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Microsoft is Looking to Make another Bethesda Size Acquisition

Dabaus

Banned
They have the money I just don't think they'd lay out that type of money and do they really need to?
They have close to 50 billion cash on hand. They make about 10-12 billion a year, mostly off the back of playstation. I cant see them buy a publisher now, but in a year or 2 when they have 60-65 billion sitting in the bank (assuming the dont spend alot of in the meantime) then yeah they may. I think the Besthesda acquisition was a wake up call and put them on alert but their not in immediate need to do something.
 
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Andodalf

Banned
My bet is Kojima Productions and its a announce in E3.

Ignoring how that’s not near a Beth sized deal, I doubt he’d sell, and it would be dumb to buy. You can’t buy the person, and without him the studio is worthless. It has no tech and no IP. What do you do if he leaves? If you want his games just fund them 2nd party
 
These companies are in a buy-happy state ATM because interest rates are quite low as are tax rates, so it benefits them in the long-term to offload cash vs. sitting on it plus they get tons of tax write-offs for the studios and personnel they acquire.

I'm pretty sure they have data-cruncher teams that have gone through the numbers on this stuff otherwise they wouldn't be so willing to buy. Also, quite a few gaming publishers and developers are willing to sell given their valuations are higher now than they've ever been, and likely will ever be again.



How is it bad for the companies being purchased given they are actively looking to sell in the first place? How is it bad for studios that likely would've gone out of business (and their IPs gone forever) if they don't get purchased as desired?

These aren't hostile takeovers, they're consenting parties looking to buy and sell based on mutually agreed-upon terms and extensive understanding of one another's corporate cultures. And in most instances purchased entities are allowed to function as they previously have (Minecraft, Zenimax in Microsoft's case, etc.).

When you think about it on those terms, and the fact that companies in multiple industries consolidate regularly, and that there are more examples of consolidations leading to same or even more content vs. content reduction, the only people these gaming-related consolidations look "bad" for are those who have certain, strongly loyal brand allegiances to corporations not engaging in (generally out of lack of capability) large-scale purchases.

I.e the same sort of individuals who'd be much more receptive if their preferred corporate brand were the one doing such purchases.
I said most likely bad. When you consolidate all things in one place, you know there will be executives who will try to screw customers, maybe not right now, but you cannot promise it won't happen later (Xbox original DRM). Also, let's be honest, there will be a lot of IPs that could make a return but will be forever in the dust bin.

Acquires are good but at the same time, are a double edge sword. I would rather place all those unused IPs being as a public domain.

Before people jumps, this includes Sony, Konami, Nintendo, etc. I no longer care about royalty to any company, I know for sure they will screw you over when they have the power to do it.
 

oldergamer

Member
A war chest to make the initial purchase, but these studios have staff who need to be paid, staff benefits, offices to run with costs (hardware, software, utilities) etc.
Again, you must think they are stupid and haven't factored in cost overhead and profitability. You have to spend money to make money.
 

Derktron

Banned
CD Project is too expensive. They just announced another 250.000.000 Profit in 2020
They bought Bethesda for 7 billion and not too long ago they bought a software company called "Nuance" for $19.7 billion and you are telling me they can't buy them out? lol, you clearly don't know what the fuck you are talking about. Even though CD Project Red probably doesn't want to be bought out. Never underestimate Microsoft.
 

VAVA Mk2

Member
Stream starts in 25 hours. AKA Wednesday. AKA Microsoft are buying SEGA on le Wednesday.
Oh My God Omg GIF by The Office
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
I just spoke to "my uncle that works at Nintendo", MS is not buying Nintendo, so that is one company off the rumor list....

joking
Here's a true story.

One of my good buddies I used to work with got a job at Nintendo. He was in sales. He's not a gamer either. His most fond gaming skills are probably playing Sega Genesis hockey.

I asked him what it's like at Nintendo.

1. Super lean company and you got to do a lot of your own shit (little support functions)

2. No different than sales jobs, you're plugging away doing emails and spreadsheets to sell. No time to sit there and play games

3. Retail stores make about 25% margin on games and accessories

4. He got to go to E3 to help man the booth, as well as walk around and learn about the industry

5. This is the best one...... he's not a gamer, so there's no way he'd know anything about Kotaku. We must had been cracking jokes about something stupid, and he suddenly goes "like Kotaku?" Then he made a smirky face like that site is dogshit. So it shows even his coworkers think Kotaku is trash as that must had been his source. I laughed and since I follow gaming decently well, I told him yup. It's a trash site
 
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