Microsoft looking to buy Japanese developer

[Jesse]

Microsoft Sets Sights on Sony’s Home Turf in Console Clash

In the battle of the next-generation gaming machines, two key players are moving in different directions.

www.bloomberg.com

This is a article from Bloomberg. Several Japan-based game developers, “from small to big”, indicated that they had been approached by Microsoft about buying their businesses.

The companies asked not to be identified as the talks were private, Bloomberg said, and declined to give details on how the discussions went.

Talking during E3 2019 Head of Xbox Phil Spencer admitted to GamesIndustry that the "spending spree" isn't over. The outlet said there "is no acquisition quota... to hit. Instead, the aim is to find developers that can add something different. "

"I think it would be nice if we found an Asian studio, in particular, a Japanese studio, to add to our studios. I liked it when we had some first-party capability in Japan. We have a small team there, but I think we can do more. That said, through our trips to Japan, I love having Phantasy Star back on our stage with Sega – I thought that was fantastic. Miyazaki-san, before with Dark Souls and now having Elden Ring on our stage... the Japanese creators have shown up more and more."


If Microsoft does buy a studio from Japan who do you think is a nice fit for them? Do they buy one or multiple? Who's a big studio they could buy? What about a small one or maybe a under the radar studio?

 

[Rydeen]

From Software would probably fit most with my image of the XBOX, but maybe Platinum, also. In all honesty, I would be a little annoyed by almost any Japanese studio being bought by MS, but if the games were also released on Windows, I guess it really doesn't make a huge difference for me. I just don't know that I like the idea of MS controlling the direction of a Japanese studio's output.

 

[Sonoshee]

Whether they acquire them or not, I think it's about time MS got Mistwalker back in the game.
They helped set up the studio financially back in the day and got two big AAA games out of it: Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey.
After that, the company released a couple of Wii-only games then moved to mobile gaming I believe.

If XSX got a Lost Odyssey sequel it'd be the driving force for me to go out and get one. Right now there's nothing.

 

[Thomasina]

Whether they acquire them or not, I think it's about time MS got Mistwalker back in the game.

That's a great one. I didn't play either game but I do think if MS wants to get back on track, they need to look back at the successes they had with the original XBOX and the early years of 360. Those systems did well and had strong libraries but MS kind of let it all fall apart by the end of 360.

It's always sad to see developers have to resort to mobile games. Maybe they make decent money doing it, I don't know...

 

[danielmann861]

SEGA rumors persist. I'll believe it when it happens. Although, SEGA just sold off their arcade ownership (meaning Club Sega in Japan) due to the pandemic hurting their profits. I don't know, it would be interesting if MS bought SEGA and if the long standing rumor came true.

 

[Mittens2317]

It'd be bad for PlayStation and Nintendo players if MS bought SEGA. I mean, how are they gonna get their hands on a Mega Drive classics collection when they're Xbox exclusive?

 

[danielmann861]

It'd be bad for PlayStation and Nintendo players if MS bought SEGA. I mean, how are they gonna get their hands on a Mega Drive classics collection when they're Xbox exclusive?

I don't necessarily want it to happen, but I still could see it happening. If it did happen, it would depend on whether MS was willing to play nice and let them port stuff wherever they want. That's the tricky thing with MS. They've been letting some stuff go to Switch. Could simply be a deal of "we will allow you to send it wherever you want, we make money anyways"

But again, who knows what will happen? I don't necessarily want it to happen. But if it did happen, would that mean we could get some proper financing to get something like a new Virtua Fighter with Microsoft money behind it? It could have its advantages. It could also be bad for SEGA...who knows?

But again, will wait and see if anything ever comes of that long standing rumor.

 

[xatruio]

One nice thing I'm grateful for will be MS allowing Psychonauts 2 to remain on PS4

 

[Sonoshee]

One nice thing I'm grateful for will be MS allowing Psychonauts 2 to remain on PS4

Could you imagine the uproar if they didn't

 

[Tosh]

I really never had anything against Xbox or Phil Spencer but to me this whole
"uuuhhm we dont have that many first party studios, how about we jusk ask around and see what we can buy"
approach is kinda bs. Playstation has its exclusive titles like God of War or Ghost of Tsushima or Last of Us
and it makes sense because these studios always worked for / with Sony.
Shenmue 3 PS console exclusive? Because Sony were the only ones who offered a helping hand.
Nioh PS console exclusive? Because Sony offered Koei Tecmo to publish it for them worldwide
so it can reach way more people.
All the other stuff is just time exclusive, like the COD online stuff or the 3 - 12 months time exclusives.
Eventually it will be available on more consoles / PC. Sony doesnt buy Capcom
and suddenly every Monster Hunter and Resident Evil game is Playstation exclusive.

Microsoft is omega rich but their own exclusive studio output is really not that great.
So their approach now is to open their bank safes and look who wants to take a look inside.
Now they have Zenimax / Bethesda and all their studios as a first step and suddenly
its a real possibility that the next Elder Scrolls or Fallout game will be 100% Xbox and PC exclusive.
Whoooooops. Well there we have our big exclusive titles, wow.
Hey do you remember the Starfield announcement from 2018, we forgot to mention that its not coming to PS.
Just open your 100 billion dollar bank safe and buy some stuff. 7,5 billions, thats peanuts.
I guess Playstation users have to buy our products now
because we own whole IP's that were available on PS, "hehe" *winky face*

So whats next, is it Sega? Oh sorry Playstation users, thanks for supporting and saving series like Yakuza
for at least 11 years but Yakuza 8 will be Xbox / PC exclusive because we own the IPs. Whoooooops.
And then all this typical PR talk like "Oh we just want to make products for as much gamers as possible,
its great to have these studios on board now and i think everyone will benefit from this."
Mhhhm, yeah sure. Its great to buy existing multiplatform IPs and studios just to be able to block Playstation users off
because thats the only way to get them. This all happened completely unsolicited, all the staff is really happy.

And last but not least the interview stuff.
"Phil Spencer says Microsoft / Xbox is still looking for new exclusive studios",
"Phil Spencer says they dont have any plans to buy new studios at the moment",
"Phil Spencer says they are looking to get into the japanese market by buying japanese studios",
"Phil Spencer says he doesnt know anything about plans to buy japanese studios at the moment"

... "well, we have our own great japanese studio now, Tango Gameworks",
you know, the studio that came with the whole Zenimax deal, its ours now. Pretty cool.

I feel like every 14 days there is a new Phil Spencer interview where he answers the same questions
but his answers are changing every time. We are not talking about clear answers,
hes pretty much just repeating "we will have to wait and see hehe" in different ways.

I dont know man, is this called professional? I really dont know why i should support any of that.

 

[Creward]

I really never had anything against Xbox or Phil Spencer but to me this whole
"uuuhhm we dont have that many first party studios, how about we jusk ask around and see what we can buy"
approach is kinda bs. Playstation has its exclusive titles like God of War or Ghost of Tsushima or Last of Us

You know Naughty dog was an independentstudio until Sony bought them in 2001 and sucker punch at 2011. So buying studios is normal for major publishers.

Now they have Zenimax / Bethesda and all their studios as a first step and suddenly
its a real possibility that the next Elder Scrolls or Fallout game will be 100% Xbox and PC exclusive.
Whoooooops. Well there we have our big exclusive titles, wow.
Hey do you remember the Starfield announcement from 2018, we forgot to mention that its not coming to PS.
Just open your 100 billion dollar bank safe and buy some stuff. 7,5 billions, thats peanuts.
I guess Playstation users have to buy our products now
because we own whole IP's that were available on PS, "hehe" *winky face*

Not exactly the same but people having to move platform to follow franchises has happened in the past so there are precedents. Like Final fantasy being a Nintendo jrpg flagship to a sony flagship with the Snes to psx generation.

 

[Sonoshee]

I personally dislike Phil Spencer. Somehow he gets rated above Mattrick.
Look at the output of solid games on the 360 during Mattrick's tenure and then take a look at those on the One while Spencer's been in charge.
The tech is great but the games are just... eh. What good is the tech without the solid games to back it up. No disrespect to the developers, but the Xbox marketplace is oversaturated with indie titles like 2D dungeon crawlers. How is that taking advantage of todays tech?

 

[Tosh]

You know Naughty dog was an independentstudio until Sony bought them in 2001 and sucker punch at 2011. So buying studios is normal for major publishers.



Not exactly the same but people having to move platform to follow franchises has happened in the past so there are precedents. Like Final fantasy being a Nintendo jrpg flagship to a sony flagship with the Snes to psx generation.

Sony didnt buy Naughty Dog after they already released like 3 multiplatform Uncharted games
or 2 years after they announced a new game and then suddenly made it all PS platform exclusive.
All of this 100% exclusive stuff are new IPs or IPs that were never available somewhere else.
The rest is time exclusive, not 100% exclusive.
Sony didnt buy FromSoft and made all of their games PS exclusive,
they paid FromSoft to make a PS exclusive, Bloodborne.
Final Fantasy is not a Playstation exclusive, FF7R will be available on other platforms in April 2021
and FF16 is a PS5 time exclusive. Sony didnt buy Square Enix and then made all games 100% PS exclusive.

What Microsoft is doing (or it seems like) is simply buying whole packages of already
and well known existing multiplatform stuff
like Elder Scrolls or Fallout, series that dont just exist because of Microsoft, or already announced stuff
and then blocking off PS users completely so Xbox is able to say that they have big exclusive titles now.
That is not the same thing if you ask me.
So how can Microsoft claim that this is a great step for gamers and that they just want to reach more players
but in reality they block off a whole main platform.
In the meantime all the PS time exclusive stuff will be available on other platforms eventually,
so people just have to wait, and the 100% exclusive stuff are new IPs or they never were on other platforms.
So how is Microsoft the good guy in this scenario?

 

[Creward]

So how is Microsoft the good guy in this scenario?

In capitalism there is no good or bad guy. I just pointed precedent of buying studios and their IPs, it happens.

If you dislike, it is understandable, but it is technically the same just in a bigger scale since it seems they want to get rid the famous "xbox has no games" meme that sony fans swayed during the previous generation and it is their response to that.

I just find amusing how the sony hardcore fans on places like reddit went from the xbox games to Microsoft is unfair when they are kinda the cause of awakening this monster.

And just in case you think I am a xbox fan, I am mostly a PC player (I have a ps4 for yakuzas and persona but I would rather have all on pc) since I got burned during the xbox360/ps3 generation and lack of vision during that gen, losing my xbox arcade games (guardian heroes, perfect dark remaster and banjo remaster) made me sway away to platforms that can not think about the future and how to preserve games between generations.

The loss of guardian heroes really haunts me even today .

 

[Jesse]

I would like to know what studios Microsoft approached about buying.