Sorry wrong studio
Humanoid studios is the studio that Casey Hudson founded, thats a studio MS should partner up with asap
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If MS buys in Poland I can see them buying the big 3 CDPR, Techland and PCF
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Their website states they have an unprecedented partnership with Smilegate that has invested a 100m in them. Have never read anything about Sony investing in them though.
Xbox maintains very good relations with certain studios and publishers who share the same values and who will contribute to the development of a coherent universe. I think good relationships are the key to a good acquisition. I won’t make a full list, but all of Xbox’s partner studios are legit acquisitions. There’s a wealth of talent, big and small, diverse and varied, who could grow and shine with Xbox, so hopefully Microsoft will pick them up after ABK.
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Put a ring on Stoic.
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Good target for acquisition.
The situation seems dramatic for Embracer. I feel like they are making the same mistakes and following the same path as THQ. It’s really a pity. I wonder if Microsoft will be able to take the opportunity to recover some studios. Obviously CD, Eidos, and Gearbox are on the front lines, but Embracer also has other interesting studios. It would be a good thing for Xbox, and it could allow Embracer to get its head above water. Case to follow. I hope that solutions will be found to save jobs and studios.
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Coffee Stain would be a really good PC-centric get although I think Microsoft nab Paradox if they get a PC publisher.
The biggest issue with publishing deals is you do not control the studios, which could lead to issues retaining them for sequels / continued support after the deal concludes. There is also the issue of third parties not wanting to sell you their IP. The good news with the People Can Fly deal is MS owns whatever IP they will be working on.
Having said that, if you can lock down a studio for 10 years, like they did with Asobo and Flight Sim, that is one way to alleviate those concerns somewhat.
One of the things I would like to see MS do, is take a page out of Hollywood’s playbook. In Hollywood, studios will often sign actors and directors to multi-film contracts for franchises that have sequel potential. Someone like Robert Pattinson likely signed a 3-film commitment for the Batman. This doesn’t mean that WB/DC needs to make three Batman films. What it does mean is should WB/DC make the Batman 2 or 3, Pattinson can’t say no.
So in the context of video games, instead of signing a deal with Crytek for Ryse: Son of Rome, I would prefer that they lock them in for a trilogy. If the first one hits or shows potential, you can continue with Ryse 2 and 3. Granted, that doesn’t mean that Crytek (or whichever studio) would agree to those terms.
I don’t think gog would cause that much of an issue as the marketshare isn’t all that significant. It’s not like MS buying steam. However, as others have said it could be spun off as well or MS coudl just buy the studio r and not the game sales company depending on how they are structured lots of ways a deal like that could work.
I’m not particularly interested in acquiring Coffee Stain, but knowing that the PC market has taken a large place in Xbox’s revenue, I think SEGA and Paradox are an absolute no-brainer. CDPR also has a very large community on PC, in addition to attracting many console players.
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Strange he’s only announcing it now, it did the rounds two years ago!
Maybe Xbox should go after a ton of indie studios to double their output for first party and increase permanent titles in game pass
Houser is one of the few studio heads that I can’t imagine ever considering his company being acquired. He has plenty of resources to finance an initial project and unless it bombs immediately, I imagine he’ll stay independent for the foreseeable future.
So as some of us may know their is a difference in doing business with Public company (board of directs, shares etc) to a Private company. I won’t go into the differences to much just note it is easier/quicker to do business with Private companies. That includes acquisitions, in fact many of the studios Xbox purchased since 2018 were private (Obsidian, double fine, ninja theory, compulsion, undead labs, Bethesda).
Surprisingly a lot of content on game pass is from Private companies, the downside of a private company is typically your not that large and require outside investment and a successful project.
So the good part. I expect the FTC to fumble in the coming weeks and the ABK stuff to come to its happy ending. That said let’s consider what companies Xbox could go after and pick up rather easily regardless on if ABK is won or lost.
Here is a list of privately owned games developers (according to Wiki). You will no doubt notice a lot of these studios have been talked about and even shown up on Game Pass.
Have at it folks.
- Asobo
Plagues Take, MS Flight Sim
- Behaviour Interactive
Dead by daylight
- Clap Hands
Everybody’s Golf
- Colossal Order
Cities skylines
- Crytek
Crisis, Ryse
- Frictional Games
Amnesia, Soma
- GSC Workd
Stalker
- Haemimont
Surviving Mars, stranded alien dawn
- Hazelight
It Takes Two
- IO Interactive
Hitman, 007
- Iron Galaxy
Killer instinct, rumbleverse
- Kojima Productions
Death stranding
- Latina Studios
Divinity, boulders gate
- Level 5
Ni no kuni
- MistWalker
Blue dragon, terra
- Moon Studios
Ori
- Motion Twin
Dead cells
- Netsume
Harvest Moon
- Nicalis
Binding of Isaac
- Oddworld
Oddsworld
- Otherside entertainment
Underworld
- Platinum Games
Bayonetta, asterisk chain
- Rebellion
Sniper elite, Zombie Army
- Robot entertainment (was Ensemble)
Age of empires, orcs must die
- Stoic
Banner Saga, Towerbourne
- Supergiant
Bastion, Hades
- Studio Wildcard
Ark
- Take worlds
Mount & Blade
- Tate Multimedia
Kao the kangaroo
- Techland
Dead island, dying light
There’s so many talented studios here that would be great. Maybe try pick your favourite 5 I bet it’ll be tuff. Asobo, Crytek, Supergiant, Frictional, Platinum, techland, stoic, level 5 etc.
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Hello everyone! As a first-time poster but a long-time lurker, I just wanted to say following the showcase. I think that Microsoft will make an attempt to acquire Sega after the ABK deal. I love studios like Mistwalker and Vanillaware, among others, but these individual studios are small in size and lack IPs that could be available on Game Pass following an acquisition. Also, their development timelines, even for AA projects, tend to be quite long and I feel that Microsoft thinks it’s time consuming.
After buying Bethesda, Microsoft recognizes the value of publishers, IPs, and multiple studios. If Microsoft aims to reach three billion gamers, they need the Asia market. Sega fits perfectly, as it covers a wide range of regions: North America with Sonic, Europe with Football Manager, and Asia with SMT/Persona and Yakuza. Just imagine if Microsoft were to acquire Sega, collaborations such as a Blizzard and TMS Entertainment for an Overwatch animated show or any Xbox IPs.
The potential for such partnerships is wild to imagine and if Japanese publishers don’t show interest in being acquired, I could see Microsoft pursuing independent studios as an alternative strategy.
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Add People Can Fly, Crystal Dynamics, Eidos Montreal and Techland and I personally would never need another studio again but I’ll still gladly accept more and wouldn’t mind a WB or Capcom or EA or Ubisoft.
Basically, I want all the studios/publishers that I like/love under Microsoft. Hehehe.
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If we focus on the purely logical and organic according to present or past collaborations, we can already form a great team with these studios :
- SEGA
- Paradox
- CDPR
- Don’t Nod
- Frontier
- Certain Affinity
- Asobo
- IOI
- People Can Fly
- Crytek
- Thunderful Games
- Avalanche Studios
- Crystal Dynamics
- Eidos
- Stoic
- Int./Night
- CyberConnect2
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When working with an important contracted party for games, or anything really, there is usually something in contract called a “right of first refusal” or similar which would allow MS to match any acquisition offer and have the studio join MS.
I think in the case of Double Helix, they were caught off guard because I guess that wasn’t in the contract due to some oversight.
From Embracer
4A Games,
Flying Wild Hog,
Eidos,
Tarsier Studios,
Crystal Dynamics ,
Gunfire Games,
Deep Silver,
Gearbox Software( all these studios would fall under Gearbox)
Should be able to get them all for a nice ass price maybe 1.5-2 billion for all of them
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