The studios will probably be allowed to make their own stuff for the most part, if I had to guess after the contract ends CoD will go bi yearly
I am on a similar boat for the most part. I haven’t completely written it off (especially if its bethesda or ABK acquiring someone) but for xbox game studio’s, their focus appears to be much bigger with IPs and that would natrually lead to publishers. The fact MS missed on SE west makes me slightly doubtful of Neather realm too honestly granted I could see them because MS lacks a fighting game studio and they would probably come with midway which includes one of the biggest fighting games in gaming (the big ones are street fighter, mortal kombat, TEKKEN and Smash)
I think the opposite. Right now gaming M&A are hot and everyone is trying to buy where they can. Having said that, I dont think Microsoft in particular is throwing business cards to whoever and hoping one hits. They are more selective of who they choose.
I think most of Embracer’s 100+ studios would object to it,Embracer’s pull is that the studios they acquire will remain almost completely independent but well financed by their parent.
If MS acquired their parent company and started implementing even some minor limitations and giving production ‘advice’ to the studios it’d be a swamp of discontent pretty quickly i’d say.
NRS is in completely different universe in comparison to SE West. Not even close. MK is huge gaming IPs, the most popular fighting game around, the most mainstream fighting game out there.
People overvalue Square Enix West. Though some people believe that SE West is bigger than Square Enix East, but I have no comments on that
Yeah, I agree. Microsoft will go after either really big IPs from the studio or a publisher (to get a juicy set of IPs).
I do wonder though, considering the issues with Unity, would Microsoft be willing to acquire Unity to integrate it into Game Stack?
What issues? Unity is the most used and licensed gaming engine in the world. They’re entering into film tools and technology now too acquiring VFX pioneers Weta Digital, Ziva Dynamics, as well as acquiring multiple AI/ML creation, productivity and collaboration tools and startups. Their valuation would be very high, dunno if MS is THAT invested in GameStack
Hmm that’s interesting and unfortunate. Dunno how it would change things for them though. What happened exactly that made them lose all that market cap?
No idea. Probably UE ate their lunch with their tools for smaller developers (and Unity was historically associated with that) + they seem to be unable to find a clear path forward. Who knows.
It was even before UE5 launch I presume. But UE is growing and finding inroads into the movie industry (Unity also tries I guess? They made some acquisition regarding that). But the main thing I believe is that Epic has Fortnite money for everything they do in comparison to Unity. Epic also have a lot of ties with gaming industries so Epic also gets that support (contribution for platform holders etc)
The whole Unity had like 1b revenue. Compare it with Epic, who made more from a single game (their over revenue was 6b I guess?). And that’s without anything else (royalties from games and movies). I think Unity just doesn’t have resources to push Unity forward. They are kinda know in VR world, but VR is niche and bigger entities have their own engines. Maybe Facebook might try to acquire Unity?
IDK I might be bias but I disagree. SE west has a ton of massive IP which may of fell from grace but with good marketing could be restored to its former glory. Like tomb raider used to be massive and even now is one of the highest grossing IPs just being outside of the top 20 and they have others like dues ex for example which have more traction that other midway IPs, add in the fact that we are conparing 3 studios to 1 and the relationship (crystal dynamics helping with perfect dark and a ton of their games going to game pass) and I think they are very comparable personally.
Also Mortal Kombat is one of the big fighters but I wouldn’t call it the biggest personally. I believe in terms of series sales its currently number 1 but that changes very frequently within this genre. I would say Smash and Street fighter are more recognisable and main stream personally
I will have to agree to disagree here. I think street fighter is more recognisable than mortal kombat (just checked something and scratch the popular part but I still think street fighter is more recognisable though)
You’re arguing against quantitative data here: Mortal Kombat has sold millions upon millions more than Street Fighter for the last 15 years. In fact, until Monster Hunter World, Capcom had never surpassed eight million sales for a single title and the fact that Street Fighter never came close to even that figure is pretty telling; Mortal Kombat has sold at least that much with the last three titles. More so, Street Fighter is an older series with more entries released but has only sold 45 million copies compared to Mortal Kombat’s 73 million copies.
You can prefer SF, but pretending that it’s bigger than a series that’s sold nearly double is objectively false. Internet discourse does not equate to reality.
Edit: OP’s post was edited in the middle of my response, point still stands. Recognizability is directly related to sales/popularity.
I agree with Knottian here, overall I think Mortal Kombat is much bigger (which is also backed up by sales).
In the Asian markets I suspect that Street Fighter is still bigger than Mortal Kombat but the western markets are still bigger overall.
Also Street Fighter is likely the winner in the Arcades too.
The big thing in SF’s favour is that some younger audiences can play whereas MK is very graphic and also banned in some places because of this.
Also I think SF is often considered the better competitive fighter, because of things such as the block system (holding back rather than timing a trigger) so is generally favoured in gaming competitions etc.
The two biggest publisher MS bought (Zenimax and Acti-Bliz-King) had some kind of Exclusivity with Sony for there games ( Deathloop, Ghost wire, CoD marketing and zoombie modes exclusive)
MS may buy Square Enix
Just speculations, but after Acti-Bliz-King and Bungie acquisition, everything is possible.
Since the ABK purchase went through, I started the joke that Square-Enix is next solely for that reason
It’s purely a joke, and I don’t see that happening (or rather, I personally prefer SE to not be the next target, especially after they jettisoned SE West). I just find it a bit hilarious that Ninja Theory, Zenimax, and Activision all had exclusivity deals right up to Xbox acquiring them.
