Will we see Microsoft Gaming (Xbox) make anymore studio acquisitions?

begotten

begotten

Member
I've seen this talking point brought up sparingly over a few threads now so I wanted to bring the topic into focus here.

A few years ago, studio acqusitions were a big part of their strategy in gaming but it's clearly come to a holt. They can afford it, but can they really bring in more studios now when you consider all the costs they still incur with the studios that they have and the COD machine they need to keep running?

They are turning into a third-party publisher - but outside from what they have and will mostly double down on (COD, Forza, MC) - will that just remain through deals like Ninja Gaiden 4 compared to expanding their own head count?

Have at it.
 
Tired Baby GIF
 
MS/Xbox have so many dev houses and they all churn out mid games, adding more crap to the mountain sure will help them sell more consoles and subscriptions, the latter will reach 40 dollars a month, and this will grab market from SOny and Nintendo.

People are still waiting for PErfect Dark, Everwild, the next Tango gameworks game, and people are still savoring Avowed, South of Midnight, Starfield, scorn, Hellblade 2 which rocked the world of gaming.
 
Last edited:
begotten said:
I've seen this talking point brought up sparingly over a few threads now so I wanted to bring the topic into focus here.

A few years ago, studio acqusitions were a big part of their strategy in gaming but it's clearly come to a holt. They can afford it, but can they really bring in more studios now when you consider all the costs they still incur with the studios that they have and the COD machine they need to keep running?

They are turning into a third-party publisher - but outside from what they have and will mostly double down on (COD, Forza, MC) - will that just remain through deals like Ninja Gaiden 4 compared to expanding their own head count?

Have at it.
Click to expand...
Think by now they've absorbed enough IP to feed their gaming doomsday AI.
 
Microsoft didn't know what to do with the few studios it already owned, so it decided to buy more studios—and still didn't know what to do with them. Can you imagine what they'd do if they bought even more?
That's right, they'd mismanage them like they always do.
 
Doubtful it will be anyone big, but I could see them acquire some smaller studios if they produce something that adds variety to their sub service...I hope they don't though.
 
Last edited:
Yes, but not now or soon.

They already spent almost $100B in acquisition in recent years, which didn't help to grow their console or gamesub in the scale they expected and continued with massive loses.

Instead of spending more, their curent priority pretty likely is to reshape their gaming business to turn their gaming division into a profitable business to start bleeding billions and start to slowly recoup these huge investments, plus at the same time trying to push to become the top grossing gaming company in the world.

To do so I assume they have these pillars:
  • To slowly and step by step kill their consoles and stop losing money by selling hardware, switching to have Windows as their home platform
  • To slowly and step by step become a full multiplatform publisher and dev that releases all their games day one in (and ports old games to) PlayStation and if they fit and run decent enough/have potential to sell something there Nintendo platforms, while at the same time also pushing hard PC and specially mobile
  • To slowly and step by step reduce to zero the amount of game sales lost due to having their games day one on GP. That idea was a failure so have to slowly backtrack
  • To cut the fat of their massive team, plus optimize and standarize workflows, specially cut the redundancies generated with so many acquisitions and also replace team managers who did such poor work taking forever to release games and not being great or successful enough
Once they completed these huge top priority tasks, they'll start being profitable and have way more revenue than now. Then I assume they'll wait maybe 2-3 years more to verify that this is working for the long term and that the company now is successful and stable, and can go back to grow, and pretty likely will try (again) to get one publisher more, which can be one of the traditional console/PC ones, but also one of these who are very big in mobile only.

Having moved away from making consoles, and their gamesub still being smaller than the Sony one, they'll show their ABK acquisiton didn't change anything in the market, won't have any issue with market regulators. Specially because whoever they try to buy, will have a way smaller market share than ABK had when acquired.
 
Last edited:
Seriously answering the question... why would they buy new studios?
They no longer have a viable console and have become full third-party publishers.
Why would they buy new studios?

On the contrary, I think they will continue to close most of the smaller studios that work with weak IPs and will focus only on the major IPs (COD, Halo, Gear of Wars, Forza Horizon, Candy Crush, Minecraft, Fallout, The Elder Scrolls...) until they reach a financially successful gaming division.
 
begotten said:
I've seen this talking point brought up sparingly over a few threads now so I wanted to bring the topic into focus here.

A few years ago, studio acqusitions were a big part of their strategy in gaming but it's clearly come to a holt. They can afford it, but can they really bring in more studios now when you consider all the costs they still incur with the studios that they have and the COD machine they need to keep running?

They are turning into a third-party publisher - but outside from what they have and will mostly double down on (COD, Forza, MC) - will that just remain through deals like Ninja Gaiden 4 compared to expanding their own head count?

Have at it.
Click to expand...
Oh, they're not buying anyone. They're going to be too busy transitioning out of the hardware business. And honestly, given how many people they fired this year, not a lot of people would want to be bought and then shuttered.
 
Analist: "Sir we bought 13 game studios but none of them have made a good game so now we have to close 17 game studios"
Phillius Spencer the Third:

3nb6ax.jpg
 
Anything they touch they turn to shit , if you don't perform once ur cancelled , sometimes they close studios even in production.
Anybody willing to sell themselves to Microsoft should know by now they are signing their death certificate.
 
Ultimate goal is likely to shut down studio while retaining the IPs. Then just get outsourced studios to make the games.

This way MS has no obligation to pay dev salaries or offer benefits. Much like the way Konami does business these days.
 
What if everything they have to got shut down at once? That is awful, I know. But what a way to go out and that would be one for the ages. The XBocalypse.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

[Insider Gaming] Microsoft Removes DLC Discounts For Xbox Game Pass Members, Will Get MS Rewards Points Instead
2 3
116
289
Unknown? replied
[Insider Gaming]Microsoft Preparing To Launch Free Xbox Cloud Gaming Service with Ads
Rumor  2
83
247
LarsQMorient replied
Microsoft Gaming Boss Phil Spencer Says Xbox Fans Will See More Movie and TV Show Adaptations
News 
1
584
Walter Matthau replied
Do you think we will see another revolution in console controller inputs that will change gaming?
2 3
144
3K
Unfortunatecookie replied
Microsoft: We are actively investing in our future first-party consoles and devices designed, engineered and built by Xbox.
4 5 6 7 8
351
352
KenaiPhoenix replied
Top Bottom