I do not see Asobo anytime soon, it will not change the needle one bit, and Asobo is full of contracts, got recently some money influx from a funding group, Sagard NewGen, and I think they feel ok to be free.
Only reason I would see CD and EM, which have no reason to be seen as a package, would be that Embracer got panicked, but I do not see them selling CD since the studio is fully working on PD on one side and on Tomb Raider for Amazon on the other side.
To be clear, this is a poll of what you think will happen rather than what you want to happen.
Yes. If they want to be on track to $30B by 2030 then they need more to get there.
I think it might be a mobile dev or publisher though.
I really don’t know, I could see them not buying anything as ABK is a huge undertaking to implement into the organisation
But I can also see them still buying when they know others will be looking to buy, I do think whatever they buy this year it will be mobile focused, I don’t expect the Asobo’s, IOI, CD, Eidos etc
I think they gotta let somebody else go next in terms of buying a pub. Only exception is WB, as the game dev side could be seen as collateral
If we go by Microsoft’s Gaming ambitions, then yes, they will have to continue making acquisitions, especially on the mobile side and a sprinkle of AAA studios every now and then.
But MS won’t be making huge moves in gaming on the scale of Bethesda or ABK soon, because they will try to remain agile in the AI space, and have investment ready for any new breakthroughs.
Don’t expect any acquisitions until the FTC gives the ABK deal a rest, that might take a big chunk of 2024. But I’d be surprised if there wasn’t any new addition by the end of 2024.
I think some smaller studios are definitely possible. Wouldn’t surprise me to see 3/4 mobile acquisitions this year, and maybe 1-2 other studios to incorporate into XGS.
Would cement even more that Xbox is the home for western RPGs, would be a very smart choice imo.
Mobile focus makes the most sense given the are aiming to launch a mobile store soon. Or they go for a publisher that has a strong mobile arm plus console and/or PC development.
So pretty much SEGA 
I was just taking a look at the most played PlayStation games, following the ‘Ultimate 2023’ PS review and CDPR was present consistently, either with Witcher or Cyberpunk. As you say it would literally cement Xbox as the home of RPG and boost their MAU even further.
Outside of the big publishers (Epic, EA, T2, WB & Ubisoft), I also noticed the following were in the top 15-20 all year.
I think Xbox might lean towards mobile (e.g. Roblox & Genshin).
Xbox may now have the most engaging games (on console) from any publisher post ABK (previously this was EA).
I would love to see that, but I feel there might be other priority targets.
Edit: I forgot Sega acquired Rovio.
I could see one or two strategic studio purchases but mobile does make the most sense for a couple of reasons. The mobile store is the biggest but valuations in the mobile space have been hit pretty hard in the last couple of years so Microsoft will be evaluating some of the big players in the space to see what could give them the best return:
Now that I think about it, Mobile studio purchases would be pretty smart.
There’s an opportunity of taking their big IP to mobile and they haven’t done a great job so far. Halo Spartan Assault should have been a console game, not a mobile game. Forza Customs is just a match 3 game with the Forza name slapped on.
Natural Motion (yes the physics based character animation developers) made a drag racing game that made them a ton of money: half a billion dollars revenue with CSR2.
So you have a team that specializes in animating humans that create a racing game worth $500 million with one title that is now 7 years old, and then you have Microsoft publish a Match-3 game to represent Forza. Someone make it make sense.
Having some studios that are in tune with what mobile gamers want take on some of this IP would be great. (Something similar to Gran Turismo B-spec but on mobile would be incredible.)
Buy Take 2 for Zynga. Get GTA free.
Sea of thieves and State of Decay should be on mobile. I think SOT will blow up once it goes mobile.
Not happening. I would think if this rumors of launching another nextgen console between 2026/27 is true they will want to have been done with any necessary acquisitions before then. Their next acquisition could probably come from South Korea as a lot of devs there tend to focus on mobile.
I just dont see TakeTwo (or EA) happening post ABK - not in the 2020’s anyway.
It appears MoonActive and Playrix are doing better than Zynga anyway and won’t get anywhere near the same level of scrutiny.
I have no clue why Microsoft haven’t attempted to make Viva Pinata mobile game. I think that franchise got the ingredients to make it work
