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Microsoft has acquired 3̶ 5 more studios
- Thread starter .Pennywise
- Start date
- Rumor
VAL0R
Banned
PS fanboys can mock you, but your logic is sound. Microsoft has an overwhelming advantage in resources that can't be overstated. They can take a majority of the US gaming market by sheer force of will. It will take billions more in investment, but Nadella seems to be 100% behind that. This gen will be a turning point for MS if they stay the course.
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Hawking Radiation
Member
VAL0R
Banned
I think it might be time for Phil to cut Nintendo and Sony out from Minecraft as well, once Xcloud takes over and you can play it on your browser and potato smartphone. All future updates on Xbox Game Pass platforms only. Send the message that Xbox produced games are on Xbox Game Pass platforms, period.
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Snake29
RSI Employee of the Year
Yes, let MS buy every game company they want (won't ever happen since they will be hold back), but i do not believe the quality of games wll stay the same ever again, with all the GP day 1 releases.
Xbox will destroy themselves eventually by doing those kind of crazy things. Xbox fans are really heavenly blind with these kind of stupid acquisitions and weird comments. It almost sounds that Xbox can only win if they destroy the industry and Sony.
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TheGodfather07
Member
Well atleast you singled out the US gaming market. Maybe they can take that market back in the future. Worldwide though, they'll have to buy fifa or ea entirely and take two to overtake Sony. If you wanna throw money at it, might aswell go big. Small indie studios will have no impact at all.
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Spidey Fan
Banned
What is with you guys and quality games? Do you think Sony are the only one with quality games?
Gamepass allows creativity, not some dumb shit moneyware games. Look at Obsidian. 2 big projects, possible with Microsoft money. Avowed is the game, they couldn't make. Outer world wasn't great, because they didn't have the resources needed to expand their games.
And lastly, 3rd person games aren't the only quality games out there. I despise 3rd person with too much cut scenes. That ruins the immersion of what 3rd person games supposed to be.
Look at witcher 3, gtaV and Skyrim. Tell me, if any Sony studio can match those 3 quality games. I doubt they can do it.
Spiderman is the only close one, and its too restrictive. You can't go beyond what you are allowed, which sucks, because I want to get out from useless missions, and just enjoy collecting stuff, and wonder the world of Spiderman. Oh, let's not talk about the npc of Spiderman. They are just there, for the sake of Spiderman ego. Even the cars acts weird.
Spidey Fan
Banned
I suggest you dont look down on small indie studios. Cdpr had that witcher 1, then witcher 2, then witcher 3.
With enough resources, small indie studios can make triple AAA game, about their ip. Double fine for example, can make a separate Psychonauts universe, with a setting world like witcher 3, with Microsoft money, and resources.
Only thing that is the limit is your creativity.
VAL0R
Banned
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VAL0R
Banned
Agreed. To achieve global market share leadership they will probably have to go huge along the lines of EA, Ubi, multiple Japanese powerhouse devs, etc.
this could be interesting and Sony doesn't have anything like Minecraft
imagine a Minecraft 2.0 just for Xbox
Spidey Fan
Banned
They need to focus on gamepass. Just doing deals for gamepass, is enough to make them a power house.
If they can get mlb the show day1 on gamepass, then they can try it for fifa, and other sport games. That is pretty much more beneficial than buying those studios.
Same for the Japanese.
Spidey Fan
Banned
They can't do that for minecraft. Minecraft is a behemoth. It sold 240m in its life time. No way Microsoft will put that on xbox. Considering the game has a market place. So more money for them.
01011001
Banned
also pretty sure they haven an agreement with Mojang to keep it multiplat
Hendrick's
If only my penis was as big as my GamerScore!
I just want everything on Game Pass. Screw buying games, GP has me spoiled.
TheGodfather07
Member
Agreed. If they can get the really big games onto gamepass day 1, they will start to take marketshare away from sony. I'm talking about game like fifa and call of duty. Having those along with all 1st party games would be the ultimate gaming subscription. At that point though, Sony can just start doing the same thing. Also Sony themselves are a major company and a powerhouse publisher. They will fight back hard if their business starts to take a hit.
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//DEVIL//
Member
While I agree that Sony IS shitting themselves right now, I think they are also working behind the scene to do something about it. Even if Jimbo is retarded, I don't think Sony HQ or shareholders in Japan at least will be silent about it. especially since that big Zenimax purchase. even dead people in Sony have woken up.
Also, MS for their life can't acquire a Japanese studio otherwise would have been done a long time ago. That's where Sony hopefully can do something
ToTTenTranz
Banned
Only 5 more studios? That's really tame..
Why don't they just buy Ubisoft, EA and Take Two? And then add all of it to Gamepass with a discount to $10 / year.
Now that ought to teach Sony a lesson or two.
Why don't they just buy Ubisoft, EA and Take Two? And then add all of it to Gamepass with a discount to $10 / year.
Now that ought to teach Sony a lesson or two.
I mean they indirectly got a Japanese studio via the ZeniMax purchase
Topher
Gold Member
Force of will? Then heck......Microsoft should just buy Sony and be done with it. Hmmm, but what if Sony says "no" just like Nintendo did. Well that whole "force of will" argument didn't last long. Any transaction requires both parties to agree. There is no "force of will" involved at all.
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With respect to your opinion, so what? Do it, spend the money, but on key acquisitions.
If they get no one else from the PS4 era, then they have to lockdown BluePoint, Kojipro and Housemarqee. To leave them as they are, or have them bought by someone else would be egg on their faces. We all bitch and moan now when something like Kojima showing off MGS on XB's 360 stage happens already, this would be 10x worse.
Then they need to go after SE and CAPCOM. Get Tomb Raider, Final Fantasy, Monster Hunter, Devil May Cry and Resident Evil in house and then abuse the ever loving shit out of their characters and IP without needing to pay for exclusive content or licenses. Rake in the money from SE's film efforts, and all the FF milking they're about to do for yourselves. Launch the OG games on PS1/2/3 PSNow (or re-sell in PStore). Push PSVR, Movies, theme park rides, Netflix shows, have the characters needed, and the lessons learned, for a PS AllStars Battle Royal 2.
tpieman2029
Member
Xbox's plan for Japan is xcloud on mobile. But to get that to work theyre going to need games the Japanese want to play. Xcloud hasn't launched in Japan yet but when it does I expect a Japanese studio acquisition to follow soon after.
//DEVIL//
Member
That doesn’t really count much and I going to bet at one point I believe mikami is going to leave the company after he is done with Tokyo Goul or whatever it’s called.
yurinka
Member
Nah, Jimbo is breaking gaming history records while Xbox is a distant 3rd and Zenimax games weren't even a 5% of the over 1500 million games sold for PS4, and Sony will continue getting at least some Zenimax new games and DLCs.
Jimbo, Sony HQ, shareholders and so on won't give a fuck if MS improves a lot with games released in the 2nd half of the generation and becomes a not so distant 3rd.
Were this studio's game sales big enough specially in Japan to be strategically meaningful for the Japanese market? Specially to compensate the exclusives that Sony has in Japan (remember, some games that are multi in the west are PS4 exclusives for Japan)?
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yurinka
Member
Very likely because they don't want or need to sell them. Same goes with big Japanese companies, that in their case at least some of them are protected by the Japanese government as strategic companies and can't be sold to foreigners.
And well, on top of that probably MS already spent too much on gamedev acquisitions for a while and business wise beyond what it makes sense. Pretty likely they won't have enough budget for big gamedev acquisitions for a while, if they buy someone in the coming months/years pretty likely would be smaller ones who on top of that may need some security/stability like Crytek.
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Raekwon26
Member
I doubt they could keep the sports games exclusive just like happened to Sony.
Zeroing
Banned
I don’t know why I bother but!!!
They have resources yet until some months ago they barely done anything for gamers.
People need to understand that MS is reactive! They react to what the competition is doing! or what MS thinks the competition will do! Most of the time is not even gaming related!
Examples:
First Apple TV rumors - here comes the Xbox one with focus on tv.
Google and Amazon enter the gaming industry and hints at streaming games, here comes MS betting very hard at services.
If they could buy take two that would definitely hurt Sony. I still doubt they could keep any sports games exclusive though.
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IDKFA
I am Become Bilbo Baggins
Microsoft have a lot more money.
Chuck tens of billions at FIFA and the NFL etc and it's problem solved.
The Alien
Banned
You're right. They should just buy Sony.
For Microsoft, likely another purchase easily paid for in cash with it being merely a blip on their quarterly report.
People can mock these comments to about MS's power, but in reality their resources are certainly something that should scare the shit out of any competition. Which is why u hear dumb comments to from Jim Ryan about throwing money around or Sony trying to intimidate devs from making deals with Microsoft. Sonys is nervous...frankly, they should be. May not be today. May not be tomorrow, but in time Sony will be reduced to a developer house with just another app on some platforms. Imagine Microsoft buying GTA or Call of Duty exclusivity. For Microsoft, its not impossible.
But suppose we can still keep snickering. For the time being.
Dolomite
Member
This a million times over. Exclusives are dope, but mostly conversation fodder for console wars around here. Gimme the games, everything on the plate
Yeah I remember the times people made those Microsoft warchest jokes about moneyhat and acquisitions. So many GIFs and joke post laughing about people mentioning Microsoft warchest. Then they just bought Bethesda and those jokes dissapeared
SenjutsuSage
Banned
Not entirely true, but Microsoft would be insane to ever buy Sony. The company as a whole is simply not worth the money it would take. That isn't saying Sony has no valuable assets, because of course they do, but just none of them would be worth buying Sony for. No need to buy what can be easily competed against given real commitment, investment, aggressiveness and talent.
Raekwon26
Member
SenjutsuSage
Banned
That they did. Nobody saw Microsoft buying Bethesda coming. And the buy didn't occur at just at any old time either. It came at a time in which Bethesda is at their peak potential value and quality output, and has nowhere to go but up with some truly major releases lined up.
Topher
Gold Member
But Microsoft's "force of will" would allow them to simply sell off the parts (you think) "not worth buying Sony for" and and incorporate the entire PlayStation franchise on their crowded studio shelf with Bethesda and all the rest, right? This is almighty Microsoft we are talking about. /s
What do you mean "no need to buy"? Buying is exactly what Microsoft has been doing. Regardless, the point remains Microsoft can only buy when both parties agree. This "force of will" nonsense doesn't exist. That's why Microsoft couldn't buy Sony if they wanted to.
Example:
Microsoft tried to buy Nintendo, but got laughed out of the room
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Hawking Radiation
Member
Snake29
RSI Employee of the Year
Atm MS had around 139 billion in cash compared to Sony around 50 billion. It really isn’t that much compared to Sony if you think that MS is worth around a trillion dollar. Sony being a “blip” for MS cash reserve? Yeah right…Sony would worth more then MS cash reserve.
Yes we imagine things about MS for years now. Your whole post sound more nervous about Sony since they are silent, then that Sony is nervous. The louder people shout, the more nervous they come across.
A lessen for what? Everything MS did, they did it themselves. Blame MS for doing nothing for almost 2 generations (no big games).
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JerryinSoCal
Member
Studios had control before and look what happened, you are living in a fantasy world. You were going to buy every game on game pass? most of them are filler old titles that nobody has ever heard about, I'll take quality over quantity every day of the week. Also their studios had creative control before that's why nothing gets done there, you have to have a balance and Phil is trying to be the message board hero and just let people take forever on their projects and look what happened. Crackdown 3 announced way too early, development issues across the board but is finally released to a flat reception and multiplayer that's nothing like what was promised. A fake Fable game from lionhead that gets cancelled and the studio closed because the project was allowed to get away from the studio and was no longer viable. Everwild announced and 2 years later rebooted after the creative director left these aren't the only examples btw but they ALL happened under Phil Spencer's "leadership" and that's a problem. The guy isn't good at studio management, you can't just throw money at a team and say "here take as long as you want" they are going to need regular releases to keep GP looking fresh. They have only released 3 AAA games since GP launched so that "day and date" stuff has been nothing more than a marketing ploy so far.
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Thirty7ven
Banned
Every time MS decides to work with a third party will now be accompanied by an acquisition rumor.
Neofire
Member
I concur with this synopsis. MS is banking on quantity over quality just to pad their ridiculous GP. Of course you will have people saying "oh I'm saving xxx amount of money" but never thinking about how it abdicates ones game ownership on top of having developers to rely on MS completely for their projected revenue on it's platforms.
Not to mention GP encourages micro transactions
Then don’t get game pass and buy the game. You act like this is not possible.
Hawking Radiation
Member
Have to disagree here.
Xbox first party games coming to gamepass day one certainly dispels that notion that gamepass games are just mere 'filler' titles to pad out the service.
Starfield, Halo, Forza, Gears are AAA and there's more coming from Xbox.
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Quantity and quality.
I don't give a shit about game ownership much because I don't revisit games all too often. I beat god of war in 2018 and it's been sitting in its case for over two years now. I get the same experience in the end.
I also don't really care about microtransactions as long as they're fair. Mtx in Halo doesn't bother me. Same with sea of thieves. Or forza. Or Gears. None of that impacts my gameplay.
Spidey Fan
Banned
There is alot to unpack here.
First of all, gamepass isnt a filler. its you, who has this weird notion, that all games has to be high production. Not every studios can afford it. There are great games which have bad graphic, but the gameplay is top notch. Look at skyrim. meh graphic, combat is stiff. but its one of the best games out there. I have yet to see a sony quality gameplay like that.
Things take time, and you need to let your customer, games are being worked on. Staying silent will make you weak to your competition, but i doubt you care that.
Everwild is rare issues. They wanted to make an ambitious game. they over pushed their talent, and they are now paying dearly. If you want early project, you have starfield, avowed, fable and perfect dark. those games were announced the same time as everwild. but that wont fit your narrative.
Phil did amazing job, and his work is paying of now. Gamepass is the result of his management. Bethesda is releasing 2 exclusive games next year. deathloop and tokyo ghost wire would have been xbox exclusive, have phil not honored the deal. but because he is doing it, its timed exclusive to playstation, which paid to keep it 1 year away from xbox console. Even though, they dont own the studio, or have even supported the studio make the game.
They launched outriders, and Mlb a playstation exclusive. they announced 27 games day 1 on e3 and they even have more games, which are delayed due to the pandemic. They did small day 1 games, which flew under you radar, because you dont give a crap about gamepass.
So please, do us a favor and shut up. You can blame him for not delivering exclusive to his console like what sony did. But for you to try and undermine the work is he did, is dishonest.
And remember, 2022 and after that, His studios will bump out games nonstop. And you guys will scream about, how its not 3rd person story driven.
Let me tell you something, every gamer out there is sick of 3rd person games. There are alot of different genre out there. tactic games, real time strategy, racing, sports, rpg, turn based rpg, platform, metroidvania genre, shooter, multiplayer games, co-op games. And there are great games from these genre. sticking to one genre makes your games geared toward a certain group, and excludes others. Same reason why xbox lost japanese market. because it didnt focus on games they wanted, and made them feel alienated.
This isnt a fanboy shit from me. I am just tired of you guys using the same garbage argument to downplay other games. I am primary pc games, and i love certain games, which sony cant produce it. Splinter cell series, Metal gear series, and dues ex, thief, old assassins' creed games. These games dont fit sony narrative, because of their focus on cinema like games. While in reality those games are much more fun, than what sony produces in my opinion. Their pathetic atempt in doing it on Spiderman game was laughable. MJ a reporter was able to sneak on military group easily, like they are blind. I love spiderman game, because its spiderman, but those missions are crime to genre that i love.
Hawking Radiation
Member
You know I felt the same when I had my Xbox Series S for the last 3 months. I was all too happy to pay the subscription fee so I can download whatever I wanted. I've lost those games since selling the console but It didn't bug me at all. I didn't waste hundreds of $$ on games. The same way I won't feel crappy If I decide to cancel my Netflix.
The low barrier to entry should be a compelling proposition for any dedicated gamer. I mean I bought into it and I'm a PS fan. Only reason why I sold my Series S is that I want to play all my PS4 games in 4k/60 on PS5. I've invested thousands into PS ecosystem. THAT is money I can't just throw away. Also I haven't finished the majority of the games I own on PS4.
Went a bit off topic at the end there.
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SenjutsuSage
Banned
Sony is a publicly traded company with share holders. What makes you think there isn't a price that shareholders would push for it to be sold for? Spoiler... there's always a price. It's just a matter of who is willing to pay it.