With Fromsoft as well
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I agree MS could use some more support studios so I am with you on those, Asobo is a studio I am shocked they haven’t pick up after the success of flight sim, both CyberConnect2 and Plainum games are strong studios and good choices if MS wants to get a stronger presents in Japan, DON’TNOD games would honestly be a good fit with game pass’s stucture (same with telltale), Frontier Developments could make good AA experiences for game pass tbh and tycoon games are definitely a hole in MS liabary even if it isn’t as major as others, Hello Games could honestly be a good fit if we considering it from the perspective of something like sea of thevies or even arguably fallout 76 which had a similar path to no mans sky of being jokes but though updates getting a decently strong following, IO Interactive is great, moon studio’s is great but apparently fell out with xbox which sucks because they felt like a natrual fit IMO, Supergiant Games would be good to make indie games for xbox games pass, Supermassive Games are ok but I think their are better buys…I don’t think they have made a massive game since until dawn personally but thats just me, Capcom is great I love them, Pearl Abyss could be good…I think MMOs on game pass are a good fit but I think their are better choices in terms of publishers though, SEGA fits a ton of holes in MS’s line up, T2 is great and stuff like GTA online and the sports games makes them a great fit with game pass
…that is such bull, almost no SE game misses PS now, the only ones come to mind are the ones that are switch exclusive like bravely defult 2 and octopath traveler (which later came to xbox and not PS). A ton of capcom games have missed the switch
no they are both publicly traded so its equally as easy considering the only reason they exist to to maximise shareholder wealth (hell I could argue capcom is easier because they are just a gaming company while SE has other division like anime and manga)…I guess you can argue SE is in a worst position than capcom and that would be a fair argument but that has nothing to do with your arguments about relationship. A lot of companies are close with nintendo
I think EA is better too but not because of that. I think EA would be the better choice because it would give MS an insane dominance in the FPS genre (escpecially multiplayer wise) which would put others in a major disadvantage…I prefer T2 though
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Maybe in 90s lol. Capcom’s and Nintendo’s relationships is mainly via Monster Hunter, while Sony and Capcom’s relationships is mainly via Resident Evil. Sony and Square Enix relationships is basically one where SE is de facto Sony’s first party publisher (without acquisition) 
Capcom is the best and highest probability for Microsoft in Japan, because Capcom is the only one publisher that does not have ties with other industries. It fits quite nicely too - solid lineup of legendary IPs, most of them are active. Though after acquisition I guess Microsoft will keep Monster Hunter and SF available (unfortunately). But the good thing is that a lot of entries are gonna be released soon so the next ones might become exclusive (it is really hard to predict what Microsoft is gonna do there as most of japanese publishers (aside anecdotally Capcom) release a lot on Nintendo).
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Im gone to have to disagree with you on this Capcom is the least likely Acquisition i said it before i would be totally shocked if MS somehow do buy Capcom but with my Dr. Strange 14,000,605 future i don’t see Capcom in it lol
Square can sell parts of it and not the whole thing like how they sold to Embracer I know you love Capcom hell i would to but i see Sega as the more viable likely option
I believe nobody is gonna buy Square Enix for a time being. For Sony it does not make sense to acquire them in the first place and if there is a really interested party - they won’t be able to win the bidding war anyway. So it is better for Sony not to try to acquire SE in the first place in order not to trigger other big companies.
I think Tencent would like a word
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Tencent what? We don’t know if Tencent is interested in SE for now or not. We also don’t know the state of SE too - if we remember how ABK deal went, it also requires the solid roadmap, profitability plans and so on. Just because a company is willing to sell, it does not mean it is gonna be acquired.
I thought they would kinda be a good get for Microsoft because I felt their type of games would fit gamepass well
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I actually think this makes it more likely. Nordisc previously owned 40% of supermassive. Now that they own all, it would be an easier negotiation to either buy Nordisc or Supermassive. Not that I think this is likely compared to buying another major publisher.
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I stick to my assumption that Microsoft won’t acquire small studios unless it is a defensive purchase (and against Sony only). For the games that are good for Game Pass, they can make deals as first party studios would want to work on whatever they want so Microsoft won’t be able to force them to work on “fit Game Pass” games only.
Microsoft will go after big IPs with high engagement values so NRS is probably the only studio I can see them buying independently (unless they grab exclusive DC licenses from WB due to WB’s dire state). Other stuff will be publishers or other studios that own big IPs with high engagement values.
The pattern they have been going and we have heard was Gearbox, Bungie and the ones that went through were Bethesda and ABK. All had big IPs with high engagement values. They also allegedly tried to grab Sumo, but Tencent won the bidding (so they concluded that paying a lot for support studio was not worth it).
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…SE sold a branch they reported never meet sales expectations and was not doing well and IP which they were doing nothing with, that is a bit different to their largest division (same logic with SEGA). Its a different situation by a large mile, but once again your complents are on relationships which I could argue pretty validly is more of an issue for SEGA or Ubisoft
I will be real, I am not sure. I honestly wouldn’t write it off because of their huge stock fall but I feel like now a days they aren’t as big so I could see them being overlooked for a while. I wouldn’t be shocked if Sony did but I doubt it, out of the publishers I could see Sony going for SE arguably makes the most sense though (if you are curious, I could see them going for Square Enix, WB games, Arc Work Systems if you count that and maybe CD Project red)
I mostly agree but I wouldn’t write off them buying some smaller studio’s at all but I don’t see them going for many, I think they are way more focused on publishers at this point
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I don’t see Sony going after any publisher - they plainly just can’t afford it. WB? LoL. Arc Systems? Not sure why would Sony were to acquire them considering that they are making PS exclusive games most of the time anyway. CD Project? I also doubt. Sony’s recent patterns are all about GaaS. (BTW, did you check CDProject market cap right now? It is 2b! What a crazy drop from 11b 
)
And especially SE - I mean, why would you spend on SE if their main game you are interested in - which is - FF is moneyhatted years in advance? (Also I believe Forspoken director (or some old guy, don’t remember name) is the connection point between Sony and SE - I think he was also involved in FF in the past or something) And if it is a defensive purchase - Sony won’t be able to win the bidding war against any other serious buyers (like it happened with Leyou). So it is in Sony’s best interest not to be overly aggressive in acquisition war.
And if anybody brings Bungie as the example of Sony’s win we can say that SE won there because Microsoft decided to pull out due to ABK, not because Sony offered the higher price. Not to mention with Bungie being that strict with being multiplatform, Microsoft did not lose much at all.
Largely agree except for the Bungie part; we reported on Xbox looking to buy Bungie well before ABK was on the market (so-to-speak), and Jez later confirmed the validity of our reporting. Microsoft/Xbox walked away from the deal because Bungie wanted to remain independent and the cost compared to value to Xbox’s portfolio wasn’t justifiable to any potential gaps. After ABK, that latter point stands even more solidly. Given Bungie’s negotiations to remain multiplatform and exist as an independent subsidiary, nothing of value has inherently been lost as you mentioned.
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not really the right chat about this anyway so if you want to continue this go to the other acquisition chat but they can afford to make acquisitions, sure someone like EA is definitely out of reach but they could definitely afford to spend a few billion to acquire a publisher, I will be honest I think they will acquire WB games with NRS and a DC licensing agreement but that is just my opinion (I am speaking under the assumption they do sell WB games and WBD isn’t sold off as a whole or they decided to keep it). Arc doesn’t work exclusively with sony at all, a lot of games come to switch and even occasionally xbox but if they did it would just sort of help the argument since is a strong relationship in the same way housemarque was. CD Project I could see them grabbing because of the stop drop, they don’t really have any strong WRPG studios but its definitely the least likely from the list.
Disagree, defensive purchase doesn’t mean they are in a bidding war, it could mean they just want to grab them before someone else tries which makes more sense than sitting back and watch the industry you get the highest percentage of revenue from in their entire business just slowly disappear from them
The chances of that is close to zero. I would probably even bet on it not happening.
DC property is such a lucrative thing that Sony is nowhere near the level of a conversation where they can hope to acquire it. If DC properties are for sale (I presume we are talking about gaming), it will be a bloodbath between big tech giants. And if WB is for sale, it will be another bloodbath ((though WB had a big debt, so it might discourage some companies) between another set of tech giants. I wonder if EA would want to merge with WB-Discovery (lol)
Defensive purchase is when you acquire something that you originally did not plan to acquire but you had no other choice but to win the bidding war there. For the public companies (and we are talking about publishers) you cannot purchase anything defensively if there is somebody else who offers a bigger price.
People really overestimate the reach that Sony has.
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I’m pretty sure Kadokawa and Square is a target, and Sony will acquire it sooner or later.
Out of interest has there ever been a thread just for generic acquisition talk? I’m just wondering if it may be easier to manage as I notice that this thread often goes sideways (I’m often guilty of this).
E.g. talking about acquisitions outside of Xbox/PS but in the gaming industry, for example EA merging with TakeTwo or someone else.
Alot of the time there is also some crossover between the threads e.g. Xbox should do this before/in case Sony do this (or after they acquire someone).
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