There also was the Offset Engine that could do raytracing, but Intel bought it and closed Offset Software down.
I have said in the past maybe Microsoft could make a deal with Intel and get the engine, to finish the Offset video game, plus incorporate the tech into Microsoft’s video game studios.
As fantastic as it was the engine likely hasn’t had any update for 10+ years and the founders went on to establish Fractiv which hasn’t done much.
I would imagine the talent in Xbox now (especially after ABK) can develop a engine which is equally impressive, if not superior. It is a shame but I think it would be more logical to go after the Crytek engine, that or try buy out Tencent’s stake in Epic Games (which would be near impossible).
“Any mergers in media and entertainment involving significant streaming players should be blocked, including acquisitions of smaller or potential competitors,” the union argues.
Ironically, Microsoft lack of tv and movie presence makes them the only big tech company in a position to buy a tv and movie company.
Maybe this will one day be a reality (first party) 
Joking aside WB would be huge for Xbox and Microsoft overall, I just wonder if they are ‘big’ enough for Microsoft to consider taking on Netflix, Disney and Amazon.
WB is big but you will need someone like Phil in Microsoft to campaign for this and run it. I don’t think the current management in WB have the kind of vision that will interests Microsoft.
WBD “only” has a market cap of 31 billion - but their net debt is 47 billion, so it would be a larger impact than ABK once all was said and done.
I remain as skeptical as I ever was there regarding Microsoft under Nadella wanting to get into TV and Film. Although this is cheaper than the 120+ billion valuations WB was estimated as having prior to the merger, when entertainment was much hotter.
You know, as much as I want to see xbox being able to work with wb I dont think an acquisition like this could happen right now seeing all the problems in hollywood, hbo max was in my opinion the best streaming service and they decided to ruin everything, the company would need a change and knowing how much money they are losing with their latest films I dont know if microsoft will be interested at all, still I think it would be amazing
Atleast they can go for their studios, I think there is enough ips at xbox for them, rocksteady and wb montreal needs to go back to single player games
Well, Warner is one of the biggest players in the industry, but the streaming war is very complicated. There is an excellent synergy that is possible between the two companies. Microsoft could back MAX and allow it to take it to the next level. Is it worth it from an economic point of view? I don’t know, but this is currently the only opportunity Microsoft has to enter this industry. There are benefits, but also many risks. As gamers, I’m excited by the potential of this acquisition, but if there’s one last fight to be fought (after SEGA), I think I might prefer to fight for Ubisoft which is economically less risky and which is in an industry (the most lucrative entertainment industry) that Microsoft knows. So like Satya Nadella, I would be: “all in on gaming”.
That industry just seems like a dumpster fire right now, I really don’t see why anyone would want to buy in that wasn’t already an established player.
When it comes to WB and Embracer, I think MS should just try to peel off individual studios and IP instead of trying to take over the entire corporation.
MS is already taking on some serious baggage with ABK (namely the work culture there). I’m not looking forward to the first negative ABK news story that MS will have to take the blame for.
As much as I am disappointed in the fact that Microsoft’s own games have thus far not been exclusively built on DirectX12U, and that an engine that supports it from the lowest level would be greatly beneficial, I don’t see many of MS’s Studios switching from what they are comfortable with right now. Whether it’s UE, IdTech, ForzaTech, etc. these competent and well-established developers seem to be firing on all cylinders on the engines they know.
It would have been definitely something to consider for developers that were looking to make their own new engines, much like how 343 was 5 years ago.
So I think that makes the most sense for the Microsoft right now if they are considering Crytek and the future of CryEngine is in creating a competitor to Unity and Unreal Engine. One that seamlessly integrates into Visual Studio. One that can leverage their cloud services so people with mediocre PCs can develop high-end games on the latest hardware streamed over the Cloud. And once it hits that threshold of becoming a tool that students and millions of hobbyists learn at home, it could be a great internal tool for their own games because now they have a talent pool of millions of people that know how to develop on that engine.
So that’s the play I would make if I was Microsoft. But it takes a lot of investment. CryEngine kept up with Unreal Engine In nearly all respects until that sweet sweet Fortnite money started coming in and Epic used that for R&D, to accelerate development, and to acquire companies like Quixel…leaving all other engines in the dust. MS will need to make up that investment gap to some degree to remain competitive. Unity is surviving on mobile but in all other areas has been outspent and therefore outclassed. But CryEngine has some innovative stuff, including their own software-based ray tracing solution.
Anyways my point is that this would be a great angle from which we would look at a potential purchase. Microsoft is a software and services company after all and a licensed game engine fits nicely.
I think that sounds good, but I have a hard time seeing anyone upend Unreal at this point. They’d spend a lot of money playing catch up and ultimately be unable to convert a significant number of users (unless they gave it away for free).
I think Unreal would really need to take their foot off the gas for anyone to make a reasonable dent in their marketshare.
You know, thats a good point to consider, afterall amazon made lumberyard based on cryengine, they could also use it to support small developer in id@xbox aswell xgs publishing, I don’t think the other xbox studios are going to consider switching unless crytek works close with them like the coalition has been doing, in my opinion crytek needs to make cryengine a lot easier for others to attract developers, isnt going to reach the same number as unreal but it can be very useful for xbox
Just wanted to share this article
That said, the vaunted tech megadeals investors have gotten used to seeing, such as Microsoft’s (MSFT) fraught $69 billion acquisition agreement with Activision Blizzard (ATVI), will be few and far between due to increased regulatory scrutiny and broader macroeconomic issues.
“It’s harder [to do megadeals] not just because of regulatory scrutiny — it’s also harder because financing is a lot more challenging, along with the market,” S&P Global Market Intelligence M&A analyst Melissa Incera told Yahoo Finance. “The market is penalizing deals that are too speculative, where it’s perceived that buyers are overpaying for value.”
“I think we’re going to see massive deals happening with a lot less frequency moving forward,” Incera added.
I dont think anyone would consider SEGA a mega-deal though 
Yeah in some respects they have the pedal to the metal.
In others there are a few blind spots. We’re not seeing DX12U optimizations, for example. It’s still an engine that is poorly optimized for CPUs.
It seems like they don’t value the Series consoles & DX12U supporting videocards because they feel their software solution doesn’t really need to take advantage of any unique hardware.
An engine that takes full advantage of Direct Storage, “velocity hardware”, mesh shaders, hardware RT capabilities, etc. definitely puts itself in a niche because it wouldn’t be catered to non-DX12U compliant hardware like the PS5. So I understand where Epic is coming from.
This is where I am with Warner bros discovery. Between the premium on the share price and the covering of the debt, Microsoft would be committing $90-100bn. Plus there would be a need to heavily invest into production and expansion with the biggest complaint about WBD being they make great shows but don’t have enough content. They also lack content produced outside the US, something Netflix has in abundance and Disney to a lesser extent.
It’s a high risk market to enter when even a behemoth like Disney with all the great IP they have is struggling to push past the subscriber numbers they want to make it a long term profitable endeavor. There plenty of rumors floating around about Disney being sold to apple which would make things even more complicated
I disagree. The potential is what matters most in my opinion and there is need for competition has we have just witnessed in this ABK saga. Microsoft has the money and as long as the vision is there it would be fine. Also Crytek doesn’t have to win just compete and bring in a profitable business just like AMD isn’t number 1 but they still do well against Nvidia. Spencer even in the round table video of Zenimax talked about the future of ID tech and how they could make it available to all developers. I think their creator program and Gamepass gives them a huge opportunity to push their engines in the industry.
I agree and think reasons like this is why getting an engine competitor like Crytek is needed. Crytek can focus primarily on just engine development and Microsoft can push adoption through their creator program and Gamepass. The Playstation only hampers when consoles are concerned but with so many handheld platforms releasing that concern no longer matters.
I think that’s one of the inherent problems of having to release on PC (as opposed to console only). It makes it harder to rely on the presence of and take advantage of more recent hardware capabilities because you need to maintain support for hardware lacking those capabilities.
100%.
Ironically it was Crytek’s Crysis that was essentially that sort of game that you describe that couldn’t run well on most hardware when it was released. It got everyone to upgrade.
I’ve always thought that it would be great to see a game designed around DX12U features that wouldn’t even be playable on DX11 and DX12 cards, just to push visuals to an incredible degree and essentially force everyone to upgrade.
We can all agree that it’s bad business, but it’s something Crytek did. 
Sorry I’ve been getting off topic but the more I think about it the more I think it’s a good purchase If the internal studio issues could be resolved.
Games are about technical wizardry as much as they are artistry. Crytek make some of the best looking games out there. Getting a developer that can release a jaw-dropping game every 3 or 4 years on Gamepass, for a relatively cheap price, it makes sense to me.