![]() Are there people on the board looking to ditch their shares? Or are they happy as they are? That’s what either facilitates or prevents these things from happening.” It usually comes down to who the board members are and what’s going on in their lives. “But actually doing it is a much more complex thing. “It’s easy to say yes, Microsoft needs to buy a company like that,” said van Dreunen. The Xbox One has a serious exclusive games problem “But I think the interest in that company is fairly universal, so I imagine there is a lot of competition.” “In many ways PUBG Corporation is the perfect candidate,” said SuperData Research CEO Joost van Dreunen. Then there’s PUBG Corp., which is riding high with PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds. Great IP and dominance in PC game retailing and big investment in esports? It makes a lot of sense.” I don’t think of Gabe as a seller, but it’s not crazy. “Not to mention that they are 10 miles apart. “The Valve business fits very well with Microsoft’s cross-platform strategy,” said Pachter. But even if Valve were the target, it’s hard to see how this would help Microsoft’s Xbox One roster in the short term. It’s possible he wants to focus on VR, rather than digital retailing, and might be willing to spin off Valve’s less interesting assets. “When Windows 10 launched, they jumped back into PC gaming, and then you look at initiatives like cross-play, you can see their priorities.”īut all this hinges on Newell. ![]() “The PC and Windows as a primary platform is a strategy that might be worth pursuing, rather than the console market, and so Valve would make sense,” said Cole. ![]() “The Valve business fits very well with Microsoft’s cross-platform strategy” They said that it would fit with Microsoft’s desire to leverage PC gaming and its interest in the cloud, while also handing over prize brands like Half-Life, Portal, Team Fortress and Left 4 Dead and offering an entry into esports. Still, our analysts were all open to Valve as a possibility. Microsoft is keen on exploring games as platforms, at which Valve excels.īut boss Gabe Newell (a former Microsoft employee) is known for his desire for independence, and for his often scathing opinions about Microsoft’s strategy. In Valve’s case, an acquisition comes with the massive power of PC games retail portal Steam, as well as popular gaming brands like Counter-Strike and Dota 2. I don’t see it.” Gabe Newell, seen here during a Steam Machine event in 2013, will have the last word on Valve. That all goes away in a Microsoft acquisition, including all those licenses, which the holders will insist on being on all platforms. “You have to think that maybe half EA’s business is PlayStation 4 right now. Michael Pachter at Wedbush Securities was equally skeptical. What are they going to do different this time?” They had a lot of success with Bungie, but a lot of other things haven’t panned out so well. Microsoft’s track record in that regard is not that good. “And if you get them, you can just screw it up. “It’s tough to buy a large publisher,” he added. “If you get them, you can just screw it up” Then you have to deal with potential antitrust issues, which can take a while. “If the world starts finding out that Microsoft is interested in acquiring them, that stock price is likely to shoot up. “EA’s market cap is somewhere around $35 billion,” said David Cole, owner of DFC Intelligence. None of four analysts we spoke to considered it a likely proposition. But much of its value is held in licenses like Star Wars and the NFL, rather than in the sort of exclusive IP that Microsoft craves. In the case of EA, it’s one of the biggest third-party games publisher in the world, with popular brands like Battlefield, Dead Space, Mass Effect, Dragon Age and Titanfall. Individually, they wouldn’t make a big difference anyway in Microsoft’s exclusives shortfall against Sony. Most of these are unlikely to want to sell. But those markers of success are often driven by independent leaders and a strong internal culture. ![]() Larger independent developers are always on the radar of acquisitive companies, the largest and most successful currently being the likes of Double Fine Productions, CCP, Klei Entertainment, Telltale Games and IO Interactive, all of which have development heft and good brands. ![]()
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