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Ryuu96 on 08 February 2023
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Spade said:

I wonder when this deal fails if MS will even bother with anymore acquisitions. :/

Least it will be over and we can see all the 3rd party deals Sony has made.

I'm confident that they will but I don't think they'll attempt another major publisher acquisition, a console publisher, I do think they may still try to find a major mobile developer as that is an area they are particularly interested in and a main reason for the ABK deal, it is also clear that regulators don't give a shit about them acquiring King (or Blizzard) at all.

Mobile and PC are areas they still need significant work in, I think they have console mostly covered once their XGS + Bethesda start releasing the big guns, losing CoD does hurt Game Pass potential though and nothing can really replace that but eh, they came up with Game Pass before ABK even crossed their minds, ABK was largely about mobile (and simply a good business opportunity).

I think they'll target individual developers and a major mobile developer, I don't know who, I also think they still need to do work in PC.

Few key factors though.

  • When this deal was made, Gaming was exploding due to the pandemic and having cash in the bank was a bad idea because interest rates were shit.

  • Politics have changed which Microsoft didn't expect, if ABK is blocked solely due to CoD and little legal merit, they are unlikely to bother with anyone else who has a huge IP under their belt, if regulators successfully block this then they'll see Microsoft as weakened and do it again.

  • AI is the new, next craze, Microsoft is investing massively into it, it's no longer about Gaming which was the craze during the pandemic, Microsoft has moved their interests largely now to battling Google in AI, I think they're going to move a significant amount of investment there.

I do wonder if this is a battle bigger than Xbox for Microsoft, if they can't acquire someone in an industry they're being pounded in then where can they? Might be why they're fighting it so hard, they don't want to be seen as someone who rolls over easy to regulators because they'll take advantage of that on Microsoft's next big acquisition.

Anyway, as I said, I think they'll still seek a mobile developer but I think as far as the console business goes, Satya will probably tell Xbox to make do with what they already have outside of a few individual studio acquisitions.