Here's Why Harebrained Schemes Should Be Microsoft's Next Acquisition

With Harebrained Schemes now independent once again, there are several reasons that make it Microsoft's next ideal acquisition target.

[shinoff2183]

Ms has plenty. They don't need anymore. They probably have as many studios as Sony and Nintendo combined. How much more does this company need ?

[Jin_Sakai]

They couldn’t handle the studios they had before acquiring Activision Blizzard which added 9 studios, 17,000 employees, and 30 IPs.

[-Foxtrot]

“How much more does this company need ?“

Until they back Sony into a corner where they will loose games knowing their first party games, while good, will not be able to keep up and they finally snuff them out winning the console wars by default.

[LonDonE]

i have said before, they should of bought remedy, these guys worked closely with MS, and are a top notch developer who make stunning looking and playing games with strong single player stories.. why they have not bought them is beyond me, i bet Sony are looking at them closely.. I love both Sony and MS and Nintendo, but MS needs teams like remedy who make strong single player third person games like Sony teams do....

[Obscure_Observer]

"How much more does this company need ?"

CDPR, Remedy, Crytek among others which always had a great relationship with Xbox since the beginning.

Harebrained Schemes would be a great addition to Xbox and it´s RPG IPs portfolio.

[Vengeance1138]

Countless possibilities for IP mismanagement lol who shall get ruined first I wonder.
CDPR games could really use more walking sim mechanics lol

[Profchaos]

Crytek was focused primarily on PC they avoided consoles right up until crysis 2, crysis 3 and then they ported crysis 1 very late in the ps360 lifecycle Ubisoft built far cry instincts predator games for Xbox that was their mandate for the IP. They published Ryse as they got paid for it via an timed exclusively deal (the game did that badly they didn't bother porting) none of this equals a great relationship from the start.

Remedy has a great relation with Rockstar if anything and these days is closer to sony.

Cdpr is another studios that pc first.

I don't get what your trying to say if you think these are potential acquisitions for ms it doesn't make sense as they may have done some exclusivity work for Xbox but have done other exclusive deals for other consoles or primarily focused on PC historically

[Philaroni]

I can tell you right now being and have worked with the RT team HS would not sell out, they already said they don't have any plans or capacity to do another BT game. They want to do other things. Everyone in this thread here is very much on drugs. Nothing about what any of your are saying is what the creators and dev's want.

Cry-Tek is something I wanted MS to buy a long time ago being someone who was a big fan of CE3 (The Game Engine.) They had to get bailed out by the German Government some years back, and not many games use it now days. Amazon did for a bit, I know PGi uses it for MWO, and some others. Since Microsoft for what ever reason can't seem to build there own damn game engine, it would have made sense. But, again I'm not sure they could if they wanted due to what ever the German Gov, and the constraints on buying business there are. That's a complicated mess, from what I understand.

MS needs to first chill out and make sure what they have works out, Once that is the case I'd rather see them buy some smaller places and grow them. $$$ has never been MS's issue, its they are too large to manage and be creative at times. Even with all the new IP's they got, its still going to be COD for 10 more years, the stuff they have in the oven which I hope is good (Looking at you Perfect Dark) I want to kick ass. We as gamers are so far from that yet and MS has a bad habit, not just in the game but software industry of buy buy buy cut cut cut, then it goes to shit. I know all too damn well. I want MS to go back to there old self, you won't be an industry leader by buying everyone out, you got to do it yourself.

[recoctimocassirnff]

Why are you encouraging more acquisitions, obscure?

Why wouldn't you be using your platform to encourage ms to, you know, actually make something, instead of buy something that already exists?

You know much of an immature fanboy attitude that is?

[Godmars290]

Given they've shown no real ability to manage studios under them, create sustainable new IPs vs buying established popular ones, they could buy every major AAA maker outside of Sony and Nintendo and it still wouldn't be enough. Likely devastate the industry worse than the 80s crash.

[Obscure_Observer]

If I were you, I would be more worried about the competition and its current and future plans for Playstation Studios and its games.

Just heard Bungie is the newest Playstation first party studio that will be enduring layoffs.

You love to trash talk and to accuse Microsoft of mismanagement of studios, when in reality it´s Playstation the ones mismanaging its studios, which you shamelessly won´t even comment on.

Both Japan Studios ad PixelOpus got shut down. A massive wave of recent layoffs hit Playstation first party studios like Media Molecule, Visual Arts and Naughty Dog.

Now, Jason Schreier claims that Bungie employees are the next getting the axe, which is truly shocking if true.

https://twitter.com/jasonsc...

I mean, really???

After a $3.7 billion deal and after just one freaking year as part of Playstation Studios, people at Bungie already are losing their jobs, upcoming Destiny 2´s expansion getting delayed for June´s 2024 and Marathon for 2025.

So yeah, I rather have Matt Booty over Hermen Hulst any day of the year!

[Godmars290]

@Obscure_Observer:
I've said earlier I skipped PS4. Am happy Ryan's gone. Hope the brand can recover, but doubt it. Really just got a PS5 for its BR.

Still, they're ahead of MS, who supposedly had more studios than Sony and Nintendo before buying Activision, yet had to rely on Bethesda, other former 3rd party devs with in production titles, to have their current releases. If true the majority of said will become rotating contract hires, Things wont get better for Xbox and it'll be MS's fault.

[Obscure_Observer]

"I've said earlier I skipped PS4. Am happy Ryan's gone. Hope the brand can recover, but doubt it. Really just got a PS5 for its BR."

Yeah... sure thing, man

"Still, they're ahead of MS, who supposedly had more studios than Sony and Nintendo before buying Activision, yet had to rely on Bethesda, other former 3rd party devs with in production titles, to have their current releases."

That´s nonsense!

Until 2018 when Phil finally started to acquire and create new first party studios, Xbox only had FIVE first party studios (RARE, 343i, Turn 10, The Coalition and Mojang) against Playstation and its THIRTEEN first party studios.

By that time Sony had almost triple first party studios working exclusively with Playstation, not to mention the third party ones like Kojima Productions and Insomniac.

Every gamer knows that most AAA development circles took 5 to 7 years to be completed. So, if you were expecting new AAA games from recently acquired Xbox first party studios to be out by now, you´re nothing but a clueless and delusional person.

You´re not totally wrong about Bethesda games, though. Both Redfall and HIFI-Rush were in active development for the PS5 which was confirmed by its directors.

But that was not the case for Starfield at all since Todd Howard himself confirmed that by the time Microsoft acquired Zenimax, there wasn´t a port in active development for both Xbox and PS5, only PC. So a PS5 version of Starfield never existed!

Now, all of the 2024 line up of games for Xbox is ALL in-house first party games so you won´t have a excuse.

Hellblade II
Fable
Awoed
Flight Simulator 2024
Towerborne

We´ll see how well those games will perform under Matt Booty vs whatever Helmen Hulst has in store for your PS5 in terms of first party games, because so far I haven´t seen nothing from Sony as far first party games are concerned for 2024.

[Barlos]

It'll never be enough. They won't be satisfied until they've bought up everything they can.

If you can't beat them, buy them, seems to be Microsoft's motto.

[MrDead]

Geez man wtf!?! This article is the nodding dog at MS's crotch, it's worse than half of the fanboys on this site!

I guess you've gotta earn those review copies somehow now MS is choosing who is and isn't allowed to review games... and with MS buying the multiplatform market you'll get more grovelling fluff pieces like this.

[sparky77]

Nah Sega first, the no names after.

[LOGICWINS]

Please, no more acquisitions. This coming from an Xbox fan. Let MS prove that they can properly manage the studios they have.

[BeHunted]

I'm predicting Microsoft will acquire Sega or Telltale next...

[Nacho_Z]

But they acquired harebrained schemes ages ago...

[Barlos]

Maybe Microsoft (and Sony, for that matter) should work with what they have, rather than buy out more studios? The last thing this industry needs is to be swallowed up by just a couple of bigger companies. Creativity will be stifled competition will be killed off.

[Hypertension140]

True, but Sony NEEDS to acquire at least one publisher, Microsoft really asked for it when they acquired two. They just have to much of an advantage now, I still can't believe they let them get away with this, it's so frustrating.

[gold_drake]

heres why they shouldnt aquire anyone anymore. here fixed it for ya.

heres the thing, they need results now. they need games now. cause people are getting more pissed by the day. because there is just no reason to own an xbox and those who bought it hoping that games would come, are pissed.

[Shikoku]

Consolidation in industries is not a good thing. It usually hurts consumers and competition. The purchase of ACT/Blizz by MS highlights why our anti trust laws need updated

[lellkay]

I'm a big fan of Harebrained Scheme but i'm not sure i'm into the idea of Microsoft aquiring them.

Saying that, their story and character writing is bloody amazing, I think they would fit Sony better.

[S2Killinit]

Screw MS. They are currently losing subscriptions. Hope it all backfires in their corporate faces.

[recoctimocassirnff]

We can only hope.

[CrimsonWing69]

I'm still waiting for f*cking games from their initially acquired studios like Ninja Theory that showed a game back when the Xbox Series X was first announced. In fact, let's see the games from all the bajillion studios they have now before we go on about the next acquisition.

[Traecy]

MSXB doesn't need anymore studios, they have more they enough. Concentrate on what they already have.

[Markusb33]

how about MS release any game that is half as good as spiderman or Horizon that would be a realistic start, rather than endless talk of buying companies, can they even manage what they have ?

[Redgrave]

How about no? This talk should be reviled. However "easy clicks" will always win out. Let devs be. Indie devs should be the ones who get to decide if they go full allegiance or not, otherwise it makes the "independent" part redundant.

Nobody should acquire them, and they, as an independent dev, should be allowed to choose which platform(s) to develop for.

[mastershredder]

I love this. Suggestive aquistions. Like studios must be acquired to be relevant or something, or are waiting around like pets for adoption.

Yeah sometimes, but wtf. this is like a grandma's boy take.

The comment section there on wccftech is delicious.

[SimpleSlave]

Think bigger. The fact that Nintendo is not a direct competitor to either Microsawft or Sony, it makes it all the more obvious as to whom Micro should acquire next. And that is Sony of course. Then everything else not named Nintendo.

Can you imagine how diverse the industry would be then with Microsawft on one hand and Nintendo on the other? The most diverse the industry has ever been for sure. Not only are gamers gonna be gaming in a new Golden Age but workers will be well respected and taken care of with fair wages and an amazing work/life balance.

Do it Microsawft! Cuz I think it makes perfect sense...😐👍

[Philaroni]

I'm not sure they would work out. If anything I'd like to see Paradox get a boost. HS that made Battletech is great and all but you really need Roughtech to make it what it is today. I don't see MS getting games like that which really only are playable on PC only.

[bbad]

Microsoft has enough studios. I was really hoping for them to acquire Mistwalker and make a sequel to Lost Odyssey