Take-Two Interactive buy Indie Games (Top Spin & Amped) from Microsoft

Two of my predictions have come true from yesterday. Although both were the ones I didn't actually believe they would announced during the conference call :D

and that completely wraps it up for MSN sports.
 
Take Two management did stress Indie has good next-gen credentials :)

Microsoft and Take-Two afaik still hadn't sorted out the agreement originally fleshed out when Take-Two sold their share in Bungie to Microsoft.
 
So it seems MS is getting rid of all first party slowly. Almost only rare and bungie left. They must have felt pretty burned after the Rare deal, I wish that money went on acquiring smaller and more capable studios I suspect they'll still publish titles from other developers though.
 
cja said:
Hey, don't shoot the messenger! :) It's what Take-Two said. :P
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Did they only mention Top Spin ? I'm pretty sure the franchise could indeed be linked to Indie Games (since they are the one who did all the XSN stuff IIRC).
Buying PAM (2nd party dev) would make no sense.
 
I'm beginning to like the role that Take-Two is taking in the business. They also picked up Hypnotix and Outlaw Golf 2 when no one else gave it a chance and published it under their Global Software label.

Take-Two seems to be picking up small devs with lots of potential in hopes of a smash hit to fund the whole lot.
 
thorns said:
So it seems MS is getting rid of all first party slowly. Almost only rare and bungie left. They must have felt pretty burned after the Rare deal, I wish that money went on acquiring smaller and more capable studios I suspect they'll still publish titles from other developers though.
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Yes, with Ed Fries out, MS isn't taking any more chances, which is a pity considering Halo came out of MS taking a chance with Bungie.

They are indeed moving towards the publisher role with a few exceptions (Rare, Bungie,) as you mentioned.

It goes to show the completely different management style of the current head of MGS (Kim) who, unlike Fries, doesn't seem to even play the games.
 
Blimblim said:
Did they only mention Top Spin ? I'm pretty sure the franchise could indeed be linked to Indie Games (since they are the one who did all the XSN stuff IIRC).
Buying PAM (2nd party dev) would make no sense.
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They seem to be just buying Indie. I put the game names in brackets since Take Two mentioned those were games that the developer had been involved with previously. Sorry for any confusion.
 
IJoel said:
Yes, with Ed Fries out, MS isn't taking any more chances, which is a pity considering Halo came out of MS taking a chance with Bungie.

They are indeed moving towards the publisher role with a few exceptions (Rare, Bungie,) as you mentioned.

It goes to show the completely different management style of the current head of MGS (Kim) who, unlike Fries, doesn't seem to even play the games.
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And they seem to be content with having lots of third party's , they just want to provide the best development platform, and let others build the games for it. They don't seem to have an aggresive strategy with exclusives that they used to have.
 
KiNeSiS said:
Well Visual Concepts has work to do on there new Tennis game.
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they've never made a tennis game... but hopefully hitmaker is still planning a new one. Or whatever hitmaker is now, can't keep up.
 
this is pretty shocking. SLC was probably one of the dependable first party studios at MS. I find it REALLY shocking that MS is willing to just let go of the development staff that did Links (PC) which was a license to print money.
 
Maybe it's better to buy 3rd party exclusives or to buy 2nd parties than it is to own 1st party development studios?

With a 1st party you pay alot of money for the studio and take the risk that their best talent might quit shortly afterward.
 
Maybe this part of the conference call hints at the reason why they let 'em go :)

Q: Can you state if you've entered into or plan to enter into talks with Microsoft for GTA exclusivity for the Xbox 2?

A: Um.. we don't comment on that kind of details but Microsoft is a great partner and we have some great games on their system so we have a very good relationship and we talk to them all the time, same with Sony.
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Gary Cooper of Banc of America Securities asked the question. Also pointed questions by another analyst about Max Payne 3 being on Xenon at launch.
 
I don't know, I can't see Take 2 selling GTA out like that. They know it won't single handedly decide the "console war" next generation, and being on the fence until you have a clear winner is a lot better than getting left out in the cold with big name franchises. Look at the drop in popularity Resident Evil has taken after leaving Playstation.

I get the feeling Take 2 wants to rival EA as an all around publisher. They're likely very pissed that EA bought the exclusive NFL rights so now they'll look to outdo EA in all other sports catagories possible. VC already gives them the edge in traditional sports games, Top Spin and Amped give them two good alternative sports franchises to build on as well.
 
Of course I expect MS to keep the IP for at least Links if not both, so Take Two would have to build possibly one new brand.
 
So how did Power and Magic tie into Top Spin then?
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Power and Magic were the actual developer of Top Spin, and it was 'produced' by Indie Games. Somewhat like 3D Realms is the 'producer' of Max Payne, but Remedy developed it.
 
This is what one of the MS guys said over at the Links messageboard:

I'm glad the news has finally broke on this. I think for the title itself moving out from under Microsoft is a very positive thing. Microsoft is moving to focus on much bigger types of titles and there's not a lot of room for games that are not going to sell in the millions.

Hopefully with the news breaking someone from Indie will be able to speak to the future directions of the game. I can't speak to what is going on there anymore.

People should try to take at least some 'glass half-full' thoughts:

Unlike the Sports Studio in Redmond (Rivals, Fever, and Inside Drive) which was shutdown completely, the Studio in Salt Lake was very valuable and a major publisher paid money to secure the people and titles. There's a future and I think it looks bright.

There are no longer 'single platform' limitations on the Studio. I hope to see all the games come out on multiple platforms. The more people who can feel the Links love the better for the franchise. And I do know that spreading to more platforms is a big advantage when negotiating with big courses for exclusivity.
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Well, the success of Fable should encourage MS to take risks. Which is why i hope Fable tops a million soon. Great game, hopefully secure Fable 2 for Xbox 2 :drool
 
Holy crap... I didn't realize T2 bought the licenses too! With Indie Games (Amped/Links/Topspin) and Visual Concepts (NBA, NCAA, NHL, WSB) they're going to start taking over most sports. No wonder EA panicked into buying the NFL license exclusively. Now they just need a really great Soccer game...
 
Jeeeez... Microsoft sold Links now?

They suck. Back in the day they had their own golf game for PCs, but they bought Access (the creators of Links, which was easily the giant of the PC golf industry) and kind of let the game grow stagnant.

Now, a few years later, they sell them off...

This would be only a bit disappointing, if Access didn't also have one of the coolest franchises from the early '90s:

picture.jpg


Poor Tex Murphy, doomed to obscurity by cruel time....
 
MS doesn't care about little titles like Blinx for Xenon. They are aiming for every game they are behind to be Halo/Gran Turismo level. Guess who this sounds like??

This studio was very talented though
 
The SLC studio is really talented, but I'm not a huge fan of the Amped games. I'm hoping they can refine the formula a bit and maybe add some racing for the next installment. Oh, and at one point they were working on a wakeboarding game, hopefully we'll get to see some different stuff out of them now.
 
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