• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Microsoft is Looking to Make another Bethesda Size Acquisition

Retinoid

Member
Anti trust laws aside, Microsoft sorely need to invest in first party studios. Zenimax was a megaton but it's not going to be enough if they want to compete with Sony's lineup in the long run. Would creating studios from scratch and building up a reputation from nothing be more well received by most gamers? Sure. But investment in established studios is a quicker solution and I can't blame MS for wanting to take this route. After seeing Halo Infinite's dev issues, god knows they need some good talent under their belt.
 

Hezekiah

Banned
There's a lot of salt here from fanboys. The reality is that Sony is at a disadvantage in an acquisition war, so Microsoft is taking advantage of it. Expect the PlayStation to steadily decline in third party support because of the acquisition war.
'Acquisition war' - the type of fanboy shit you primarily see on gaming forums.

This post is very transparent. It reeks of what you hope will happen, rather than what you actually think will happen. 20 years in the gaming industry and Microsoft is still in third place.
 

phil_t98

#SonyToo
Are you celebrating Microsofts lack of transparency?
Why is it so important for the Sony crowd to have transparency? Microsoft ain’t worried about Xbox, they are backing it heavily.

so what’s the point? It’s a dick measuring contest where one can say they sold 50 mill and the other than say 100 mill that’s all it is. As long as Microsoft back Xbox and they are doing for the long run it doesn’t matter about transparency

when you buy buy a pair of trainers do you ask how much the company is making or how many pairs have been sold lol
 
Last edited:

John Wick

Member
Exactly. Apparently this is too hard for some people to understand. Instead of being excited about the games they get to play, they are more interested in seeing MS locking content from PlayStation.

MS was already going to get all the Bethesda games anyway on Xbox -- unless Sony funded a Bethesda game which was extremely unlikely. Now, nothing has changed for MS, but Xbox fans are rejoicing after MS acquired Bethesda. They will still get the same games. The only difference is that PS owners won't get those games, and that's what makes Xbox fanboys happy. It's pathetic.

Instead, MS should have focused on creating new studios, new jobs, and new games for Xbox, and growing the gaming industry. That'd have been in addition to Bethesda titles that were going to be released on Xbox anyway. And that'd mean Xbox users would have gotten a lot more games.
Exactly!
They won't be laughing when Apple, Google, Amazon and even Sony will react by buying big. Then games will be tied to those companies. Some fangirls seem to think only MS have money and no one else will make a big purchase. Sony can easily buy one big publisher upto $15 billion.
This is just gonna make it worse for everyone.
 

cosmicom

Banned
Means nothing.... 100 million sub accounts and Minecraft accounts on other systems.... a game they didn't make, just bought after the fact.

18 million 1 dollar subs and free pringles promotions.

Wow... Xbox is a huge success, that's why they hide the profit for Xbox in the accounts and move all the expenses into a company wide slush-account, to hide losses.

You are in denial, a sony pony with flames in the ass because Xbox is sharing good news.
 

graywolf323

Gold Member
Why is this thread still going on when we've had no additional information lol?
it's just another fanboy battleground now

robert duvall i love the smell of napalm in the morning GIF by The Good Films
 

phil_t98

#SonyToo
Exactly!
They won't be laughing when Apple, Google, Amazon and even Sony will react by buying big. Then games will be tied to those companies. Some fangirls seem to think only MS have money and no one else will make a big purchase. Sony can easily buy one big publisher upto $15 billion.
This is just gonna make it worse for everyone.
Sony don’t have the ready cash like that where the other company’s do.
 

Hezekiah

Banned
Sony don’t have the ready cash like that where the other company’s do.
To be fair last week you were saying the $7.5bn Zenimax deal will pay itself off within three to four years so I don't think you're in a position to question him on finance-related matters.
 

phil_t98

#SonyToo
To be fair last week you were saying the $7.5bn Zenimax deal will pay itself off within three to four years so I don't think you're in a position to question him on finance-related matters.
Well look at the amount of growth gamepass is getting. That could still happen.

Mira not just him it’s in every bloody positive Microsoft thread
 

Clear

CliffyB's Cock Holster
My feeling is that if they spend big, it will be on something that furthers their ambitions on PC/mobile platforms more than on console.

Of all their gaming properties by far the most lucrative is Minecraft, because that sells everywhere and on everything. If they had more casual properties of that calibre on GamePass/Xcloud it'd be a great complement to their existing line-up of console-centric offerings, and be a proper shot across the bows of Tencent, Apple, and Google who are so strong in the mobile space.
 

Ogbert

Member
Anti trust laws aside
I'm not sure how anti-trust would apply, seeing as MS is not in a position of dominance.

The only way I could see them being got at is if they said they were using their dominant position in one market (cloud, desktop etc) to cross subsidise their gains in another (console market share).

Also, importantly, they're not taking anything away from consumers. In fact, the opposite - prices are being driven down. So regulators tend to be less fussed.

There's certainly fun for lawyers to be had, but it doesn't feel like a problem (yet).
 

Hezekiah

Banned
Doubt this will even happen, certainly not at the Zenimax level. Some people are framing it as Microsoft having lots of money, so they can keep spending regardless of any ROI happening in the short or medium term, like Championship Manager on cheat mode.

In reality it doesn't work like that, especially for a division which has produced unspectacular results since its inception.

Happy to be proven wrong but I just done see them dropping billions more on another publisher any time soon.
 

PaintTinJr

Member
There's a lot of salt here from fanboys. The reality is that Sony is at a disadvantage in an acquisition war, so Microsoft is taking advantage of it. Expect the PlayStation to steadily decline in third party support because of the acquisition war.

Everyone in gaming is at a disadvantage to monster companies like Microsoft if they fully back Xbox in acquisitions, but I still think the acquisition they've recently made, and if they acquire someone else isn't really about Xbox at all - in the same way Minecraft acquisition wasn't - just a happy overlap of something that benefits Xbox.

IMHO the acquisitions are just about offering shareholders reason to believe that the current share value of Microsoft is justified around the current market price -covid might be bad for share prices is my take - and so provide reasons for them to believe it will hold or go higher - as a result of valuable acquisitions they can integrate to make more profit from. And presumably taking pressure away from the high performing areas of Microsoft- that justified the long term price rise to begin with- so that if they don't better or match that performance in the next figures the investors still have plenty of optimism and the newer share price range gets normalised, and if/when they wrap up Zenimax, somewhere else in the business will have made a killing - pushing their value higher - and the investment success/failure will still have been a massive win for Microsoft - is what I'm expecting.

Even Gamepass might be less about being the netflix of gaming for Xbox, but maybe just showing that if anyone wants to be that, and has the content or confederation of publishers to make that happen, then Microsoft has the cloud infrastructure scalability and game streaming knowhow to compete. Sony themselves brokered a long term partnership deal to use Microsoft's cloud services in exchange for money and image processing knowhow IIRC, so I suspect there are many complimentary, tangential or competing objectives for virtually every business decision a company as big as Microsoft makes.

On one hand acquisitions could be bad for gamers in multiple ways - locked content to a less popular platform or locked to a company that mothballs IPs they consider too much risk, or eventually leave gaming and mothball the IPs forever - but in effect, they've also reduced competition in the market if they do any of those things, and the potential for opportunity in the industry for others - to take risks with games - to take the place of Zenimax is also a potential positive for gamers.
 

phil_t98

#SonyToo
My feeling is that if they spend big, it will be on something that furthers their ambitions on PC/mobile platforms more than on console.

Of all their gaming properties by far the most lucrative is Minecraft, because that sells everywhere and on everything. If they had more casual properties of that calibre on GamePass/Xcloud it'd be a great complement to their existing line-up of console-centric offerings, and be a proper shot across the bows of Tencent, Apple, and Google who are so strong in the mobile space.
It will be interesting to see what they do with Minecradt going forward on PS, yeah it’s on PS4 when they bought the studio if I remember right and the series consoles will get a version of it but will they do the same for PS5 or just keep
It to the PS4 version and leave it at that
 

THE DUCK

voted poster of the decade by bots
Would be cool if they used their money to actually build and enhance their own studios so we get more games. Seems all they are is paying bilions of money to just keep PS owners from games.

As someone who has a PC, this is a waste to me since I’d be getting these games anyway.

Except that if this is one thing history has taught us about game studios is that just throwing money at them often doesn't work.
Thankfully ms doesn't take advice from armchair economic advisers. Let's not pretend that Sony, if they had the same resources as ms, wouldn't consider buying studios to expand.

That said, competition is good for gamers, we might want ms to buy some studios.....but not too many......
 

Iced Arcade

Member
who exactly is bethesda size though?



wonder if that whole Warner bro being sold off wasn't deaded after all
 
Last edited:
D

Deleted member 471617

Unconfirmed Member
Yeah baby...let's go. BUY EVERYONE!!! HAHAHAHAHAHA.

lmao
 

Clear

CliffyB's Cock Holster
It will be interesting to see what they do with Minecradt going forward on PS, yeah it’s on PS4 when they bought the studio if I remember right and the series consoles will get a version of it but will they do the same for PS5 or just keep
It to the PS4 version and leave it at that

I'm just thinking that since XCloud puts their core xbox/pc content everywhere including phones and tablets, why not try and pull people into their (GamePass) ecosystem from those sorts of devices by offering them content they are familiar with?

I think as core gamers we have this perception that mobile titles are "small" and that console/pc product is "big", when in terms of profitability and user-count its actually the other way around. The realistic prospect actually being that a service provider looking to compete on all fronts is always likely to build out from their existing strengths.

So (the potential gains of) Apple and Google expanding out from their existing mobile-centric base by acquiring IP and content that's more associated with PC/Console is really no different or more likely than MS going from Console/PC into mobile. The process is the same.

That perspective seems to fit neatly with Phil Spencer's proclamation that the overarching plan going forward is to take on the other tech giants I think.
 
Last edited:

cosmicom

Banned
I'm just thinking that since XCloud puts their core xbox/pc content everywhere including phones and tablets, why not try and pull people into their (GamePass) ecosystem from those sorts of devices by offering them content they are familiar with?

I think as core gamers we have this perception that mobile titles are "small" and that console/pc product is "big", when in terms of profitability and user-count its actually the other way around. The realistic prospect actually being that a service provider looking to compete on all fronts is always likely to build out from their existing strengths.

So (the potential gains of) Apple and Google expanding out from their existing mobile-centric base by acquiring IP and content that's more associated with PC/Console is really no different or more likely than MS going from Console/PC into mobile. The process is the same.

That perspective seems to fit neatly with Phil Spencer's proclamation that the overarching plan going forward is to take on the other tech giants I think.
In 5-10 years an average consumer will turn it´s TV and play games by streaming with the highest quality, the same way we play movies by streaming.

That motto "this wil be the last console generation" can be true for xbox and playstation; when the time comes, people will buy gaming pcs and gaming consoles the same way today we buy blue-ray devices or rent movies in blockbuster; we dont do it because we only use streaming; when physical media becomes minority, corporations will lose interest in it.
 
Last edited:
Sony will grow its first-party studios organically rather than via massive spending sprees.

SIE Worldwide Studios was founded ahead of PS3 launch. Its games didn't help the PS3 during its early years. By the time the PS4 launched, the PS3, thanks to games like TLOU, was outselling 360, Wii and Wii U.

The PS4 was on a clear path to victory thanks to the competitive advantages slowly built during the PS3 era.

And here we are, in 2021. PS will post industry record breaking revenues next week while its studios earned universal acclaim. With a dying console and a new scarce one.

PS is the market leader since 1995 because SIE is the only company with a long- term plan.

Nintendo exited the home console market. And Microsoft lacks a long-term coherent strategy and keeps throwing money at this problem. Nothing has changed since 2001.

Microsoft will outspend Sony and Nintendo combined, PS will dominate dollar sales.

The only difference is that Sony now has $40 billion in cash on hand as PS generates more free cash flow.

40 billion in revenues, then they have to pay workers, financial interests... net income last year 4 billion dollars (all Sony)

their net income was only but cash on hand is 40b

Sony Cash on Hand 2006-2020 | SNE | MacroTrends

Cash on hand is not money in the pocket, but the value of interest in assets


It's easy to google it what cash on hand means

Cash on hand is the total amount of any accessible cash. According to "Entrepreneur" magazine, it refers to any available cash regardless of whether it is in your pocket or your bank account. Investments that you can convert to cash in 90 days or less are typically included when calculating your cash on hand.


So, yes, Sony has 40$bn in cash
 

Kokoloko85

Member
As Long as its not a Japanese company or rockstar I dont really care.

MS hasnt really been doing a great job producing games the last decade so its not really a good move for gaming as a whole.
 
Last edited:

Hezekiah

Banned
In 5-10 years an average consumer will turn it´s TV and play games by streaming with the highest quality, the same way we play movies by streaming.

That motto "this wil be the last console generation" can be true for xbox and playstation; when the time comes, people will buy gaming pcs and gaming consoles the same way today we buy blue-ray devices or rent movies in blockbuster; we dont do it because we only use streaming; when physical media becomes minority, corporations will lose interest in it.
The infrastructure for streaming large, complex games doesn't exist, and it won't in five years either.

And even when it improves, have fun with the latency - unless you happen to live next door to the server. Not much fun playing an FPS with double the latency (or more) than you're used to.
 

cosmicom

Banned
The infrastructure for streaming large, complex games doesn't exist, and it won't in five years either.

And even when it improves, have fun with the latency - unless you happen to live next door to the server. Not much fun playing an FPS with double the latency (or more) than you're used to.
5g net reduces at minimun latency, that´s what they need to make "smart cities". In fact, it will be so fast that will be faster than playing in gaming console.


----"3G connections delivered pings that average around the 100 milliseconds mark, while on early 4G networks that was reduced to around 70-80ms, and now we’re seeing latency as low as around 30-50ms on the more advanced 4G networks of 2020, with April 2020 Opensignal data reporting 36ms as the lowest average of any UK network on 4G.

On 5G the figures get even lower, with latency averaging around 21-26ms according to late 2019 data from Ookla, and in future we could see 5G latency drop as low as 1ms."---

The point is, 1º there´s no difference to play nex to tv than playing connected to a server at 1000 km, only because distance (speed of light is very high) 2º internet speed if evolving very fast

I´f you are suggesting that internet technology will evolve no more, you are wrong.
 
Last edited:

Hezekiah

Banned
5g net reduces at minimun latency, that´s what they need to make "smart cities". In fact, it will be so fast that will be faster than playing in gaming console.


----"3G connections delivered pings that average around the 100 milliseconds mark, while on early 4G networks that was reduced to around 70-80ms, and now we’re seeing latency as low as around 30-50ms on the more advanced 4G networks of 2020, with April 2020 Opensignal data reporting 36ms as the lowest average of any UK network on 4G.

On 5G the figures get even lower, with latency averaging around 21-26ms according to late 2019 data from Ookla, and in future we could see 5G latency drop as low as 1ms."---

The point is, 1º there´s no difference to play nex to tv than playing connected to a server at 1000 km, only because distance (speed of light is very high) 2º internet speed if evolving very fast

I´f you are suggesting that internet technology will evolve no more, you are wrong.
I never suggested internet technology will never evolve. It will obviously, but it's going to take a long time before it meets the needs of most gamers.

However if you're banking on 5G (especially when everybody is using it rather than isolated tests) as the answer to gaming outside of WiFi zones I have a bridge to sell you.
 
There's a lot of salt here from fanboys. The reality is that Sony is at a disadvantage in an acquisition war, so Microsoft is taking advantage of it. Expect the PlayStation to steadily decline in third party support because of the acquisition war.
An acquisition war where all large publishers and IP's end up being owned by a single entity is good for nobody except Microsoft Shareholders.

Its honestly laughable that anyone would be applauding more massive acquisitions of Publishers and IP and the further consolidation of gaming, unless they have a frankly unhealthy relationship with whichever company's teat they suckle on.
 
Last edited:

John Wick

Member
Sony don’t have the ready cash like that where the other company’s do.
They have over $40 billion. What do you mean they don't have the cash? They can write off one off big buys as an investment.
Your under this foolish impression thinking MS or Xbox has an unlimited war chest. It doesn't. If that was the case Windows Phone would have been a massive success
 

Bryank75

Banned
They have over $40 billion. What do you mean they don't have the cash? They can write off one off big buys as an investment.
Your under this foolish impression thinking MS or Xbox has an unlimited war chest. It doesn't. If that was the case Windows Phone would have been a massive success
Not only that, while MSFT has 60 billion in long term debt that they have to service, Sony has only about 6 billion. Meaning they could raise massive debt if they want or need.
 

Heisenberg007

Gold Journalism
Exactly!
They won't be laughing when Apple, Google, Amazon and even Sony will react by buying big. Then games will be tied to those companies. Some fangirls seem to think only MS have money and no one else will make a big purchase. Sony can easily buy one big publisher upto $15 billion.
This is just gonna make it worse for everyone.

Yup. The meltdown was already evident when rumors surfaced that Tencent might acquire Rockstar. That deal wouldn't even make Rockstar games exclusive. What happens if Google/Amazon acquire Take-Two or what if Sony strikes a deal to make GTA 6 a year-long exclusive?

Nobody will keep the same energy then and say stuff like "it's just exclusives", "it's just business", "this is how the industry works". Everybody will be shitting their pants if such a thing happens.

Certain fanboys (not everyone, of course) are just happy right now because they are in the "winning camp" right now as far as acquisitions go. We already saw the internet meltdown over a relatively minor thing when Sony locked the Avengers Spider-Man DLC.

And for reference, here is the type of people I was referring to. The same people who reacted 'triggered' to my comments here are liking this post. As I said, "sick in the head."

X7Fvrmp.jpg
 
Last edited:
I think someone from this thread's going to have a wicked hangover in the morning :messenger_tears_of_joy: Seems a little tense at this rumour? Imagine if it becomes actual news...

PS: Played both, Odyssey is a magnitude better than Ghost. Both good games though, just one is a shameless rip off of the other.
 

Bryank75

Banned
I'm not sure how anti-trust would apply, seeing as MS is not in a position of dominance.

The only way I could see them being got at is if they said they were using their dominant position in one market (cloud, desktop etc) to cross subsidise their gains in another (console market share).

Also, importantly, they're not taking anything away from consumers. In fact, the opposite - prices are being driven down. So regulators tend to be less fussed.

There's certainly fun for lawyers to be had, but it doesn't feel like a problem (yet).
Those laws are to prevent monopolization... after buying InExile, Ninja Theory, Undead Labs, Compulsion games, Playground games, Obsidian, Double Fine and soon Zenimax (another 8 studios).... it's not going to look good to authorities.
 

longdi

Banned
It better not be fucking Sega.

Most likely Sega. Sega Sammy has already split up :messenger_smiling_with_eyes:
Cant wait to get Sega games on gpu. Sega has lots of PC ports already.

When MS flexes, only Google, Amazon, FB, Apple or Chinese megacorps Tencent Alibaba, can compete with them.
I been singing this tune since 2020.

And flex MS will.
Phil be like :messenger_bicep::messenger_sunglasses::messenger_peace:
 
Last edited:
Top Bottom