Probably not. Why would they? They already have Bethesda AND Obsidian. And Playground games is making a Fable RPG. Are they trying to corner the market on RPGs?
I think if Microsoft makes another big splashy purchase the most obvious one is Sega, which has been rumored for a long time. They have a strong working relationship with Sega (the Yakuza titles all just went on Gamepass), it would shore up their Japanese bonafides and possibly allow for a rebranding of Xbox in Japan under the Sega name, which is probably the best shot Xbox has of ever being relevant there (not that I think it would work) and it would give them a ton of older games and IP for Gamepass.
Sega is currently cheaper than CD Projekt Red too.
Of course Microsoft may just buy some other company we don't expect (nobody really saw Bethesda coming) so I wouldn't even bet on Sega, but CD Projekt Red is strong where Microsoft is strong, is expensive, and doesn't have any obvious synergies.
The only reason they might do it would be to get their hands on gog, but even that doesn't necessarily make a ton of sense when their focus is Gamepass, not trying to sell games.
I cannot imagine so no. Like Bigsocrates said Sega is the easy answer for another big acquisition. The game divisions of Warner or Bandai Namco I could also see as possibilities, I don't think they have a lot to gain from CD Projekt Red though.
That's a billion-dollar purchase and I'm not sure what they really get out of it. They don't need the publishing business, they don't need the PC sales platform, and the Witcher franchise is big but they just bought Bethesda and Obsidian so they have the fantasy RPG genre pretty reinforced.
Just don't know if it'd be worth it. Not to mention the avalanche of recent controversaries.
Ohhh... yes, the classic "Microsoft should buy X studio". It must be tuesday...
Seriously now, why would Microsoft buy a studio that releases a couple games every decade and whose biggest revenue is being an online PC store? That is like saying "Microsoft will buy Valve".
@hermes: The only studio I thought was an absolute no brainer for Microsoft to buy was Playground games. They were making one of Microsoft's biggest franchises at a time when all of MS's other franchises were being brought in house and it made no sense to have the Forza Horizon team out there independent and easily able to switch to another publisher/platform (though obviously not with the IP, but forcing Microsoft to scramble to get a new team and also instantly creating a very strong competitor franchise.)
So when Microsoft bought them that seemed pre-ordained.
@bigsocrates: Sure, that is an example, but I think no one expected Bethesda, Mojang and Obsidian at the time, so I tend to forget speculations until I catch the news.
@bigsocrates: I said they were on the upswing, yeah I don't see it happening either. MS missed their chance during that period between RE6 and RE2 Remake.
I agree on Konami. That would probably make the most sense if they have any teams ready to work on Konami's IP.
@colourful_hippie: Buy Sega and Konami and then have Atlus make "Belmonts Dancing All Night" and "Snakes Dancing All Night" games. Genius!
I still don't understand why you "wouldn't mind" seeing Capcom bought. I would understand it if you said it after RE 6, but realism aside, I would be upset if Microsoft bought Capcom now. Nobody needs to mess with current Capcom because it's doing good, and the more good independent major publishers and developers there are the better.
Microsoft won't buy Konami or its IP because I can't see Konami selling to a non-Japanese company. Konami has a really weird and rigid corporate culture that has basically destroyed its video game business and just wouldn't be a good fit. That's why the Sony rumors made more sense to me.
One of the reasons that Sega would be a good fit, as mentioned above, is because it actually does do well with Western companies and of course has a long and fruitful history with Microsoft. Also it's in financial distress but is doing good creative work, so it has a lot of talent (not to mention one of the top 5 deep IP benches in all of video games.)
@bigsocrates: from of what I heard is that Konami weren't financially successful with their IPs aside from MGS. So, when the developer of their probably only successful IP starts asking for more development cost a natural unrest in the corporate will naturally ensue.
@bigsocrates: It would be odd for me personally to see Microsoft buying SEGA. The first two PS4 exclusives I beat, namely Sakura Wars soft reboot and 13 Sentinels Aegis Rim, are both published by SEGA. But I guess new generation of consoles means new industry landscape.
I mean I wouldn't be surprised, but right now CDPR has a lot of shit flying their way and Microsoft has all of those bases covered. They have their own digital distribution platform. They have experienced fantasy RPG devs, so that genre's covered. What else does CDPR have to offer them? I mean, The Witcher is a profitable video game franchise and Cyberpunk might eventually get there but are those two things really worth the significant price tag? Minecraft is the biggest game in the world, Bethesda is (despite Fallout 76) a pretty well-regarded publisher right now with several big games in the pipeline already, and CDPR currently has nothing but bad press and a broken game on their hands.
EDIT: I would also like to note that while I'm happy Microsoft seems to be doing well and taking on some more interesting projects than just Gears-Forza-Halo, I'm not a fan of the idea of Microsoft owning every games studio I'm interested in. They're sort of on their way to being a Disney of video game developers and that ain't good, no matter how good or bad a steward MS turns out to be.
@bigsocrates: Capcom has a wide stable of IP that would be nice to see surface again beyond them currently going heavy on RE and Monster Hunter. DMC was a nice return to form but they still seem pretty focused on the former 2 I mentioned but since they're on the upswing they have zero incentive in wanting to get acquired.
As for companies that will be on shaky foundations, I have to wonder how much did Avengers wipe out any good that the FF7 Remake did for them. Square doesn't seem like the kind of company that can afford a couple big mistakes.
@colourful_hippie: I feel like they also did a good job with Mega Man in terms of Mega Man 11. They're also doing a decent job releasing collections of their older games on the new hardware, which is nice.
There really aren't any companies who are making tons of games like in the old days. Everyone is picking and choosing these days, and every company with a lot of IP has a lot of dormant IP. I don't think a purchase would really change that.
There just aren't as many games coming from big publishers as there used to be. I think each project is too expensive and takes too long for them to release that much.
@chaser324: They bought Bethesda after Fallout 76, and I bet Microsoft leveraged the brand damage from that controversy during negotiations.
CDPR has become 33% cheaper since this controversy began.
They could drop a further 50% in value and still be considered very expensive. Their current price to earnings ratio is sitting at a steep 91x.
Even if GOG could somehow make sense for MS in the sense that their Windows Store for games has been pretty shit for a while, it would be much cheaper to keep iterating on the MS Store than to buy a publisher/storefront that has only one proven franchise and a new one that's on shaky footing.
Too be honest I think "CD Projekt Red's" culture would be a liability. Not to put too fine a point on it, but Cyberpunk points towards a less "stable" company than it might have appeared in Dec of 2019. More scrutiny and oversight will not help them much in the next few years.
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