I’ll always be on the Sega train 
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Although realistically if they go after an Asian publisher it has to be Sega or Square right?
I personally can’t see Capcom, Konami or Bandai etc.
Plus Sega has mobile…
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Sega has always been the most sensible acquisition of Japanese publishers, I’m just over it with everything going on in the industry and rest of the world.
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He also mentioned China in the article, which means we shouldn’t focus solely on Japan. China is obviously a huge growth market (look at Wukong) and there is also a lot of stuff coming out of Korea.
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I know what you mean, however capitalism is unfortunately inevitable 
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Yes I was surprised to see China, not because of the potential growth but the potential political/security issues that would come with it. For example under 18’s only being allowed to play online video games 1 hour per day.
Typically you see American companies do partnerships with Chinese companies rather than direct acquisitions. Similar to how Xbox have been working with Tencent.
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WE ARE SO BACK !
Take Two is next
I think Microsoft should acquire WB Games
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I don’t think we should dwell on his statement regarding the Asian market Phil Spencer has been saying this for years well before the acquisition of Bethesda and Activision Blizzard they will probably acquire another American publisher
Doubt we will get anything like a Epic, EA or T2 being discussed again until at least 2028 or beyond.
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He talks about mobile acquisitions and Take Two owns Zynga (which Microsoft wanted to buy according to the leaks) then he adds “for now” in his sentence. Which means that there will probably still be very big acquisitions a lot of things can evolve very quickly if an opportunity presents itself.
I don’t want to get too political here, however they won’t get another big acquisition through the current FTC.
Even if Trump decides to reshape the FTC when he’s inaugurated in 2025, it’s going to take significant time and there’s still the CMA and EU. Therefore I think we’re years away from any of the big three happening again (with Microsoft anyway).
Yes, he talks about mobile however there’s also smaller mobile publishers like Playrix and Dream Games which the last time I looked was doing better than Zynga.
Plans change, we also found out they were looking at Bungie again, but it worked out in their best interest that they didn’t get them didn’t it?
EDIT: found a chart (2024 TBC )
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Yes, but by buying Zynga, they are not only buying Zynga, but Take Two and therefore GTA, which is the most profitable entertainment product in the world. GTA V alone generated more than $8 billion.
I don’t think there’s a world where the CMA and EU would even entertain MS purchasing the next-largest third-party publisher after ABK, I know you want this to happen, but unless there are some monumental shifts in those organizations, it’s not happening. That’s aside from all the industry turmoil it would create on top of what we’re already experiencing.
As I stated earlier, I’m off board at this point but if there are any other publishers, it will have to be smaller ones to align with previous points of contention from said orgs.
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Which is why it wouldn’t ever get through any regulator after ABK (in our current climate). Neither would EA or Epic IMO.
Please explain how you would think any regulator would perceive that as competitive for the market?
As Daniel said there would need to be some humongous shift, for example Apple (which already has Apple Arcade) coming in and buying EA in order for Microsoft to have any compelling argument to say acquiring T2 provides competition.
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From the moment you opt for a multi-support strategy and you release GTA everywhere (even on Nintendo if that is possible with the future console) I do not see how the CMA could refuse you can transfer the Cloud rights to a third party. Microsoft still generates less than Tencent and Sony they are 3rd in the industry. GTA would just increase Microsoft’s revenues but they would still be behind Tencent.
Microisoft is looking to get games with long longevity (10 years or more) games like World of Warcraft are 20 years old, Minecraft is 10 years old, Skyrim is still played (The Elder Scrolls VI will be played for 10 years) GTA fits perfectly into this type of game x.com
How could the regulator ensure that Xbox continued to release all of T2’s games (including GTA) on other platforms the day after they approved it?
You saw how much turmoil there was with COD. Xbox had to make those ten year deals to get the deal through. The regulators aren’t going to agree to another ten year deal and Xbox are definitely not going to agree to it permanently.
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XBOX just wants to make money you don’t make money with exclusives it would be absurd to remove games like Minecraft and CoD from other platforms. Exclusives are just to sell a little more hardware but selling hardware is useless a MAU is something much more interesting especially on an online game / service
It doesn’t at all; consolidation regulation isn’t just about IP but about entities becoming too large for the risk of creating a monopoly. There’s plenty of history to confirm what I’m saying but if you want to ride that hopium train, I won’t stop you; just don’t get upset when people point out why it’s likely not happening (which you haven’t, and I appreciate).
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I’m not going to get upset about it, on the contrary I like debate, arguments and disagreements. It’s part of a healthy discussion. But I still think that Take Two is the most likely buyout ^^
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They more likely to partner with Tencent/Netease in China than acquire some company, unless they want to create a mobile gaming hub there along with the Activision Shanghai studio they already own.
South Korea/Japan would be the likely places for acquisition for more traditional games but at the moment I think they are more concerned with making money off mobile to keep the business growing fast.
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Which is the argument that Xbox tried to make several times with the FTC, CMA and EU and were forced to do the ten year deal to prove they would…
In ten years time Xbox and PlayStation could have ditched consoles altogether, and instead have apps on our TV’s. If this were to happen don’t you think there a chance when this happens Xbox could make everything exclusive to their app? Similar to how Disney and Netflix get people to use their apps via exclusive content?
The argument is not necessarily about now but preventing a monopoly in the future.
Even as of today I think Microsoft have the IP’s to potentially do that if they wanted to, especially now they have COD. Their current IP’s are bigger than Sony IMO anyway.
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