Microsoftongoing court battle with the FTC has thrown up a number of interesting little factoids regarding the company’s previous business dealings, but you’ll struggle to find a bigger revelation than the one that dropped earlier today. According to some internal documents provided during the hearing, Microsoft was strongly considering acquiringSega’sgaming studios in 2020 in an attempt to make Game Pass much more lucrative.
First shared byThe Verge, Xbox head Phil Spencer sent out an email in November 2020 asking Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella for permission to approach Sega Sammy over a potential acquisition. Specner claimed that the studio would be a good candidate for acquisition due to its “well-balanced portfolio of games across segments with global geographic appeal” and that it would help “accelerate Xbox Game Pass both on and off-console.”
Related:Starfield Might Have A Disc, But Gaming’s Future Doesn’t
It’s unclear as to whether Sega is still part of Microsoft’s acquisition plans, especially with how much it’s having to fight to get the Activision Blizzard one over the line, although Specner acknowledged it could be a tricky one to sort out in the email itself. Spencer claimed that there were “a few deal complexities” and pointed out that Sega Sammy’s gaming division makes up roughly half of its revenue, suggesting it may not be too keen to part with it.
Alongside the email, a bunch more potential acquisitions were shared via Microsoft’s final watchlist, and included the likes of Bungie, Hitman developer IO Interactive, Hades developer Supergiant Games, and Alan Wake 2 developer Remedy Entertainment. Obviously, Bungie was recently acquired by Sony, but the situations with Remedy, IO, and Supergiant are currently unknown. Other studios of note that were included on the list were Thunderful, Niantic, and Zynga.
It’s worth noting thata list of “Developers to Watch"was also provided, in which Microsoft names a bunch of developers it could potentially look at acquiring in the future. A lot of the studios listed are fairly standard and recently released titles, though big names on the list include Hollow Knight developer Team Cherry, It Takes Two developer Hazelight Studios, and No Man’s Sky developer Hello Games.
Obviously, Microsoft can’t acquire all of these studios and its likely just scouting for potential acquisitions like I’m sure pretty much all publishers are right now. Still, it’s slightly concerning for the industry that Microsoft is targeting names like Sega on top of Activision Blizzard, and another sign that the games industry is consolidating more and more as each year passes.
Next:The Story Of Fable, The Masterpiece That Burnt Out Its Creators
