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Microsoft is buying Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion [FTC sues to stop - CMA issues updated preliminary findings]


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55 minutes ago, Abby_TheLastofUs said:

Microsoft Confirms Activision Blizzard Will Release Games on PlayStation 'Beyond Existing Agreements'

 

 

As of right now, Microsoft is not planning on making big Activision franchises Xbox exclusives. A different approach to what they're doing with Bethesda games.

 

PS owners that thought they were going to miss out on future Crash Bandicoot, and Spyro games might not be out of luck. 

 

They said the same thing with the Bethesda purchase and look what happened.  I think anyone believing what they say at this point deserves the disappointment that will likely follow

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2 minutes ago, AJ_-_808 said:

They said the same thing with the Bethesda purchase and look what happened.  I think anyone believing what they say at this point deserves the disappointment that will likely follow


What has actually happened? Has anything actually been released as Xbox only yet? 
 

I’m still betting that future Xbox-purchased asset releases are timed exclusives and they still end up on Playstation at the end. 
 

 

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4 minutes ago, kidson2004 said:

Been playing COD since 07 and CTR since PS1. I'm hipped to their practices.

Fair dos, But I can't imagine many new practices that they aren't doing already:

LootBoxes--->Overwatch

Gameplay modifying MTX ----> COD

Speed up grind ----> King mobile games

Real money Item trading ----> Diablo

Live service just ----> COD again

Paid Upgrades ----> COD again again

 

only one they're missing is NFTs, but fortunately Spencer said that Xbox wasn't going to do them. 

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4 hours ago, DaivRules said:


What has actually happened? Has anything actually been released as Xbox only yet? 
 

I’m still betting that future Xbox-purchased asset releases are timed exclusives and they still end up on Playstation at the end. 
 

 

Nothing yet, except the announced exclusivity of the next elder scrolls.  Whether that changes again by the time it releases in 2050, is anyone's guess.

 

For me, the conflicting company statements is enough for me to doubt anything they say 

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On 2/9/2022 at 0:31 AM, Z1MZUM said:

 

Gimmicks die quickly in the console world, even the good ones.

 

As a species most things that most people feel are important are actually stupid. I don't follow sports.

 

"Quickly" is a relative concept. It also ignores the gimmicks that are still being used or have evolved over time. 
It is an overgeneralization to make a lazy arguement. 

I don't really know or feel comfortable with slapping on a one-size fits all label of stupid on most or the majortity of things we as humans enjoy. It is a strange self-hating remark or implies that you are above it all. 

You are far to judgemental for me. Can't really talk to a person of your type. 

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52 minutes ago, TJ_Solo said:

 

"Quickly" is a relative concept. It also ignores the gimmicks that are still being used or have evolved over time. 
It is an overgeneralization to make a lazy arguement. 

I don't really know or feel comfortable with slapping on a one-size fits all label of stupid on most or the majortity of things we as humans enjoy. It is a strange self-hating remark or implies that you are above it all. 

You are far to judgemental for me. Can't really talk to a person of your type. 

 

Damn it TJ, I was just looking for a date and this is how you respond? RUDE!!!!

 

In all seriousness, there is no-one in my online gaming circle that feels that the Dualsense is suitable for the type of games coming from Activision/Blizzard. It's a gimmick no matter how you look at it, it's not terrible, It's not great, It's not for everyone. With chip shortages around the globe we will probably not see a 3rd party option for a while apart from modded original controllers. Some of my friends love the DS, they aren't the online type.

 

Sure it's a bit of a kick in the balls for trophy hunters. What could we miss? Trophies. With an Activision account there is no other reason to be concerned about what you play their games on.

 

Worst case scenario, MS takes Actiblizzard as exclusives only unless Sony agrees to release licenses on the Xbox like Spiderman etc etc

 

I say let go of this Rabid Dog, maybe MS can restore some normality?

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I wonder if Microsoft are slowly but surely moving into third party publisher territory? They will push for Game Pass to be present everywhere humanly possible, with a number of exclusives I'm sure, but acquiring big publishers and making their properties third party would be a massive financial boon for them. With Game Pass and multiplatform releases in the pipeline, at minimum I'd expect the Xbox hardware to be a pretty small component of Microsoft's Gaming division.

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4 minutes ago, richxrdgriffin said:

I wonder if Microsoft are slowly but surely moving into third party publisher territory? They will push for Game Pass to be present everywhere humanly possible, with a number of exclusives I'm sure, but acquiring big publishers and making their properties third party would be a massive financial boon for them. With Game Pass and multiplatform releases in the pipeline, at minimum I'd expect the Xbox hardware to be a pretty small component of Microsoft's Gaming division.

 

And then what? Only rely on Windows PC sales and drop Xboxes? Offer Game Pass on PlayStation and Nintendo, and eventually OS X, iOS and Android... if they even allow them?

 

Something about that doesn't quite align with Microsoft's overall strategies as a company.

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6 minutes ago, DaivRules said:

 

And then what? Only rely on Windows PC sales and drop Xboxes? Offer Game Pass on PlayStation and Nintendo, and eventually OS X, iOS and Android... if they even allow them?

 

Something about that doesn't quite align with Microsoft's overall strategies as a company.

 

If Game Pass eventually finds its way onto competitor platforms (in many years time, probably not any time soon) and Smart TVs and the like, and if they're raking in the $$$ with multiplatform releases such as Activision titles, is there any need to produce Xbox hardware? Isn't most hardware produced at a loss?

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3 minutes ago, richxrdgriffin said:

 

If Game Pass eventually finds its way onto competitor platforms (in many years time, probably not any time soon) and Smart TVs and the like, is there any need to produce Xbox hardware? Isn't most hardware produced at a loss?

 

Game Pass is the siren song that gets people onto their platform to harvest all their other data. Xbox is the hardware that gives them total control of their environment to expand the amount of data they can collect. They'll never be able to capture anywhere near as much data on other platforms, so there is definitely still a need. Even if they miraculously find a way to trojan horse themselves onto all their competitors platforms.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 6 months later...

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/playstation-xboxs-call-of-duty-offer-was-inadequate-on-many-levels

 

Didn't see this discussed anywhere, so I'm posting here. The latest development in the PlayStation vs Xbox fighting over Call of Duty saga. Jim Ryan stated that Phil Spencer offered 3 more years of COD on PlayStation. 

 

The back-and-forth started with Brazilian regulators asking companies about the importance of Call of Duty in regards to Microsoft's acquisition of Activision.

https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/sony-says-it-believes-xbox-owning-call-of-duty-could-influence-users-console-choice/

 

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Never would I ditch PS5 over CoD.

 

I'd be more upset over losing Bethesda franchises than AB. Aside from the MW reboot series, I've been indifferent to CoD recently. They need to quit with the World War II titles for a while. The AB & Beth games that are Xbox "exclusive" will probably be on PC as well.

 

Sony could hire someone to create a rival franchise to CoD.

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1 hour ago, RadiantFlamberge said:

Sony could hire someone to create a rival franchise to CoD.

 

That's pretty much impossible to do. Even with the funding and the talent to do so, you're never going to recreate something as successful as COD. Sony even said as much when they were giving their testimony to regulators. This is what some people don't understand about this situation. Even though COD is past its prime, it still does mega numbers and it does the majority of that on PlayStation. It's a franchise that absolutely has the power to influence consumer choice. Of course Sony is going to fight tooth and nail to keep the franchise on their system, especially when their current marketing rights deal for the franchise along with the terms that Microsoft offered Sony means that Sony would potentially be losing the franchise right before the next console generation kicks in, a period when everyone will be deciding what new console to buy. Not having COD on PlayStation when the PS6 launches would be a major disaster. 

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On 9/12/2022 at 10:32 AM, Dark_Overlord said:

Sony deserve it IMO If it ushers in another initial PS3 era where they have to eat humble pie, I'm all for it.

 

While Sony has certainly become more complacent than I would like, and I'd like to see that change, this whole situation (negatively and extremely) effects more than just them.

 

Let's try to not fight anti-consumer business practices with (potentially and arguably worse) anti-consumer business practices. lmao

Edited by Zephrese
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  • 3 weeks later...

 

Latest set of jokes from Microsoft.

 

To begin with Microsoft says that Vita means life as they seem to have added Vita numbers (as relevant as adding PS3 numbers in) to Sony's console sales to juice it higher, but they go even further by downsizing their own numbers to 63 million (should be around 75-80). I imagine the reason for this dishonesty being all so they can claim Sony has "more than double" their sales. I find it interesting that consoles are now suddenly so important too. Microsoft has rubbished talk of their lesser sales compared to Sony for a good while now as not mattering as they're no longer in the console selling business, they're in the gamepass on whatever device business. 

 

Activision's content is no big deal too. The question then becomes if that is so then why is Microsoft purchasing them for close to 70 billion. However Microsoft lying about things not being a big deal is nothing new. While CoD has gotten headlines CMA's main issue seems to be the future of gaming rather than CoD on its own. Microsoft has championed the cloud and all that as being a big thing that'll do away with everything else for a decade+ by this point. Now? Suddenly it'll only "add" to the market and not replace it. CMA should talk up Gamepass next. Considering Microsoft's tendency to crap on everything they produce in response we might finally get it out of Microsoft's own chicken lips that they're losing serious money on it.

 

Microsoft is now, in official documents, referencing the "Arrogant Sony" meme. They should write Sony as $ony too while at it.

 

Microsoft, who has talked about their huge amount of coming exclusives (if they ever come out) also apparently must not actually have any coming out because otherwise I don't see why they made a point out of Sony having exclusives coming in the future. I've not checked their listed released Sony exclusive number on if it is accurate or not (too much of a bother) but I find it funny that they've hidden their own, likely so the public is less likely to become aware of the large disparity on this subject. Embarrassing.

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On 22.9.2022 at 11:44 AM, Zephrese said:

 

While Sony has certainly become more complacent than I would like, and I'd like to see that change, this whole situation (negatively and extremely) effects more than just them.

 

Let's try to not fight anti-consumer business practices with (potentially and arguably worse) anti-consumer business practices. lmao

 

I agree with this. 

 

As a consumer, you should always wish for ZERO exclusives or monopolies. 

 

I would wish that we could play all games, no matter the platform. A console war, is not good for the consumer, but for the companies. 

 

With that said, i won't lose sleep over COD being xbox only. I never played them since COD 4 : MW from 2007. It went downhill from then, IMO. 

 

I just hope Diablo IV won't be exclusive to xbox :o 

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4 hours ago, Sunnyburrito said:

Was wondering, will this affect the release of Diablo IV for PS4/5 ? Real bummer if it does, as I already had plans to pick them :(

 

Absolutely not. It was announced for "PlayStation and Xbox" in 2019, long before this... thing.

 

Yeah, i'm calling it "thing" because gaming news outlets made me hate the whole situation, Sony and Microsoft are becoming like retarded spoiled brats.

 

Actually i'm surprised that it was announced as cross-gen.

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