• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Microsoft Expresses Interest in Acquiring Warner Game Unit

Genx3

Member
The Venturebeat report on this deal said ....

"A major game company said it was not interested in the purchase because WBIE only intermittently makes money, and it does not own some of the major franchises that are at the core of its major games."

If WB is not selling the IP with the studios then WB should stop pretending they are selling Warner Bros Games.
What they are doing is selling off the development studios not the whole Branch.

Stating you are selling off Warner Bros Games implies you are also getting the Warner Bros based IP's with it otherwise you're just getting a bunch of studios that might be worth around $1.5 Billion.
 

SaucyJack

Member
If WB is not selling the IP with the studios then WB should stop pretending they are selling Warner Bros Games.
What they are doing is selling off the development studios not the whole Branch.

Stating you are selling off Warner Bros Games implies you are also getting the Warner Bros based IP's with it otherwise you're just getting a bunch of studios that might be worth around $1.5 Billion.

That's the point I've been trying make throughout this thread.

After the AOL TimeWarner merger the company was enormous even before the acquisition by AT&T.

Warner Brothers Interactive Entertainment is the asset being touted for sale and is about 5 levels down the corporate hierarchy: AT&T -> Warner Media -> Warner Bros. -> Home Entertainment -> WBIE. I've posted earlier in the thread what WBIE own - 15 studios in 11 subsidiaries, a game publishing/distribution business and it's own ip that principally came from Midway (Mortal Kombat). However, most of their major titles are reliant on ip rights licensed from elsewhere in the group (DC) or third parties (Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings).

DC Entertainment is owned by a different division of Warner Media, although you could reasonably expect any deal to include some kind of (initial) licensing arrangement for that ip.

However one of the unique things that WB offers just now, a logical tie-in of Film and Game licensing would disappear with any sale.

As I've said throughout, the asking price is too high and I would be surprised if that deal gets done. There are other possibilities though.
 

oldergamer

Member
The initial asking price was 2.3 Billion. Not 4 Billion.

I've said the same thing. this deal is only worth 4 billion if the IP is in there. The WB parent can make that happen.

"A major game company said it was not interested in the purchase because WBIE only intermittently makes money, and it does not own some of the major franchises that are at the core of its major games."

That would not come from MS, they would not comment if they are still in the running. They also wouldn't say anything negative about a publisher. This sounds more like 2k, Rockstar or EA that would put a statement that would trash a competitor,
 
There's really no way to separate the success of the Arkham games, the Mordor games, Lego games, etc. from the IPs themselves. As consumers we might talk about the quality of the products, but from a business perspective there is very little you could do to prove that Rocksteady could produce a game based on a different IP that would be just as successful in the market.

Rocksteady is a well functioning machine that produces Batman games. You just can't prove that Rocksteady's Attack on Laser City is going to sell as well as Batman. If you take away Batman, the risk goes up and the value goes down. Same with the other studios. Stripping Rocksteady of Batman significantly strips the studio of value. If AT&T did this, it would make their own asset worth less.

Likewise, selling rights to a Batman game is a tougher sell than selling both the rights to make a Batman game and a studio that is extremely good at making Batman games. Even a company with lots of resources would be taking a risk that they will be able to produce an attractive product with a given IP (ask EA about Star Wars). Selling the IP and proven studios together would command a much higher price than either alone.

AT&T is trying to extract value from Warner Games AND its own IP, so it makes sense that the deal would include the right to make games (for some duration of time) to get the maximum value out of both assets. AT&T owns the rights to nearly all of the IPs in question (I think so far only LOTR is a bit ambiguous, but AT&T does own New Line Cinema...).

One final point that has already been raised is that studios that have no right to make the games they've been making are definitely not worth $2-4 billion dollars. That's just not the guaranteed value they would bring.
 
Last edited:

GamerEDM

Banned
i would say this acquisition would be worth it for the talent alone putting aside the ip's


EDIT: oh shit is that a tease or just a discount ad on WB games
 
Last edited:

IDappa

Member
This would be huge if they've made this deal. I'm still sceptical that they will go settle but these teases are making me a touch more excited (if they're teases). Imagine getting free (gamepass) AAA games from anyone of these studios. Makes the PP very hard just thinking about it.
 

ShaikhCroft

Member
How so?. Batman seems like a good fit even if it would only be for a limited time.
MS wouldn't only want the studios but also the IPs. Currently in development games would have been multiplat but future titles will definitely be XBOX exclusives if they can make this deal happen!
 

Thirty7ven

Banned
Is the sale only going on at XBL? Doesn’t sound like a tease at all.

I think there’s a good chance of it happening but saying that’s a tease is a bit...
 

On Demand

Banned
Sony uses the same term "publisher sale" when they have sales on PSN.

If it's happening, great(not really. We don't neeed another corporate buy out. And would prefer if their games stayed multiplatform.) But i wouldn't call these hints.
 
Last edited:

DarkBatman

Member
Their teasing so hard and its just making more skeptical. If true tho, then damn that'd be huge. Batman can go against Spiderman and we can probably get KI vs MK game.

There is no chance the deal is done that quickly. Just look at how long it took for Disney to buy FOX although everyone knew about the deal for months.
Even if there have been first talks, there is no chance you can call that a done deal. So no chance MS is in any position to tease something.
 
Greenberg confirmed no business at the event. ALL GAMES!!!! If this deal is happening,we won't hear about it for another couple of months at least. It's a major deal with a ton of red tape i'm sure. I do think MS will get them.
 

Pallas

Member
If this happens, it will take some time. I think it’s highly doubtful you will hear anything about Microsoft acquiring WB games at the Xbox showcase. Deals like these take time and probably a lot of negotiations, especially if the licensed IP’s are involved, and maybe asking for a lower price if those IP’s aren’t involved($4b without the Batman/DC license rights seems kind of steep)

But I’ve been wrong before, so who knows.

Edit: Obviously best case scenario for everyone is if no one buys it and AT&T figures some other way to pay off some its debt, but Microsoft is definitely the lesser of the evils, out of the interested parties.
 
Last edited:

DForce

NaughtyDog Defense Force
How so?. Batman seems like a good fit even if it would only be for a limited time.
They wouldn't own the Batman IP, just the talent. If they were to buy the studio, then they would have to make a deal with WB for the rights to Batman to ether make a exclusive or multiplat game.
 

MaulerX

Member
Sony uses the same term "publisher sale" when they have sales on PSN.

If it's happening, great(not really. We don't neeed another corporate buy out. And would prefer if their games stayed multiplatform.) But i wouldn't call these hints.



Playstation fans always argue: "There's no reason to get an Xbox because I can play their games on PC!"

So what happened now? The games will remain multiplatform with PC so you'd still be able to play all those games on PC. Just do as you preach and you'll be fine.
 

On Demand

Banned
Playstation fans always argue: "There's no reason to get an Xbox because I can play their games on PC!"

So what happened now? The games will remain multiplatform with PC so you'd still be able to play all those games on PC. Just do as you preach and you'll be fine.

Don’t bunch us all together. I don’t have a PC and have no interest in building one.
 

IDappa

Member
They wouldn't own the Batman IP, just the talent. If they were to buy the studio, then they would have to make a deal with WB for the rights to Batman to ether make a exclusive or multiplat game.
Hence why I said a limited time..
 

turtlepowa

Banned
Greenberg confirmed no business at the event. ALL GAMES!!!! If this deal is happening,we won't hear about it for another couple of months at least. It's a major deal with a ton of red tape i'm sure. I do think MS will get them.
They could simply announce or tease the next Batman/MK as console exclusive and it has the same effect without business :messenger_beaming:
 

quest

Not Banned from OT
They could simply announce or tease the next Batman/MK as console exclusive and it has the same effect without business :messenger_beaming:
I as i said ealier that would be the most epic way to end the show case. Have the batman trailer then in bold words console exclusive coming holiday 2020 and fade to black.

Its just to soon for any deal this big honestly its billions of dollars over multiiple countries. You need to negotiate multiple rounds and get approval at the highest levels. Then the legal work it would be fall time frame if it happened. I still don't see it at the rumored price.
 
Top Bottom