Microsoft buys Activision Blizzard

[Morgoth]

Halo is just a shit manchild franchise that needs to die. If it wasn't for Xbox clinging so desperately to it and throwing tons of marketing chops at it, this shit game would have died after Halo CE.

 

[kangaxx]

Basically use the power of being a unwieldy corporate behemoth to do some good and get rid of some of these shit companies.

All this accomplishes is that instead of 6-7 massive companies dominating the market you'll end up with just 2 supermassive behemoths doing the same.

Cowadooty won't stop having yearly iterations for the rest of eternity even if Activision gets absorbed into an even larger Borg hivemind that now has even less of a reason to care about putting out a good game because it has less competition.

Functionally what difference does it make though? AAA gaming is already shit... I'm all for accelerationism and forcing more people to AA or lower. Maybe with a bit more cash aimed at them we'll hit another sweet spot, until the cycle repeats.

 

[HereticGuy]

Halo is just a shit manchild franchise that needs to die. If it wasn't for Xbox clinging so desperately to it and throwing tons of marketing chops at it, this shit game would have died after Halo CE.

People were talking about how awesome Halo is, so out of curiosity I installed the demo version in 2003 and hated it (except main menu theme). Obviously it made for kids, it was impossible to take serious these cute aliens -compare them with Quake 2's Stroggs, an another SCI-FI enemy type- . And it was badly optimized for PCs, system requirements was way higher than it needed to be for that piece of crap. Gameplay was the granddad of Call of Duty illness... Sadly, that was the future of gaming. About a half year later we'll recieve a fucked up Thief game beause of X-Box

 

[Caim]

They’ll soon have Infinity Ward, Sledgehammer Games, High Moon Studios, Treyarch, and Raven Software all under their roof. I wouldn’t be surprised if the next Halo gets handed off to one of them...one of them that isn’t Infinity Ward anyways, they seem to be back to being the top CoD developer again.

If they gave it to Bethesda it’d be id or Arkane making it. Most likely Arkane because I’m sure they want a new Doom. It would be interesting if they just gave Halo to Tango Gameworks, and essentially just let Shinji Mikami use the name to make Vanquish 2. Vanquish, like Halo, also started out with RTS stuff; would be interesting to see them go back and put that in.

Vanquish 2 with Master Chief would be one hell of a ride, especially if they crank up the ridiculousness to the point of Platinum Games' other works.

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

Halo, at least those original Halo games Bungie made, don’t even kind of play or feel like Call of Duty. Someone saying Halo is the granddaddy of Call of Duty sounds as fucking stupid as someone saying Quake 3 Arena and Unreal Tournament were the granddaddy of Halo. I mean, I guess Halo is the forbearer in so far as there’s a first person view and you shoot things with guns. Halo and Call of Duty are basically diametrically opposed to each other; part of Halo’s whole deal was large open stage where you could jump into different vehicles to fight.

I’m a little surprised nobody ever went back to the original Halo when looking for things to do. Back when they were first showing it off on PC they were talking about multiplayer having 40 players, 20 vs 20 teams matches. I get why they’d pare that back when moving to the original Xbox while also upgrading the look of the game...but somewhere along the way 40 player multiplayer should’ve been doable.

 

[J1M]

It's almost as if quarterly reports happen at the same time each year.

 

[Cross]

Halo, at least those original Halo games Bungie made, don’t even kind of play or feel like Call of Duty. Someone saying Halo is the granddaddy of Call of Duty sounds as fucking stupid as someone saying Quake 3 Arena and Unreal Tournament were the granddaddy of Halo. I mean, I guess Halo is the forbearer in so far as there’s a first person view and you shoot things with guns. Halo and Call of Duty are basically diametrically opposed to each other

Halo is a military shooter which popularized mechanics such as slow movement, a 2-weapon limit and regenerating health, which Call of Duty (and countless other shooters) would later borrow. It being a futuristic space military instead of a contemporary military doesn't change that. Both Halo and Call of Duty focus heavily on military themes during their story campaigns, another marked departure from shooters that came before.

part of Halo’s whole deal was large open stage where you could jump into different vehicles to fight.

Other military shooters have vehicles as well.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

halo is one of the most overrated games ever, also harbinger of most of the objective decline like corridor maps and regenerating shields.

 

[Victor1234]

Halo, at least those original Halo games Bungie made, don’t even kind of play or feel like Call of Duty. Someone saying Halo is the granddaddy of Call of Duty sounds as fucking stupid as someone saying Quake 3 Arena and Unreal Tournament were the granddaddy of Halo. I mean, I guess Halo is the forbearer in so far as there’s a first person view and you shoot things with guns. Halo and Call of Duty are basically diametrically opposed to each other

Halo is a military shooter which popularized mechanics such as slow movement, a 2-weapon limit and regenerating health, which Call of Duty (and countless other shooters) would later borrow. It being a futuristic space military instead of a contemporary military doesn't change that. Both Halo and Call of Duty focus heavily on military themes during their story campaigns, another marked departure from shooters that came before.

part of Halo’s whole deal was large open stage where you could jump into different vehicles to fight.

Other military shooters have vehicles as well.

What makes a shooter a military shooter? Is Wolfenstein 3D a military shooter too because you're a soldier? Medal of Honor (ie, the pre-Call of Duty) from 1999 also says hi and you can thank Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan for games starting to lean heavily on military themes (he had some input like writing or producing on MoH IIRC).

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

Halo, at least those original Halo games Bungie made, don’t even kind of play or feel like Call of Duty. Someone saying Halo is the granddaddy of Call of Duty sounds as fucking stupid as someone saying Quake 3 Arena and Unreal Tournament were the granddaddy of Halo. I mean, I guess Halo is the forbearer in so far as there’s a first person view and you shoot things with guns. Halo and Call of Duty are basically diametrically opposed to each other

Halo is a military shooter which popularized mechanics such as slow movement, a 2-weapon limit and regenerating health, which Call of Duty (and countless other shooters) would later borrow. It being a futuristic space military instead of a contemporary military doesn't change that. Both Halo and Call of Duty focus heavily on military themes during their story campaigns, another marked departure from shooters that came before.

part of Halo’s whole deal was large open stage where you could jump into different vehicles to fight.

Other military shooters have vehicles as well.

Halo is not a military shooter. This might actually be the first time I’ve ever even seen someone call Halo a military shooter. Seems about as stupid as someone calling Doom a military shooter.

Halo and Call of Duty are totally different styles of games. Halo is about large open environments, which are spotted with vehicles the player can take control of. CoD is about fighting in smaller environments, and I don’t think the series even had controllable vehicles until they added a Battle Royale mode in 2020...almost 20 years after Halo came out. Halo and CoD also feel completely different from one another.

The only thing CoD really takes from Halo is the regenerating health...which everyone seemed to do after the success of Halo.

Call of Duty is in a way a successor to Medal of Honor. It’s a series created by the leads that did Medal of Honor: Allied Assault.

I’m not really sure what your point is about the vehicles, but in 2001 when Halo came out, it was a fairly novel idea that a FPS let you jump into tanks, jeeps, and aircraft and continue fighting. Especially ones that didn’t feel like total shit to control. Hell, it was kind of a fairly novel idea in general; such a novel idea for a fully 3D game it also propelled GTA into a monumentally successful series with GTA3 the same year.

 

[Victor1234]

Halo, at least those original Halo games Bungie made, don’t even kind of play or feel like Call of Duty. Someone saying Halo is the granddaddy of Call of Duty sounds as fucking stupid as someone saying Quake 3 Arena and Unreal Tournament were the granddaddy of Halo. I mean, I guess Halo is the forbearer in so far as there’s a first person view and you shoot things with guns. Halo and Call of Duty are basically diametrically opposed to each other

Halo is a military shooter which popularized mechanics such as slow movement, a 2-weapon limit and regenerating health, which Call of Duty (and countless other shooters) would later borrow. It being a futuristic space military instead of a contemporary military doesn't change that. Both Halo and Call of Duty focus heavily on military themes during their story campaigns, another marked departure from shooters that came before.

part of Halo’s whole deal was large open stage where you could jump into different vehicles to fight.

Other military shooters have vehicles as well.

Halo is not a military shooter. This might actually be the first time I’ve ever even seen someone call Halo a military shooter. Seems about as stupid as someone calling Doom a military shooter.

Halo and Call of Duty are totally different styles of games. Halo is about large open environments, which are spotted with vehicles the player can take control of. CoD is about fighting in smaller environments, and I don’t think the series even had controllable vehicles until they added a Battle Royale mode in 2020...almost 20 years after Halo came out. Halo and CoD also feel completely different from one another.

The only thing CoD really takes from Halo is the regenerating health...which everyone seemed to do after the success of Halo.

Call of Duty is in a way a successor to Medal of Honor. It’s a series created by the leads that did Medal of Honor: Allied Assault.

I’m not really sure what your point is about the vehicles, but in 2001 when Halo came out, it was a fairly novel idea that a FPS let you jump into tanks, jeeps, and aircraft and continue fighting. Especially ones that didn’t feel like total shit to control. Hell, it was kind of a fairly novel idea in general; such a novel idea for a fully 3D game it also propelled GTA into a monumentally successful series with GTA3 the same year.

I agree with you about most of it except the vehicles part. Not only did Operation Flashpoint in 2001 revolutionize vehicles in FPS, but Hidden & Dangerous from 1999 also let you jump into vehicles and continue fighting like that. Most people just remember the 'fall through the invisible hole and die' type bugs but it was a real groundbreaking game. Codename Eagle was another eurojank FPS from 1999 featuring vehicle play. Goldeneye 007 from 1997 had a tank mission, etc.

I just remembered the 2 weapon thing is also not HALO. Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 1998 was like that (primary + secondary only), and obviously OFP in 2001 did as well.

 

[baud]

The first call of duty (in 2003) didn't had any regenerating health, so I don't think they copied that from Halo, more like followed the trend (especially on console) when they worked on 2

 

[lukaszek]

from what I can see halo was among the first to bring regenerating health and def the one to popularize it.
In slightly different timeline I wouldnt be able to have my fill of joy with cod1

 

[Curious_Tongue]

I have a feeling this won't be the first or last gaming company to do so.

2022 wasn't a great year for the gaming industry.

Well, Microsoft is more than just a gaming company.

Schreier’s framing in that tweet is pretty funny. It sure seems like he’s trying to spin that story as “Microsoft is trying to spend $65 billion over here, yet is firing these people over here because they presumably “can’t” pay them” when the two things are unrelated.

I wonder which framing of that story would get people on Twitter and ResetEra the most pretend outraged?

Microsoft Fires 10,000 Employees

or
Microsoft Fires Less Than 5% Of Employees

The total number of Microsoft employees has also gone up by like 77000 people since 2019.

343 Studios apparently got hit pretty hard, which isn't strange given how Halo Infinite was received.

The only thing that’s strange is Microsoft didn’t do something about 343 years ago. I wonder if when they get Activision Blizzard they just hand Halo off to one of the FPS studios they’ve got...wouldn’t totally surprise me if that happened.

​

Well Schreier is a flaming leftist/Marxist...

Well, you are a fucking idiot so your opinion is worthless.

Hitting a little too close for home eh, lmao

Morgoth has a history of defending AAA trash.



The old man on the paper was Morgoth's old profile picture.

 

[IDtenT]

Compare this stellar lineup with the sales numbers Sony is pushing, and it's apparent that MS is one step away from nuking their gaming division like they did a years ago.

Microsoft has Gamepass. They will not get rid of their gaming division.

 

[lukaszek]

Compare this stellar lineup with the sales numbers Sony is pushing, and it's apparent that MS is one step away from nuking their gaming division like they did a years ago.

Microsoft has Gamepass. They will not get rid of their gaming division.

one step away lol

 

[baud]

Compare this stellar lineup with the sales numbers Sony is pushing, and it's apparent that MS is one step away from nuking their gaming division like they did a years ago.

Microsoft has Gamepass. They will not get rid of their gaming division.

one step away lol

I'm surprised how they're making nearly as much money from Linkedin than from all of their gaming divisions... Though according to Wikipedia, Linkedin had a revenue of 10 B$ in 2021, no idea from where (and still operating at a loss, lmao)

 

[J1M]

Compare this stellar lineup with the sales numbers Sony is pushing, and it's apparent that MS is one step away from nuking their gaming division like they did a years ago.

Microsoft has Gamepass. They will not get rid of their gaming division.

one step away lol

I'm surprised how they're making nearly as much money from Linkedin than from all of their gaming divisions... Though according to Wikipedia, Linkedin had a revenue of 10 B$ in 2021, no idea from where (and still operating at a loss, lmao)

Employers and recruiters pay to use it as a hiring pipeline.

 

[baud]

Compare this stellar lineup with the sales numbers Sony is pushing, and it's apparent that MS is one step away from nuking their gaming division like they did a years ago.

Microsoft has Gamepass. They will not get rid of their gaming division.

one step away lol

I'm surprised how they're making nearly as much money from Linkedin than from all of their gaming divisions... Though according to Wikipedia, Linkedin had a revenue of 10 B$ in 2021, no idea from where (and still operating at a loss, lmao)

Employers and recruiters pay to use it as a hiring pipeline.

yes, I was just surprised it was THAT much money...

 

[J1M]

Compare this stellar lineup with the sales numbers Sony is pushing, and it's apparent that MS is one step away from nuking their gaming division like they did a years ago.

Microsoft has Gamepass. They will not get rid of their gaming division.

one step away lol

I'm surprised how they're making nearly as much money from Linkedin than from all of their gaming divisions... Though according to Wikipedia, Linkedin had a revenue of 10 B$ in 2021, no idea from where (and still operating at a loss, lmao)

Employers and recruiters pay to use it as a hiring pipeline.

yes, I was just surprised it was THAT much money...

Well, they charge $9000/year for a recruiter account. Unclear how much businesses pay to post jobs because they use a model where you pay per click and set thresholds of spending.

 

[lukaszek]

and still operating at a loss, lmao

this is ecosystem that is more than just sum of its parts. Paying a lot for azure is one way to siphon money towards headquarters

 

[whydoibother]

US Filed Microsoft-Activision Suit to Head Off EU Settlement​

• FTC lawsuit came hours after call with European counterparts
• Brussels officials indicated their intent to hold remedy talks
• Microsoft intends to propose a global remedy package to EU competition officials that would guarantee Sony Group Corp.’s PlayStation would continue to have access to the popular Call of Duty game for the next 10 years. Sony has so far rebuffed Microsoft’s offers. The Xbox maker has also entered into a deal to bring the game to Nintendo Co. and allow it to be sold by Valve Corp.’s PC gaming platform Steam. If EU officials accepted that remedy, which would apply globally, it could potentially undermine cases brought in the US or UK.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...sion-deal-to-head-off-eu-settlement#xj4y7vzkg

This anti-monopoly bargaining is literally Great Power politics. Oh, you get Serbia, so I must get Bosnia as compensation.

 

[EruDaan]

The industry is becoming worse and worse with every year. Soon there will be only two-three big corpos, peddling their equivalents of "gamepass".

The near future will be a mixture of "Nineteeneightyfour" (everything that once was a more or less genuine produrct of culture and society like movies, songs and art is cheaply made by machines, in our case "AI", and consoomed by the consumer class i.e. everyone) and Cyberpunk (massive world spanning corpos dictating everydays life)

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.videogameschronicle.com...ny-of-misleading-eu-over-call-of-duty-parity/

Microsoft accuses Sony of misleading EU over Call of Duty parity​

COMMS BOSS CLAIMS SIE IS “BRIEFING PEOPLE IN BRUSSELS CLAIMING MICROSOFT IS UNWILLING TO OFFER THEM PARITY”

Microsoft has accused Sony of misleading the EU regulator over its commitment to keeping Call of Duty on PlayStation, should its acquisition of Activision Blizzard be approved.

Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan reportedly met EU antitrust boss Margrethe Vestager this week to discuss its concerns over the rival console firm’s intentions.

And in a series of tweets published on Friday, Microsoft’s chief communications officer claimed SIE had misled regulators in Brussels over Xbox’s commitment to keeping Activision’s flagship FPS series on PlayStation.

“I hear Sony is briefing people in Brussels claiming Microsoft is unwilling to offer them parity for Call of Duty if we acquire Activision,” wrote Frank X. Shaw. “Nothing could be further from the truth.”

He added: “We’ve been clear we’ve offered Sony a 10 year deal to give them parity on timing, content, features, quality, playability, and any other aspect of the game. We’ve also said we’re happy to make this enforceable through a contract, regulatory agreements, or other means.

“Sony is the console market leader and it would defy business logic for us to exclude PlayStation gamers from the Call of Duty ecosystem.

“Our goal is to bring Call of Duty and other games – as we did with Minecraft – to more people around the world so they can play them where and how they want.”

What would be the games industry’s biggest ever deal by far has been met with fierce opposition from Sony and concerns from European, US and UK regulators.

In what would be the latest setback in the road to completing the deal, the EU is expected to issue Microsoft with a charge sheet setting out its concerns about the acquisition, Reuters reports.

It recently said Microsoft was hoping to offer remedies to EU regulators in an attempt to avert a statement of objections and shorten the regulatory process. However, it’s claimed the EU is not open to remedies without first sending out its charge sheet.

The US Federal Trade Commission recently sued Microsoft in a bid to block the acquisition, which the regulator argues would enable the company to “suppress competitors” to its Xbox console, subscription content and cloud gaming business.

Among other concerns, regulators have expressed worries that the deal could significantly reduce PlayStation’s ability to compete, given that it would see Microsoft gain ownership of the Call of Duty series, which Sony has called “irreplaceable”.

In a bid to address these concerns, Microsoft recently said it had offered Sony a 10-year, legally enforceable contract to make each new Call of Duty game available on PlayStation the same day it comes to Xbox.

 

[lukaszek]

cant wait for a wild spin where sony is forced to port its exclusives. Sort of like when mcdonald lost big mac trademark in EU