Phil has set his sights on buying a Japanese dev

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2019-06-11-i-would-be-nice-to-buy-a-japanese-studio-phil-spencer?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Place you bets.

FROM or Platinum? Which one will be 1st to be bought?

He continues: "I think it would be nice if we found an Asian studio, in particular a Japanese studio, to add [to our studios]. I liked it when we had some first-party capability in Japan. We have a small team there, but I think we can do more. That said, through our trips to Japan, I love having Phantasy Star back on our stage with Sega -- I thought that was fantastic. Miyazaki-San, before with Dark Souls and now having Elden Ring on our stage... the Japanese creators have shown up more and more."

it will still be multiplat though, so.....

it doesnt matter who gets my money.

How about don't, Phil. You don't try it either, Sony.

Mistwalker? Do they still exist?

So much buying left and right...i think it would backfire one day.

They moved to mobile gaming. Considering that's how most Japanese people play games these days, it makes perfect sense.

Based on their track record of the last two years I think MS are looking for small-ish studio with heaps of potential, which they are looking to catch on the way up.

It's all just building content for their Game Pass. They're taking a page from Netflix.

Highly doubt those 2 studios would join XGS(Sony would be a better fit). I think MS would have to look at creating or finding a upcoming studio via id@xbox from Japan. Seeing E3 think it would be smart move to look at acquiring studios in Asia to build up diversity.

From should never be bought out by anyone beyond their parent corp. I consider them untouchable. But Platinum? Who cares.

Phantasy Star?

What?

Capcom makes a lot of sense...

Good for building hype. They can always trim later like Sony and relegate previous bigger teams to smaller projects.

Who's a small down and out dev in Japan that needs the rescue? That's the question. Anyway, I hope they're not worried about selling their games domestically, because that's going to be impossible on an Xbox platform there.

It's going to be difficult to acquire a Japanese studio. The market for mobile games and Switch games has assured a rise in cash flow for them. The big fish like Capcom and Square-Enix have strong financial performance as well.

That all being said, I think it's a good sign that Phil is thinking in that direction. XBox really needs Japanese support and the brand was at it's best when it was getting games like Tenchu and Chromehounds.

I would advise against that level of expansionism. How about you see if you can supervise the studios you have already acquired and determine if you can keep projects on track.

Additionally, I don’t believe MS is well-served to own a studio based in Japan purely because of the cultural difference in how business is conducted. But acquiring a developer for its IP in order to domesticate its development, I would suspect MS would target SEGA. Capcom would obviously be the first choice, or Konami’s library, but am not confident they could do it for the right price (Capcom no, Konami maybe).

Relax they are going 3rd party.

I can only think of 3 independent studios with caliber. Mistwalker, Platinum and From Soft.

If Mistwalker still making games why not, they got Final Fantasy creator on board. Platinum seems probable, they have money problems before Nier Automata success. From Soft is harder to get, I doubt Sony, Namco Bandai and Activision just gonna sit there and let Microsoft acquire one of the best studio this gen that bought us Bloodborne and Dark Souls.

Grasshopper studios is good though, they can churn out games for xbox game pass.

Stay away from capcom and square enix damn you phil

@BenjaminBanklin: it's definitely possible in Japan and Asian countries. Microsoft will most likely use XCloud to get to that audience. If MS gets Game Pass and XCloud onto the Nintendo Switch, Japanese devs will jump onto it.

@mowgly1: the reason why MS is buying studios is because Microsoft is expecting the Western Game industry to consolidate.

This is pretty good news tbh. Even if they don't acquire any Japanese studios, the fact that they're even aiming at Japanese 1st party content could lead to good things. They could manage to snag exclusivity deals like they did with Tecmo and team Ninja with DOA and Ninja Gaiden years ago.

If they get some Japanese 1st party games, then the Xbox brand might finally be able to take off in Japan. It also means us fans here in the west will be getting some more Japanese games, which is good, because Japanese games tend to have something that western games lack. And same goes for Western games. They tend to have something Japanese games lack.

More Japanese content on Xbox consoles? Yes please!

Maybe this would actually be kinda exciting honestly, why not?

Right now, Platinum is a second party partner with Nintendo, so I doubt it's them.

I'd like Tango Gameworks to be bought from Bethesda.

FromSoftware is the most likely, they don't even publish their games, they have the kind of track record they looking for.

I think MS will need to make a huge impact in Japan. They could afford SEGA, but it will be a massive acquisition.

MS won't be landing anymore major acquisitions. They're already scraping the bottom of the barrel with Double Fine. If they buy a Japanese studio it will end up being a small one that nobody cares about.

Mistwalker as I want a Blue Dragon & Lost Odyssey sequels.