Indyblue
Member
Watching Microsoft buy studios IS the gameCan we predict their next game first?
Watching Microsoft buy studios IS the gameCan we predict their next game first?
Microsoft seems to be acquiring a lot of studios lately and doesn't seem to be stopping soon. I predict Microsoft will buy out either Valve/Steam or Studio Wildcard next.
Why do you guys cheerlead for studio acquisitions?
Buying up studios for the sole purpose of reducing content available on the competitor's platform is a garbage strategy and borderline anti-consumer. When the content would come to your platform regardless of the purchase or not, you're not actually adding anything to the gaming medium, but instead tying up investment dollars in forcing multiplatform content to become exclusive, instead of using those funds to expand your existing studios or create new studios or bring up smaller indie devs to make new blockbuster games.
You should be protesting against this shit, instead of fantasising over it.
Actually .... Watching people on this thread arguing about Microsoft buying studios IS the game..Watching Microsoft buy studios IS the game
But that's the same that happens with non-timed 3rd party exclusives, isn't it? I don't see a lot of people critizing Project Athia, FFV7R or Stray for example. Neither of those games had Sony's funding the development as far as we know.Why do you guys cheerlead for studio acquisitions?
Buying up studios for the sole purpose of reducing content available on the competitor's platform is a garbage strategy and borderline anti-consumer. When the content would come to your platform regardless of the purchase or not, you're not actually adding anything to the gaming medium, but instead tying up investment dollars in forcing multiplatform content to become exclusive, instead of using those funds to expand your existing studios or create new studios or bring up smaller indie devs to make new blockbuster games.
You should be protesting against this shit, instead of fantasising over it.
Not all purchases are bad Brian fargo would of retired after Wasteland 3 if Microsoft had not acquired his studio. He got sick of spending most of his time raising money and worrying about payroll. He can now spend his time creating games which he loves. More western rpgs which is a win for all gamers. Until the zenimax deal most of the studios Microsoft purchased had financial issues.
But that's the same that happens with non-timed 3rd party exclusives, isn't it?
I don't see a lot of people critizing Project Athia, FFV7R or Stray for example. Neither of those games had Sony's funding the development as far as we know.
Not a bad idea to be honest. Microsoft should work on more simulators because it is an underrated market imoE3 is less than two weeks and that is usually when MS announces acquisitions. I'm going with a reveal of Flight Simulator release date trailer. Then Phil will announce MS has bought Asobo.
You mean like sucker punch, insomniac and naughty dog. You know the studios who launched the biggest games in the last 12 months for Sony. Just because Sony did it years earlier doesn't mean they never did lol.I thought they would go for something like Warner but that just got bought by Amazon.
Maybe Ubisoft?
MS couldnt really make any of there new IP’s that successful this last 10+ years. So its the only way they can stay in the game, to buy IP’s they had nothing to do with building.
They are are like the super rich soccer/football team that buys all the best players lol
Moon Studio has stated they want to remain entirely independent for the foreseeable future. I guarantee you if they were at all open to an acquisition it would've already happened. They're too talented to pass up, and their last two games were two of the best MS games of the whole last gen, I'm sure they've at least been approached.They're sleeping on moon studio
You mean like sucker punch, insomniac and naughty dog. You know the studios who launched the biggest games in the last 12 months for Sony. Just because Sony did it years earlier doesn't mean they never did lol.
Well lets look at the difference as alot of you guys cant understand the difference And it really is different.
Naughty dog: Created games like Crash, Jak and Daxter and Uncharted exclusively for the Playstation since PS1, by Sony Funds.
Same with Spyro and Ratchet and Clank with Insomniac since the PS2 and Spiderman and Resistance On the PS3 and PS4.
Sony has been publishing Sucker Punch games since 2002 with there first major game in Sly.
Now Bethesda and Zenimax.
Games like Fallout, ElderScrools, Doom, Quake, Wolfenstein, have never been exclusive or established, paid for or made popular by Microsoft.
Infact most these franchises were made before MS was even in the Console business.
Tango games like Evil Within, Arkane Games like dishonoured Were never exclusive to MS.
Does this sound the same?
You mean a studio like Ninja Theory who again use to make exclusives and timed Exclusives for Playstation and never for Xbox but MS bought them too?
MS buying Zenimax/Bethesda is more comparible to Nintendo and Playstation buying a publisher like Square, EA, Capcom or Konami. They are publishers with already established IP‘s that havent particulary been made popular and have been established without Sony or NIntendo money.
I really don’t undertsand how some of you guys dont understand the difference.
MS never was involved with Bethesda in establishing those IP. Whereas all of Naughty dog games have been exclusive to Playstation...
Sorry to break it to you but Microsoft's “war chest” is firmly targeted at other sectors. I would be shocked if they did another Zenimax level gaming acquisition.
Microsoft is currently flying under the radar a little with antitrust enforcement paying more attention to Apple, Google and Amazon right now and are looking at targets in sectors where normally they’d come under more scrutiny than gaming. MS can make a gaming acquisition any time, as they’re not the dominant company.
They just spent $19 billion on Nuance, a health AI company, and have been looking at Discord, Pinterest and, of course, Tiktok. This is more like their other recent big acquisitions like LinkedIn and Githhub.
Well lets look at the difference as alot of you guys cant understand the difference And it really is different.
Naughty dog: Created games like Crash, Jak and Daxter and Uncharted exclusively for the Playstation since PS1, by Sony Funds.
Same with Spyro and Ratchet and Clank with Insomniac since the PS2 and Spiderman and Resistance On the PS3 and PS4.
Sony has been publishing Sucker Punch games since 2002 with there first major game in Sly.
Now Bethesda and Zenimax.
Games like Fallout, ElderScrools, Doom, Quake, Wolfenstein, have never been exclusive or established, paid for or made popular by Microsoft.
Infact most these franchises were made before MS was even in the Console business.
Tango games like Evil Within, Arkane Games like dishonoured Were never exclusive to MS.
Does this sound the same?
You mean a studio like Ninja Theory who again use to make exclusives and timed Exclusives for Playstation and never for Xbox but MS bought them too?
MS buying Zenimax/Bethesda is more comparible to Nintendo and Playstation buying a publisher like Square, EA, Capcom or Konami. They are publishers with already established IP‘s that havent particulary been made popular and have been established without Sony or NIntendo money.
I really don’t undertsand how some of you guys dont understand the difference.
MS never was involved with Bethesda in establishing those IP. Whereas all of Naughty dog games have been exclusive to Playstation...
Dead or alive 7 looks like a banger.
Hey at least it's better than this thread
I don't recall seeing you protest against all the timed and full exclusive 3rd party games Sony has moneyhatted.Why do you guys cheerlead for studio acquisitions?
Buying up studios for the sole purpose of reducing content available on the competitor's platform is a garbage strategy and borderline anti-consumer. When the content would come to your platform regardless of the purchase or not, you're not actually adding anything to the gaming medium, but instead tying up investment dollars in forcing multiplatform content to become exclusive, instead of using those funds to expand your existing studios or create new studios or bring up smaller indie devs to make new blockbuster games.
You should be protesting against this shit, instead of fantasising over it.
Well lets look at the difference as alot of you guys cant understand the difference And it really is different.
Naughty dog: Created games like Crash, Jak and Daxter and Uncharted exclusively for the Playstation since PS1, by Sony Funds.
Same with Spyro and Ratchet and Clank with Insomniac since the PS2 and Spiderman and Resistance On the PS3 and PS4.
Sony has been publishing Sucker Punch games since 2002 with there first major game in Sly.
Now Bethesda and Zenimax.
Games like Fallout, ElderScrools, Doom, Quake, Wolfenstein, have never been exclusive or established, paid for or made popular by Microsoft.
Infact most these franchises were made before MS was even in the Console business.
Tango games like Evil Within, Arkane Games like dishonoured Were never exclusive to MS.
Does this sound the same?
You mean a studio like Ninja Theory who again use to make exclusives and timed Exclusives for Playstation and never for Xbox but MS bought them too?
MS buying Zenimax/Bethesda is more comparible to Nintendo and Playstation buying a publisher like Square, EA, Capcom or Konami. They are publishers with already established IP‘s that havent particulary been made popular and have been established without Sony or NIntendo money.
I really don’t undertsand how some of you guys dont understand the difference.
MS never was involved with Bethesda in establishing those IP. Whereas all of Naughty dog games have been exclusive to Playstation...
You both have valid points. It's true that the studios Sony has bought were ones that were pretty much already making games exclusively for them anyways. Only a few exceptions. Nintendo and Xbox fans really weren't missing out on those studios being purchased. There were no long running franchises suddenly not on their platforms anymore because of the acquisitions.Sony could of stepped up to the plate with ninja theory, Obsidian entertainment or inXile but didn't want to deal with with financially challenged studios. Zenimax thank jimbo Ryan was Microsoft supposed to sit back and let Sony money hat every Zenimax game? Also Google was sniffing around the owners wanted out it wasn't making enough money. Be happy it was Microsoft and not Google or Amazon. You can still get those games on the PC.
Tiktok is such a waste of money to spend on; literally just commercialized Vines, its bubble will pop like so many of these other social media things. Discord went public recently so that's a no, I don't see a point in Pinterest, either.
I think it would be smarter of Microsoft to do more investments and investment partnerships into some of these companies rather than outright buy them, especially if they're companies operating in a volatile field. Same can be said for future gaming acquisitions; chill on those for a bit and just invest in a few studios to help them grow independently, or fund some platform exclusives for the ecosystem like they did back in the day with SEGA for example. No one would be able to complain about a move from them in a 3P game being exclusive if they helped foot the bill for the game outright, like Nintendo did with Bayonetta 3.
And then maybe some years in the future if those companies are in a market to sell, hey you've already built up a lot of rapport with them with years of investments and partnerships, they sell to you and that's that. But for the time being, outside of maybe a couple WB Games studios I think Microsoft might be cooling off a bit on massive acquisitions, with things across the world starting to return to some normalcy. There's even a chance nothing happens with WB Games but I can see them investing in development of a specific game or two with those studios to make an ecosystem exclusive, like a DC game or new Killer Instinct.
Console-wise Bethesda games are more strongly associated with the Xbox brand. Morrowind was an OG Xbox exclusive, never got a PS2 port. Microsoft actually invested in Bethesda back in the early 2000s when they needed money; thanks to that investment Bethesda were able to establish Zenimax. Skyrim console-wise is mostly associated with Xbox and the 360 version was unquestionably the superior one out of the two.
Ultimately this is a lot of semantics and reaching on your part; it's not like Microsoft hasn't invested and grown gaming studios internally, and ultimately this is a business. These companies don't hinge who buys them or not on the type of things you're trying to prioritize as making investments worthwhile or "right" (as if a company actively looking to be purchased, actually getting purchased, is an ethical violation).
Sony could of stepped up to the plate with ninja theory, Obsidian entertainment or inXile but didn't want to deal with with financially challenged studios. Zenimax thank jimbo Ryan was Microsoft supposed to sit back and let Sony money hat every Zenimax game? Also Google was sniffing around the owners wanted out it wasn't making enough money. Be happy it was Microsoft and not Google or Amazon. You can still get those games on the PC.
Oooo edgyI’d love them to buy Sega, From Software, and Kojima.
Sega - only because I want Persona on Xbox
From Software - xbox only souls-like games
Kojima - just for the meltdown and “traitor” posts on here.
The only reason I own a PlayStation is to keep playing Persona 5 + Bloodborne. If MS can buy Sega + From then I won’t have any reason to ever buy a PlayStation again.
Kojima Productions
runs away
CD PROJEKT Red
When it’s about half of projected sales and revenue- it’s horrible.15M for a new ip is bad?
1. It's not a new IP15M for a new ip is bad?
I don't recall seeing you protest against all the timed and full exclusive 3rd party games Sony has moneyhatted.
What's your point Jacky boy?Sorry to break it to you but Microsoft's “war chest” is firmly targeted at other sectors. I would be shocked if they did another Zenimax level gaming acquisition.
Microsoft is currently flying under the radar a little with antitrust enforcement paying more attention to Apple, Google and Amazon right now and are looking at targets in sectors where normally they’d come under more scrutiny than gaming. MS can make a gaming acquisition any time, as they’re not the dominant company.
They just spent $19 billion on Nuance, a health AI company, and have been looking at Discord, Pinterest and, of course, Tiktok. This is more like their other recent big acquisitions like LinkedIn and Githhub.
It can be. You need to look at the context. They spent a lot of money to make this game and probably spent a lot of money advertising it; estimated to be $315M. Lets say they get around $40 back for each copy sold roughly 70% of costs, that's about $615M in revenue. If instead, they took that money and just put it in the stock market into safe investments where people expect 8% returns. Then you are looking at around ~$629M. Which pretty much the same reward for much lower risk. It's worth noting that in reality, the stock market has done really well the last 9 years. So really their $315M investment can be as high as $945M or even higher.15M for a new ip is bad?
Why do you guys cheerlead for studio acquisitions?
Buying up studios for the sole purpose of reducing content available on the competitor's platform is a garbage strategy and borderline anti-consumer. When the content would come to your platform regardless of the purchase or not, you're not actually adding anything to the gaming medium, but instead tying up investment dollars in forcing multiplatform content to become exclusive, instead of using those funds to expand your existing studios or create new studios or bring up smaller indie devs to make new blockbuster games.
You should be protesting against this shit, instead of fantasising over it.
If you think the sole reason (or even a primary reason) for studio acquisitions is to not let other consumers play their games then you're too far gone in the console wars. For instance Xbox buying Bethesda gave them ownership of some massive IP, some great tech (like the id tech game engine for instance), and all the money made from any game made from those studios, not to mention it gave a massive boost to Game Pass, and allows Xbox Game Studios to collaborate and share ideas/tech with all the new Bethesda studios. The games not being on Playstation is merely an unfortunate consequence, not the primary point of doing it.
Acquisitions benefit the studio, benefit the platform holder, and benefit the consumers in that ecosystem (more time and resources makes games potentially better, more collaboration with talented first party studios, and things like Game Pass allow for smaller games like Grounded to be made, more games and better games for Xbox consumers).
Cheerleading massive acquisitions like EA or Take Two isn't great imo and going forward Sega is pretty much the only massive publisher I'd be OK with Xbox buying (though not cheering it on), but pretty much every studio acquired by Sony or Microsoft in the past 5 years was either A. basically a 1st party already, or B. not in great financial shape and thus massively benefit from acquisition.
So yeah, cheering on acquisitions isn't something I agree with (especially now that Xbox has a massive 1st party studio roster), but there are plenty of studios that would benefit from being acquired, and I strongly agree with your stance that acquisitions are inherently bad for the industry.