Brings me back to 2008 and Nintendo and his Wii strategy :(.

Its all fine being a gamer and wishing for exclusive games on a platform from first party studios but its completely another thing to run a gaming business.

Most people in this thread don't have much business sense in wishing for these studios to be bought by MS. Studios is only as good as people working there, and people tend to leave sooner or later.

MS learned their lesson with RARE, doubt they will ever "buy" a studio again. Instead they will build them from scratch...

Bungie left for a reason. They want to make multiplattform games.

Your list has little regard for a realistic cost benefit analysis. More then that it has no regard for the different cultures at play in acquisition. The manufacturer wants a studio who will fit in to their corporate culture. Some of those you listed would be like jamming a square block into a round hole. When there is a chance that an acquisition will cause great harm to a studio it probably shouldn't be acquired. What good does it do if everyone jumps ship.

With that in mind I will give you my more rational list.

Gearbox Software

This is the kind of studio that could be a real work horse for Microsoft. They have a couple decent properties. Have a lot of experience with first person shooter. Work well with others, and isn't exactly riding high right now with the critical slashing that Duke Nukem has received. That may help make them a decent purchase.

Obsidian Entertainment.

This may perhaps seem like a strange choice, but there is a lot of potential in this developer. Perhaps not the very best, but hardly the worst. This is a developer that mimics Bioware. With a little tender loving care it could even enjoy the same kind of success. Right now severely undervalued. They could deliver a high value western role playing game to Microsoft's console every one to two years.

Platinum Games

Talk about a dark horse. In two years they delivered Bayonetta, Vanquish, and Mad World. They are consistently in the mid eighties for meta reviews, and even have a regional bonus for Microsoft in that they are in Japan. This is simply a quality developer that is developing games that Microsoft needs to have in its exclusive catalog.

I'm in two minds, I don't know whether they should just give up Japan and acknowledge that they can't compete or invest heavily and try to win some kind of a presence.

They showed strong sales in the region in the release weeks of Blue Dragon/Tales of Vesperia/Star Ocean, but then failed to keep up a steady flow of these titles. I don't believe purchasing Mistwalker or Platinum will do much to turn the tides either. The issue is development time of games for a single studio to be effective.

So it's either decide to do something and buy 5 studios in Japan or don't bother for mine.

I agree with the previous statement that Microsoft most likely is not in the business to buy these days. I mean, they sold Bizarre Creations not too long ago...So what happens to Project Gotham, I wonder....?
However, if they were to buy a studio it would probably be a more low key one, like Silicon Knights. I personally think it would be great if they picked up Tri-Crescendo, shoot even Monolith-Soft (since barely any of their games make it out to the states).
That being said, what kind of studios do you think MS would be looking for?

Also I'm not sure why Infinity Ward is listed. The employees who left to join EA have formed Respawn Studios, and the one who've stayed are still acknowledged as Infinity Ward and are teaming up with Sledgehammer to make the new MW3. In other words: They ain't goin' nowhere.

Yes Mistwalker is the best.

sure, cause that's just what we need, more consolidation :/

I agree with buying out Bungie.

I could give out 2 resons for every one reason why microsoft couldnt purchase them and probably shouldnt purchase.

Epic game are a one franchise wonder. oh they got gears of war but what else? not worthy for the price they would cost, and they will make more money without being first party because of the unreal engine so no deal for that one.

Crytek more or less the same reason as epic games.

Mistwalker have done nothing relevant since it opened.

Bungie has done nothing but create halo. Yh it is huge, if microsoft got them years ago it would be a steal, but with the rep they have, too expensive, and MS own halo so whats the point?

Ninja theory. Cant argue with that pic, talented British devs.