Jez Corden: Multiple aquisitions by microsoft xbox failed/stopped because of ABK

Yes despite the doom and gloom agenda from people Microsoft are delivering the games this year, we're approaching our third coming into May and Hi Fi Rush was fresh and spectacular.
Hellblade 2 will lead the UE5 charge and that's a massive leap over anything else graphically and shows the difference between next gen and last gen ports with a 60fps option.
They have a raft of UE5 games coming so graphically they will be at the top of the industry and The Coalition working on UE5 with Epic, I expect the likes of Perfect Dark and Gears to look incredible.
Hellblade 2 doesn't even have a release year, and the little they have shown already shows downgrades from the initial trailer.
By the time the game releases UE6 will probably be out.
It might release next year, it might release in 5 years, or 10 years...
 
They are releasing 5 first party games 2023. You expect more than that?

You forget the styling and profiling when sony was on a moneyhar world tour.

It's important to see it in the context that 3 of these games were supposed to release in 2022.

But nevertheless, it is a good start -- assuming those games are actually great 9/10 and 10/10 bangers. Redfall doesn't inspire much confidence in the meantime.
 
Last edited:
Bro, they had time. They have been trying to do this since 2018. It's been 5 years since they resumed their efforts, and they should have had lots of AAA games by now.

It's their management that they need to fix, first and foremost. Adding 1,000 more staff members (who are already terribly managed) is not going to help the cause.

Just one recent example:
  • Hellblade released in 2017. And Ninja Theory started developing Hellblade 2. Xbox acquired Ninja Theory in 2018. Hellblade 2 is still MIA with no release date in sight.
  • Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order released in 2019. Respawn start working on the sequel after that. And they have already released Star Wars Jedi Survivors this week.
The issue is the poor management. Otherwise, Microsoft would have got Hellblade 2 in 2022, if not 2021.

Same goes for Fable (wrong team) and Avowed (rebooted) and Perfect Dark (50% team left) and Everwild (rebooted). And they would have solved their exclusives problem that you're referring to.

Think we have to be careful when comparing games and when the previous game came out.

Jedi Fallen Order almost certainly brought more money in than Hellblade. Jedi Survivor uses UE4 whereas Hellblade 2 uses UE5.

Ninja Theory has 137 employees according to Linkedin, Respawn has 796 employees.

There are a lot of reasons why Hellblade might be taking longer other than mismanagement.
 
Think we have to be careful when comparing games and when the previous game came out.

Jedi Fallen Order almost certainly brought more money in than Hellblade. Jedi Survivor uses UE4 whereas Hellblade 2 uses UE5.

Ninja Theory has 137 employees according to Linkedin, Respawn has 796 employees.

There are a lot of reasons why Hellblade might be taking longer other than mismanagement.
Don't forget jedi survivor was released 6 months to early seeing as it runs like shit on every platform.
 
They will, if the ABK fails they will go on a purchase spree, I really expect things to get hideous between Sony and Microsoft from here onward.
Bill Hader Popcorn GIF by Saturday Night Live
 
I don't think they will have issues acquiring small studios or companies, even if they go after a mid-size company like Koei Tecmo or something like that, regardless of Jim Ryan's tears
Good luck trying to buy a Japanese studio... Most of them are protected from foreign takeovers by Japanese law.

At this stage all this talking about MS buying Japanese studios sounds more like erotic fantasy people type just to be able to read it and imagine it while rubbing themselves.
 
Good luck trying to buy a Japanese studio... Most of them are protected from foreign takeovers by Japanese law.

At this stage all this talking about MS buying Japanese studios sounds more like erotic fantasy people type just to be able to read it and imagine it while rubbing themselves.

I WAS NOT!
 
Good luck trying to buy a Japanese studio... Most of them are protected from foreign takeovers by Japanese law.

At this stage all this talking about MS buying Japanese studios sounds more like erotic fantasy people type just to be able to read it and imagine it while rubbing themselves.

No, not true. Some companies are protected, but I am not sure that the likes of Capcom are. In fact, I heard that MS had almost finalized a deal to buy Capcom years ago, which obviously fell through.. Although Today's Capcom is different to yesterday's, and is thriving being a multiplatform publisher...
But who knows, really? In fact, I am unsure as to whether the CMA will not walk back on its decision if political ramifications were to develop (could MS get the US government to intervene? Surely they would not mind having an American company get a headstart on chinese and foreign ones in general)...
 
Last edited:
No, not true. Some companies are protected, but I am not sure that the likes of Capcom are. In fact, I heard that MS had almost finalized a deal to buy Capcom years ago, which obviously fell through.. Although Today's Capcom is different to yesterday's, and is thriving being a multiplatform publisher...
But who knows, really? In fact, I am unsure as to whether the CMA will not walk back on its decision if political ramifications were to develop (could MS get the US government to intervene? Surely they would not mind having an American company get a headstart on chinese and foreign ones in general)...

The UK government is less than a year away from giving the CMA even more authority. Seriously doubt they're going to intervene on this case.
 
Think we have to be careful when comparing games and when the previous game came out.

Jedi Fallen Order almost certainly brought more money in than Hellblade. Jedi Survivor uses UE4 whereas Hellblade 2 uses UE5.
But why is Hellblade 2 using UE5 in the first place? I doubt it'll look any better than Jedi Survivor -- when compared with a similar level of interactivity and visual density.

Was going for UE5 even a good decision when you're already starved for games? Questions like these must be asked. And that all comes down to managerial decisions.
Ninja Theory has 137 employees according to Linkedin, Respawn has 796 employees.
Respawn also has other huge projects. And that's why they have multiple teams.

Apex Legends likely takes most of the staff -- more than Jedi Survivors. They also have another Star Wars project simultaneously in production. Based on the things we have seen so far, Jedi Survivors also has a significantly bigger scope than Hellblade 2.

So considering all things, I'd say that the team that created Jedi Survivors and the team that's working on Hellblade 2 don't have a lot of differences.

And if Ninja Theory does not have enough developers, whose fault is that? Xbox should have focused on growing that studio instead of chasing after publishers like Zenimax and ABK.
There are a lot of reasons why Hellblade might be taking longer other than mismanagement.
I think 80% of it comes down to mismanagement and terrible decisions, e.g., not growing Ninja Theory enough, asking/letting their animators train in martial arts (WTF!), dedicating a team to creating Bleeding Edge (!), using UE5 instead of UE4, announcing the game in 2019 (!).

So many bad decisions.
 
I don't think they will have issues acquiring small studios or companies, even if they go after a mid-size company like Koei Tecmo or something like that, regardless of Jim Ryan's tears
Maybe, maybe not.

It helps reading the words that the CMA used, though.

AQ7T3FX.jpg


Who knows, instead of Jim Ryan's, we may end up seeing Brad Smith's tears once again.
 
Last edited:
Donald Glover Reaction GIF


Maybe Microsoft can use their money to build their own studios. They have more than enough.

Get Ensemble Studios back together and make a proper new Age of Empires, not a cartoony rehash.
 
I was actually a bit disappointing that they didn't go after WB and the Western SE studios when the ABK deal was first announced. Just because I am personally more interested in their output. Although WB studios hasn't exactly been setting the world on fire as of late.

But these kind of done deals would have been a lot safer and would not have required beating themselves up to get done (which was going to be a bit of a detriment even if ABK passed these regulators by the deadline).

But, I agree with @GhostNTheBashShell that ABK just fit perfectly with Xbox players and would have been a way to avoid any potential shenanigans with Sony there.

Obviously, 20/20 hindsight and all that. MS gaming really went for it and is willing to invest $70b on the gaming division, which shows a strong commitment at least.

It's not hindsight being 100%.

It's just pure greed and arrogance.

There's no way they didn't know that going for a bunch of smaller studios would have:
  • Been cheaper
  • Not have attracted the attention of regulators (or certainly nowhere near as much)
  • Given them a more diverse portfolio (which they desperately need)
  • Given them more games
  • Not had the headache of harassment accusations
But no, they went for the massive cash cow and woke up multiple regulators.

Complete hubris.
 
Last edited:
I don't think they will have issues acquiring small studios or companies, even if they go after a mid-size company like Koei Tecmo or something like that, regardless of Jim Ryan's tears
The biggest hurdle will be the Japanese government signing off on it and I just do not see it
 
So, Cloud gaming was their downfall in all this?

Microsoft has pretty much been ahead of everyone in the background with game streaming. Stadia/Google notwithstanding. Nvidia has had some success. But it's still years away from being substantial, isn't it? The reasoning seems really flawed.

Here's a question: if ABK was a privately-owned business-like Valve, could anyone stop it?

Could MS just money hat the hell out of Call of Duty and block Sony? and sign a 30-year console exclusive deal?
 
Ubisoft is bloated a fuck to the point nobody is gonna touch them, we are talking about a headcount of 30000.
Elon bought Twitter and fired 80% of the work force. Anyone who buys them could do the same although they have to deal with nightmare PR.
 
Really? you think if Sony didn't contest the deal they would have still blocked it? I personally doubt it.

Sony contested the console market portion of the deal. They got that thrown out the window. The only way Sony would still be a part of this is if the CMA is secretly protecting them. But that's not the case here.

You really need to stop blaming Sony for this. They failed with their arguments.
 
Last edited:
Sony contested the console market portion of the deal. They got that thrown out the window. The only way Sony would still be a part of this is if the CMA is secretly protecting them. But that's not the case here.

You really need to stop blaming Sony for this. They failed with their arguments.
Well, they are actually to blame for convincing the CMA for the ridiculous argument that Call of Duty can't run on the Switch. A console that run Witcher 3 and Doom.
 
So, Cloud gaming was their downfall in all this?

Microsoft has pretty much been ahead of everyone in the background with game streaming. Stadia/Google notwithstanding. Nvidia has had some success. But it's still years away from being substantial, isn't it? The reasoning seems really flawed.

Here's a question: if ABK was a privately-owned business-like Valve, could anyone stop it?

Could MS just money hat the hell out of Call of Duty and block Sony? and sign a 30-year console exclusive deal?
Yes, it could be blocked as governments are ultimately sovereign, not companies.
 
Well, they are actually to blame for convincing the CMA for the ridiculous argument that Call of Duty can't run on the Switch. A console that run Witcher 3 and Doom.

Thought the argument was about the cloud.

https://mp1st.com/news/microsoft-activision-deal-unlikely-to-hurt-console-gaming-market-admits-cma

Microsoft-Activision Deal Unlikely to Hurt Console Gaming Market, Admits CMA



What does playing games natively on the Switch have to do with the cloud?
 
Last edited:
Thought the argument was about the cloud.

https://mp1st.com/news/microsoft-activision-deal-unlikely-to-hurt-console-gaming-market-admits-cma




What does playing games natively on the Switch have to do with the cloud?
Yes ultimately it was about cloud but also this ridiculous comment:

"Nintendo does not currently offer CoD, and we have seen no evidence to suggest that its consoles would be technically capable of running a version of CoD that is similar to those in Xbox and PlayStation in terms of quality of gameplay and content."
 
Yes ultimately it was about cloud but also this ridiculous comment:

"Nintendo does not currently offer CoD, and we have seen no evidence to suggest that its consoles would be technically capable of running a version of CoD that is similar to those in Xbox and PlayStation in terms of quality of gameplay and content."

I dont see how that influenced their final decision. The Switch is capable of running games through the cloud. Like Resident Evil Village for example.



If anything it supports Microsofts argument with the cloud since it allows the Switch to play games in a state that's not possible natively.

Don't know why you believe this has anything to do with the final decision.
 
Last edited:
It's so weird how Xbox fans say things are great and then act deranged when facing the possibility MS might not buy a big publisher again for a long time.
Why is everything has to be about console war? It is my genuine opinion. I'm more of a PS and Nintendo fan more than Xbox fan so it is even more ridiculous.
 
Why is everything has to be about console war? It is my genuine opinion. I'm more of a PS and Nintendo fan more than Xbox fan so it is even more ridiculous.
'that's why we have hostile takeovers'

How else do you want people to interpret that comment?

Unfortunately for MS hostile takeovers won't help them to retain good staff or make good games.

They have 25 studios. They can't acquire their way to good games.
 
Why is everything has to be about console war? It is my genuine opinion. I'm more of a PS and Nintendo fan more than Xbox fan so it is even more ridiculous.

When you push ridiculous takes like MS should leave the UK it's hard to believe that but ok. So far I've only seen deranged Xbox fans saying stuff like that but I guess there's always a unicorn.
 
Last edited:
If there are any like that, it'll be the same guys that cheer sales figures and resolutions.

In short - some of the most vocal people here.
Nah it's different, Being happy about great sales is totally logic cause it means the franchise you like is in good state and it's likely to get more games and being return invest on.
 
'that's why we have hostile takeovers'

How else do you want people to interpret that comment?

Unfortunately for MS hostile takeovers won't help them to retain good staff or make good games.

They have 25 studios. They can't acquire their way to good games.
English is not my first language and if my posts seem like i'm on one side over the other, i'm not. The reality is I have more history with Sony as i've bought every Sony console. Same for Nintendo starting the NES except WiiU. The only thing I care about for Xbox is competition as Sony is a disaster with no one that chase them and competition is good for us the consumers.
 
When you push ridiculous takes like MS should leave the UK it's hard to believe that but ok. So far I've only seen deranged Xbox fans saying stuff like that but I guess there's always a unicorn.
Because the CMA "concerns" are ridiculous and their comments before shows bias.
 
English is not my first language and if my posts seem like i'm on one side over the other, i'm not. The reality is I have more history with Sony as i've bought every Sony console. Same for Nintendo starting the NES except WiiU. The only thing I care about for Xbox is competition as Sony is a disaster with no one that chase them and competition is good for us the consumers.

Buying Bethesda and then ABK is injecting the industry with competition? What next, Ubisoft? And then Sega? This is competition for you? This is anti competition my friend, it's adding nothing while pushing another player out of the market or turning them into a bit player.
 
Buying Bethesda and then ABK is injecting the industry with competition? What next, Ubisoft? And then Sega? This is competition for you? This is anti competition my friend, it's adding nothing while pushing another player out of the market or turning them into a bit player.
Yes it is competition as at least Xbox has a fighting chance instead of Sony in the lead with a big margin.
 
Yes it is competition as at least Xbox has a fighting chance instead of Sony in the lead with a big margin.

More bullshit. Xbox had a fighting chance then, now, and in the future.

This new song about a need to take away PlayStation market share by whatever needs necessary is just Xbox fanboy and media shill drivel. It doesn't pass the smell test.

You don't seem to have a problem with Nintendo's market share. Or Steam. Somehow PlayStation is the only target for you and others who spread that type of gibberish.
 
Last edited:
Top Bottom