because they don't want more IPs that they don't own.
What is the value of Batman and Superman when they have a hard time getting people to work on MechWarrior, Shadowrun, Crimson Skies, Killer Instinct, Crackdown, Banjo-Kazooie, etc?
Matt Booty “We will continue to look for studios that can add great people, great teams, great new ideas to our lineup.”
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because they don't want more IPs that they don't own.
What is the value of Batman and Superman when they have a hard time getting people to work on MechWarrior, Shadowrun, Crimson Skies, Killer Instinct, Crackdown, Banjo-Kazooie, etc?
The studios named specifically or the number of potential acquisitions?
They've been expanding their existing studios fairly dramatically both increasing head count and having some working on multiple projects.
Yes.
just copied this from shadowrun hong kong on steam.
© 2013-2018 Harebrained Holdings, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Shadowrun is a trademark of Microsoft. Published by Paradox Interactive AB.
I would tend to think that Batman, Superman, LOTR, etc are far more popular as entities than some of their older IPs that they do own. If you have exclusive publishing rights to some of the biggest known IPs in the world across generations, I would assume that you would want a piece of that pie, even if you don't own the IPs outright.
Studios. Rocksteady, Netherrealm, Turtle Rock, etc. Reads more like fanboy fanfiction than actual believable rumors. I'm ready to eat crows though lol.
Huh. Had no idea - and they've been licensing it. Well, yeah.... Seems it's time has come. It's an amazing world, hopefully MS could get it rolling. Would probably take an acquisition or a very serious partnership to get it going tho... At least at the scale I'd hope for. In a post-cyberpunk world, who knows.
We know MS were talking to Turtle Rock a couple of years ago according to Klobrille and they were talking to AT&T about WB Games just last year according to Matt.
AT&T spinning off WB Media seems like it could have presented an opportunity. However, I would agree to take it all with a grain of salt.
I'd think so too... Even InXile. But they have their hands full, and have new IP inbound. Would need to be someone else if it's AAA - which I would really hope for. And an anime syled tv show. All of it :)
they're not... especially not in the perspective of video games.
one issue is you're entirely limited to that IP, you're limited in the creativity of what you can do. You'd be unable to further monetize the game itself... and by that I mean toys and other things beyond that.
So you're hopeful a game sells more, but the issue is the game has the outsell the licensing costs and the lost of added residual revenue from the value of the IP. On top of that there's the added pressure of oversaturation, and the general mindset that licensed games suck.
It is absolutely not worth it. If they owned it? sure. But I wouldn't touch those games if I'm a AAA studio. You only do them if you're desperate.
the only issue is MS just own the game rights. so it's not super valuable as a brand because they're limited in what they can do with it beyond the games. They've just been licensing it to the original founder of FASA.
I know this is a controversial opinion, but I don't see a consolidation trend. Most publishers (AAA or not) are healthy, we see new studios opening all the time...
That isn't to say that the industry itself is healthy. That, I think, is the real problem. Some games don't sell as much as they need to be successful and continue their franchises, there's an issue with where the money goes, next-gen titles are expensive, and workers often suffer the consequences of bad practices.
I think consolidation becomes an issue when developers can't make great and successful games because they're not a part of a consolidated group. But that issue was already happening before Microsoft bought Bethesda and EA bought Codemasters.
If the industry solves the problem of only behemoths like Call of Duty and GTA being a guaranteed success by allowing games with smaller audiences to have equal chances of surviving, then consolidation won't be an issue.
A quick glance at the the SEC filing of the Separation Agreement refers to the SpinCo Business as WarnerMedia define as per the December 31, 2020 10-K (which includes WBIE and excludes Crunchyroll).
Netherrealm potentially making a KI game would be sick. Would suck that I wouldn't be able to play MK on my PS5, but at least I have a PC for that.
It's actually a really great opportunity for both AT&T and Discovery.
Once AT&T gets rid of WB (which you've pointed out owns the IP that much of WB Games content is based on), it's an odd split for them to retain the games division.
And the WB-Discovery entity is something AT&T wants to sell their stake in, which would be facilitated by having it be slimmed down and focused on video content.
So it seems like now would be the time to just divest the WB Games division. Nobody is going to pay what MS will pay, and you solve the IP issue by just granting a multi-year license to use X, Y, and Z WB content for video games. (Alternatively, you grant the license for all in-development projects and then include options to license the IP in future games at pre-determined prices.)
It just makes a lot of sense for all parties.
Surely that's fixable, considering their other investment efforts. It's a pretty distinct world they could cultivate in a lot of ways.
But it's discussions like this that make it obvious even at the scale they are at they have even more potential through acquisitions. Growing into 100 million GamePass customers clearly is a goal, and putting the gas on the pedal to get there seems it's in the cards. The messaging that it extends beyond just console gaming implies they'll need to go even bigger to address an even more diverse customer base through TV app and mobile mediums.
In fact, it's almost welcomed to start bringing actual gaming experiences to mobile and disrupt the psuedo-gambling experiences we expect there (which are, in part, born of the limit compute capabilities of phones). In that way, please buy even more studios and start displacing them.
Bethesda also used to be a fanboy fanfiction.....
So I don't doubt anything when it comes from Microsoft.
If I'm MS, I would make an exclusivity exception for Mortal Kombat.
Like with Minecraft, MK is better when it's broadly available across all platforms.
That seems like a bad idea considering Sony has cornered the console fighting game market at this point.
At the rate things are going, this is the final form of the games industry, but with fewer conglomerates controlling things.
And I don't want this.
I, for one, can't wait for a subscription-based, streaming only future. A future where content will be controlled and handled by a handful of "big players" and where ownership of games will be a thing of the past, which is every company's wet dream.
But hey, at least I'll save a few bucks.
Needing to subscribe to Apple Arcade to play FIFA 27 on your console is gonna be great, lol
Why do you think that will happen? Honest question considering that any one with a PC and a couple buddies can develop massively successful games with low entry - games like Among Us are constantly blowing up - with little to no imitation from the "big publishers".
If your view is on AAA only, maybe but those also require $80M+ to develop so naturally can only be done by a select few.
In this hypothetical, MS would not look at MK as a platform the way they do Minecraft
For MK specifically, wouldn't they want a portable platform version somehow, for high school kids?
I haven't really been keeping up (as evidenced by the fact that I had no idea WB tried to sell its gaming outfit prior) but how does iCloud work? On phones and or tablets?
Edit: looked it up, I see.
When speaking on IP pickups a WBIE acquisition brings, a quick glance at wikipedia and some googling gives us these notables:
Basically a ton of old Atari/Midway classics plus the stuff picked up when they bought Turbine and Monolith. And, uh, Scribblenauts.
I actually think the retro arcade lineup could be pretty interesting for Microsoft, who are at a disadvantage somewhat in that area vs Nintendo or even Sony. Microsoft coincidentally owns Hydro Thunder too, one of the few Midway IPs WB didn't scoop up.
- 720°
- Arch Rivals
- Area 51
- Asheron's Call
- Blood
- Centipede
- Condemned
- Defender
- F.E.A.R.
- Game Party
- Gauntlet
- Hard Drivin'
- Joust
- Klax
- Marble Madness
- Mortal Kombat
- Narc
- [NFL] Blitz
- Paperboy
- Pit Fighter
- Primal Rage
- Psi-Ops
- Rampage
- Rampart
- Ready 2 Rumble
- Roadblasters
- Robotron
- Rush
- Scribblenauts
- Sinistar
- Smash TV
- Spy Hunter
- The Suffering
- Super Sprint
- This is Vegas
- Toobin'
- Touchmaster
- War Gods
- Wheelman
- Xybots
Basically a ton of old Atari/Midway classics plus the stuff picked up when they bought Turbine and Monolith. And, uh, Scribblenauts.
I actually think the retro arcade lineup could be pretty interesting for Microsoft, who are at a disadvantage somewhat in that area vs Nintendo or even Sony. Microsoft coincidentally owns Hydro Thunder too, one of the few Midway IPs WB didn't scoop up.
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I don't think indie developers will be affected as much, but now that Microsoft has opened Pandora's box every publisher or studio will be targeted by a bigger entity at some point in the future. Google, Amazon, Tencent, Apple, Embracer, you name it. Everyone will want a piece of the pie.
Look, I'm a completionist and a collector of physical games, so subscription services are not exactly my thing, euphemistically speaking.
I would absolutely be fine if said services were optional and complementary to "classic" gaming the way they are now, but it's clear as day that's not where we're headed. You don't reach "one billion gamers" by selling plastic boxes.
Also it doesn't help that retail (both sales and revenue) is getting thinner and thinner each passing year and that digital games are just mere licences to play software (GOG aside).
And yes, I know. The market will be judge, jury and executioner and will decide if this model is indeed the future. But I'm not optimistic about it.
Why can't they coincidence together. You can reach a billion gamers and still support physical hardware. Nobody knows what's going to happen but I can see consoles always being around.