Microsoft Makes a Major Purchase

Making Microsoft’s 2018 E3 The Biggest Ever

Last week, Microsoft via the Xbox Wire, proclaimed that this year’s E3 would be the company’s biggest ever. Let’s try and dream up some scenarios where that would actually be the case.

The Xbox One needs exclusives, and another way Microsoft could gain Xbox exclusives is through acquiring studios. Publishers often buy development studios, but acquiring a major publisher such as EA would make huge ripples in the video game industry.

This would immediately silence those who critique the Xbox One for its lack of exclusive games, as Microsoft becomes flush with series it can keep all to itself. In late January, there was a report of Microsoft doing just that, with “a reliable source close to Microsoft” telling Polygon the company was looking into purchasing EA.

That may sound ridiculous to some, and it kind of is, with EA’s market capitalization currently sitting at $39.6 billion. While that’s not exactly pennies even to a behemoth like Microsoft, the fourth most valuable company in the world dwarfs EA with a market capitalization of $725.2 billion. Likewise, the purchase would dwarf the current largest acquisition in the video game industry, which is the $8.6 billion purchase of Finnish mobile game developer Supercell (of Clash of Clans fame) by the Chinese investment holding conglomerate Tencent in 2016.

Xbox One X Price Cut

Making Microsoft’s 2018 E3 The Biggest Ever

The Xbox One X is a beautiful piece of hardware that those with 4K TVs should definitely get to take advantage of those extra pixels. The problem for some is the price. While the high asking cost is understandable due to the powerful hardware inside the device, $500 is a lot for some to pony up at the start of a console generation. It may be even more difficult for people to spend that money on an upgrade in the middle of one.

If Microsoft manages to get the cost down to $400, it would be in more people’s budgets to buy the device, incentivizing developers to cater development time to it, leading to more people wanting the One X. This all hinges on them being able to get manufacturing costs low enough to support a $100 price cut, but it would certainly be a big announcement if so.

PUBG Comes to Xbox Game Pass

Making Microsoft’s 2018 E3 The Biggest Ever

PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds has been mightily successful so far, but the player count has started to shrink on PC as of late, according to Steamcharts. With Fortnite and H1Z1 both featuring free-to-play alternative battle royale modes, it may soon be time for PUBG to do something similar.

Microsoft has been making the Xbox Game Pass mighty tempting as of late with the promise of first-party games coming to the service on day one. Add one of the most popular games of all time to the equation, and it seems like a win-win for Microsoft, which will get more people on their service, and PUBG Corporation, which will get more players to buy those sweet, sweet loot boxes.

New IP Announcement

Making Microsoft’s 2018 E3 The Biggest Ever

Console exclusive titles can come through more ways than just bringing back old franchises or purchasing studios, Microsoft could also announce an entirely new first-party series coming to the Xbox One.

While new intellectual property announcements are sometimes met with skepticism, when done right they can hype up fans for the future of the console and intrigue others, potentially making a new console purchase seem worthwhile.

Either way, with the number of sequels that have come out or been announced in recent years, an entirely new AAA series would be a breath of fresh air for many gamers who are looking for new experiences.

Bring Back Beloved Franchises

Making Microsoft’s 2018 E3 The Biggest Ever

Aside from acquisition, Microsoft has a few ways it can take care of its exclusives problem, one of which is to announce sequels to popular franchises. Two possibilities are Halo and Fable.

With Halo 5 having released in 2015, we are due for a mainline Halo game this year, as they’ve traditionally released three years apart, except for the break after the original trilogy. Despite this, news about Master Chief has been hard to come by.

Of course, announcements for games releasing within the same year are always met with extra praise from fans, and for Halo 6, 343 Studios may be holding its cards closer to its chest than it has in the past. The marketing for Halo 5 was met with backlash by some who felt it was misleading to the plot of the game, so Microsoft may be looking to avoid that again, counting on the surprise of a close release date to make up for lost marketing time. While 343 did seem to hint that Halo 6 won’t be hitting shelves this year, it’s conceivable that that’s a ruse to throw gamers off their tracks and make the announcement a surprise to all.

Then there’s Fable, which didn’t die with the closure of Lionhead Studios. According to a report from earlier this year, the UK-based developer Playground is taking on the next Fable game. Playground is known for developing the Forza Horizon series, and last year opened a second studio to work on an open world, non-racing game, which would seem to be Fable. 

The report also says the game is still in the early stages of development, so don’t expect to play it this year. Still, even a teaser for a mainline Fable game would be a huge announcement after nearly eight years since Fable III released.