SEGA and Bungie Were On Microsoft's Shopping List in 2020, Xbox Emails Show

If Xbox owned Yakuza I’d be incredibly sad and angry, as it’s my favourite franchise of all time. It would guarantee I’d never again buy another Microsoft product of any type, ever.

If Microsoft had bought Sega, I would have been devastated. I don’t want to buy a system to only play Atlus & Yakuza games. That would be a nightmare for me. Maybe they’d stay cross-platforms but I doubt it

I still would not be shocked if the Sega deal ends up happening. Just because it has not come to pass does not mean its not still potentially under verbal negotiation.

The Bungie stuff, I recall a rumor a long time ago that Bungie and Xbox did negotiate, but Xbox was not willing to agree to the level of freedom Bungie was demanding (or the amount of money they wanted.) Given how Bungie under PS ended up retaining a lot of freedom, at least part of that rumor might be true, although it might also be one of those broken clock being right twice a day things.

I don't believe it! Phil the gamer friend Spencer would never took those multiplatform studios and make them develop games only for Microsoft stuff./s

Sega would give Xbox more help in Japan, where Sony needs more of a high end rival. Nintendo own’s Japan. Sony still does good numbers there and this would at least move a few million consoles in that region for Xbox, so i could see them picking up the phone again on that. Most of us knew Xbox and Sega were talking. Xbox has made it clear they aren’t done spending money and Sony has said the same. After the ABK deal, i would think we will be hearing from both Sony and MS. It’s a game of who’s next. What a crazy ride this is, but not a crazy taxi type ride. I sure loved that game on Dreamcast.

If Microsoft buys Sega then Persona/SMT and Yakuza become dead in Japan.

But let's be honest I think they've hit the limit on what Big Publishers they will be allowed to buy, atleast for another 10 years. There has to be a point where government bodies say that's enough.

@CWill97 @thefourfoldroot1 In the case of Sega, I would honestly expect them to keep multi-platform simply due to the impact it would have on the Japanese perception of Microsoft, but absolutely everything in the Sega house (including Atlus) would end up being multi-plat and day one on Game Pass.

Sega Sammy's market cap (the entirety of the company, not just the gaming branch) is valued at about 5 billion. An acquisition would certainly cost a lot more than that, but it is likely not outside what MS could afford even after depleting most its cash on ABK. At the same time, I think MS smarter play in such a move (given IMO they would not take the games exclusive) is they simply acquire a large enough stake to influence all future development include XBox/Game Pass day one.

It's always mental seeing internal emails like this. They seem so casual. Just Phil sitting down to ask his bosses if they can buy SEGA for a few billion.

@UltimateOtaku91 Like Minecraft died in Japan, you mean?

@UltimateOtaku91 they would likely stay multi platform, but be on GP day 1 and come to PC. MS might pick up a million or two sales of consoles in the region tho. 😊

@Tharsman But it stayed multiplatform. My comment is based on if their games become exclusive like what they did with Bethesda.

Gross. Hands off my Like a Dragon and SMT.

@UltimateOtaku91 As I stated above, precisely due to the Japanese reception, I would not expect Xbox to try to make Sega games exclusives, at least not the bulk of their existing IPs, I could see them deciding some new IPs to become exclusives.

Acquiring Sega would likely be a lot more about blocking PS/Nintendo exclusivity deals for all Sega games and bringing them all to Game Pass day one.

Edit: like, I could potentially see Metaphor: ReFantazio going XBox exclusive had they acquired Sega back in 2020, for example, but not Persona.

The fact they keep working very closely as of late (starting with Yakuza 7 Xbox Series X but not on PS5 at launch) I would not be shocked if these negotiations are ongoing, basically: they are on the "dating" stage.

I say it again Sony need to hurry up and buy square enix before Microsoft try buy them. I fear If Microsoft gets they’re hands on a Japanese publisher they will destroy them.

So they let Bungie go and then they wanted them back?

@Jamesblob
They can shove it up their Xbox.

Awesome! Can't wait to continue to game under the threat of Microsoft trying to buy anyone and everyone!
Rich boys who still can't compete with the Japanese big dogs, no matter how deep their pockets are.

I dont believe Microsoft would ever get SEGA.
Japanese developers stick with there own usually.

But this just proves what most people think,

Microsoft only want to buy success and not just grow naturally like the other platforms. This is why Microsoft will always be in third place.

This also plays into the British rejection of the deal.

Taking all the major players out of the picture by buying all the best third party developers to completely dominate the cloud gaming area.

But this is why ill never buy Xbox at my forefront of the console ill buy at the beginning of a generation. Playstation have grown and developed their studios to be the power houses they are today and I respect that way of business than the thugish approach Xbox seems to have engraved into them.

@edwinjoe450 Bungie wanted their "independence", but truly they just wanted to make something that was not Halo, because the first thing they did was get acquired by ABK.

Then they also bought their independence away from ABK and after long enough being independent they once more decided they wanted to be acquired (because being independent is hard). There are a lot of rumors that Bungie approached a ton of other larger names in the industry trying to get acquired by "a better host" than ABK.

@Tharsman the world doesn't want them to own AB and you think they will buy something else after that? Having all the money in the world can help to pass over rules but if its disgustingly evident how much you own even there is a stop for what money can buy.

Bullet dodged... for now.

I’m glad the Sega deal didn’t happen for whatever reason. Doesn’t mean they won’t take another crack at it, but hopefully it remains status quo for now. And I really thought MS would get Bungie first.

@GymratAmarillo

the world doesn't want them to own AB

Only two regulatory agencies are fighting it (and I doubt the FTC will win.) Practically the entire world has said "yea sure go for it".

The more they keep going on with this then the more I want nothing to do with them. I'd rather quit gaming than to ever give them a penny. They would only ruin everything anyway so there wouldn't be much of a hobby

@Tharsman This is where I lose the plot in these discussions . Why is the method for “blocking PS/Nintendo exclusivity deals” buying a studio outright instead of just making a better offer for timed exclusivity? Why not compete instead of taking the ball and going home?

@Amnesiac When your install base is much smaller than everyone else's, the cost of buying exclusivity is exponentially higher.
edit: ...because your offer needs to compensate for all sales lost as part of the acquisition. Xbox did manage to get some strong exclusivity deals early in the Xbox One generation, because they were in a strong position the previous generation, but that market quickly shrunk.

At this point: money spent securing third party exclusivity deals is simply money spent for little gain. Money spent buying a studio and its IP's, though, is an investment in an asset that retains its value, so its more logical as an investment to buy than to make an exclusivity deal, especially if the deal is temporary.

Right now Xbox still cuts some exclusivity deals, but most of them are for smaller projects that had financial trouble to even cross the finish line, so Xbox Game Studios offers financing to complete the project in exchange for exclusivity windows.

So having acquired massive franchises like Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Doom, Crash Bandicoot, Spyro, Call of Duty, Diablo, Overwatch and World of Warcraft, they also wanted Destiny, Persona, Sonic and Yakuza.

Imagine a scenario that within the space of three years sony lose all of those IP's from their platform going forward, and people still don't see the negative impact of Microsoft throwing unrivaled quantities of cash around buying whoever they want. Depending on who they buy next over the next 10 years gaming could be in a bad state where Microsoft are top due to getting all the most popular IP's and biggest Publishers around the globe and no one has the money to come close to rivalling them, it will come to a point where it will hurt Sony to a point they can't recover and that will be the day I give up on gaming.

Looks like the email from matt booty about running sony out of business was legit after all.

Hope Sega told them to go swivel.

We have all heard the rumours about this for years, and im sick of hearing about it, but i would be truly devastated if this were to happen.

Having grown up with Sega consoles, and remaining a fan of their output over the years, the loss of ip like Sonic, Yakuza, Persona and smaller titles like Valkyria Chronicles would have been quite the blow.

Needless to say, i hope this never happens. I also hope SEGA execs look at the flippant way Microsoft throw around names for acquisition and reasses their current dealings.

SEGA also need to remember that Sony was the only platform holder that was prepared to take a risk on the Yakuza franchise back in the day and Microsoft turned down the pitch.

Sadly i expect Microsoft will try to broker a deal again in the future

So if the ABK deal doesn't happen they will buy Sega is what this is telling us.

@Bez87 Microsoft only want to buy success

That's correct and they know they have the money to do so without any competition in that regard. They are trying to consolidate the market, Ubisoft and EA will no doubt be in their firing line at some point due the no one else being able to afford them (apart from tencent)

People moan about sony buying timed exclusives of Japanese games but it is no where near as anti competitive as buying the biggest third party publishers knowing full well your rival can't afford to outbid you, and then making thier games exclusive.

@Enigk That's enough reason why the ABK deal needs to go through now.

@Enigk Only if Sega is willing to sell. And honestly, I would bet even if the ABK does happen, that is still a possibility.

If you thought the ABK deal is taking forever, this Sega deal would take AGES!

@Tharsman and do we know how much money they used for other agencies to say yes? That's the whole point. They already own too much it's obvious they are using money to get their way around the concept of monopoly but then what? When there are 10 things and you already own 9 doesn't matter how much money you have to buy authorization. It will be evident you just can't buy more.

@GymratAmarillo

and do we know how much money they used for other agencies to say yes?

You cant bribe the whole world. If they could, the US and the UK would be some of the first in line to take a paycheck.

Also they would face opposition from Nintendo as well for any deal for sega. The only reason Nintendo have kept out of their deals so far is because they haven't tread on their turf.

...and microsoft got rejected and left out in the cold. thank god!

Microsoft trying to buy everything up to bolster Game Pass. Not exactly something I like to think about.

@Tharsman LOL so you think they CAN buy everything, they are "dating" SEGA (btw they started working together when MS gave servers services to SEGA for future games and it's pretty obvious that was the moment when they paid big money for the whole game pass thing) but you DON'T think they are using money get their way with AB? Come on dude. If you want to be the guy in a PS site who is going to say "xbox can do anything they want" at least try a little harder.

Monopolization of an industry just to fuel a content machine is disgusting. Both for Sony and Microsoft, considering how Sony and especially Microsoft aren’t just gaming companies and get the revenue for these acquisitions from other business sources.

@GymratAmarillo There is a gigantic difference between spending money legally, and spending money illegally on practically every country in the world.

Bribes are not the same as partnerships and acquisitions.

There is no way they could manage to navigate every country's legal system to hide such a large scale fraud.

@UltimateOtaku91

Nintendo can stop Sony from buying Square Enix just as easily as it can stop Microsoft from buying Sega. Sony and Microsoft must not buy Japanese publishers because it will affect Nintendo badly.

I wouldn't mind Xbox buying sega. When they announced the og Xbox I expected them to own sega. Microsoft logo on the Dreamcast, Xbox getting shenmue 2, JSRF, panzer dragon orta and some other sega exclusives and Phil Spencer who helped sega crash and almost burn joining up with Xbox. To me all that was Microsoft owning sega but it never happened. Makes me think the exclusive sega games on the og Xbox was sega trying out to see if it would work out and seeing it didn't sega backed out. Smart move for them years later

@JSnow2

The Japanese don't consider PlayStation their company

@UltimateOtaku91 You reckon? I think they’d make a big effort to rebrand the Series S as a Sega console. Plenty of space for a nice orange swirl. They could have offered every retro Sega title as a Gamepass addition.

Sega probably still is if this deal goes through (it won’t) and I’d bet money on them going for EA and/or Ubisoft too.

After all they gotta get the games for IndiePass somehow. After all Microsoft doesn’t know how to make a successful game. All they know how to do is get the cheque book out and buy games for Xbox.

I am usually against consolidation but with kore of this from xbox id be all in for ps/nintendo to work together to ban xbox from Japan. ***** ridiculous they are literally tryung to buy everything

I hope that Sony and Microsoft will stop buying developers and publishers

Y'all are funny. Bought or lab grown (like you seem to think), both are viable strategies.

I say do it Microsoft. I want them to get Sega, then they can take a chill pill.

Throw your skewed sense of morality in a capitalist market out the window. Those do not apply.

Losing Sega would have essentially guaranteed I would have to buy an Xbox much sooner than I'd like. On average I would say I buy at least 1 or 2 Sega published/developed games a year so needless to say they are of very big interest to me.

This would have been awful though. Playstation just feels like the natural place to play Atlus/RGG games. Playing something like P5 on Xbox would just feel... strange...not that I mind it being available on Xbox!

Just lay off the publisher acquisitions Microsoft. If Sega is 3rd party everyone wins that way.

And I think the idea of Xbox and Sony buying studios rather than creating their own games studios is lack of imagination on there part. Look at Nintendo, I don't know if they bought any studios but they made their own and it works out for them, yeah they get some outside studios to create games of some of their own ip's (Starfox, metroid) but if the game is a hit you don't see them buying the company even tho they could. But Xbox and Sony...Xbox: buy the biggest studios and do nothing with them while yellin look what we got. Sony: buy any studio out there big or small hopin one game from these unheard of studios will be a hit and if it is Sony's like we made that yeahhhhhhh that's why we're number one. Both need to stop throwin money at talented studios and see how good they are with their own in-house studios they already have. I bet Sony and Xbox would sink without the buy and grab tactic

@Tharsman I'll push back just a bit.

'your offer needs to compensate for all sales lost'

I would doubt that this is how exclusivity contracts work, at least for new IPs or offshoots of existing series. I may be wrong, but I don't think Sony is beholden to Square Enix for the sales of Forspoken that didn't materialize on other systems. And obviously, for timed exclusivity contracts it's a moot point.

I love Judgment and Yakuza so i am glad this did not go through (for now at least)

Please Microsoft, take Activision, just let Sega alone, and as a matter of fact every other Japanese studio/publisher.

@Amnesiac Exclusivity deals usually consist of a lot of money up front, a lot of marketing costs, and (in some cases) higher royalty payments (20/80 instead of 30/70 for example).

I think it's been stated publicly XBox paid 100 million Rise of the Tomb Raider only so they could have it as exclusive for a single year. That basically covered the entire development for the game.

At the same time we know Nintendo paid Capcom 6 million for Monster Hunter Ryse for a year.

So it heavily depends on how large your install base is and how much its expected to limit your sales.

Out of this shopping list the only one who has acquired something is Sony. It’s therefore Sony that should stop buying companies.

Really surprised Nintendo has never bought Sega

@Friendly Yes because sony are the ones who've spent £70+ billion on two of the biggest Publishers......

@UltimateOtaku91 neither has Microsoft

@Friendly erm Activision and Bethesda...

@UltimateOtaku91 the deal hasn’t closed yet

@Friendly We both know it will, even without the CMA/FTC approval, there's workarounds.

Ironically, if MS would have targeted Sega instead of ABK then it probably would have gone through without issue. I don’t think Sony wouldn’t have tried to block a deal like that. Call of Duty is all that matters. The crazy thing is I would be more devastated by losing access to Sega games than by losing Activision-Blizzard games.

@UltimateOtaku91 i’m not so sure it will. And if workarounds would be worth it to Microsoft.

Not trying to take games away or anything though…

even after the Bethesda acquisition and announcing they plan on acquiring Activision two or so years ago Xbox series sales are only slightly ahead of Xbox one going by the best guesstimate I can find online. How much more damage do they have to do to the gaming industry to get anything more than a collective shrug. Sadly, I think we’re going to get to find out.

I don't want any more mergers or acquisitions from any company

So, it gets worse and they're still not finished trying to push everyone onto a subscription service where no one owns any games?

@Americansamurai1 Yeah me also.

I can see the SEGA deal happening in the future. I own a PS5 and Xbox so I don't really mind who buys what as long as the game itself is good.

If this ABK acquisition goes through, it means buying two publishers in two years, including the largest publisher, is not a red line, so Microsoft would keep going and probably buy Sega as well. They need to be stopped.

If Microsoft bought Sega, I can see a lot of salty Nintendo fans, but it's not like Microsoft considers them competition anyway. I guess that'll be the end of Sonic The Hedgehog as well. There's more to that franchise than Microsoft has ever been willing to do with any of it's classic characters. I wonder if Ken Penders will threaten to sue Microsoft instead. 🤔

"Xbox Studios Head Said Microsoft Could 'Spend Sony Out of Business' in 2019 Email."

That sure as hell is what it seems like they are trying to do. How very fortuitous the FTC uncovered that evidence. Don't worry, guys. Microsoft said they are the feisty, permanently-in-third-place, super-mistreated underdogs!

Unless I missed it, I can't help but notice that this site did not report on the Jim Ryan email where he talked about being "more than OK" in regards to Call of Duty, if the ActiBlizz purchase went through

Once again, Microsoft's strategy this gen has been "If you can't beat 'em then eat 'em."

Phil Spender is on that shopping spree 🤣

@4kgk2 not a bad idea, but i don’t think Square is for sale. But at some point i want to buy FF16 and i ain’t waiting for a Xbox Version. I will snag it on PS5. If Square is open for talks then Sony should at least pick up the phone. It would be a good fit.

@BeerIsAwesome Sorry but there is NO way MS could be any worse to the Blue hedgehog than Sega was. Sonic has been treated pretty rough over the decades.

@UltimateOtaku91 Truth told the CMA and FTC is looking bad in these cases in front of the judges. I watched a lot of them live online. It’s not going well for either. This deal might close by end of July if it keeps trending the way it has.

That we even have to entertain such a notion is just depressing man. Please leave the Japanese games alone

@HonestHick I'm not talking about the games though.

Xbox is like that annoying kid at school who had to pay people to be their friend. It's one thing when franchises have always been in-house (God of War, Uncharted etc) but it's completely lame to throw daddy Microsoft's money around and buy up multiplatform publishers to then make existing franchises exclusive.

So why didn't they buy Sega then? Didn't Sega want to sell or something?

@BeerIsAwesome Fair enough. I was like no way anyone could do the Blue rodent any worse than Sega did. 😀

@Bez87 It It I’d possible that Sega just quits after an MS acquisition and mandatory exclusives. And by quit I mean all the important talent just leaves and the series lose their charm and talent quickly.

Sega is not for sale to anyone; it is one of the world's oldest game developers and publishers, even older than Microsoft. Other than a console-exclusive deal, they can forget it. It is not about the money.

They would still have to go through lots of holes to get it approved with Japanese laws. But overall Sega has always had bad management. Japanese people would hate it if Sega got brought by MS. But if things are going the way they're going Atlus should separate from Sega.

Sadly all i can say is this FTC case has been more entertaining than the Sony games Showcase. Wish Jim would have appeared in court for questions, that would have beaten the Xbox Showcase. I’m joking, not joking, if that makes sense. Been a wild few days in the court room and we have a few more left. So the FTC can ask Phil in a different way for the 25th time if COD will remain on PS.

Honestly I’m surprised it didn’t happen back in the OG Xbox era.

Sega heavily supported the Original Xbox. Sega and Tecmo were their first Japanese licensees back in 2001 and both companies heavily supported Microsoft.

It’s kind of weird that Microsoft didn’t snatch them up back then when the relationships were so close.

Yet Microsoft only bought ZeniMax because Sony was trying to secure exclusives. Such BS.

Enough of the industry consolidation. If Sega was to ever go exclusive again (it won't), I'd rather it be because the company is re-entering the console market on its own.

lmao, I don't want buy another console just for one or two titles. I'm honestly glad it didn't happen (...for now).

I'm just glad that Japanese law prevents all these company buy outs. MS can buy all the western companies all they want but hands off the Japanese gaming companies.

Likewise, I also don't want Sony to acquire Square Enix. Much as I love the relationship between the two, I don't want Sony to take away SE games from Nintendo, particularly the niche titles. Sony is so invested in large AAA titles that it could end the more niche titles which usually fit in Nintendo's console

Funny how there is no articles on here about how Sony has been paying to keep third party tittles off Xbox. Ghost wire Tokyo, deathloop even starfield which is why MS admitted to buying besthesda just so they can guarantee those games coming to Xbox. Sony up to it's same tricks I did during the 90's with sega.

Dreamcast 2 could happen instead of xbox series x2? Now that's an interesting though lol.

@IndoorEnthusiast they are are buying them because Sony keeps paying to keep these games off Xbox. Ghost wire Tokyo, deathloop, they even wanted starfield to be a Sony exclusive not a single Bethesda game would conenton Xbox. Buying them was the only way they can guarantee these games still come to Xbox.

Well that would have killed yakuza. Maybe persona would be fine for 5 years. Then we'd start seeing kickstarters from "the developers behind persona" as gears of War, persona.

I'd be bothered a little I guess. It's not like valkyrie chronicles is doing all that well these days.

@wiiware MS’s worst still probably outsells Sega’s best. As much as we all take jabs at MS, fairly at times and unfairly at times. They are a staple in the console space. Sega was fun back in the day. But they don’t have the resources and infrastructure of a Sony and for sure not Microsoft. 😊

I doubt Microsoft will ever buy SEGA.

They're owned by Sammy Holdings which also owns pachinko slots, theme parks, toys, etc which Microsoft wouldn't be much interested.

I feel like a lot of the comments here forgot this fact, but yeah, that would honestly make me very angry at Microsoft.

@dnb as a super fan of all 3, i can tell you they don’t want to kill off PS and Nintendo. Do they want to increase their market share and make sure game pass has a AAA every 3 months? Yes. To kill it competition and leave gamers without choices and beloved Sony and Nintendo franchises, No! Each of them learn and lean on each other. They all need each other as much as we love all 3 of them for being different. But make no mistake the days of Xbox has no games is over. They are proving in court and with money they want to be in gaming forever. This wasn’t the case before Phil went to CEO. They were running around without direction, but a brand that still made money and had a following among all its mistakes. 😊

It's just such an unsympathetic company.

@4kgk2 or, one, or all, of these competition and regulatory bodies needs to step the hell up and do their job and either demand Microsoft be split up from Xbox or start punitive fines.

Just... Something to stop them abusing the market with their position and huge Windows wallet.

@HonestHick sorry but thats wishful thinking.

The era of Microsoft having no good games is still based on Microsoft not knowing what they're doing and being a terrible partner.

I read someone's analogy the other day that made sense.

Microsoft is that guy at the gym who didn't start until his late 30s and wants to skip all the hard work and experience and go straight to steroids.

They haven't earned their place in the gaming market (through a good brand that's trusted) and haven't had the experience of running a gaming platform well or running game studios properly.

I think cade in point that Phil Spencer is the kind of guy too just buy the studio rather then see the competition negotiate an exclusivity deal.

Microsoft aren't going anywhere, but their success isn't written in stone. They absolutely want to de-throne Sony. They don't want competition. They want Xbox to become Windows, ubiquitous in the gaming sphere.

But they don't deserve it and all they're doing to generating bad, bad press and publicity.

It's obvious Phil tried to make a move on Sega and they likely said no. It's funny how they've had some marketing rights and embargoes on Sega games for two years now since it supposedly happened.

Two years ago it was announced that Microsoft and Sega entered a "strategic partnership". They said it wouldn't result in exclusive games but with the embargoes Microsoft is definitely influencing Sega behind the scenes.

People must have forgotten about this.
https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/sega-clarifies-its-alliance-with-microsoft-wont-result-in-xbox-exclusives/

Unlike Sony, Microsoft is a company with lots of money to burn and a narrow visuon and creativity. Sure Sony is buying big studios but it only started doung so to face these power hungry moguls who are trying to destroy the gaming world while calling it a success.

@Toot1st I guess it’s lost on you that Microsoft spent a lot of money to permanently block games from releasing on PlayStation

@4kgk2 they both just need to step off. Nobody wins with this strategy. I love square games either one of them buying it up would be damaging.

I can live without COD on PS, but not Yakuza. I will give up on gaming, before I let myself be forced over a barrel by Microsoft.

@UltimateOtaku91 this is what baffles me though about people defending Microsoft and this whole deal and then creating the its just fan boys moaning about it.

Bethesda (Zenimax) and Activision being bought is very anti consumer.

These aren't just a small team or a studio, like playstation have bought after having a good relationship with and nurturing.
These are huge publishers with many developers attached.

Microsoft cant even handle the teams they have, so history shows the xbox division aren't the best at managing.

Also the huge anti consumer which is for both or all. Is that if this deal goes through then it means anything is possible and we could end up with 1 company owning the entire gaming division, completely eradicating any competition, due to just buying everything.

An extreme view but a possibility all the same.

@Jamesblob didn't you hear? "CoMpEtiTiOn iS AlWaYs gOoD"

Fiends. Man.. i wish Microsoft would just go third party to end this madness. They bring nothing positive to the market.

Microsoft buying Sega would be interesting given the wealth of Strategy Game franchises and companies Sega own. CA is need in order to make a Halo Wars 3. Sega also just bought Rovio Entertainment.

@Ashina

I'm just glad that Japanese law prevents all these company buy outs.

That is a myth. Acquiring Japanese companies is entirely possible and not blocked by any regional laws, outside similar regulatory procedures as we see in other countries.

The biggest roadblock is for hostile takeovers and not due to legal blocks, but due to cross-shareholding, a practice where banks hold stock in the companies they lend to, while borrowers end up also holding positions in the banks that lent money to them. This creates a complex relationship between the companies and the banks that stifle takeover activities. Even that barrier is slowly weakening.
[link with more info]

Despite the recency of these financial changes, there are quite a few Japanese companies owned by foreign ones. Nissan is, for example, owned by Renault, a French company. And Sharp is owned by Foxconn, a Taiwanese company.

You can actually find companies like this one that specialize in aiding international companies to navigate regional laws and regulations, or hunt for investment opportunities.

TLDR: Japan has no laws to block foreign acquisitions.

@Rob_230 Sadly I doubt Activision would mark the last buyout target if Microsoft get their way. Gamepass & Xcloud are but part of the strategy.

Its just as much about controlling/removing third party IP's from the PS ecosystem...Xbox is being bankrolled by their 2.3 trillion parent company & know Sony cannot match their ability to use their dominance in other areas of their business to flex their monopoly into buying up 3rd party AAA publishers.

Those cheering it,may not feel the same way a few years from now when needing a one-stop Microsoft account & renting/streaming games via subscription rather than buying them!😕

"Gamer" Phil Spencer as usual projects the narrative that Sony timed exclusives are anti-gamer whilst simultaneously spending Dad's credit card buying up all the Third Party IP's & publishers he can & keep them off the competition!🙄😑

About the only means that'd slow down such purchases is I'd once read the Japanese government have supposedly tighter foreign ownership rules but Microsoft have shown much like Bobby Kotick that splash enough $$ around & its magical what can be allowed these days!

@MattBoothDev no one deserves anything, you have to earn it. They have 16% of the market, studios take years if not a decade to start new, hire, and get a game out. That no one knows if it will be a successful game or not. Truth is MS has to buy some known IP’s to bring to GP. It feels like GP or bust, at least on the current strategy. I don’t disagree that MS made some mistakes. But they did some great stuff also. To say they did nothing is a stretch. They made achievements, online gaming mainstream on consoles, the 360 was responsible for bringing games like COD and others off PC and onto console. Halo on the OG Xbox changed how shooter were looked at and played on console. They had a lan port first and dedicated hard drive. All things Sony adopted, even cross game chat that players asked for on PS3 and never got but was on 360. So yes Xbox as a brand has forced a better Sony and Sony has forced a better MS. This is what i and many dual console owners want. Competition and each other having to be fair and great to the consumer/Players. For the record i don’t love all of MS’s practices, but i sure don’t love all of Sony’s either. But at the end of the day both consoles have brought me a lot of joy and entertainment over the years and i hope they are both around competing for our money and time for a long long time. 😊

@Robocod Yep absolute nail on the head with all of that. They definitely wont stop with Activision. This is but a road block into whatever their next strategic merger will be. This article fails to mention IO interactive (hitman) and supergiant (hades) were also on the shopping list. This isnt stopping any time soon. I expect they are watching what happens at Embracer group with great interest right now too.

Gamers blindly supporting what they are doing will come to regret it in a few years, i am almost entirely convinced.

Like Sony or not, they are absolutely crucial to the industry for keeping Microsoft in check (and arguably vice versa) so a one format future in the high end space is very concerning.

I still find Nintendo's stance on all this relatively fascinating, even though i do understand the history between them and Sony.

@dnb First off thank you for starting with a friendly debate. I appreciate that as this is all this is at the end of the day for me. I own both consoles and love to share industry talk about both consoles i want to see do well in the console space. So with that said let’s debate. I disagree MS is buying IP’s with success on multiple consoles and keeping them exclusive and away from those players. COD, Minecraft, Diablo, Elder Scrolls online and many others are still on PS. It was even said in Court this month that future Bethesda games will come to PS. Starfield is new, Redfall was new, while yes those were in development as multi platform before Bethesda took a 7 billion dollar check from MS. That changes at that point. MS need’s new Ip’s to grow the Xbox brand. The company that was trying to kill and knock out a competitor was Sony. They were locking up games all over the industry and has the market share to prove they own 70 plus % of that market. This will take a few dollars out of their pocket book, but probably not as much as one would think, they will still clearly be number 1 in profits still. More than enough to be alive and market leader. But this will help MS, they will be able to have AAA games on GP/PC day one without having to outbid Sony or lose games for a year to timed deals. Sony players need MS and MS need’s Sony to make each other better and compete for our dollars and time. I believe this will help. Something that really stood out to me in the FTC court case was, the FTC asking MS why Halo wasn’t made on PS consoles. Just because MS is a rich tech company doesn’t mean they have to give their games away and truth told MS should have been using their money more aggressively 10-12 years ago. That’s one of their strengths, cash and infrastructure. I am not saying just spend it all and push out PS, but don’t sit around during 8 years of Xbox one with only 4 studios making 3 games.that won’t compete with Sony. They are awake now and they have a leader that understands games. The ABK deal will still leave MS in 3rd place. But it’s a big deal to have COD and others on GP. I hope both consoles even out a little more and make them earn gamers time and money. Both Series X and PS5 are awesome for me. I use them both all the time and really enjoy having them in the industry. Thank you for taking the time to read this and debate with me. 😊

@Rob_230 Yeah,been catching up on that news about IO Interactive being a part of their "shopping list"...& seemingly their "Project Dragon" rpg project has also been unearthed in those same court documents as an XB/PC exclusive!😕

The same Phil Spencer who claimed a possible timed exclusive deal on Starfield justified their 7.5 billion Zenimax buyout & making it a permanent exclusive for XB/PC,seems to be doing a heck of a lot in tying up most western AAA RPG's & devs almost entirely under permanent Xbox exclusivity! 😕🙄

But try & bring it up on socials away from here,(or much like i did Octopath Traveller even here!),& all you'll see is is countless bot accounts post "BUT FF7 remastered & FF16!!"

@HonestHick indeed, success is earned not bought.

That's the problem. Microsoft don't know how to run a studio, let alone a publisher.

They once owned Bungie, Bungie bought their freedom from Microsoft and as was revealed recently, Microsoft wanted to buy them again and wouldn't accept the level of freedom Bungie demanded.

I've worked with Microsoft as a contractor during their Mixer years and what they do really, really well is capitalism and marketing. They have no patience with studios and want things now, by this quarter or next, because there's always someone breathing down someone's neck about something.

They most certainly have done some good things for gaming. They had the 7th generation nailed down with the 360 and then blew all the good will and press with the Xbox One announcement.

Now I'm not saying Xbox have no right to exist or the they should go away, I'm saying neither Sony nor Microsoft should own a large part of the publishing space.

Microsoft own Zenimax and therefore Bethesda and iD, two juggernaut studios capable of putting out great games of a high quality. They're in a good position and there's plenty of third party games available. Sony don't own that many studios and the ones they do have they've owned for a good while (some around 25 years - Naughty Dog).

@dnb thanks man, appreciate talking with you. That email is said to have more context to it. But i didn’t really read into it. I think the email is foolish, and i have never outside of Phil been a big fan of the mouthy Xbox higher up’s for Xbox. More talk than action. To answer your question, no i do not see MS done yet. No one the size of ABK. But there ain’t many that large to begin with. I think they will look at what makes sense for them. But yes i think they will look into more smaller to medium sized companies, and i think Sony will as well. I did just read on IGN that if Sega went through it was written to the courts that the games would be staying on all consoles. Which i could have guessed that to be the case. But that would make GP look better. Might even move Xbox a million sales in Japan. But not sure that deals resurfaces anytime soon. Trust me i am a little nervous about all this, but i do think by the end of this gen it will be hard not to want both consoles and that’s the best outcome MS could wish for. I for sure ain’t giving up my Xbox and PS consoles. Enjoy them both way to much 😊

@MattBoothDev Sorry to hear that was your experience working there. I have never been a MS guy, outside of Xbox that is all i own from MS in my home. ID is a huge get for them. I love shooters and have ID at the top, for me. I think if they reboot quake that will come to PS. Doom should stay there also, again in court this past week MS said more Bethesda games will be coming to PS, just not Starfield. Time will tell, but if they aren’t fair and smart with it they won’t be allowed to buy more studios and studios will not trust the vision they are selling as games with players on all platforms will be supported. Hope they continue to support those players, it’s the right thing to do. But they want to see GP as Netflix and to do that they will need loads of steady content. With games taking longer and longer to make, they might need 40 studios in house. As crazy as that seems.

@HonestHick is ok, I was a contractor, so I was outside looking in 😁

Yeah they do want GamePass to be the Netflix of gaming, but I personally have zero interest in streaming games. It's a subpar experience and will never top having a console or PC locally. I have a friend who works at EA in Ireland who's been telling me that for a few years. They will try to push it as no different to streaming movies.

I personally want the focus on "cloud" gaming to fail super hard.

@MattBoothDev i could care less if cloud fails or wins. Cause it fails if it’s not as good or better than native and it only passes if it is and then it wouldn’t matter to me. I just want the best games in the best playable state and that’s not cloud today, but could be tomorrow. GP isn’t cloud tho, you download the game like you would if you bought it. So i like that. I use GP to try games and if i like them i buy them, seems like a waste of money to some people but it’s not cause the games you buy give you a discount. So you could be looking at even less of a charge if you take that into consideration. I do like to buy my games i really like and want to play over and over. But i buy those digitally on PS5 and Series X. I bought SF6 without playing the demo and haven’t played a fighting game in a long long while, but man was it worth it. Most games i like to try before i buy if i can. PS+, GP and demos are my friends 😊