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[abacab driver]

They must be very happy with The Medium.
I heard a rumor they are buying Asobo as well.

Doesnt hurt to acquire more talented devs.
More productivity = more games and less time to wait for them.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

Spiderman lol

And no I don't put much stock in install base.

Halo Infinite will release on 3 million Series X's, 60 million XBox One's, and 150 million gaming PCs. So 223 million potential customers.

Spiderman will launch on 3 million PS5's.

223 million vs 3 million.

 

[Ass of Can Whooping]

Halo Infinite will release on 3 million Series X's, 60 million XBox One's, and 150 million gaming PCs. So 223 million potential customers.

Spiderman will launch on 3 million PS5's.

223 million vs 3 million.

And it probably won't even sell to 1% of those people at launch lmao

Again, I don't put much stock into the install base. It's a metric that gets more and more worthless as it grows bigger

 

[IntentionalPun]

Halo Infinite will release on 3 million Series X's, 60 million XBox One's, and 150 million gaming PCs. So 223 million potential customers.

Spiderman will launch on 3 million PS5's.

223 million vs 3 million.

And Sony just released a massive AAA game to ~110 million PS4's and has another big one coming out soon.

That's why Sony can afford the strategy of exclusivity on PS5, because PS4 will continue to make tons of money for them and exclusivity will sell more consoles. We don't even know how quickly XSX can sell out its shipped units, but you can just about guarantee PS5 will be selling through all units for months on end.

It's good that Microsoft will make some money on Infintie, sell some Gamepass subs, and likely some XSXs with how nice it will probably look, but Sony will easily bank more money on TLOU2 + Ghosts and then have a big Spiderman game for the launch of the PS5. That is hardly a "good luck" scenario for Sony lol

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

And it probably won't even sell to 1% of those people at launch lmao

Again, I don't put much stock into the install base. It's a metric that gets more and more worthless as it grows bigger

You don't think Halo Infinite is going to sell 2.2 million copies at launch? WTF?!

 

[Ass of Can Whooping]

You don't think Halo Infinite is going to sell 2.2 million copies at launch? WTF?!

Halo 5 took 3 months just to reach 5 million, so no I don't.

 

[Gavon West]

Could be different reasons. Perhaps they like the idea of many smaller studios they can eventually build up. They're relatively cheap, low risk acquisitions that serve to bolster their portfolio with many simultaneous games. It may be that these are mostly the kind of studios willing to sign on with them at this point. Who knows.





If I were you I'd be careful in allowing yourself to indulge in this mindset. It's largely the same rhetoric that Xbox fans have been trumpeting since the launch of Xbox 360. Microsoft has been in the console space for almost 20 years now and they have yet to "take the throne" if you will. The closest they ever came was Xbox 360 and that took a near perfect storm of Sony dropping the ball just for them to eventually end up last place in console sales. Still very successful mind you but last place nonetheless. They followed that up with a massive ball dropping of their own and we've all seen the result of that this gen. Let's not forget that Microsoft had a lot of studios to start this generation with as well as third parties making exclusive games. Touting spending $1 billion for exclusives. https://www.gamesindustry.biz/artic...as-USD1-billion-for-exclusive-xbox-one-titles

Do yourself a favor and simply enjoy whatever games Microsoft brings you without worry of how they perform. Because the history of this industry has shown that it has rarely been kind to them. They can't win even if their competitors screw up and when they themselves screw up it costs them an entire generation of hardship. You're better off just being content with where they are and don't wrap yourself up in some idea that they're going to suddenly stand on top because they bought a handful of studios of various calibers over the last couple years.

Hard disagree here. You're right in saying that Xbox fans have clamored about upcoming gens etc, but what you're leaving out is that the Xbox division has never been this stacked with developers in the history of Xbox. The Xbox division has never had full support of Microsoft in the history of Xbox brand either. Today, they are fully behind them. Nor has there been any head of the Xbox team at the seat with the big boys at Microsoft - namely Phil Spencer. And Phil definitely has a proper feel for the gaming community. He's literally turned the ship around since the Xbox One foul up.

This is a whole new beast thats been preparing for years for next gen. This is NOTHING like previous gens by a country mile.

 

[Hendrick's]

I think both are important but install base is very undervalued here. Halo Infinite is going to be bananas big this year. I don't think Sony is going to have a game that even remotely competes with that. I think people are sleeping on Microsoft big time.

I guess we'll see.

I agree. Halo has a legit shot at being the biggest game this holiday.

 

[CatLady]

Bitch is on borrowed time

We can certainly hope

 

[Fart Knight]

Halo Infinite will release on 3 million Series X's, 60 million XBox One's, and 150 million gaming PCs. So 223 million potential customers.

Spiderman will launch on 3 million PS5's.

223 million vs 3 million.

 

[Smoke6]

Halo Infinite will release on 3 million Series X's, 60 million XBox One's, and 150 million gaming PCs. So 223 million potential customers.

Spiderman will launch on 3 million PS5's.

223 million vs 3 million.

wow!!!

like do you have gears 5 numbers by chance! Last I checked they haven’t even cracked the NPD’s since launch correct?

I just don’t get how y’all think a game service will outshine physical and digital games sold numbers!

I’m quite sure halo has surpassed a $100mil budget and won’t even come close to breaking even if the game is free on game pass!

haven’t you seen or read the last of us threads and even lately the cyberpunk conversations of quite a few waiting to just play it on a nex gen machine? Yeah so no I don’t think your train of thought is very well thought out!

MS mindshare is gone bruh, a freaking logo had more views than anything Xbox relate lately!

 

[BusierDonkey]

I see a thread about Microsoft acquiring Bloober Team. Medium looks cool, let's read this.

I open the thread to find the same handful of people have turned it into a console warz thread centered around sales numbers and social media.

You guys really suck.

 

[SleepDoctor]

I see a thread about Microsoft acquiring Bloober Team. Medium looks cool, let's read this.

I open the thread to find the same handful of people have turned it into a console warz thread centered around sales numbers and social media.

You guys really suck.

Just report em, two of em are already tagged for warring. The less of them the better.

 

[eastwood333]

This could be a good get ONLY if MS expands greatly and Bloober moves away from controlled/linear walking sim to making a full out horror game in the vein of Silent Hill that actually has combat and free roaming.

It wouldn't surprise me if MS did acquire them.

 

[Jesb]

Gotta think this means development is going well.

 

[eastwood333]

And it probably won't even sell to 1% of those people at launch lmao

Again, I don't put much stock into the install base. It's a metric that gets more and more worthless as it grows bigger

A Spiderman expansion is not going to be bigger than Halo Infinite. Just stop. And stop shitting on every MS thread.

 

[Bernkastel]

Bernkastel welcome back ..

I’m really excited for the medium and I think MS already finished the deal .. my guess

Thanks. Excited for what both consoles pump out, particularly Demons Souls from the Sony side.

They must be very happy with The Medium.
I heard a rumor they are buying Asobo as well.

Doesnt hurt to acquire more talented devs.
More productivity = more games and less time to wait for them.

Asobo has denied those rumours.

 

[CamHostage]

I just remember them when they used to be Nibris and kept saying they where gonna make some awesome Wii horror game that turned out to be nothing. Have they actually released anything decent?

Heh, yeah, Nintendo should have snapped them up when Nibris were making headlines with Sadness...



(I don't think they technically "used to be Nibris". Bloober existed within Nibris or had one of those weird consortium relationships that exist in some European companies. Bloober had published games under its own name before Nibris folded. But apparently people from whatever was Nibris moved into Bloober Team as Nibris faded away and Bloober actually started to ship products. It's all a weird story, and that's not even talking about the weird Bomberman horror knockoff, but they do seem to be on the right track now finally.)

 

[Gravemind]

Well technically no. I mean instead of buying Bloober team and whatever going forward, they should build new studios. It's like your mom telling you that you should buy more water when you've been buying coke multiple times and then you bring up that you bought water once a long time ago.

If you subjectively like those games sure. You probably could have played them regardless of the acquisition. It's not very exciting for Microsoft benefit IMO big-picture.

Yeah, if a glass of water and a bottle of coke was a hundred million dollar investment.

That's a ridiculous metaphor. Theyve invested in new studios, and hired talented developers from competing studios. How many more studios do you want them to create? How many brand new studios are the competitors starting up?

Bloober is a fine acquisition. Hate on it if you want. Doesnt change anything.

 

[Kagey K]

Layers of Fear and Observer were good games. Blair Witch, not so much, but I chalk that up to being a licensed game.

Medium looks good and I hope they can deliver.

 

[Slings and Arrows]

Could be different reasons. Perhaps they like the idea of many smaller studios they can eventually build up. They're relatively cheap, low risk acquisitions that serve to bolster their portfolio with many simultaneous games. It may be that these are mostly the kind of studios willing to sign on with them at this point. Who knows.





If I were you I'd be careful in allowing yourself to indulge in this mindset. It's largely the same rhetoric that Xbox fans have been trumpeting since the launch of Xbox 360. Microsoft has been in the console space for almost 20 years now and they have yet to "take the throne" if you will. The closest they ever came was Xbox 360 and that took a near perfect storm of Sony dropping the ball just for them to eventually end up last place in console sales. Still very successful mind you but last place nonetheless. They followed that up with a massive ball dropping of their own and we've all seen the result of that this gen. Let's not forget that Microsoft had a lot of studios to start this generation with as well as third parties making exclusive games. Touting spending $1 billion for exclusives. https://www.gamesindustry.biz/artic...as-USD1-billion-for-exclusive-xbox-one-titles

Do yourself a favor and simply enjoy whatever games Microsoft brings you without worry of how they perform. Because the history of this industry has shown that it has rarely been kind to them. They can't win even if their competitors screw up and when they themselves screw up it costs them an entire generation of hardship. You're better off just being content with where they are and don't wrap yourself up in some idea that they're going to suddenly stand on top because they bought a handful of studios of various calibers over the last couple years.

Ironically, Microsoft cost Microsoft that generation. If Microsoft would have kept pumping games out from 2009 onwards, instead of hitting a lull and throwing everything at Kinect, then they would have won that gen.

It was that slack, that downtime and the complete abandonment of the core market in favour of chasing the farts of the Wii that cost them at the end of that gen. As soon as the core crowd saw 'fist bump' on stage at Kinect, it was a giant middle finger to the people that got them there.

Anyway, OT. I hope Microsoft pick themselves back up, but while they have a suit like Phil Spencer in charge, i don't think it will happen. Instead of trying to find another Allard or Moore, they've just found a suit and put a gaming t-shirt on him.

 

[Bernkastel]

Anyway, OT. I hope Microsoft pick themselves back up, but while they have a suit like Phil Spencer in charge, i don't think it will happen. Instead of trying to find another Allard or Moore, they've just found a suit and put a gaming t-shirt on him.

The suit is just an addon to a charming personality.

 

[Slings and Arrows]

The suit is just an addon to a charming personality.

No it's not.

I fucking loved Microsoft. They resurrected the Corpse of the Dreamcast and made the Xbox, the console with the greatest games of all time, IMO of course. Followed by the amazing 360. Give me 2001-2010 all over again, every gen because no company has done what Microsoft did.

Where they failed? By peddling corporate bullshit and marketing lies to make up for the lack of talent and understanding of the industry. That hubris and arrogance is what caused the laughable failure of the Stadia; American suits and corporate hacks thinking they know an industry, and when they fail? Fuck it, lie, bullshit and use marketing to try and fool people.

Phil Spencer is just another cardboard, clueless cunt in a suit. He's Mattrick, just a bit more polished and someone who can fool gamers in to thinking he's the second coming. He's not and he will cost Microsoft another generation.

Do you know why Allard was so different? Why the nerds who HATED Microsoft, loved the xbox? Because he was just a gamer, living the gaming dream. Appearing at E3 in jeans a hoody, sitting on the edge of a stage, playing cool games for the world to see. That's who Microsoft need. and never has it been more obvious than the contrast between Tv,Tv,Tv, marketing bollox telling gamers what they think they should want vs the down to Earth decency of Shiue Yoshida and Adam Boyes.

I want Microsoft back more than any shill, fanboy or xbot on this forum or the internet at large. The only difference between me and them, is that I can see where Microsoft is constantly failing.

But i digress massively off of the topic at hand

 

[pasterpl]

Could be different reasons. Perhaps they like the idea of many smaller studios they can eventually build up. They're relatively cheap, low risk acquisitions that serve to bolster their portfolio with many simultaneous games. It may be that these are mostly the kind of studios willing to sign on with them at this point. Who knows.

this. It seems that most of the studios that ms acquired are going through some sort of hiring spree shortly after acquisition. It seems that ms tactic is to acquire solid, it smaller devs and help them to reach the next level.

 

[martino]

Never played one their game. they are known for horror games and amnesia was my vaccine for the genre
But I'm curious about the medium. We'll see if they are a "good catch"
If Asobo rumors is real, this is a good one . The potential with a bigger team is definitely there imo.
But to me, what MS still lack is not more occidental studios pumping occidental ideas

edit : this trend of rumors of studios acquisition is strong with the new generation incoming...

 

[jakinov]

Yeah, if a glass of water and a bottle of coke was a hundred million dollar investment.

That's a ridiculous metaphor. Theyve invested in new studios, and hired talented developers from competing studios. How many more studios do you want them to create? How many brand new studios are the competitors starting up?

Bloober is a fine acquisition. Hate on it if you want. Doesnt change anything.

Well firstly, it's not a metaphor, It's an analogy., and the purpose of it was to clear up your misunderstanding of what I was saying in my post. It was to point how that you telling me that they created the initiative isn't relevant when I'm talking about what I think they should do instead of this acquisition and what I think they should do in the future..

Secondly, how much money you put in the studio is up to them could be tens of millions initially, could be 100 million. And it's not like acquiring existing studios and then going on hiring sprees is not going to cost them at least tens of millions of dollars as well.

Thirdly, they created two new studios in the last decade. One that will basically just do one PC franchise and one in California that's experimenting with deliberately being small. Then Microsoft acquired a bunch of studios with not super stellar track records. The competitor doesn't need to start studios because they had so many relationships with companies that they ended up acquiring a bunch of them over a decade ago. Their competitors are also not in a position where they need to increase their first-party output and also bring significantly more value to their platforms. They should create as many as they are willing to spend money. If they want to grow the first party, just don't buy random indie companies with mediocre track-records pump money into them while having a laissez-faire approach to managing the same leaders who were responsible for the shoddy track records. There's not a lot of good fish in the sea to acquire, so they should create their own. Forming a new studios has it's risk but you get the opportunity to search for a leader that doesn't have a bad track record to create the studio and ultimately the games that they want to be made.

Lastly, Bloober being a good acquisition is highly debatable. Just saying things as if it's true because you subjectively think it is, doesn't make it true.

.

 

[Leyasu]

Can we get a mod in here for fuck sake

 

[Ass of Can Whooping]

A Spiderman expansion is not going to be bigger than Halo Infinite. Just stop. And stop shitting on every MS thread.

Spiderman did 9 million in 2 months. Halo 5 did 5 million in 3 months

Truth hurts

Just because we're in an Xbox thread doesn't mean you're safe to speak nonsense

 

[Leyasu]

Spiderman did 9 million in 2 months. Halo 5 did 5 million in 3 months

Truth hurts

Who cares? Take this nonsense to a dedicated Sony thread

 

[Ass of Can Whooping]

Who cares? Take this nonsense to a dedicated Sony thread

Cry more baby bitch

 

[Leyasu]

Well firstly, it's not a metaphor, It's an analogy., and the purpose of it was to clear up your misunderstanding of what I was saying in my post. It was to point how that you telling me that they created the initiative isn't relevant when I'm talking about what I think they should do instead of this acquisition and what I think they should do in the future..

Secondly, how much money you put in the studio is up to them could be tens of millions initially, could be 100 million. And it's not like acquiring existing studios and then going on hiring sprees is not going to cost them at least tens of millions of dollars as well.

Thirdly, they created two new studios in the last decade. One that will basically just do one PC franchise and one in California that's experimenting with deliberately being small. Then Microsoft acquired a bunch of studios with not super stellar track records. The competitor doesn't need to start studios because they had so many relationships with companies that they ended up acquiring a bunch of them over a decade ago. Their competitors are also not in a position where they need to increase their first-party output and also bring significantly more value to their platforms. They should create as many as they are willing to spend money. If they want to grow the first party, just don't buy random indie companies with mediocre track-records pump money into them while having a laissez-faire approach to managing the same leaders who were responsible for the shoddy track records. There's not a lot of good fish in the sea to acquire, so they should create their own. Forming a new studios has it's risk but you get the opportunity to search for a leader that doesn't have a bad track record to create the studio and ultimately the games that they want to be made.

Lastly, Bloober being a good acquisition is highly debatable. Just saying things as if it's true because you subjectively think it is, doesn't make it true.

.

If you want to grow your first party quickly, then acquiring studios is the only way. It could take years to fully staff up from scratch the number of studios Microsoft needed.

These random indies with not great track records would be easier and quicker to nurture Than straight up employing hundreds of people per studio.

As I am sure that you would already be aware of that, I wonder why you keep posting the same things.

 

[Leyasu]

Cry more baby bitch

Lol what is worse, is that you are most probably an adult writing this rubbish.

 

[Bernkastel]

No it's not.

I fucking loved Microsoft. They resurrected the Corpse of the Dreamcast and made the Xbox, the console with the greatest games of all time, IMO of course. Followed by the amazing 360. Give me 2001-2010 all over again, every gen because no company has done what Microsoft did.

Where they failed? By peddling corporate bullshit and marketing lies to make up for the lack of talent and understanding of the industry. That hubris and arrogance is what caused the laughable failure of the Stadia; American suits and corporate hacks thinking they know an industry, and when they fail? Fuck it, lie, bullshit and use marketing to try and fool people.

Phil Spencer is just another cardboard, clueless cunt in a suit. He's Mattrick, just a bit more polished and someone who can fool gamers in to thinking he's the second coming. He's not and he will cost Microsoft another generation.

Do you know why Allard was so different? Why the nerds who HATED Microsoft, loved the xbox? Because he was just a gamer, living the gaming dream. Appearing at E3 in jeans a hoody, sitting on the edge of a stage, playing cool games for the world to see. That's who Microsoft need. and never has it been more obvious than the contrast between Tv,Tv,Tv, marketing bollox telling gamers what they think they should want vs the down to Earth decency of Shiue Yoshida and Adam Boyes.

I want Microsoft back more than any shill, fanboy or xbot on this forum or the internet at large. The only difference between me and them, is that I can see where Microsoft is constantly failing.

But i digress massively off of the topic at hand

Whatever you think man, but

xbot

No need to use labels on people you dont agree with.

 

[Bernkastel]

Spiderman did 9 million in 2 months. Halo 5 did 5 million in 3 months

Truth hurts

Just because we're in an Xbox thread doesn't mean you're safe to speak nonsense

Well there are less than half the amount of Xbox One than PS4.

Cry more baby bitch

Look who is crying.

 

[M1chl]

Halo Infinite will release on 3 million Series X's, 60 million XBox One's, and 150 million gaming PCs. So 223 million potential customers.

Spiderman will launch on 3 million PS5's.

223 million vs 3 million.

But imagine those free GamePass trials.

 

[cireza]

I just don’t get how y’all think a game service will outshine physical and digital games sold numbers!

Isn't this exactly what happened to movies/series and music ?

 

[Ass of Can Whooping]

Well there are less than half the amount of Xbox One than PS4.

Look who is crying.

Again, install base is a useless metric

Halo 3 pushed basically the same amount as spiderman with an install base about the size of the Xbox One

 

[Vasto]

Halo 5 will be the biggest game this holiday period. It will be bigger than all of PS5's games combined.

 

[pasterpl]

Halo 5 will be the biggest game this holiday period. It will be bigger than all of PS5's games combined.

halo infinite is more like halo 6 (halo 5 guardians was released some years ago)

 

[Bernkastel]

Halo 5 will be the biggest game this holiday period. It will be bigger than all of PS5's games combined.

halo infinite is more like halo 6 (halo 5 guardians was released some years ago)

Its true. This holiday everyone is going to buy Halo 5 again and beat GTA 5's sales.

 

[Shmunter]

Hey MS, how about creating instead of ring fencing. Nothing to be gained by cock blocking existing studios, only lost.

 

[SaucyJack]

So a few thoughts from someone that has actually done M&A work.

- Team Bloober is pretty small. Total revenue under 30 million złoty or about USD 7.5 million.
- They are a publicly traded company - Warsaw Stock Exchange. Market cap under USD 60 million
- Becuase they’re publicly traded we’ll see regulatory announcements like this
- The announcement that they are shortlisting advisors for a potential M&A process doesn’t say whether this is buy side or sell side. People are presuming the latter, which is more likely given their size but not certain.
- The announcement was that they are shortlisting 6 firms for 2nd round proposals, so they’ve got a way to go before completing this process. I wouldn’t assume any deal to be imminent. It may not even happen at all.

Sure, Microsoft might buy Bloober. They could do it easily. So could any number of other players in the industry.

My question is why would they?

Yes, Microsoft are enormous but studios aren’t in-game collectibles. You still need to manage your studios, have a strategy, etc. MS have had a major splurge on this over the last couple of years, tbh they’re in the phase where they need to get the management of these studios ticking over. Adding a small studio geographically remote from their other assets would potentially add challenges.

Dont get me wrong, they may well be thinking that strategically they want a cluster of studios in central and Eastern Europe, in which case Bloober would make more sense and would just be a first step.

Edit: as it stands Xbox games studios has very few assets outside of two main geographies: West coast USA/Canada (343, DoubleFine, InXile, Obsidian, Coalition, Initiative, Turn 10, Undead, Worlds Edge) and just North of London (Rare, Ninja Theory, Playground). Other than that they have Mojang (Sweden) and Compulsion (Montreal).

 

[Leyasu]

So a few thoughts from someone that has actually done M&A work.

- Team Bloober is pretty small. Total revenue under 30 million złoty or about USD 7.5 million.
- They are a publicly traded company - Warsaw Stock Exchange. Market cap under USD 60 million
- Becuase they’re publicly traded we’ll see regulatory announcements like this
- The announcement that they are shortlisting advisors for a potential M&A process doesn’t say whether this is buy side or sell side. People are presuming the latter, which is more likely given their size but not certain.
- The announcement was that they are shortlisting 6 firms for 2nd round proposals, so they’ve got a way to go before completing this process. I wouldn’t assume any deal to be imminent. It may not even happen at all.

Sure, Microsoft might buy Bloober. They could do it easily. So could any number of other players in the industry.

My question is why would they?

Yes, Microsoft are enormous but studios aren’t in-game collectibles. You still need to manage your studios, have a strategy, etc. MS have had a major splurge on this over the last couple of years, tbh they’re in the phase where they need to get the management of these studios ticking over. Adding a small studio geographically remote from their other assets would potentially add challenges.

Dont get me wrong, they may well be thinking that strategically they want a cluster of studios in central and Eastern Europe, in which case Bloober would make more sense and would just be a first step.

Perhaps getting the studio will be the base, which they will then use to get other people and expand.

Poland is home to CDPR and people can fly off of the top of my head. Some talent in those studios just waiting to be poached lol.

Lol just a thought

 

[Starfield]

And it probably won't even sell to 1% of those people at launch lmao

Again, I don't put much stock into the install base. It's a metric that gets more and more worthless as it grows bigger

Even if it only sells to 1% of all the listed potential customers above it will be more PS5's that will be going around in 2020. (4.37 million sold copies VS. Maybe 3 million sold PS5's in 2020)

Idk where that magic 3mil number is coming from btw but I'm basing my comparison on it now.

And let's be real, not everyone who buys a PS5 will be a fan of Spiderman or a 100% buyer(unless it comes free for every ps5 owner or something).

Halo on the other hand has a much much bigger and more established fanbase over more platforms. I'm expecting Infinitely to sell 10+mil by the end of 2020. Thats not an overstatement it's a more realistic scenario imo. There's lots of people who will buy it on the XsX or Xbox one, there's lots of people who will get it with gamepass on day 1 and then there's hundreds of thousands if not millions of new players over steam. A 10 Mil goal isn't unrealistic and certainly not impossible

 

[Bernkastel]

Hey MS, how about creating instead of ring fencing. Nothing to be gained by cock blocking existing studios, only lost.

They have created Turn 10, 343i, Coalition and Initiative. This is not cockblocking though. A lot of their studios wouldnt be making these titles(I am looking at Hellblade II and Obsidian and InXile's next project) without the support they are now getting from Microsoft. Bloober Team will also grow a lot after this acquisition.

 

[Bernkastel]

So a few thoughts from someone that has actually done M&A work.

- Team Bloober is pretty small. Total revenue under 30 million złoty or about USD 7.5 million.
- They are a publicly traded company - Warsaw Stock Exchange. Market cap under USD 60 million
- Becuase they’re publicly traded we’ll see regulatory announcements like this
- The announcement that they are shortlisting advisors for a potential M&A process doesn’t say whether this is buy side or sell side. People are presuming the latter, which is more likely given their size but not certain.
- The announcement was that they are shortlisting 6 firms for 2nd round proposals, so they’ve got a way to go before completing this process. I wouldn’t assume any deal to be imminent. It may not even happen at all.

Sure, Microsoft might buy Bloober. They could do it easily. So could any number of other players in the industry.

My question is why would they?

Yes, Microsoft are enormous but studios aren’t in-game collectibles. You still need to manage your studios, have a strategy, etc. MS have had a major splurge on this over the last couple of years, tbh they’re in the phase where they need to get the management of these studios ticking over. Adding a small studio geographically remote from their other assets would potentially add challenges.

Dont get me wrong, they may well be thinking that strategically they want a cluster of studios in central and Eastern Europe, in which case Bloober would make more sense and would just be a first step.

Edit: as it stands Xbox games studios has very few assets outside of two main geographies: West coast USA/Canada (343, DoubleFine, InXile, Obsidian, Coalition, Initiative, Turn 10, Undead, Worlds Edge) and just North of London (Rare, Ninja Theory, Playground). Other than that they have Mojang (Sweden) and Compulsion (Montreal).

This just lines up with the Microsoft buying a Polish studio rumour.

Microsoft in Poland for studio acquisition

I saw this on Era, if true then maybe their acquisition spree hasn’t ended yet. and before anyone jumps to conclusions, highly doubtful it’s CDRed. It’s in the twitter link but I’ll post it here for easier access, but here’s the list of Polish studios that are still independent. Here’s...

www.neogaf.com

Once again who will buy Bloober Team other than Microsoft, who they have a good relationship with.

 

[Dolomite]

to serve gamepass. Nothing more.

There's a funny narrative Gaf loves that Gamepass= poor quality. Like GTA, Red dead, Halo, gears or Hellblade aren't on GP.....like All 15 of MS first party studios aren't making games day and date for game pass to bolster its value.

 

[Dolomite]

Spiderman lol

And no I don't put much stock in install base.

Don't compare Mile Morales to Halo Infinite literally apples and shoe strings. A piece of standalone 6hr expansion Content to a half a billion dollar project 5 yrs in the making via one of the largest studios in the industry built from the ground up on a new engine.
Spiderman will be nice, like lost legacy or last of us left behind was nice

 

[jimbojim]

Halo Infinite will release on 3 million Series X's, 60 million XBox One's, and 150 million gaming PCs. So 223 million potential customers.

Spiderman will launch on 3 million PS5's.

223 million vs 3 million.

A Spiderman expansion is not going to be bigger than Halo Infinite. Just stop. And stop shitting on every MS thread.

Halo 5 will be the biggest game this holiday period. It will be bigger than all of PS5's games combined.

Its true. This holiday everyone is going to buy Halo 5 again and beat GTA 5's sales.

You mean bunch of gamers will borrow game, not buy it?

Why combine Halo Infinite on 3 platforms vs. Spidey on 1 platform?

How about new Spidey will sell more than Halo Infinite when you include PS5 and XSX only.

 

[Dolomite]

You mean bunch of gamers will borrow game, not buy it?

Why combine Halo Infinite on 3 platforms vs. Spidey on 1 platform?

How about new Spidey will sell more than Halo Infinite when you include PS5 and XSX only.

It won't period by any metric or standard and that's OK. Because they are 2 different games. Halo has 5 yrs of hype and anticipation, Miles Morales was announced last week.....before then no one new it existed. Every game doesn't have to be a GOW, or Halo.