[bbot]

Link:

http://www.vgpro.com/news/4591

[cthellis42]

I'd say "that would suck" but as a Windows PC developer who has only really shown interest in developing for Xbox otherwise, they're basically 2nd party as it is. Heh... (I think MDK 2 appeared on DC and PS2, but that was about it?)

Still, I'm much more a fan of prominent developers remaining free agents to take their games where they will, as opposed to getting rolled under one blanket, no matter whose it is.

[Qroach]

Wow... that would be a good move for MS. Sure up a North american RPG maker for xbox 2...I'm still wondering why they haven't aquired more help in japan yet... So far they have purchesed developers in all regions except there.

[I.S.T.]

Originally Posted by cthellis42

I'd say "that would suck" but as a Windows PC developer who has only really shown interest in developing for Xbox otherwise, they're basically 2nd party as it is. Heh... (I think MDK 2 appeared on DC and PS2, but that was about it?)

Still, I'm much more a fan of prominent developers remaining free agents to take their games where they will, as opposed to getting rolled under one blanket, no matter whose it is.

MDK 1 was on the PS1, but other than that I don't know of any games they made other than MDK 1 and 2 that were on other consoles.

[Sonic]

This would be an interesting purchase. It would be a smart move by Microsoft with regards to getting some good games on its consoles. Maybe we can even have another MDK game come out. Would this move be mainly for PC development or for Xbox development? It would really be ashame if MS made them stick to Xbox or Xbox2 development as I love their PC games so much more. Also, Bioware mainly programs in OpenGL right? They're one of the few developers that still do (from what I know) so this may be a move to further DirectX and the Xbox software lineup.

[jvd]

Originally Posted by Qroach

Wow... that would be a good move for MS. Sure up a North american RPG maker for xbox 2...I'm still wondering why they haven't aquired more help in japan yet... So far they have purchesed developers in all regions except there.

america is the big portion of the video game industry. Its smart that they focus their strengths there .

For japan there aren't many companys they can buy that will help them . Sega , square enix , and mabye capcom would help them .

I just say ms should spend a billion or whatever ea is worth and just buy ea . Now that right there would be a crippling blow to sony... not to mention nintendo

[AlStrong]

Originally Posted by jvd

I just say ms should spend a billion or whatever ea is worth and just buy ea . Now that right there would be a crippling blow to sony... not to mention nintendo

madness.................


that would mean EA Sports...Bond....MOH...lotr...NFS....Sims.......:s hock:

[Sonic]

That would also mean that any type of 3rd party support for Microsoft would leave almost immediately. A purchase of EA wouldn't be the best idea as it could effectively make 3rd parties wary of developing for a platform with one huge 1st party. It may also bring the budgets of th eXbox team so high and profits for EA maya lso dwindle because there is a lack of multi-platform titles to go around.

[cthellis42]

Originally Posted by IST

MDK 1 was on the PS1, but other than that I don't know of any games they made other than MDK 1 and 2 that were on other consoles.

MDK was developed by Shiny Entertainment, though. Or is there a "close-enough" connection between them?

Originally Posted by jvd

I just say ms should spend a billion or whatever ea is worth and just buy ea . Now that right there would be a crippling blow to sony... not to mention nintendo

A billion? EA posted revenues of $2.5 billion last year (Net income of ~$320 million), and is still showing good growth. Their market value is currently $15.6 billion. As much as Microsoft could potentially swallow them, that would be one huge pill to swallow. (At which point their profits would also sink tremendously if they became exclusive--over 50% of their net revenue, most of it from North America and Europe--comes from Sony and Nintendo [37% from PS2 alone.] )

EA is the monolithic game developer. Why do you think they're so fun to hate? :P Even at its "M$ be$t" I don't see how Microsoft could or WOULD try to swallow EA--they'd have to spend WAYYYY too much, and it would quite likely be an investment they would never recoup. And as seen, EA is big enough to shove around others as they please--and they seem to like it that way.

[jvd]

Originally Posted by Sonic

That would also mean that any type of 3rd party support for Microsoft would leave almost immediately. A purchase of EA wouldn't be the best idea as it could effectively make 3rd parties wary of developing for a platform with one huge 1st party. It may also bring the budgets of th eXbox team so high and profits for EA maya lso dwindle because there is a lack of multi-platform titles to go around.

Mabye so. But then again ea would still be split between computers and the xbox .

Not only that but it could do what nintendo does for nintendo. Gives them a huge amount of games that are exclusive to the system. Which is what they need. There would still be enough room for other companys to make tons of money of the xbox 2. It doesn't matter if company is a first or third party . If its big enough they are going to release a ton of tittles.

Or mabye they should just buy square . I personaly haven't like a game from them since ff 6 .but a ton of people seem to like them. IT would give them a ton of exclusive mmorpgs .

[wazoo]

Before this gen started, MS offered 25B$ to buy Nintendo. The problem was that Nintendo was not for sale.

[I.S.T.]

Originally Posted by cthellis42

MDK was developed by Shiny Entertainment, though. Or is there a "close-enough" connection between them?

I forgot that.

[Farid]

Originally Posted by cthellis42

MDK was developed by Shiny Entertainment, though. Or is there a "close-enough" connection between them?

Yes, exactly, Murder Death Kill is the baby of David Perry, who's also famous for excellents games such as earthworm jim, aladdin (genesis/megadrive), ...Enter the Matrix... yep , one game and it sinks a whole brilliant resume

Just like Qroach, i' m a bit disappointed by this acquisition, not that Bioware is not a AAA developer or something, but with this money MS should buy talented japaneses developers, such as let's say LEVEL 5 (Dark cloud 1/2, Dragon Quest 8, True Fantasy Online) or (bigger but not that expensive) Hudson soft (the Tengai (Far east of eden) franchise is very appreciated in japan).
Buying a company that already work very closely to you, is not a super smart movement, EXCEPT if MS did their calaculations and found that, the price they paid (and will pay) exclusives titles from Bioware was close enough of to the price of the entire company. If so, it's a smart move.

But i keep on thinking that MS should concentrate its efforts toward japan, in a better way than what they are doing now (not that hard anyway, since you can 't do worse) By buying company that can deliver content that japaneses like, this and in quantity, because the number of games released on Xbox in japan is ludicrously low and non-adapted to japanese's customers tastes.(BTW MS has decided to release their games untranslated,...games like buffy the vampire slayer: CB, simpsons hit and runs.... in japan...and in english :? )

[Qroach]

Hey Alstrong, I didn't say what you quoted.

[AlStrong]

Originally Posted by Qroach

Hey Alstrong, I didn't say what you quoted.

ack! sorry!! I didn't check I hit the quote button and I was cutting out the stuff I didn't think I needed to keep for my post. I'll change it!

[Qroach]

no worries, just thought I'd check...

[Johnny Awesome]

This is a good acquisition if true. I also think they should acquire Visual Concepts, Level 5, Artoon, Silicon Knights, and Factor 5.

[Farid]

Originally Posted by Johnny Awesome

This is a good acquisition if true. I also think they should acquire Visual Concepts, Level 5, Artoon, Silicon Knights, and Factor 5.

Artoon? the best game they did is a B class platformer on the GBA (pinobee), the rest is just bad (Blinx (Xbox), Ghost Vibration (PS2))
SK, Factor 5, and Visual Concept might indeed be good choices.

somebody knows if Visual concept belongs to sega at 100% or not? Sonic can you help us with this?

[Sonic]

Yes, Visual Concepts belongs to SEGA 100%. They bought them for Dreamcast development and had pretty much made the decision ever since owning one third of the company when NBA action 98 was being developed. :?

[Farid]

Originally Posted by Sonic

Yes, Visual Concepts belongs to SEGA 100%. They bought them for Dreamcast development and had pretty much made the decision ever since owning one third of the company when NBA action 98 was being developed. :?

Thanks for the answer, on a side note do you think that sega might sell one(or more) studios?
We heard a lot about the reorganization of the studios, etc...
It might help sega being smaller and therefore easier to manage, and also could provide a few dollards, wich are always welcomes.

Sure, now that the studios are reorganized, this might not be a very smart move to sell anything.

[Geeforcer]

Nooooooo! Leave Bio alone. As it stands, they are the RPG maker on PC now that Black Isle is no more and and Troika is not quite there yet.

[Riddlewire]

If Microsoft is going to make any large purchases, they should definitely look for a 'high value' acquisition. Rare wasn't.
I think they should turn their gaze toward eastern europe (both for the strong value and for the fresh creative blood). Illusion Softworks is an up and comer with great potential. GSC Gameworld would also make an excellent purchase.

[Fafalada]

Originally Posted by Vysez

(BTW MS has decided to release their games untranslated,...games like buffy the vampire slayer: CB, simpsons hit and runs.... in japan...and in english)

Actually I think that's a very important argument. Lots of people simply shrug their shoulders at MS failure in japan as in "they've been dead before they started", but fact is that their localization and market adapation efforts have generally been poor at best.
I see lots of this in Korea too, where localizations are either terrible or next to non-existant, the title selection is poor for the target market etc. Yes it's a PC gaming country so you could argue that consoles are dead on arrival too, yet, but Sony as opposed to MS actually spent some effort to turn that around, and even with a slow start they've established a pretty strong console presence by now.
Actually they are pretty much the only console presence worth noting around here...

Anyway, I have the impression MS so far treated eastern markets in the fashion of "we'll just wait until They adapt to Us"... Which indeed shouldn't be very difficult to improve upon, if they decide to bother this time around.

[Farid]

Originally Posted by Fafalada

Anyway, I have the impression MS so far treated eastern markets in the fashion of "we'll just wait until They adapt to Us"... Which indeed shouldn't be very difficult to improve upon, if they decide to bother this time around.

Same feeling here!

I really hope that Microsoft learned something this generation, and that they are working that out.
Everytime the consoles sale charts in japan is shown, people argue for hour about the fact that japan is a close minded market, or worse that the japaneses are rasists or something. There's maybe reasons to think that the japanese market is hard to enter, but the Xbox's sales problems have other explanation; no games (or a very few), no support (last games published are 100% english games).
Since the start they did errors, the "main" launch game of the xbox in japan was not Halo, but a crappy game where you played a mouse...brilliant. All that because a marketing genius thought that the best game available for the system will sell less than a bad, but kawaii (in fact it wasn't even that), mouse game. 2 years later halo is one of the rare title that sale well on xbox in japan.

Example: Last week Media Create chart.
PlayStation 2 47.391 1.007.891
GameCube 6.263 327.663
Xbox 557 17.057
PSone 310 8.610

That's a defcon 5 alarm for MS, they need to give their XboxNext a chance in japan, they need japanese titles, i won't even talk about good ones...just japanese titles, that will be a good start, 'cause 600 consoles a week that doesn't even pay the salary of one guy in MSG japan.
Now, saving the Xbox in japan is Mission impossible, the best thing they have (must) to do is to prepare the XboxNext coming, and the best way to do that is, IMHO, to buy NOW exclusive (japan) titles and/or japaneses developers/publishers.

[Magnum PI]

isn't DOA3 from far the best selling game for xbox in japan ? and available from the launch ?