Microsoft buys Activision Blizzard

[DeepOcean]

My problem with Gamepass is that it changes pricing power from the developer to Microsoft that can do what the fuck it wants. Nowadays any game that wants to be on steam is in there and can charge as much as the developers want for it. With gamepass, Microsoft controls developer revenues directly what gives them alot of leverage.

Now imagine that all those people that buy games and dont get past the first act, now, dont need to impulse buy games on steam anymore? You know, the guy that bought a game and didnt finish Act 1 paid the same as the guy that played 1000 hs, I doubt Microsoft would keep things working like thist as it doesnt benefit their interests that is keeping people playing and they wont pay for an indie dev the equivalent of a full sale for a guy that played 30 mins of it.

 

[:Flash:]

I give this a 0% chance of making it past antitrust.

I'm not even going to pay attention to this gig. NVIDIA buying ARM was the last big deal like this, and this seems like an even more clear cut case of antitrust.

There's no point speculating about what Microsoft will do, it's going to be an 18 month antitrust review followed by a denial.

Short Activision.

When was the last time antitrust blocked anything? In the 90s? Having Megacoroporations is seen as geopolitically relevant nowadays. It's better to have the international megacorporation in your own country than in a competing one.
All they have to do is say "you don't want gaming to be owned by the Japanese and the Chinese, do you?", and they'll get an extra billion in subsidies as a support for this merger.

NVIDIA ARM is being blocked. That's my read on the direction of antitrust.

But ARM is a UK company, and it's being blocked by the UK. The UK not wanting to lose its only chip manufacturer of importance does not disprove my point of antitrust being only important as a geopolitical concept. US antitrust would never have blocked the acquisition of ARM.

 

[FreeKaner]

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/...ed-to-leave-once-microsoft-deal-closes-report

He is being discarded now that his job to devalue and destabilize is done, just a loose end for microsoft.

 

[Zarniwoop]

MS just buying everything is worrysome.

Literally what MS has been doing since the dawn of time (or since the dawn of Microsoft at least). They did it before it was cool.

Obligatory:

The good old days, when Bill was still thinking small, happy to dominate the global software market.

 

[Zarniwoop]

My problem with Gamepass is that it changes pricing power from the developer to Microsoft that can do what the fuck it wants. Nowadays any game that wants to be on steam is in there and can charge as much as the developers want for it. With gamepass, Microsoft controls developer revenues directly what gives them alot of leverage.

Not a problem since Microsoft IS a lot of the developers now and will soon be all of them.

Their technological distinctiveness will be added to the Microsoft collective. Resistance is futile.

 

[1451]

WTFBBQ.

Who is going to buy Steam? M$ or Dizney?

No, Valve is a privately held company and Gabe Newell, its CEO, wants to keep it that way: TIL that Valve refuses to become a publicly traded company because they don't want to have their products influenced by people who fund them

 

[Van-d-all]

That isn't what Epic thinks. In the leaked apple court documents they state that M$ and Valve have a very friendly relationship and Newell and Spencer have frequent meetings.

Epic spouting delusional nonsense is a common fact though.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

If Valve and Microsoft had a friendly relationship they wouldn't have spent the past 5 years doing everything they can to create a backup plan & deterrence for Microsoft shitting on them.

 

[RobotSquirrel]

just a loose end for microsoft.

Boby Kotic didn't kill himself. heh

 

[Gibson]

the sad thing abiut this is, that people are actually looking at Microsoft as a savior (of sorts) of Blizzard and their Portfolio.
blizzard has sunken so low, that Microsoft, yes Microsoft!!, is seen as this good company that's about to turn the whole thing around and cater to gamers.

 

[Hobo Elf]

My problem with Gamepass is that it changes pricing power from the developer to Microsoft that can do what the fuck it wants. Nowadays any game that wants to be on steam is in there and can charge as much as the developers want for it. With gamepass, Microsoft controls developer revenues directly what gives them alot of leverage.

How is this any different than what publishers do now? They've always been in charge of developer revenue unless you're indie.

Now imagine that all those people that buy games and dont get past the first act, now, dont need to impulse buy games on steam anymore? You know, the guy that bought a game and didnt finish Act 1 paid the same as the guy that played 1000 hs, I doubt Microsoft would keep things working like thist as it doesnt benefit their interests that is keeping people playing and they wont pay for an indie dev the equivalent of a full sale for a guy that played 30 mins of it.

We don't know what kind of contracts developers have with Microsoft concerning the gamepass. But so far anything that's on gamepass can also sold elsewhere therefore we can count the gamepass as extra revenue for the developers rather than a constraint.

 

[Bohrain]

WTFBBQ.

Who is going to buy Steam? M$ or Dizney?

No, Valve is a privately held company and Gabe Newell, its CEO, wants to keep it that way: TIL that Valve refuses to become a publicly traded company because they don't want to have their products influenced by people who fund them

For now at least. Apparently Gaben's son has zero interest in the company and if he inherits it he'll probably sell it to fund his racing career.

 

[Lagole Gon]

Say what you will about Bobby Kotick.

He was 100% right about Tim Schafer and his Double Fine faggots.

 

[Hag]

the sad thing abiut this is, that people are actually looking at Microsoft as a savior (of sorts) of Blizzard and their Portfolio.
blizzard has sunken so low, that Microsoft, yes Microsoft!!, is seen as this good company that's about to turn the whole thing around and cater to gamers.

The amount and quality of PR done by Microsoft since Satya Nadella is astounding. Gates was despised (if kind of respected) by every actor in the sector and Microsoft was the de-facto name for ruthless stomping business practice (even creating the successful "M$" nick that everybody recognizes). Ballmer was seen as a clown and there was good hopes he would drive Microsoft to the ground. Don't know how much is true. Enters Nadella, and within a few years Microsoft is everybody's best friend and no longer a slur.

 

[Tacgnol]

WTFBBQ.

Who is going to buy Steam? M$ or Dizney?

No, Valve is a privately held company and Gabe Newell, its CEO, wants to keep it that way: TIL that Valve refuses to become a publicly traded company because they don't want to have their products influenced by people who fund them

For now at least. Apparently Gaben's son has zero interest in the company and if he inherits it he'll probably sell it to fund his racing career.

Gabe will probably just pass it to one of the other veterans when he wants to retire.

Robin Walker is often said to be his likely successor if he retires in the near future.

 

[Zarniwoop]

the sad thing abiut this is, that people are actually looking at Microsoft as a savior (of sorts) of Blizzard and their Portfolio.
blizzard has sunken so low, that Microsoft, yes Microsoft!!, is seen as this good company that's about to turn the whole thing around and cater to gamers.

The amount and quality of PR done by Microsoft since Satya Nadella is astounding. Gates was despised (if kind of respected) by every actor in the sector and Microsoft was the de-facto name for ruthless stomping business practice (even creating the successful "M$" nick that everybody recognizes). Ballmer was seen as a clown and there was good hopes he would drive Microsoft to the ground. Don't know how much is true. Enters Nadella, and within a few years Microsoft is everybody's best friend and no longer a slur.

Wait until people actually start using the cancer that is Windows 11, we'll see if they're still a fan of the Poo-American.

 

[Daedalos]

Pretty sure this was a good move by Microsoft.

I can't really get any worse for Blizzard anyway, so yeah, Microsoft is gonna clean shit up, and BOBBY is definitely gonna get fucking fired for sure.

69 billion tho.. wtf.

hopefully this will course-correct the blizzard franchises... hopefully.

 

[J_C]

My problem with Gamepass is that it changes pricing power from the developer to Microsoft that can do what the fuck it wants. Nowadays any game that wants to be on steam is in there and can charge as much as the developers want for it. With gamepass, Microsoft controls developer revenues directly what gives them alot of leverage.

Now imagine that all those people that buy games and dont get past the first act, now, dont need to impulse buy games on steam anymore? You know, the guy that bought a game and didnt finish Act 1 paid the same as the guy that played 1000 hs, I doubt Microsoft would keep things working like thist as it doesnt benefit their interests that is keeping people playing and they wont pay for an indie dev the equivalent of a full sale for a guy that played 30 mins of it.

That is 100% is the case. But indie games are not affected by this, since they are created by 5-10 person studios which are not on Gamepass. And if MS wants to screw over big companies, all the power to them.

 

[Duraframe300]

Anyone already made an Arcanum joke?

 

[rusty_shackleford]

and BOBBY is definitely gonna get fucking fired for sure.

One of the most successful CEOs in human history. Kotick bought Activision for $500,000.
I'm sure he's devastated by the returns he's gotten, you guys really showed him.

 

[Caim]

Gotta love the diversity with only two black people in the image, and I'm not even sure about the guy in the front and left, who might just be an American. The other guy's left of the black D&D shirt guy in the back.

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

Well it took Microsoft a long time, but they finally got some mascot characters in Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon. It's funny to think they now own some PSX era Sony mascots.

This could actually be a good thing. Now Microsoft owns Call of Duty, Halo, Overwatch, Doom, and whatever open world FPS Bethesda is putting out at the moment...they also own Quake, Wolfenstein, whatever FPS Arkane is doing at the moment, and while they haven't done anything with it directly lately they own MechWarrior too. Now that's a lot of first person shooters. And you might not want to be releasing, say, your big new Call of Duty right along side your big new Halo and your big new Doom. So maybe, maybe Call of Duty isn't a every year release anymore. And if Call of Duty isn't coming out every year anyone there's not any reason to have three main studios making the games with like two or three other studios cycling on backup work. So maybe this means Raven Software gets to make games again. Maybe those Dead Space guys at Sledgehammer get to do something beyond CoD now. It's only too bad this couldn't have happened like in 2009 before Activision went kill crazy on a bunch of developers.

Interesting development. Microsoft seems to be buying all video game developers.

Can someone explain how Arcanum was bought by Acti-Blizz?

Sierra was the publisher. Sierra was owned by Vivendi Games (formally Vivendi Universal) who also owned Blizzard. In 2008 Vivendi G and Activision merged and formed Activison Blizzard.

So they own all the old Sierra stuff now like Kings Quest, Police Quest, and Gabriel Knight.

What are the chances of Sony following suit with Japanese companies? Their just lost future CoDs after losing future Bethesda games. Acquiring Square Enix would for example give them all their popular JRPG IPs plus few viable Eidos IPs like Tomb Raider.

I'd guess zero. Sony Interactive shifted its focus to the west during the PS4 era, and just last year shut down Japan Studio. Although Japan Studio people were leaving before that; like that Silent Hill guy that'd been doing the Gravity Rush games recently already has a new independent studio and is making that Slitterhead game.

It seems more likely some other big Japanese company like Bandai Namco would do that. I'd actually expect Microsoft to throw money around like that in Japan more than Sony at this point. There was also that rumor last year Microsoft was buying Sega, which was something they were thinking about doing when they first entered the console market.

 

[Daedalos]

and BOBBY is definitely gonna get fucking fired for sure.

One of the most successful CEOs in human history. Kotick bought Activision for $500,000.
I'm sure he's devastated by the returns he's gotten, you guys really showed him.

I don't care if hes stinking rich, what I care about is the product. make good games, and u can earn trillions of dollars for all I care. just make good fucking games. that all I ask.

something good ol BOBBY wasnt able to see through.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

and BOBBY is definitely gonna get fucking fired for sure.

One of the most successful CEOs in human history. Kotick bought Activision for $500,000.
I'm sure he's devastated by the returns he's gotten, you guys really showed him.

I don't care if hes stinking rich, what I care about is the product. make good games, and u can earn trillions of dollars for all I care. just make good fucking games. that all I ask.

something good ol BOBBY wasnt able to see through.

the games his company made were good enough to be the most expensive video game company acquisition in history

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

I give this a 0% chance of making it past antitrust.

I'm not even going to pay attention to this gig. NVIDIA buying ARM was the last big deal like this, and this seems like an even more clear cut case of antitrust.

There's no point speculating about what Microsoft will do, it's going to be an 18 month antitrust review followed by a denial.

Short Activision.

When was the last time antitrust blocked anything? In the 90s? Having Megacoroporations is seen as geopolitically relevant nowadays. It's better to have the international megacorporation in your own country than in a competing one.
All they have to do is say "you don't want gaming to be owned by the Japanese and the Chinese, do you?", and they'll get an extra billion in subsidies as a support for this merger.

Yeah, the idea this gets blocked in antitrust is hilarious. If they didn't stop Disney from buying 21st Century Fox, they aren't stopping Microsoft from buying a video game company...which is a realm they seemingly have never given a shit about (despite all the money it makes) since video game companies owning their own digital storefronts sure seems a whole lot like the movie studios owning theatres thing they weren't allowed to do from 1948 - 2020. There's other giant video game studios, and Tencent is the largest video game studio in the world, they aren't stopping Microsoft from buying Activision.