Microsoft Reportedly Seeking To Acquire 'Big Names' For Future Buyouts

So by "big" I'm assuming they mean "ZeniMax big". Then in that case, the question becomes kinda tough. Before I would've said SEGA, Remedy, Dontnod etc. but I wouldn't consider those to be "big" names compared to Ubisoft, Take-Two, Activision and so on. I mean, SEGA is well-known but considering their output they aren't really delivering games in the scale of GTA, Call of Duty or Assassin's Creed, which are huge franchises.

So if we are talking about these kinds of companies, then I would go with Ubisoft probably. If Microsoft could own franchises like Rayman, Splinter Cell, Assassin's Creed, Far Cry and so on, that would be absolutely crazy. For one thing they would have a lot of open world games they could offer to their Game Pass subscribers, a genre I'd say is kinda lacking in their offering. And while people like to give Ubisoft a lot of crap, there's no denying that they can make excellent games as well as constantly deliver new IPs, such as the recently released Immortals which is a wonderful game. Not to mention they have a wide array of IPs that could bring a lot of variety to Game Pass. Platformers, stealth shooters, open world games, even smaller titles like Child of Light or Valiant Hearts. I think they'd make a great addition to Xbox Game Studios.

Gaming grew massively during the pandemic while other media struggled heavily so a lot of attention on gaming now. Not necessarily a good thing as it's more rich folk hungry for quick gains looking to buy up companies and IP. Kinda worried what gaming will look like in 5 years. Facebook also is looking to grow its gaming division and most companies are in the exclusive only mindset so whoever Amazon/Google/Facebook buy you won't be seeing their games unless you subscribe to their service. Same as Xbox i guess but at least people can still buy Xbox games for PC/console without gamepass.

Thank goodness Zenimax is going to be under Xbox. They should be able to make a good amount of content with their 23 studios so o shouldn't have to look elsewhere for games to play.

@Krzzystuff Well yeah that's the thing, if Amazon, Google, Facebook and Microsoft are looking to acquire major publishers then I would hope that it is Microsoft who makes the acquisitions. Otherwise it's just like you said, I'd have to subscribe to the other three's services in order to access the games.

As much as people don't like to hear this kind of news, Microsoft would literally be our saviour if it makes the acquisitions and not one of the other three.

I dunno who is big like bethesda big maybe ubisoft... But I said this awhile ago. The entire industry is cosoldating it his mass penetration a few years ago and microsoft so the writing and starting gobbling studios early. Even nintendo is grabbing a few studios .

Microsoft needs to put up or shut up. Yeah I get they got zenimax/Bethesda, but it feels a little watered down when we don't know for sure how exclusive this partnership is going to be. Sony can make blockbuster exclusives year after year with studios they have nurtured and supported. Microsoft's answer to that strategy is just to throw money at whomever and see who bites first.

If they're not going to go after big name Japanese talent, I feel this all going to amount to nothing in the long run.

Its pretty obvious no current Japanese studio wants to team up with xbox so their only option is to build it from the ground up.

They had a good thing going in the early days of Xbox 360 with Mistwalker. How in the world did that not bear more fruit than what it did i'll never know.

Sega would be my first choice, they're certainly not what they used to be but they still have an abundance of untapped potential in many of their dormant IP's. So with a bigger budget and help from the various Microsoft studios we could get some extraordinary games out of such a deal

I don't think they will be by anyone, but I sincerely hope they don't acquire SEGA. Certain franchises like maybe Yakuza and definitely Sonic could probably continue to thrive on Xbox, but Atlus is basically dead in the water if they get acquired by Microsoft considering how historically bad their games have sold on their platforms. Granted, this means more stuff like SMT/Persona on PC (which is already happening), but still

lol Just buy Sony. The Microsoft PlayStation 6

@TheFrenchiestFry well two things 1) I really don’t think they need to acquire Sega. Once Sega fixes the damage the Sammy half did, they need to figure out a partnership with MS. But that could still be beneficial and not need to be exclusive. 2) on the weird chance they did; they would more than likely just have Atlus publish on like Nintendo/Xbox/PC like Ori does. In which case, I don’t see that affecting Atlus at all... Nintendo player base is more than enough to keep Atlus busy..

Again option 2) is only if they are trying to keep Sega away from say Google etc I don’t think they need to though.

@Grot xCloud is why Japan matters.

I think this goes without saying. MS is in a quest for talented studios, and their pockets are VERY deep.

This is my guess on what to expect from any future purchase:

The studio/publisher must:
✔ Be willing or wanting to sell. MS wont do hostile takeovers.
✔ Have experience publishing games for PC. MS is not interested in buying a studio that only makes console games, they have stated this in the past.
✔ The studio needs to own some of its IP. A huge likely reason WB Games was a no-go was precisely ownership of the IPs.
✔ AS confirmed with the Coalition and Gears, MS might be willing to just buy IPs they plan to develop on their own studios. It would not be crazy, for example sake only not a serious example, to think they might buy the Yakuza IP from Sega.

Capcom would be enough to win the Japanese crowd with its Monster Hunter franchise. Not even speaking about SF and RE. Then, if Microsoft really would like a handheld, how about going for that other big Japanese brand with the Big N. Sure enough to attract a whole other kind of customers to GamePass. Families to be exact.

Xbox is taking over baby..

@TheFrenchiestFry That is true about Atlus games on Xbox, but I wouldn't mind Microsoft buying Sega regardless. It's possible that Xbox owners would be willing to buy their games more now since Persona seems to be bigger than it's even been. Having Yakuza as a full-time exclusive would be a big enough deal too.

As for Ubisoft, I know they aren't the most well liked company, but I still highly enjoy some of their games and obviously they sell. Not sure if Microsoft would be willing to that big or not, as Ubisoft would obviously be expensive, but that would be a game changer for me. I'm not going to be without Assassin's Creed, so that would be bye bye PS5 and hello Series X for me.

I know it takes time to actually make these deals happen, but it would be nice to see something actually happen soon rather than continued talks about what could be.

@Bmartin001 gotta remember that Amazon and Google are on the prowl as well so you could see Capcom be a Luna exclusive depending how it all goes down. Everyone is assuming Xbox will be the home of all these names but they can only own so much legally and as of right now Gaming is the new hot commodity for entertainment for mainstream. It's gonna be an interesting fee years up ahead with M&A. I wonder if some of these studio's will buy each other out and stay independent from the big boys. That's the best case scenario for gamers i think.

@Grot wasn’t referring to “acquiring” part of your comment but why “overextend”. Fun fact Monster Hunter World is a PS exclusive in Japan, and I don’t believe you can’t play on the JP servers on Xbox for PSO2. In fact, some games that exist on Xbox in west don’t in Japan. Despite being Japanese.

Are they going to buy out Compu-Global-Hyper-Mega-Net

@Grot Yeah I get that, but you mentioned Monster Hunter like it's available in Japan on Xbox. So I read what you said as "Why do you need them, when they put their games on the system?" Except they don't, not 100%.

I don’t think they need a big publisher though or even a bigger dev that is unless they want to make a statement but I think Zenimax is going to be it for that size for a while. Who knows though l.

Sony doesn't have as much cash as Google, MS, or Amazon. I don't doubt they're less agressive than the other 3 companies. Anyway, cool news.

People forget that although not seen as the AAA big publishers, there are publishers such as Deep Silver and THQ Nordic that could be on the cards for acquisition by Google/Amazon and Facebook, perhaps not so much Microsoft or Sony but the first three wouldn't be too surprising.

After everything that happened with Vivendi trying to acquire Ubisoft in a hostile takeover, they are one I think will be doing all they can to stay independent and may have safety nets in place this time round should it happen again.

@kingv84
Haha - great comment 🤣🤣🤣

If they are going to make further acquisitions, I think this should be smaller studios that they can help to nurture.

Blooper Team, Moon Studios for example would be excellent acquisitions.

@FragRed I can't ever see Microsoft doing a hostile takeover, but Amazon/Google/Facebook I can absolutely see them having a go at Ubi to do that.

Watch this space.

@Jaxx420 Yeah that's the scary thing. Not sure if EA, Activision or Take-Two will be as easy to try and acquire through hostile takeovers simply due to how big their market capital is, even for companies with such infinite pockets as Facebook/Google/Amazon has. Ubisoft being only $3 billion makes it perfect for being targeted.

Not sure how easy Japanese publishers would be due to the laws in Japan on Western takeovers.

I really see gaming going the way TV has gone, where to see all the content you need to subscribe to 12 different $20/mo services and then consolidators like cable companies selling package deals. The retail commodity gaming market we know is probably ending soon, and MS is probably the last real player holding back the tides.

It makes me almost want to rally behind Sony's "just buy $70 games" model..... almost....

@FragRed I really wish the west would adopt Japan's model of domestic/trade-bloc transactions only. One big global market just means one big China/Dubai market and a race for who can sell off everything the fastest.

square enix is similar in size to zenimax and has some pretty good francises to own

@FragRed ubisoft is 10B in market cap actually, the other ones are between 20-70B

I honestly think Microsoft has already acquired 2 other studios which are not announced yet. These being Asobo studios and the bloober team, I wouldn't be surprised if these were finalized before the Bethesda acquisition, but the Bethesda deal came along and they decided not to announce them. Those to studios I've mention were the studios I thought that Microsoft, Google and Amazon were going after but they aren't big studios.

I realistically think the studios which may be target include are CDPR, Sega, Square Enix and WB Games. All 4 of these studios are big and all make sense for an acquisition.