Edge April 2022

Well, there go our remaining hopes of things going back to normal in 2022. In dollar terms, game-industry acquisitions in January alone surpassed the estimated total for the whole of 2021. If you were worried about the industry’s direction of travel when Take-Two announced the $12.7bn buyout of mobile titan Zynga, you needn’t have been: within days, Microsoft dragged us into a different dimension altogether. Such was the extent to which the $68.7bn acquisition of Activision Blizzard upended the industry that Sony buying Bungie for $3.6bn a fortnight later felt oddly smalltime: yes, very good, but did you not get the memo? We dream bigger in 2022. Still, once the initial nausea had passed, it was impossible not to consider the beleaguered development teams at Activision Blizzard. Alongside the newly minted…

While rumours persist that Microsoft is looking to buy a Japanese game company, doing so is tricky. Historically it has been difficult for overseas firms to buy Japanese concerns unless they are on the brink of going bust (as was the case with Foxconn’s acquisition of Sharp, and Renault’s of Nissan). None of the major Japanese players are in that sort of trouble, and if they were, they would most likely prefer to deal with a compatriot. Language and cultural barriers are also significant hurdles. While only a fool would rule anything out in a post-Activision Blizzard world, in the short term it appears Sony is by far the more likely to grow its studio network with Japanese buyouts.…

Well, there go our remaining hopes of things going back to normal in 2022. In dollar terms, game-industry acquisitions in January alone surpassed the estimated total for the whole of 2021. If you were worried about the industry’s direction of travel when Take-Two announced the $12.7bn buyout of mobile titan Zynga, you needn’t have been: within days, Microsoft dragged us into a different dimension altogether. Such was the extent to which the $68.7bn acquisition of Activision Blizzard upended the industry that Sony buying Bungie for $3.6bn a fortnight later felt oddly smalltime: yes, very good, but did you not get the memo? We dream bigger in 2022. Still, once the initial nausea had passed, it was impossible not to consider the beleaguered development teams at Activision Blizzard. Alongside the newly…

While rumours persist that Microsoft is looking to buy a Japanese game company, doing so is tricky. Historically it has been difficult for overseas firms to buy Japanese concerns unless they are on the brink of going bust (as was the case with Foxconn’s acquisition of Sharp, and Renault’s of Nissan). None of the major Japanese players are in that sort of trouble, and if they were, they would most likely prefer to deal with a compatriot. Language and cultural barriers are also significant hurdles. While only a fool would rule anything out in a post-Activision Blizzard world, in the short term it appears Sony is by far the more likely to grow its studio network with Japanese buyouts.…

The benefits to Bungie from being bought by Sony are clear. It has expanded its operations significantly in recent years. It has multiple non-Destiny projects in the works, including a new game from CCO (and Halo legend) Jason Jones. It also has ambitions for Destiny beyond videogames. Former series director Luke Smith and executive producer Mark Noseworthy are steering Destiny’s transmedia expansion, something Sony, with its TV and movie divisions, is perfectly placed to oversee. To that end, the studio announced the hiring of Derick Tsai, previously animation director on Riot Games’ animated shorts, as head of development for Destiny Universe Transmedia.…

Though Suzuki’s work is primarily on the main series, he’s familiar enough with Koei Tecmo’s approach to collaborations – whether it’s working with Nintendo on Fire Emblem Warriors or adapting anime and manga series such as One Piece and Berserk. “There are a lot of discussions, until both sides agree to what elements will be kept in the game and what will be taken out. There are a lot of fine discussions around that and, once both sides have agreed, then we go into developing the game. We always work very closely with the other parties to make sure that everyone is on board with how things are portrayed.” Koei Tecmo president Hisashi Koinuma has expressed a desire to work with Mario and Star Wars, so it’s fair to say…