I agree I want Microsoft to go on a massive individual studio buying spree as an offensive aquistions , and have publisher as a defensive aquistions .
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As much as I’d like individual acquisitions, I think Japan is still the most important target and the publisher options there are much better than the individual studios.
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my only issue with japan is lets say xbox buys your company and nobody in your company like xbox including you. whats stopping a mass exodus?
Them keeping many of the games multi platform
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Money. Offer them money.
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Make it a great place to work, carte blanche in creativity and that despite being Xbox and PC only, your game will be played by more people than ever before.
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No one is giving up their livelihood because they have to make games for Xbox and PC. C’mon now.
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No Square. Maybe individual studio but not the whole Publisher.
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If Microsoft really wants to go after another public publisher, even if they are only worth 2-10 billion. The smartest thing to do is buy any private independent studios that they want to go after. My picks would be IOI, supergiant games, larian, moon studios, and certain affinity.
Once they go after another publisher there could be a 12-18 month regulatory fight again.
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A lifetime ago i worked in the industry. You have some fanboys but even then they dont care, people just want to make games regardless of the platform.
Much more likely to constantly bitch about the engine or tools/pipeline rather than ‘Im not working on a PS game!’ Never saw that once.
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considering they are aiming to asian market, i don’t think they will take same time abk did take when buying a SEGA, may it happen to take more than Bethesda did take.
https://twitter.com/EconomyApp/status/1679592583792832512?t=zGl6YZIGMR7pYJVXRqFSLA&s=19
Nexon seems like a logical play for mobile gaming.
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I have a feeling Sony will announce an acquisition not too long after the ABK deal closes. It might make sense for MS to wait for that to pan out before making another move.
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If Sony wanted to make a big acquisition before this one closes woulda been the time to do it - Microsoft is distracted and would have given them full support in trade for theres. If they weren’t committed to fighting Xbox/Activision tooth and nail.
Equally, there’s not much reason for Microsoft to wait if Sony did pull out a big acquisition. It only benefits their case for a future acquisition if Sony is actively trying to increase their market share the same way.
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My thoughts are that Sony would be making a smaller acquisition that would not put them on the radar of regulators, so they wouldn’t really need MS to support them. The reason to hold off would be to not give MS ammo in their fight for ABK which would be a top priority.
As for the second part, yes that is what I was saying. If Sony makes a move, it makes it easier to make another acquisition after considering how concerned regulators are about Sony.
People Can Fly just opened another studio in Montreal, hopefully Microsoft can sweep in and buy them.
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I realize there is some optics at play when it comes to Microsoft making another acquisition soon, but isn’t it a bit faulty for the general public or these regulatory bodies to consider another acquisition in the next week “soon” when this last acquisition was announced 18 months ago and took a full 18 months to accomplish because Sony rejected a deal to have a game on their console.
So in reality if Microsoft announces an acquisition in the next 5 days, that makes it 2 acquisitions in the span of 18 months.
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Sony has made so many acquisitions over the last couple of years, I don’t think they were waiting for this deal to close.
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And I expect the responses to be “Who???” as it’ll be some unknown startup company that is 5 years away from release of their GaaS.
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Not gunna happen. They are a public company, and valued too much imo. Microsoft would need to pay 10-40% over the stock price… too much.
Edit- I see them valued at 320 million$, Microsoft would likely need to pay 360-450 million to get them.