I think it's worth considering the Japanese employee argument.
I do believe that Japan is pretty patriotic and who can blame em when Japan is the birthplace of the console industry, Sony and Nintendo both being Japanese companies, I do start to believe that Japanese developers want to release on PlayStation and/or Nintendo because they want to support their local industry and because they make up like 99% of the market and Xbox makes up that remaining 1%, Lmao.
It could be why we haven't seen Microsoft try to acquire anyone in Japan yet, despite saying multiple times that they want to and rumours they are doing so, it could be a cultural clash and there's a very real risk that any Japanese company they acquire might have an exodus of employees who don't want to only work with Xbox. This could be Microsoft saying to Tango that they will support their home market.
And if this is the case then really Microsoft doesn't have much choice.
Thinking back on the leaked Microsoft document where Microsoft would have promised to keep every Sega IP multiplatform in an acquisition, why would they do that? I don't mind but thinking about it, it is odd, this document is around the same time that Phil said "every future Zenimax title exclusive!" in emails and Matt said "PS ports? Nah! Screw that!"
Zenimax I think has more bigger IPs than Sega, likely cost more, why would Elder Scrolls be exclusive but a mid-sized franchise with popularity in the West like Yakuza wouldn't be? And then Sega doesn't have anything close to the size of a regular Call of Duty release which is promised to be multiplatform due to its impact on the industry, you could maybe make an argument for Sonic but that IP is battered in 2024.
Idas thinks they were close to acquiring Sega but ultimately stopped at some point. What makes Sega different to Zenimax? Nothing as far as I'm concerned aside from location, I don't believe Yakuza would need PlayStation to be financially successful, nor would Sonic and some other IP, I don't believe regulators would give a shit about Segas IP as they didn't care about anything from ABK aside from COD.
Is the promise of multiplatform a way to prevent an exodus of employees?
Who knows, we don't know anything official yet, Lmao. It is more likely what I said above though, Hi-Fi Rush didn't sell well, they want to expand its userbase via Switch 2 for a possible sequel later on, they want to keep Tango happy, a combination of factors, ultimately still a niche title which won't hurt them too much, as long as the major AAA exclusives still remain exclusive.
Last edited by Ryuu96 - on 06 January 2024
