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Forums - Microsoft Discussion - Microsoft is a likely bidder for Take-Two takeover - GTA going exclusive?

Fanatical111 on 29 July 2008

If Microsoft was looking at this, they are not looking at it like many of you are suggesting.

Firstly, the concept of loosing money or subtracting 2.5 billion from there bottom line is comical. Accounting does not work like this for those of you who don't no. If Microsoft buys TT which IMO is a real possiblity, TT becomes a subsidary. What this means is there assets now come on to Microsofts Balance Sheet at year's end. Items such as property, plant, equipment, external assets, internal assets etc. are now owned by Microsoft (or whomever buy's them) and given a dollar figure. Technically, they would be buying TT for $500m - $1bln (estimated) as they remainder would be accounted for in what Microsoft was attaining from there purchase.

The reason MS could buy them is the have the largest floating cash flow out of any other business in the world. They have "liquid assets" that can be used right away. A company like EA probably has to consolidate its assets and income (which I guess they have done by now) to follow through with such a large purchase.

Personally, I don't really care if they buy them or not. The game will always come out on Microsoft's platform.



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the2bears on 29 July 2008

MorgZ said:


However rediculous it sounds it may be the sports franchises and upsetting EA that would concern MS the most.

That's really ridiculous, you're right.  Why would Microsoft be interested in upsetting EA?  I doubt they consider them a competitor at all.

 



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POOKEE on 29 July 2008
masterb8tr said:
well personally i dont care, cause i dont like gta or bioshock, but it would be sad if ms managed to monopolize the video game industry.

 

I would loose all me munnies'.



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  • PS3: 20. million
  • X360: 23. million
  • WII: 40. million        

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gebx on 29 July 2008

I've said it once and I'll said it again!!

MS should stick to what it does best and that's buying out the competition! Its about time they started applying those tactis to their Xbox division.



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gebx on 29 July 2008
CrashMan said:
Keep in mind, around 40% of the profitability of the game comes from the fact that it is multi-platform. Run the numbers and see that (est) 42% of the sales come from the PS3 version, subtract a few percent for PS360 owners who bought the PS3 version instead, and you are looking at around 60% profit potential. Now, if MS estimates a large enough fanbase for the next GTA release to counterbalance this, then fair enough, but its not as cut and dry as comparing the profitability of the franchise to the bidding price.

You're ignoring the costs of making the PS3 version.



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BengaBenga on 29 July 2008
Outcast said:
BengaBenga said:

 

Please do the math: There4 will be about one GTA every 3 years. Let's say it sells 10 million (which I highly doubt on a single platform, not a Sony platform on which the series became big). That will be around 300 million dollar in revenue, if we take a $30 per game slice for the publisher+developer (which is reasonable). The development of GTA4 costed $100 million. So on GTA your talking about a $200,- million profit. In 3 years. That's not by far enough to warrant a take-over. They won't ever be able to get their money back. Not even close

Sure TT has other franchises, but those are not so important since others make that kind of games too. Midnight Club and the Sports games all have competitors, they won't be an enormous advantage for 360 or the next Xbox.

 

And again: ENTERTAINMENT IS NOT MICROSOFTS CORE BUSINESS. They have loads of trouble in their software and internet divisions right now. That's their bread and butter, they'll have to fix tht first.

You're looking at it in a very close minded way. With every exclusive Microsoft gains, profit and revenue will be gained exponentially in other areas. It's a knock-on effect - more people buy the 360 and future Microsoft consoles because they have more exclusives, these people will buy more software from Microsoft which will allow them to buy more exclusives and so on. If this does actually happen, Microsoft will have two of the highest selling and well known franchises in the Western world exclusive to their platform - Halo and Grand Theft Auto. They also have the majority of Sony's  exclusives on their platform from last generation.

Sony is losing brandname recognition and popularity with a lot of people. Many who have bought a Sony console this generation as their only console will think twice before doing so next gen.

 

Calling me narrowminded, while I'm explaining that Microsoft is more (a lot more) than its Game division is a bit weird, don't you agree?

To put it in perspective: Microsofts total revenue was $60 billion, Entertainment Division: $8 billion. Significant, but not very big. Operating Income: Group: $22 billion, Entertainment 420 million. Ouch.

In other words: Microsoft won't invest 2.5 billion dollar in adivision that has small impact on the total profit. It's clear that buying TT won't improve Microsofts standing much. Sure it would be a blow for Sony and sure it will sell some consoles, but nothing special. Besides next gen their main competitor is surely to be Nintendo, who doesn't even have GTA right now. Everything is relative.

 



PS360ForTheWin on 29 July 2008

it would be a majour coup for MS to get take two and make GTA5 exclusive



Zucas on 29 July 2008

Well if MS wanted to further my hate for them this would be the way haha. Why I hate them so much is because they use their excessive money to continuously put others out of the competition or take away independent companies.



gebx on 29 July 2008
Zucas said:
Well if MS wanted to further my hate for them this would be the way haha. Why I hate them so much is because they use their excessive money to continuously put others out of the competition or take away independent companies.

I'm guessing you're referring to the non gaming divisions of MS??

 



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Zucas on 29 July 2008
gebx said:
Zucas said:
Well if MS wanted to further my hate for them this would be the way haha. Why I hate them so much is because they use their excessive money to continuously put others out of the competition or take away independent companies.

I'm guessing you're referring to the non gaming divisions of MS??

 

 

Yes but MS also through out 26 billion to develop the Xbox and 360 and lost over 6 billion with the 2 just to enter this market successfully... another thing I don't respect. 

 

But more or less yes the non gaming divisions.