Xbox Has Reportedly Approached Several Japanese Devs About A Buyout

Recently i had a talk with a friend that happens to work at an indie house, not garage people, they have office space and the works, so they are at least not "startups" in a garage.

According to what I was told, every single time there is a conversation with a publisher to get some game out the door, the buyout talk comes up. Every time. Despite them being a small player with no name recognition. Its not like they push for it, it just gets mentioned.

Point being: its not what MS wants to buy, its more about whom is actually interested on taking that money.

Good this needs to happen. Xbox one great weakness is japanese games. PERIOD end of story. We need this. We also need lost odyssey 2 and blue dragon 2 XD

Most Japanese developers are so niche that their sales would make no profit and not worth buying them out such as Nippon and marvelous. And the big boys like capcom, enix, Bandai, tecmo and level 5 have strong connections to Sony and Nintendo that they wouldn't dare become xbox exclusive.
Only one I see possible is sega as they are in so much trouble at the moment and need saving but apart from sonic (which is so poor these days) and persona (atlus) then there's not much else great from them.
Xbox would be better off spending their money on convincing these devs to put their games on xbox aswell instead of just trying to buy them outright

Buy Konami and actually do something with the great IP they have... I can but dream.

As a Nintendofan, I always thought it would be cool if Nintendo bought Sega, Capcom and Konami. However I don't think that is ever going to happen. The game library of these developers is perfect for gamepass. Also i'm afraid for more stupid one time exclusives with Sony like street fighter 5 and castlevania requiem.

@graysoncharles

@Beermonkey I was thinking the same thing. I would love to see future Pro Evolution Soccer games get the same level of support as Sony provides with PlayStation.

It's one thing I'm going to miss as a new Series X owner, PES with full edit mode. I've always been a PES player and being able to add custom kits was a major factor for me owning a PS4.

We'll see what happens this gen.

Maybe Sega in their current situation, but arcade presence like in the 80s and 90s is not there like back in the day when everyone played space harrier, sega rally, Daytona and virtua fighter.
Those were the great arcade days then you would by the games on the master system or mega drive.

Yes please, bring more arcade, action Japanese games please!

I get how buying a studio brings an established team and established IP, but Microsoft could consider just buying a building in Japan and hiring a load of top quality developers to form a new studio to develop new Japanese IP.

Ah yes please bring Nioh and couple of Atelier games to xbox. That would be great😗

Also, why not revive Scalebound? Platinum Games themselves said they would love to work on it but the IP itself is owned by Microsoft.

I feel like this report might be a touch old. I mean technically MS bought the Japanese studio they wanted with Tango. Now I think investing heavily in that studio would make more sense.

That said they absolutely would love more partnerships, I think. Yes, they do have a good relationship with Sega. But Sega’s issues this time round are with physical arcade side etc not the Video Game side. I think Sega will restructure and lean heavily into their partnerships like MS but I think the last report I read said Sega was doing a lot better now they they had branch to other “platforms”. Anyway, I think partnerships and investing (supporting) in Tango Gameworks is the way to go.

@BionicDodo or both? Get an existing studio and IP(s) to help grow the Xbox brand in Japan while a new studio is working on a new IP

The fact that in Japan this year only 0.1 percent of console sales have been for xbox one, 10.1 percent for ps4 and 89.8 percent for the switch.
Japanese developers would be very cautious to sell to Microsoft with sales like these

@SithThanos Mistwalker was pretty incredible. I want sequels to those games too. Or something similar at least.

@Carck That doesn't stop Microsoft buying them. The home console dev Sega has also been creatively bankrupt for the last decade. It has taken Western devs to take Sega's IP and turn it into games actually worth playing like Sonic Mania, Sega All Stars Racing, Streets of Rage 4, Wonderboy the forthcoming Alex Kidd remake. Yakuza is good but that's one franchise milked to death.

Sega still publish some decent games but their homegrown first party output has been pretty lacking. Microsoft could be the kick up the arse they need. Phil Spencer knows how well on even a basic level some HD updates to JSRF and Skies of Arcadia would go down.

Microsoft could also leverage Sega's retro vault to fatten up Game Pass with a hundred Genesis and Master System games. I say this as a huge Sega fanboy. I'm wearing my Alex Kidd t-shirt as I write this!

From software but I can't see that happening, so my choice would be Konami, maybe under xbox with pes they could finally put up a real challanges to fifa licenses, seen as the gameplay is already miles ahead.. And then obviously Konami have plenty of great ips

I ain't bothered about the majority of Japanese games though tbh

@endlessleep

Scalebound is never coming back. And it shouldn’t because it looked like a hot mess of garbage. Lol.

Unless they bought Sega, I couldn’t care less really. They aren’t going to buy Capcom, Square, etc. And I don’t play many Japanese games anymore anyways.

It’s the age old problem on the Xbox.......Japanese games don’t sell well because most the player base is not interested in them. And then Japanese companies don’t bother putting the games on the system.

Stop playing around Microsoft and offer the Black Myth: WuKong developers a home.

Koei Tecmo would be wonderful.

Mistwalker. Do it Microsoft. Do it soon. Before Sakaguchi retires.

@KelticDevil it might look like a hot mess with that low framerate but it has lots of potential. With the power of XSX, Scalebound could be truly awesome Dragon JRPG experience. I honestly think it should come back, as that game could be potent system seller for Xbox Series console. Kinda sucks that the chance is next to nothing at this point.

Trying to think of a Japanese company that makes sense. Most of Microsofts acquisitions have been of companies with a great game record but not full financial stability (Ninja Theory, Obsidian, Double Fine).
In that regard I wonder if they'll purchase Grasshopper Manufacture or what would be a steal is Ueda's Gen Design (epic game deal notwithstanding)

I just don’t want anyone to buy Square Enix. I want those games to be available everywhere. Xbox since it’s my favourite place to play; and Playstation and Switch because of the history there.

Sega makes the most sense really; out of the big ones at least. Yakuza and Phantasy star are huge gets but the back catalogue would be a nice boost for Gamepass. Capcom would have made more sense in the past after their close working relationship with the Dead Rising series.

Microsoft just have to invest in Japanese style games even if they make a loss. They need to eat the cost to start attracting Japanese gamers to the system. The more games = the more gamers = the more games from third parties.

I’ll think we’ll see Microsoft working with Japanese developers/publishers more to get some games on Xbox that usually just end up on PlayStation or Switch even though they are not owned by Sony or Nintendo.

I think that would be a good start.

I’m fine with them buying anyone except square enix and that’s purely so they can hopefully release the rest of their RPG back catalogue on the switch which I have been patiently waiting for since 2017.

Maybe a no for ages too just as I want them to get desperate enough to ask Nintendo to try developing a sonic game but that’s extremely unlikely!

Please no.

Microsoft should work with Japanese companies to bring exclusives to the system, like Nintendo is constantly doing with K-T (Hyrule Warriors + Age of Calamity, Fire Emblem Warriors, Fire Emblem: Three Houses, etc.). Just randomly snapping up companies is detrimental to the industry. It made more sense with Bethesda, considering how closely they've worked with Microsoft in the past, but I'd hate to see it become the norm.

The big hurdle in Microsoft's way is that people associate MS with Western AAA releases, and I think the consumer base shifted accordingly. I'll be VERY surprised if games like DQXI S, Gal*Gun Returns, and Yakuza: Like a Dragon do well on Xbox.

@BionicDodo The issue with this is by the time the game was released, this gen will be over.

That's why all the value is in buying an established company. Starting one from scratch takes forever for something to even start to be conceptualized.

@Ralizah
The thing nobody is mentioning. Is the industry got so large that it is consolidating. Which is not done. Wait until amazon and google start dropping money as well.
This is common across almost every type of business,
My understanding is that yakuza has sold we on xbox with 0,1,2 that even on gamepass sega was pleased and how enter the dragon ended up as a timed exclusive

@endlessleep if they ever get back to scalebound I hope they don't put this in platinum hands ever again. They had their chance and screwed it. Hideki Kamiya is not the kind of professional to trust an ip with.

I can agree on Atelier tho. Hope they bring all games to Xbox. It's great.

Good. I want Series X to have strong jpn support next gen, much more than xbox one had.

@UltimateOtaku91 I agree. As much as I'd love MS to buyout Sega or SE, I would be just as fine if MS simply purchased a xbox port of those niche games. I mean, sheesh, what's keeping MS from getting Persona 5 on xbox already?

Snk
Sega
Konami
These companies have great IPs, that MS might do great things with. Imagine silent Hill exclusive.

Although, I'm not in favour of a buyout... it would really benefit Microsoft to build better relations to bring more Japanese games to Xbox. It's the biggest reason I've always supported Playstation over the Xbox these past 15 years.

@Ralizah I’m of the same impression as @Terrin is about The Yakuza series as well. That’s its done pretty good on Xbox. Yakuza 7 will be the real test no Gamepass, pure sales, and it’s also a turn based RPG.

I’m sure it will do better on PS4/PS5, but it only has to do well for both companies to be happy.

@KelticDevil I also think they should just focus on US and EU market and just leave Japan for Sony and Nintendo. The rest of the world is still a big enough market.

I just want a strong JRPG selection available on next gen.
We've missed out of Persona 5, Tales of Berseria, Ni no Kuni 1+2 etc. Then there's the various anime games as well.
This is where I think MS need to improve, especially if xCloud takes off in Japan.

It can't get much worse then zero presence though. Any kind of increase is good then.

@Beermonkey Konami has amazing IPs that need to be glorified with next gen entries, however, the company seems to be in great shape with their pachinko / slot machines and gyms, so it seems unlikely that they go on sale

I hope none of the buyout requests are successful, what Microsoft needs to do instead is strengthen their existing studios like they shouldn't be letting Halo Infinite become a gigantic trainwreck. More Japanese franchises coming to Xbox would be fantastic (like how Sony exclusive Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts came to Xbox) but it shouldn't be in the form of buyouts.

@Armyof1 Persona has Sony exclusivity, even Switch doesn't have Persona 5 and Joker was chosen to be the first character of the first Fighters Pass in Smash Ultimate. Joker in Smash was pretty much just a giant promotion for PS4 and nothing else.

@Grumblevolcano i didn't think Sony paid anything to have P5 be exclusive. It's been like 3 years since it came out, I still don't see why it can't come to Xbox.

@Grumblevolcano I rather see a company buy a studio than pay one so that a specific platform gets a lesser product. Or not to play a certain game altogether for a certain amount of time.
Investing in first-party vs investing in devaluing content on other platforms.

@PhhhCough Yeah I would actually like to see Konami get bought by Microsoft at this point, they could only handle their IP's better.

it's like having two friends who would be perfect for each other, and everyone can see it but them.

Microsoft makes AMAZING game consoles, sturdy, powerful, well made. they are unbelievably bad at making games, in general, and barely seem to be trying to sometimes. They have been unable to crack the Japanese market.

Sega has a huge, diverse stable of all-time classic franchises. everyone has a beloved Sega game. they are arguably as legendary as Nintendo in this regard. they are unbelievably bad at making games consoles, in general, and actually gave up on it years ago. They are especially beloved in the Japanese market.

@Armyof1 they 100% did. Sony definitely pays to keep the mainline Persona games off other platforms.