It doesn’t take a savant to know that Microsoft will buy something else in due time.
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I still kinda think MS will make a move for all of WB Discovery one day
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They’re not going to pick Capcom and Capcom has said publicly they are not interested in acquisition especially now that they are doing well. I also don’t think it’s that easy to be hopping around. They have been focused on Sega so if anything, it will be Sega.
I wonder if Microsoft’s new love for multiplatform games will affect what type and size of studio/publisher(unlikely) they buy. I think they are done purchasing studios like double fine, ninja theory aka smaller studios that fill gamepass with good unique titles.
So instead of funding riskier titles from 1st party, they will probably buy day one gamepass for a lot less (33 expeditions for ex.) and focus 1st party on more known quantities with lower risks similar to what Sony does nowadays.
It seems more likely now that they will buy strong IPs (hitman/Tomb raider) to reduce risk of failure or games with strong niches like dead by daylight.
I imagine SE will need a buyer if things don’t pick up for them. MS could get them relatively cheap and get another big RPG genre covered.
And I think it would be a non-event for most folks because it would almost assuredly all stay multi-platform. Heck, if anything I would expect Microsoft to see to it that new FF, Kingdom Hearts, and DQ all release across as many platforms as possible, including Switch 2.
One of the major benefits of doing the “multiplat” strat is is makes future purchases much easierand yes, if Xbox was to pick up any future publisher they’d all be multiplat
Especially a Japanese publisher like Square and I think an eastern publisher will happen, feels inevitable but it wont be for years
Also King isn’t going to know something like this, nobody outside of higher ups at MS would, he was either doing his usual trolling thing or he was just saying what he predicts will happen
Correct. It was only a single lawyer no longer working on the case. The falsehoods spread quickly on this one. The truth though is not being shared and spread.
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Found the posts I shared in the discord within 3 minutes of doing a quick search the other day when the one tweet was making the rounds. This is so simple and quick to fact check too.
PLEASE TAKE NOTICE that James Weingarten hereby withdraws as attorney of record for counsel supporting the complaint in the above-captioned matter.
EDIT: The case filing timeline is here and seems to be updated with new filings:
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Yeah this was all I’d seen either. Thanks for confirming
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Xbox will absolutely make further acquisitions, however this is clearly bait.
The FTC case is still ongoing.
It is just plain wrong the dude never said that. The video excerpt is below on what he said.
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Thanks for sharing.
So he said he thinks they may go after Square next (or do some kind of partnership) but did not stipulate a timeframe, he also said they might go with Sega instead as they both made the most sense.
I tend to agree with King here, for Xbox they do make the most sense, even though I’m not a fan of Square personally.
Outside of another huge publisher which realistically I think they would struggle with (regulation wise) they do seem to make the most sense.
I personally would still say Ubisoft but they can’t acquire them until the ABK cloud deal is over and WB Games on its own doesn’t really make sense licensing wise (they would have to acquire all of WBD).
I don’t think they will go after individual studios either.
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I’ve never actually heard a good argument for why Sammy would sell Sega. It’s where all the growth for the company is nowadays, and they’re only a few years out from the time where they would’ve died in COVID induced disaster if it hadn’t been for Sega saving their ass. Getting 10 billion or whatever shoved at you isn’t worth much if all your long term growth prospects are now gone.
I think it depends for who?
As an average shareholder a big payout will be very enticing, especially as they can reinvest those profits into larger volumes of stocks elsewhere where they will likely make even more money.
If the shareholders have some form of love for SEGA sure you could justify it but I imagine the majority will simply be there to make money.
I think partnership as it’s what they seem to be doing as of late. It’s less risky as well. They would probably also want to get their feet properly in first before going for a publisher.
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The only argument the board and major shareholders would need is that the payout is more than what they believe they could achieve otherwise on their own. I’m sure they could sell off or merge the other parts of the business having to do with casinos, pachinko machines, etc.
Sega seems to be doing well as of the recent years, so there is probably fair amount of confidence in the management team to continue steering things in the right direction for growth and/or a reliable return.
Microsoft’s acquisitions have largely (entirely?) been with studios or publishers in a tough spot in one way or another. SE and WB are more aligned to the opportunities Xbox appeared to go for in the past.
All that said, barring any amazing deal to scoop up more big IP, or a need to play defensive to keep Apple, Amazon or Netflix from taking IP away from Xbox, I would prefer to see Microsoft partner over acquire.
I think we will get a clearer idea what they’re going to do after the next console hardware iteration. Especially if they do reveal the rumoured ‘open marketplace’ PC hybrid.
Partnerships are great but they’ve backfired on Xbox before. IP ownership is ultimately how they can ‘control’ the market as it gives them all the cards in various negotiations.
If they do take a more ‘open’ approach then I’m confident that they will keep acquiring big IP and just make it multiplatform (not that I want them to after the recent closures). Then once everything is just a ‘app’ on all devices (TV, Phones, Tablets etc) I suspect they will just lock it all down again to the Xbox app as technically it would still be ‘available everywhere’.
The thing is an open market means many more can play. We’re all thinking of the major stores on PC but every big publisher could essentially have their own storefront when Xbox brings this handheld to market. You might get an EA store, a Ubisoft store, Rockstar store and so on and so forth. In that kind of market certainly Sega, Capcom, SE and many more could choose to sell their wares directly through their own stores. The way I’m looking at it an open platform could lead to a single platform format like we 've had with movies which could also significantly expand the market. Sega would be a harder buy once all this starts happening. In my opinion they should head to South Korea and gobble up a publisher like Blueside which is small enough to avoid regulatory scrutiny. We will get a good picture of things at the upcoming TGS.
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I think it depends on how you look at it, yes to begin with it could lead to more segregation (via separate stores), however long-term I think it will be more like Movies & TV.
If you look at the way in which people currently consume content, they are locked behind their unique apps (stores) such as your Netflix, Prime, Disney+ and HBO etc, however those apps (stores) can be accessed via any hardware device. In addition they often (especially Netflix) top-up their apps (stores) with other third party content and even sometimes share their own content with other apps (for example I have seen Prime & Hulu content on Apple TV before).
The main difference would be the Box Office, however ultimately I don’t think it would too different.