Microsoft looking to buy Japanese studios

[JaegerDice]

Microsoft Looking To Buy Out Big & Small Japanese Studios For Xbox

I don't think the Japanese market itself is that valuable. Even Sony seems to be moving away from it after the PS4 sold LESS in Japan than the PS3. Last year the Switch made up something like 89% of all new consoles sold.

So I don't think this play, if true, is in the interest of getting Japanese gamers interested, so much as getting more cache and variety under the Xbox Game Studios umbrella, cause right now it skews very western and more specifically, very born-out-of-PC-game-development. Which isn't a bad thing, it's just a very different flavor to traditional japanese games development. So it's something they can use to continue to build their audience and build up gamepass around the world, not just Japan.

Personally, I think the best bet for Microsoft is buying the gaming IP from Konami. Not the people or the technology necessarily, just purely ownership and right to use the IP.

From there, give Konami whatever they want for their IP catalogue. Make a deal with them to license it back to them on a sweetheart deal if they really want to keep making Pachinko machines.

Metal Gear - This is pretty simple. Sign up Kojima’s new studio to make a new, exclusive Metal Gear and tell him he can do whatever he wants, so long as it’s NOTHING like Death Stranding. Good lord that game sucked.

PT/Silent Hill - Likewise, just give Kojima what he wants to make this stupid game, as an Xbox exclusive, so I never have to hear about people obsessing over a damn game demo ever again.

Castlevania - Hire From Software to put their spin on it, but make sure all the people involved with art, world building, environmental storytelling, narrative and boss design work on this. Tell him they can still make it punishing, but players need to have mobility and no stamina bar.

Contra - Hire Platinum Games. Bring in a copy of Vanquish, point at the box and say ‘do this, but do it after watching every Arnold Schwarzenegger movie. Specifically Commando and Predator. And make it two players. Make sure there’s a spread gun.’

GuitarFreaks - Call Harmonix.

Gradius - I don’t know, find a great indie dev if you want to keep it classic 2D, otherwise pick an internal studio that has some experience with 3D flight to create the next great Colony Wars-esque game

Suikoden - Oh Obsidian! He have a new project for yoooooouuuu!

All of the devs I listed are currently independent. You give them enough money, you can get it done.

Click to read more...

 

[S E P H]

As we've seen with Facebook and Google, I wonder if Microsoft buying all these companies which reduces competition will lead to anti-trust rules being broken?

 

[JaegerDice]

As we've seen with Facebook and Google, I wonder if Microsoft buying all these companies which reduces competition will lead to anti-trust rules being broken?

It will be interesting to see.

I think it will be a tough case to make if PS5 sells even or better to the Xbox Series X though.

Judge: So you feel you're at a disadvantage, even though you're winning by your own metrics? Are you using my courtroom to humble brag?

 

[Shareefruck]

Metal Gear - This is pretty simple. Sign up Kojima’s new studio to make a new, exclusive Metal Gear and tell him he can do whatever he wants, so long as it’s NOTHING like Death Stranding. Good lord that game sucked.

That alone sounds like a pretty restrictive and exec-meddling approach (not much different from what drove them out of Konami in the first place), and anything but giving creative freedom, IMO.

 

[JaegerDice]

That alone sounds like a pretty restrictive and exec-meddling approach (not much different from what drove them out of Konami in the first place), and anything but giving creative freedom, IMO.

I don't think 'don't make bad games' is particularly overbearing.

 

[aleshemsky83]

Enough of metal gear. It's dead. It went like 3 games longer than it should have tbh. 3 should have been the end.

If Microsoft is going after a Japanese studio to get japan, that would be a horrible idea. They already had a semi exclusivity with Sega with the original Xbox and it did nothing for them. They made great games but more people in Japan bought the Xbox for Tetris than Sega.

If that just want good games, that's another story.

Also on a sidenote, for Suikoden, the original devs are already kickstarting a spiritual successor. I see the call a lot for the Suikoden sequel, even from people that already know about the Kickstarter. Don't understand the overattachment to the brand or even to a degree characters. I still see people call for the Banjo Kazooie 3. There is a banjo kazooie 3, it's yooka yaylee, you probably didn't like it that much.

 

[chicagoskycam]

As we've seen with Facebook and Google, I wonder if Microsoft buying all these companies which reduces competition will lead to anti-trust rules being broken?

pfft, antitrust... there are a ton of game developers with the big three having their own studios as well. That's like MSFT stating now PS exclusives are anti-competitive. I just don't think gaming falls anywhere near that category. You would have to prove one completely diminished options for the others and Infinity Ward, EA... they make money selling to all. Plus most of the MSFT games are available via PC and they pushed cross-platform more than anyone.

They also have not been getting much out of these purchases. The last good one was Bungie, which they spun off. What they need is their own game studio to actually put a good game or two a year. That's a start.

 

[Mikeaveli]

All I will say is that I am much happier with Microsoft buying up studios than Sony.

 

[Tonneau]

Can Microsoft stop buying studios and get the ones they already bought to actually make good games for once?

 

[K Fleur]

I’m always down for another Kojima Metal Gear game. Hell I’d be down with him just being able to finish what he wanted to do with MGSV.

 

[GirardSpinorama]

It's a great idea as a Microsoft share holder but sucky as a ps fan boy. I'm conflicted.

 

[Shareefruck]

I don't think 'don't make bad games' is particularly overbearing.

Saying "You can do anything you want, as long as it's to my tastes" is pretty overbearing and not giving someone many options at all, IMO. Plenty of people like and respect Death Stranding, and it was a pretty reasonable commercial success.

 

[Mikeaveli]

I actually would like to see them purchase Sega. Having Persona 6 on PC day 1 would be incredible.

As a side note, I find it hilarious how Playstation fanboys always love to point out how Xbox has "no games", and now that Microsoft is actually doing something about it those same people are just losing their minds lmao

 

[Knave]

I actually would like to see them purchase Sega. Having Persona 6 on PC day 1 would be incredible.

As a side note, I find it hilarious how Playstation fanboys always love to point out how Xbox has "no games", and now that Microsoft is actually doing something about it those same people are just losing their minds lmao

I thought it was funny to see people get salty about Xbox buying studios and not just "making their own first party games" as if Sony didn't buy a whole bunch of studios over the past 2 decades that make "first party" games. Re-writing history as if Sony organically grew from within to build their line-up and Xbox is the big bad for buying studios (which again - is exactly what Sony did).

I'm not a fan of either doing it or console exclusives in general but the amount of hypocrisy from one group in particular is always fun to read.

As for the topic - I don't really see it right now. I would imagine Xbox and any major company is always involved in talks to acquire things but most fizzle out.

 

[RandV]

Also on a sidenote, for Suikoden, the original devs are already kickstarting a spiritual successor. I see the call a lot for the Suikoden sequel, even from people that already know about the Kickstarter. Don't understand the overattachment to the brand or even to a degree characters. I still see people call for the Banjo Kazooie 3. There is a banjo kazooie 3, it's yooka yaylee, you probably didn't like it that much.

I didn't know about the kickstarter so will definitely be all in on that, but MS resurecting the Suikoden series might be the one thing to convince me to be an Xbox... although I probably wouldn't need to as I'd imagine they'd release on PC.

While Final Fantasy gets all the recognition as a life long JRPG fan Suikoden was always my favourite series. It's not completely accurate and way to overused but the simplest way to describe it is it's the 'Game of Thrones' of JRPG's. In the typical JRPG you're a small party that travels the globe to save the world, but each Suikoden games is localized to a region resolving around war within or between nations.

Why fans would want to see the series continue is while each game is its own entry and can be played separately, there's a continuous underlying array of lore/setting/characters that builds from one game to the next. It's a series that could be built up tying everything together into a grand conclusion. A new kickstarter game from the original creators sounds great but you're losing what's already been built.

Though while it sucks the series has been lost the Trails series on Steam really fills the niche. Albeit with a bit of extra weeboism as the series progresses which knocks it down a peg for me, but nothing too bad.

 

[x Tame Impala]

Doesn't it come down to the studios themselves agreeing to be console-exclusive? As an Xbox guy who hasn't been able to play Spiderman or a single baseball game since like 204, i don't like the amount of exclusives between consoles. Microsoft buying up a bunch of these studios doesn't make me feel better, just reminds me how much it sucks to miss out on a game because you gave your $500 to the wrong gaming company.

 

[chicagoskycam]

It's a great idea as a Microsoft share holder but sucky as a ps fan boy. I'm conflicted.

It's only good as a shareholder if they produce successful content, otherwise, it's the opposite.

 

[RandV]

I thought it was funny to see people get salty about Xbox buying studios and not just "making their own first party games" as if Sony didn't buy a whole bunch of studios over the past 2 decades that make "first party" games. Re-writing history as if Sony organically grew from within to build their line-up and Xbox is the big bad for buying studios (which again - is exactly what Sony did).

I'm not a fan of either doing it or console exclusives in general but the amount of hypocrisy from one group in particular is always fun to read.

As for the topic - I don't really see it right now. I would imagine Xbox and any major company is always involved in talks to acquire things but most fizzle out.

It kind of depends on how they use the studios. The benefit of a console exclusive is as it's made to sell the console they can focus more on making the best game possible, where as your typical game from one of the big cross-platform publishers are looking to make the most money possible even if it pushes flaws into the game.

So the question when the console maker starts swinging money around: are they funding development for games to be made the good way, or are they simply throwing money around at already existing games/developers to lock people on other platforms out. For example Bayonetta 2 was dead in the water when Nintendo bought the studio and funded them, that's a good buyout. While on the other end Epic Games right now is the poster boy for bad exclusivity buyouts. Albeit for digital retail, not game development, but same effect.

In regards to Sony I'm not really up on the history of how they got their, but extending back through the last two generations I think it's safe to say after falling behind initially with the PS3 they did a solid job funding their exclusive games to the benefit of their users. Microsoft on the other hand since building a big lead with the Xbox 360 has been rather lacklustre in comparison at funding games in house. If they're going to start buying up more developers it remains to be seen if they invest in them for the better like Sony did, or if they're just buying exclusivity for themselves like Epic Games is doing.

 

[Rhaegar Targaryen]

I thought it was funny to see people get salty about Xbox buying studios and not just "making their own first party games" as if Sony didn't buy a whole bunch of studios over the past 2 decades that make "first party" games. Re-writing history as if Sony organically grew from within to build their line-up and Xbox is the big bad for buying studios (which again - is exactly what Sony did).

I'm not a fan of either doing it or console exclusives in general but the amount of hypocrisy from one group in particular is always fun to read.

As for the topic - I don't really see it right now. I would imagine Xbox and any major company is always involved in talks to acquire things but most fizzle out.

As an Xbox gamer, I'm not sure how I feel about future console exclusivity. I think Sony has gone a little crazy/greedy with the console exclusivity. I'm not sure if it really benefits your player-base as much as it just hurts the other side of gamers. I have a lot of friends that like Sony and either have/want the PS5, and while I'd hate for them to miss out on cool titles, it might be in Microsoft's best interest to hit Sony hard by making a game like Starfield or Elder Scrolls as a Microsoft exclusive.

I don't see why Xbox won't do it, at least with one of the big Bethesda titles. Xbox isn't too concerned about game sale dollars, hence why they'll spend tons developing a game, then throwing it on Gamepass day 1 (which they allow you to stack to get 3 years for $1). If they make Elder Scrolls an exclusive, it could open the door to Sony calming down a little.

 

[aleshemsky83]

I thought it was funny to see people get salty about Xbox buying studios and not just "making their own first party games" as if Sony didn't buy a whole bunch of studios over the past 2 decades that make "first party" games. Re-writing history as if Sony organically grew from within to build their line-up and Xbox is the big bad for buying studios (which again - is exactly what Sony did).

I'm not a fan of either doing it or console exclusives in general but the amount of hypocrisy from one group in particular is always fun to read.

As for the topic - I don't really see it right now. I would imagine Xbox and any major company is always involved in talks to acquire things but most fizzle out.

I dont necessarily have an issue with console exclusives. Theyre a big motivator to make games that break new grounds and push hardware to the limit. Just looking back at FF7R (likely a timed exclusive), Horizon, Spiderman, Uncharted 4, Last of Us 2, Ghost of Tshushima and on the flipside Gears 4, and 5 and Forza Horizon, those are mindblowing experiences that even on insanely underpowered base consoles I can honestly say keep up with Demon Souls on PS5 visually (which I'm playing right now and is great).

Speaking of Souls games, they dont even exist without Sony exclusivity. Demon Souls was an exclusive that made Dark Souls possible and so was Bloodborne, which updated the engine for Dark Souls 3.

Exclusive games push innovation.

 

[syz]

They should probably learn to tell Asia from a hole in the ground before they go throwing away money. Maybe try getting very not-exclusive stuff on their platform first. Genshin Impact is out here making a billion dollars a day on every platform that isn't theirs.

Honestly buying exclusivity wouldn't move the needle for them, though. It'd just make that market hate them even more. I'd hate to lose Atlus and Vanillaware if MS bought Sega, but I'm not buying an Xbox to play those games, and the people who do own an Xbox wouldn't buy them. They'd have to release them on other platforms for them to be profitable.

 

[Mikeaveli]

They should probably learn to tell Asia from a hole in the ground before they go throwing away money. Maybe try getting very not-exclusive stuff on their platform first. Genshin Impact is out here making a billion dollars a day on every platform that isn't theirs.

Honestly buying exclusivity wouldn't move the needle for them, though. It'd just make that market hate them even more. I'd hate to lose Atlus and Vanillaware if MS bought Sega, but I'm not buying an Xbox to play those games, and the people who do own an Xbox wouldn't buy them. They'd have to release them on other platforms for them to be profitable.

Microsoft is releasing all their games on PC from now on so you wouldn't need to buy an Xbox to play them. That is something i would love to see Sony adopt as well. I would certainly buy a lot more of their games if they were on PC and I don't think I'm alone there. I can understand keeping games off your competitor's platform but PC is such a massive and open market that it doesn't really make sense to not release your games on there unless you are a publisher getting paid a ton for an exclusivity deal.

 

[RandV]

Microsoft is releasing all their games on PC from now on so you wouldn't need to buy an Xbox to play them. That is something i would love to see Sony adopt as well. I would certainly buy a lot more of their games if they were on PC and I don't think I'm alone there. I can understand keeping games off your competitor's platform but PC is such a massive and open market that it doesn't really make sense to not release your games on there unless you are a publisher getting paid a ton for an exclusivity deal.

To be fair between Microsoft and Sony, Nintendo too for that matter, any XBox games released to PC will be played on Microsoft Windows. MS doesn't get the same cut if the sell a game for Steam vs Xbox, but I'd have to imagine PC gaming's reliance on Windows plays a significant factor in the personal use Windows market.

 

[Mikeaveli]

To be fair between Microsoft and Sony, Nintendo too for that matter, any XBox games released to PC will be played on Microsoft Windows. MS doesn't get the same cut if the sell a game for Steam vs Xbox, but I'd have to imagine PC gaming's reliance on Windows plays a significant factor in the personal use Windows market.

I look at it this way. The average PC gamer that buys a console is not going to provide the console manufacturer the same revenue stream as the average console gamer. They are much less likely to purchase multiplatform games on that console and they also are less likely to subscribe to PS Plus/Xbox Live because PC gaming already offers free online play. So why not just offer the games on PC? And due to the open nature of the PC, Sony does not have to sell games through Steam. They could launch the PlayStation Store on PC and make the same amount of money on game sales as they do on console. I really don't see why the operating system matters. I think Microsoft just realized that the PC was an untapped market for them, especially considering the relatively low market share Xbox has in the console space.

 

[RandV]

I look at it this way. The average PC gamer that buys a console is not going to provide the console manufacturer the same revenue stream as the average console gamer. They are much less likely to purchase multiplatform games on that console and they also are less likely to subscribe to PS Plus/Xbox Live because PC gaming already offers free online play. So why not just offer the games on PC? And due to the open nature of the PC, Sony does not have to sell games through Steam. They could launch the PlayStation Store on PC and make the same amount of money on game sales as they do on console. I really don't see why the operating system matters. I think Microsoft just realized that the PC was an untapped market for them, especially considering the relatively low market share Xbox has in the console space.

Personally I have no idea, on this discussion board it's all basically peanut gallery economic theory. Though while it seems to come up often as a fallacy in hockey discussion, this is an area where I assume an appeal to authority works. Sony isn't going to not want to make more money, and they're going to employ teams of people educated in finance, economics, marketing, etc, to figure out the best way to make the company the most money. Sometimes this doesn't work as it could just be a stubborn CEO calling the shots on it, but I'd be fairly certain people at Sony would have looked into the idea of putting their exclusives on Steam crunched the numbers and decided it wasn't in their best interest to do so.

One angle to look at it is if a person doesn't have to own a PS to play God of War because they can just get it on PC then they also don't need it for Assassins Creed or Call of Duty or whatever and Sony loses royalties on those cross platform sales. Microsoft decided they could make it work putting Xbox games on PC, but again those are games that will still be played on MS Windows and that's a piece of the equation that Sony or Nintendo doesn't have.