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

[Searsy82]

To me the most important Embracer studio to go after is 4A (Metro games).

[leburn98]

@AllianceOfficer

Im pretty sure that selling off individual portions of a business is not the same as acquiring a whole company and would not require reporting to the trade agencies. Does anyone have more background to either confirm or refute that?

In the US, the threshold for mergers is around $100M. So anything below this threshold doesn’t need to be reported to the FTC. I think here in Canada, it was mid $93M last time I checked.

Here is a nice breakdown from 2022. Note: I believe the threshold has gone up to $111M in 2023.

U.S. Merger Notification Threshold Increases to $101 Million | Insights | Jones Day

[Don-Vito (Vito)]

4a games would be very delicious along with Gunfire Games, Crystal & Eidos

[Andodalf]

I say go fucking all in. Sony clearly wants to play hardball. Never let Sony outbid anyone for anything.

Buy Larian, Buy everything embracer sells, buy Certain Affinity, Asobo, IO, Avalanche, buy everything that isn’t nailed down and some stuff that is. Buy Bioware, Buy SEGA. Buy CDPR. Buy it alllll

[binarymelon]

@Andodalf

I say go fucking all in. Sony clearly wants to play hardball. Never let Sony outbid anyone for anything.

Buy Larian, Buy everything embracer sells, buy Certain Affinity, Asobo, IO, Avalanche, buy everything that isn’t nailed down and some stuff that is. Buy Bioware, Buy SEGA. Buy CDPR. Buy it alllll

I think boxing Sony out like that would be the definition of anti-competitive. Probably not a path they want to go down.

[BadNews]

@Searsy82

To me the most important Embracer studio to go after is 4A (Metro games).

Crystal is the most important imo . Tomb raider revival was amazing and they’re working on perfect dark. If perfect dark is a hit you would want them fully integrated for future sequels

[KakkaKarrotKake]

They don’t need to buy it all, they just need to buy smart

Sony as shitty as they have been have made smart moves, getting CoD marketing, Fifa, FF, SFV etc all associated with them basically set them up for success beyond all the first party stuff

Now MS basically have said if you’re a WRPG fan, you need to be in the Xbox ecosystem or you will straight up be missing out

They will soon have CoD on GP/marketing which not only kills the PS association and not only brings in a bunch of casuals and people to GP for the first time and stay there but it also nets MS the huge amount of money that will come from Playstation sales and can then use that to make more Xbox deals

It’s what Sony have been doing for decades, getting big third party’s associated with them, get most of the sales for their platform and then continue spending that money on more deals and it’s just a domino effect where they stay on top and keep others down

The next step is to target Asia so they can have major franchises from there associated with them/on Game Pass i.e. SEGA/Square etc

In terms of smaller studios, things like CD/Eidos make sense because they are already working with them but in terms of bigger stuff, Japan and Asia should be the priority

[EAGLE9388XB1 (Mike)]

Microsoft needs to go after individual studios at insane rate, one thing that excited me about Xbox & Bethesda showcase this year was they had announcements from nine first party studios which is great for getting new subscribers into Gamepass, Microsoft has to keep the same momentum going into the next showcase no more going in the opposite direction, Get Asobo, CD, IOI, PCF, EM, Gearbox, and many more after that show People that First party can carry Gamepass .

[Hue]

@BadNews

Crystal is the most important imo . Tomb raider revival was amazing and they’re working on perfect dark. If perfect dark is a hit you would want them fully integrated for future sequels

Eidos are also working on Fable. There’s a rumour Eidos are also working on another unannounced Xbox project too!

Both Crystal and Eidos would be fantastic.

[BadNews]

@Hue

Eidos are also working on Fable. There’s a rumour Eidos are also working on another unannounced Xbox project too!

Both Crystal and Eidos would be fantastic.

Yeah , I think Microsoft needs to lock them up, certain affinity , and IOI if they’re working on an Xbox exclusive

[Frost]

With the Activision deal nearing the end Microsoft will end up with the craziest launch lineup for any console in 2028 especially if they get Sega beforehand…

[Freed]

@Hue

Eidos are also working on Fable. There’s a rumour Eidos are also working on another unannounced Xbox project too!

Both Crystal and Eidos would be fantastic.

I could swear it’s Eidos with Compulsion too

[Hue]

@Freed

I could swear it’s Eidos with Compulsion too

Ah yes that’s it! It was Project Midnight which turned out to be Compulsions game .

[Jorge_Alexander_Acos (Jorge Alexander Acosta Duarte)]

Sooooooooo…

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[AllianceOfficer]

@Jorge_Alexander_Acos

…Sooooooooo… … … …

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I would imagine that the rest of Microsoft has a ton of acquisitions that theyve wanted to make but havent during this.

[BRiT]

@AllianceOfficer

I would imagine that the rest of Microsoft has a ton of acquisitions that theyve wanted to make but havent during this.

Microsoft has started and completed several acquisitions between the time the ABK Acquisition started and now.

[AllianceOfficer]

@BRiT

Microsoft has started and completed several acquisitions between the time the ABK Acquisition started and now.

Their merger activity is way down quantity wise, thats why I suspect the flood gates will open for Microsoft once this completes.

[TheLegendaryGamer]

Is it finally over?

[dgb]

@AtticusFincher

Nightmare scenario is Microsoft doesn’t put a bid in because the ABK deal is still not closed and Amazon swoops in and grabs Crystal/Eidos to get the Tomb Raider IP. Would be Double Helix all over again.

I think this time MS has a clause

[Haven (Victor)]

@OD62

…h 100 million GP subscribers. It seems complicated to me in an industry that is totally biased and subject to Playstation. Microsoft will have to continue to invest massively in the industry to have any chance of achieving this. Like I said, SEGA + Warner Discovery would probably be the best realistic scenario regarding publisher acquisitions. Weakening Playstation by acquiring a publisher like Capcom could also be interesting given that the Playstation community is very attached to these games. Very unlikely that this will happen given Capcom’s success, but it would definitely be worth dropping a huge bag of cash to get them. Either way, I hope Microsoft is still committed to being “all in on Xbox” after ABK because the fight has only just begun. Let’s hope for glorious days ahead for Xbox.

I think you’re a little focused on the console industry here and not gaming as a whole. Certainly, PlayStation dominates the console now but not the overall industry. When games like COD and some of this FTP games are pushing 300, 400 or more MAUS (monthly active users on mobile) I see no reason why a service like Game pass can’t get over a million subs especially once it starts offering a mobile version. Next year will be one to see as I think they will go after another publisher or a big company.