Phil has said they don’t have the luxury of hitting pause on acquisitions due to competition from Tencent, who has bought a ton of gaming studios despite being the market leader.
Way I see it…acquisitions slow = game pass slows. And they don’t want that.
I wouldn’t be surprised if we get another acquisition announced this year or early next. Be it studios or a publisher. If Xbox slow down then others could take them.
I think companies would rather risk spending some time with regulators then missing out because they thought they had to wait.
I kind of think Supercell (Clash of Clans) will be acquired by someone (not xbox) soon as mobile game devs are all the rage. There around $1.8 billion.
Supercell is owned almost entirely by Tencent. They bought like 85% in 2016.
Well Phil has already said they will continue to look for more after the ABK deal and also that they pretty much have what they want in the areas they are strong i.e. the west and will be looking to areas where they aren’t as strong
Now add with all the posturing and senator stuff in the ABK deal talking about xbox’s market share in Japan, I feel they are absolutely setting themselves up for a purchase in Asia
They almost certainly have specific studios/publishers in mind but I don’t think they are going to go for something small, I know people would like things like Platinum and other smaller stuff but I think these days MS is only interested in things that move the needle, so big IPs will be needed and that rules out the vast majority of things outside of publishers
Oh snap I didn’t know that. I should have guess Tencent had their hands in it as is tradition at this point.
I also think, that we will see ActiBli and Zenimax acquire small/medium studio at some point.
Mobile game Developper, support studios and so.
I have a presentiment that once the ABK agreement is concluded Microsoft will not hesitate to announce a new takeover in the months to come.
Pick 3 studios from this thread that MS should acquire/partner with
My picks would be Gravity Well (ex Respawn), Lighthouse Games (ex Playground FH5 lead) and Humanoid Studios (Casey Hudson´s studio)
The only Studio on this list that I can see acquired by Microsoft
https://twitter.com/shinobi602/status/1490764549749882883
And them
https://twitter.com/CertainAffinity/status/1649116545178533893
MS is already partner with them with IOI yet to be confirmed (or not)
Archetype
Ascendant Studio
Build a rocket boy
Microsoft needs to lock up Certain Affinity
I agree 100%. They’re rumored to be working on that Halo Infinite battle royale game and have been a support studio for Halo and COD. Perfect fit. Leyou owns 20% of the studio so Microsoft would have to buyout that 20%. This would also help with getting those other studios off COD. Hehe.
They’re also working on a monster hunter like game for Microsoft. Once ABK deal is done they need to acquire them since they have many projects tied to them.
Even if someone else buys Certain Affinity? MS can still contract them for work, like Eidos and Crystal Dynamics is now.
Eh, I still think you need to lock them up if they’re creating content for you. You don’t want a situation where their game becomes a hit and they’re not locked up to you. Plus, value of Certain Affinity won’t be that high at the moment, so it seems like a move to lock up
What projects is CA working on besides Halo BR and the MS’s Monster Hunter game?
I agree, still Xbox cannot buy up everyone. It is inevitable that someone else might buy them up before Xbox does.