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Microsoft is Looking to Make another Bethesda Size Acquisition

mortal

Gold Member
Things take time the quick fix properly. The studios were not purchased until June 2018 many had games they had the release under contract. Sure they could of done a quick fix of a few paid exclusives instead and then in 2 years we would be back to square one with broken first party and the rest of the generation of little games. Microsoft is not buying another publisher for pr it is to eventually have a steady flow of content on gamepass. I would guess they would want on average a new first party game every 60-90 days by the end of the generation.
I would agree that these acquisitions are meant to further bolster the value of Gamepass.

As you already stated, many of these studios had several games in production prior to being acquired by Microsoft.
Launch was a bust, and year one is bone dry as far as Microsoft 1st party exclusives are concerned. With Halo Infinite being the only notable thing on the horizon;
even then that's a big maybe as it could just as easily be a Q1 2022 title.

The prospects of all of these Microsoft funded 1st party title is interesting, but the constant speculation gets tiring imo. At some point I would like to see some sort of actual gameplay.
 
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I wasn't implying splintering off GTA, I was saying that their value is inflated because of it.

Also, didn't EA refuse to support xbox live at the beginning because of Microsofts sports franchises?

Someone probably already answered this but yes, EA did do that. They made their sports games online exclusive to PS2 because Microsoft pushed their own sports games on Xbox and XBL.
 

Gavon West

Spread's Cheeks for Intrusive Ads
As much money MS has it's nothing compared to Apple. Just this quarter they banked 5 Bethesda's. MS start buying up studios then expect Apple, Amazon, Google and even Sony to buy big too.
Sony wont be buying up publishers, breh. No sir..
 

Jen_yakzua

Member
Sony wont be buying up publishers, breh. No sir..
shocked big sean GIF
 

Azurro

Banned

DavidGzz

Member
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dottme

Member
Sorry to bring this up, but a French youtuber has a big Xbox news on Wednesday:


we all know what it is. :)
 

sainraja

Member
Something I just thought of, what if they are doing it to make sure Amazon and Google don't? I know who I'd want to win that bidding war. A streaming only service or a console/pc/mobile service? Xbox over Stadia and Luna all the way.

Imagine if this was a MS/Sony merger. That would be sick and Amazon and Google can get fucked at that point.
Yeah, I agree with this. I don't want anything to be exclusive to a stream only platform. I also think these big moves that Microsoft is making is due to Stadia and Luna. Google closing their studios and the Bethesda acquisition happened too close to one another.
 
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sainraja

Member
That’s funny because they did sunset overdrive for Xbox, so basically there will never be a sequel to that game on Xbox.

Sony does it to but to many people call out Microsoft for doing what Sony does
Insomniac owns Sunset Overdrive IP so there can still be a sequel for the game. Microsoft just published it. Around the time the game came out, Insomniac's main requirement for doing Fuse and Sunset were that they'd own the IP. So yeah, I wouldn't rule out a sequel.
 

Dabaus

Banned
Brad Sams may know about multiple things and im sure he does but For what its worth Brad said the company he was referring to was Gearbox. They were bought by embracer, Evidently MS was close to buying them but didnt for some reason. Regardless of what you think of him Jeff grub, who seems to be one of MS's hype men, says he hasnt heard anything about acquisitions. He said theyre hard to do right now because companies dont want to sell or theres alot of other buyers driving up the price.
 
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IDKFA

I am Become Bilbo Baggins
If they do, then I'd be expecting a sizeable increase to the cost of Gamepass.

It's not just the initial purchase and the cost of developing games, it's also the cost of having more staff to pay, offices to run etc etc.
 

Heisenberg007

Gold Journalism
THQ would make good gamepass fodder. Think of all of those IP's, even remastered, would be a big draw for MS.

It won't help them in anyway, shape or form, but i get a shitload of games for next to nowt so 🤷‍♂️
If I'm correct, then THQ is owned by Embracer Group.

And Embracer Group's market cap is $14B now.
 
I'm a fan of Gamepass, but if Microsoft keep buying up studios for billions of dollars then the share holders are going to want to see a sizable return.
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.

No, maybe, who knows!!! but this will have a big impact for years to come, most likely bad.

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.
 
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oldergamer

Member
I'm a fan of Gamepass, but if Microsoft keep buying up studios for billions of dollars then the share holders are going to want to see a sizable return.
MS had a huge warchest of cash to the tunes of well north of 70 billion. I'm talking "cash", not what they are worth. They stated in the purchase of mojang, that they stand to make more money on spending 2 billion to acquire a company, then they would having that money sit collecting interest.

Same deal with these purchases. People need to stop assuming MS hasn't crunched all the numbers 6 ways to Sunday before making the decision to purchase ANY company. MS changed for the better after Steve Ballmer left. Before that, they made some really stupid purchases imo.
 
well that's worrisome :-/

edit: and before we get Xbox fanboys in here cheering about it because of Game Pass, the problem is this is the start

you're happy now but what about when Sony responds? or worse when Google & Amazon start buying up publishers because they don't want to risk Microsoft getting everything

now you have a future where you have to have Amazon Luna to play Ubisoft games & Google Stadia for Activision Blizzard while Microsoft owns Bethesda & EA with Sony having snatched up Square-Enix

it's bad for the industry & gamers
Sony responds? You think they'll buy a publisher? Really? They buy the odd developer, they are not comparable to Microsoft, Google, Amazon.
 

Zeroing

Banned
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
 

IDKFA

I am Become Bilbo Baggins
MS had a huge warchest of cash to the tunes of well north of 70 billion. I'm talking "cash", not what they are worth. They stated in the purchase of mojang, that they stand to make more money on spending 2 billion to acquire a company, then they would having that money sit collecting interest.

Same deal with these purchases. People need to stop assuming MS hasn't crunched all the numbers 6 ways to Sunday before making the decision to purchase ANY company. MS changed for the better after Steve Ballmer left. Before that, they made some really stupid purchases imo.

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.
 
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