I've mostly stayed away from commenting on mergers and waited to see how things shake out, but with the MS/ABK deal likely passing, I'm curious what the future of the industry looks like. With the largest publisher being able to be bought, I think the floodgates will now open.
@shinobi602 I think MS will go after a few individual teams very soon after this closes. Then pivot back to publishers, I assume they will “save” Ubisoft & then pursue other options very soon CDPR fits their wants but I could see SEGA, Capcom & Bandi Namco all bought within the decade.
@shinobi602 No other company in the industry has a cool 30+ billion they can spend every year on acquisitions. And if this deal didn’t mean much to the trade commissions they won’t care about MS buying up publishers who don’t sell as much as ABK & aren’t worth more than 10-20 billion.