Rumour: Xbox Is Talking To 'Major' Japanese Publishers About Acquisitions

Don’t bother. Spend the money on getting a few exclusives and marketing deals like Sony do instead. So much easier and all the benefits… especially if you have those exclusives over a year

Why don't they just concentrate on actually getting some of the other studios they've acquired to release some of the exclusives they keep promising.

The source has to be legit. He totally called wind waker and metroid prime at the last Nintendo direct!

@Agnostic yeah too much freedom and comfort actually stifles creativity. Where as limitations breeds it. MS really don’t need more studios they can’t manage…producing more games they can’t be arsed spending a marketing budget on. Especially not Japanese studios where they’ll inevitably be even more hands off to the point of being non existent till close to a supposed release date and inevitable delay.

Just spend that money on games that already have a clear vision. Buy the exclusivity…or secure the marketing. You can do this with multiple Japanese studios for multiple games, for less than it would probably cost to own another Japanese studio out right…and the benefits of that aren’t rocket science…so which ones you click with and produce the actual goods.

I don't get the obsession with exclusives. They're anti-consumer but many gamers seem to like that?! I wish all games were available on all systems (never gonna happen of course).

I feel Activision deal has proved that buying publishers outright isnt worth the hassle. Cherry pick the studios you want Xbox.

I thought this was official news then until I saw it was just a podcast with Geff Grubb, this guy makes stuff up and has a pretty bad track record for rumours. Still waiting on that wind waker and Metroid prime reveal that was meant to shown on the last direct...... 😏

@Rangers420 Its only been 4yrs since MS added Compulsion, Undead Labs (both took 5yrs from their 'first' game to their second), Ninja Theory (who has released Bleeding Edge), Playground (who has released FH4 and FH5 since) and created a Studio - the Initiative.

Obsidian, inXile and Double Fine all joined later that year in 2018 and ALL have released games - Psychonauts 2, Outer Worlds, Grounded, Wastelands 3...

People want games to 'Rival' Sony's AAA big budget Exclusives like Horizon Zero Dawn (took over 5yrs to make and its sequel too), Ghost of Tsushima (released 6yrs after Infamous 2nd Son) and a lot of AAA games are taking 4yrs+ between releases - unless they have 'multiple' studio's working on a single Franchise (like CoD) or release the same game with minor iterations (like Sports sim).

all the Bethesda Studio's haven't been with MS for two yrs yet - and have released 'something' in the past few years so at best, not been working on 'new' projects that long. id Software was still supporting Doom Eternal at the time they joined Xbox and getting ready to release new DLC. Machinegames had just announced they were going to be working with Lucasarts on Indiana Jones. Obviously Tango and Arkane Lyon were working on Deathloop and Ghostwire, and Bethesda on Starfield with Arkane Texas on Redfall.

With AAA games generally taking at least 4yrs to make, I don't see how 'any' studio has had the time to develop the 'big' AAA games people are expecting from MS. Not only have they had to finish off multi-platform projects they were working on, they have then had to build a game from scratch and/or build up their studio's to make those games.

At the end of the day, whether the games are 'exclusive' or not, they are still 'Xbox' studio games and still count as 'output' for MS. Minecraft and any related game (Dungeons, Legends) still count as Xbox games even if they do release on PS/Switch. They are sill funded, developed and published by MS.

As for buying more studios, MS have stated a few times over the past few years that they are not 'stopping' after acquiring Zenimax and/or A/B. It makes sense to speculate about 'Japanese' Studios as TGS and MS were in Japan recently and no doubt used that opportunity too. Its also known that MS want a bigger presence in Japan too so you can take that and speculate. Until something officially comes out though, I don't pay much attention to rumours/speculations etc...

Unlike Western publishers and devs which sell a lot of games on xbox to begin with, it will be a big gamble for a japanese publisher to go all xbox, the amount of sales some of the bigger games get from playstation and nintendo in Japan is huge and they won't migrate over to xbox so easily. Plus Nintendo themselves would also join in with Sony against any potential deal if it involves a japanese dev such as capcom or square enix due to the amount of exclusives they rely on from them. Only reason they don't care about the activision deal is because they don't fully support the switch and those that are on the switch perform horribly in terms of sales.

The reason why Microsoft buy studios instead of acquiring exclusivity of a title its because it will be cheaper in the long run for the game pass model. People saying it's cheaper to buy exclusivity of a single game are thinking only on now.

Let's say Microsoft instead of buying zenimax had acquired exclusivity of Starfield and Redfall, then further had to acquire for ES6 too, and let's not forget the older games currently available on game pass, they would need to license them too, and they would left the service after a time, reducing the valeu of the service. So instead of spending billions on licensing things that will eventualy leave the service is more cost effective and valuable to just acquire the studio.

MS should stop acquiring more studios and focus on what they have. They can collaborate with Japanese developers like Sony and Nintendo do. But I would rather have MS focus on the studios that they currently have and make games based off from that.

Xbox being anti consumer again. They should be allowed to buy any more publishers now that they have bought 2 including the biggest one. This happens u lower the playerbase for those games from millions to tens of thousands as u see with Diofield Chonickes clocking innat #632 most played a week into launch

@Bleachedsmiles ikr. i mean they still own the lost odyssey and blue dragon IP if im not mistaken. If mistwalker is not willing or able to make anymore games on them, outsource it to another japanese studio. You dont have to buy a studio and it will be exclusive to MS. Its a win-win.

@Kaloudz Honestly, I want Tango Gameworks to make a Halo Horror game based entirely on The Flood. Would be epic!

@Bleachedsmiles while buying games exclusivity is an immidiate solution i think it doesnt go much with gamepass driven benifit... Microsoft is aiming to have studios that can deliver 5 games a year to feed gamepass and xbox ecosystem with self dev games and rely less on 3rd party games on gamepass to have more income and lessen the expenses

By Sega and make everything exclusive

@Rangers420 most studios was aquired no more than 5 years...lot is coming next year and 2024 and i think xbox is still to gain experience on menaging those studios and choose the right projects and the right people to lead them i wont worry on long term

I really am not worried about Xbox’s studios not getting games out. The world just went through a pandemic and set a lot of things back. Also, many of the studios Xbox has acquired released a game either right before or after the acquisition was completed. It’s going to take time for their next game. Once the games start coming out, it will be easier to decide when to release the next one and keep the games staggered.

I do think they have enough studios but again they are in competition with not just Sony but other companies as well. There are other companies snatching up studios left and right. Xbox slept a lot after the 360 generation. They are now wide awake and playing the game everybody else is playing.

@Rangers420

Why don't they just concentrate on actually getting some of the other studios they've acquired to release some of the exclusives they keep promising.

You want the acquisition lawyers and executives to go to Bethesda and help code Starfield?

@Gamingforlife Xbox have so many of their own studios right now…which they’re clearly struggling to manage as we’ve had hardly any out put from them in 5 years. Xbox still, with so many studios, living off a diet of Forza and halo.
The publishing buy outs they’ve bought and currently attempting to buy have all had their output so far tied to exclusivity and marketing deals with Sony…which is why since ms paid 7 billion for Bethesda Bethesda have released more games on PlayStation than Xbox. Bethesda no doubt still have future titles tied up with Sony (will you be surprised if Indiana jones is multiplat?). Activision/blizzard will still have marketing deals tied up with Sony - the next three cods will likely not come to gamepass day 1. 76 billion and they still can’t do what they want for another 3/4 years.

Now, in the long term these buys work out great for gamepass (which is what ms cares about…the console isn’t even in their future). In theory, just from the studios they already own 5 games a year should be plausible - they struggle to get out one game a year, so who knows how successful they’ll end up being at 5. Adding to that with more studios is no guarantee…as those studios/publishers will probably already have existing contracts with Sony…which is what we’re seeing. Just the marketing rights keep games off gamepass day 1.

So I think, till xbox is in a place where it can regularly consistently deliver with all the studios it currently has, it makes more sense spending their money on marketing rights to big 3rd party games. Marketing rights on Japanese games. And timed exclusivity. All of which guarantees gamepass day 1…than buying up yet another studio or publishing house that’s either got their hands tied up already or ends up being poorly managed and rarely delivering. Particularly if they wish to ‘strike while the irons hot’ in Japan and build upon their recent success

@fizban3332 it’s a hell of a lot cheaper too. Gets looked into less (so no hold ups there), and allows them to build more partnerships with Japanese devs. Xbox has loads of great existing ip they’re doing nothing with…from ip that’s already got decent profiles because of Nintendo - banjo, killer instinct. To games that could have had more legs - Jade empire.
Hell, they could do so much more with the halo universe. I’ve said a few times how I’d personally love a halo rpg. I think it could work really well…and Xbox have all the best wrpg developers.

@Bleachedsmiles Whilst I'll concede we can often disagree, quite wildly at times, I have to agree with your take here as its clearly correct.
At this point, particularly if you accept the activation deal will go through (which I'm sure will happen), lack of dev teams is not Xboxes issue - its their inability to manage them to produce any output that's the big issue here.

They are acting like the rich kid with a fat wallet that can buy anything, but is unable to use what they have bought. Money buys you an entry, but you still need to hire managers who can get product shipped and demonstrate you have a vision that does not begin and end with a fat wallet.

Whilst I'm glad they have a desire to bring product, simply spending does not buy this market, you need to be able to produce product too. I hope we start to see the fruits of the spends soon.

...and it doesn't hurt that they are looking to Japan. Xbox still has a rep for certain game styles (which doesn't bear objective scrutiny), but the addition of some good Jap developers will help swing that narritive.

I can’t see MS buying another big publisher. Now matter how many “insiders” claim that.

@mousieone I think that's what most of us thought after Zenimax.

Honestly, only thing I can scratch off now is anything bigger than AB, because I don't think there is anything bigger unless they went after the entirety of the Embracer Group.

Edit: seems i am wrong, the only thing bigger are Tencent, Nintendo and Sony.

Microsoft is that awkward rich kid completely incapable of making friends on their own so they just buy people's friendship.

Do they not know about the foreign acquisition laws in Japan?

I guarantee Sony have been watching Square Enix like a hawk and if there was even a whiff of interest they’d swoop in with the chequebook.

@Tharsman well some did but I always felt they’d buy something else big even after Bethesda. But this purchase makes a lot of other choices almost impossible…

@RadioHedgeFund which is why I don’t buy this rumor.

@BAMozzy thank you for your well reasoned thoughts and clarity. This is the reason why I read the comments here. 👍

Jeff Grubb has zero credibility but, of course, one day he'll guess right.

@RadioHedgeFund I ask you: do you know about those laws? Because I looked into it and they don’t exist. Its a myth based on the challenges of outside investments due to a national practice where bank loans come with strings attached, that tends to make them part owners of said company. Since any significantly sized company tends to have tons of loans at all times, it makes the acquisition process very hard, and hostile takeovers practically impossible. Too many parties involved to ever pull it off.

Voluntary sales are still very much possible.

@LX_FENIX Bethesda and Activision sold to them, they wanted to sale. I like how a lot of people act like Microsoft is doing hostile takeovers.

If this was Sony everyone would be okay with it. Sony didn’t make Naughty Dog studio, they bought them.

@Deshalu Nah i don't think it's like that, and i don't want Sony buying more studios either

@UltimateOtaku91

Nintendo should also prevent Sony from buying a big Japanese publisher, eg Square Enix, Sega, Capcom....

@RadioHedgeFund

If Sony tries to buy Square Enix, Nintendo will surely block that acquisition

@Ninja_Warrior if its square enix or capcom then yes Nintendo will definitely try to block it, imagine them losing monster hunter, no chance

@mousieone @RadioHedgeFund Japanese studios have been selling out to Tencent and Netease at regular intervals, or "new" studios are being created by Netease/Tencent that just poach the studios out from under other companies. It seems like it's the Japanese game companies themselves that have become eager to sidestep the foreign aquisition laways. I don't really buy that MS is buying Sega/Square/Capcom/K-T/Bamco, etc, one of the bigger JP publishers right now. But there's smaller but prominent publishers, things like NIS, XSEED, etc that are always heavily cash strapped. Or studios like Falcom that are cash strapped that may be more willing to work out a foreign deal than we'd think. I'm not really into yet more acquisitions but anything is better than these companies falling to Netease as they've been where a mobile gatcha future awaits.

@MattT3142 Awesome