Xbox Acquisition |OT| - So We’re Back to Making Lists, Huh?

[Knottian]

@MonkeyBoyFrancis

XGS for unattached studios. Or if they’re a publisher, come under their own division

Correct, I recently made the comment that Bethesda paves the way, both in acquisition and execution, for Xbox to acquire additional publishers/groups of developers without having to place the full burden on Matt Booty.

[ParkerPetrov]

@Knottian

I would argue it very much is still viable, and Crytek is a viable option in my opinion for that reason alone. Though their IP and some of their talent is still too-notch l. Their biggest problem has been leadership, so not too different from Techland’s situation. If Techland is in talks, I would argue that Crytek should be too.

Sometimes creatives aren’t always the best at business. So a buyout could fix some issues as they no longer have to worry as much about the day-to-day management as Microsoft has an HR staff, they have a robust accounting department, they have healthcare programs, benefits setup with people managing. So a lot of the little things as a consumer we don’t necessarily think about could be solved allowing the creatives at a Crytek or techland, etc. just be able to do what they love to do and not focus so much on the business side.

I would agree with you that leadership issues depending on what is actually the cause of the issue wouldnt necessarily be a dealbreaker.

[ParkerPetrov]

@Ratchet_231

I feel like Crytek would just entail another first person shooter dev, for MS, which tbh I think they have plenty of as it is.

Much prefer MS’s future acquisitions to be aimed at developers working in genres that aren’t really present in the 1st party portfolio.

I don’t think you can look at a portfolio and judge a dev like that. Look at guerrilla games they made shooters and now they make horizon zero dawn, and Horizon: forbiddwen west. Naughty dog at one point was making games like jak and daxter and now made the last of us and uncharted.

Just because a developer made one type of game doesn’t mean they are locked into that forever. It would be smarter to just acquire creative talent regardless of genre and let creative people create.

[Knottian]

@ParkerPetrov

Sometimes creatives aren’t always the best at business. So a buyout could fix some issues as they no longer have to worry as much about the day-to-day management as Microsoft has an HR staff, they have a robust accounting department, they have healthcare programs, benefits setup with people managing. So a lot of the little things as a consumer we don’t necessarily think about could be solved allowing the creatives at a Crytek or techland, etc. just be able to do what they love to do and not focus so much on the business side.

I would agree with you that leadership issues depending on what is actually the cause of the issue wouldnt necessarily be a dealbreaker.

Absolutely agree, look at Brian Fargo. He’s been extremely vocal about the fact that he’s been able to write more and be involved in the creative process in ways he hasn’t in almost two decades because of the acquisition. HR and payroll, and all the other minutia of running a company essentially have fallen off his shoulders (save for leading the teams). That’s huge and I feel like Wasteland 3 was already proof of the benefits.

Feargus Urquhart has said made similar statements since Obsidian was brought into the fold.

The examples we have of any “leadership” issues being problematic and then righted by the acquisitions are precisely why I’m still so high on Crytek and Techland. It’s not as if there’s a bevy of other issues, like CDPR.

[CryOn]

@Knottian

Absolutely agree, look at Brian Fargo. He’s been extremely vocal about the fact that he’s been able to write more and be involved in the creative process in ways he hasn’t in almost two decades because of the acquisition

Before the acquisition Brian Fargo was thinking about retirement. It’s great to see that he gets his motivation back and can focus on creating amazing games.

[NierlyCrazy]

@CryOn

Before the acquisition Brian Fargo was thinking about retirement. It’s great to see that he gets his motivation back and can focus on creating amazing games.

This is why I want to see teams like Oddworld Inhabitants, Otherside, etc. to look at potential acquisition (no matter the company) since they are working on such important franchises or have someone leading the team that has a strong creative vision and could maybe use assistance on the business side.

Like I don’t know if I could ever see Levine running an independent studio, which is a good reason for him staying under 2K.

[DeoGame]

So… Sniper Elite 4 is among the first FPS boost titles. MS are close to Rebellion, have their games in Game Pass. My coworkers are enamored with Zombie Army and Sniper Elite (I need to play them). They have a PC oriented division doing Evil Genius 2. They own the IPs of Evil Genius, Zombie Army, Sniper Elite… oh, and a comics division that owns Judge Dredd. Only 300 devs across their teams. They are private and Tencent has no listed stake.

They seem like a fantastic buy tbh if they are willing to sell. I have zero doubt Embracer and Tencent are sniffing.

[NierlyCrazy]

@DeoGame

So… Sniper Elite 4 is among the first FPS boost titles. MS are close to Rebellion, have their games in Game Pass. My coworkers are enamored with Zombie Army and Sniper Elite (I need to play them). They have a PC oriented division doing Evil Genius 2. They own the IPs of Evil Genius, Zombie Army, Sniper Elite… oh, and a comics division that owns Judge Dredd. Only 300 devs across their teams. They are private and Tencent has no listed stake.

They seem like a fantastic buy tbh if they are willing to sell. I have zero doubt Embracer and Tencent are sniffing.

Wouldn’t be a bad get. Really liked their Star Wars Battfleront games and Aliens vs Predator.

Zombie Army is good too. Not too much into Sniper Elite but I know there’s a fan base.

Nice idea honestly. Would love to see what else they can do.

[johancruijff]

@DeoGame

So… Sniper Elite 4 is among the first FPS boost titles. MS are close to Rebellion, have their games in Game Pass. My coworkers are enamored with Zombie Army and Sniper Elite (I need to play them). They have a PC oriented division doing Evil Genius 2. They own the IPs of Evil Genius, Zombie Army, Sniper Elite… oh, and a comics division that owns Judge Dredd. Only 300 devs across their teams. They are private and Tencent has no listed stake.

They seem like a fantastic buy tbh if they are willing to sell. I have zero doubt Embracer and Tencent are sniffing.

this is Rebellion CEO

Medieval war lance: Can I make and successfully use a heavy medieval lance?

imagine dealing with this guy

[ThereAreFourNaan]

@kpnova

EA owns Crysis.

Crysis remastered is self-published and the following is at the bottom of the Crysis website these days:

© 2021 Crytek GmbH. All rights reserved.

Crytek, CRYENGINE, Crysis, and the respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of the Crytek group in the EU, U.S. and/or other territories. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

I think the ownership might have transferred back to Crytek, whether that was automatic after a certain date or whatnot. The original trilogy release of games is still sold on Steam with EA as publisher, so it might be one of those complicated situations where the IP belongs to Crytek along with the rights to make new games but the original releases are still published by EA (for now at least).

I think Crytek would be a middling purchase for other reasons. Not much synergy, Microsoft already has idTech, fTech, slipspace and most studios are on UE4, the development capabilities of Crytek are heavily diminished compared to their peak and they’d need to be rebuilt if they wanted to ship anything but updates on Hunt: The Showdown.

Hunt itself is decently popular and was quite profitable for Crytek, but it wasn’t one of those mega hits where buyers were lining up to cash in on that success.

As a licenced engine, CryEngine is a distant third place after UE and Unity. If you had some kind of long term plan to dump Unreal Engine and move to a purely in house tech stack, then maybe there’s some value in them, but otherwise I don’t think it’s particularly attractive to MS.

[2021ERA]

@OneBadMutha

… I think even the gaming enthusiast here under-rate the potential of where Game Pass is going. It’s in it’s baby phase right now. As a reminder, Nadella has his compensation directly tied to Game Pass subs this year. Game Pass is what is referred to when they prepositioned investors for more acquisitions. It’s the centerpiece to a gaming division that’s currently structured to be a pillar of a nearly 2 trillion dollar company. Game Pass is still a toddler. It’s not even a teenager yet. The only reason I see that Xbox Series sales may not exceed Xbox 360 this gen is because streaming will become viable in less than 8 years (the life span of the 360) and PC gaming is only growing while console has been stagnant. Game Pass will be that big…IMO.

What does that have to do with releasing Zeni/Beth games on PS5?

PS5 is not getting Game Pass and releasing games on PS5 means every time someone wants to play some of Bethesda’s games they don’t need Game Pass to play them which means less money in Satya’s pocket.

[EAGLE9388XB1]

@ThereAreFourNaan

…for now at least). I think Crytek would be a middling purchase for other reasons. Not much synergy, Microsoft already has idTech, fTech, slipspace and most studios are on UE4, the development capabilities of Crytek are heavily diminished compared to their peak and they’d need to be rebuilt if they wanted to ship anything but updates on Hunt: The Showdown. Hunt itself is decently popular and was quite profitable for Crytek, but it wasn’t one of those mega hits where buyers were lining up to cash in on that success. As a licenced engine, CryEngine is a distant third place after UE and Unity. If you had some kind of long term plan to dump Unreal Engine and move to a purely in house tech stack, then maybe there’s some value in them, but otherwise I don’t think it’s particularly attractive to MS.

Having another engine would be great, yes CryEngine is a distant third but under Microsoft they could revamp to compete with the other two. I would support Microsoft if they bought Cryteck.

[BlackheartVinyl]

I did not realize all the Sniper Elite games had co-op campaigns. I should try them.

[ProgStopper]

So I get with Ubisoft coming to GamePass later this year why Watch_Dogs 2 and Far Cry 4.

I get UFC 4 with EA Play on GamePass.

So uh… Rebellion with Sniper Elite and Playful with New Super Lucky’s Tale…

[LiamS]

@ProgStopper

So I get with Ubisoft coming to GamePass later this year why Watch_Dogs 2 and Far Cry 4.

I get UFC 4 with EA Play on GamePass.

So uh… Rebellion with Sniper Elite and Playful with New Super Lucky’s Tale…

both privately held…

with ips…

…hmmm

[Visceron]

@ProgStopper

So I get with Ubisoft coming to GamePass later this year why Watch_Dogs 2 and Far Cry 4.

I get UFC 4 with EA Play on GamePass.

So uh… Rebellion with Sniper Elite and Playful with New Super Lucky’s Tale…

Nope lol. I’m not reading into anything so I don’t read into EVERYTHING due to a lack of announcements and insiders teasing nothing.

Would be cool though!

[ProgStopper]

I was just saying those were two odd choices to start the Boosted FPS initiative on

[thiagosilva]

acquire a large Japanese studio is essential for the Xbox. it really, they cannot depend on the goodwill of Japanese publishers.

[Visceron]

@ProgStopper

I was just saying those were two odd choices to start the Boosted FPS initiative on

Lol you may be onto something or it’s just a coincidence. We’ll find out some day.

[Visceron]

@thiagosilva

acquire a large Japanese studio is essential for the Xbox. it really, they cannot depend on the goodwill of Japanese publishers.

Oh this should be the top priority imo. Yeah, they’ll have Tango soon but they need a studio a little more globally recognized and respected in that region.