I think they should just buy individual IP… and Atlus…
JSRF
Panther Dragoon
Vector Man
Comix Zone (perfect time to reboot)
Constantly forcing Sonic games down everyone throat will get you some bad results, SEGA.
On topic; I think MS should pick up Jetset Radio and Phantasy Star series and a few others.
Well, that’s how it would benefit MS. If they bought Sega and it made fans that wanted to play new Shenmue, Streets of Rage, Sonic and many more, that’s more people buying their hardware and software.
Lost Odyssey was my favorite game from the last generation. LO2 is near the top of my list of games that I want. The question is whether MS would be able to farm Sega titles out to other developers and get Mistwalker working on a sequel, get Rare (or someone else) working on new Banjo etc. I don’t see why it has to be an either/or situation. If they bought Sega, it’d be to augment the library they already have, not replace it. At least, that would be my assumption.
NFL 2K was 1st party when it was on the Dreamcast. That was before Sega sold off Visual Concepts. Crazy Taxi was also 1st party. I totally hear ya on Soul Calibur though. My jaw dropped the first time I played that game after 9/9/99. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing!
Yeah, the “get some good games onto the X1 platform” part is what I want too. I mean, they spent 2.5 billion on Mojang to get one game (presumably). Granted it’s one VERY popular game, but it’s still one game. I don’t know how much Sega would cost, but from everything I’ve read and listened to after the Mojang purchase, it was referred to as “Capcom money.” In other words, they could’ve purchased a controlling stake, if not the entire company outright.
Given where Sega has been financially for the last ten years, with all of the layoffs and restructuring, I can’t imagine Sammy is desperate to hold on to them. Would they cost more than 2.5 billion? I have no idea. I’ve looked in to it a decent amount and it’s all just speculation. Some say 1.5 billion, some say 10 billion. Given that Microsoft’s cash on hand is somewhere around 92 billion, I tend to doubt that Sega’s worth 10 billion, but I honestly have no real feel for it. I also have no idea if, given the way Sega’s structured, if MS would even need to purchase the entire company or if they could purchase the part that holds the IPs, perhaps work out some sort of licensing agreement with Sega for their arcade and mobile entities and only take the chunk that they need. Again, no definitive answer there.
Regardless, MS tends to do these one off deals or bring out a game here and a game there, and they never seem to hold on to studios. They had Bioware (if I recall correctly) and they let them go to EA. They had Bungie, who is now with Activision.
They’ve done deals with various companies for exclusivity, timed exclusivity or they’ve outright funded games, but they only have three or so “tent-pole” franchises: Halo, Gears and Forza. Maybe you also put Killer Instinct and (until recently) Dance Central on that last as well.
To me, adding a library of games like this, and contracting with developers to work on a lot of them would bring, at worst, several good one-off franchise updates or re-releases. As a fan of a lot of those titles above, that would be great for me.
At best though, MS could get that as well as garner a few annual or biennial titles in multiple genres that MS isn’t overly strong in currently or further augment genres they do tend to do well in. I love Forza Horizon, but what if they MS could contract with Sumo Digital for something like Microsoft Versus Sega All Stars Racing? How about a new motorcycle game like Hang On or a rally racing game like Sega Rally or more arcade-y title like Monaco GP or Out Run or Crazy Taxi? Maybe they decide to turn Daytona in to a more Nascar-ish type of game, and that’s just one genre. .
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For me I think buying Capcom makes the most sense. It isn’t hard to see as of late Capcom have been struggling, and for Keiji Inafune to leave was a big deal. Xbox will automatically be a force in Japan and if not it won’t matter because they will still have a company in Japan and using Japanese talent, creativity, and have a clearer voice of what games they enjoy being made on the Xbox by Japanese 1st party game makers if Capcom gets bought by Microsoft. Microsoft better get involved in a bid before Sony does. I don’t want Sony to buy Capcom.
I also think Microsoft should buy Mistwalker, get the rights to Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon (I think Blue Dragon was so much fun, under-rated and has so much more potential) also, Lost Odyssey has a huge cult following.
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If Sega decided to sell off individual IPs, I’d be right there with this line of thinking. Although I have a huge soft spot in my heart for a lot of the titles I listed above, I’d be over the moon if we got a new Skies of Arcadia, a new Panzer Dragoon, a new Eternal Champions, and a new Nights (if I could only pick a few).
I only proposed the “purchasing Sega” idea because I wouldn’t assume that a company would sell off their IPs. I’ve never seen a company do that unless their in bankruptcy the way THQ was not long ago.
As much as I’d like to see some"one-off" deals between Sega and MS to bring a few titles to Xbox One, I mean… Call me greedy… But I don’t want just one Shinobi. I’d want for Shinobi to be a MS franchise. To know that they can bring out a new version of that game every three years or so if they wanted and for MS to have complete quality control and final say, so that we don’t get a Beastrider situation with Golden Axe, where Sega decides to bring a franchise back and then completely craps the bed with it.
There’s so much history there, but there’s also a metric ton of potential. So many great franchises withering on the vine while MS keeps doing one off deals for partial exclusivity like Rise of the Tomb Raider or one time contracts like with Platinum for Scalebound this generation and Lost Odyssey with Mistwalker last generation. Those are all great too, don’t get me wrong, the more of those, the better. But I’d also love for MS to have a good amount of their own titles in the pipeline. Stuff that I can rely on maybe not as frequently as Halo or Gears or Forza, but still more stable in terms of a steady flow of great games than the uncertainty that comes with the current MS model.
BTW, I should mention separately here that I’m not averse to any other points of view on this. Though I think that this would be a great idea, I certainly understand others reservations on it or opinions on Sega’s library etc. I don’t mean to respond to people like I’m trying to argue anyone in to my way of thinking or shout down opposing viewpoints with my (overly long) responses. I just enjoy the conversation since this would obviously never happen to begin with and responding to others opinions with my reasoning, which also stems from my opinion, which is no better or worse than anyone else’s.
If anything I just want to see those Sega titles back again and relevant, and I want to see MS get as many great exclusives as possible. That’s why it feels like such a great idea to me. 
I’d personally be happy with Sega or Capcom. While I personally think that Sega has an overall better list per genre, Capcom’s list that I posted up there is pretty phenomenal as well. I’d be more than happy if MS bought Capcom.
You also make a really good point about the Japanese market. While I do wonder if it would be too late now, this type of acquisition would be the type of thing that might at least pique the interest of the Japanese fan base (one would think). That alone might not be worth it for MS, but when you couple that possibility with the benefits for their other markets, I’d think it’d be a fantastic idea.
As for Mistwalker, I’m 150% behind this idea. They’re a very talented studio and Sakaguchi could be a huge asset for MS and for Xbox. I’m definitely among those in the cult following when it comes to Lost Odyssey, as I consider it to be the last great Final Fantasy game. I was really hoping that MS would purchase Mistwalker after LO came out. Still hoping that, as a matter of fact.
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Agreed, you see exactly what I mean by a Capcom acquisition. As for Sakaguchi I feel that he seems to be getting a little tired of the RPG or games business which is sad, I find that after he left Square Enix and started Mistwalker he seemed to have so much passion to build new worlds and games. He got Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey out and I feel since then he seemed disappointed that they didn’t get big out of the gate. Now they make some games for mobile and Nintendo handhelds but I always hoped that Microsoft would give them a big push and green light whatever MIstwalker wants to make as long as it is on the Xbox platform. This is what I would’ve done despite sales not reaching the target because sometimes you don’t hit the target right away but you build it and improve and hit or surpass it later on.
Yeah, I know the JRPG genre isn’t what it used to be, but Lost Odyssey should’ve been a Microsoft franchise. They could’ve built it up over time. I don’t know if they thought “well, we have Fable” but those two games couldn’t be any more different.
Anyways, Lost Odyssey got very good reviews. Once it became a somewhat known commodity, releasing a 2nd and a 3rd, and really establishing it as something to look forward to as an Xbox owner would’ve been a smart decision. There just aren’t that many of those “known commodities” when it comes to MS. I honestly think it’s one of Microsoft’s bigger shortcomings.
Think of how many games got one sequel, maaaybe two, and were simply abandoned? Or the games that never even got a sequel? Are we ever going to get an Alan Wake 2 from Remedy? Don’t get me wrong, I’m REALLY looking forward to Quantum Break, but then I have to wonder… Will we ever get a Quantum Break 2?
How about MechAssault 3? Amped 3? Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge 2? Voodoo Vince 2? Blinx 3, Jade Empire 2? Blood Wake 2? Kakuto Chojin 2? Brute Force 2? Kameo 2? Perfect Dark 3? Rallisport 3? Ninja Blade 2? New Conker? Another Banjo game? The glut of Rare franchises that they’ve never even touched? Any talk yet of a Sunset Overdrive 2? Ryse 2? Project Spark 2? Crimson Dragon 2? How about looking forward? ReCore 2? Scalebound 2? Sea of Theives 2?
Now, this might seem like a reason to not go after a Sega or a Capcom, but I think that it’s a reason to do exactly that. If MS has no intention of bringing these franchises back or advancing them and making them part of the Xbox experience going forward beyond the initial releases (in the past or future), or if they’re going to operate in slow motion and test the waters on one of them, like Killer Instinct, Crackdown or Phantom Dust, every so often… If they see going further as being too much of a risk, then maybe they take a look at the roster of titles from Sega or Capcom.
They have a ton of games with a high level of recognition among gamers of a certain age. Given that the average gamer age is 35, there’s a slew of untapped potential for a lot of the series for both companies to bring back off the heels of a purchase announcement that would be so huge, it’d leave a crater in it’s wake.
@Iago407 The company that made Blinx the cat for MS dissolved and was confirmed with MS reps saying there will never be another Blinx game. Jade Empire is owned by Bioware. Brute Force has been confirmed by Spencer to “don’t expect a sequel” status which means it won’t happen in a nice way instead of saying never like Blinx the cat. Alan Wake took Remedy 8 years to complete, don’t expect Alan Wake 2 anytime soon but I know what you mean with developing more of what they have instead of Halo, Gears, Forza and Fable.
I’m a huge Halo and Gears fan but they need more than just relying on those 4 franchises. I never understood why Fable got big or why Microsoft see it like a flagship title when Lost Odyssey and other RPG type games are way better and more interesting. There is a big difference between Japanese RPG games and Western RPG games, they both have pros and cons but I feel we need more Japanese RPGs.
I also would like to add that Phantom Dust was a cult-under the radar type game back on original Xbox that came out at the end of the lifespan. I’m not against its return but I wonder why this and no real big push to get Mistwalker onboard Xbox One?
Wait, Blinx wasn’t a first party game? I thought it was developed internally. I must be mistaken. At the very least, I figured MS owned the IP. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not pining for a Blinx sequel or a Brute Force sequel for that matter, but to me, they’re just part of a long list of MS games that just sort of came and went and never really evolved in to a franchise of some sort.
I’m not saying that EVERY game has to be a franchise that’s milked until it’s dry. But MS, to me at least, goes in the opposite direction. There are plenty of good IPs that are either under utilized or not utilized at all, and the result is that there are basically only four games that MS is known for and two of them are shooters and one of them (Fable), I’d argue is in serious decline.
So if they’re only going to bring back a Killer Instinct here, a Crackdown there, maybe tease Battletoads for a a year or two while coming out with a new Scalebound here or a Quantum Break there, I feel like it’s kinda hard to get invested in their library because they’re not really known for a whole lot. I feel like Sega or Capcom could really help them in that regard, especially if they don’t feel all that strongly about their past lineup in terms of future franchise potential.
I mean… I love Lost Odyssey, Crimson Skies, Rallisport etc… But if MS doesn’t think enough of them to grow them in to franchises, then I’d like to think that they could find a good number of games that they would want to be known for from a company that they could purchase.
No Blinx was Artoon, they closed down. There were people asking if there would be a Blinx 3 or a reboot and MS replied with a “No”
I agree, MS need to go back in their catalogue of Xbox original and Xbox 360 as well as start purchasing Capcom and Mistwalker or get exclusive deals from them like they did when they launched the 360. That launch was strong because they were getting so many companies on board including the Japanese companies with their talent to make exclusives for them without acquiring them so it was like “hey, do your thing - you’re the boss but make it just for us and we will help you”, that was the same deal with EPIC with Gears of War, it was a partnership. At least do that and you will start to see big and great changes in their catalogue. Remember Dead Rising, Lost Planet etc. The shift changed around 2008 that was when MS became more lax. They let Bungie go, they let Bioshock go multiplat instead of keeping the exclusivity from 2K, they let others follow suit and then Kinect happened. I think it was around this time that Peter Moore left and we got Don “the Disaster” Mattrick. It will take years for Phil Spencer to get back on track for all the misdoings since 2008. For me Phil Spencer is the best thing to happen to the Xbox brand since Peter Moore.
Huh! No kidding. Thanks for correcting me then!
See and that’s what they did with Sega as well during the early years of the original Xbox and I thought that worked out really well for them. Jet Set Radio Future, Crazy Taxi 3, Sega GT 2002, Shenmue 2, Panzer Dragoon Orta, Otogi, Toe Jam & Earl 3 and Out Run 2 were all exclusives, if I’m not mistaken (and I very well could be on one or two of those).
Where it comes to MS and Sega, I see a history and mutual value. I don’t see that history as much with Capcom, as they’ve always seemed to be more in Sony’s camp (not just for SFV, but during the PS1 and PS2 generations as well).
But that said, again… I’d be MORE than happy if MS and Capcom forged an alliance, where either MS bought them and absorbed them or some other type of arrangement. I really feel like MS could benefit from an influx of stable, reliable, big time franchises that an Xbox owner could actually buy the system for and have a reasonable expectation of seeing at some point. Imagine if Xbox were the one system that you could look to for Resident Evil, Breath of Fire, Darkstalkers, Deviy May Cry, Lost Planet, Power Stone, Strider and so many more… That’d be amazing.
Agreed x1,000. No doubt. He’s one of the main reasons why I have a lot more confidence in Xbox then I did before and leading up to launch. The more Mattrick talked, the less I wanted an Xbox One. No offense to the guy, I don’t know him, but Spencer’s done a great job of getting the brand back on track.
They do own the IP to Blinx. The reason we don’t see MS grow those franchises is quite simple and that’s they don’t own those developers and that is not different from Sony or Nintendo, franchises developed by 3rd parties are rarely continued. Of course you have the rare case of a game like Gears when it’s successful enough to warrant a continuation. YOu’re sort of asking for two things that contradict each other. If MS are to invest into a lot of new IPs that means less room for those franchises they have to grow. If MS chooses to grow a franchise that means fewer new IPs. Building up a diverse library is simply something that’s going to take time they do invest into new IPs a lot more than I think you’re giving them credit for. Just at the beginning of the year we had Ori and ScreamRide, then last year Sunset Overdrive, and the year before that there were a ton of titles at launch that and there’s a ton of games that get overlooked from the 360 generation. Granted they did taper off near the end of last gen, but there was ton of investment early on which people seem to forget because they aren’t as recent.
Several things that need to be cleared up before all this gets out of hand.
- Blinx is owned by MS
- Bioshock was never part of an exclusivity agreement
- Lost Planet was never part of an exclusivity agreement
- Dead Rising was not part of an exclusivity agreement, all these games were made exclusive temporarily(except Dead Rising) due to the developers not wanting to deal with the difficulties of the cell processor of course they eventually worked something out.
- Phil Spencer has not outright rejected any proposals and is always looking at their back catalogue of course that doesn’t mean they all will happen.
Also what people need to think about is games don’t simply happen because Microsoft want them too, you also have to think about the developers involved and if they want to make these sequels usually the way things work is developer pitches game to publisher they negotiate come to an agreement and then game.
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Instead buying SEGA, make an offer for KONAMI. They had turned into a buch of money freaks. There’s so much things that can be taken from their IP. I don’t think i need to make a list you might know what Konami was.
I’ve been waiting patiently for a new altered beast game. We had one on the mega drive and one hack n slash. That’s not enough.
Even with those agreements laid out in the previous generations, there could’ve been room to get a better deal or work out a better partnership. I think Microsoft let a lot of things slip away after 2007. If they can finally get Gears of War to be their IP from EPIC even after all those years of a simple agreement, they could’ve worked something out with Bioshock, Lost Planet, Dead Rising etc. They even managed to get some mostly exclusive titles to PS on their console like Final Fantasy and Resident Evil which was a big deal last generation. They have so many studios and subsidiaries that I don’t agree with the statement that fewer IPs to grow and have focus on is possible than more IPs with still maintaining focus.
I don’t think that wanting one of those things has to come at the total expense of the other though. I think that a balance can be maintained where we get a good number of both.
I guess what I’m really looking for is a situation where they can grow a good number of new IPs while at the same time making a good number of both those as well as older IPs into franchises, at least to the point where I can look at a MS system and say that they’re known for several different titles and not just Halo, Gears and Forza. I honestly don’t think that’s asking too much.
I think that a balance can be found that’s better than what we have right now or have had in the past. Several franchises from the original Xbox as well as the 360 either got one title only or were abandoned after a few games and while I’m not saying that I need MechAssault 7 or Blood Wake 10, again, I think that there’s a better balance that could be maintained so that people can look at an MS system and see several tent-pole franchises and not just a three or four.
I think that MS tends to let a lot of games with the potential to be series or longer series whither on the vine in favor of pursuing something new and different and while I like new and different, as someone that’s owned the original, the 360 and now the One, it’s slightly frustrating to see so many series outright abandoned, regardless of the reason.
While I know that there has to be a willingness on the developer’s side, I think that Killer Instinct has proven, if anything, that it’s possible to take an IP that you own, give it to a good team, and have something special come from it. Rare has a huge catalog, MS has a pretty decent catalog as well dating back to the original Xbox. I feel like there are a lot of opportunities to bring back a good number of games and I’d like to see more of that.
I know that Phil Spencer is looking at the back catalog and I honestly think he’s doing an outstanding job and I also know that cultivating a game library takes time. I’m just hoping that by the end of Xbox One’s lifecycle, that we have some sequels to those cool exclusives both recent and not recent, and that MS can be a system of several franchises in several genres and not just a few shooters and some good deals here and there for one-offs like Lost Odyssey, Sunset Overdrive, etc.
Of course, I realize that cultivating a large list of exclusives, both old and new, and making franchises out of a lot of them is much easier said than done. There also has to be a willingness on MS part to see the potential in their own catalog beyond a remake here, a sequel there, etc. It’s entirely possible that they don’t want to keep having to make deals to get stuff like Jade Empire 2 or maybe they simply don’t see the potential in a Crimson Skies 2 and that’s certainly their prerogative.
But it’s enough to make me wonder if maybe purchasing a company like Sega would make sense. For one, it’s a big splash, all in type of move that would likely bring a ton of old Sega fans in to the fold, but it would also add a metric ton of franchise level titles to MS portfolio in several genres. So if MS doesn’t see as much potential in their own IPs from the past, then maybe they’ll see more potential in Sega’s. I’m an old school Sega fan, so I’m certainly biased in this regard, but I think that adding a company with the massive amount of IPs that Sega has could be huge for MS and Xbox owners. I know this would never happen, but as a fan of both, I’d love to see it.