The dream (and impossible) scenario for GamePass fans is now…
Xbox go after a number of Embracer studios and some of their current partners (e.g Asobo).
Meanwhile TakeTwo merge with EA and all the TakeTwo titles come to EA Plus (and GamePass Ultimate).
Also meanwhile SEGA merge with Capcom. Once complete Microsoft go after the newly formed Capcom/SEGA publisher for one final push into Japan (bringing all their titles to GamePass too).
Not going to happen but it’s fun to imagine.
Some of us, yours truly included, said something like ABK would never happen - join us Hue and let’s make our dreams become reality 
Edit: typo because I swear to the gods that the iOS keyboard is even worse now somehow.
Haha!!
One studio I would add to the list of Embracer Group is Flying Wild Hog, it would be Xbox first Poland team and a way to spread to other Poland devs as well.
Doesn’t Infinity Ward have a studio in Poland? I’m pretty sure Xbox/Bethesda does too?
I think you’re right wasn’t thinking about ABK studios , as for Bethesda I have no clue, I would still like Microsoft to buy a studio or two in Poland.
People Can Fly or CDPR are quite possible IMO…
Infinity Ward does have a Polish location, which is tech focussed. They do a lot of engine work there.
I am not aware of any XGS studio with a location in Poland.
Zenimax Online has a Hungarian location (this was a recent acqui-hire situation). id Software has a German studio that is kinda similar to IW’s Polish one, they hire for engine/technical programming/graphics engineer type jobs there but not really anything else.
Blizzard has Korean, Chinese and Taiwanese offices, as well as one in Ireland. They are still mostly an American company, however. You can see this when they’ve got 0 open positions in China, 3 in Korea, and like ~160 in their American locations.
Activision Blizzard King does in general have a lot of worldwide locations in places that XGS and Bethesda didn’t previously (not counting just regional distribution offices).
I will comment however that when people say they think they should buy a (insert country) studio, what they mean is that they want games led by teams in those places. Not that they are excited about a 40 person team in Azerbaijan making weapon skins for CoD or a small tech team in Prague making contributions to the zenimax online game renderer.
I think the article is slightly incorrect. The $144bn was announced in Microsofts financials for the end of the last quarter so that would have been the end of September and would not have included the $70bn for ABK. Still if my memory is correct they were at about $100bn at the end of last year so money isn’t really an issue at the company to make any reasonable purchase.
From Embracer’s earnings call
In the past months, we have accelerated processes to divest assets relative to processes to increase external funding of game development projects. This shift is driven primarily by a notable inbound interest, but also by market dynamics and reduced levels of platform content investments. As a result, we are now running a few structured divestment processes that give us flexibility and optionality to reach our targets. We are focused on maximizing shareholder value and on delivering the targeted run-rate capex levels in the most effective way. Notable capex savings and net debt reduction are expected to materialize post-completion of these processes.
Ooohh I wonder what these ‘divestments’ are.
I feel sorry for the studios but if Crystal Dynamics and Eidos change hands again and it’s not Xbox it will be pretty gutting. They deserve some stability at this point.
Outside of Xbox, I’m not sure who would be all that interested, maybe Amazon if they really want to get into games and are already publishing Tomb Raider
But CD are already working on PD and they will be busy on that for at least the next 2 years and Eidos are helping on Fable which is also unlikely to come before 2025 so anyone buying them will have them tied up on other projects for years and CD isn’t a cheap studio to run
I also wouldn’t be surprised if Xbox has some contracts in place that would keep CD locked up for a sequel if they got bought or some kind of acquisition notice that they’d have to be the first people Embracer talked to if they were selling them
I doubt Xbox is taking any chances after what happened to Double Helix
I think only a subset of those studios is working on Xbox games. CD is working on Tomb Raider and Eidos is working on a new IP and Deus Ex.
Right but still, I’m not sure who out there would be that interested in taking that on especially in the current market
Yeah, they’re (CD and Eidos) are going to Xbox sooner or later.
I think this is the only part which concerns me, Amazon did it to them before and we really don’t know their intentions for Tomb Raider, obviously it’s quite ambitious if they are willing to fund more games plus Film/TV.
If I remember correctly they have since laid off many of those Double Helix employees since 2014.
Squeals in excitement
Also the SEGA COO also brought up the Microsoft acquisition rumour again… it’s almost like there’s something to it 
.
https://twitter.com/CNBC/status/1724989592686703070?t=SnKTgYZNQC0XGOJ1VY9rjQ&s=19