Microsoft to buy Activision-Blizzard

[Rauten]

5 minutes ago, Master Disaster said:

I wonder who will be next?

I wouldn't be surprised (though I would be rather pissed off about it, as a child/teen who grew up with them) if it was SEGA.

A very large chunk of their library is already available in PC GamePass - Yakuza games, Football Manager, Total War Warhammer... -- So it's quite clear they have a very friendly relationship.

Then again, maybe that's also why they wouldn't bother? Since they already do have most of their games in their platform?

 

Also, how in the F is Konami worth that much?!
Oh, wait, right... Pachinko.  Ugh.

[Video Beagle]

34 minutes ago, Master Disaster said:

I wonder who will be next?

I'm a bit surprised Apple hasn't grabbed someone with some good name, but not high value IP for some Apple Arcade content and to kind of be a flag barer for M1 gaming. (and to cut off "Apple doesn't care about games"...Apple cares about money, and there's lots of money in game space)

[williamcll]

[WolframaticAlpha]

1 hour ago, Master Disaster said:

I wonder who will be next?

Nintendo was smaller than Activision. Imagine if you had Nintendo merge with Microsoft.

[JHMW19]

If anyone were to buy them, Microsoft is the least scummy. 

 

Of the Tech Big 6, (the only ones who could have pulled this off) they know what they are doing gaming wise. 

 

Apple? Yeah Macbooks still have issues gaming.

 

Facebook? Look they have Oculus but, well, no one likes them. Also VR and all of this is not the same.

 

Google? HA! They are already burying Stadia. 

 

Amazon? Luna isn't doing numbers and they still have issues with their first game. 

 

Tencent? They could have pulled it off but no one trusts them at all for censorship and China reasons. 

 

Microsoft is doing this because they are thinking long term. Their competition are these other 5, especially Google and Amazon with their cloud and web structures. THAT is the end goal. Gamepass and Xcloud. 

 

So will COD and the like end up on PS5? Maybe? They are the 2 best selling games on PS5 now. But this could be a way to twist Sony's arm to get Gamepass there. Because that is what Microsoft cares about. Consistent revenue. How do you think they made so much money to begin with? Why they switched to Office 365? 

 

Phil Spencer saved Xbox and is going to use Xbox to get Microsoft in more places in people's lives. 

[LordBavarian]

I am not familiar with this acquisition stuff.
Hence the question:
I wanted to know: Who has the final right to co-determination and decision-making after a company acquisition to the projects, IP’s, employees, etc..?

Greetings to you  & i wish you a good day.

[Lord Szechenyi]

11 hours ago, Be Rock said:

SONY is bordering on bankruptcy

dumbest thing I've ever heard

 

 

Sony is one of the Big 3 in the music industry, and are getting a shit ton of cash from their movies too.

[Stahlmann]

5 hours ago, Master Disaster said:

I wonder who will be next?

So just 130.9 billion more to spend and they are the gaming overlord. Shouldn't be a problem for MS seeing how they just cashed out 70 billion just like that.

[Giganthrax]

I'm actually glad that Microsoft bought Activision-Blizzard. Now there's at least some hope that Blizzard may get back on track and redeem themselves. At this point, anything is better than just letting them stay a part of Activision. 

 

However, since it seems Bobby Kotick is still going to be the CEO, I doubt this is going to happen. 

[Master Disaster]

3 minutes ago, Giganthrax said:

I'm actually glad that Microsoft bought Activision-Blizzard. Now there's at least some hope that Blizzard may get back on track and redeem themselves. At this point, anything is better than just letting them stay a part of Activision. 

 

However, since it seems Bobby Kotick is still going to be the CEO, I doubt this is going to happen. 

Nah, Kotick is out on his ass as soon as the deal is final in ~18 months, until then he remains. That said, he's gonna walk away with a fucking huge bonus after selling the company for 70 billion and making all the shareholders rich AF.

[Mark Kaine]

39 minutes ago, Stahlmann said:

So just 130.9 billion more to spend and they are the gaming overlord. Shouldn't be a problem for MS seeing how they just cashed out 70 billion just like that.

Sony / Nintendo save us...

 

True, but what do you personally think would come out of this? Im of the impression almost everything they buy is left dormant without much output if any at all?

[Stahlmann]

3 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

Sony / Nintendo save us...

 

True, but what do you personally think would come out of this? Im of the impression almost everything they buy is left dormant without much output if any at all?

Tbh didn't really think about it that much. I didn't follow what MS aquired over the last few years. The only thing that comes to mind atm is Minecraft which is still under active development and receiving constant FREE updates introducing more content.

 

In terms of Activision/Blizzard i think they pretty much bottomed out a while ago. They haven't released a noteworthy game (IMO) in the last few years and i've never had lower opinions on a game dev company. So i think it can only go up from here. I still baffled that MS actually think it's worth 70 BILLION...

[Beerzerker]

5 hours ago, williamcll said:

Reminds me of the guys in Star Trek Voyager that went around kidnapping folks and stealing their body parts for themselves.
 

[Elijah Kamski]

Looking at Microsoft now and how they do things, I am very much against this.

I may hate Blizzard, but damn boi, they sure didn't wreck Minecraft.

[Mark Kaine]

29 minutes ago, Stahlmann said:

Tbh didn't really think about it that much. I didn't follow what MS aquired over the last few years. The only thing that comes to mind atm is Minecraft which is still under active development and receiving constant FREE updates introducing more content.

Actually,  i just looked it up,  they bought 7 gaming companies... i thought it was far more tbh, and im not sure these lists are conclusive either...

but from those 7 , most of them seem to be somewhat active to highly active,  its just output generally is quite low and naturally not all is super successful,  but yeah, my impression maybe wasn't wrong, but the interpretation was, they arent doing nothing,  just not much of it is noteworthy... they just don't have the big hits like for example Sony and Nintendo have, with a few exceptions ala Forza, Halo, Gears ( i always think thats just another Halo lol) and indeed Minecraft, but also stuff like Winternights 2 (whichs success is also unknown to me) 

 

So yeah, they're doing *something* and strategically it makes sense of course, i also see why they spent that much, acti/blizzard does really have some huge hits on hand... (i mean the games are terrible,  highly popular nonetheless) far more popular than Microsofts usual stuff (except probably Minecraft) 

 

 

 

 

[vetali]

1 hour ago, Master Disaster said:

Nah, Kotick is out on his ass as soon as the deal is final in ~18 months, until then he remains. That said, he's gonna walk away with a fucking huge bonus after selling the company for 70 billion and making all the shareholders rich AF.

Yep, Kotick is trying to go down as a hero rather than a villain to the people that matter to him... which are shareholders.

 

 

[GreatnessRD]

7 hours ago, Master Disaster said:

I wonder who will be next?

Hopefully, Sony takes a look at Konami just for the MGS franchise. I think they could do something slick with it. EA just needs to die in a fire. But to get back on topic, I think this deal for Microsoft can be very good if they don't get in their own way. Microsoft already owns a ton of solid IP's they do nothing with it. And they killed good developers like RARE, so we'll see.

[Shreyas1]

1 hour ago, Mark Kaine said:

True, but what do you personally think would come out of this? Im of the impression almost everything they buy is left dormant without much output if any at all?

That was the case long ago right? I mean with Bethesda they still are working on making Starfield, lets see how that goes before we can judge this one too harshly. If they can turn around bethesda from FO76, I think AV will be fine

 

 

Also they aren't going to leave an almost 70B aquisition dormant, that would be very dumb on their part.

[IPD]

Thoughts:

 

-MS bought Bungee and turned their product into the most generic ROTM shooter.  Disappointing

 

-MS bought Rare (largely to spite Nintendo)--and then proceeded to let it wither and die

 

-MS's entire modus operandi with gaming has been to immolate continent-sized piles of money and observe what fecal material adheres to the vertical partition.

 

-Marketshare by out-spending the competition does not (inherently) for quality make

 

-Activision is probably the second most evil company in gaming (after EA)

 

-Blizzard lost its way a long time ago, and the team behind its greatest successes have moved on

 

-Blizzard and Activision dying off won't bother me much (and shouldn't most people--considering their best years are seemingly behind them at this point)

 

-We can mourn SC and WC and the likes, but remember that just because a name and the lore attached are gone--doesn't mean that we can't have games that are the heir apparent to it.  Timesplitters is really the heir to the Goldeneye/Perfect Dark games--but without the lore/name.  Path of Exile (imho) is the heir to Diablo 2.  Overload is clearly the heir to the Descent franchise (sorry, Descent Underground, but you suck).  If there's demand, there will be an RTS with similar feel/play to SC/WC--even if the original franchises die off.

 

-I will not mourn CoD.  CoD, BF, Fortnite, HALO and Borderlands have all but destroyed the FPS genre, imho.  Development has stagnated.  CoD in particular turned the FPS genre from "never know what's coming next" with gameplay/feel to "Madden in FPS form".  Half-Life 3, Unreal Tournament 4--unlikely to ever get made.  SiN: Chronicles died a premature death.  FEAR is dead (just like NOLF and Blood).  DNF had promise, but ended up a dud.  Bioshock is dead.  DOOM/Wolfenstein, Serious Sam and Deus Ex are barely keeping the genre on life support.  Every FPS I play these days feels like it has no soul.  Immersion, story and innovation are gone.

[HQuan]

Microsoft buy Activision with a nice number of money (nearly)

[Title translate: Microsoft buy Activision with the price nearly 69 (nice) billion USD]

 

[Fasterthannothing]

10 hours ago, Master Disaster said:

I wonder who will be next?

Sony better hurry up and buy someone or they will be left in the dust.

[Master Disaster]

3 hours ago, GreatnessRD said:

 And they killed good developers like RARE, so we'll see.

Nah, not exactly at least. Rare made a few great titles for the OG Xbox, they died when the Stampers left in 2007 and I think MS knew it as well because it was 08 when they got stuck developing Kinnect titles until Sea Of Thieves.

[Mark Kaine]

3 hours ago, GreatnessRD said:

Hopefully, Sony takes a look at Konami just for the MGS franchise. I think they could do something slick with it. EA just needs to die in a fire. But to get back on topic, I think this deal for Microsoft can be very good if they don't get in their own way. Microsoft already owns a ton of solid IP's they do nothing with it. And they killed good developers like RARE, so we'll see.

Besides all the great IPs they could use and the few they use, don't forget the main reason for these acquisitions, and thats simply to buy out competition,  thats how you get big or stay big, ie "cant beat them, buy them!". This is nothing new.

 

(yet it keeps surprising people for some reason)

[IPD]

And buying up the competition and the market shrinking (and IP's dying off) will hopefully open the market to new start-ups and new offerings.

[GreatnessRD]

1 hour ago, Master Disaster said:

Nah, not exactly at least. Rare made a few great titles for the OG Xbox, they died when the Stampers left in 2007 and I think MS knew it as well because it was 08 when they got stuck developing Kinnect titles until Sea Of Thieves.

I guess that's a fair point.

1 hour ago, Mark Kaine said:

Besides all the great IPs they could use and the few they use, don't forget the main reason for these acquisitions, and thats simply to buy out competition,  thats how you get big or stay big, ie "cant beat them, buy them!". This is nothing new.

 

(yet it keeps surprising people for some reason)

Oh for sure, you're 100% correct.