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

[milk]

https://forum.beyond3d.com/threads/promethean-ai-content-production-tools-ai-based.60954/

The long haired hat guy in their promos, Andrew Maximov, was a lead technical artist at Naughty Dog.

I don't think this means that much. He was good at being a guy that new a bit of art and a bit of coding, without being a wizard at either. He certainly is a talented and experienced guy, but even talented experienced people can end up biting off more than they can chew. In fact, gaming history, or history in general, is filled with such examples.

 

[cheapchips]

I don't think this means that much. He was good at being a guy that new a bit of art and a bit of coding, without being a wizard at either. He certainly is a talented and experienced guy, but even talented experienced people can end up biting off more than they can chew. In fact, gaming history, or history in general, is filled with such examples.

I was suggesting it's a real effort to tackle art challenges in AAA production based on strong experience, rather than it being some sort of nebulous effort from folks who don't. I'm not suggesting he's the chap doing it all and that'll they'll definitely succeed due to that. I'd like to see more though.

 

[ChuckeRearmed]

It seems MS has acquired Marsden group
https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/20...-group-a-leader-in-rapid-industry-innovation/

 

[BRiT]

It seems MS has acquired Marsden group
https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/20...-group-a-leader-in-rapid-industry-innovation/

Certainly a building up for their enterprise integration within industry.

Today, we are excited to announce that Microsoft has acquired The Marsden Group, a leader in industrial technology innovation and rapid prototyping. The first chapter of digital transformation was heavily oriented toward consumer-focused industries. The newer opportunity in infrastructure, manufacturing and resources is enormous. We continue to see an increased pace of digital change across many industries, and we believe that velocity is here to stay, as more and more companies recognize they must commit to continuous innovation to compete over the long-term.

This acquisition will further enhance Microsoft’s ability to create new customer value through experimentation and deep industry solutions based on Microsoft cloud, edge and AI products.

 

[ChuckeRearmed]

Certainly a building up for their enterprise integration within industry.

I personally did not get what Marsden group is doing.
But certainly it seems like MS is going after infrastructure path, like that deal with Starlink.

Maybe another purchase of Nokia is coming?

 

[BRiT]

Discord thread @ https://forum.beyond3d.com/threads/discord-exploring-sale-worth-more-than-10-billion.62326/

 

[liams]

I know there is a specific thread about discord but this is a news story covering an aspect that is specific to microsoft, so hopefully it fits here too?
Microsoft Is in Exclusive Talks to Acquire Discord - WSJ

Microsoft is in exclusive talks with Discord according to the Wall street Journal with the deal possibly closing next month.

They certainly seem serious about Discord, anyone fancy betting (for kudos) on whether they will announce their intent to acquire discord by the end of April? I bet they will

 

[eastmen]

I know there is a specific thread about discord but this is a news story covering an aspect that is specific to microsoft, so hopefully it fits here too?
Microsoft Is in Exclusive Talks to Acquire Discord - WSJ

Microsoft is in exclusive talks with Discord according to the Wall street Journal with the deal possibly closing next month.

They certainly seem serious about Discord, anyone fancy betting (for kudos) on whether they will announce their intent to acquire discord by the end of April? I bet they will

one of the articles states that Discord approached them. My guess is some big scandel is going to happen at discord and they want their pay day

 

[Deleted member 11852]

one of the articles states that Discord approached them. My guess is some big scandel is going to happen at discord and they want their pay day

A scandal worse that being openly used by neo-nazis in 2017 and the porn issues in 2018? Then actively being complicit in effects to stop GameStop stock shorting. That's a multitude of sins and it's not slowed Discord down. The guy who created Discord (Jason Citron) built the mobile OpenFeint network for gamers then sold it when it was profitable to do so. This looks like round 2 on a bigger scale.

If you have a large popular VOIP platform then you're going to be appealing to Microsoft who are in the same business. Discord and Teams are both built on the Electron platform so this looks a no brainer. If Microsoft do Discord, it's difficult to imagine a future where Skype, Teams and Discord exist as separate platforms.

I've only briefly used Teams (before we switched to CISCO solutions) so I don't know how much overlap there is.

 

[BRiT]

Its difficult to imagine a current day where Skype exists. Thats with only Teams existing.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

Its difficult to imagine a current day where Skype exists. Thats with only Teams existing.

Skype for Business is EOL but from the podcasts I listen too I know a bunch use regular Skype for comms and recording those - each participant recording it, sending their recording for production where they are sync'd and merged or the best possible audio quality.

I hated Teams with a passion, the UI is staggeringly slow like it was running on a computer with a tenth of the CPU power and RAM. The web-client is often better. Just.. how?!?!

 

[eastmen]

I saw in an article that their Dragon dictation software has been integrated into teams for the azure healthcare vertical. They also formed a strategic partnership with Microsoft over the future of healthcare in 2019.

If you've got boatloads of cash burning a hole in your pocket I can think of worse acquisitions
(And better one, Take2 is only a hop, skip, and a jump away from $16B)

Microsoft and Nuance partner on the exam room of the future

I don't know what take 2 really offers them but who knows we will see what else they buy in the future maybe something else vr related

 

[liams]

I don't know what take 2 really offers them but who knows we will see what else they buy in the future maybe something else vr related

True, take2 maybe isnt the best fit out there. I have been thinking that acquiring one of the annualized sports franchises to put on game pass (while remaining on all other platforms) would be a great move to increase subscriptions. You could do a ton to incentivize people to get game pass, discounted micro-transactions, free in game stuff, things like that. Plus if it remains on other platforms you still get the cash for that, and giving you a place to directly interact with fans who are not on the xbox platform yet. I am thinking things like on the playstation version of the annualized sports game you could indicate in the in game store what items would be free with game pass, that sort of thing.

I am very interested in where VR is going, I kinda think it would make a lot of sense for Microsoft and Facebook to make a strategic alliance around gaming, we have already seen a bit of cooperation between the two of them, with the mixer community becoming facebook gaming. In return allowing xcloud to be served natively in facebook (thats my understanding anyway, please correct me if I am wrong). The most exciting possibility there is if both Microsoft and Facebook contributed to making idtech the best engine it could be, both for traditional games and VR ones.

With how prone Tim Sweeney is to narrow minded decisions (like potentially getting all games made using unreal banned from iOS because of his antics) if I were the likes of Microsoft or Facebook I wouldn't want to be reliant on his technology, not having to pay royalties is also a bonus.

Not asking for inside info to be clear, but who is big in the VR space aside from oculus? Or do you mean a game developer who also makes VR versions of their games? Off the top of my head the only one I can think of is IO interactive

 

[ChuckeRearmed]

Not asking for inside info to be clear, but who is big in the VR space aside from oculus? Or do you mean a game developer who also makes VR versions of their games? Off the top of my head the only one I can think of is IO interactive

Either Valve or Facebook basically. With both MS has amicable - more or less - relationship.

 

[liams]

Either Valve or Facebook basically. With both MS has amicable - more or less - relationship.

I suppose HTC would fit aswell, especially because they cut all their non-VR stuff not that long ago (iirc)

 

[BRiT]

Latest acquisition to its own thread at https://forum.beyond3d.com/threads/microsoft-acquires-nuance-communications-2021-04-12.62350/

 

[Nesh]

There are rumors that MS is "buying" Konami's big franchises

https://gamingbolt.com/metal-gear-solid-ip-is-being-licensed-out-up-for-grabs-rumor
https://samagame.com/en/did-microso...-it-smells-wrong-but-everyone-talks-about-it/

And with this.......it would have been crazy if MS actually bought these franchises and then license them to Kojima Studios to make them exclusive for XBOX,

 

[Tkumpathenurple]

There are rumors that MS is "buying" Konami's big franchises

https://gamingbolt.com/metal-gear-solid-ip-is-being-licensed-out-up-for-grabs-rumor
https://samagame.com/en/did-microso...-it-smells-wrong-but-everyone-talks-about-it/

And with this.......it would have been crazy if MS actually bought these franchises and then license them to Kojima Studios to make them exclusive for XBOX,

From MGS3 onwards, at every release of every game, Kojima's threatened to make it his last MGS game. All that upheaval in leaving Konami would be for nothing if he's straight back to being shackled to that franchise. I really don't see Kojima returning to MGS. And without Kojima, it's not really MGS.

That said, this is exactly the kind of very American, very Microsoft move that I'd expect: to at least intend to drink someone else's milkshake.

 

[fehu]

This is wandavision level of speculation

 

[Eolirin]

From MGS3 onwards, at every release of every game, Kojima's threatened to make it his last MGS game. All that upheaval in leaving Konami would be for nothing if he's straight back to being shackled to that franchise. I really don't see Kojima returning to MGS. And without Kojima, it's not really MGS.

That said, this is exactly the kind of very American, very Microsoft move that I'd expect: to at least intend to drink someone else's milkshake.

What's being discussed is pretty much all of Konami's IP. And they're doing nothing with it besides releasing mildly updated ports. They've shuttered their development teams. If MS or Sony, and it would pretty much have to be one of those, picked up their IP, it'd be the only way there's going to ever be new games in those franchises. And given how risk adverse and blockbuster focused Sony is becoming I can't see them willing to go there. So that leaves MS as the only real hope for those franchises.

As long as good titles get made following an acquisition I think the fan bases of those properties will be happy to see them come back to life.

But this is still something to be really skeptical about, because this would be the first acquisition MS would be making that wouldn't include studios. They'd need to spin up new development teams from scratch and new titles would be years out. But this may be the only way they're going to get a significant developer presence in Japan too, as acquisitions there seem pretty hard.