I agree the studio half of the buisness will be a intresting target for Microsoft, i could see them bundling in HBO max with gampass as another top tier. Also i believe if the bought the studio half outright they would own all the IP. Definitely something to watch over the next year
Yeah that will be the side with the Ip, aaaand less debt. It’s very well positioned
This is the only situation where I am kind of on board with an acquistion, be it microsoft or someone else actually capable of managing it and letting them make games.
I dont want to see studios like Nether Realm shuttered. Between studios and IP it would be worth consideration. Just to get it away from that moron that runs WB. (and they own most of the old Midway IP)
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Game Devs would be a tertiary concern with such a merger. The production side is a bigger deal, and how they can utilize MS IP in Tv and Movies. Then is the streaming service, which could well be folded and the content sold to different distributors. Then there’s how they can use and license the IP in gaming. And finally, what the devs they would be acquiring are up to.
They can keep the movie stuff.
Honestly, i say let them acquire the game studios that work with them the most like Thunder Lotus(Who has been a consistent partner for Xbox in years, not only in exclusive games but also partnerships and marketing) or Squach Games(Lets face it, this is very likely to happen one way or another given how much High on Life gave gamepass a massive push when the game launched), heck maybe even the likes of Asobo or Drinkbox, but the latter two feel more like a reach than anythign at this point.
Also, i doubt we see any big acquisition in the future given the heavy scrutiny the company faced when acquiring activision/blizzard, so a smaller studio or a indie publisher makes more feasible sense in the short term at the very least.
We won’t see them pick up small teams anymore. In fact, the opposite has been true, as they let toys for Bob buy its own freedom and then immediately gave the a gamepass deal.
Ownership is a big risk, much better to just own IP, and only invest your money in very safe games
I dunno, given the scrutiny of the prior acquisition, i think they would lay low and just acquire a studio or two along the short term as that would not have much eyes on them as a whole in the long term is all am currently saying.
But alas, those are my own two cents.
It’s just not worth it. It’s better to not do it
All of that scrutiny was based on hypothetical scenarios where Xbox takes content exclusive to their platform and/or hardware, which Xbox said they weren’t going to do. And here we are almost two years post acquisition and they’ve done exactly what Nadella said they were going to do with putting more games in more places.
I don’t know that any of the arguments brought forth by the FTC would stand up for even a second today. There are simply too many actual actions by MS that fly in the face of all the old concerns.
All that said, I believe Phil when he said last year that they were still open to acquisitions but it wouldn’t be anything on the scale of ABK. I know there aren’t many other publishers on the relative scale of ABK, but I think that rules out large operations like EA, TakeTwo, Bandai, etc. That still leaves a lot of possibilities.
If I had to guess, Phil still has his eyes on Asia. I don’t think it was a mistake earlier this year when he mentioned how they’re seeing xCloud growth in regions where consoles aren’t as popular (or something like that), citing how Indy was played by a lot of people over the cloud in Asia.
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Interesting, to you think either a partnership(Outside Sega, Square Enix or Netease, all three have made a partnership with xbox known) or an acquisition or either a studio or a publisher within Asia?
I do think it would be interesting to acquire small studios, but thats my opinion at the very least.
If they were to get a publisher of any kind its well within the most obvious being 11bit studios, Thunderfull, Focus entertainment or even Kepler Interactive.
With the scale of Xbox now, they’re probably thinking about what’s going to help make the next several billion in revenue growth. GaaS is probably still a priority in that regard, where they can invest in IP ownership of something to scale to make even more money.
I see less of an acquisition fit for small devs or pubs with limited commercial success. I think those are Game Pass and publishing deals for really interesting looking games.
Personally, I’m good with the partnership angle across the board. That is unless it’s a defensive move against another platform holder that might take content exclusive to their own services and/or devices, but even that seems less a likelihood these days.
I dunno, sony has been doing moneyhats still. I do wonder if they end up doing one that is so severe and xbox sees it as a threat and outright buy the studio or publisher alltogether like they did with zenimax.
So far, acquisition for Sony hasn’t been so beneficial. Only one so far is Nixxes and even then, there are times that surprisingly didn’t translate well on PC. The one that is dragging them down badly is Bungie, which is crazy because they do have Destiny 2, a popular F2P title.
Acquisition for Xbox had rocky moments like closure/ending connection like Tango and Arkane Austin and slow progress of ABK joining Game Pass for reason unknown to the public, but lately, it has been beneficial. CoD still remain strong, despite hackers but that’s up to them to solve it, and Zenimax studios are shooting out multiple hit titles.
Hopefully, Sony’s begin to catch up before it feels like nothing has changed as Xbox continue to grow and push further.
I doubt there is any moneyhats that can threaten Xbox at this point. Sony is not going to moneyhat GTA as that could run them in the red besides Xbox doing this hybrid means they could be looking at over 20 thousand games released yearly to Sony’s 800 yearly games and that’s radical. Partnerships seem more like what Xbox will be aiming for but if they get a good publisher in Asia they might bite.
I could be wrong, but I believe the money hats as of late also include a PC release.
PC gaming has gotten to the point where it’s becoming too expensive for Sony to buy out that potential revenue. It’s just going to get worse for them.
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Is it bad that i actually want that to happen just so they realise that moneyhatting triple A games now is effectively asking for trouble for the studio in question. I mean look at Square Enix, its telling that they don’t want do to more of that anymore.
I also find it curious that when an double A or an indie game that is exclusive to xbox console(Either on launch or confirmed) gets to make their games on pc or even mobile as well. While playstation themselves only begun, which is not really a bad thing but considering just how far ahead xbox is in regards to having a much bigger share of pc is a massive undertaking and its only gonna get worse from here.
I wonder if Koei Tecmo is getting the hint as well cause the likes of Konami seems more and more likely also jumping ships as well as becoming more multiplat than ever before.
How about Xbox buys no more publishers. This coming from a person who was HYPED that Xbox bought Bestheda.
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Gamepass vs Xbox going third party.
Being worried that Xbox is going third party and more of its games going to PS is not “trolling” but a common Xbox(or former) Xbox concern. People like you are one of the reasons Xbox is where its at.