Microsoft buys Activision Blizzard

[Lambach]

Kotick is a grade-A psychopath and an unimaginably greedy piece of shit that would sell his own mother's liver for a 0.01% bump in his stock price.

But he was still the only remotely rational and business-aware person in that entire shit-filled nuclear wasteland currently known as "Activision-Blizzard". Whoever replaces him is guaranteed to be an order of magnitude worse, at least, considering Act-Blizz is now under Microsoft.

 

[911 Jumper]

∆
Imagine working with these two

 

[Atlantico]

Imagine working with these two

Almost makes one feel for Bobby. Except he hired them, so fuck him.

 

[Black]

Kotick is a grade-A psychopath and an unimaginably greedy piece of shit that would sell his own mother's liver for a 0.01% bump in his stock price.

Can you shorten all of that to 3 letters or so?

 

[Gangrelrumbler]

Kotick is a grade-A psychopath and an unimaginably greedy piece of shit that would sell his own mother's liver for a 0.01% bump in his stock price.

Can you shorten all of that to 3 letters or so?

CEO?

 

[Cael]

∆
Imagine working with these two

Probably the reason why he threatened to kill them. When you have built something up from the ground up, and then watch as a bunch of dangerhairs do their best to destroy it... It might as well be them attempting to rape his firstborn in the ass. Multiple times.

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

Random employee of the support studio demands the head of the publisher that built the whole thing be fired. Very brave. Probably also didn’t happen Unless that person was demanding the person Bobby said he’d have killed should be fired. If it did happen, that seems like the kind of thing other employees would be telling people about later when they get home or go out to the bar with some friends.

The Overwatch 2 thing is funny. The game got shit because of the stupid shit the Overwatch 2 team did. So fuck them. But the the team wants more money because of their own fuck up? The funny thing is it seems like the only reason it’s on Steam is to make the Microsoft deal work, but some bitch is asking to spend more money to manage a community aspect that isn’t going to change even if you look into it. Just seems very stupid.

 

[Cael]

Random employee of the support studio demands the head of the publisher that built the whole thing be fired. Very brave. Probably also didn’t happen Unless that person was demanding the person Bobby said he’d have killed should be fired. If it did happen, that seems like the kind of thing other employees would be telling people about later when they get home or go out to the bar with some friends.

The Overwatch 2 thing is funny. The game got shit because of the stupid shit the Overwatch 2 team did. So fuck them. But the the team wants more money because of their own fuck up? The funny thing is it seems like the only reason it’s on Steam is to make the Microsoft deal work, but some bitch is asking to spend more money to manage a community aspect that isn’t going to change even if you look into it. Just seems very stupid.

"Stupid" inadequately describes woketards.

 

[IDtenT]

∆
Imagine working with these two

The industry is ripe for a collapse. These kinds of people are just way too entitled for earning 0.1% salaries.

 

[Bester]

If a troon says something weird, it's okay to disregard entirely. Mentally ill people will say, imagine and do all kinds of stuff.

Begged for "more info"? Whom did you beg, what info? This guy can't even articulate basic thoughts in 2 sentences.
Also, worrying about being review bombed due to product specifics is not your job. You're not the CEO. Let Kotik worry, you stupid fuck. This is not your company and you can't even read financial reports.
Review bombed, boo hoo, cry me a river. A million people play it monthly.

 

[911 Jumper]

Some kind of collapse is the only way these people are going to be pushed out. It's why I no longer care about reversing the video game decline or whatever people are calling it these days.

 

[FreshCorpse]

I wouldn't hold your breath waiting for a "collapse". AAA development might shrink a bit, but mostly through natural attrition as studios (largely their financiers) choose not to move forward with so many projects. But no 1983-style crash.

Random pissed off employees narrating their shitty lives on twitter will continue to have 0 value regardless. I genuinely wonder why they bother. The combination of all accusations against Bobby Kotick so far have amounted to: not a lot. He was probably a prick a lot of the time and - shocker - he occasionally lost his temper and behaved badly. But you have to marvel at the sheer willpower required to believe that he is resigning due to the various accusations. The man is 60 years old and presumably now a billionaire a few times over. He's going to want to spend more time with that money instead of shovelling the shit as a mid-tier boss at Microsoft.

For good measure, my thoughts on the acquisition: Microsoft often improve the stuff they acquire. I feel like they've grossly overpaid in this deal but probably the next 10 years will find Activision Blizzard getting - mostly - back on the right track.

 

[Late Bloomer]

Too big to fail. Gaming is sucking up the money out of far to many people for anything to happen. Most people love the goyslop that is pushed out.

 

[FreshCorpse]

Too big to fail. Gaming is sucking up the money out of far to many people for anything to happen. Most people love the goyslop that is pushed out.

I mean what the fuck does TBTF mean in this context? Electronic Arts are viewed as Systemically Important and the federal reserve will organise a bailout should they have solvency troubles? Middlebrow penis energy imo

 

[Late Bloomer]

Too big to fail. Gaming is sucking up the money out of far to many people for anything to happen. Most people love the goyslop that is pushed out.

I mean what the fuck does TBTF mean in this context? Electronic Arts are viewed as Systemically Important and the federal reserve will organise a bailout should they have solvency troubles? Middlebrow penis energy imo

It sounds like you agree... These companies will never go under. They could release failure after failure and still be ok. They all have their cash cow series and people will buy them over and over again. They all have their investors and they will keep investing. They are too big to fail.

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

They can’t release failure after failure and be OK.

If they started releasing failures there’s likely be a rethink about how they’re doing thing. They probably should have a rethink about how they’re doing things. There’s no reason Diablo games should have development cycles that go on for around a decade. The current Diablo model makes little sense. They seem to have gotten this stupid idea in their head that the lifecycle of a Diablo game should be something like what Diablo 2 had, where they can then sell extra shit over the course of a decade...actually a little more than a decade. But they could likely be releasing smaller Diablo games, that cost them vastly less to produce, and doing it every three to four years and still get the same kind of sales they go with Diablo 3 and Diablo 4. Nobody wants to wait more than ten years for a sequel, and nobody wants a shit game to be the new version for the next decade. The publisher should really not want to be stuck in a shit game for that long, that’s how you lose a whole generation.

 

[Cael]

Too big to fail. Gaming is sucking up the money out of far to many people for anything to happen. Most people love the goyslop that is pushed out.

I mean what the fuck does TBTF mean in this context? Electronic Arts are viewed as Systemically Important and the federal reserve will organise a bailout should they have solvency troubles? Middlebrow penis energy imo

It sounds like you agree... These companies will never go under. They could release failure after failure and still be ok. They all have their cash cow series and people will buy them over and over again. They all have their investors and they will keep investing. They are too big to fail.

Not even Disney is too big to fail.

 

[Tehdagah]

If a troon says something weird, it's okay to disregard entirely. Mentally ill people will say, imagine and do all kinds of stuff.

Begged for "more info"? Whom did you beg, what info? This guy can't even articulate basic thoughts in 2 sentences.
Also, worrying about being review bombed due to product specifics is not your job. You're not the CEO. Let Kotik worry, you stupid fuck. This is not your company and you can't even read financial reports.
Review bombed, boo hoo, cry me a river. A million people play it monthly.

The top negative reviews are pretty stupid, like a guy saying nothing about the game and posting the picture of a cat. These kind of reviews should be immediately counted as review-bombing and deleted.

 

[Late Bloomer]

What are the names of some big AAA producing game companies that have gone under in the last 10-15 years? Or longer really. Name game companies that are big, failed, and went bankrupt never to be heard from again.

 

[Cat Headed Eagle]

CEOs making things worse is nothing new in software development. It's a mantra that you repeat, the client knows nothing about tech, let alone programming. Bobby Kotick is just Mr. Moneybags in this case. His priority is the product, as a commercial token. Not the quality of it. His goals are money oriented. You might think this is retarded, but if you do, you're a communist.

 

[FreshCorpse]

Too big to fail. Gaming is sucking up the money out of far to many people for anything to happen. Most people love the goyslop that is pushed out.

I mean what the fuck does TBTF mean in this context? Electronic Arts are viewed as Systemically Important and the federal reserve will organise a bailout should they have solvency troubles? Middlebrow penis energy imo

It sounds like you agree... These companies will never go under. They could release failure after failure and still be ok. They all have their cash cow series and people will buy them over and over again. They all have their investors and they will keep investing. They are too big to fail.

That is not what TBTF means

 

[abija]

They can’t release failure after failure and be OK.

If they started releasing failures there’s likely be a rethink about how they’re doing thing. They probably should have a rethink about how they’re doing things. There’s no reason Diablo games should have development cycles that go on for around a decade. The current Diablo model makes little sense. They seem to have gotten this stupid idea in their head that the lifecycle of a Diablo game should be something like what Diablo 2 had, where they can then sell extra shit over the course of a decade...actually a little more than a decade. But they could likely be releasing smaller Diablo games, that cost them vastly less to produce, and doing it every three to four years and still get the same kind of sales they go with Diablo 3 and Diablo 4. Nobody wants to wait more than ten years for a sequel, and nobody wants a shit game to be the new version for the next decade. The publisher should really not want to be stuck in a shit game for that long, that’s how you lose a whole generation.

Despite the success of D2, diablo has never been a priority at Blizzard. Nothing was after WoW got big. Both D3 and D4 took this long because of development hell not intention. D4 was literally pushed out of the door with a team that barely has any idea about the genre.

If D2 team didn't leave, you would have probably got shorter cycles and better games. But they did and Diablo was left to a company with almost no idea what it is about and not enough interest. Maybe if Kotick had been in charge earlier D2 would have gotten the CoD treatment.

 

[Elttharion]

∆
Imagine working with these two

Kotick is an asshole but there is zero chance that gaming gets better once he leaves. Otoh he helped enable, hire and promote freaks like that so fuck him. I wonder who gamers will blame once Acti and Blizz games continue to be mtx ridden and utter crap.

 

[abija]

Microsoft as an entity is way more scummy than Activision ever was. Plenty to blame.

 

[911 Jumper]

∆
Imagine working with these two

Kotick is an asshole but there is zero chance that gaming gets better once he leaves. Otoh he helped enable, hire and promote freaks like that so fuck him. I wonder who gamers will blame once Acti and Blizz games continue to be mtx ridden and utter crap.

Yep, I agree. I don't see things getting better. While not quite yet as “progressive” as PlayStation, Xbox is on the same path. They promoted Sarah Bond, who has been the leader of Microsoft’s Diversity & Inclusion Initiative as well as executive sponsor of Blacks @ Microsoft Employee Resource Group, to the role of President of Xbox.

A woman named Jill Braff is now Head of Studio for Zenimax Online and Bethesda Game Studios. And who can forget Xbox's decision to install Bonnie Ross at 343, a studio responsible for Xbox's flagship franchise.

With more “progressive” women leading, and more diversity hires filling this industry, I've accepted that the decline is likely to continue and there's no point hoping things are going to improve. The ideologies that these people live by will be reflected in the games that they produce. All you can really do is avoid giving them your money.