All Third Parties Publishers are being bought out by the Big 3. Who goes to who?

[zorg1000]

HylianYoshi said:

All your favorite 3rd parties go bankrupt and now they are being bought out by Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo, to be made exclusive developers to their consoles. To which of the Big 3 do you think each 3rd party matches up well with?

This is a hypothetical situation, not a prediction or anything of that sort. We're talking about the whole publisher here, not just individual studios (except indies) or individual IP. If there are two publishers owned by the same company (e.g. 2K and Rockstar, Sega and Atlus), they are allowed to go to seperate owners. If there is a publisher owned by a bigger company, like Warner Bros, it can still go to a 1st party. Just use whatever publishers you want to use.

 

Here's my list:

Sony - Atlus, Bandai Namco, Square Enix, Rockstar Games, Activision

Microsoft - EA, Bethesda, 2K Games, Ubisoft

Nintendo - Sega, Capcom, Koei Tecmo

For the most part, I would agree with you except that Atlus is owned by Sega so wherever Sega goes, Atlus goes. Also I think Nintendo would pick up Level-5, they don't want to lose Yokai Watch. Bandai-Namco is also one I think Nintendo would try to get but could see Sony getting them. Platinum Games also has a pretty solid relationship with Nintendo so I could see Nintendo picking them up.

Sony would probably pick up Kojima's new studio or form a new studio around him. I could also see them getting Tecmo-Koei instead of Nintendo.

I agree on Microsoft, maybe pick up a Japanese studio just to give a little incentive for Japanese gamers to buy an Xbox, not sure who though.

Overall Sony would get a mix of Western & Japanese studios, Microsoft primarily Western and Nintendo primarily Japanese.

Edit: didn't notice the part of studios able to split up, in that case ya Atlus could go to Sony but Nintendo also has a solid relationship with them so I could see it going either way.