please edit. im pretty sure that is against the rules.

Actually there are two good targets for aquisition. Valve and Epic. Epic makes engines for a lot of games and they have a strong relationship with Microsoft and Valve has the biggest online game distribution site under their belt as well.

actually squilliam rockstar is tuck there till 2012 they just renewed their contract

Nah, they won't aquire Valve. For something that awesome to happen, a black hole would rip in the center of the universe and swallow existence. Thats like Microsoft getting the video game form of Chuck Norris.

Epic, maybe. I'd much rather see them aquire Valve or T2 then Epic though.

valve has said that they want to stay independent

Hmm T2 is a mess, why buy a problem? Also once the contract with R* is up, they could walk away IIRC. Valve did say they would listen to an aquisition offer, and there are a lot of synergies with their business practices.

i figure you guys are going to attack me for this, but they should attempt to pick up some companies that they don't work with. like some of sonys' second party sucker punch, insmoniac, and maybe whatever jaffe's company is called

Valve and Microsoft seem to be on fantastic terms, given the support from Valve the 360 has gotten over the years. I'm not too sure about the PC relations, but I know Valve is pretty much the number 1 PC supporting developer out there :P

Whats happened to Take-2? All I've really heard about them is GTA and Bioshock. Don't care much for GTA, but Bioshock is great. Thats said, again, Valve, 3D Realms, and now that you mention it Epic all sound like better deals then T2...especially Valve. Not dissing T2 at all, but the other studios seem to all have much better relations with MS.

Seriously though....whats wrong with T2 again?

The Valve guys were once Microsoft employees and I assume they left on good terms. Given their support of the Xbox 360 with pretty much all their games, yeah they've been fans for a while! Well they are probably #2 behind Blizzard actually. Blizzard games don't go to console, and its like they define the hardcore PC experience in many ways.

Take 2 couldn't make money if you gave them a printing press, ink and the plates. They just seem extremely incompetent. Its hard to say what their goals might be in the end, but I think Valve furthers their goals more than any other company as they can use them to help the Zune with software, the Xbox 360 with cross platform releases of indie games and their Windows development by creating a distinct combination. Imagine if they combined MSN messenger with Steam?

i think valve would be a good match for them.