I’ve been thinking this over for a while, and I’m not sure this acquisition specifically bothers me so much as, like, the entire idea that it’s cool for platform holders to outright own development studios. Acting as a publisher is one thing, but owning studios is just one vertical integration step too far IMO.
And so even though what MS, Sony, and Nintendo have been doing meets neither the legal nor colloquial definition of “monopoly” (since there still are plenty of 3rd party publishers and developers apart from the two of them), I still don’t like the vertical integration aspect one bit.
I think the bigger issue at play is that subscription based services inherently create a need for consolidation. By that I mean Disney isn’t just acquiring Fox to get bigger and whatnot, but they have to do it just so Disney Plus has a breadth of content that can keep people subscribed indefinitely. Like, as. Disney Plus subscriber, I’m more likely to stay subbed because I can watch Simpsons reruns on it. Similarly, with Game Pass, having Bethesda on the service simply makes that service better. Microsoft would be foolish not to engage in vertical integration in that case.
But yeah, it’s a really tough situation as a customer. On the one hand consolidation is almost always bad, but on the other the past decade of streaming services have let me experience a massive amount of media at a much lower cost than when I bought movies, music, or games piecemeal. It’s not a great justification, I’ll admit, but I can’t deny the temptation to just roll with it and enjoy the ride as long as it lasts.
There’s…not much else left to buy! Off the top of my head…Capcom, EA, Certain Affinity, Deep Silver, THQ Nordic (shout-out to Mark), WB’s interactive entertainment division. Maybe Namco or Konami’s game IP? I assume that Ubi would be too big for Microsoft to eat. Even EA might trigger a funny look from the anti-trust people. Maybe Avalanche (the Just Cause people).
I wonder what Sony’s response to this would be? If I was them I’d offer to do the same but with Capcom, Atlus etc and then give them that sweet sweet first-party funding. Kojima Productions would also be a smart buy. Basically they’re current first-party strategy is more than enough to hold its own against Microsoft’s agenda, they just need to up the number of big and exclusive games they’re releasing on their platform. This really isn’t much different to Nintendo’s strategy if you subtract the need to make a profit on each unit of hardware sold and a lot of people seem to think the Switch is an essential platform regardless of whether you also have a console/PC (although the fact that most of these games are coming out on PC going forward muddies those waters a bit for Sony).
I don’t know what Sony’s overall corporate situation is like, but Microsoft probably found the money for the Bethesda acquisition in the couch cushions in Phil Spencer’s office. I don’t think they have the cash to go studio-for-studio with Microsoft. They’ll probably pay for (presumably) timed exclusives like Ghostwire: Tokyo and Deathloop moving forward while they look to make a larger acquisition if they can swing it, but I imagine they’ll probably continue doing what they’re doing moving forward.
Definitely not. However, Bethesda is probably the biggest publisher/developer conglomerate behind EA, Activision, and 2K. Even your Capcoms of the world are not going to go for Bethesda money. Locking down the Japanese Market, esp given the global success of Japanese games in the latter half of this generation, would make a bunch of sense and probably cost as much as MS spent on Bethesda alone.
Microsoft as a whole is around 20 times bigger than Sony, thus their pockets are 20 times bigger. That doesn’t mean Xbox has 20 times more to spend than Playstation, while Playstation makes Sony most their money, Xbox doesn’t make Microsoft most of its money so how corporate resources are allocated is likely a different ratio. Either way Sony can’t compete in spending but their board might allow a bigger bid for smaller publishers that Microsoft’s might not be willing to spend.
Let’s say Sony wanted to buy Konami’s IP and publishing arm, I could see them having a better shot at that than Microsoft. Then again Microsoft could “offer you can’t refuse” any publisher they want. It’s just a matter of if they want.
What I’m saying is I want any of Sony’s talented studios to take a crack at a Silent Hill.
Sony coming out with “We bought Konami’s IP and we’re throwing $150 mil at KojiPro to actually make Silent Hills and another $150 mil at From to do a Castlevania game” would be a pretty nice riposte, wouldn’t it?
I think it’s THE move to make. It would also be met with less cynicism than the Bethesda acquisition because it’s generally accepted the those IPs are wasted in Konami’s hands.
Sony buying Konami is the only sale I can get behind. Konami has their goldmine of IPs in pachinko hell and Sony would do well by them since they put a lot of stock of these big, single-player games that aren’t littered with microtransactions and other terrible, predatory garbage.
360 era Microsoft would have been great too but those days are long gone.
Yeah, I really wish SOMEONE actually in the gaming business would just buy out Konami’s gaming properties already. Let them retain the pachinko rights in perpetuity or whatever, who cares.
