gaming instincts Microsoft not done acquiring game studios

[UltraMega]

Quote

During the interview, Spencer stated that:

 

So we’re always looking for people who we think would be a good match and teams that would be a good match with our strategy. So we’re definitely not done.

 

There’s no quota. There’s no kind of timeline where I have to go acquire studios by a certain time, but if we find a studio where we have a good fit, we share what we’re trying to go do and what they’re trying to go do, and if we feel we can both get better together, absolutely.

 

Over the past few years, Microsoft has made several high-profile studio purchases in an attempt to correct their biggest issue in the last generation of consoles, the lack of a diverse lineup of first-party titles. This has included Ninja Theory, Compulsion Games, Obsidian Entertainment, and Double Fine to name a few. It ultimately culminated with the company paying over 7 billion to acquire Zenimax, which included Bethesda, Machinegames, Arkane, and others.

 

While it is hard to say what purchases Microsoft will make next, there are currently is a rumor that they are testing their compatibility with three studios. These include Crystal Dynamics, the Square Enix-owned studio that is helping with the reboot of Perfect Dark, Avalanche Studios, which are currently developing the Xbox first-party title Contraband, and Hitman developer IO Interactive who are currently working on an Xbox first-party title simply known as Project Dragon.

Xbox Not Done Acquiring Game Studios | Gaming Instincts

WWW.GAMINGINSTINCTS.COM

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In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Xbox Head Phil Spencer stated that Xbox is not yet done...

 

Personally I'd like to see MS buy Ubisoft. Ubi makes good games that have often have major flaws they take a while to iron out. Microsoft could buy them and sort out their issues... and then release another good ghost recon game. One cane dream. 

 

 

[Diffident]

The last thing we need is gaming studios being consolidated into few and few companies with more and more exclusives.

 

Ohh.....and the only way there will ever be a good Ghost Recon game is if it returns to being a first person tactical shooter again, not this 3rd person, bullet sponge, loot shooter crap.

[UltraMega]

1 hour ago, Diffident said:

The last thing we need is gaming studios being consolidated into few and few companies with more and more exclusives.

 

Ohh.....and the only way there will ever be a good Ghost Recon game is if it returns to being a first person tactical shooter again, not this 3rd person, bullet sponge, loot shooter crap.

Generally I'd agree but since Microsoft puts app their games on game pass it ends up being a good deal in the end and I'm pretty in favor of good deals.

 

I'd also argue Wildlands is a good Ghost Recon game... but the newer one is pretty weak. 

[PCSarge]

1 hour ago, UltraMega said:

Generally I'd agree but since Microsoft puts app their games on game pass it ends up being a good deal in the end and I'm pretty in favor of good deals.

 

I'd also argue Wildlands is a good Ghost Recon game... but the newer one is pretty weak. 

i give you the very first ghost recon. where it was so hard to spot enemies you were dead before you found them. but they cant do that anymore, because 10 year olds cant play it.

[UltraMega]

2 hours ago, PCSarge said:

i give you the very first ghost recon. where it was so hard to spot enemies you were dead before you found them. but they cant do that anymore, because 10 year olds cant play it.

The real challenge is playing without spotting. 

[Diffident]

7 hours ago, UltraMega said:

Generally I'd agree but since Microsoft puts app their games on game pass it ends up being a good deal in the end and I'm pretty in favor of good deals.

 

I'd also argue Wildlands is a good Ghost Recon game... but the newer one is pretty weak. 

It's only a good deal if you play enough to justify paying a monthly fee. 

 

My guess is eventually once Microsoft gobbles up enough studios, they all become Windows Store exclusives using UWP.  Microsoft's wet dream is to have a walled garden like Apple's. 

[UltraMega]

5 hours ago, Diffident said:

It's only a good deal if you play enough to justify paying a monthly fee. 

 

I play enough to justify ten dollars a month... 

[Sir Beregond]

Not that I am going to do much Bethesda praising, but one thing I always liked about their games was the open sandbox nature and modability that enhanced that experience, looking at Oblivion, FO: New Vegas, and Skyrim.

 

Since they got bought up by Microsoft, seems they are now going towards Xbox exclusives? I can see this trend continuing and that is bad in my book.

 

Games Pass definitely has its merits, but I really don't think all studios being owned by a few entities is a good future for gaming as a whole.

Edited October 20, 2021 by Sir Beregond

[UltraMega]

25 minutes ago, Sir Beregond said:

Not that I am going to do much Bethesda praising, but one thing I always liked about their games was the open sandbox nature and modability that enhanced that experience, looking at Oblivion, FO: New Vegas, and Skyrim.

 

Since they got bought up by Microsoft, seems they are now going towards Xbox exclusives? I can see this trend continuing and that is bad in my book.

 

Games Pass definitely has its merits, but I really don't think all studios being owned by a few entities is a good future for gaming as a whole.

I don't disagree with the sentiment but Microsoft is just trying to catch up to Sony with exclusives and I'm not going to fault them for that. I also think there there are so many game devs out there that it would be hard to congregate them. At the same time lots of larger publishers have gotten greedy and I see having Microsoft behind the wheel as a good way to ensure certain games don't get overly monetized. 

Edited October 20, 2021 by UltraMega

[mouacyk]

MS putting the squeeze on game stores on Windows, classic.

[pio]

Not interested, just yet another move to consolidate anything creative into one or two giant companies that run everything.  Still haven't bought an EA title since 2007 or whenever it was BF3 / Origin came out, and still won't.  MS.....you guys are no different, I'll stop buying your garbage too.  I can live without video games if it means I'm going to rent everything and have subscription models that can get cancelled just because I said something wrong in an unrelated chat.  I'll buy boxed copies of old games LONG before I pay a subscription to ALLOW me to play a game.  MS Games Pass.......its a neat idea in theory, I see its uses, but nope....not for me.  Give it to us as an OPTION, not a forced requirement.  There's just too much regulation that the companies would have control over, and these are companies I just flat out do not trust anymore.

Yes, I know, I know......Steam is the same thing.  Even later boxed games were setup in their EULA's to basically say its not "yours".  My point still stands.  Bring back personal ownership of things I pay my hard earned money for!  Stop consolidating all things creative under one or two companies.  Idk, maybe I'm the odd man out here.  *shrugs /rant

Edited October 21, 2021 by pioneerisloud

[UltraMega]

52 minutes ago, pioneerisloud said:

Not interested, just yet another move to consolidate anything creative into one or two giant companies that run everything.  Still haven't bought an EA title since 2007 or whenever it was BF3 / Origin came out, and still won't.  MS.....you guys are no different, I'll stop buying your garbage too.  I can live without video games if it means I'm going to rent everything and have subscription models that can get cancelled just because I said something wrong in an unrelated chat.  I'll buy boxed copies of old games LONG before I pay a subscription to ALLOW me to play a game.  MS Games Pass.......its a neat idea in theory, I see its uses, but nope....not for me.  Give it to us as an OPTION, not a forced requirement.  There's just too much regulation that the companies would have control over, and these are companies I just flat out do not trust anymore.

Yes, I know, I know......Steam is the same thing.  Even later boxed games were setup in their EULA's to basically say its not "yours".  My point still stands.  Bring back personal ownership of things I pay my hard earned money for!  Stop consolidating all things creative under one or two companies.  Idk, maybe I'm the odd man out here.  *shrugs /rant

I'll definitely be sad if it turns out this way but I think Microsoft is really serious about delivering good games. They've seen Sony beat them at every turn in this race with great titles and I think MS has seen the light in that they see that they haven't had much going on in their side of the ring besides Halo. 

MS is a different company with Satya Nadella at the helm and Phil Spencer being more autonomous. I'm optimistic they are on a good path.

[pio]

3 hours ago, UltraMega said:

I'll definitely be sad if it turns out this way but I think Microsoft is really serious about delivering good games. They've seen Sony beat them at every turn in this race with great titles and I think MS has seen the light in that they see that they haven't had much going on in their side of the ring besides Halo. 

MS is a different company with Satya Nadella at the helm and Phil Spencer being more autonomous. I'm optimistic they are on a good path.

We can certainly hope so.

[Diffident]

6 hours ago, UltraMega said:

I'll definitely be sad if it turns out this way but I think Microsoft is really serious about delivering good games. They've seen Sony beat them at every turn in this race with great titles and I think MS has seen the light in that they see that they haven't had much going on in their side of the ring besides Halo. 

MS is a different company with Satya Nadella at the helm and Phil Spencer being more autonomous. I'm optimistic they are on a good path.

They're not serious about making good games, they're serious about making money.  Buying as many game studios as they can and locking them to their platform is how Microsoft has chosen to accomplish that goal.  Odds are any of them with online content will probably require a Microsoft account for access which aligns with their other goal of collecting as much data from users as possible.