Microsoft buys Activison Blizzard.
- Thread starter cobra
- Start date
But why though? To get the IP's before Activision Blizzard implodes so they don't have to buy them in an auction? That's the only reason I can think of. It feels like scavenging but with extra steps. Then again, Microsoft has been on a company buying bend lately. Can't have to negotiate with third parties if you own them and make them first parties I guess.
Is it really that hard? That's just capitalism/business. In this case its just more consolidation of big tech. Stills need approval from the FTC but I'm sure it will get through. Whether this will be a good or bad thing is up for debate. ((I'm leaning kinda bad.)) Might lead to more shitty cookie cutter AAA games. And those IPs ((Which Microsoft sorely lacks)) will be exclusive to Microsoft platforms i.e. xbox, pc windows, and Gamepass. Id rather Microsoft acquire them then some other company like Tencent.
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At least with Microsoft those games still end up on pc and have a small chance of being multi-platform someday. Tencent is straight fucking evil so I'm with you on preferring Microsoft. I'm still expecting Activision Blizzard to die out sooner rather than later so I guess I'm more confused why Microsoft would bother with them unless they thought getting WoW, Diablo, and etc. earlier and packaged together outweighed the drama they'd bring to Bill Gates's ever growing legion of tech companies. Better than EA and Tencent at least though. But I'm leaning bad too if only because I hate exclusivity.
Well look at it from an evil corpo executive perspective. Activison hold the rights to a bunch of properties that were hot once upon a time, Activison is an umbrella of novahot legacy developers from the 90s and 2000s. Activison Blizzard is probably in an unstainable position right now in terms of financial growth, Bobby Kotick and the rest of the upper level executives probably want a way out of the company in a good position and a big severance package. The drama regarding Blizzard and the rest of its business practices either knocked a couple billion dollars off the price tag or increased the pressure of pushing the deal though. Forgot to mention this also increases Microsoft's foot print in mobile too. ((BLEH!!!))
Properties Microsoft now owns:
- Activision
- Call of Duty
- Crash Bandicoot
- Guitar Hero
- Spyro the Dragon / Skylanders
- Tony Hawk
- Blizzard
- Diablo
- Hearthstone
- Lost Vikings
- Overwatch
- Starcraft
- World of Warcraft
- King
- Bubble Witch Saga
- Candy Crush
- Diamond Diaries Saga
- Farm Heroes Saga
- Pet Rescue
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TheShepard256
Well-Known Member
One of my co-workers shared the contents of an article (normally requires a subscription to access) that he deemed to be "the most comprehensive and balanced view" of the situation. The key points I took away from it are:
On a personal level, this doesn't really affect me, so I'm not particularly concerned; I tend to avoid subscription services as much as possible, and I'm not really into Activision Blizzard games anyways (I played Overwatch a tiny bit on a relative's account before I was aware of any controversy, and I have all the Lego sets, but that's it). This just looks like regular corporate wheeling-and-dealing to me.
- MS wants more big games for their Game Pass, and most third-party publishers don't think including their games in a $15 per month subscription is profitable compared to selling the games for $60 each; that's why they bought the company that owns Doom and Fallout last year.
- This is going to help expand Microsoft's presence in the consumer market, increasing company growth and reducing their reliance on selling to corporate/government/etc. IT departments.
- MS's plans for their Game Pass - particularly streaming games to subscribers via the cloud - will require investment into Azure, which could also lead to improvements in non-gaming-related aspects of that service.
- If Sony's going to lose anything from this, it probably won't be "no more Call of Duty on PlayStation" - MS still receives a lot of revenue through CoD on PS. It's more likely (but not guaranteed) that MS won't let Sony include CoD in their own subscription service.
- What Wint3rRyd3r and cobra said; this is probably the best time for Kotick to sell, before all the investigations are finished. He's also probably not going to remain an employee of MS for long.
- If Amazon and/or Google want to remain competitive in the cloud gaming business, they'll likely have to make big purchases of their own (EA, Take-Two and Ubisoft are likely targets).
On a personal level, this doesn't really affect me, so I'm not particularly concerned; I tend to avoid subscription services as much as possible, and I'm not really into Activision Blizzard games anyways (I played Overwatch a tiny bit on a relative's account before I was aware of any controversy, and I have all the Lego sets, but that's it). This just looks like regular corporate wheeling-and-dealing to me.
ActiBlizz shot themselves in the head and now Microsoft is throwing singles on their dying body to get ActiBlizz's permission to loot their pockets because they've been convinced it'll be better when in reality Microsoft is the only real winner here is what I'm getting out of this. Maybe Microsoft will at least do something with those series that Activision retired.
I see this as nothing more than Microsoft getting dangerously closer to a monopoly on the industry.
MIcrosoft should buy Rockstar next, If they do then that will be the most OP thing ever seen in gaming history because '' LOT'S '' of player play GTA5 and Once GTA6 comes out '' IF ' it comes out in like 8 years Then that would be huge For xbox
GTA6 is never coming out. They've been assimilated into Todd Howard's hive mind and will just keep rereleasing GTA5 over and over. Bethesda got bought by Microsoft and they're still just rereleasing Skyrim instead of actually making and polishing their games. All hail Godd Coward.
Never talk shit about tom howard or Skyrim those are the best games ever created
I will always talk shit about and blaspheme Skyrim. It is a boring, painfully average game without a crap-ton of mods saving it and didn't need so many rereleases. Todd Howard will doom us all to drown in a modless Skyrim if not exorcised. Not even Billiam Gates and his Benjamin army can stop him alone.
Skyrim is the Minecraft of rpgs you can do whatever you want and if you can't install mods
Sony has been wanting to get into the live service racket for some time now. Buying Activision's sloppy seconds 
Sony has been wanting to get into the live service racket for some time now. Buying Activision's sloppy seconds
If I was Sony, I'd go to the Health clinic for a check up. Bungie's been in bed with a lot of companies.
The Acquisition Wars are well under way.
Nah, there are much larger companies than ms, like tencent, Amazon, and google