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

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I remember of the portfolio managers said that Square Enix shows the behaviour of Bethesda. Incredible insight then!

But I don't think it will be Sony who will purchase Square Enix - they would not money hat FF and Forspoken. It would cost around 10 - 15 bil. right? Though they can try merge or something. Maybe there will be some merge between companies - there are not that many huge companies in Japan at all that can afford straight purchases like this.
 
It seems like Discord terminated talks with Microsoft. I wonder why though.
Would be a nice get for MS, as they are the only ones - out of all big tech companies - that doesn't have consumer services like Twitch, Youtube or Facebook
 
It seems like Discord terminated talks with Microsoft. I wonder why though.
Would be a nice get for MS, as they are the only ones - out of all big tech companies - that doesn't have consumer services like Twitch, Youtube or Facebook

I'd be less interested and less concerned with what MS is buying vs the different things they are building.
 
I'd be less interested and less concerned with what MS is buying vs the different things they are building.
by "things they are building" do you mean in like a platform sense? or is there a specific thing that they are working on that you are especially interested in?
 
by "things they are building" do you mean in like a platform sense? or is there a specific thing that they are working on that you are especially interested in?

specific and platform. You know there is an xbox app on of course xbox but also pc , andriod , ios and there are chat functionalities in it. Putting support into the xcloud browser clients and adding in discord type features wouldn't be hard for ms to do. Its not much different than teams . There are also a lot of devs leaving companies and going some where....
 
specific and platform. You know there is an xbox app on of course xbox but also pc , andriod , ios and there are chat functionalities in it. Putting support into the xcloud browser clients and adding in discord type features wouldn't be hard for ms to do. Its not much different than teams . There are also a lot of devs leaving companies and going some where....

I have always been somewhat surprised that they haven't effectively extended the xbox social features to pc, it seems like it wouldn't be too hard to expand it into a discord/teams like type thing.

Your hints are always very intriguing, this particular one wouldn't have anything to do with the recent news that Jeff Kaplan is leaving blizzard?

Microsoft funding various well known developers, like potentially Jeff Kaplan, makes sense as the next big opportunity for game studio expansion, especially with how frothy the video game M&A market is getting, Remedy is a great studio, but they arent worth ~800 million (which they are). If I were running things at xbox I would much rather have ~8 initiative type studios that I have grown organically than a single Remedy, even if the payoff might take longer
 
I think Remedy at $800 million is relatively worth more than $7.5 billion for Bethesda (nearly 10x as much, personally that would of been a better bet, 9 studios of remedy size vs 1 of bethesda)
 
I think Remedy at $800 million is relatively worth more than $7.5 billion for Bethesda (nearly 10x as much, personally that would of been a better bet, 9 studios of remedy size vs 1 of bethesda)

In a real world scenario could you even flesh out the Gamepass portfolio with individual purchases vs what Bethesda offered? Are there even nine Remedy quality studios who are up for sale, own their own IP and have a strong back catalogue?
 
I think Remedy at $800 million is relatively worth more than $7.5 billion for Bethesda (nearly 10x as much, personally that would of been a better bet, 9 studios of remedy size vs 1 of bethesda)
Zenimax was what, 8 studios at the time of acquisition. The back catalog was probably half the incentive. Zenimax did make some licensed games, but most of their popular titles were owned IP. That almost the exact opposite of Remedy, who don't own most of their original work. Max Payne is owned by Rockstar, Quantum Break is Microsoft, Crossfire X is... not Remedy. The only thing they have IP wise is the Control/Alan Wake universe, that Microsoft owned and sold it to Remedy. They are a talented studio but the don't have the output that individual Zenimax studios do. We got 3 Doom games last gen (2016, Eternal, VFR) plus an expansion. Wolfenstein had 3 releases and an big expansion. Fallout had 2 release. Skyrim probably got rereleased a dozen times.

It's all about numbers. 10x the purchase price, yeah, but Zenimax probably had 20 releases on Xbox One and PS4, and Remedy had Control and Quantum Break. You look at a small studio like Ninja Theory, and they released 7 games in the last 5 years. That's the type of studio Microsoft is looking for. Gamepass needs new games.

Remedy are great developers but their portfolio isn't as valuable as Zenimax's. I'd put Remedy and id software on level pegging as far as technology developers go.
I don't disagree with this, really, but I think when fanbase is considered, id has a loyal following or Quake/Doom/Wolf loyalists that LOVE those series. People like Remedy's games, but they don't have the fanbase like id games have. You couldn't have a ControlCon and have it anywhere near the spectacle QuakeCon is. id Software's games are baked into pop culture now. Everyone knows what Doom is. Even kids that have never played it.

Remedy only makes good games, though. Quantum Break was a bit of a stumble, but so was Rage. So still on level ground with id there.
 
Remedy are great developers but their portfolio isn't as valuable as Zenimax's. I'd put Remedy and id software on level pegging as far as technology developers go.
Oh sure, Zenimax is far bigger, they're not on the same level. Im just saying they are not 9-10x bigger IMO. Its like they have fallout which is a huge title , and elder scrolls which used to be large in the PC world though its decreased a bit now,but others like their most famous title Doom, everyone knows it and loves it, like you and me. But its sales dont match its reputation eg the last game of the series launched in march 2020

NPD march 2020
  1. Animal Crossing: New Horizons*
  2. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
  3. MLB: The Show 20
  4. Resident Evil 3
  5. NBA 2K20
  6. Doom Eternal*
  7. Persona 5: Royal
  8. Grand Theft Auto V
  9. Borderlands 3
  10. Mario Kart 8: Deluxe*
OK no digital there, but 6th in your launch month during march (not nov/dec where 6th is prolly good) means its not a massive title.

Compare it to another title recently talked about with sales numbers on these forums Days Gone https://forum.beyond3d.com/threads/days-gone-sony-bend-ps4.58139/page-24

NPD april 2019
  1. Mortal Kombat 11
  2. Days Gone
  3. MLB The Show 19
All this talk about days gone doing bad sales numbers but it absolutely crushed multiplatform Doom eternal just releasing on a single platform! Sometimes what ppl' believe just doesnt match realtity, look at the data.
I tried to find bethesda's and remedys revenue numbers but couldnt find, that would be insightful (sp)
 
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I'd be less interested and less concerned with what MS is buying vs the different things they are building.
The issue is that MS has always had troubles with building the communities. They failed to attract people to Mixer, failed to improve Skype and Teams won over Slack because they attached it to Office 365 - on its own it would not be able to compete. If they implement something for Xbox/PC/XCloud maybe something will change. But like with Youtube and Twitch - purchasing the communities is easier and more effective way.
 
I m not keen on where this is heading. MS is such a huge corporation with such huge amounts of liquidity that they gradually centralize a huge portion of independent services and products under their own umbrella, making it harder for competitors on the same services and products to compete. Unless another super huge corporation absorbs them, so we end up with an oligarchy of tech giants.
It is more preferable that some third party company merges with another and provide their services and products.
Sony's financial prowess gives them enough power to be innovative in gaming, but not enough to destroy competition. This is the 5th generation Sony has been in the market and they never acquired a super large company that used to produce popular products for other companies like Bethesda. They acquired smaller talented studios and made them big.
Nintendo is a super huge highly profitable company that provides it's own unique approach in the industry without disturbing the competition.
But Microsoft is literally trying to snatch competition out of the market, buy literally trying to buy own big franchises and in some cases the competitors themselves.
 
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