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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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Not really. 

 

Sony has made plenty of acquisitions in its own right, and isn't really above playing hardball with both timed and permanent exclusives (see Spider-Man, FFVII: Remake, etc.). It's a brand that has faced stiff competition from Nintendo, Sega, and Microsoft at various points in its life, and the brand has come through. Trust me on this - I've been a PlayStation games since 1997, and I've seen all manner of ups and downs.

 

At the end of the day, the acquisitions aren't necessarily a bad thing. Sony is going to have to put out a higher quality product in order to compete. If they succeed, gamers win. If they fail, no big deal - there's plenty of great gaming outside the PlayStation ecosystem.   

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35 minutes ago, BEAST_IHMOTEP said:

For the first time ever I'm concerned about the future of the PlayStation ecosystem due to competitor's aggressive acquisitions. Sony just can't compete with unlimited amounts of money from one of the "big tech" companies. I'm not just talking just about this particular Activision acquisition, I can see MS keeping purchasing giants of the industry.

 

I've all my gaming history in the PlayStation ecosystem in form of trophies since 2008. I always feel so proud and nostalgic by just watching my trophy list and relating the games with moments of my life. I always thought that I'll continue hunting all my life, even at my 70s. I´'ll keep hunting while I can but for the first time I don't feel confident that I´'ll continue to do so in 10-20 years because I don't know what will be the fate of this brand anymore.

 

No, they're fine for the most part. I agree they do need to answer the PS5 shortage issue, but that's not a problem they're entirely in control of. I've been on every major platform to exist over the last 20 years. Shortly before the Wii released, I remember people looking at Nintendo's sales for the time and saying the company had 10 years left at best. Look where we are now.

With the fanbase they still have, Playstation can handle it's current competition even still, but this could be a wake up call of sorts for Sony. I've always known Microsoft had the ability to out-buy Sony if they wanted, but that approach to team-building has had mixed results throughout history. I'll be interested to see in what ways they might respond.

Edited by kindajustin
Edit to clarify who my response was towards
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26 minutes ago, MidnightDragon said:

One thing I’m curious about…why did MS pay almost 10 times more for this than Bethesda? Because they can?

 

Because Bethesda and its predominantly single player games are old news. Activision and its MP heavy library is where the money is

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1 hour ago, Zephrese said:

And the world cheers as the industry gets bleaker... Activision's always been a garbage company, but the acquisition of Bethesda was arguably already too much of a monopoly.

 

'

Nope, Activision was AWESOME in the early 80's.

 

47 minutes ago, FreshFromThaDeli said:

I have been collecting every physical CoD game going back to the PS2 and now it will come to a bitter sweet after Modern Warfare II comes out later this year. Overall, I think this is bad for the industry and a case can be made for monopolisation. I been buying CoD every year at launch since Modern Warfare 2 in 2009 so it will be weird transitioning to Xbox for buying the new CoD games. It could have been worse because if Xbox bought Capcom, I would have been furious. I guess I have to look at the bright side here.

 

 

There is no reason to believe Xbox will make COD an Xbox exclusive title. There is no case for a monopoly if competition is still out there. Even if COD were to go exclusive (Which would be stupid of them to do) I don't think that would kill off Sony. 

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45 minutes ago, baboon_overlord said:

Twenty years ago MS would be looking at massive anti-trust action from regulators.

 

Sadly, the regulators these days are a joke (unless you're a little guy, obviously).

The new head of the FTC supposedly wants to go back to when it was more regulated. Doubt it’ll change this, but still.

 

1 hour ago, BEAST_IHMOTEP said:

For the first time ever I'm concerned about the future of the PlayStation ecosystem due to competitor's aggressive acquisitions. Sony just can't compete with unlimited amounts of money from one of the "big tech" companies. I'm not just talking just about this particular Activision acquisition, I can see MS keeping purchasing giants of the industry.

 

I've all my gaming history in the PlayStation ecosystem in form of trophies since 2008. I always feel so proud and nostalgic by just watching my trophy list and relating the games with moments of my life. I always thought that I'll continue hunting all my life, even at my 70s. I´'ll keep hunting while I can but for the first time I don't feel confident that I´'ll continue to do so in 10-20 years because I don't know what will be the fate of this brand anymore.

If I had a dollar for every time someone predicted Sony or Nintendo’s doom, I’d be rich. 

Edited by MidnightDragon
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1 hour ago, DaivRules said:

I don't normally read too far into Vice articles before I bail, but this one provided some good discussion on this puchase:

 

https://www.vice.com/en/article/pkp3q8/the-consequences-of-microsoft-buying-activision-blizzard-are-dizzying

 

Some bullet points worth remembering:

This deal (if approved by the FTC) will not close for another year. Early 2023 before the effects of this merger can start.

The FTC has a new leader that wants to revert back to the anti-trust scrutiny of the 80's, rather than the rubber stamping that's happened since. This is exactly the kind of merger that would be heavily scrutinized.

 

And this was particularly interesting:

 

 

 

 

Microsoft is likely wishing they'd closed the deal sooner yeah as doing it today of all days is getting them a lot of attention from people they don't want. We'll see if it is all empty talk or not in time. 

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Huge news. Way bigger deal than the Bethesda as this one WILL move the meter. That said, like this Bethesda deal, this changes nothing for me personally as I don't buy Activision games neither so I won't be all of a sudden be buying an Xbox or upgrading my PC. But a lot of people will lol.

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7 hours ago, Charizarzar said:

‘memba the days of “Good guy Microsoft”?

Actually no I don't lol. During the late 90s, early 2000s, Microsoft was seen as kinda evil - practically the same way we see Amazon nowadays. Of course, people don't really remember that cuz it's been 20 something years, but the Xbox, and recently, Phil Spencer, have really helped build up Microsoft's image in the gaming industry.

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And I don't think we will see the results of this, or any other takeovers during this generation.

So much is already planned and so many developers/teams have already ideas and goals for the Series/PS5 generation.

 

If anything, what is happening right now and the result of that will be seen in the next generation.

If Micro$oft continues doing this for example, Sony would have only 3 choices i.m.h.o

1. Accept Game-pass.

2. Merge with another huge company to compete against Micro$oft.

3. Keep going and go under fighting.

 

Micro$soft is only doing this to kill the competition, either with forcing a gamepass upon them, or just by buying everything up.

Sure, there will be companies who will say no, but a PS5 without let's say Bethesda, Activision, Ubisoft and EA... would be pretty barren.

 

All of that is just hypothetical of course, but I have a gut feeling that this isn't the end of it.

 

My guess, Micro$oft takes over Square Enix and Ubisoft and some smaller ones like FromSoftware and Techland as well, ignores the rest because of "monopoly"

Still plenty for Sony, as well as all the exclusives (that will have to go to Game-pass after a while)... And with no option to accept the game-pass to keep the player base.

 

And it's so silly actually, thinking that pretty much all problems could be solved with that.

Bringing Game-Pass to Playstation.

 

 

Edited by JusttJD
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