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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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3 hours ago, Rozalia1 said:

 

Does Microsoft need to bother with that though? Their physical game sales are poor and only going to get worse.

Not really, I'm sure they're fine with the revenue for it, but they mainly are pushing gamepass as the future. They don't even see sony or nintendo as a competitor, as they're more focused on google and amazon as their competition

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One possibility could be brain drain, with talent jumping ship from AB and especially Bethesda if working under Microsoft isn't what they want. If this results in the creation of a new studio, hopefully they don't get acquired by a console producer. It's good that Nintendo isn't presently going bonkers with acquisitions. Being acquired by Nintendo sounds worse, because you 100% surely aren't going to port your games to PC on their watch.

 

MS's buying AB isn't too bad on its own, but coupled with the Bethesda grab, it gets a little troubling. Who's next in about six months? ? Pray they don't go after Square Enix, Devolver, or Bandai Namco next. These companies are probably safe and I believe they'd say no if MS came knocking, but the AB & Beth acquisitions were unexpected.

I can almost hear a parody of the song Pac-Man Fever with the lyrics changed to refer to Microsoft. It would go something like this...

 

We've got a bankroll full of billions, and we're headed off to acquire

Yes we have a lot of money, and we're taking what we damn well want

We have just gobbled up Bethesda, and ActiBlizzard is next

We're gonna eat them all up, and oh maybe some more too

 

Cause' we've got Acquire Fever (Acquire Fever!)

Edited by RadiantFlamberge
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36 minutes ago, RadiantFlamberge said:

One possibility could be brain drain, with talent jumping ship from AB and especially Bethesda if working under Microsoft isn't what they want. If this results in the creation of a new studio, hopefully they don't get acquired by a console producer.

A lot of senior staff from Bethesda and Activision studios have been jumping ship even before the acquisitions to start new studios. The leads from Sledgehammer Games going off to start 31st Union and Striking Distance. Infinity Ward leads starting That's No Moon. Treyarch leads starting Deviation Games. Arkane guys starting Wolfeye. MachineGames guys to start Neon Giant. Blizzard's co-founder starting Dreamhaven.

Edited by communistwookiee
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On 1/26/2022 at 10:22 AM, EverythingOnFire said:

 

I agree. Microsoft will hoard some of the Bethesda titles, but each CoD game is a guaranteed 8-to-15 million units sold on Playstation. It would be extremely foolish to piss off millions of gamers and lose out on all that money.

 

I think the worst case scenario is that they'll require PS CoD players to have a Microsoft account, like they did with Halo players on Steam. That's a win-win-win; it would satisfy most consumers, make them a ton of extra cash, and they'd still get to grow the Microsoft gaming ecosystem. 

Its likely because call of duty releases every year and i assume modern warfare reboot part 2 and the next black ops were far enough in the can to make 2022 and 3 respectively(its sledgehammers next project that is up in the air) that those two are grandfathered into the new agreement. Bethesda games usually dont release yearly(ill be surprised if elder scrolls 6 isn't  a series xx launch title) so with no guaranteed release window for starfeild and es6 at the time they couldn't have possibly had any prior agreements with sony for these games set in stone.

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On 1/27/2022 at 6:00 AM, SnowxSakura said:

Not really, I'm sure they're fine with the revenue for it, but they mainly are pushing gamepass as the future. They don't even see sony or nintendo as a competitor, as they're more focused on google and amazon as their competition

 

Taking this a step further, I'm willing to bet that MS would happily leave the console industry if they could get their gamepass on other devices (the holy grail, I would imagine). I'm sure they love the idea of streaming to Nintendo (and Sony, but let's focus on Nintendo), and Nintendo probably wouldn't mind it at all; I doubt it hurts their own bottom line with all of their exclusives and whatnot. 

 

 

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https://www.ft.com/content/95e17671-a6ac-4dcc-bae7-e9f34af1349c

 

The trillionaire underdog Microsoft. Ridiculous nonsense as you'd expect from the CEO. 

 

On 01/02/2022 at 6:05 PM, SnowxSakura said:

That's normal for there to be an investigation for mergers like this, happened with disney/marvel/lucasarts and other large mergers

 

True, but a lot of people are really downplaying what could actually happen with all this. Ironic but those trying to shout down those saying monopoly as ignorant are themselves very much so. Something that is also a problem and on record the new administration dealing with this has said they want to deal with better going forward is the aspect of a company leveraging their success and dominance in something to overcome competition in something else. Could Xbox, that being the gaming part of Microsoft, have purchased these companies using their own earnings? Not even close. Xbox has been a money pit more than it hasn't been, and it is heavily one at this point. The reason they wanted to kill it some years back is because once the dream of dominating with a multimedia box died Xbox lost all reason to justify it's existence and cost. If gamepass stalls you can expect shareholders to start wanting it killed/sold again. So it is clear as day that Xbox is only getting these purchases done for it because of Microsoft's other dominant businesses, and that can be an issue in these things. Microsoft doesn't get as much attention these days, but Big Tech which they are part of, has been getting more and more negative bipartisan attention.

 

Microsoft will of course aim to point at others to try to excuse itself and claim they are but a small player. There are issues on all their pointing. Sony and Nintendo don't have the issue of having a bigger division that is more successful funding them. PlayStation famously has been considered to prop up the rest of Sony rather than have Sony music or whatever funding them. Nintendo I don't even need to go into. Then you have Microsoft's "real competitors", the likes of Google, Amazon, Facebook. Microsoft will claim that if they don't buy these companies then other Big Tech members will do it instead... where has that happened? They've all involved themselves yes but where is their purchases of publishers and investments of 100 billion?

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On 1/25/2022 at 11:35 AM, TomataEighty9 said:

 

Don't get me wrong, im a Sony man. I've had all playstations. And i will get ps5 when i can. But i gotta agree that Sony is not doing well enough right now on the services, compared to Microsoft.

 

I wasn't aware the Sony and gaming are defined by services. 

Services to me just mean lesser content and price hikes. Even if you don't see them this instance the two are an inevitablity with services. It is odd how great the Xbox service is but the games they include tend to be pretty poor and/or questionable. The service's only real selling point is how much MS subsidizes it to the point of being almost free. MS still needed to buy up publishers into inflating Xbox's potential revenue just to barely pass Nintendo. Playing shit games for free is nice for some people. I'd rather stick with picking and buying games as I see fit.

Edited by TJ_Solo
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On 1/28/2022 at 7:16 AM, starcrunch061 said:

 

Taking this a step further, I'm willing to bet that MS would happily leave the console industry if they could get their gamepass on other devices (the holy grail, I would imagine). I'm sure they love the idea of streaming to Nintendo (and Sony, but let's focus on Nintendo), and Nintendo probably wouldn't mind it at all; I doubt it hurts their own bottom line with all of their exclusives and whatnot. 

 

 

 

 

You can already stream games on mobile devices (phones, tablets, laptops, etc) with gamepass. MS already has some partnership with Nintendo (Some switch games have Xbox achievements) so I wouldn't be too surprised to see  gamepass streaming on Nintendo in the future. 

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On 2/1/2022 at 1:05 PM, SnowxSakura said:

That's normal for there to be an investigation for mergers like this, happened with disney/marvel/lucasarts and other large mergers

 

it is also normal to have the FTC file to block mergers after their review process. 

this is before even considering the EU's position on the dealings.

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On 04/02/2022 at 4:08 PM, Floorkiller74 said:

LOL, this is so false. Some people need fanboy warnings on their profile. 

 

This was my opinion and besides you don't know if it is true or if it is false, none of us do for certain.

 

For the record I own a Series X and probably spend more time on that than on my PS5.

 

As for the crappy remark about being a fanboy you do like to throw that around when someone posts something that you don't like, Must be 3 or 4 times that you have done that to different people on just this site alone...

 

 

 

 

 

 

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22 hours ago, Septic_Phlegm said:

 

This was my opinion and besides you don't know if it is true or if it is false, none of us do for certain.

 

For the record I own a Series X and probably spend more time on that than on my PS5.

 

As for the crappy remark about being a fanboy you do like to throw that around when someone posts something that you don't like, Must be 3 or 4 times that you have done that to different people on just this site alone...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then why are you stating your opinion as though it's fact? I've never heard Xbox players complain...They are happy with their exclusives the same way PS players are happy with theirs. Unless you something to support your claim that xbox players are "constantly complaining about having no new games to play" you are simply making a false and inflammatory remark. 

 

It's entirely possible I've said that 3 or 4 times in all my years here. It has nothing to do with posts I don't like....You made a ridiculous fanboy comment, plain and simple. 

 

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2 hours ago, Floorkiller74 said:

Then why are you stating your opinion as though it's fact? I've never heard Xbox players complain...They are happy with their exclusives the same way PS players are happy with theirs. Unless you something to support your claim that xbox players are "constantly complaining about having no new games to play" you are simply making a false and inflammatory remark. 

 

It's entirely possible I've said that 3 or 4 times in all my years here. It has nothing to do with posts I don't like....You made a ridiculous fanboy comment, plain and simple. 

 

 

What I said was my opinion, I never at any point said it was a fact, whereas you said it was false which you cannot possibly know unless you are Phil Spencer.

 

Xbox players (not all obviously) have long commented how they wish they had more games on their system, particularly AAA games and for anyone to try and suggest that this has never ever been spoken about is just being delusional. 

 

I have been an Xbox gamer since the X360 back in around 2006, on the net there will be thousands of posts from Xbox owners across many forums who wished the system had more AAA titles, my OP was to say that I think this is why Microsoft are buying all these studios, to address the shortage of AAA first party games and to hopefully quieten down the complaints somewhat, that was my opinion (which I completely stand by).

 

That comment of mine cannot possibly be proved true or false cos it is neither, it is just my opinion and you calling it false and then calling my a fanboy is laughable.

 

Maybe we should re-think what a 'fanboy' actually is, it used to be someone that preferred a certain system over another one and made negative comments against that system in favour of the one that they owned.

 

We might need to now change that (just for you) to accommodate anyone that makes any comment about any system even if they own ALL of those systems, because that is exactly all I did in order for you to call me a fanboy.

 

You saw a post on a PS forum which you thought was negative and then you went into overdrive, I am a bigger Xbox fan that PS fan if the truth be told and I am a gold award winner on Microsoft's MSN gaming network back in the mid 2000's. I have won numerous prizes from Microsoft whilst playing on the Xbox and at the time I was quite well known across the format for a couple of years.

 

None of that has got anything to do with you but it is just to highlight that I am not a PS fanboy and I am entitled to make my opinion about anything that I so wish.


I guess opinions on forums are just not allowed anymore without someone trying to be clever and chiming in with a shit remark whilst throwing in slanderous comments about people.

 

You know that calling someone a fanboy will likely get a reaction from them, what you have done is nothing less than trolling...

 

All you needed to do was to see that I am entitled to my opinion and question it if you wanted to, to start accusing me of being something that I am not is just a cheap bull shit move, and one that you do have a history of doing, regardless of time elapse.

 

Just accept that I am entitled to my opinion even if it differs from yours and leave it at that, if you do, so will I.

 

There is nothing more I can add, but just know that throwing fanboy comments around without knowing anything about the person you are trying to insult is wrong at best and trolling at its worst and it's not the first time so please stop and if you cannot respect my opinion then just simply ignore it.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by Septic_Phlegm
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4 hours ago, Septic_Phlegm said:

 

 

Just accept that I am entitled to my opinion even if it differs from yours and leave it at that, if you do, so will I.

 

 

 

All I can say is that I've rarely/never seen those rumblings, or met any Xbox players who felt that way and their games. I'm sure there are people that do, but you made it sound as if an overwhelming amount of people are upset, while the majority of what I see online is positive on the Xbox side (Sometimes even...well, fanboyish)

 

I only quoted this part because what you state here is fair. I will also leave it at that. 

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We're still going on about this?

 

The PS5 will probably go the way of the Vita TV at this rate anyway. Does the PS6 need Activision? A big no it doesn't. Who here is unhappy with the Playstation library? In my opinion it still out does XB and the Gamepass. There is not a single Activision title I need specifically for Playstation or the Xbox.

 

Sure I have an XBSX. What gamepass games have I played? Oh that would be none. Has the Xbox improved since the disastrous Xbox One release? Hell yeah. Does it matter where you play Activision games? Hell no, you use an Activision account anyway.

 

 

In conclusion console wars are stupid, we are all gamers?

 

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9 hours ago, Z1MZUM said:

We're still going on about this?

 

The PS5 will probably go the way of the Vita TV at this rate anyway.


 

 

I don't see  how so. The PS5 is still at the center of PlayStation's gaming business. If PSVR2 didn't require a PS5 and could be played as a standalone device or with a PC, then I might have agreed. 

 

 

9 hours ago, Z1MZUM said:

In conclusion console wars are stupid, we are all gamers?

 

 

Aren't we all humans first? We humans form groups based on interests and also fight for and defend our created groups against other groups. Be it plastic boxes from Nintendo and Sega or metal cages from Ford and GM or sugar death from Pepsi and Coke. 
 

 

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14 hours ago, TJ_Solo said:

 

I don't see  how so. The PS5 is still at the center of PlayStation's gaming business. If PSVR2 didn't require a PS5 and could be played as a standalone device or with a PC, then I might have agreed. 

 

 

 

Aren't we all humans first? We humans form groups based on interests and also fight for and defend our created groups against other groups. Be it plastic boxes from Nintendo and Sega or metal cages from Ford and GM or sugar death from Pepsi and Coke. 
 

 

 

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.

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

 

Quote

To be clear, Microsoft will continue to make Call of Duty and other popular Activision Blizzard titles available on PlayStation through the term of any existing agreement with Activision. And we have committed to Sony that we will also make them available on PlayStation beyond the existing agreement and into the future so that Sony fans can continue to enjoy the games they love.

 

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. 

 

Edited by Abby_TheLastofUs
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18 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. 

 

Of course. Its the smart move to do after spending ALL that money. I do believe a few will be XBOX exclusives, but those heavy hitters that make hella money will be multiplatform. I expect a TON of MTX in the near future and that's what I'm kinda worried about.

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25 minutes ago, kidson2004 said:

Of course. Its the smart move to do after spending ALL that money. I do believe a few will be XBOX exclusives, but those heavy hitters that make hella money will be multiplatform. I expect a TON of MTX in the near future and that's what I'm kinda worried about.

You haven't played any recent CODs or Crash Team Racing, or Overwatch... have you? Actiblizz isn't new to scummy practices.

 

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