4 ms·

Another one! I'm interested to see how this plays out. Most of Microsoft's acquisitions in recent years have been failures. Studios that had been making iconic

Another one! I'm interested to see how this plays out. Most of Microsoft's acquisitions in recent years have been failures. Studios that had been making iconic games were acquired by Microsoft and in short order were only making shovelware (see Rare post acquisition). Sony doesn't seem to have the same problem. Sucker Punch and Insomniac are good examples of this, their output has been as good as ever since being acquired by Sony. From the outside looking in this seems to be because Sony understands how much creative freedom means to these teams, and they don't inject Sony management into the processes of previously successful game studios. I'd love to hear more of an insider opinion on why acquisitions over the last decade look so differently at these two companies though.

sumtechguy 5y ago
Wait wasn't Bungie a MS division at one point?
- willidiots 5y ago
  Yes. Bungie was an independent studio back in the 90's, then MS acquired them for Halo. Bungie split from MS in 2007; the Halo IP remained behind under 343. They were under Activision during the Destiny era until 2019. So if they stayed, they would've ended up back at MS. The M&A merry-go-round continues.
  - Hamuko 5y ago
    They weren't under Activision, they just had a publishing agreement with Activision in the 2010s, and retained all intellectual property.
  - zppln 5y ago
    Hm, surely it must have been later than 2007 that they split? Wasn't Reach made by Bungie?
    - HWR_14 5y ago
      They split in 2007. MS then had them make reach as an independent company.
    - theandrewbailey 5y ago
      When they announced the split in 2007, there was some deal that required Bungie to make two more Halo games after 3. Bungie released ODST in 2009 and Reach in 2010.
Xplune13 5y ago
Rare did go down after acquisition, but what others are you talking about? Their biggest (Zenimax) one will start releasing new Xbox and PC exclusive games from this year onwards, so it's still early to call that one a failure. Mojang, is doing Mojang thing i.e. Minecraft and while they haven't had a great success after that, they're still doing fine. Playground games is doing Forza which is actually pretty popular among racing players (perhaps the most popular). Obsidian haven't started to make Xbox and PC exclusives yet, but they'll also start with that presumably next year. I don't know where you're getting "Most of Microsoft's acquisitions in recent years have been failures." this. On the other hand, Sony's way of buying studios is way different. Most of the times, they have already worked with those studios in past to make a PS exclusive and then they buy them. I agree that Insomniac is doing great (better than any of Microsoft's purchases), but other than that, there isn't much just like MS. I think we will get a better picture of whose acquisitions work best after 5-6 more years.
- monocasa 5y ago
  And frankly, Rare was a shadow of it's former self at acquisition anyway. There were still some a couple of the people left who worked on the games that made Rare famous (e.g. Ken Lobb, Grant Kirkhope), but it had a huge amount of brain drain around the early 2000s that left it in a state to be one of the first game dev studios to be picked up on the cheap by Microsoft. Nintendo want interested in supporting it, and it probably just would have went under if not for Microsoft.
- DizzyDoo 5y ago
  Other one would be Double Fine, while it is relatively early days since they were acquired in 2019, they seem to have been just working on their projects since then. Psychonauts 2 was very well received last year - from what I've read it seems like the Microsoft acquisition allowed them to add a bunch of content back into the game that they had previously cut for time/budget, like boss battles - looks like it helped with the overall game quality.
- kupopuffs 5y ago
  Ensemble, FASA, Lionhead Studios, Access, Digital Anvil See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisitions_by_Microsoft#Acquisitions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisitio...
manojlds 5y ago
Some of the best rated games this year (2021) including Sony exclusive this year were from Microsoft / Xbox.
- Hamuko 5y ago
  Like what?
frenchie14 5y ago
Rare was acquired in 2002 and their list of games since doesn't look like shovelware to me [1]. Yeah, there's some misses, but there's also some great games in there. The worst ones are the ones tied to Kinect and MS has abandoned that venture. Also, MS acquisitions from the last 5 years have released standout games: Psychonauts 2 and Forza Horizon 5 are two that I played and loved and are certainly not "shovelware" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_video_games_developed_by_Rare https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_video_games_developed_...
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- z3c0 5y ago
  Maybe it's not shovelware, but there's a pretty stark difference in the caliber of games that Rare released after their acquisition. This is the company that made Donkey Kong Country, Banjo & Kazooie, Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, Conker, etc, so anything short of iconic is a step down. However, I'll add that Viva Piñata is an oft overlooked gem.
  - indigodaddy 5y ago
    It’s Wizards and Warriors for me.. loved that game.
  - frenchie14 5y ago
    That's a pretty reasonable assessment. Honestly, I wonder how much of this has to do with how much things have changed in the last 25 years. Games have gotten so much more complex and shifted their focus to multiplayer. It feels like it's no longer possible for a single developer to have so much impact. Rare developed multiple iconic games _per year_! Nowadays, developers can barely release one game every few years.
- awill 5y ago
  >>Rare was acquired in 2002 and their list of games since doesn't look like shovelware to me I don't know.... Honestly Rare was just as good if not better than Nintendo themselves. And that's a nearly impossible feat. The n64 did as well as it did because of Rare. GoldenEye, Perfect Dark, Banjo, Diddy Kong, Donkey Kong, Jet Force Gemini etc.. post-acquisition, Rare didn't made the same sort of games. So maybe they found new fans, but the old fans hated it. Myself included.
craz8 5y ago
It’s interesting that Sucker Punch and Bungie offices were really close to each other - maybe 2 blocks? Although I read that Sucker Punch recently moved, and I don’t know the new location. I can imagine them sharing all sorts of things between studios now that they have the same ownership. It will at least allow shared lunch time conversations to be less guarded

sumtechguy 5y ago

Wait wasn't Bungie a MS division at one point?

willidiots 5y ago
Yes. Bungie was an independent studio back in the 90's, then MS acquired them for Halo. Bungie split from MS in 2007; the Halo IP remained behind under 343. They were under Activision during the Destiny era until 2019. So if they stayed, they would've ended up back at MS. The M&A merry-go-round continues.
- Hamuko 5y ago
  They weren't under Activision, they just had a publishing agreement with Activision in the 2010s, and retained all intellectual property.
- zppln 5y ago
  Hm, surely it must have been later than 2007 that they split? Wasn't Reach made by Bungie?
  - HWR_14 5y ago
    They split in 2007. MS then had them make reach as an independent company.
  - theandrewbailey 5y ago
    When they announced the split in 2007, there was some deal that required Bungie to make two more Halo games after 3. Bungie released ODST in 2009 and Reach in 2010.

Xplune13 5y ago

Rare did go down after acquisition, but what others are you talking about? Their biggest (Zenimax) one will start releasing new Xbox and PC exclusive games from this year onwards, so it's still early to call that one a failure. Mojang, is doing Mojang thing i.e. Minecraft and while they haven't had a great success after that, they're still doing fine. Playground games is doing Forza which is actually pretty popular among racing players (perhaps the most popular). Obsidian haven't started to make Xbox and PC exclusives yet, but they'll also start with that presumably next year. I don't know where you're getting "Most of Microsoft's acquisitions in recent years have been failures." this. On the other hand, Sony's way of buying studios is way different. Most of the times, they have already worked with those studios in past to make a PS exclusive and then they buy them. I agree that Insomniac is doing great (better than any of Microsoft's purchases), but other than that, there isn't much just like MS. I think we will get a better picture of whose acquisitions work best after 5-6 more years.

monocasa 5y ago
And frankly, Rare was a shadow of it's former self at acquisition anyway. There were still some a couple of the people left who worked on the games that made Rare famous (e.g. Ken Lobb, Grant Kirkhope), but it had a huge amount of brain drain around the early 2000s that left it in a state to be one of the first game dev studios to be picked up on the cheap by Microsoft. Nintendo want interested in supporting it, and it probably just would have went under if not for Microsoft.
DizzyDoo 5y ago
Other one would be Double Fine, while it is relatively early days since they were acquired in 2019, they seem to have been just working on their projects since then. Psychonauts 2 was very well received last year - from what I've read it seems like the Microsoft acquisition allowed them to add a bunch of content back into the game that they had previously cut for time/budget, like boss battles - looks like it helped with the overall game quality.
kupopuffs 5y ago
Ensemble, FASA, Lionhead Studios, Access, Digital Anvil See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisitions_by_Microsoft#Acquisitions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisitio...

manojlds 5y ago

Some of the best rated games this year (2021) including Sony exclusive this year were from Microsoft / Xbox.

Hamuko 5y ago
Like what?

frenchie14 5y ago

Rare was acquired in 2002 and their list of games since doesn't look like shovelware to me [1]. Yeah, there's some misses, but there's also some great games in there. The worst ones are the ones tied to Kinect and MS has abandoned that venture. Also, MS acquisitions from the last 5 years have released standout games: Psychonauts 2 and Forza Horizon 5 are two that I played and loved and are certainly not "shovelware" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_video_games_developed_by_Rare https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_video_games_developed_...

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
z3c0 5y ago
Maybe it's not shovelware, but there's a pretty stark difference in the caliber of games that Rare released after their acquisition. This is the company that made Donkey Kong Country, Banjo & Kazooie, Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, Conker, etc, so anything short of iconic is a step down. However, I'll add that Viva Piñata is an oft overlooked gem.
- indigodaddy 5y ago
  It’s Wizards and Warriors for me.. loved that game.
- frenchie14 5y ago
  That's a pretty reasonable assessment. Honestly, I wonder how much of this has to do with how much things have changed in the last 25 years. Games have gotten so much more complex and shifted their focus to multiplayer. It feels like it's no longer possible for a single developer to have so much impact. Rare developed multiple iconic games _per year_! Nowadays, developers can barely release one game every few years.
awill 5y ago
>>Rare was acquired in 2002 and their list of games since doesn't look like shovelware to me I don't know.... Honestly Rare was just as good if not better than Nintendo themselves. And that's a nearly impossible feat. The n64 did as well as it did because of Rare. GoldenEye, Perfect Dark, Banjo, Diddy Kong, Donkey Kong, Jet Force Gemini etc.. post-acquisition, Rare didn't made the same sort of games. So maybe they found new fans, but the old fans hated it. Myself included.

craz8 5y ago

It’s interesting that Sucker Punch and Bungie offices were really close to each other - maybe 2 blocks? Although I read that Sucker Punch recently moved, and I don’t know the new location. I can imagine them sharing all sorts of things between studios now that they have the same ownership. It will at least allow shared lunch time conversations to be less guarded