Hm, question but do you all think Xbox is aiming to acquire smaller studios in the form of Indie Studios like it was with Compulsion back in the day? If so, which are some likely candidates for this possibility? My mind goes straight to Cococucumber, Studio MDHR, A44 Games and Project Moon.
They are expensive to upkeep and their last games weren’t considered successful.
They should buy CD and Eidos separately to lower the front cost of acquisition for the regulators. There is not much studios in the west that has this kind of expertise and are not locked.
Sony made the right call during 3 gens by buying the rising stars (ND, SP, Guerilla, Insomniac). MS should not wait too much otherwise they will run out of opportunities in the west.
Happy to be here 
2 Likes
Regulators aren’t going to care about CD and Eidos
Thanks for the welcome!
Xbox definitely lacks in a bunch of genres that would be beneficial outside what I mentioned. I agree they do probably need some more of those action/adventure games. Tomb Raider and Legacy of Kain would definitely help them out with that. Your list is pretty good, however I do think Capcom is probably a little less likely since they’ve been going strong lately. They definitely have a great portfolio of IP (my favourite Japanese publisher by far), but they’re a little less diversified than Sega. Never say never!
As for Gex, if you watch the Gex Trilogy reveal trailer by Limited Run Games, you’ll see that Square Enix owns the trademark towards the end. I’ve seen speculation that the reasoning behind that was because of a deal prior to the acquisition, but I don’t think it really works that way. You can get further proof by looking at the EUIPO listings. Square typically registers their trademarks under the name “Square Enix Limited”, which is seen on stuff we know for sure they own, like Just Cause and Life is Strange. The IPs bought by Embracer are under “Square Enix NewCo Limited”, which was later renamed to CDE Entertainment after the purchase. Gex is still under Square Enix Limited according to the EUIPO. This lines up with the Gex Trilogy trailer. This likely happened due to a project called the Square Enix collective, where Square welcomed offers from studios to develop new games for their inactive western IPs. The ownership of these IPs was likely transferred from Eidos-Montreal/Crystal Dynamics to Square Enix Collective. Why Embracer didn’t get them could’ve been oversight or just genuine disinterest. I find the latter a little less believable, especially since they greenlit a Gex collection.
EUIPO listening for reference:
Just Cause: https://euipo.europa.eu/eSearch/#basic/1+1+1+1/100+100+100+100/just%20cause Tomb Raider: https://euipo.europa.eu/eSearch/#basic/1+1+1+1/100+100+100+100/tomb%20raider Gex: https://euipo.europa.eu/eSearch/#basic/1+1+1+1/100+100+100+100/018622048
3 Likes
You mean Daikatana 2 is coming? 
1 Like
Nobody cares about Gex (and I say that as a 3DO owner).
When you own Crash Bandicoot and Spyro (and Blinx 
), there is no value to spend time on Gex.
I also surprised Tomb Raider is still with Square. If they do not have any IP attached, CD and Eidos are worth nothing. This is also surprising considering Amazon and CD signed over the next Tomb Raider.
1 Like
Touche. We’ll see how well the Gex Trilogy does soon enough lol. I just have this weird vision in my head for a crossover game made by Toys for Bob with a bunch of different platforming mascots.
So, Tomb Raider is definitely with Embracer right now; I should’ve made that a bit clearer. If you look at the owner name it says “Square Enix NewCo Limited”, which was the name of the entity (containing Eidos-Montreal, Crystal Dynamics, and most their properties) that Square Enix sold to Embracer. Embracer has seen renamed the entity to CDE Entertainment. “Square Enix Limited”–a slight difference, I know–is the actual Square Enix. If you look here you can see the history: CDE ENTERTAINMENT LTD. overview - Find and update company information - GOV.UK
1 Like
For me the 10 best acquisitions Microsoft can make are…
JAPAN
-SEGA
-Arc System Works
-Level-5
And in the rest of the world
-Warner Bros
-Playtonic
-IO Interactive
-Paradox Interactive
-Crytek
-Remedy
-11 bit studios
For me they cover all genres with that
4 Likes
In regards to an acquired Sega reviving old IP, yes, we probably won’t see a lot of that.
While a part of me thinks that Arcade games with limited scope can come back with small teams and short development cycles, we’ll have to see if Xbox is open to that. I’d argue that Hi-Fi Rush demonstrates that a relatively low budget title that oozes creativity can bring a lot of positive attention to GP. Something with even less time and budget but with a ton of creativity and solid basic gameplay, despite just having 3 tracks, 8 fighters, 10 short levels would be received well.
But I think what is certain is the idea that MS/SEGA would pursue a thorough backwards compatibility effort. SEGA just recently shut down the SEGA Classics department, which were responsible for porting old classic games to mobile. In some cases they did a great job with a Crazy Taxi port that actually had the original soundtrack from Epitaph Records. It sadly did not have the location licensing (Tower Records, Pizza Hut, etc). Something like that for consoles would be great. I do realize that many titles on there are available on consoles through various packages, but maybe one holistic package would be nice.
As it stands there’s little motivation to bring, say, Fighters Megamix to modern machines. I’m sort of hoping that under Microsoft, efforts to emulate all of their older platforms are reinvigorated and titles like that can be brought back (even without achievements or online play).
Because they’re not just buying a company. Like when tech companies buy social media platforms, they are also acquiring a userbase. In this case it’s a lot of loyal fans. You can make them very happy with these sorts of ports. Which at the end of the day is just emulation (again if it’s done in a package where achievements for individual games and online play aren’t required*) and in some cases little to no licensing.
*Games require achievements but in such a case these achievements could be tied to playing certain titles, playing an X amount of titles, etc, rather than actions performed in each of the titles.
4 Likes
Grounded was made by 15 people, MS is not opposed to small team projects. I think Sega - under MS - would be quite free to develop such projects.
I think a paid Daytona Online would not sell much. A Gamepass version would be a nice addition to the library, some game you would like to come back from time to time, which is good for Gamepass. Also, that kind of projects benefit from the huge Gamepass userbase.
5 Likes
I agree with all of that, except WB Games, considering the licencing intricacies (and MS will not buy the Whole WB, especially after the fiasco of the “all-in-one” Xbox one.
1 Like
A little off topic but if Xbox did acquire a Japanese publisher do you think they make those games exclusive? Personally I don’t see it happening, if Sega went Xbox/PC only it could still work but the Atlus side would struggle as most it’s players are on PS. I’d assume some IP (mostly new) could be exclusive. If this was the case isn’t that where we already are, persona, Yakuza & football manager are already in GP.
Also I remember lots of “Sony is going to buy take two, square, WB etc” yet nothing so far. Could this be due to internal conflicts and it being cheaper to grab 1 year exclusives.
If I had to guess what’s next it’s a (small) bidding war over some embracer studios/IP.
Of course.
2 Likes
I also think picking up the Turok IP and modeling it into a first person action adventure game with horror elements could be interesting. Not sure where the IP is now but I’d be down for this.
Also if anyone wants a laugh YouTube the downfall of Acclaim it’s a wild ride.
2 Likes
Thanks, yep personally It’s something I have wanted to see them address for a while.
I don’t think Capcom is going to be realistic either but it was a nice ‘wish’.
The four largest areas I want to see them address going forward (in terms of exclusives/first party) are:
- AAA Action/Adventure games (Crystal Dynamics, Eidos, IOI, Remedy & Asobo etc)
- Kids/Family Games (Expand Toys for Bob, Playtonic, Playful Studios & SEGA)
- Pop-Culture Licensed Games (License arrangement with WB for DC/HP)
- Asia Market (I’m not sure even SEGA will solve this).
Thanks for the clarification on Gex, I agree it feels a bit odd that they would pass on the Gex IP.
2 Likes
MS has already stated that he planned to keep Sega multiplatform.
As for your second point, Sony has no financial backing to buy anything big. Bungie was the best they could offer and the departures of Ryan and his second, the delays of the Gaas games do not send the good message about the ROI for such acquisition. Those rumors were pure fanboy fantasies.
Sega rumor comes from MS internal mails. It may not happen but it is much more rooted in reality.
1 Like
This kind of deal will cost more and more as gamepass userbase grows. There is also always possibility of Sony exclusive deals or anything that can prevent gamepass deals.
Also gamepass deals are waste of money, they come then they end, then you have nothing in stock.
It’s not so much old or new IP. I think many would be happy if Sega was performing at the level, they were at during the Dreamcast era. That era which extended to the OG Xbox produced a lot of amazing titles many of which were new and of pretty high quality like Gun Valkyrie, Shenmue 1&2, Skies of Arcadia, The House of the dead games, Sonic Adventure 1&2, Phantasy star online, the Virtua fighter games, Panzer Dragoon Orta, Crazy Taxi and many more. The only reason I’d say Sega is too that potential unleashed again and if Sega can do this on their own without an acquisition that would be wonderful.
2 Likes