Microsoft rumored to be buying...... [2020-04, 2020-07, 2020-11]

[Bickle2]

I could see all those studios being sold piecemeal to multiple companies. Not sure where Microsoft has holes that need filling. Even though TT Games has probably the most lucrative IP(Lego games) I would be surprised if Microsoft was interested due to Minecraft. Avalanche with their Disney titles is another I don't see them interested in. Or maybe I'm wrong & they would be great studios to fill Game Pass up with? No idea. Anyway, the studios with most interest in are probably the Batman, Mortal Kombat, Harry Potter & Lord of the Rings franchises. That's a lot of studios with licensed IP. In fact, I'm not sure if any of them are original IP that started with WB other than Mortal Kombat? Will be interested to see how it gets divided up.

Tommy McClain

Lego games are hige moneymakers
People have complained for years about the lack of “kids” games on Xbox. Avalanche makes great stuff.

If I had to speculate, I’d say a lot of the generic support studios might get the axe, but the leads probably don’t need to worry

 

[AzBat]

Food for thought...

How Minecraft and Mojang taught Xbox how to buy studios
Xbox's new studios: “Things have been almost exactly the same, just without the terror of going out of business”

Between E3 2018 and 2019, Xbox revealed the fruits of a surprising spending spree.

Compulsion Games, Double Fine, InXile, Ninja Theory, Obsidian, Playground Games and Undead Labs had all joined the Microsoft family, and the news was greeted by whoops from the Xbox faithful and intrigued eyebrow raising from us in the business press.

Yet among that excitement was an air of caution, too. Buying companies is easy, but integrating them is incredibly hard, and Microsoft is no stranger to acquisitions gone wrong. Picking up seven new businesses and trying to get them working within a large organisation seems like a herculean task fraught with risk.

"If you look at the list, you can find our lineage with many of those studios," explains Microsoft's executive vice president of gaming Phil Spencer.

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/artic...aft-and-mojang-taught-xbox-how-to-buy-studios

Tommy McClain

 

[cheapchips]

Tim Shafer's comment in the sister article on developing for Gamepass was interesting, as the same sentiment holds true for any studios MS aquire:

"It does make me think about some of the crazy game ideas we've had, and some of them you're just like... I can never pitch this to any publisher. I would never get this signed. But I am now opening up that folder of documents again, and going 'oh I really love this idea, I bet I could do that now'."

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Food for thought...



https://www.gamesindustry.biz/artic...aft-and-mojang-taught-xbox-how-to-buy-studios

Tommy McClain

I love this part from the article.

"I had to go back to Matt a second time and go: 'I just want to be sure that you understood that this is what we're doing.' And he said: 'I love the idea so much that I don't want to see anything, so that you guys over-index on what I say and think you have to change it in some capacity.' That's a true story."

That's the Microsoft guy in charge of these studios telling Brian Fargo that he doesn't want to say anything related to the project Brian wants to do because he doesn't want anything he says to influence how they develop the title that Brian Fargo wants to make.

Regards,
SB

 

[eastmen]

Tim Shafer's comment in the sister article on developing for Gamepass was interesting, as the same sentiment holds true for any studios MS aquire:

"It does make me think about some of the crazy game ideas we've had, and some of them you're just like... I can never pitch this to any publisher. I would never get this signed. But I am now opening up that folder of documents again, and going 'oh I really love this idea, I bet I could do that now'."

Maybe they will go back to a genre they tried before and never released

Might be a genre on decline liket the genres biggest game

Only time will tell what these old eyes have seen


Time for a nice long walk tis nice out today

 

[cheapchips]

Maybe they will go back to a genre they tried before and never released

Might be a genre on decline liket the genres biggest game

Only time will tell what these old eyes have seen


Time for a nice long walk tis nice out today

You fight like a cow.

 

[eastmen]

You fight like a cow.

Listen I'm trying to loose weight okay , why do you think i went on the walk... shesh

 

[Deleted member 11852]

Food for thought...
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/artic...aft-and-mojang-taught-xbox-how-to-buy-studios

Great article. I think Microsoft also learned a lot from acquiring then splitting with Bungie.

 

[cheapchips]

Great article. I think Microsoft also learned a lot from acquiring then splitting with Bungie.

And shuttering Lionhead. And not really doing a lot with Rare until SoT.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

And shuttering Lionhead. And not really doing a lot with Rare until SoT.

Yes, and these were various errors on a theme. With Bungie it was acquiring them for Halo then wanting them to do nothing but Halo. With Lionhead Studios it was again wanting them to the Fable studio but in part the studios fall was due to Microsoft's bullshit detector not working when dealing with Peter Molyneux. For those that didn't know Media Molecule (Little Big Planet, Tearaway, Dreams) was formed from ex-Lionhead Studios veterans who split-off when Microsoft acquired the studio. Rare failed for very complex reasons, I'm not sure Microsoft really could have done much about it.

 

[fehu]

With Bungie it was acquiring them for Halo then wanting them to do nothing but Halo.

And when they were finally free, they made destiny...

 

[BRiT]

I wish Bungie would do something other than Destiny 9001, but looks like the earlier that would happen is maybe 2025. Such a shame.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

And when they were finally free, they made destiny...

Yup and although Bungie split-off in 2007 Bungie weren't creatively free until 2010, making ODST (2009) and Reach (2010) for Microsoft as part of the separation deal.

Next was Destiny, which isn't Halo. Bungie's story for Halo was told over the original trilogy of games. Their next creation didn't need to be something vastly thematically different but something new and different - much like how Sony's Evolution Studios made a bunch of Motorstorm games then DriveClub.

Sometimes creators just want to create something new. When you have a well-fleshed out universe you can become creatively constrained by what you've created, I think that's where Bungie were with Halo after three games.

 

[fehu]

I think that there's some missing info on their breakup because the narrative doesn't works.
Bungie didn't wanted to work on halo.
MS had two options:
- give the middle finger to them and the investment, and create 343i for halo
- let bungie work on a new similar but not halo game, and create 343i for halo

 

[Silenti]

MS also had the right of first refusal on Destiny. They passed. Smartly.

I have always felt it kind of funny. The whole MS/ Bungie feud. Bungie was going bankrupt. There was a dev series years ago about how if it were not for MS, there would have been no HALO. (That docu was old enough they were still showing the Master Chief with a radio antenna, the Elites spoke English, the sniper rifle was suppressed and there were creatures to ride) Then Bungie spent, what?, 3 years, 4?, screwing around with HALO 2 to where they had nothing to show for it, then did the E3 closed doors show where they claimed people would be watching a play-through of a small part of the campaign and not something done just for an E3 demo. Which turned out to be total bullshit. It was entirely scripted and nowhere to be found in the campaign released later.

Then the split and deal with Activision. Some Bungie members stay on to work at 343i, some go. How many are left at this point? I think Luke Smith was around for HALO 3. (Might not be remembering correctly on that one) O'Donnel is gone. Reminds me of Bioware. How much of what made Bioware special is left at this point? Always struck me as odd about how people blamed MS for losing Bungie. The more that came out over time, the more it seems Bungie self-destructed.

 

[BRiT]

I'm not sure if this entirely accurate, but I saw a story within the past week related to Bungie's recent history. Not clear on if this was before they went to Activision or when they split from Activision. It made it sounds like Bungie almost ended up back at Microsoft, when they were shopping things around a second time. Everyone they shopped to wanted ownership of the IP.

 

[Nisaaru]

I think that there's some missing info on their breakup because the narrative doesn't works.
Bungie didn't wanted to work on halo.
MS had two options:
- give the middle finger to them and the investment, and create 343i for halo
- let bungie work on a new similar but not halo game, and create 343i for halo

After following Bungie's drama during the Destiny period I'm absolutely convinced their motivation to split was purely fuelled by money. They saw how much Infinity Ward made with Activision in the FPS genre Bungie was arguable at the top for consoles. The people who made IW were fired/left Feb 2010 and Bungie signed with them just 2 months later.

Then the BS started with corporate drones, management problems and the drain of talent with Staten, Martin O'Donnell,..

 

[Deleted member 11852]

I think that there's some missing info on their breakup because the narrative doesn't works.

Definitely, many details remain undisclosed. I meant the whole Bungie team could have just walked when their contracts ended and started a new studio. Speculation on my part but I suspect part of it was them wanting to keep the Bungie name and the quid pro quo being to do a couple more in-Universe Halo games. Bungie needed the money to bankroll the development of Destiny so it arguably worked out well for both sides and there certainly never seemed to be any animosity.

 

[Silenti]

I'm not sure if this entirely accurate, but I saw a story within the past week related to Bungie's recent history. Not clear on if this was before they went to Activision or when they split from Activision. It made it sounds like Bungie almost ended up back at Microsoft, when they were shopping things around a second time. Everyone they shopped to wanted ownership of the IP.

Yeah. That was an interview with O'Donnel. About what happened and why he was pushed out. There were no number given, but some on the Bungie board wanted Activision more involved. O'Donnel dissented. This is just from Marty, so it seems self-serving to state as much, but it is also the only info we have. I don't even know who the board members are or the area they represent. So I cannot even speculate beyond the point that they did split with Activision. Seems like in the past couple of years Blizzard has been regretting their decision as well. There was a story a bit back about how Activision was trying to muscle onto the Blizzard board. And had succeeded to a certain extent.

I used to have 4 developers I trusted almost implicitly. Blizzard, Bungie, Bioware and Bethesda. Blizzard and Bungie went with Activision and I just couldn't fathom that decision. Though if they were the only publisher offering to let Bungie hold onto the IP then I can understand the decision. Bioware has died a slow death. Bethesda has managed to annoy a large portion of their fanbase for their decisions. Including me. (no new Elder Scrolls in damn near a decade, and it will be longer than 10 years before the next comes out, but they managed to release 2 Fallout full games in that period, the sheer existence of Blades and Fallout:Online, the no show of StarField, ugh)

Apologies for the rant. Seemed fitting given that the 1st party developers and a handful of smaller devs are the only ones I trust anymore. I would rather buy a MS first party-title, even if they just bought the studio, than give any money to EA, Activision, *edit*, Take 2, WB or Gearbox (Pitchford isn't getting a dime from me).

On the plus side - the hardware is more exciting than I can remember from the recent past.

*edit* - removed Ubisoft. I had confused some of their actions with Take 2. They are on a bit of thin ice with me personally, but they do not belong on that list.

 

[Nisaaru]

I would rather buy a MS first party-title, even if they just bought the studio, than give any money to EA, Activision, Ubisoft, Take 2, WB or Gearbox (Pitchford isn't getting a dime from me).

UBI too? They might not be the most creative studio known for polishing their work for maximal potential but in the last decade I consider them the studio which delivers a lot content for our bucks. IMHO they have a well engineered game pipeline superior to most others. Meaning they know how to get shit done even if they have to cut corners somewhere.

That doesn't mean I always agree with their direction or end result(FC5 comes to my mind). But I can't say I have ever felt buyer's remorse with them the last decade.