Crimson Terrain? Seems not as cool.
I’ve been one of the folks suggesting Asobo would be a good fit for an Uncharted-like Crimson Skies with arcadey flight combat for a couple years now. Some on-the-ground action stuff would be great but the whole point of that series is the pilot gameplay.
People don’t have the attention span for flight, there’s a lot of nothingness happening when you fly. Even on High Road to Revenge. If they have to go back to Crimson Skies they should make it like a GTA/RAGE 2 kind of title.
Avalanche Studios has the expertise of making games such as Mad Max and RAGE 2, along with Contraband which is going to be an Xbox Global Publishing title. They have the expertise of already making games that mix 3rd person action combat along with vehicular combat all in the same game. Just Cause already has an emphasis of constantly flying through the air, which is kind of perfect for a Crimson Skies reboot.
You should be able to jump between your plane and the enemies planes and hijack midair, along with have a personal arsenal at your disposal to fight people out of an airplane while in the air. It would make for a fun game if they went full steam punk and had some sort of grappling hook, maybe make it less OP than Just Cause but I hope you understand what I’m saying.
Ever seen that gameplay for Beyond Good and Evil 2? That’s the sort of direction I’d like to see if they want to bring Crimson Skies back, you should bel able to play on foot but also seamlessly hijack planes.
Xbox absolutely has another several huge purchases left in them. They’ve seemingly been following the Disney content acquisition model. Disney acquired the below and I’ll list the inflation adjusted values to give a better comparison:
There also were several studio purchases that exceed 500 million as part of their recent M&A process.
I understand there’s some new pressures from regulators and such, but that stuff changes quick. Politicians are likely to have their priorities switched to focusing on stuff to help people through the recession soon, not worrying about big companies growing.
I think it depends on what acquisition Microsoft wants next because Microsoft is still primarily a tech company and not just a gaming company. And if acquiring another large gaming publisher hurts Microsoft’s chances of acquiring something non gaming related(for example Microsoft tried to acquire TikTok) then Microsoft might focus more on smaller gaming acquisitions. Since at the end of the day Satya Nadella is in charge of Microsoft not Phil Spencer.
100%
Considering that Netflix CEO is Nadella’s friend and the meteoric rise of Disney+ I think Satya knows about Netflix’s problems and that they need big IPs for their platforms so they are trying to get as many as possible. Also unlike movie industry, PC gaming has GaaS games, MTX and DLC and even regular sales so aside pure streaming there is also other sources of revenue.
So basically Microsoft is aiming at big IPs (Disney+) and GaaS (gaming unique thing). IPs will drive subscription service revenue, GaaS will drive a separate recurring revenue.
If we look at it in this context T2 and Square Enix both have big GaaS games (GTA Online and FF14), but at the same time Square Enix licensing regarding certain IPs is relatively complex, and T2 has NBA (and WWE) which Microsoft won’t be able to make exclusive for Game Pass anyway.
EA has their own streaming service and also too many licenses (FIFA, NFL, WRC, F1) and Apex.
Ubisoft has nothing of it aside a set of IPs, but they are too bloated.
Bamco is EA essentially, but with anime and manga IPs.
Sega - the main issue is their ties with Sammy. Maybe in the future Sega will be a potential acquisition (especially if Sonic Frontiers and other rumored games will succeed)
Capcom - monster hunter and a lot of other exclusive IPs. No ties with other industries.
No, I don’t think there is any limitation like this. I still think Microsoft should get Discord. Though it seems these days they are much more open to TikTok.
While I agree I don’t think there is limitations Microsoft still received a lot of pushback for acquiring Activision/Blizzard by the government so at this point who knows? I do think Microsoft could acquire another large publisher but if Microsoft were able to go after a large publisher such as EA then something such as discord there is a good chance that the deal could get blocked rather than just going after discord.
Disney’s acquisitions were genius! Marvel and Lucasfilm were absolutely steals compared to how much revenue they bring in.
I suspect many Disney+ subscriptions are sold just because of Marvel & Star Wars!
I personally think Xbox have another 1-2 big acquisitions in them. As Microsoft doesn’t seem to be interested in Music, Film or TV it makes sense that game software becomes their thing instead.
Apparently Microsoft did try to buy Spotify before but Xbox and Azure seems to be their main focus right now.
I should add that Disney also purchased numerous billion dollar tech related companies during their media acquisition spree.
Let’s also not overlook that Microsoft raised gaming to its oen Microsoft Gaming segment of the company. This is likely in preparation for even more growth.
Except Microsoft did not receive any pushback regarding acquisition at all. Couple of minority stakeholders complained and a couple of senators wanted to promote their bill (completely unrealed to gaming or monopoly or whatever).
Also I remember Microsoft made a several smaller and completed Nuance acquisitions while ABK was still in progress.
Many??? Does Disney+ have anything else aside that? 
The kids side is pretty good tbh, my kids usually have something new to watch on there.
But yeah… it does seem Marvel and Star Wars are now their biggest brands (just wish they’d get Spider-Man back from Sony grrrr)
Yeah, though it probably won’t happen but we should wait for Sony to run Spider-man movie IP into the ground 
I think I read a clause that if Sony Pictures ever gets brought out (which has often been a troublesome side for Sony), the Spider-Man rights automatically revert back to Marvel (Disney).
Ultimately I think if Sony did get brought out by a big tech company it would cause huge problems for Microsoft, but at the same time I have often hoped the rights revert back 
Well, Sony having access to big money coffers and infrastructure is a problem for Microsoft of course. For Sony to Microsoft is what T2 is to Sony. In a sense.
Simpsons and National Geographic material too.
3 billion isn’t the same scale as paying $68.7 for Activision/Blizzard or TikTok for $30 billion. I do think Microsoft could acquire multiple gaming publishers for $3 billion but a large publisher like EA is probably going to be around $20-$40 billion.
National Geographic? Oh! I remember watching this TV channel in the past…
if ms doesn’t buy take two and ea ends up in the hands of amazon, google, apple might regret it like when they let bungie go.
That’s some of the best material available on Disney+.
After ABK deal, nobody would bat an eye on anything smaller.
“They are buying XXX for 20b. It is a monopoly!”
“Dude, they have just closed 70b deal”
They still received pushback from senators and for a reasonable concern as well. The senators want the employees to be treated better and calls for better accountability to prevent against misconduct in the video game industry. Which ultimately means Microsoft really needs to prove to the senators that they will improve the workplace environment at Activision/Blizzard. Four U.S. Senators Cite Microsoft-Activision Deal Concern in FTC Letter - WSJ
And while true Microsoft isn’t a monopoly Microsoft acquiring EA as soon as soon as the ABK deal finalizes could raise concern or arguments for a monopoly.