Xbox Rumors and Speculation

WB already denied that NRS was going anywhere back when this first started back up again in July.

Warner Bros. Games says NetherRealm Studios and TT Games are not being sold | VG247
"I can confirm NetherRealm Studios and TT Games will continue to remain a part of Warner Bros. Games, and all are included in the Warner Media Discovery merger," said SVP of communication, Remi Sklar.

The thing making the rounds now is Valve which doesn't make much sense unless they don't want any competition for GP on PC. They are basically useless as a game developer, they haven't released anything of note in the console space in years.
 
WB has always been the most logical. I don't think Warren was hinting he knew anything. Just playing along. There's no secret that Microsoft and ATT keep talking. If a deal was done, it would be announced within a day. Two public companies couldn't hold a multi-billion dollar agreement a secret for weeks for legal reasons. Different than when Microsoft had an LOI with Ninja Theory and could keep it hidden. Ninja Theory was a private company with a small price tag. Last year they didn't get anything done due to issues with IP. Microsoft needs to guarantee rights to IP to make sure it doesn't have to come out of Game Pass down the road (see Forza Motorsport as a recent example). If they took over WB, they want to know that Gotham Knights, Hogwarts, Lego Star Wars....these games could release Day 1 on Game Pass and stay there forever. Going forward, my bet is they want exclusive rights to the Batman IP and full control of MK.

Outside of licensing complications, this is a deal that makes sense for both sides. ATT is in debt and wants to streamline its business focus. Discovery isn't all in on gaming as evidence that they've put a few of the studios, including NR and TT games, up for sale. There's uncertainty hanging over WB studios that have been pulled in multiple directions. Rocksteady will be nearly a decade between games after starting off as a decently efficient studio due to having the rug pulled out from under them with canceled projects and this pivot from upper management for their studios to start nudging away from single-player, one and done games towards GAAS. They've been public about that.

Meanwhile, WB fills a lot of holes for Microsoft. Say what you want about TT Games being one-note with only Lego games but they've shown they're efficient, have decent writing, art, and technical skills for what they're trying to accomplish. I could see a studio like that doing a good job with a license like Banjo. Avalanche is versatile. They've also made kids games and recently shown technical chops with Hogwarts. Mortal Kombat puts Xbox back on the map with fighting games while keeping them from getting shut out of the genre (and Sony is very close to doing that to them). WB has 3 studios capable of 3rd person, narrative-driven, action-adventure games. Monolith had a nice history of versatility with Condemned, FEAR, and Shadow of Mordor. They also have technical expertise in terms of innovating AI. If they can get exclusive videogame rights to Batman, solves that mainstream pop-culture face they lack.

Of all the rumors, WB is the one who really needs to be bought by someone else for the good of their studios. Could be a win-win for everyone...with the exception of some console warriors.
Aside from the fact that WB has already denied these companies are going anywhere It wouldn't be a win/win for anyone, NRS needs the IP they have access to as part of WB, if they are sold there goes Mortal Kombat and DC unless MS is willing to pay for long term licenses IF WB is even willing to do that. When WB was initially trying to sell their studios it was made clear that Mortal Kombat was not part of the deal.

Being a part of xbox game studios won't offer much in the way of stability either, financially maybe but they are clearly poorly run. Games being announced before they even know what kind of game it'll be, creative leads leaving projects during development, announced games being cancelled, only having one new game scheduled for the first 10 months of a new console launch, having to delay that game a year and then needing until December to release it with promised features not making the cut in time for launch.

How is Sony close to shutting MS out on fighting games? MK already is multiplatform and will stay that way, if a new Street Fighter is made it won't be exclusive that only happened because Capcom couldn't afford to make it on their own at the time same reason Xbox got Dead Rising 3 as an exclusive, they paid for it.

WB isn't in any trouble AT&T just wants to lower their debt, the reason they took their game studios off of the table is they know they are making money for them. Mortal Kombat 11 is still in the Xbox and PlayStation top 15 games after a couple of years on the market, WB would be stupid to get rid of them they are a consistent performer.
 


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Come on tunic
 
Would love it to be some Hellblade 2 news or some actual gameplay,like a few minutes at least lol...
 
  • Agree
Reactions: karmakid
So did anything come out of their announcement or was it just all stupid useless tweets?
 
"Loosing"

Frustrated Head GIF
This is one of my pet peeves....and I'm not even really a grammar nazi.

Boy the rumor mill has been churning but not a lot has come from it in the end. A lot of folks stating something is coming and all we have is the Halo campaign reveal...which we all knew was coming at some point before launch so... Really hoping that some of these rumors become actual announcements at some point soon....I live for the rumors but also the actual coming to fruition of said rumors! ;)