That’s my thought as well. I just don’t know if they have the management bandwidth for more independent studios. Is why I think they started going for publishers. I could see the studios asking for new studios to be put under them like getting a studio to work with each in getting out games faster.
Not necessarily they have a 10-year contract with Asobo and they do tend to try to build internal teams with their partners that can learn the craft for situations like that for example the Age series is now a collaborative effort between 2 studios.
In anycase this are IPs owned by Microsoft so I would expect them at some point to acquire the dedicated studios the ones I don’t see are the IPs they don’t own
I think it’s probably slightly different with Asobo as there’s also lots of proprietary tech that they use and of course their own experience. The last time they spoke about it they said there’s 50 QA staff from Microsoft but the rest was in-house.
I think it’s quite difficult to separate out many of these studios where Microsoft doesn’t own the IP (as less likely candidates), because most of them are either currently working on Xbox IP or have recently.
I know it has been discussed to death, but with Embracer having more problems I really hope Microsoft will make an offer to buy both Eidos and Crystal Dynamics.
Feel free to correct me, but I want to say Embracer bought both companies for 350 million, so if Microsoft was to offer 400 million, then Embracer would make profit on the deal. So they might be more willing to sell.
Yes Microsoft is a trillion dollar company, with that said I dont think Microsoft would want to pay 50 million more for two companies and I don’t think it’s justifiable.
I think people can fly could be a support studio for the coalition and other studios at xbox, the people behind painkiller and bulletstorm are working on the astronauts now and outriders wasnt great so just let them support others, I dont have much faith in that new project they are working with xbox
There are good acquisitions to be made at Embracer. Microsoft could get a set of studios and IP equivalent to a publisher. But I would be surprised if Embracer agreed to part with its best studios. I hope Phil and Satya are on the case. I wish they would at least get Crystal, Eidos and Gearbox.
If Microsoft can get them for what Embracer bought them for then that would be excellent, but I more likely see Embracer only selling for a premium price. The reason being I believe Embracer sees them as their top studios and would only part with them if they are given a reason to sell them.
Really good list OD62
I would add Milestone to the if possible also. The 2 Hot wheels games are fantastic and they could make one heck of a Xbox racer to complete with Mario Cart.
I’m hopeful this is the approach for next year along with Focus Home, they are a unbelievably well ran small publisher that individual studios could be added into, perhaps ASOBO and Don’t Nod from a regional perspective. If they do go after all those studios from Embracer I would love to see them pick up the THQ name and just leave them under THQ as another separate publisher.
The problem is they have to report anything over 100 million I think and right now with the current FTC that’s something to consider. If it were below a hundred, I think they would have made the offer.
Just because the FTC has to be given notice doesn’t mean an investigation occurs; there are literally hundreds of acquisitions that get a cursory approval without a formal review. The FTC is effectively toothless on the ABK fight - they lost in fed court, would easily lose again, and there hasn’t been a single large-scale acquisition that the FTC has been able to win an appeal on and more so, if they pursue internally it’s just a waste of tax dollars (and again because the US is not the UK, a fed court already has precedent set to deny FTC’s case, so it’s a dead case on the side that actually matters).
With all of these layoffs I wouldn’t be surprised if we see a few big mergers soon. Imagine if EA merged with Take-Two to make another ABK size third party publisher (they have tried with T2 multiple times before).
I think it would create an interesting dynamic to the games industry. It would also likely lead to more acquisitions in the wider market (potentially aid Xbox too).
I think an EA - T2 merger would be great. Both companies would be more secure. They have very complementary games as services, sports and singleplayer hits.
If that was to happen, I’d hope we get a new Syndicate.
In a perfect world it would be a mix of Fallout and Cyberpunk 2077, that being a first person or third person, open world, RPG, but with a Rockstar feel.
Syndicate was awesome. Still remember playing with my cousin on his older brothers pc in the '90’s. The Cyberpunk treatment would be excellent for a reboot.
It is crazy to think about the Intellectual property EA is just sitting on and doing nothing with like Ultima. You could easily give it the Baldur’s Gate 3 treatment and it would be successful, but I don’t see that happening.
Back to Syndicate, it has so much potential and to see it just sitting on the shelf is crazy, because it is so perfect for a reboot.
The sad part is I don’t trust Bioware to do a good job with it and I don’t know who the perfect fit for it, would be at EA.
To bad they won’t sell or license their IP’s out to some small game studios.
I would add Milestone to the if possible also. The 2 Hot wheels games are fantastic and they could make one heck of a Xbox racer to complete with Mario Cart.