So with reports flying everywhere that MS is aggressively pursuing 3rd party exclusives and the their check books are wide open, what are some games / franchises that are actually obtainable for them?

All evidence points to them already aquiring Respawns new game.

Bethesda games?

EA?

Ubisoft games?

A Japanese developer?

Either way May 21st and E3 should be very interesting

i don't want anyone buying any third party game.

I think they're done trying to get Japan.

EA seems to be supporting them a lot as is Activision. I predict there might be some form of DRM going on here for these 2 on nextbox (Assuming the whole publisher can choose thing.)

Too late for that.  Everyone in the industry is reporting MS has the money flowing. Kotaku, Polygon, Game Informer, Giant Bomb, NeoGaf etc.

Almost none that you've listed up there. I remember they tried with Epic, but they weren't successful.

It would be cool if they get their hands on Capcom.

well it's pretty damn stupid how the gaming industry has turned into this, people will end up buying PS4's just to play finalfantasy, and then they will have to get the nextbox to play some ea game or respawns exclusive

it's a smart move, it's just stupid how the gaming industry has turned into a bidding war

i have no clue which developer they will pay money to get an exclusive but if we talk about which games, probably new ips where the publisher doesn't really know if it will be a huge success or not to be safe with some extra cash but i think if microsoft will pay for more as one exclusive game they will be only timed exclusive (maybe one year). that would be cheaper for microsoft and would be also better for the publisher if that game will be a huge success on xbox because they surely want to make more games then and sell them on every console which would be bad without the first game on the system.

but i don't think ubisoft since they get already a lot of money from sony for exclusive content in their games.

Bethesda has shown in the past that they value extra dollars from Microsoft more than they value their fans, so they're a possibility.

However, we're probably mainly talking about new IP in terms of possible exclusives, or perhaps existing IP that haven't done stellar numbers, kind of like Bayonetta. IP doing huge numbers right now wouldn't make a lot of sense, as even Microsoft wouldn't counter-balance hundreds of millions of dollars lost.

The obvious choice would be with shooters, of course, which is where the 360 had its biggest lead over the PS3 in terms of units sold. Ironically, the 720 probably has enough exclusive shooters, so more might be kind of a waste of money.

They were successful with Epic.....they locked down Gears of War last gen.

Im not asking if MS is buying the developer lol. Im asking which of those developers / publishers theyll pay for an exclusive.  It could be any of those.

Any franchise that already sells a ton on PS3/PC will not be worth the money they'd have to pay for it. So new IPs from big studios are most likely to be snapped up, which makes it hard to speculate about which if any will be bought.