I agree with this thought. I could even see Xbox closing “The Initiative” after PD finally releases, especially if it doesn’t garner acclaim. It’s been a costly studio to run, with 6 years dev time - ongoing and having to contract major development. Xbox’s strategy has changed since the major acquisitions post The Initiative project. Xbox is happy to sign 2nd party dev contracts tho, and they could continue working with CDE in the future.
Doubt. I believe The Initiative itself is small and had some rough road to find their groove, but wasn’t it Grubb who said things smoothed out?
If the studio finally found it’s footing as game designers, where they contract out the dev of it then that relationship sounds like what MS wants to see more of.
The year has just started and SEGA has already released 2 games rated around 90% in less than a month. I think it will be the publisher of the year 2024. I hope SEGA will be the next publisher to join the Xbox family.
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Very unlikely when they were struggling to get ABK through at the time.
I don’t think anyone knows what Embracer is doing at this point, let alone whether they are willing to sell or not.
Layoffs will happen with any large acquisition. If people want to avoid that then they should root for individuals development studios
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Even then some of the founders of those indie studios are going to take the money if a good deal comes along.
Maybe so but they’ve had the chance to work with both Eidos and CD to make a determination. I don’t think any of those studios are in the cards for them seems more like they prefer co- development as we now have inXile working with shapeshifter studios. There is also the notion that by doing these studios like CD and Eidos could reform as a new studio to do co-developing or supporting studio works. The way things are looking chances are Xbox could just start signing partnerships and maybe go for acquisitions agin in the future.
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Xbox has become the literal lifeline for several Embracer studios. I guess acquisition can be a possibility after shipping the games, if they are successfull obviously, last days should have told everyone MS is no charity whatsoever.
One more bad news… Sad time for the industry.
I don’t think Microsoft is buying support studios. If Microsoft buys studios, they will be well-managed studios with real added value for Xbox (IP/Profitability). Microsoft will continue to work with contract workers. This could be an opportunity for Embracer to get work and money. I’d also like some studio acquisitions, but I feel like Xbox prefers to grow with publishers at the moment.
With the legal cases, layoffs, and recent executive statements, I think we’ll give up on most publishers (EA, Take Two, Ubisoft, Embracer, Warner). I don’t see Microsoft entering the film and television industry with Warner anymore. I don’t think that’s part of their plan. They will just continue to develop Xbox which has become their third biggest business.
At this stage, SEGA and Square Enix are the only possibilities on the market regarding publishers and this coincides perfectly with Microsoft’s needs (PC, Mobile, Asia, GP). I can’t imagine any other publisher than these two. I think we’ll have to wait until ABK is fully integrated and the FTC drops the deal before we see the next big acquisition (in Asia).
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Are you expecting an acquisition announcement next week?
-Acquisition of 6 Studios in 2018 (Ninja Theory, Undead Labs, Playground Games, Compulsion Games, Obsidian, InXile)
-Double Fine: in June 2019
-Bethesda: September 21, 2020
-ABK: January 22, 2022
-? : February 2024
There seems to be an acquisition approximately every 2 years (except Double Fine in 2019)
If they become third party or partially third party publishers I can imagine that a big acquisition would force them to do so.
I think that something like Take Two makes sense, it’s no longer Phil Spencer who takes care of acquisitions (in 2018 the acquisitions of Studios were aimed at the creativity of the teams and I think Bethesda was still part of this category) But ABK was bought to make money and especially monthly active users as well as Mobile. This decision probably came from higher up than Phil Spencer and I think it’s something that is likely to happen again.
Microsoft has the largest non-F2P licenses in the industry
- Minecraft -World of Warcraft -The Elder Scrolls
we are talking about community games which are still massively played 10 years after their release (World of Warcraft is approaching its 20th anniversary)
GTA is the only paid IP in the industry that can still do this.
https://twitter.com/NilOggier/status/1518557941955182593
now imagine GTA VI Day One Gamepass and $80 on other platforms it could make the service take off like never before and give Microsoft hundreds of millions of additional MAU
GTA V is still in the top 10 most played games on XBOX with Call of Duty, Minecraft, NBA2K and Red Dead Redemption 2 is in the Top 20.
Take Two is still for sale and in the leaked list of potential acquisitions from Microsoft Zynga was a candidate seriously considered.
If they acquire Take Two I can understand that they would have to release all the games on other platforms and that would be logical.
If the rumours are true which I believe parts of them are then there won’t be anymore day one in game pass.
And Xbox won’t have anymore exclusives
I seriously doubt that this part about no longer seeing games on the 1st day in the Gamepass is true (it comes from Timdog and he has never really been an insider) the Gamepass is essentially the Netflix of video games that means that the production Microsoft must be the first day in the service
Phil Spencer once said that Gamepass was profitable
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True but they could move to the Disney Plus route where it comes to game pass 6 months or more later. I do t see any acquisitions being announced next week.
Hope it ends this madness
They won’t announce an acquisition for a while. They are laying off employees and the FTC case is still on the table. Let them already integrate ABK before moving on to the next acquisition.
Concerning the future of Xbox. I talked about it on the other topic. If they stop console production and become third party. I think the best solution would be to buy Steam and make PC their primary platform. PC is a growing market and Steam has a huge user base that has been investing in the platform for over 20 years. On Steam they would get 100% of revenue from Microsoft Studios games and 30% of revenue from third party games + 70% of revenue from Microsoft Studios games released on Playstation and Nintendo. It’s a much bigger and more lucrative market than what they have now. They could also continue the hardware with Steam Deck by marketing it on a large scale. Xbox and Playstation consoles are too similar. With Steam Deck, Microsoft would have a really interesting product that stands out from the competition.
Regarding the evolution of GP, I think they will only offer Microsoft Studios games 6/12 months after their release. Yes GP is profitable, but I doubt it is financially attractive enough for them to continue releasing games on day one. It will be less interesting for players, but they will still be able to have access to a nice library for a few dollars per month. Especially if they buy one or two more publishers with a huge back catalog like SEGA or Square Enix. They could integrate GP with Steam and offer a version of GP for Playstation and Nintendo. It will be more niche but it will bring in money and it won’t stop games from being sold. Concerning Xcloud, I think it will disappear. It’s a fiasco, there are much better services and that could prevent them from making other acquisitions.
So to summarize:
- Stopping production of Xbox consoles
- Transition to third party
- Stopping XCloud
- GP Evolution
- Acquisition of Steam and making Steam Deck their Hardware
- Acquisition of 1 or 2 more publishers
- Make great games for everyone and playable by everyone
They would likely surpass Tencent and become the largest publisher in the industry. The only negative point is that Playstation would no longer have a direct competitor, but that’s more or less already the case, right?
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I really hope a new acquisition would be blocked this time by the EU and/or CMA.
With the way everything is going I don’t want MS to be an even bigger entity in gaming.
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While this topic of conversation is fascinating, let’s dial back a bit and focus on acquisitions, this is what this thread is all about. Sorry if that sounded too rude.
Different topic: Hare Brained Schemes is officially an indie studio once more. Do you think this is one of those studios that would benefit greatly by becoming a part of the Xbox Family of Studios or not?
I don’t really agree with the statement but that’s your opinion so i will not say much, however do remember that it has been stated that there is word around of hardware being a thing still for the foreseeable future, but we will see who all turns out next week alright? So let’s move on from the topic, please?
I would agree with you, the only benefit of acquiring is studios, not publishers. They already have a field day ahead of the curb.
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I love this idea. Valve is a privately owned company. Should be easier to try and buy. Gabe is getting up there in age. Maybe offer him and his friends a boat load of money.
I’m not sure if the rules differ for privately held companies, but I would expect there’s practically 0 chance it would ever get through regulators.
I think it be easier actually. Private company agree to sell. Goes through FTC, CMA, EU. Agree to stuff, don’t take anything away from any place. PC is a open platform. Anyone can try and make a store like Steam, example Epic Game Store. There is no monopoly there as long as you don’t take stuff away.