Go after CD Projekt Red—turn them into the Rockstar of Xbox Game Studios. The Witcher hits a lot of boxes, Cyberpunk still has untapped potential.
For Bethesda, keep tabs on BioWare. Snag them cheap, or have a building ready if they fold. Put them on a Starfield spinoff prequel as a spiritual Mass Effect successor, or throw them on Fallout 5 with Todd directing—like Indiana Jones, but bigger.
EA Sports could hit walls if colleges pull out over political ties(saudis, the president’s son in law). NFL is picky about brand association too.
The Sims? Tricky. Its players are diverse, it thrives on freedom. Force a narrative or Saudi agenda and you’ll crush the fanbase. Might be easier to just auction it off and wash your hands of the headache.
As far as a publisher goes, it might not even be worth it. Could be smarter to target a specific studio or IP within a publisher that needs a cash injection. With the way things are going, there may be a lot of good, cheap opportunities out there.
JP Morgan said the EA leverage buyout is a high risk with a higher interest rate. I’m sure a lof of EA will be up for auction in the next few years they’ll add even more debt extract the value sell it off and spin the debt off then bankrupt it like how Warner Brothers is about to do the TV network side of the business.
Take two is more than just Rockstar. I think the main reasons microsoft would want to buy take is more down to their sports games with 2K which is rumoured to now include Fifa, Zynga and the fact they just want to take it off the market for other companies to swoop in and try to buy it. Also they have been pushing for a global presence for ages now yet that didn’t lead to any asian acquisitions and the only Japanese studio they did have they closed down/sold so if Microsoft does buy more which I think is likely I don’t see that being a serious point of consideration.
Spencer explained that future deals will aim to add “geographic diversity” to the gaming division. For that reason, they are eyeing Asia , a continent with renowned development studios.
He specifically said they will not be going for anything like ABK again.
The way I see it they will keep their eye out and if there is a publisher say in South Korea that they have a solid relationship and could serve as a presence there that they could go for. Maybe the likes of Blueside which they worked with in previous generations for the KUF (Kingdom under fire) series.
What I’d rather like to see is some sort of tech dept for growing their engines.
Think the temporary closure of Tango shows it best - I think there were some reports at the time that part of the reason was that other teams had the benefit of collaborating within Xbox to boost their value within the company whereas with a bigger language barrier Tango was rather isolated in this regard (among other factors, naturally). IF this sort of reporting was correct then I don’t see Microsoft buying individual studios in other regions unless they are so naturally strong on their own to justify it - it would need to be a publisher level acquisition, which these days feels less and less likely.
Yeah, I think a purchase in the east can’t just be for studio talent, but to build a stronger foothold in the east. Which requires management and leadership and connections. So it’d have to be a growing or notable publisher. But then those aquistions are harder to get and to get to go through especially post ABK for Microsoft.
Publisher/development studio/hardware competitor, doesn’t matter to me. I’m 100% all for Microsoft acquiring more for two simple reasons - first is that you can never have enough studios and games and second is that every game would go into Game Pass Ultimate day one which is what I care about so the more acquisitions that Microsoft makes the better it will be for me. Hehehe.
Curious, what’s the upper limit you’d be willing to pay for GPU in a hypothetical world where Microsoft bought every publisher period (so everyone but indies are first party in this world)?
I was willing to go up to $40 a month but in fairness, I am subscribed for four years overall between July 2024 and July 2028. Three years was at $15 a month and I just added a year at $20 a month so im not paying the actual price increases.
If Microsoft were to get more, it depends on how many games im personally getting a year from them. For example, since 2023, im averaging just over 4 games a year from Microsoft that I want to play through. This doesn’t include third party day one games on Game Pass Ultimate.
If im getting 6+ a year overall, $30-$40 a month is worth it because there will always be other games that I want to tryout but don’t want to buy because they could easily be dropped. If it’s 10+ a year overall, I would probably go up to $50 a month because im still saving a lot of money, still getting to play and complete the games that I want to actually play while still being able to tryout games that im not going to buy. Had four tryout games this year thus far and im very happy that I didn’t buy them.
So…this chanel is dead lol, curious though. With the new CEO of gaming do you think we will see more acquisitions/different kind of acquisitions and if so whom?
No acquisitions unless if it has to deal with tech. I could probably see Crytek for their engine, maybe Microsoft might be willing to make it part of their stack.
At best or worst? Just studio acquisitions. It’s just safer overall compared to anything. If Microsoft or Xbox is looking to have as many game engines as possible, I could see Crytek being one such studio they try to get.
Consolidation is still happening in the industry and world at large, so I don’t think new aquistions for Microsoft were ever off the table entirely. It’s just that they had a VERY big run of all those studios in 2018/19, all of Zenimax, and then all of ABK with ABK still being really fresh. Microsoft only just put ABK under Matt Booty to start to pull together all their first party studios. ABK and Zenimax really are still slowly being incorporated into Xbox on the whole. I imagine this like their long cooldown period after using their special ability “fat wallet” too often. Maybe we’ll see another aquistion post 2030 (or before that, idk, Microsoft likes money and getting bigger, it’ll depend how much they’re actually all in on gaming (but even then they really don’t need more after ABK)).
If we’re being delusional, then I’d love them to buy WB right now. They aren’t Paramount so that’d be great. Plus they could funnel their IP into movies and TV through WB. Maybe we could also see Xbox characters in DC comics. Or Xbox studios do games for DC comics. It’s not happening, but it could be fun.
I think if Microsoft had any interest in the movie industry we would of seen signs of it a lot earlier, though I think it is pretty studio no video game companies outside of Sony have expanded into the movie industry, there are so many synergies and rooms for expansion. I believe Activision actually did try to buy WB once upon a time though and obviously they combinded with vivendi once upon a time as well.
I think if Microsoft was smart they would try to capture the dude bro console line up that made the 360 so successful, they already got most of the major shooters and WRPG franchises, they also have some more out there games via studios like double fine which along side Halo made the OG Xbox. All they are really missing is some more fan service-y games which they had via their partnership with Tecmo having the dead or alive / Dead or Alive volleyball games associated or exclusive to Xbox, microsoft could also use some more family friendly content though but that feels like a lesser priority.
I don’t know, putting other factors to one side like price, microsofts internal politics, anti trust and if these companies would even want to see since I believe eastern companies have different regulations than western companies; I think ideal companies for Microsoft to target are parts of embracer group (namely crystal dynamics and eidos montreal so you can get tomb raider), Shift Up, SEGA, Koei Tecmo, Square Enix, Capcom or at a stretch Take Two. They all hit that more fan service-y esc or at least dude bro niche that is the last missing piece from the dude bro console Xbox blew up for being.
Crystal Dynamics & Eidos Montreal would give Microsoft Tomb Raider, Deus Ex, Thief & Legacy of Kain, but the big thing would obviously be Tomb Raider which would only give Microsoft access to the OG childhood crush and a character who was really associate with Xbox but also a franchise which competes with Naughty Dogs Uncharted (and in my opinion beats it)
Shift Up is obvious, they are the developers behind Stallar Blade which Eve obvious is popular for her character design but on top of that the game is just a really fun hack and slash showing obvious talent. Along side that Shift Up also owns some fairly popular Eastern mobile games so it would help in that effort
SEGA was probably the most speculated acquisition and one we know they looked seriously at on at least 2 occasions this console generation so, they aren’t as good as some at filling the niche I think Microsoft needs to plug but that isn’t to say they don’t as games like Persona, Shin Megumi Tensi, YAKUZA, Virtua Fighter, Phantasy Star, Sakura Wars and Shining all sorts of file the dude bro niche, but they do also have other pluses like besides Bethesda who is already owned by Microsoft and maybe EA who is being acquired by Sadia Arabia, SEGA is the publisher who is most associated with Microsoft and the Xbox brand, they also have a lot of genre deverity and family friendly content like Sonic and Angry Birds; also their ownership of Rovio obviously helps MS mobile push
Koei Tecmo is one of the more stand out ones, in terms of general value they are obviously weaker, but they were Microsoft original partner when it came to those more dude bro games with Ninja Gaiden, Dead or Alive and Dead or Alive extreme Volleyball, and since then they have expanded with games like Atelier, Dynasty warriors and some of their licensed stuff like Fairy Tail, they definitely represent one of missing things that made the 360 so special
Square Enix is one of the most obvious, one of the things they are most known for is owning some of the most prestigious JRPGs and their attractive character designs and owning another OG childhood crush in Tifa. If microsoft went for them they would also have the benefit of being the home of RPGs in general, not just WRPGs, with games like final fantasy, dragon quest, nier, Octopath travellers & development/publishing rights to Kingdom Hearts, it would help fill the dude bro niche
Capcom is in my opinion the best buy Microsoft could hypothetically make with franchises like Steet Fighter and Resident evil having great character designs having 2 or 3 more OG childhood crushes with Chun Li, Cammy and Jill but also most of their big franchises are inherently dude bro games like Street Fighter, Resident Evil, Monster Hunter & Devil May Cry all feeling like primarily cool games. On top of that just like SEGA they offer tons of verity owning the face of thr horror (resident evil), visual novel (ace attorney), hack n slash (devil may cry) & fighting game (street fightrr) genre with other notable genres like platforms (Mega Man) and JRPGs (Monster Hunter) also being covered with prominate and popular IP
Take Two in my opinion one of the weaker buys but the sports games do fill the dude bro niche, however the big get would be rockstar who make the once in a generation dude bro game and if they could make a GTA 7, Red Dead Redemption 3 or even something a little more niche like a Bully 2 or Man Hunt 3 exclusive it could honestly revive the xbox; also Take Two owns Zynga so yeah, a massive help in the mobile push, one on a similar scale to their implementation of King
Realistically though, if Microsoft was going to go buy more I think parts of Ubisoft (or maybe even the entire company with heavy cuts following), parts of embracer like Crystal Dynamics and eidos montreal, or just individual studios