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Microsoft considered acquiring Bungie and Sega to bolster Xbox Game Pass, internal emails show
- Thread starter Thick Thighs Save Lives
- Start date
- News
LOL. Thank you for acknowledging that the purchase of Studios and Bungie is not a consequence of the purchase of Zenimax....
That, after buying MS Bethesda, Sony accelerated is clear. That Sony's acquisitions and their plans to continue acquiring are just a consequence of MS starting an acquisition race, you don't believe it, don't you.
What is hypocritical is criticizing MS acquiring or attempting to acquire studios and publishers with the excuse that it is "going to destroy the industry" or "monopoly" while celebrating and applauding any rumors or attempts by Sony to buy Capcom, Square or CDProject.
What that attitude tells me is that what annoys some is that it is MS that buys and not Sony..... Of course the "industry is in danger" is the excuse.
Banjo64
cumsessed
Tsaki
Member
Huh? I'm confused. The Bethesda deal hadn't gotten approved by the regulators yet but they already had their next target. They are in the process of getting the biggest publisher right now. What I mean is that regardless of who and when, more publishers will be bought and their storied IPs will become exclusive. That is 100% certain.
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DenchDeckard
Moderated wildly
This Wednesday?
DenchDeckard
Moderated wildly
Sega is a great get, they should have always gone for Sega.
Varteras
Member
LOL. Thank you for acknowledging that the purchase of Studios and Bungie is not a consequence of the purchase of Zenimax....
That, after buying MS Bethesda, Sony accelerated is clear. That Sony's acquisitions and their plans to continue acquiring are just a consequence of MS starting an acquisition race, you don't believe it, don't you.
I don't believe that Bungie was the result of Zenimax. I do not believe that all of them were. I believe that some were. Because you do not watch your competitor buy a major publisher, something that just doesn't happen in the industry, and not have that affect you and spur you to make your own moves.
Sony's acquisitions are certainly not being driven purely by Microsoft. It is actually a combination of factors. The shrinking number of big third-party releases. Sony's newfound desire to expand on their IP, which requires them to be constantly creating new IP to fish for potential hits. Their desire to expand into live service games, which requires an expertise none of their previous studios truly possessed. Then, of course, what Microsoft is doing.
No. It isn't hypocritical. Because Microsoft has now attempted to buy two major publishers. One of which they succeeded in, the other is the biggest third-party company not named Tencent, and there have been indications that Microsoft might not stop there. Now we're seeing that Microsoft has even had their eye on Sega. Big publishers being bought just didn't really happen until now. So if Microsoft were to own both of those, and have shown a desire to own a third, how is it hypocritical to then desire to see Sony buy Capcom or Square Enix? The only way to declare that hypocritical and fanboyish is to be blinded by your own fanboyism and hypocrisy.
VAVA Mk2
Member
They don't have 3 trillion. That's their market cap. They have hundreds of billions in cash assets to buy ABK.
lh032
I cry about Xbox and hate PlayStation.
yea i know, im justy exaggerated but im pretty sure they have like 100x purchasing power compared to Sony.
The point here is that no way Sony is going to survive if Microsoft kept buying companies like candies.
VAVA Mk2
Member
There is a limit to how much they can buy. Nadella and the board of directors are likely not going to just let them dump all of their cash assets into video game acquisitions instead of other investments in areas like Windows, Azure, and Bing/ChatGPT.
ArtHands
Thinks buying more servers can fix a bad patch
Why not both?
Sleepwalker
Member
The year is 2042, after a tired day at work Jim Ryan gets in his car and heads home, upon reaching his estate he parks his car and makes his way to the front door, puts the key in and twists, for a minute Jim is lost in his many thoughts "There must be a way to beat them, I just need to keep looking".
As he goes to push the door he realizes: the lock never clicked, he tries again once more, nothing, locked, starting to panic he tries again, this time with a little more force. The door won't budge, he is locked out of his home. Jim reaches onto his pocket for his cellphone, ready to grill whoever is to blame for this stupid prank : "I'm really too old for this shit" he mutters as he sees the "dead battery signal on his Xperia phone "goddamn piece of shit company phone".
As he goes to turn towards his car something catches Jim's attention, on his porch there's a notice: " hmm, must've been blown by the wind"
"To whom it may concern
This property and all the items inside are now property of Microsoft corporation, compensation for the previous owner will be issued after a period of thirty (30) business days. We apologize for any inconvenience and thank you for your business. If you have any questions or inquiries please do not hesitate to call our acquisitions department at +1 877-568-2495.
sincerely,
Phil Spencer
Head of acquisitions
Microsoft corporation, Redmond, Washington."
As he finishes reading, Jim takes a big breathe in and yells
"PHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIILLLLLLL!!!!!!"
to be continued...
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XesqueVara
Member
Fun Interesting bits about M&A in Xbox
AmuroChan
Member
Sega Sammy has no incentive to sell one of their most profitable divisions. They're not a struggling company trying to get rid of assets to raise cash. In addition, some of their other businesses have dependencies on their gaming IPs, like their pachislot and pachinko business, films, animation, and other entities. So it's not like they can get rid of all their gaming stuff and their other divisions would just operate business as usual. It's like going to Kadokawa and asking them to sell FromSoft. Why would they do that? That's their crown jewel. When a company wants to acquire another company that's not trying to sell, your path of least resistance is to acquire the parent holding company outright.
Woopah
Member
That was Microsoft's strategy, and I think you just explained why Sega Sammy didn't agree.
It's blatantly hypocritical when you say you're against big acquisitions because consolidation hurts or destroys the industry and suddenly you embrace the possibility of SONY doing it as if the answer doesn't hurt anymore....
And no, it is not necessary to try to deceive. Before MS announced the proposal to buy ABK, there was already speculation, discussion and many celebrated the rumors that Sony could buy big publishers and studios (Bungie was already closed).
I do not doubt that there can be honest people against any type of consolidation process. Of course, I am also clear that you will not see these people defending Sony by buying other publishers and Studios as a response. Otherwise they would only show their demagogy and true narrative
Hawking Radiation
Member
What happened to bidding for timed exclusives?
Surely Xbox has a shed load more money to outbid PlayStation on any timed exclusives? Why not leverage these funds from daddy MS for that.
Surely Xbox has a shed load more money to outbid PlayStation on any timed exclusives? Why not leverage these funds from daddy MS for that.
XesqueVara
Member
Btw there is a Detailed plan of how Sega Acquisition would work
Luigi Mario
Member
Some of the more interesting M&A opportunities from their watchlist:
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XesqueVara
Member
Looks like Project Dragon being published by MS is true
Varteras
Member
Do you know why? Because the consolidation has already happened. In a big way. In a way we've never seen. And the options appear to be, A) Let one company gobble it all, or B) see other companies do the same to prevent option A.
The Zenimax deal was announced late 2020 and finalized early 2021. The ABK deal was announced January 2022. The Bungie deal was announced two weeks later that same month. It didn't close until much later that year. Your timelines are way off. Sony fans didn't know about Bungie until AFTER the Zenimax deal was long closed and ABK was announced. You think that may have something to do with it? They watched Microsoft go after two major publishers before they even knew about the Bungie deal. And that was nowhere near as big of a deal.
Luigi Mario
Member
Continued:
splattered
Member
This is a list of companies to consider, not a checklist of everyone they are going to purchase. Really kind of cool to see all these internal documents though...
XesqueVara
Member
AmuroChan
Member
They can and they have (ie. Stalker 2, Warhammer 40K Darkside, Ark 2, etc) but they can't possibly lock up every big 3rd party game. Also, unlike Sony who can recoup a lot of that cost by selling the games at $70 a pop, the ROI on these deals is not as clear cut for MS.
lh032
I cry about Xbox and hate PlayStation.
but this applies to Sega only? i mean its the logical thing to do unless they want major backlash from the public.
Freelance Yakuza
Member
I bought 3 years of GP at the begging of last year
No I have one and half left and to be honest, I would be agry if they stopped lauching 3rd party games, day 1 or not.
For me the value if GP right now is high but not because of MS exclusives
No I have one and half left and to be honest, I would be agry if they stopped lauching 3rd party games, day 1 or not.
For me the value if GP right now is high but not because of MS exclusives
XesqueVara
Member
Yeah that would be what they would do if they acquired SEGA.
YeulEmeralda
Linux User
Because Microsoft thinks that GamePass is their next Windows or MS Office.
They are going all in on it to change the gaming industry into their own personal cash cow.
Kokoloko85
Member
No thanks. As a Sega fan that would be awful
Crispy Gamer
Member
Yeah Jez Corden said a few years back that Microsoft wanted to buy Bungie but the sticking point was exclusivity with Bungie not wanting make games exclusive anymore and the price tag
There is another option. Show the same attitude and energy and criticize everyone equally.
The consolidation process was not started by MS, that is the lie. Tencent, Embrace, EA, Take two...Sony.
That energy against some started when MS came into play and that meant that they lost games on their Playstation... In the end your options are simply those of the PS user who is now worried that the current status quo may change. Not those of someone truly against the consolidation processes.
Not at all . You are the one who misses the deadlines.
Sony itself said that the Bungie purchase was not related to or in response to the Bethesda purchase and MS acquisitions. The negotiations and intentions to buy Bungie were earlier, which indicates that Sony was already in the game.
The uncomfortable reality is that the vast majority here against the ABK acquisition would celebrate any Sony acquisition even if no publishers had been bought by MS. The honest ones can be counted on the fingers of one hand.
Unknown Soldier
Member
Microsoft corporate culture is still heavily influenced by Bill Gates who was legendary for his complete lack of decorum and shame. To put it more simply, he was a huge asshole. When Gates was CEO of MS he was one of the most legendary assholes in the history of the American tech industry and that's saying a lot. The whole company's culture reflects that mentality to this very day.
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ScHlAuChi
Member
Under Risks it reads:Continued:
Public company with market cap of 600 EUR
Damn, I should have bought Remedy!
Varteras
Member
Who bought, or attempted to buy, not one but two major publishers? With a third having been considered? There is only one answer. The energy being kept is that one company is trying to buy huge chunks of the industry so we shouldn't just hope everyone sits around and lets it happen. You're trying to obfuscate the truth.
You're just throwing shit at a wall to see what you can get to stick, aren't you? Bungie is not comparable to two major publishers. The Sony fanbase had no idea about Bungie until after Zenimax was bought and Microsoft was trying to buy Activision. Two publishers. Far larger than Bungie. As far as I know, there is no public knowledge of when Sony started talking to Bungie. Just rumors that it was Summer 2021. About 6 months before Microsoft and ABK started talking. No one cares why or when Sony bought or started talking to Bungie anyways. Because THEY'RE NOT TWO OR THREE MAJOR PUBLISHERS. They're not even one. Might as well get pissy that Microsoft bought Playground and Obsidian. Microsoft tried to buy Bungie too.
Honestly, the only energy being kept here is you being a fanboy while complaining about what fanboys do.
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adamsapple
Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
The biggest revelation out of this topic
