Microsoft to buy Activision-Blizzard

[adarw]

[Lord Szechenyi]

Nice

 

Microsoft is trying to kill of Sony

 

Let Sony die, as they once killed off Sega

[GoodBytes]

2 minutes ago, ToboRobot said:

The news about Mike was from Oct 24, 2019.

 

 

Won't be surprised if they were talked back then all the way in early 2019. Probably some delays due to 2020 events.

I mean everyone expected a massive recession in 2020.

[schwellmo92]

55 minutes ago, Commodus said:

Bethesda's games are different. It's not as big as Activision Blizzard, and the titles you mentioned are either original (thus no large existing fan base) or a sequel to a game that's over a decade old. You'd have an argument if Elder Scrolls was a new-game-every-year franchise that served as the tentpole for an entire developer, but it's clearly not.

 

And while I'm sure Microsoft would like the idea of buying Sony... it won't, and probably can't. You think the Activision Blizzard deal might lead to heavy regulatory scrutiny? Try buying the overall leader in game consoles solely to shut down competition. That's assuming it would have the cash. $68.7 billion would be nothing compared to how much Sony is worth.

If they applied the same premium they’re paying for Activision, Sony would cost about $230b

[Sir Asvald]

Great MicroShit buying everything now...

[Donut417]

Better it’s Microsoft than EA. I mean it can still be bad, but anything EA touches withers and dies (looks over at Command and Conquer and SimCity). Microsoft might be able to do something nice, we will just have to wait and see. 

[ToboRobot]

29 minutes ago, Lord Szechenyi said:

 

 

Microsoft is trying to kill of Sony

 

 

The battle for the living room continues.  MS knows it can't kill Sony (it's a massive conglomerate), but they want to control the living room and the marketplace of media and the trove of data that goes with it.

Be interesting to see if they get more into Film and TV as Apple is.  I have an old pitch deck for a gaming reality TV show I still want to see made.  Maybe LMG will get into reality tv...

[grg994]

1 hour ago, GoodBytes said:

Except, you know, they were in talks long before.  You think you can just buy a company because one feel like it, and have it the next day?

These things are well over 6-8 months in the making.

I don't want to spawn conspiracies but honestly this is exactly that makes me question at this point whether the harassment scandals were at least partially artificially enhanced to drive the Blizzards sell value down.

If one combines the timeline of the scandals and the timeline of the acquisition the result is at least a bit sus.

[suicidalfranco]

Damn. Good thing I haven't played an AB games ever since I got fed up with OW, which was when they released Brigitte.

Sucks to be a PS fanboys that buys every release of CoD though ( even if they were ferfid believers of exclusivity as a mean to drive sales )

[Senzelian]

Damn it. I was hoping for Microsoft to buy EA instead and put the Forza people in charge of NFS.

[Gaires]

https://www.theverge.com/2021/11/18/22789881/microsoft-xbox-boss-phil-spencer-deeply-troubled-by-activision-blizzard-bobby-kotick

Quote

Bloomberg is now reporting that Microsoft boss Phil Spencer has now told staff he was “disturbed and deeply troubled by the horrific events and actions” at Activision Blizzard and that Microsoft is “evaluating all aspects of our relationship with Activision Blizzard and making ongoing proactive adjustments” as a result.

 

I guess this is one way to "evaluate all aspects of our relationship".

[Commodus]

2 hours ago, schwellmo92 said:

If they applied the same premium they’re paying for Activision, Sony would cost about $230b

Precisely. I know that claim I was responding to wasn't actually about buying Sony, but it is safe to say Microsoft can't even consider buying Sony.

[WereCat]

Does this mean that WoW on Game Pass will be "subscription free"?

 

Also, will they release Diablo Immortals on PC?

 

 

[Thaldor]

5 hours ago, linkboy said:

Personally, I don't like this. I'm not a fan of Activision, but industry consolidation like this isn't a good thing. I know this forum leans towards PC, but franchises like Call of Duty going exclusive to the Xbox/PC isn't good for the industry.

It is as much question about Microsoft wanting to release on PlayStation as Sony wanting Microsoft to release on PlayStation. Last time I checked PS wasn't open platform and Sony has the history of being very strict about who shall release on their platform or even release on their media format (just read about the Betamax vs. VHS, one deciding factor was where JVC went "just pay the license and make your own cassettes and do what you want" while Sony wanted to keep manufacturing all of the releases).

 

I wouldn't be surprised if it was Microsoft pulling future Bethesda releases from PS5, but I wouldn't be surprised if Sony blocked Microsoft from releasing on PS5. After all it is way different to let some third party to release on your console than letting your arch-nemesis to release on your console.

[oJIMoBOBo]

2 hours ago, Senzelian said:

Damn it. I was hoping for Microsoft to buy EA instead and put the Forza people in charge of NFS.

The forza and codemasters (under EA now) teams doing F1, NFS and Forza sounds like a good time 

[Shreyas1]

2 hours ago, Donut417 said:

Better it’s Microsoft than EA. I mean it can still be bad, but anything EA touches withers and dies (looks over at Command and Conquer and SimCity). Microsoft might be able to do something nice, we will just have to wait and see. 

No way that EA could even afford activision to begin with. I mean 70B is a pretty steep price tag.

[Brooksie359]

6 hours ago, linkboy said:

 

Cool, let me know when Starfield (which was originally announced for Xbox, PS5 and PC) and the next Elder's Scroll game will be on PS5 (hint, they won't).

 

You don't drop $70 billion in cash and continue to give your games to your competition, it just doesn't work that way. Microsoft's goal is to get you to either buy a Xbox or subscribe to Gamepass, that's it. It's why they're trying to get Gamepass on everything under the sun. They want Gamepass to be the default gaming service and purchase like this (and the Bethesda one) give them the ammunition to do so.

 

Microsoft wants to bury Sony, they want them out of their way since Sony is one of their biggest obstacles to achieving their end goal of making their platforms (Xbox, Windows and Gamepass) the only place to play games.

I think you are underestimating how much sales Microsoft would lose out on if they made all of those games exclusives. I mean yeah you might get more console sales but it might not make up for the lose in sales for the games. You have to realize that for every copy of the game sold Microsoft is making money as they actually own the game studio vs if they were paying for a game to be exclusive for a third party. 

[Fasterthannothing]

4 hours ago, schwellmo92 said:

If they applied the same premium they’re paying for Activision, Sony would cost about $230b

Sony is going to be on discount very quickly no games to play = a worthless pile of metal. Microsoft isn't just laughing in Sony's face about game exclusives now they are actively humiliating them to the point where Sony execs have to be questioning how they can possibly compete.

[Fasterthannothing]

Just now, Brooksie359 said:

I think you are underestimating how much sales Microsoft would lose out on if they made all of those games exclusives. I mean yeah you might get more console sales but it might not make up for the lose in sales for the games. You have to realize that for every copy of the game sold Microsoft is making money as they actually own the game studio vs if they were paying for a game to be exclusive for a third party. 

You know what will make more money? Subscriptions seriously nothing compares to micro transactions.

[poochyena]

8 minutes ago, SlidewaysZ said:

You know what will make more money? Subscriptions seriously nothing compares to micro transactions.

subscriptions ARE micro transactions. Specifically monthly subscriptions.

[pas008]

9 minutes ago, SlidewaysZ said:

You know what will make more money? Subscriptions seriously nothing compares to micro transactions.

micro transaction on metaverse?

the IP could pay for themselves very fast

[Stahlmann]

4 hours ago, Donut417 said:

Better it’s Microsoft than EA. I mean it can still be bad, but anything EA touches withers and dies (looks over at Command and Conquer and SimCity). Microsoft might be able to do something nice, we will just have to wait and see. 

Battlefield is another recent great example. The latest game is practically already dead  

[cmndr]

StarCraft 3 confirmed!!!!

 

Only half joking.

[Lord Szechenyi]

4 hours ago, ToboRobot said:

MS knows it can't kill Sony (it's a massive conglomerate)

Well I mean obviously

 

Sega is still active to this day, they just stopped making consoles

 

That was the allusion I was making

[Brooksie359]

29 minutes ago, SlidewaysZ said:

You know what will make more money? Subscriptions seriously nothing compares to micro transactions.

Honestly I think the best way to increase Xbox console sales is to make game pass so good that it doesn't make sense to get a Playstation that can't get Gamepass.