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

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, DaivRules said:

 

How are you measuring those things to make a claim they're in decay?

 

you don't need to understand it as a concrete truth, maybe it's just a point of view according to my personal experience and observation. but I confess that it would be interesting for me as someone like you who as well as consumes gaming vastly did not come to the same conclusion.

 

3 minutes ago, MonaSaxPayne said:

welcome to capitalism

 

money talks 

Yes. Capitalism is absolutely excellent at doing what it sets out to do, which is making a profit. But putting profit above art is never going to be a good thing. Not all people consider games to be art, though.

[Yuuria_]

I personally really dislike Microsoft's strategy; there's no process, no cultivation of talent, they subtract to the market as a whole instead of adding value to it by investing in small first party developers and helping them achieve great things. 

They're essentally buying their way in through their infinite supply of liquid capital. Being able to access so much content with such a small monthly fee looks great on a surface level but I just can't shake this feeling that most of what they offer isn't their own, even their first party titles are essentially bought. It's an effective strategy but not one I see myself supporting in the long term, especially so since I've never played any Bethesda or Activision/Blizzard games for any significant amount of time outside of Overwatch.

I wish their strategy also involved some Housemarque or Naughty Dog like stories instead of solely revolving around acquiring troubled companies with terrible internal practices.

That said, one positive thing about this is that Microsoft is hopefully going to be able to provide developers with an environment that is positive and welcoming alongside all the necessary services to help them recover from years of abuse.

And I can't wait to see Bobby Kotick getting kicked out of the company; I would truly be stunned that didn't happen.

[Rozalia1]

Just now, DaivRules said:

 

It's never been easier, cheaper, or more accesible to create a video game and release it to the largest audiences of all time. If you only focus on the largest developers and publishes and point to those as the norm, you miss out on the hundreds of smaller entities which don't have those problems. Applying a quantitative label to a feeling or your word "spirit" doesn't explain anything. So asking for clarity is what someone should do.

 

 

I don't disagree, though there are caveats in what you're saying. Regardless, you surely knew what he meant which is what my response to you was about. 

 

1 minute ago, MonaSaxPayne said:

 Oh wow 

 

Parady account just in case you missed that. It was a nice joke I felt like sharing.

[SnowxSakura]

1 hour ago, D-E-U-S-X said:

Dear Mr.Sony-chan, now is your turn to acquire SquareEnix or/and FromSoftware! Arigato...

Fromsoftware is owned by Kadokawa corporation, they may not be interesting in selling

 

34 minutes ago, StewartBros said:

 

Well, we haven't had a mainline Tenchu game (at least on PlayStaion) since the PS2 days, and sadly I can't see us ever getting a new installment, so even if Tenchu were in fact now owned by Microsoft, it likely wouldn't matter.

 

Oh lord, what I wouldn't do for a new Tenchu game.

 

There has been, just under a different name. The franchise developers Acquire made the Shinobido games for sony platforms

[MonaSaxPayne]

2 minutes ago, Rozalia1 said:

 

Parady account just in case you missed that. It was a nice joke I felt like sharing.

 I did in fact miss that

 

it was funny tho lol thx for sharing 

[Guest]

8 minutes ago, DaivRules said:

 

It's never been easier, cheaper, or more accesible to create a video game and release it to the largest audiences of all time. If you only focus on the largest developers and publishes and point to those as the norm, you miss out on the hundreds of smaller entities which don't have those problems. Applying a quantitative label to a feeling or your word "spirit" doesn't explain anything. So asking for clarity is what someone should do.

 

I understood what you said, and I agree. But that was not my point. I'm talking about the mainstream as a whole, which has had its overall quality dropped.

[waltdisneypixar]

1 hour ago, willmill97 said:

If every game was just exclusive for a year or so rather than exclusive permanently then the world would be a better place. (And yes I'm talking about PS exclusives too)

AMEN

[Rozalia1]

15 minutes ago, diskdocx said:

No. This is a terrible take. While I'm not really going to mourn COD, and I increasingly don't care much for AAA games, the point is that 3rd party AAA studios sell massive quantities of games. Go look at the top games on this site for number of owners - EA, Activision, Rockstar, Ubi - they dominate that list.

 

The problem with saying fuck Activision and Fuck EA, is that once they become first party MS developers (for all intents and purposes), Playstation is dead. As it stands, the 3rd party independent AAA studios basically support both Sony and MS. Once you lose that balance, then Sony no longer has the $$$ or the console install base to support the amazing in house AAA developers. And make no mistake, that is the end game here. Sony has so many more amazing 1st party titles, MS can't hope to beat them (and haven't been for several generations), so what they are going to do is take away the 3rd party support.

 

So be very careful what you wish for. This transaction comes very shortly on the heels of the Bethesda one, and really losing EA or Ubi to MS would be the end for Sony.

 

Ironically, this is not unlike how Sony took over from Sega in the home console market. If PlayStation fails, then Sony as a company is dead in the water as their electronics and media arms are barely profitable as it is.

 

People need to catch up to the fact that Sony is very much beyond those troubled years where their other divisions were in trouble. 

 

As for the talk of Sony being doomed. Are they really? Even if this doesn't end up in court and Microsoft stopped, it has been shown with Nintendo that you can be a platform holder and completely immune to Microsoft's attacks. Sony undoubtedly will respond in some manner to counter Microsoft's ugly tactics though how it remains to be seen. Personally I think the best move would be to not buy up these bigger companies for huge amounts, but to spread out such money and grab smaller studios and create new ones.

[Guest]

7 minutes ago, Yuuria_ said:

I personally really dislike Microsoft's strategy; there's no process, no cultivation of talent, they subtract to the market as a whole instead of adding value to it by investing in small first party developers and helping them achieve great things. 

They're essentally buying their way in through their infinite supply of liquid capital. Being able to access so much content with such a small monthly fee looks great on a surface level but I just can't shake this feeling that most of what they offer isn't their own, even their first party titles are essentially bought. It's an effective strategy but not one I see myself supporting in the long term, especially so since I've never played any Bethesda or Activision/Blizzard games for any significant amount of time outside of Overwatch.

I wish their strategy also involved some Housemarque or Naughty Dog like stories instead of solely revolving around acquiring troubled companies with terrible internal practices.

That said, one positive thing about this is that Microsoft is hopefully going to be able to provide developers with an environment that is positive and welcoming alongside all the necessary services to help them recover from years of abuse.

And I can't wait to see Bobby Kotick getting kicked out of the company; I would truly be stunned that didn't happen.

they simply won't have the ability to hold those titles. it's no use buying this gigantic amount of IPs they'll be left gathering dust. this is similar to the practice of some companies that buy the competition just to let it die on purpose, as Coca-Cola has done with a soft drink company that was successful here in Brazil.

 

[dieselmanchild]

44 minutes ago, I-CatHasTrophy-I said:

The worst about Microsofts purchases is...

 

Gaming is a wonderful thing to connect people allover the world.

 

Microsoft seems to part them instead.

 

Admittedly I don’t have Xbox, but from what I’ve seen and read, Microsoft actually seems to be superior when it comes to social connectivity stuff and in making their product more of a social network, while if anything Sony seems to have trended the other direction over the past couple years. I was certainly expecting far more social features and ways to connect and share with friends/communities integrated into the PS5 and was quite surprised at the lack of any such major features when it came out.

 

Buying up half the industry might seem anti-consumer and like they’re cutting people off, but I don’t think Microsoft actually wants to part people or prevent them from connecting. Those slimy bastards just want to force people to connect under their umbrella. 

 

 

[Guest]

1 hour ago, willmill97 said:

If every game was just exclusive for a year or so rather than exclusive permanently then the world would be a better place. (And yes I'm talking about PS exclusives too)

The world would be better if intellectual property weren't a thing.

[sepheroithisgod]

This is just bad news regardless of if you're an Xbox fan or hater.

Microsoft won't be cultivating new talent or creating new hits, they are just buying out the competition. This isn't a simple matter of taking away games from Playstation, it's going to stifle creativity in Microsoft Game Development as a whole. There's no need to innovate when you own the biggest names in gaming.

 

We can all say that COD as a franchise has not been in a good place for a while, but it consistently takes the top spot each year, not to mention the other huge properties they control. And I honestly don't think they are done buying companies yet.

[arcanehornet_]

So a new email from Bobby Kotick was just leaked regarding this situation..

 

[duncanmcleod]

In light of recent news regarding Activision dismantling Toys for Bob and Vicarious Visions in favor of Warzone teams, I don't think people should cry too much for Spyro and Crash. Microsoft indeed bought a lot of ips, but studios owned by Activision Blizzard have been harshly treated in recent years, and it'll probably take ages before Microsoft reinvigorates life in the brands. 

Edited January 18, 2022 by duncanmcleod

[Rozalia1]

People really need to stop mentioning Bobby Kotick as if this hurts him at all. In reality this has only helped him as he can now cash out big time before something comes up that might force the board to actually go against him. 

 

2 minutes ago, dieselmanchild said:

Admittedly I don’t have Xbox, but from what I’ve seen and read, Microsoft actually seems to be superior when it comes to social connectivity stuff and in making their product more of a social network, while if anything Sony seems to have trended the other direction over the past couple years. I was certainly expecting far more social features and ways to connect and share with friends/communities integrated into the PS5 and was quite surprised at the lack of any such major features when it came out.

 

Buying up half the industry might seem anti-consumer and like they’re cutting people off, but I don’t think Microsoft actually wants to part people or prevent them from connecting. Those slimy bastards just want to force people to connect under their umbrella. 

 

You're falling for their talk if you believe that. Microsoft has straight up said that Sony/Nintendo aren't their competition, it is Google/Amazon, however, if that is the case and they're about connecting people and all that then why lock their games out of Sony/Nintendo's platforms? Because they're lying.

 

5 minutes ago, sepheroithisgod said:

This is just bad news regardless of if you're an Xbox fan or hater.

Microsoft won't be cultivating new talent or creating new hits, they are just buying out the competition. This isn't a simple matter of taking away games from Playstation, it's going to stifle creativity in Microsoft Game Development as a whole. There's no need to innovate when you own the biggest names in gaming.

 

We can all say that COD as a franchise has not been in a good place for a while, but it consistently takes the top spot each year, not to mention the other huge properties they control. And I honestly don't think they are done buying companies yet.

 

If they get away with this then EA will be next you'd have to think. Ubisoft likely won't be targeted as that'd bring in the EU who has in the past stopped Microsoft. 

[sepheroithisgod]

1 minute ago, Rozalia1 said:

People really need to stop mentioning Bobby Kotick as if this hurts him at all. In reality this has only helped him as he can now cash out big time before something comes up that might force the board to actually go against him. 

 

 

You're falling for their talk if you believe that. Microsoft has straight up said that Sony/Nintendo aren't their competition, it is Google/Amazon, however, if that is the case and they're about connecting people and all that then why lock their games out of Sony/Nintendo's platforms? Because they're lying.

 

 

If they get away with this then EA will be next you'd have to think. Ubisoft likely won't be targeted as that'd bring in the EU who has in the past stopped Microsoft. 

I wouldn't be surprised to see EA get scooped up in the future.

 

I'm just curious if Sony will make a big acquisition to try and counter it, but other than buying something like Square Enix, I really don't think they have the resources to buy studios like MS is. That money isn't coming from their gaming division after all. If a company is willing to sell, Microsoft will buy it at this point.

[Cleggworth]

Good grief that's a pretty seismic move. Hell of a lot of cash as well. I don't play much Activision Stuff beyond the very occasional COD game if they bless us with one without any MP so it doesn't affect me in that sense but wow.... what next?

[Rozalia1]

Just now, sepheroithisgod said:

I wouldn't be surprised to see EA get scooped up in the future.

 

I'm just curious if Sony will make a big acquisition to try and counter it, but other than buying something like Square Enix, I really don't think they have the resources to buy studios like MS is. That money isn't coming from their gaming division after all. If a company is willing to sell, Microsoft will buy it at this point.

 

Sony has like 40 billion to spend last I heard. They could certainly make big purchases but as I've said in an earlier post, you're simply not going to win a fight involving money with Microsoft. As for Microsoft being willing to buy everybody, yeah, which is why Sony and others need to get to putting Microsoft in court sooner rather than later. Microsoft is known for this stuff and has been beaten in court before over it.

[dieselmanchild]

14 minutes ago, Rozalia1 said:

that is the case and they're about connecting people and all that then why lock their games out of Sony/Nintendo's platforms? Because they're lying.

Or because, like I said, they simply want you to connect on their network. It’s the whole point of trying to create a monopoly in the first place.

[MidnightDragon]

Unlike Bethesda, I don’t really care. After the scummy shit they’ve done over the years, MS can have them.

[Rozalia1]

Just now, dieselmanchild said:

Or because, like I said, they simply want you to connect on their network. It’s the whole point of trying to create a monopoly in the first place.

 

Microsoft has stuff on Steam. They either have or want stuff on the Iphone. So forth. They're willing to put it on those platforms they don't own. Sony and Nintendo who they apparently don't compete with they won't however. 

[Xenoblast91]

It's interesting to note that the History of Video Gaming is one that has been paved into the grounds of uncertainty and a unsurmountable quantity of mistakes done along the path. Since this industry relies on creativity, innovation and financial risks on so many levels, it truly surprise me to wake up this morning and reading this...

 

Microsoft has been on this path since Xbox OG and now they are desperate to compensate the losses of the last 10 years... They have their shine and all, but I think many here will have a bias as, well this PS playerbase only. Anyway, as everything on life we can't make any accurate conclusion yet few possiblities can be drawn if we closer look to the past.

 

And for the servers I don't think they'll close them. There's revenue in them so will be plainly idiotic to close a feature that makes them money passively. So no, we can still play COD for us as trophy hunters. Looking forward to get MW3.

[Rozalia1]

Some things which will be of interest.

 

Sony and Japan - This should be a wakeup call that Sony should get back to investing into Japan with smaller developers that Microsoft is uninterested in.

Sony and WRPGs and FPSs - Microsoft has basically gained a monopoly on shooters and western RPGs so what is Sony going to do about that? Will Killzone get revived? Will they commission studios to produce brand new shooters and western RPGs in hope they take off?

[RustyZero]

Sony pays $229 million for Insomniac. MS pays $68 billion for Activision. Who is the smartest?

[jgm4789]

I can see them potentialy closing say ps3 cod servers(or whatever ones aren't peer to peer) but anything from say black ops 3 on should be safe(especially games from the current warzone era of cod)