Topic: Which Studios Should Microsoft Acquire Next?

Rare did not create Donkey Kong, that would be a little known company called Nintendo. Rare's core creative team left after the merger with Microsoft hence why they have only made a few original IPs and now just make Sea of Thieves. Also I am in the camp that doesn't believe everything old Rare made was gold. ID has been around for a very long time and nothing is fundamentally changing with them except what major company owns them. The merger for Bethesda may turn out to be ultimately a good thing we will have to see what Microsoft's influence has on Starfield.

@ZuneTattooGuy Some people aren't worth the effort of 'correcting' their ridiculous comments - especially those that are so blinkered.

Codemasters are also not the 'same' company they were in the 80's - creating and publishing games like Dizzy, Rockstar ate my Hamster etc and 'now', just make F1 racing games for EA. Even when ABK is owned by Microsoft, Infinity Ward isn't the 'Same' company that 'created' Call of Duty - in fact Vince Zampella and Jason West - co-creators of CoD and Infinity Ward created ReSpawn (Titanfall/Apex) and Vince is now head of Battlefield, the franchise CoD was created to compete with...

The 'creators' of CoD are not at ABK, neither is the founder of Sledgehammer. So to say 'Rare' are not the same company they were '30yrs' ago is absolutely ridiculous. Perfect Dark 'exists' because of Microsoft - regardless of who 'created' the IP or what Platform it released on - it exists because MS own the IP and are funding a 'new' release. It exists because MS want it to 'exist', are paying for it to exist and will publish it so that consumers can play it.

MS's 'influence' on Starfield is unlikely to be all that clear. If it ends up being 'more' polished than a typical Bethesda RPG, that's the 'extent' of their 'help' in some peoples mind, but maybe the '1000' planets and AI driven procedurally generated content - not just environmental details but some of those 'side' missions etc too were 'possible' because of MS AI systems that 'helped' realise their Ambition which may of been too much without MS - but they'll still claim that it would have been on PS exactly the same...

@ZuneTattooGuy obviously an anecdote but I bought a Sony TV in 2023. 4k 120hz with bells and whistles as I was looking for something that could go well with a current gen console and I found it at a good discount.

@Balta666
You helped Sony's bottom line by buying it at a nice discount lol

@ZuneTattooGuy

Apple have a near 60% share of the Mobile market.
Do you want to try another one? I don't think any corps sells more cars than Toyota or Volkswagen, correct? So why the likes of Renault, BMW bother ,God only knows

Like Xbox shows you don't need to be number 1 or 2 to make money and be profitable. It doesn't look good mind when SONY is selling double to amount of consoles

@ZuneTattooGuy fine by me. It is not like I hate Sony

In the US Apple has 58% of the mobile market but I'm the entire world it only has around 28%

@ZuneTattooGuy I meant a Donkey Kong for SNES, not original arcade game title.

@BAMozzy oh, is Perfect Dark really 'exists'? Where? In parallel world?

But if not? If it'll be worse? It'll be MS's 'influence' too.

@ZuneTattooGuy

I thought it was near to 60% of the USA and most of Europe, either way, you don't always need to be number one to make money.

@AnVold There is 'Perfect Dark' and Perfect Dark: Zero as part of Rare Replay and they are making a 'new' Perfect Dark too which again 'ONLY' exists (or will) because MS own the IP and are funding its development. So the fact you can play 'Perfect Dark' on current hardware is because of MS.

As for whether Starfield ends up being 'more/less' polished than a typical Bethesda game - yes that is on MS - just like the state of Redfall ultimately rested on MS's shoulders, why they took 'responsibility' for it and acknowledged that they 'failed' to support Arkane and shouldn't have been as 'hands off' as they were.

Another example I could use is Psychonauts 2 which, thanks to MS acquiring Double Fine and their funding/support etc enabled them to make the 'game' we got - which was bigger in scale/ambition as a result. Of course, because that was a 'multi-platform' game, it is often overlooked as a 'Microsoft' game. It existed as it does on various platforms because of Microsoft. It 'would' have existed without MS too, but would have been a 'smaller' game.

Rare never created Donkey Kong, just like Insomniac didn't create 'Spider-Man'. They were 'contracted' to make games - like Crystal Dynamics are making a Perfect Dark game but didn't 'create' the characters etc. Again, that's the 'Publisher' (in this case Nintendo) using their 'IP's' to get games made to sell 'Hardware'. Its like Sony asking Sony Bend to make an 'Uncharted' game, not Naughty Dog who created it or Activision demanding all their Studios focus on ensuring CoD releases 'every' year despite the 'creators' of the IP now long gone. Infinity Ward 'exist' as a Studio, but the founders and creators of CoD left nearly 20yrs ago and went on to create Titanfall & Apex Legends - Vince Zampella who co-created CoD as a Rival to 'EAs' MoH/BF games now is 'head' of EA's Battlefield...

The 'creators' of Banjo Kazooie created Playtronic and went on to make Yooka-Laylee so Rare isn't the 'Same' Company it was either. Just like Codemasters - creators/publishers of many games but now 'owned' by EA to make Racing games. They make what the Publisher allows/wants them to make.

MS could take Halo and give it to id Software or maybe give Banjo Kazooie to Toys for Bob (when acquired). They own the IP's so any future Games in those IP's will exist because of Microsoft - just like ANY future Tomb Raider will exist because of Amazon. If MS decides to bring back Hexen, fund its development etc - it 'exists' because of MS, not because it once 'existed' on obsolete hardware so now 'must' release on ALL modern Hardware - it was a 'dead' IP.

Starfield may have existed but maybe would have been far less Ambitious - limited to a few 'systems' with 8-12 planets in each but only specific places to 'land' on - each area no bigger than a 'Fallout' map to explore instead of 1000 planets. So you can't say that because Starfield was announced 'before' MS took over Zenimax, that their money, expertise and Support doesn't make it a 'different' game.

Cory Barlog, talking about God of War (2018), stated that they had so many ideas, different story beats etc during development that they had to cull a lot out to ensure the game 'flowed' and told a more cohesive story - point is, God of War as we 'know' it only existed because it only came together in the last few months or so with stuff left on the Cutting room floor so to speak. It didn't 'really' exist until the it released as until then, it was in development with things that 'didn't work' still 'intended' to be in the Game. It was a 'project' before it became a 'playable' game from start to finish, one that Won Game of the Year and was a big Success, but only really came into 'existence' when it was 'finished'.

Its like saying a Statue exists because you have a 'block' of marble, but it doesn't become a 'statue' until the Artist has finished carving it - until then, its just an 'unrealised' project. The new Perfect Dark, Fable etc don't 'exist' yet, but will - thanks to Microsoft owning those IP's and ensuring these games will 'exist'. Neither is being made by the 'Creators' of those IP's - but then neither is Halo, Gears, Spider-Man, Wolverine, Call of Duty (most years), Tomb Raider etc etc...

I think Microsoft shouldn't buy anymore studios and should make sure to monitor the studios they have and get a consistent steady flow of quality titles out the door and on to gamepass.

My vote would to be buy out PlayStation.

I just think they shouldn’t after they got into it with the FTC when acquiring Activision-Blizzard, since they’ll likely be put under scrutiny when acquiring another studio. They have a pretty big amount of studios under their helm, so I’d like to see them work with the subsidiaries they already have instead of purchasing more, not to mention they already have a ton of projects in the works, like what they showed during the Sunday showcase.

The two that make sense to me are:

1) Crystal Dynamics, since Square Enix got rid of them and because they are co-developing Perfect Dark as part of Embracer. Seriously, why did Embracer acquire them and not Microsoft? It doesn't make any sense.

2) Playtonic, because it's been a very long time and if they were part of Microsoft now, they would be able to make great things like work on Banjo-Kazooie and other Rare IPs with Rare.

Suckerpunch.