Veinz
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Microsoft to buy Activision in $68.7 billion all-cash deal
It will be Microsoft's largest acquisition ever.
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Microsoft buys Activision Blizzard
- Thread starter Veinz
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Silver Arrows
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Honestly, I seriously doubt much changes in the grand scheme of things. Most of Acti-Blizzard's portfolio is way too big to be restricted to just the PC and Xbox eco-system - and I know for a fact that COD is never going exclusive either, not in a million years. Neither is Overwatch, and OW can practically run on anything.
I really get the sense that this is mostly for metaverse development, whether that actually works or not. Alongside that, I think a convincing argument as to whether Microsoft is approaching anti-trust and violations and starting a monopoly, can be made with this deal, so it might not even go through.
I really get the sense that this is mostly for metaverse development, whether that actually works or not. Alongside that, I think a convincing argument as to whether Microsoft is approaching anti-trust and violations and starting a monopoly, can be made with this deal, so it might not even go through.
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- NotThePrez
- NotThePrez
And I thought the Bethesda purchase would never be topped in terms of scale and surprise...
On one hand, between having to deal with employee walkouts and the higher-ups of Activision being (alleged) scumbags, this was probably a very good time for Microsoft to buy them out, since Activision is proverbially burning down currently. I honestly figured that those issues would be the downfall of Activision, because it didn't look like the higher-ups were going to change, nor were they initially willing to have to answer to someone above them.
On the other hand, I am getting strong Disney-buying-Marvel/Star Wars vibes from this. I would definitely say that Microsoft is getting to the point of being a borderline monopoly, or at the very least, having an insane amount of influence in the gaming industry due to all of the studios, IPs and people under their umbrella. I doubt Microsoft will have to ask the DoJ if the deal is legal, but I wouldn't be surprised if this happens anyways.
My biggest questions are A) what, if anything, is going to change within Activision-Blizzard to solve these issues they're having on the people side of things? I'm assuming there'll be a major re-shuffling of the higher-end positions, but this is a pretty big mess that Microsoft has inherited. And B), what will happen with the multi-platform titles like Call of Duty, Overwatch, etc. That's a question that I don't believe has been answered even after the Bethesda buyout.
MagpieRacer
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So Microsoft now own famous PlayStation character, Crash Bandicoot.
Try telling someone that in 1999.
Try telling someone that in 1999.
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They let Disney go through with the Fox buyout with minimal trimmings (mainly just spinning off the broadcast TV stations and Fox News) and it was already the largest media studio in the world. Different administration, granted, but I'd still be surprised if major objections were raised to this.
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Yes, that would be why I typed the first sentence. Schreier is perfectly free to his opinion, but the Disney/Fox deal was a bigger one than this in cost and significantly larger in impact on the respective industry, and the (Trump, again granted) DoJ basically just ignored it.
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Scaff
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The closest to an answer to that is:
"Activision Blizzard games are enjoyed on a variety of platforms and we plan to continue to support those communities moving forward."
Which is very, very vague.
Silver Arrows
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I mean, it's clear that at some point with Warzone specifically (but also the COD franchise as whole) that there needs to be a reset, and maybe MW2022 can provide that. It's clear that the Vanguard integration caused a lot of problems, more so then the Cold War integration did (some of it is due to Activision ****ing over Raven's QA testers, most of it is due to the fact that Warzone is getting way too complex for its own good) and it's also getting clear, to me at least, that there are better options in the BR space. Warzone just feels increasingly antiquated by this point, and not separating the WZ client from MW19 would have been a relatively easy way to extend the life of the game more then the two weeks that was given with the Vanguard integration.
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- NotThePrez
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- Decepticon 47
Bizzare creations revival perhaps 🤔
Silver Arrows
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No. Bizarre is dead and buried.
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Unfortunately thats true I wish that was not the case but Activision pretty much closed it and dispersed the whole original crew.
PGR is still owned by MS but its has been retired for good. Last game we got was in 2007 its been 14 years 😲
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Yeah, sadly. I'd still love nothing more than Blur 2 to be a reality.
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McLaren
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Seems kind of bold given the controversy Blizzard is still in. There was just a report yesterday by the WSJ that 37 employees were fired & 44 were reprimanded for misconduct since July. But, it shared that Bobby Kotick held this information from being released because he thought it would give the company a bad image (seems a bit convenient timing for such a story to come out just as this deal was probably being finalized?).
My understanding is that Kotick is still the central figure for his own alleged misconduct/sexual harassment claims, but folks were upset the Board of Directors were standing by him (& again, tmu, may have been told by Bobby of the accusations but rested on, "Don't tell us, so we don't know" claim).
My understanding is that Kotick is still the central figure for his own alleged misconduct/sexual harassment claims, but folks were upset the Board of Directors were standing by him (& again, tmu, may have been told by Bobby of the accusations but rested on, "Don't tell us, so we don't know" claim).
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There's no way Call of Duty or probably Overwatch would be exclusive. There's way too much money to be lost doing that; and stuff like that actively is the kind of thing that would definitely draw lawsuits from Sony/Nintendo and governments. It's almost certainly a play for Game Pass. "You can buy this on PS5 for $70 like an idiot, or you can buy a subscription to Game Pass and buy an Xbox and have it and many other games for $10 a month (or whatever Game Pass costs) and after only playing a few games you'll already have saved money even after buying a new console!"
In terms of the very small amounts of non-Call of Duty Mines content that Activision puts out, that stuff I would expect to become Microsoft exclusive (since I'm assuming Microsoft would utilize those dormant IPs more than Activision does now), though. It probably also means a lot of older games Activision published would get rereleases or added to the BC lists, even after Microsoft said they were done with it. That's a huge catalog of older content to not have it as part of Game Pass at the very least.
In terms of the very small amounts of non-Call of Duty Mines content that Activision puts out, that stuff I would expect to become Microsoft exclusive (since I'm assuming Microsoft would utilize those dormant IPs more than Activision does now), though. It probably also means a lot of older games Activision published would get rereleases or added to the BC lists, even after Microsoft said they were done with it. That's a huge catalog of older content to not have it as part of Game Pass at the very least.
Scaff
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We don't know, but as PS is still the biggest sector of the playerbase for CoD, loosing it would harm the franchise to a massive degree.
It's a 70/30 split between PS and XBox
Call of Duty is No.1 but physical sales continue to slow | UK Boxed Charts
Call of Duty: Vanguard is No.1 in the UK boxed charts, comfortably ending FIFA 22's lengthy spell at the top.Activision…
www.gamesindustry.biz
It's debatable which would lose out more Playstation without CoD or CoD without Playstation.
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Being a Playstation gamer I was happy with MS bought Bethesda and their use of gamepass, after all good competition stops Sony attempting to rip people off and drives down prices for us in tje long term but I wasn't expecting this!!
Who will they buy next? Square?!
MS are the Man City of the gaming world right now.
Who will they buy next? Square?!
MS are the Man City of the gaming world right now.
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I think that King and their mobile games are the elephants in the room in this deal. Like it or not, mobile is the largest gaming market today, and Microsoft hasn’t been prolific in mobile games like King has, and the deal will make Microsoft a bigger player in that business.
To me, Candy Crush is the focal point of this deal, not COD or any of the other Activision/Blizzard franchises.
To me, Candy Crush is the focal point of this deal, not COD or any of the other Activision/Blizzard franchises.
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That's what we all thought with Bethesda and TES6.
Now... granted, TES5's lifetime sales are about the same as a single COD entry, and you're looking at around 33-40% on PlayStation (really hard to find numbers on this, but it's broadly PC in first, PS in second, and outselling XB 2:1), but still MS has decided that 10-12 million sales (over 10 years) isn't enough incentive to keep TES6 on PlayStation.
COD would be more of an impact - 20m+ sales annually - but MS absolutely has shown a willingness to put up with losing figures of a similar magnitude to keep its new studios' titles platform exclusive.
I wouldn't like to call it.
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All things considered, I have to wonder what Microsoft are going to do with World of Warcraft more than anything. All those other IPs can handle themselves just fine (okay, maybe Diablo needs some stabilizing), but WoW has been very badly mismanaged and constantly losing its playerbase to Final Fantasy 14 over the last couple years, and it's gotten to the point where if they don't get some kind of change going over there to revitalize the game as a whole, it's only going to have value as portfolio padding.
Silver Arrows
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