You mean like buying insomniac lol. Everyone does it period there is no spin on it. Sony could buy more studios but are investing in timed exclusives and other exclusive content. I rather Microsoft buy inexile and obsidian than them founder in financial hell holding on by a thread making lesser games. Would you rather have guys like Brian fargo making games or begging for money and trying to pay staff?
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Do you Microsoft to invest into buying more studios or do you want them to use their resources and make new studios?
- Thread starter Derktron
- Start date
RoadHazard
Gold Member
Insomniac is pretty much the only example of Sony doing this. Almost all of their studios they have either built from the ground up or bought when they were still small and mostly unknown. Sony has then built them up into the AAA powerhouses they are today, they didn't buy them already "finished".
Also, it's not like Sony "randomly" bought Insomniac, they have pretty much been a Sony studio for most of their existence anyway. It was a very natural acquisition, unlike MS buying Bethesda.
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Roronoa Zoro
Gold Member
I want them to make their own IP mainly. Exclusivizing existing franchises is way worse than making a formerly multiplat studio make them a new IP
bxrz
Member
Microsoft brought Bethesda to consoles. Morrowind was a Xbox/PC exclusive. Oblivion was a timed exclusive
RoadHazard
Gold Member
That was a long time ago. Nothing has been Xbox exclusive since Morrowind. And Bethesda is much more now than they were back then, now they own id and a lot of other franchises that have never had anything specifically to do with Xbox.
DarkMage619
$MSFT
Phil said MS had a relationship with the leadership at Bethesda for a while now and that was an important part of the acquisition. Just because you don't see the relationship doesn't mean it didn't exist. They will have an even stronger relationship from here on out.
HYDE
Banned
Wrong. And who said I wanted a Sony monopoly?
The_Mike
I cry about SonyGaf from my chair in Redmond, WA
Could you please explain how Microsoft managed the studios during the 360 era?
TheThreadsThatBindUs
Member
Zog
Banned
Well, they must be succeeding somewhere or they would be out of money.
You should ask Ted Price who threw all that money at Insomniac in order to succeed because it wasn’t Microsoft.
I bet you’re too busy playing his games to do that though. That’s what I thought.
The Alien
Banned
Jeez. Microsoft musta hurt you deep.
Leyasu
Banned
What, don’t you think that they already knew how long games take to make before investing?
Krisprolls
Banned
Of course they did. But releasing games doesn't guarantee success will come and Gamepass subscription numbers will rise significantly. That's the bet they made.
Derktron
Banned
Well, he does have a point, they are only buying established studios like Bethesda to grow their portfolio only because they don't want to make enough new games.
Derktron
Banned
2021 in a nutshell.
bxrz
Member
He doesn't have a point. Perfect Dark was just announced from a brand new studio lmao
Derktron
Banned
That's one single "brand new" game they announce in a really long time.
driqe
Member
They should focus on buying established studios.
Avowed and everwild
Derktron
Banned
Still, not enough anyways I do agree with him. They are buying studios only because they don't want to commit themselves to what Sony and Nintendo do.
Buggy Loop
Member
InXile, Ninja Theory, Obsidian & Double fine, are good purchases that makes me happy. These guys worked fucking hard to just survive the industry for years and years now, with Kickstarters and so on. Having a big daddy with a huge bank account just assures me these incredible devs will finally fully realize their worlds.
Bethesda is just a power move and i hope it does not happen again.
Bethesda is just a power move and i hope it does not happen again.
jhjfss
Member
You want to go through each Sony studio one by one to see what was purchased? Sony does the same thing just they did it years before. They are doing exactly what Sony did with obsidian, ninja theory and inexile. Buying smaller studios with good leadership and giving them resources and freedom to grow. Sure they could of went the Ryan route and spent 7 billion on timed exclusives but that be really shitty for everyone.
This is why what Microsoft is doing for smaller studios is good for gamers. It let's creative minds like Brian fargo make games not beg for money.
InXile's Brian Fargo is fully focused on the creative process
Industry veteran and InXile Entertainment boss Brian Fargo now gets to spend most of his time on the creative process after Microsoft acquisition.
"I realized today that it has been over 15 years since I've been able to spend 95% of my attention on the creative process. And before 2005 it was another 15 years before that. It's a great luxury."
Brian Fargo: “I spent 50% of my time raising money”
Life as a mid-sized independent games development studio must be terrifying at times.Companies like Remedy or Ninja The…
www.gamesindustry.biz
"At least 50% of my time is in fundraising and we have so little room for error. It generally takes a mega hit to break you out of the cycle and that is always hard to come by. A mid-size hit is nice, but the after-tax monies from that generally support another five to six months of payroll and leave you back on the hamster wheel.
Unknown Soldier
Member
If I was Microsoft, I would have exited the console industry by now. It's such a waste of money, after 20 years it has been nothing but a money pit for no financial gain. My investors are right, the time to get out was 10 years ago.
Whatever they buy or build next should fit their vision. They need to own PC gaming, which means merging or buying Valve and Steam. They need to move to take over mobile gaming. Which means phone gaming and Gacha gaming. Xcloud with data caps and full games that don't work on phones. Buy T-Mobile? The last thing they need is a major branch selling new IP on on every competitors device, whether thru physical copies or other. You lose some by paying royalties to Sony, Nintendo, Apple and Google, but gain massive audiences bigger than they have ever had. Helps sign new blood up to gamepass.
FranXico
Member
Angry at Sony too. If only they knew...
LisaMariaMartin
Banned
So what.
You think you make the rules about who can be bought and who can't? It's a free market. Zenimax wanted to be sold. They would have found a buyer eventually, be it Amazon, Google, Sony or whoever.
They actually have history with MS so this was the best choice.
This move helps MS compete with Sony. I think the main problem here for Sony stans is that they want MS to stay competetive, but still be under Sony's boot. Previously, people had no interest because it's been Halo, Forza, Gears. But guess what, now it's Halo, Forza, Gears, Fallout, Elder Scrolls, Starfield, Doom and Wolfenstein.
23 studios is a lot harder to ignore than 5-6, isn't it? That's why everytime this deal gets mentioned we get a new thread. The announcement of those games at next E3 is going to light this place on fire.
Leyasu
Banned
Do you think that they didn't know that either?
You can still buy their games, and they have made them available to purchase on PC too.
Krisprolls
Banned
You want to go through each Sony studio one by one to see what was purchased? Sony does the same thing just they did it years before. They are doing exactly what Sony did with obsidian, ninja theory and inexile. Buying smaller studios with good leadership and giving them resources and freedom to grow. Sure they could of went the Ryan route and spent 7 billion on timed exclusives but that be really shitty for everyone.
This is why what Microsoft is doing for smaller studios is good for gamers. It let's creative minds like Brian fargo make games not beg for money.
InXile's Brian Fargo is fully focused on the creative process
Industry veteran and InXile Entertainment boss Brian Fargo now gets to spend most of his time on the creative process after Microsoft acquisition.www.gamereactor.eu
"I realized today that it has been over 15 years since I've been able to spend 95% of my attention on the creative process. And before 2005 it was another 15 years before that. It's a great luxury."
Brian Fargo: “I spent 50% of my time raising money”
Life as a mid-sized independent games development studio must be terrifying at times.Companies like Remedy or Ninja The…
"At least 50% of my time is in fundraising and we have so little room for error. It generally takes a mega hit to break you out of the cycle and that is always hard to come by. A mid-size hit is nice, but the after-tax monies from that generally support another five to six months of payroll and leave you back on the hamster wheel.
It works for those studios until MS realizes Game Pass subscriptions don't take off that much and they'll never make money from this business, then closes all those studios to pull the plug overnight, like they just did with Mixer.
Shelookdlvl18
Banned
The argument that MS acquiring a developer such as Bethesda is essentially taking games away from Playstation users is based on a false premise from the start.
MS acquiring Bethesda (or any dev for that matter) isn't taking games away from Sony.
MS acquiring Bethesda (or any dev for that matter) isn't taking games away from Sony.
TheThreadsThatBindUs
Member
I didn't.
I said there are lessons to be learned from the colapse of major world empires. That's making no direct nor indirect comparison.
Wizz-Art
Member
If you didn't, then why bring the colapse of world empires up? That doesn't make sense at all. What does it say that you did bring it up, enlighten us?
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Leyasu
Banned
In general, Stagnation and complacency leads to collapse with empires. I don’t really see how that can be compared to a company like Microsoft that diversified and now have more than windows which net them billions.
Papacheeks
Banned
I think they need to concentrate on what they have already. They hopefully got a wake up call with gears 5 sales and Halo to understand it's not a talent issue. It's managing them is where they are all wrong. And that also was under phil before they bought studios and he was promoted to ceo. He was still overseeing projects/studios. And he did a piss poor job.
Bsttletoads, voodoo vince, phantom dust in how they were handled was all under him. Sorry but at managing studio/projects ms has no clue and all the blame is not all on one man.
Bsttletoads, voodoo vince, phantom dust in how they were handled was all under him. Sorry but at managing studio/projects ms has no clue and all the blame is not all on one man.
Cherrypepsi
Member
I couldn't care less how many studios they have.
They have to focus on the teams that they already have and provide them with the best support to actually create good games.
Come on Phil Spencer, you have the ecosystem, good game studios, a very powerful console
Everything is ready, now show me what it can do when it all comes together
They have to focus on the teams that they already have and provide them with the best support to actually create good games.
Come on Phil Spencer, you have the ecosystem, good game studios, a very powerful console
Everything is ready, now show me what it can do when it all comes together
Derktron
Banned
Whoa dude are you the ones who still say Nintendo is doomed? Because it sure sounds like it.
Derktron
Banned
You got a point there, that I can agree on. If a studio is struggling with themselves and need help then I don’t see the problem.
EverydayBeast
thinks Halo Infinite is a new graphical benchmark
Let’s see what MS pulls out of the hat, it’s simple right? Sony doesn’t have a mascot and those are hot right now if they’re able to make Halo, Gears, FORZA, and than have one of these new franchises step up you get a win in my book.
Derktron
Banned
Let’s see how the deal with Bethesda goes. That for me is a make it or break it deal.
Genx3
Member
People have been saying this since the first Xbox launched and yet here is a new Gen and XGS is bigger than it ever was.
By the way if Game Pass doesn't work XGS could simply kill the Subscription service and publish games the old fashioned way.
Bernkastel
Ask me about my fanboy energy!
So far they have closed less studios then their competition.
HaveButOneLife
Banned
With a limited budget for Xbox, right?You do realise they are one of the biggest companies in the world?
DarkMage619
$MSFT
That's true. They were only able to squeeze out $7.5B for their latest acquisition and will get more resources for additional studios. It is limited.
HaveButOneLife
Banned
It's a division, no? Maybe the main division can give them money when needed, I don't know. Just wondering.