I was in that boat. However current stock amrket consitions changed my mind. If they like a publisher the price may be too good to pass up.
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Do you think publishers are eager to move when their value is at it lowest for no reason other than market conditions? I don’t think there are 30% off deals out there despite what the stock evaluations say.
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History tells us that down markets are when most acquisitions occur.
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I don’t think companies are going to sell when they are undervalued unless they have to. It seems like the opposite is what happened, with companies selling when the market was at its peak
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There is more pressure from investors when the market is lower as shareholders want a return on their investment. That leads to companies selling at lower values in the down market.
Basically this is the time the big fish eat up smaller fish. Liquidity is also lower so often its harder for smaller companies to get funding for their projects in down markets which leads to companies looking to means like selling to keep their employees and business alive.
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Betting 10 bucks the next acquisition after ABK is Sega. FJD btw. That american currency will kill me.
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I’m still quite amazed Asobo Studio hasn’t been bought by Team XBox yet. Like I said before mind, I really don’t care about reading how many Studios MS is going buy, it’s already got more than enough and I care far more with the studio’s Team Xbox already got getting games out there.
I wouldn’t mind SEGA being part of Team Xbox mind for Gamepass and to stop the likes of Tencent buying my beloved SEGA LOL
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Asobo really wants to stay independent, presumably because they know they got a good thing going and can increase their value the longer they wait to sell
It all depends why they are undervalued. Because for example Netflix had 200-300b evaluation and now it will be lucky to reach 100b. After all stakeholders question if there is a plan to increase evaluation and so on, if there is a plan for growth etc.
It will be interesting to see their next move after ABK deal. I do wonder what did they plan if ABK did not appear out of thin air.
Not really. The power dynamics between publisher and a platform holder is different. Not to mention publisher it is not just a set of studios but a whole package
I would imagine most studios want to say independent if they had the choice. Asobo just seem a nice fit
Netflix is down because of their performance, that’s different than just an overall down market.
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Certain Affinity has to be on the acquisition list, right?
Id expect them to be. They have a track record of working in Halo / CoD both now owned by Xbox so it would make sense.
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Yup, they worked with all XGS FPS studios if you include Actblizz. But the reason will end up being their own IP.
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I remember an insider was saying they’re working on a new xbox exclusive IP. Plus, with them working on Halo BR I think they really need to lock them up and don’t run into same situation as Killer Instinct where the dev that worked on the game gets acquired by somebody else.
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The situation with KI was special as it caught Microsoft off guard. Microsoft now is smarter, thus I don’t see them acquiring anything unless it is a defensive purchase or a publisher.
To be fair I don’t think Double Helix were much of a loss tbh, IMO they weren’t that great (sorry). They ideally need a dedicated team like NeverRealm or Simps etc.
I mean in theory, if they are wanting to expand into Europe with more studios. Buying focus home could be a cheap way to get a management infrastructure in place to handle that arm. As at some point Asobo will probably be acquired. Where they would be an easy way to assimilate them in as an example. But there are quite a few European studios that could be acquired.
I keep seeing people say mistwalker. The only issue with Mistwalker is they aren’t really a studio who do the kinds of games people remember them making. So even if Microsoft bought them. tehy would have staff up the studio and there are already staffing shortages in the industry. Its why you see sony setting aside a billion dollars to retain staff at bungie.
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Focus Entertainment are really undervalued IMO.
As you say they already have a competent management structure in place and it would give them a good base in Europe. Their growth has been brilliant.
A Plague Tale (which they own) gives me early Naughty Dog vibes. If they pick up Asobo too I think they’d be on to a winner!
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Their CEO was liking twitter posts about people saying Xbox should acquire them.
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