Microsoft might be purchasing EA, Valve, PUBG

[Warden of the North]

Well, this could help their first party Xbox problems. Lots of media discussing this, heres the original report

Valve doesnt make much sense and I cant see that happening, but EA and PUBG do

The Xbox One has a serious exclusive games problem

Some of the names being thrown around as possible acquisitions by Microsoft are, frankly, astounding, even unthinkable. But the fact that they are doing the rounds is instructive. The most recent one we heard (from a reliable source close to Microsoft) was, in fact, Electronic Arts. We also heard a whisper about Valve and about Korean outfit PUBG Corp., which Microsoft last year signed to a timed exclusive for its hit survival shooter, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds.
“Because of where we are in the lifecycle of all these things, I’m expecting to hear Microsoft announce something very, very shortly,” said van Dreunen

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[SpookyTsuki]

i doubt valve would do it. I don’t see how Microsoft would buy ea when ea wants to buy everything

Pubg. Probably. But down the road nobody will care

 

[Dugray]

Seems unlikely.

 

[542365]

Valve seems almost impossible. They print money with Steam. How much would Microsoft have to pay to get them to sell?

 

[Commander Clueless]

Buying EA or Valve seems unlikely, but not impossible. EA would be the more likely of the two, considering the deal they already have and I assume it would be easier to integrate Origin than Steam. Valve isn't really even a game developer so much these days.

I would think Microsoft would be better suited picking up a few big name or up-and-coming developers rather than targeting the mega corps.

 

[aleshemsky83]

Microsoft and valves customer support merging, that's like if Hitler and Satan had a baby.

 

[RandV]

Valve's a privately held corporation that prints money, and barely develops any games. If their problem is a lack of exclusives then how the hell does dumping billions into purchasing Valve help them?

Unless it's some sort of exclusive console licensing deal for Valve's games... though I think that would highlight Microsofts problem here. Rather than spend money to actually you know, develop exclusive titles, they're more prone to dump money into purchasing existing properties or timed exclusive rights. And I've always thought that this was a rather shitty practice from a consumer perspective: 'rather than spend money we made off you in developing new games we're going to spend it paying off existing devs to make sure people who bought the other console can't play their games'.

 

[Bjorn Le]

Valve makes sense as a business decision, and I could see it. EA only makes sense if Microsoft is going to get out of the first party game (or if they planned on ripping EA up, taking major studios like Bioware as first party and keeping EA Sports and DICE as third party). PUBG is much much smaller and would be more similar to the Minecraft purchase.

EA is the least likely by far. They have a market cap over almost $40 billion (so the acquisition price would likely be at least that), which while easily affordable for Microsoft, I’m not sure if it’s in their best interest.

Not really sure you guys think Valve makes no sense. That assumes the report is correct about Microsof’s motives. As a business decision, Valve is far and away the best one. Valve allows them to enter the lucrative digital sales market on a massive scale, and probably provides significant expertise to their console based digital sales. It also gives them properties like Team Fortress, Counter Strike and yes even Half Life, which is nothing to scoff about.

 

[Commander Clueless]

If Microsoft can snipe studios from EA, such as BioWare or DICE, that might be the best situation for them. Far more likely is some sort of exclusive partnership with EA on certain games, as the two are already somewhat buddy-buddy.

The reason I think Valve makes no sense is because they don't really develop games anymore. If this is a PC gaming focused move, then it makes a ton of sense if they can convince them to sell. As a console focused move, sure it gives them some really good IPs, but at an undoubtedly very high price.

I think in either case, and exclusive partnership with either company is more likely. If Microsoft is looking to expand their first party developer team, there are likely better and more economical options.


Just my speculation, though.

Side note, but Microsoft taking over Steam would be...frightening.

 

[KingBran]

i doubt valve would do it. I don’t see how Microsoft would buy ea when ea wants to buy everything

Pubg. Probably. But down the road nobody will care

People said the same thing about Minecraft and its been a goldmine for Microsoft. PUBG is selling like crazy on not just PC but Xbox as well.

 

[SpookyTsuki]

People said the same thing about Minecraft and its been a goldmine for Microsoft. PUBG is selling like crazy on not just PC but Xbox as well.

More people will make battle royale games and PUBG will be pretty terrible in comparison and the population will die. Only way it survives is if they stop being dumb and do things proper.

Edit: Think you meant people thought Minecraft would die once got by Microsoft Yeah those guys are dumb or were just joking

Only way Valve is sold to Microsoft is if gabe gets super drunk for a whole week.

Ea. Wouldn’t surprise me. I’d actually be for that one as well considering EAs tactics are probably the worst in the industry

 

[KingBran]

More people will make battle royale games and PUBG will be pretty terrible in comparison and the population will die. Only way it survives is if they stop being dumb and do things proper.

Edit: Think you meant people thought Minecraft would die once got by Microsoft Yeah those guys are dumb or were just joking

Only way Valve is sold to Microsoft is if gabe gets super drunk for a whole week.

Ea. Wouldn’t surprise me. I’d actually be for that one as well considering EAs tactics are probably the worst in the industry

No doubt better BR games will come out but there have been tons of Minecraft clones as well. Every game that gets popular and is "new" gets a bunch of copy cats.

No, I didn't mean people thought Minecraft would die, lots of people said the game was played out and like you said about pubg down the road nobody would care. Well its still HUGE.

 

[Rodgerwilco]

It would be awesome to see Microsoft purchase EA and run them into the ground the way that EA has run so many others into the ground.

 

[Bjorn Le]

If Microsoft can snipe studios from EA, such as BioWare or DICE, that might be the best situation for them. Far more likely is some sort of exclusive partnership with EA on certain games, as the two are already somewhat buddy-buddy.

The reason I think Valve makes no sense is because they don't really develop games anymore. If this is a PC gaming focused move, then it makes a ton of sense if they can convince them to sell. As a console focused move, sure it gives them some really good IPs, but at an undoubtedly very high price.

I think in either case, and exclusive partnership with either company is more likely. If Microsoft is looking to expand their first party developer team, there are likely better and more economical options.


Just my speculation, though.

Side note, but Microsoft taking over Steam would be...frightening.

I don't see EA doing anything like an exclusive partnership. They play all sides, and this current generation have had lots of marketing and exclusivity deals with Sony. It makes no business sense for EA to partner with a manufacturer to develop true exclusives. And it doesn't make sense for Microsoft to pay exorbitant fees to do so. My guess would be a purchase of EA would entail at least double their market capitalization, so around $80 billion.

Valve makes no sense if the motive is to gain a new developer. But it makes all the sense in the world for Microsoft in general. And to be honest, I can see Valve selling by 2030. Newell isn't getting any younger, and selling to Microsoft likely gets him hundreds of millions in MS stock options, a very cushy job at the company (likely retains his position as head of Valve), and literally billions of dollars. He's also a former employee of Microsoft. Since Valve is privately held, I can only spitball a guess of how much the company is worth. But they own a majority of the digital PC sales market, so I could sale a sale price above $10 billion easily. Newell doesn't have anything left to achieve, and of the companies in a position to buy Valve, Microsoft has the most to gain and would be able to do it easiest.

I don't generally buy the premise that MS has to do something with Xbox. It would be nice to have more exclusives but it's not a necessary business decision, in my mind. I do agree that it would be more likely for MS to buy studios from EA than to buy EA. Way too much money for these purposes to buy them outright.

It would be awesome to see Microsoft purchase EA and run them into the ground the way that EA has run so many others into the ground.

Microsoft is one company that could fix EA's bad practices.​

 

[Commander Clueless]

I don't see EA doing anything like an exclusive partnership. They play all sides, and this current generation have had lots of marketing and exclusivity deals with Sony. It makes no business sense for EA to partner with a manufacturer to develop true exclusives. And it doesn't make sense for Microsoft to pay exorbitant fees to do so. My guess would be a purchase of EA would entail at least double their market capitalization, so around $80 billion.

Valve makes no sense if the motive is to gain a new developer. But it makes all the sense in the world for Microsoft in general. And to be honest, I can see Valve selling by 2030. Newell isn't getting any younger, and selling to Microsoft likely gets him hundreds of millions in MS stock options, a very cushy job at the company (likely retains his position as head of Valve), and literally billions of dollars. He's also a former employee of Microsoft. Since Valve is privately held, I can only spitball a guess of how much the company is worth. But they own a majority of the digital PC sales market, so I could sale a sale price above $10 billion easily. Newell doesn't have anything left to achieve, and of the companies in a position to buy Valve, Microsoft has the most to gain and would be able to do it easiest.

I don't generally buy the premise that MS has to do something with Xbox. It would be nice to have more exclusives but it's not a necessary business decision, in my mind. I do agree that it would be more likely for MS to buy studios from EA than to buy EA. Way too much money for these purposes to buy them outright.

All very good points.

Microsoft does seem to be going towards a PC/console gaming amalgamation of sorts with the Play Anywhere stuff, which so far seems highly advantageous (minus the annoyances of them insisting on UWP and the desperately-in-need-of-work Windows 10 store), so it's certainly possible.

Credit where it's due, I think Microsoft is going in some very good directions with improved and value hardware in the One S and One X implementations, as well as this new Game Pass service. They main thing they are having trouble with right now is keeping up with Sony's first party games.

 

[theotis77]

Credit where it's due, I think Microsoft is going in some very good directions with improved and value hardware in the One S and One X implementations, as well as this new Game Pass service. They main thing they are having trouble with right now is keeping up with Sony's first party games.

Sony learned the lesson last generation: Doesn't matter how good your hardware is, if you're not getting any good or interesting games. And once you're behind, it gets harder and harder to attract exclusives.

Sony doubled down this gen on getting high-quality, unique exclusives. Microsoft mostly coasted into this gen on weakening franchises like Halo and Gears of War. It'll probably flip again next generation.

 

[guinness]

MS needs to do something, don't think EA is it, and Valve is more a store, than developer.

Could see them buying PUBG, but what happens when the next hit comes along? As mentioned previously, Sony has been exclusives, I haven't turned on my Xbone in a couple months, Forza is great, but it's not enough to buy into a system.

 

[KingBran]

MS needs to do something, don't think EA is it, and Valve is more a store, than developer.

Could see them buying PUBG, but what happens when the next hit comes along? As mentioned previously, Sony has been exclusives, I haven't turned on my Xbone in a couple months, Forza is great, but it's not enough to buy into a system.

To each their own I only have a PS4 to play Uncharted games. Ended up getting Horizon and that was fun. Will probably get God of War but I haven't turned on my PS4 since about a week after Skyrim VR came out. It was really fun and I thought I would play it a lot more but I keep going back to my PC and Xbox.

MS definitely needs some new exclusives. I don't understand this argument that Sony has all these "better" ones though. They are still hanging on their exclusives just like MS is. I think people pump the PS exclusives because they are just more popular and more people own a PS4. Just like last gen it was all about Halo and Gears of War, this gen is all about what Sony is doing.

I think the biggest thing is that MS shot themselves in the foot when they first announced the Xbox One and people heard about all the DRM the games would have. I had so many friends swear off Xbox and some of them still haven't got one. That news was HUGE back in the day. MS changed their tune but it wasn't enough. I think it sucks because what MS was actually trying to accomplish was pretty great. They were going to make it more like Steam with tons of sales all the time and cheaper games but people just balked at the DRM comments and not being able to trade in games. Which for consoles turns out - is a really big deal to people.

Just my $0.02

 

[syz]

In terms of "console exclusives" Sony is miles ahead of Microsoft. No real debate there unless you're living under a rock. Throw in the PC and Sony's still ahead, just not by as much.

Dunno how reasonable any of these purchases sound, TBH. EA's cash cow franchises are licensed sports games and the owners of those licenses would have zero interest in their products only being available on the lowest populated machine on the market. The NFL wants Madden to sell, exclusivity limits the ability for that to happen. Valve is... what games is Valve going to make, again? Do they even have a writer left on staff? And yea, Microsoft getting control of Steam wouldn't be good for anybody. We need more competition, not less.

I guess if Anthem sucks EA would gladly sell them Bioware, but at that point Bioware's dead anyways.

Sony learned the lesson last generation: Doesn't matter how good your hardware is, if you're not getting any good or interesting games. And once you're behind, it gets harder and harder to attract exclusives.

Sony doubled down this gen on getting high-quality, unique exclusives. Microsoft mostly coasted into this gen on weakening franchises like Halo and Gears of War. It'll probably flip again next generation.

Although if this whole transition into iterative consoles happens Microsoft might not get that reset button this time. It's possible that they f***ed up at the worst possible time. If backwards compatibility issues rightfully become a thing of the past from now on, then people who have been stockpiling third-party releases on PS4 so far this generation would feel that much less of an incentive to switch as time goes on, which could mean that the Xbox would have to carve out a Nintendo-like niche as a thing people play for some really good exclusives, but... they've never really had draws like that outside of Halo and Gears.

 

[Bjorn Le]

In terms of "console exclusives" Sony is miles ahead of Microsoft. No real debate there unless you're living under a rock. Throw in the PC and Sony's still ahead, just not by as much.

Dunno how reasonable any of these purchases sound, TBH. EA's cash cow franchises are licensed sports games and the owners of those licenses would have zero interest in their products only being available on the lowest populated machine on the market. The NFL wants Madden to sell, exclusivity limits the ability for that to happen. Valve is... what games is Valve going to make, again? Do they even have a writer left on staff? And yea, Microsoft getting control of Steam wouldn't be good for anybody. We need more competition, not less.

I guess if Anthem sucks EA would gladly sell them Bioware, but at that point Bioware's dead anyways.



Although if this whole transition into iterative consoles happens Microsoft might not get that reset button this time. It's possible that they ****ed up at the worst possible time. If backwards compatibility issues rightfully become a thing of the past from now on, then people who have been stockpiling third-party releases on PS4 so far this generation would feel that much less of an incentive to switch as time goes on, which could mean that the Xbox would have to carve out a Nintendo-like niche as a thing people play for some really good exclusives, but... they've never really had draws like that outside of Halo and Gears.

Why would Microsoft buying Valve stymie competition? Microsoft and Valve don't really compete (they've shown no interest in trying to take titles away from Valve with the Windows Store). Merging the Windows Store (which deals primarily with PC and PC-Tablet based apps) with Steam shouldn't negatively impact the customer.

As well, Microsoft's demise has been greatly exaggerated. The hardcore video game community focuses on Microsoft's lack of exclusives but we know that exclusives are far from the only decision impacting sales. Third party games, like Madden, FIFA, Call of Duty, and Battlefront are consoles tops software sellers, as they're games for the masses. Sony has more exclusives, but attach rates for games like Halo and Gears tend to be higher than attach rates for Uncharted because they're more similar to those mass market third party games. We can attribute sales figures in the first years mostly to consumer perception of the product. Microsoft got ripped apart on the internet for some very progressive changes that wouldn't have impacted 99% of purchases. Even more so with the complete implosion of the used game market (on all current gen consoles) that Microsoft accurately predicted. It's the same sort of impact that Sony had with their ridiculous pricing of the PS3, and alienation of third party developers who balked at Sony's complex and burdensome architecture. It tends to balance out in the end because there's only so many consoles that can be sold and people tend to eventually purchase the other one, whether they use it very much or not.

 

[JaegerDice]

The problem with buying EA is that the bulk of their revenue comes from licenses (ie, sports games, Star Wars, etc) that the license-holders would almost certainly withdraw at first opportunity, since letting MS have them would ensure they'd be limited to one console platform.

The problem with buying Valve is similar. The bulk of their value comes from percentages taken from Steam, not their own games. DOTA 2 is probably the one exception, and that won't help MS as far as 1st party games on the console side, nobody is going to play a classic moba on a console.

PUBG.... sure, buy'em, I guess. Not much different than buying Minecraft.


IMO, the two companies they could buy that would have immediate, massive impact are Bethesda and Take-Two. Both would require an outlandish amount of capital, but you'd get the rights and talent for either:

Elder Scrolls
Doom
Wolfenstein
Fallout
Dishonored
Prey
The Evil Within

Or

Grand Theft Auto
Red Dead Redemption
Bully
LA Noire
Max Payne
Manhunt
XCOM
Civilization
Borderlands
Bioshock
Spec Ops
Mafia


Again.... SUPER expensive, but either fills up their 1st part studios with wholly-owned properties that would sell a ton.

 

[chicagoskycam]

I don't think the license thing would matter. Microsoft has cash, might as well buy up some exclusives. Not sure with buying EA they would pull it from other consoles as you're cutting off a huge source of revenue. Maybe certain titles with lunch earlier. The Pub G thing wouldn't surprise me as the Gears team has been heavily involved with the port.

 

[SpookyTsuki]

The problem with buying EA is that the bulk of their revenue comes from licenses (ie, sports games, Star Wars, etc) that the license-holders would almost certainly withdraw at first opportunity, since letting MS have them would ensure they'd be limited to one console platform.

The problem with buying Valve is similar. The bulk of their value comes from percentages taken from Steam, not their own games. DOTA 2 is probably the one exception, and that won't help MS as far as 1st party games on the console side, nobody is going to play a classic moba on a console.

PUBG.... sure, buy'em, I guess. Not much different than buying Minecraft.


IMO, the two companies they could buy that would have immediate, massive impact are Bethesda and Take-Two. Both would require an outlandish amount of capital, but you'd get the rights and talent for either:

Elder Scrolls
Doom
Wolfenstein
Fallout
Dishonored
Prey
The Evil Within

Or

Grand Theft Auto
Red Dead Redemption
Bully
LA Noire
Max Payne
Manhunt
XCOM
Civilization
Borderlands
Bioshock
Spec Ops
Mafia


Again.... SUPER expensive, but either fills up their 1st part studios with wholly-owned properties that would sell a ton.

Not sure that they could make any exclusive but it would bring in a lot more money imo.

 

[Nickmo82]

If Microsoft gets EA, will THEY make a decent hockey game?

 

[syz]

If Microsoft gets EA, will THEY make a decent hockey game?

No, because they're just as profit driven. They'd make a hockey game suitable for the sales numbers it pulls, which remains a low number.