Currently, Microsoft is having a battle with the US Federal Trade Commission as they are currently attempting to block a proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard for $69 Billion. One of the most recent members of Microsoft to take the stand was Phil Spencer and during his time on the stand, they have brought numerous emails from the past revealing that at one point, Phil Spencer had intentions to purchase Sega and many other gaming developers.
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Why was Microsoft looking to buy Sega and Bungie?
It has been revealed that back in 2020, Phil Spencer made the case to attempt to purchase Sega; the main reason behind this is that Phil Spencer considers Sega to have a large number of games in its portfolio because of this, it felt like an important acquisition for Microsoft as Sega isn’t just a console only developer as they also have numerous releases on PC that are constantly in use. The main idea was that in acquiring Sega, they would be able to create future games from Sega, a Subscription exclusive game on Game Pass. This doesn’t mean that Sega would have been an Xbox-exclusive developer, as they would have still released games to other consoles.
Whilst viewing the emails written by Phil Spencer, there was also mention of other game developers, one of which being Bungie; the main reasoning behind this is the fact that Destiny, one of Bungie’s biggest franchises at this current time, is the highest hour generating game that can be accessed on Game Pass at this current time. This reasoning is why Microsoft has looked into acquiring Bungie because Destiny currently has a high burn rate on players meaning that many players come and go. It is very risky to purchase Bungie just for this reason.
Related: The Microsoft/Activision Deal May Be Blocked In Yet Another Country!
What other developers were Microsoft considering to acquire?
Another document that has been revealed from April 2021 shows that Sega and Bungie were not the only developers that were considered for acquisition; back in 2021, Microsoft was considering purchasing; Supergiant Games, the developers behind the massive hit Hades; IO Interactive, the developers behind the incredibly impressive Hitman series and even Niantic, the main developers for Pokemon GO.
Currently, none of these deals seems to have made any progress, especially for Bungie, as they have been acquired by Sony, but as of now, there is no information stating that any of these developers have even had offers in regards to being acquired, but until this ordeal with Activision Blizzard has been ironed out there will be no deals made by Microsoft to acquire any other developers at least for now, but that doesn’t mean that it could happen in the future.
At this current moment in time, there is no deal between Sega or any of the other developers that have been mentioned in this article with Microsoft, but never say never as there is always an opportunity in the future. What do you think about this? Let us know in the comments!
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