I don’t think it’s as beneficial to Xbox?GP as something like Capcom or Sega
Their relationship with xbox is the drizzling shits too right now and that’s not something that should be ignored, Zenimax made sense because of their long history with Xbox and good relations, it’s why something like Sega would work too
