Xbox Acquisition |OT7| Come on down for your chance to win on “Who will Xbox buy next?!”

I think there are a number of things Microsoft is pushing for and would like to have the cash to go if it works out so I’d say they would be looking for something on the Zenimax level and not Activision like. I think the tides are changing so the idea of going for EA or T2 doesn’t seem feasible. I also think they have more than enough in the west. Let’s not forget Activision recently opened a studio in Poland to work on a triple A project and with Xbox expanding to multiplatform games like Halo and Gears are certain to get bumped to COD level in popularity. Ubisoft has way too much staff the only way I think it works is if they become primarily support studios for Xbox projects. I think Xbox can expand their studios in the west if need be, to handle any deficiency I also think with the global turmoil Asia would be an important get. Sega like you said seems to be good on their own. I’m not sure they would be interested in selling anymore and Capcom is also out of reach besides I think relationship plays a huge deal and Sony has a much better relationship with Capcom, Square and others. Mobile is definitely a big play but with Google and Apple not playing ball I don’t see the point in chasing it. In my opinion the handheld would be Xbox best chance at starting something new or a push into their idea of mobile.

I don’t really see how those acquisitions don’t feel feasible after Microsoft bought Activision under far harsher regulatory scrutiny, the FTC will be much more lax under Trumps administation and the CMA has recently been restructed, if anything it feels far more feasible presently than the ABK deal did, escpecially considering the biggest talking point of console exclusivity is dead since Microsoft is going 3rd party, on top of that I don’t see Microsoft saying no to a deal because they think they have enough studios in the western world, that line of thinking doesn’t really make logical sense because if it did they wouldn’t of closed Tango, their only studio that is located in the continent of Asia. As for Ubisoft they would definitey need to do a lot of work aka studio closures and lay offs (realistically Ubisoft should only have 15 studios max considering their size) but Ubisoft is a fixxer upper acquisition considering their stock is tanking, their games on paper should be easy to develop & they have incredibly valuable IP, assassins creed alone is probably worth a billion and the tom clancy IP is probably worth another billion…also I don’t see Halo or Gears even touching battlefield for a long time live alone CoD personally, even if made multiplat.

I mean Square funnily enough has a hisory of not being very loyal consider their jump from nintendo to PS to almost selling to microsoft into the 90s/early 2000s and that has continued considering the MS leak that confirmed they did talk to them again about acquisitions so I think they would honestly be pretty open to acquisition, and I think SEGA is hard to read but that is mainly due to Sammy, their is a 0% chance Sammy SEGA would just sell off their gaming division, Microsoft would need to buy it all or not buy them at all but thy could just either spin off Sammy or sell them off post acquisition (personally I think they should approach Konami with a sale where they sell Konami sammy with a 10 year pachinko licensing agreement for their gaming division but that is my just my perspective). As for Capcom, yeah I don’t see them selling.

I mean, it really depends on EU rulings but even if more store fronts don’t become avalible on mobile, expanding their mobile presences seems likely considering that is the sector of gaming that is likely to experience the largest growth and even if the EU ends up not forcing more storefronts being easy to access on mobile we don’t know that yet so Microsoft will likely be operating in the mind set that it might happen and if it does it is better to be prepare to have an insane offering day 1 pulling major games off apples & googles storefront

They don’t seem feasible to me simply cos at this time Microsoft is more set on A.I and according to reports consideration of buying TikTok and even though the political atmosphere has changed like you say the ongoing trade wars and War politics is beginning to bear fangs which are not great for business prospects. Tango is in my opinion a poor example; we could equally talk about Xbox closing Lionhead or Arcane. I think there are other factors behind closing or selling Tango I should say. I don’t think the line of thinking to center all your studios in the west makes sense either. For Phil Spencer to keep touting 3 billion plus gamers the idea that going for some of these publishers will reach them doesn’t add up to me. You have games in Asia that have close to a billion players. Asia alone has almost 2 billion players and a huge amount of content they engage in is either Asian in origin or more from Asian developers. I don’t think Xbox multiplat strategy is just for console but as they say everything as in Xbox everywhere. Halo and Gears going big are just my opinion but last time I checked Halo was bigger than Battlefield at least the last one as I recall EA complaining of how Halo stole their thunder. I also just think with COD Xbox could push the Halo fame to new heights. With EA I see too much duplication of similar IPs and they have lost the FIFA license. Also EA and Take 2 will each cost over 40 billion dollars. I would be shocked to see them spend this much in gaming anytime soon.

I’ll differ to you on this though Sega seems to be doing quite well now, and they seem to be bringing back a lot of their IPs even bringing in a new Virtua fighter. One of the games I thought Xbox needed was Sonic or at least a cool platformer like that.

Like you said this is the biggest, but the opposition is also there and pretty severe. What the EU did wasn’t enough and it could take years before they can do anything really. Even Phil was talking about exploring other ways. I know it’s a far cry but, in a way, I do wonder couldn’t Microsoft idea of handheld gaming boom into something so big it gets to the Mobile space maybe even replace it as the new DeFacto device. I mean if you put a camera in and communication tech in a ROG or Steam Deck they could act like phones just somewhat bigger. I know there is more to it.

Strategically, Square makes sense as it has yet to cross the multi-plat day one threshold and they’re at a low point in terms of company value. It would come with a lot of IP, including a very popular GaaS game with FFXIV, and likely grow in popularity and sales as its largest IPs shift to being everywhere possible. I know it looks like SE is making effort towards a multi-plat approach, but that will probably take some time to see fully materialize.

Sega and Capcom are similar in that they’re both on an upward trend and have crossed the threshold into a day one multi-plat motion. They both have strong management teams, leading their companies to new highs, and it wouldn’t make a lot of sense to sell now unless they believe they’ve maxed out their respective value.

I will never understand the want for Ubisoft. From a financial health perspective, it’s not in a good place. Blending an operation of that size that needs a lot of cuts to get healthy, with Microsoft’s finance team wanting to see the Xbox gaming division’s profit margin improve, implies a high probability of a bloodbath. And something like that might even mean cuts across the entirety of the Xbox division. No, thanks.

All that said, it still doesn’t seem like the right time for the Xbox team to bite off anything larger than a studio or two. Or maybe something like Crytek that’s pretty small these days but comes with a trove of IPs.

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Which games are these?

From that perspective yes, however long-term their IP’s are fantastic especially at their current value.

Assassin’s Creed, Splinter Cell, Rayman, FarCry, Just Dance, Rabbids, Prince of Persia, and Tom Clancy etc.

They are well established, beloved and offer lots of variety. Also many of these have co-op/live service elements which would be ideal for GP.

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I can’t see past the bloodbath that would happen by being outright acquired by a publicly traded company.

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Microsoft can focus on multiple segments at a time, for instance they were in talks to buy zenimax & WB games at the same time they were in talks to buy tiktok in 2019, microsoft has a mountine of laywers for a reason and after Activision the price argument doesn’t really hold much weight anymore considering they dropped almost the value of both T2 & EA in a single acquisition so I don’t see any reason to say it isn’t feasible, and EA while having some overlap also holds massive control in mobile which is key for Microsoft and is probably the biggest publisher in the sports genre, a game genre Microsoft has 0 stake in. As for Tango, they were microsofts only Asian studio, sure their were probably other factors in closing them down but the fact is if Microsoft saw an Asian presence as high priority they would of kept them around for the sake of that Asian/Japanese presence. Also Halo Infinite is free to play while battlefield 2042 isn’t, despite that Battlefield normally has a higher player count on steam. Also for Asia’s 2 Billion gamers are mostly mobile, escpically Chinese mobile gamers, so if Microsoft wants to reach them it makes much more sense to make a partnership or joint venture with a company like Tencent, Netease or some other Chinese company who will make mobile games from Microsofts franchises targeted towards the Asian (specifically Chinese) audience.

I mean if Microsoft needs platformers they are sleeping on a lot, just from the top of my head conker, Banjo Kazooie, Crash, Spyro, Phyconauts and Ori. I would argue the biggest holes for SEGA to fill would be JRPG with ATLUS, Fighting games with Virtual Fighter & puzzle games with Pyo Pyo.

highly doubt it, unless the xbox handheld is going to draw in the casual crowd who doesn’t care about gaming and only plays candy crush it won’t beat the phone market

I don’t really want Ubisoft, I don’t like them, I just screams its a good time to buy and it should be easy to turn them around even if that does result in a blood bath which in reality will happen regardless as Ubisoft is far too bloated so their company will see a lot of cuts if that is by Microsoft, Ubisoft or someone else buying them e.g. Tencent. Ubisoft just seems logical, escpecially if their value continues to go down.

Yep and Ubisoft only has a market cap of about $1.5 billion so lets say they sell for a solid premium so they sell for $2 billion…Assassins Creed and Tom Clancy are both probably worth a billion each so you are getting Ubisoft for real cheap if you think about it like that. Ubisoft is on hard times and is good to buy low. Its less that I want it to happen (I couldn’t care less about Ubisoft) but more it makes sense to happen & they aline with Microsofts new stratagy of mobile, strong IP and multiplatform potential, even if they would require a fair amount of work to turn around.

I don’t get what you mean by this, every rumour of Ubisoft signifies this happening anyway, even the ones saying they would go private say Tecent would own at least 50% of the private Ubisoft and Tencent is publicly traded so if you want to think about it that way you should be asking which Devil would you prefer, this being said a blood bath feels inevitable considering how bloated Ubisoft is, I don’t see a way around it

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One of them is crossfire which had more than 650 million accounts and about 240 million monthly players in 2020. I believe there are now over 1 billion subscribers and installations. The rest here are just from google. Mobile Legends: Bang Bang boasts a massive player base, with over 110 million monthly active users and over 1.465 billion installations. Several mobile games in Asia have amassed over 500 million players, including PUBG Mobile, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, and Arena of Valor, along with the WeChat mini-game Tiao Yi Tiao

Keep in mind that Microsoft would have to find a buyer for the ABK cloud rights. It’s just easier to avoid the entire headache by skirting clear of Ubisoft and their gigantic workforce.

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I mean, depends, it could be a plus in all honestly if Microsoft thinks the regulatory landscape has shifted enough to the point where the CMA wouldn’t care since we know the FTC almost certainly won’t care now and the EU never cared, but that is dependent on factors no one knows outside of Microsoft, Ubisoft & the regulatory bodies since we don’t know how the details of the contract work, we don’t really now how the CMA will be from now on and we don’t really know enough on how the CMA will act considering they are still relatively a new force when compared to the FTC or EU since brexit only happened roughly 5 years ago, regardless I think Ubisoft will almost definitely be acquired this year if that be by Microsoft, Sony, Tencent, another big tech e.g. Amazon or even an already existing gaming company like EA or something

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Outside of Tencent or PE I don’t see anyone eager to bring in a workforce of 19000+ employees.

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PE? Who are they, regardless I agree but that is why I called them a fixxer upper company, you can buy them for pennys on the dollar and restructure their company and most of the bigger gaming companies have shown they aren’t scared of laying people off, closing down studios ect. with the sole exception of Nintendo so I don’t see why Microsoft would be scared of doing that

Private Equity.

I don’t think you are appreciating the size of the workforce. For Sony they would be increasing their headcount by nearly 1.5x. Nintendo would be nearly 2.8x. Plus the headaches of downsizing in country like France is just unnecessary headaches.

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I am reconizing the issues otherwise I would call them a perfect company lol, obviously Ubisoft has issues but the benefits of getting some of the biggest gaming IP and some solid studios outweight that in my head, it also isn’t like all their studios are located in france, only 11 are so while yes still a lot it isn’t like every studio needs to follow the French employeement laws when it comes to stuff like layoffs, Microsoft wouldn’t need to deal with those laws with all 20,000 employees, I haven’t looked into employee counts for those 11 studios but even with a generous estemation of maybe 20% of their studios making up 5,000 employees feels managable. Annoying depending on microsofts evaluation on the studios need to stick around sure but managable

Kotick sees Asia in particular the Chinese as the new competitors that could dominate the entire gaming sphere. It would seem to Kotick Asia would be the better bet.

Can I have a time stamp for him saying Asia is the better better. I remember him saying China was the primary threat but I don’t recall him saying Asia is the best bet for acquisitions/expansion. Regardless once again, wouldn’t it make more sense to form a joint venture with a company like Netease which helps make mobile titles of Microsofts franchises targeted towards an Asian or specifically Chinese market.

Ah I see, there are a number of issues with using installations/download numbers for example users downloading/installing multiple times.

I remember when Subway Surfer was pre-installed on a large majority of Chinese manufactured phones which obviously skewed numbers.

I would say monthly active players is a far more reliable figure to use.

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Im curious what everyone would think about xbox buying studio’s and IP piecemeal from companies like Ubisoft,WB and Embracer. This would allow them to get specific IP with studios that are already set up with a desire to work on it. Think CD with Tomb raider, Eidos whith Deus, ubisoft with prince of persia or WB with MK or TT games with E rated content. Smaller buyout numbers so governing bodies are not so focused on it. It seems as if these 3 publishers are in dire need of a cash influx and employee reductions perhaps if they are desperate enough xbox can sweep in and cherry pick exactly what they want.

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I mean that would be the ideal situation with those publishers but the question is would they go along with it as Embracer feels like they are done off loading for now, TT Games & Neather realm would probably be the big gets from WB so it could risk losing any eyes on selling their gaming division as a whole which is what I think WB probably wants to do and Ubisoft probably won’t want to sell their money makers since it could be just delaying the inevitable rather than stabize the company and infact make stabization harder. I could see it potentially with Embracer & WB really depends but I don’t see it with Ubisoft unless they go bankrupt and need to sell off their assets

IDK might be a hot take but I think WB games is more of an ideal buy for Sony considering how much they love their marvel titles & their ownership of EVO but that isn’t here or there

China is indeed a very strong contender and seems to be dominating the mobile market right now and their push for AAA gaming and GAAS should definitely be seen as a threat. They have very cheap labor compared to the west and they are just as talented as we are so they can make games that look and play just as good for a fraction of the budget. They also have a huge market, like big enough to support AAA releases solely in their market if they wanted to and be incredibly lucrative doing so, so their profit margins must be insane as well.

If I were MS I would definitely try to get my hands on a company there with any means necessary (if it is at all possible). Go after some of the up and comers that have a game or 2 which have made their mark and grow from there.

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