I'd rather Nintendo. I don't want to lose Simon and Richter in Smash.
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With these talks of acquisitions, is it possibly for a big Japanese Publisher(Square, Bamco, Capcom, Sega, etc) to be bought?
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I'd rather Nintendo. I don't want to lose Simon and Richter in Smash.
Not even remotely close to reality. People keep trying to tie Mistwalker to Microsoft ever since Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey, but they need to take a close look at the development of both of those games.
Mistwalker is basically Sakaguchi and 2-3 assistants developing the creative and then outsourcing development to studios they believe are fits.
Lost Odyssey = Feelplus
Blue Dragon = Artoon (Blinx the Timesweeper and Yoshi's Island DS)
ASH = Rackjin
Blue Dragon Plus = Brownie Brown and Feelplus
Away = Artoon
The Last Story = AQ Interactive/Artoon
I worked on Terra Battle and it was a very small indie team of contractors and Mistwalker ended up partnering with Silicon Studio (Bravely Default, 3D Dot Game Heroes) to make Terra Battle 2.
If anyone is wanting to "buy" Mistwalker, it's because they want Sakaguchi-san to make games for them. If he has ramped up hiring the past two years, then that's news to me, but as far as I know, Mistwalker = Sakaguchi with outsourcing and a few contractors.
this. & remind me, what was the last successful japanese exclusive on a microsoft console?...
i don't think so. Bandai Namco has also said that they are interested in acquisitions, for example.
Bandai and Square Enix would be way too expensive and most of SE's wealth comes from mobile and MMOs.
Capcom is the only one that would be feasible, and even then you're talking about a multi billion dollar purchase. Think about how many AAA games and marketing deals you could do with that money, it's almost certainly not worth it even if Capcom agreed to the sale.
Capcom is the only one that would be feasible, and even then you're talking about a multi billion dollar purchase. Think about how many AAA games and marketing deals you could do with that money, it's almost certainly not worth it even if Capcom agreed to the sale.
License their IPs maybe, but not sell them. They need them for pachinko.
Thing about buying a Japanese gaming corporation is they are indeed a corporation and you'd be buying toy companies, comic book publishers, Animation houses, and a whole lot more along with the game studios.
Mmh, yes? I already knew everything you wrote in your post (well except for you having worked on Terra Battle).
If MS bought them it would spell the slow death or irrelevance for the developer. It's not going to make the japanese gamer buy an xbox or gaming PC. Generally those devs make games that appeal to Japanese gamer tastes and it's a lot of what makes them who they are. If they were bought I could imagine that a lot of the staff would eventually split off on their own into smaller developers.
Literally the only good thing about Sega or SE getting acquired is that I would know which console to buy next-gen. There's very little in the way of pro-consumer outcomes.
assuming we're facing a sub service future sure there probably will be a lot of that. or something of the sort
I could see Microsoft buying a portion of Sega 30%-60%, let them sell the Xbox rebranded (Dreamcast X) in the east as well as power their Sega Fog Cloud while Sega publishes everything in the east (even XGS games) and they bring their games exclusively to the west on Microsoft's platforms of console/pc/streaming with XGS publishing in the west. Work through adding all the back catalogue to Gamepass and let the Xbox Backwards Compatibility team go HAM on emulators for old Sega consoles/games.
Sony I could see cutting some kind of exclusivity deal with Square in return for cash and movie/tv deals for their properties.
Sony I could see cutting some kind of exclusivity deal with Square in return for cash and movie/tv deals for their properties.
They'd be better off calling it the Saturn X in Japan. But yes, I think Microsoft would get the most value from obtaining access to the back catalogue of someone like Sega or Capcom, though much of Capcom's most memorable back catalogue is already playable on Xbox (Resident Evil, Mega Man Collections, etc.) So the Sega back catalogue is probably their best chance. Stick that on Game Pass and you have a constant reason to stay subscribed
So you just want Microsoft to hire Sakaguchi-san exclusively since they wouldn't get anything out of a Mistwalker purchase besides Sakaguchi-san and the IPs he owns. Got it. Not a smart buy given their acquisition strategy the past 4-5 years.
Anything is possible, the question is more is it likely.
Which IMO with where the bigger companies are at the moment (Square, Sega, Capcom). I don't think it'll happen unless they hit on hard times again.
If Capcom would've been bought, the time for that was a few years ago vs now for example.
Stuff like Level 5 and the like are a lot more likely if we see anything happen.
Which IMO with where the bigger companies are at the moment (Square, Sega, Capcom). I don't think it'll happen unless they hit on hard times again.
If Capcom would've been bought, the time for that was a few years ago vs now for example.
Stuff like Level 5 and the like are a lot more likely if we see anything happen.
As much as some of you folk would like making these games exclusive to your favorite box, thankfully, none of the big publishers are likely to be acquired by any of the Big 3
Aren't those companies too big to buy? Maybe you could buy like, Platinum or someone like that, but they seem ok just having people fund their games for exclusivity and not being owned.
OP
OP
Reason why I made the thread was that people in the recent PlayStation acquisition as well as the Xbox ones we've had people have both ironically and seriously suggested these or similar size pubs.
Capcom's probably the only one out of four that I could see and that's if they reach a real low point.
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I'm sure you yourself weren't saying that sorta stuff. I was mainly referring to the folk in this thread and the one you're referring to
Yeah, it's not looking likely that any of them would be acquired, which is great as they should remain multiplatform. Some smaller developers may potentially get picked up but I only see that happening if they already primarily support one platform anyways and, even there, I'd rather see them open up to supporting more platforms instead
Nope. Matt said Sony could buy any of them if they really wanted to.
Most of those companies have a total net value of at least 5 billion. Majority shareholders only sell at a profit so you would be paying even more for an acquisition . Neither Sony or Microsoft could convince the Board members or shareholders to use 8 billion or so of on hand cash revenue to perform a hostile takeover.
Probably not.
Generally speaking, publishers don't like to buy other publishers. They end up acquiring a lot of staff and facilities that they don't need or want.
You would be hard pressed to name the last time a major publisher bought-out another healthy major publisher.
Generally speaking, publishers don't like to buy other publishers. They end up acquiring a lot of staff and facilities that they don't need or want.
You would be hard pressed to name the last time a major publisher bought-out another healthy major publisher.
I don't think there is any remote possibility of Microsoft or Sony acquiring Bandai Namco, they are too diverse in terms of business sectors. Their holding company anyway.
Possible? Yes.
Likely? No. It'd be extremely expensive, involve a lot of redundancies (read firings), and enormous headaches for everyone involved. And any multiplatform franchise loses a ton of a value when it goes exclusive. There's good reasons a platform owner wouldn't want to go through the trouble of acquiring a whole ass publisher, and there's good reasons why a publisher wouldn't want to become owned by a platform holder.
There's situations, where if a publisher is dissolving or if they're a publisher that only makes games for one platform already, or if a publishers audience is nearly exclusive to one platform, where maybe it makes more sense, but still. It's easier and better for everyone for platform holders to make exclusivity deals on a per game basis.
Likely? No. It'd be extremely expensive, involve a lot of redundancies (read firings), and enormous headaches for everyone involved. And any multiplatform franchise loses a ton of a value when it goes exclusive. There's good reasons a platform owner wouldn't want to go through the trouble of acquiring a whole ass publisher, and there's good reasons why a publisher wouldn't want to become owned by a platform holder.
There's situations, where if a publisher is dissolving or if they're a publisher that only makes games for one platform already, or if a publishers audience is nearly exclusive to one platform, where maybe it makes more sense, but still. It's easier and better for everyone for platform holders to make exclusivity deals on a per game basis.
Both Sega and Bamco are really huge, they're just not for videogames you know. Konami is also really big as well.
From the list mentioned it's only really Capcom but they're super stubborn and do well for themselves. They may mishandle fighting games but not the rest of their portfolio.
From the list mentioned it's only really Capcom but they're super stubborn and do well for themselves. They may mishandle fighting games but not the rest of their portfolio.
The big gaming publishers in Japan are Sega Sammy, Bandai Namco, Square Enix, Capcom and Konami. They're too diverse to be bought out by another company.
www.segasammy.co.jp
You can't be serious? Look at the list of companies owned by Sega Sammy Holdings.
Group Companies List｜Corporate Information｜SEGA SAMMY HOLDINGS
Group Companies List of SEGA SAMMY HOLDINGS INC. are described.
www.segasammy.co.jp
You can't be serious? Look at the list of companies owned by Sega Sammy Holdings.
Konami would be a complete waste of money, from a videogame standpoint.
Possible, yes
Extremely stupid short term, yes
Extremely stupid long term, maybe it depends
Will it happen, very unlikely
Extremely stupid short term, yes
Extremely stupid long term, maybe it depends
Will it happen, very unlikely
It was Bandai that Nintendo tried to buy. But I am pretty sure it wasn't Japanese law that stopped it, they just wanted to be bought by Namco instead. It worked out well tbh as they got Monolith Soft in the end.
I'd imagine Sony is too Americanized now yo make big moves with a big Japanese publisher / developer and Microsoft is in a worse position. Nintendo isn't interested in that type of business transaction, they'd rather just use their own studios to make games that rival / exceed what they previously lacked.
I will reply with a pretty strong 'hopefullly not'! And I don't think it's likely, no. I also really wish consumers wouldn't have wet dreams to see 'their' favorite first party platform to be stronger which would always come at the expense of gamers as a whole. Acquisitions of individual studios make sense sometimes, and they are a common business practice, but losing one of the big publishers would also take away a lot for the other players.
Afaik Leyou only helped with the acquisition of SNK, the actual owner is another Chinese company, 37Games.
MS would not be able to buy much as no Japanese company would agree to say goodbye to 80% of their sales which are on PS and NS, unless MS throws in a shitload of money which they would do only for a small number of names (which again benefit way more from multiplat sales);
Sony already has the overwhelming majority of sales in PS4/XBO titles, so much that some series are basically non-official exclusives;
Nintendo is just not interested in buying companies and J titles sell well already;
Both Sony and Nintendo also already have a large number of exclusives from all kind of devs, so why bother in spending extra money to secure a minimal percentage of potential sales?
The only acquisition I could see is Sony buying Kadokawa (From Software) as that would tie in their renewed interest in anime.
Sony already has the overwhelming majority of sales in PS4/XBO titles, so much that some series are basically non-official exclusives;
Nintendo is just not interested in buying companies and J titles sell well already;
Both Sony and Nintendo also already have a large number of exclusives from all kind of devs, so why bother in spending extra money to secure a minimal percentage of potential sales?
The only acquisition I could see is Sony buying Kadokawa (From Software) as that would tie in their renewed interest in anime.
SEGA is a part of Sega Sammy Holdings. Do people just want the games division to be bought? Who says the company would be willing to break itself up?? The head of Sega Sammy is still the original founder of Sammy Corporation Hajime Satomi. Why would he want his company to be broken up or bought??