There has been a lot of talk about acquisitions in the video game market during the last few years and plenty of big developers, publishers and even Activision Blizzard has switched owners recently. Many has been bought by Microsoft, which is becoming a real powerhouse in video games.
So far, an absolute majority of their studios is based in the west, but Phil Spencer has made no secret that he would like to own a Japanese studio. While Xbox did get Tango Gameworks (The Evil Within) with the Bethesda purchase last year, we assume they want something bigger - and maybe PlatinumGames (Vanquish, Bayonetta, Nier: Automata) could be what they are looking for.
At least they aren't ruling this out themselves, although they want to retain their creative freedom. This was revealed by the president and CEO Atsushi Inaba in an interview with VGC:
"The most important thing for us is to have the freedom to make the games that we want to make. What I hear about the recent acquisitions, I don't think Microsoft is going to start micromanaging Activision to where they take away all their freedom... I don't think it's going to be a relationship like that."
Inaba says he wouldn't turn down an offer if they would get one as long as this criteria is met:
"I think there's going to be a lot of mutual respect there and I think Activision will be able to continue doing what they do best. That's also what's most important to us at the end of the day, whatever form that takes for us and our company. So I would not turn anything down, as long as our freedom was still respected."
Do you think PlatinumGames would be a great fit for Microsoft?