Well, it's a free market so things will happen and that's that. But we were in a better place before the big acquisition wars started, It doesn't seem to ever go well for gamers or the industry itself.
I think there are exceptions, studios that have worked so close to the main company that they have been de facto first party anyways. Those are OK.

IPs is worse. Far worse. Control of the popular games is a determent over just buying a studio and failing them.

IPs is what MS did, MS didn't buy to get studios or build a diverse set of developers, they bought because they didn't have IPs and needed them. Bethesda, Activions, even Ninja Theory and Obsidian, MS now own those IPs the studios did. Buying studios is what Sony did.

A reminder that after all of the acquisitions, MS now own World of Warcraft, Overwatch, Diablo, Fallout, Elder Scrolls, Doom, Wolfenstein, Call of Duty, Crash, Spyro, to name but a few of them. Meanwhile Sony own...well, I can't think of any older IPs they own that they didn't already create.

Look at what MS bought over the years vs Sony, actual comparison, not a blind "They are doing the same thing." 

MS purchased Ninja Theory (a 3rd party dev), Obsidian (3rd party dev), inXile (3rd party dev that even made games for Linux, doubt they will anymore). Only really close relationship studios (2nd party) they bought was Playground, who were making Forza Horizon anyway, and Undead for State of Decay.

Then they purchased Zenimax and all that included and then ABK, and all that included. 2 massive 3rd party publishers, not devs, it just came with loads of studios. 

Let's now look at Sony's. Housemarque, Firesprite, Bluepoint and Insomniac were all basically 2nd party anyway. Nixxes was a PC port specialist and they used them for obvious reasons. Then they purchase Firewalk and Haven, new studios with new games (one not even released yet), the less said about the former well. And then Bungie... which was a mistake but seemingly in desperation because MS was buying up all the biggest IPs on Sony console that weren't made by Sony.

Do you see the difference?

Honestly, MS and Sony should be allowed to buy any amount of studios they like, they can do what they want with them, fail them, close them if needed but control of IPs? Just no. Because at the end of the day, at the end of that "10 year deal", MS could if they wanted just remove all of the above listed IPs from competing platforms, Nintendo, Playstation and Steam and alike and say "No, you come to us for those now." And you have no say in the matter.

Technically they can do this with their Bethesda and Blizzard catalogue already.

I am also of the opinion that Sony's and especially Xbox's studio acquisitions over the past years have been a net negative for the gaming industry (Nintendo seems to act more responsible in their approach). But I do not believe creating videogame industry-specific laws would be the right solution, this is one of the inherent mechanisms of capitalism so if you don't want it you need to regulate it on a general level.

As for the studios that got bought, it is valid to point out that these were not all hostile takeovers. Some studios that were struggling financially very much welcomed the prospect of more substantial and reliable financial backing. I commented this under one of the news articles about the upcoming Xbox studio closures as well, I am not in doubt that Xbox has mismanaged their studios and that ordinary employees now by the hundreds and thousands pay the price for it by loosing their livelihood. If you want to look at it positively though, these studios have all at one point or another said that they were happy to join Xbox because now they had the financial backing to just focus on making the game they want; albeit that to a certain extent surely also was the PR statement they were expected to give, it will be interesting to hear some years from now how Tim Schafer & Co are looking back at their time under Xbox- are they damning the day they gave up their independence or are they content with that at least for some years they were able to do more or less just what they creatively wanted, without worrying whether their studio would survive or not. I don't think Keeper would look the way it does if an independent Double Fine made it and Kiln probably doesn't get made at all. I could imagine that for an artist, having the opportunity to once give it your all is very valuable. From the perspective of someone needing to make a living, having a job is better than not having one, so the verdict will probably also depend on whether they manage to land on their feet again.

That being said, I would prefer we could have more success stories like Yacht Club's (I am currently having a great time with Mina the Hollower), where they maybe struggle but at the end of it put out a great game that generates the revenue they need for business to continue and them keeping their independence.

Well a lot of these studio's want to be bought. They might be a startup looking for the big paycheck. It might be that the founders are looking for retirement and look for big payday. There might be multiple reasons. Also that an acquisition does not pan out in the end is not just the fault of the new owners.

I think no one should.

Agree, because Microsoft basically sodomized it's developers, just like Bill Gates fucked kids. The Epstein files don't lie.

Silly proposition. For starters, let’s not compare MicroSony and Nintendo in this regard. They are almost in different markets because their businesses are so different. Personally the less MicroSony are like Nintendo the better.

Secondly in a lot of these situations if big publishers don’t buy the studios then the studios will fail and cease to exist. Let’s say MS closes Compulsion, that sucks, but had they not bought them in the first place, they’d have shuttered years ago.

Same can be said for Ninja Theory, potentially even Obsidian. And plenty of the studios Sony has or are rumored to be closing. For every ABK deal where there seems to be no reason for a publisher to buy a studio, there are lots of deals that happen because the studios is looking to be acquired because they have no choice.

Feel free to criticize some of the strategies and practices of MicroSony management, but it’s always good for studios to not be closed down, even if it means being bought by a big publisher.

I'm just curious what was your reaction to the Rare ,Mojang (minecraft), ZeniMax Media (Bethesda,id software, Arkane, Machine games, Tango gameworks, ect), Playgrounds, Activision, Blizzard, King.... ?

I don't think Xbox has ever really grown 1 studio, to be successful by themselves.
Everything they have, they bought.

If they couldn't buy studios, and had to form them, themselves and build them up.... there would be no xbox today imo.


Also lets not act like it is only Xbox that buys studios.
Nintendo has bought like 5 studios in the last few years.
Also even nintendo has a history were it shuts down these studios it has bought.

It is not just sony and microsoft/xbox.

They should still be allowed - All of these studio's agreed to be taken over, as others have said most would have folded on their own beforehand - lots of the devs inside these studio's have great opportunities to move jobs and probably benefit financially from the takeover in the first place

Not sure what difference this makes if the studio is closed down. The only difference is that you have 2 studios potentially closed down (if the one that could've been bought instead goes under).

There are studios that need to be bought out in order to continue their survival, either because their parent company has no use for them or because they just aren't getting enough projects to keep them afloat. 

At the end of the day, if a studio is struggling and the overall cost to keep them operational has overtaken the revenue they bring in, then obviously they are going to be at risk. I'm unsure how Nintendo structures their studios, and I'm sure there's something there they are doing right. 

Studios being closed is not great. People losing their jobs is even worst. But if being bought out is a lifeline for a studio and it's devs, then a few more years is better for them.