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Forums - Microsoft Discussion - Microsoft Might Be Forced To Purchase Epic Games!

huaxiong90 on 21 February 2010
Sharky54 said:
I'll LOL so hard if sony sneaks in and buys them :P

That'd be quite a blow to Microsoft. As Xellos mentioned earlier, Sony can benefit from this.

 

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Sharky54 on 21 February 2010

If Microsoft buys epic. PC gamers will lose out on UT. Those are some amazing games. I doubt Microsoft would let epic make them for PC and xbox.



Recon1O1 on 21 February 2010

If recent history is an indication of MS intent they don't want to own any studios. Why chance potential losses in a very risky business? Exclusivity has been handled with Bungie, Bioware, Epic etc. without outright ownership so far. Why would they potentially create a less efficient company that takes more risks with MS money? Innovation will suffer long term.

How many of Sony's 1st party devs are making profit and how much? The hd twins operate in a different world from Nintendo where user base and dev. costs are big positives. A look at the list of failed devs. in 2009 shows that making good games guarantees nothing.



dsister44 on 21 February 2010
SpartanFX said:
i don't know if you guys have noticed but MS strategy is not focusing on first party at all.(for god sake they didn't purchase bungie)

now as for Epic,epic games without a multi-plat engine does not make sense financially.

also MS has some of the best dev kit/tools creators .so they won't need epic to make a dev kit for them for their future consoles. so it does not make any sense at all.

They did buy Bungie. Microsoft just let them leave. 



jarrod on 21 February 2010
matt247 said:
unlikely. EA/Activision are most likely to buy them. Epic makes a lot of money off of the unreal engine, so id MS bought them then they would lose a lot of potential money because they wouldn't want the engine to run on other systems and and developers would have to license a two different engines if they wanted to be multiplatformer or go with another engine. Epic will still have a strong relationship with Microsoft, just look at Valve; MS gave Left 4 Dead 2 a codename even when EA was the publisher.

EA owning it would kill UE3 entirely, just like what happened with Renderware after the Criterion buyout.  I think it'd be the same with Activision honestly, no one would license it due to the ownership and it'd die.

The best bet for UE3 would be if another (non-gaming) large media or technology company bought Epic.



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Legend11 on 21 February 2010
Sharky54 said:
I'll LOL so hard if sony sneaks in and buys them :P


LOL,  the chances are probably better of Epic buying Sony someday considering how much Sony is shrinking in market share in almost every area it competes in.



jarrod on 21 February 2010

Sony can't afford to buy Epic at the moment. Besides, that's totally sink UE3, which is Epic's most attractive component.



Reasonable on 21 February 2010
heruamon said:
NeoRatt said:
Microsoft would probably have a tough time buying Epic because of the Unreal Engine. Regulators would probably look at it as a monopoly move...

Also, Microsoft is obviously thinking that 1st party developers is not a good long term strategy. I am not sure why, but there have been some real obvious opportunities for first party purchases that they have simply passed up... Midway, Bioware, Pandemic, etc.

Monopoly?  In what way?  M$ IS the smallest developer amongst it's competitors and Unreal is one of many choices on the market?  Who exactly would pursue this case, and on what technical grounds...hmmm...after the bullshit fines EU has placed on US companies...maybe they might.

The scenario could be this, and this assumes MS want to limit Epic and Unreal engine to 360/PC only:

 

I'm a company with a contract for Unreal Engine and support making a game for PS3 based on Unreal.

MS buy Unreal and it becomes clear they want to try and shut down ongoing support for Unreal engine for multiplatform titles

I complain MS are unfairly competiting by buying Epic solely to prevent me producing my PS3 game or I complain at MS trying to renage on my contract which effectively they bought with Epic.

 

I really don't know what types of support contract Epic has, but a ton of multiplatform titles/projets use the Unreal engine so I suspect it wouldn't be a cut and dried purchase by MS unless they split Epic in two and allowed the engine development and support to remain fully geared to multiplatform - which its hard to imagine MS finding attractive as an option.

 



Try to be reasonable... its easier than you think...

Reasonable on 21 February 2010
jarrod said:
matt247 said:
unlikely. EA/Activision are most likely to buy them. Epic makes a lot of money off of the unreal engine, so id MS bought them then they would lose a lot of potential money because they wouldn't want the engine to run on other systems and and developers would have to license a two different engines if they wanted to be multiplatformer or go with another engine. Epic will still have a strong relationship with Microsoft, just look at Valve; MS gave Left 4 Dead 2 a codename even when EA was the publisher.

EA owning it would kill UE3 entirely, just like what happened with Renderware after the Criterion buyout.  I think it'd be the same with Activision honestly, no one would license it due to the ownership and it'd die.

The best bet for UE3 would be if another (non-gaming) large media or technology company bought Epic.

Yah, that's the point I was making earlier.  Epic's middlware engine business puts a totally different slant on any purchase.

It'd be funny if someone like Bethesda bought them, after id they'd be sitting on arguably two of the three (valve being the other) key engine developers from PC.  I doubt they'd buy them as this would simply given them two essentially competing engines, but I agree with you it would be better if a neutral tech company bought them vs EA, Activision, MS, Sony, etc.



Try to be reasonable... its easier than you think...

papflesje on 21 February 2010
Xelloss said:
S.T.A.G.E. said:
Xelloss said:

If Sony was smart, they would find the financing to pick up Epic, and partner Epic with their hardware division. Ie: Have the best engines, tools and middleware available pre-launch for the PS4 to guarantee that the PS4 isnt a repeat of PS3.

Hrmm....Sony and a PC company? nahhhh. Microsoft has much better relationships with them.

Epic isnt a PC company. They are a middleware/hardware support company. The hardware they support, happens to include most major PC hardware, but they are not a "PC company".  Engines, design tools, programming support, technical integration & etc for multiple platforms... that is what Epic does. Which is also exactly what Sony failed to provide pre PS3 launch, and along with poor pricepoint, is why PS3 suffered for so long.

 

Oh, and Epic occasionally builds a game based on their tech , partly for game profits but mostly to showcase.

 

 EDIT: @papflesje : Naughty dog is not set up to provide tools or support to 3rd parties. They are skilled with certain aspect of coding to be sure, but they are primarily a game maker. Epics buisiness model is one of licensing to 3rd parties and providing not just tools but support for those tools.

 Somethng people forget, is PS1 succes was largely prediated on Sony wisely aquiring European Publisher Psygnosis , which was responsivle for some of the best Amiga games, and also had some really good development tools that were converted for use with the PS1 and shared with all, significantly lowering early dev costs and increasing quality. Sony needs to remember these things.

Hmm, I think ND does indeed deliver tools for other devs (because of their great knowledge of the hardware) tbh.