Microsoft to acquire Activision Blizzard for nearly $70 billion
Blizzard Entertainment, Vicarious Visions, Infinity Ward, King, Raven Software, and more will fall under leadership of Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer.
Today marks another major day in the way of video game industry business and deals. Microsoft has announced it will be acquiring the entirety of Activision Blizzard and all studios that fall under it. The deal is said to be in its final stages and will see Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer take over leadership of all Activision Blizzard properties once complete. The deal is said to be valued at around $70 billion USD.
The deal was officially announced by Microsoft via the Xbox Twitter account on January 18, 2022. In a blog post written by Phil Spencer on Xbox Wire, he announced that he would taking over the helm of Activision Blizzard as it becomes part of Microsoft Gaming. The deal encompasses all Activision Blizzard studios, including Activision Publishing, Blizzard Entertainment, Beenox, Demonware, Digital Legends, High Moon Studios, Infinity Ward, King, Major League Gaming, Radical Entertainment, Raven Software, Sledgehammer Games, Toys for Bob, and Treyarch. Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard is said to be valued at around $68.7 billion, according to Bloomberg’s Dina Bass.
Alongside the great people of Activision Blizzard, we will welcome legendary franchises such as:
— Xbox (@Xbox) January 18, 2022
@PlayOverwatch @Diablo @CallofDuty @Warcraft @CandyCrushSaga @Starcraft
…and many more!
The deal follows up on, and is substantially more costly than, Microsoft’s acquisition of Bethesda last year, which was closed at a value of $7.5 billion. It also follows closely on the heels of Phil Spencer condemning Activision Blizzard for its continued negligence towards its employees in an ongoing lawsuit from California, including the poor response to a recent walkout for sudden layoffs at Raven Software QA. There is no word on whether or not current and problematic Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick or the current executive board will stay on once the deal is complete.
With Activision Blizzard falling under the Microsoft Gaming umbrella, the Xbox ecosystem is about to get that much larger and one of Microsoft’s first orders of business is to move that library into its Game Pass program. As we await the closure of this deal, stay tuned for further updates and details on the ongoing story.
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replyTJ Denzer posted a new article, Microsoft to acquire Activision Blizzard for nearly $70 billion
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He would still walk away with unimaginably large piles of cash but still.
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ATVI market cap is $50 billion, the buyout offer is $70 BILLION https://twitter.com/dinabass/status/1483429766736666626?s=21
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It depends on your definition of relevant, but off the top of my head, these are currently multiplatform publishers or studios and their FPS or RPG franchises that have released to some level of sales/acclaim/anticipation.
Ubisoft (Far Cry), EA (Battlefield, if it didn't commit suicide last year, Apex Legends, Bioware RPGs), CDProjekt (Witcher, Cyberpunk), Larian (Divinity, Baldur's Gate 3), Valve (I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt that they'll release a game someday), Take Two is making a Bioshock sequel... Having trouble thinking of any more.
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Puts this article from November in a new light lol: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-11-18/xbox-chief-says-he-s-evaluating-relationship-with-activision
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That's wild if that's true.
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Okay so if this happens, do you think it'll be more or less than the Zynga deal? Which I think is the highest one yet. 12.7b.
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Oh its much much bigger: https://twitter.com/dinabass/status/1483429766736666626?s=21
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I thought Ubisoft is adding their stuff Gamepass as well via their plan like EA's soon.
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Take Two Interactive
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$70B to fire Bobby Kotick? I'm in.
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There's no way he's there permanently.
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I’d bet good money he is out as soon as they are legally able, once the deal closes. Admittedly that could be a while from now (6-12 months?).
There is no reason to keep him around. Nothing about the way he and Activision leadership have been running their business fits Microsoft’s culture or brand IMO. Business-wise I don’t think he would bring any relationships MS doesn’t already have or could easily build themselves. He’s radioactive and will be out, MS won’t care how much they might have to pay him. -
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Yes, he’ll suddenly leave to spend more time avoiding his family.
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It will be very interesting to see how it plays out.
I’m strongly on the side that he’ll be there for a while after the deal is approved. I also think he will vie for a place on the board of either Xbox or MSFT and he’ll leave at his own discretion.
But even if MSFT kicks him out sooner with that golden parachute, what it will mostly show is how much or how little Xbox/MSFT feels their plans are well enough in effect without their customer base and talent base’s support. That’s the real key to watch, as it indicates how successful their view of the business plan is and how consumer oriented the management will be going forward.
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https://twitter.com/jasonschreier/status/1483432118441099266?s=21
Not unless this statement is a way of letting him save face -
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That is a lot of money for a Cosby room.
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Probably not.
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MS has wanted GP on Playstation very badly. If this is how they’re going to force it then this is how they do it. CoD is the biggest thing on Playstation and I think the only thing that’s anywhere close is GTA5 online. Imagine being given that choice of allowing Game Pass or no CoD
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They'll revive Killzone I think before they do that.
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que fools arguing yes
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Damn, official done deal from Phil Spencer? https://twitter.com/XboxP3/status/1483431362094796800
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I can't see it happening, nobody has stopped Disney eating anything yet, and the gaming market is vastly more dynamic and competitive than the film market.
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that's what people are reporting yeah
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Fucking hell.. didn't see that one coming.
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https://www.pcgamer.com/microsoft-will-acquire-activision-blizzard/
I hope they fire Bobby Kotick as their first action.-
Nope!
"Bobby Kotick will continue to serve as CEO of Activision Blizzard, and he and his team will maintain their focus on driving efforts to further strengthen the company's culture and accelerate business growth. Once the deal closes, the Activision Blizzard business will report to Phil Spencer, CEO, Microsoft Gaming."-
Yeah but you kind of have to say that at the moment.
I would not bet against him being gone in the near future after they complete some of the internal transitions and knowledge transfer, etc. -
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"without cause OR with good reason" and the payout is the same? amazing.
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But…. Does this mean we won’t get Diablo 4 on PS5?
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I'm sure all massive IP will continue to be multiplatform just like Bethesda RPGs...is what they have to say until the deal finalizes
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They would be stupid not to! I don't care who owns it, just give me my Diablos!
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Holy shit.
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68 BILLION??????
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Oh wow
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WTF. I do actual work for 30 minutes and come back and this huge news drops.
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Don’t think they’d change anything in terms of output. In terms of the treatment of personnel, I’d certainly hope so, but in terms of games MS has been very hands off with their acquisitions the last couple of years.
They buy companies with long established track records and let them do their thing, very different from the old days when they’d buy less mature studios, try to nudge them where they thought they should be, and it ended up a mess.-
Bethesda already giving noises that they have extra time to ship games, which I think has been a problem with both them and Activision. But yes in terms of treatment of personnel MS is very aware they have a good reputation that side, there's no way they won't force changes through at Blizzard / Activision. And I do think that's better for gamers long term. Plus games will stay on PC as well.
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Those games were always going to be on PC.
We’re watching continued consolidation and monopolization as fewer and fewer entities have more and more of the pie. Whether this is a convenient thing for people with Game Pass (it is), its also broadly symptomatic of concentration of power and influence which isn’t so great. It is inevitable though, so oh well!
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Kinda wonder if they might revamp overwatch, get rid of the 2 and kinda come forward with a new plan to make it F2P and sell skins or something.
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Not a chance, the scope is way too big to drop, not to mention all of the new players they’d bring into the PvE section of the game. Its basically their Destiny 2.
It’ll be on Game Pass either way, plus the PvP is the same OW2 content for everyone who bought the original game even if they don’t buy OW2.
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Nah, Blizzard is never going to get back to where it was, before it was acquired. Maybe Microsoft's ownership will shine a light on bad behaving employees & make it more likely that they'll be forced out -- but I'm not holding my breath.
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Im optimistic about the Blizzard IPs here, that said not thrilled with the exclusives. It doesnt affect me but if you own a PS5 and like Call of Duty this is a pretty big bummer and I hate that for the others that enjoy this hobby.l
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Sounds like they reevaluated their relationship and decided to just buy the whole fucking thing.
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Best reaction I have seen. https://twitter.com/SwiftOnSecurity/status/1483435071243788288
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They'll probably just buy Sony next. These tech companies have such deep cash reserves right now.
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Hopefully not, but it wouldn't surprise me. A one console future can't be good for consumers.
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haha Kaz is back? https://twitter.com/KazHiraiCEO/status/1483438540453289985
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Please never quit never quitting
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The king speaks: https://twitter.com/kazhiraiceo/status/1483438540453289985?s=21
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This is actually pretty cool. I can play diablo 3 again knowing I'm not supporting Kotick and co.
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This is as good as time to repost this as anytime.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuHqUpleIfA -
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Nintendo is like ~$60B do it next
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No, please no. I love Xbox but competition is good.
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That would be bad! AB was already doing multiplatform titles. Part of Nintendo's success and charm is them owning the software and hardware experience.
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Japan has become more .... I'm at a loss for the word, I'm not sure if national is right... Basically they don't want foreign influence in their country. If you're old enough, you may remember back in the late 70s and 80s it seemed Japan was going to own much of the US. Then you stopped hearing as much and it moved more to China is going to own us, and that's still kind of true today. Japan has turned more inward and doesn't want as much external influence.... Ugh, there's a word for this, but it's escaping me completely. Kyoto is smaller than Tokyo, and less western, so going to be even more against western influence
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Yep, I took a few years of Japanese in university. Mostly to watch anime, but they only offered 2 years, which wasn't nearly enough. There are so many cultural aspects to learn that just learning the spoken language isn't enough. How many forms of please/excuse me are there?
shitsurei shimasu is a perfect example.
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Anheuser-Busch can suck it!
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So chances are Sony will think about that gamepass on playstation offer again? Because between elder scrolls, cod, star field, fallout, doom and bunch of other shit it looks like they will be paying rockstar/capcom and co a ton of money for timed exclusives to be relevant.
Ms even has a partnership with sega going. -
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Yeah, it's going to look like Starz vs HBO Max or something
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Sony won’t be pivoting from their first party studios to mass acquisitions, with or without a competitive subscription service.
They’ll make PS+ better for sure but there’s still going to be a limit in terms of what’s offered because of their different strategies. Sony is not in the business of spending $100 billion in the course of a year on studio/publisher acquisitions. :) -
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My point is that is easier for MS to do that than Sony. PlayStation is one third of the revenue of the whole company, they are not in the same position financially to compete at the same level on a similar subscription service, so that's why I don't think it's realistic to expect something of the same calibre as Gamepass from them, but we'll see.
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Honest question: is "metaverse" 2020 leetspeak for a VR server?
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Metaverse : 2020s = Multimedia : 1990s
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I caught that too. It's an odd statement and I can't immediately figure out how it fits. I made my wife watch Ready Player One last night, just to help her understand what this whole thing about "metaverse" is trying to be. I can only assume they want to lock in IP as a safety net for whatever comes next.
Uhhhh, unless it's BNET that is the real gem? Even Activision moved to use Bnet as it's online platform. Wonder if Blizz is further down the VR/meta road with Bnet than anyone guessed. They've been silent on any new IP besides Overwatch 2. Big company for not much noise on another dev push, so maybe it's been working on Bnet metaverse? -
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Maybe thats where the NFT's roam free?
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After the name change was announced, Carmack mentioned that he didn't think one single company is going to build the metaverse.
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2021/10/john-carmack-sounds-a-skeptical-note-over-metas-metaverse-plans/
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It's an interesting move, almost like they're intentionally diluting the term in the face of Facebooks usage.
Look how many people are already tying "Metaverse" to Facebook and "Meta." It would behoove other companies to start trying to generalize the term.
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Most definitely.
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MICROSOFT Is crushing it with these aquisitions. Diablo 4, Overwatch 2 - free on gamepass?!?!
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Bobby did it! We knew only he could fix this! So glad to see it work out for the super rich.
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gamepass I paid $120 for til June 2024 is looking better and better each day.
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Man, I should have done that, from the PC side at hte time the deal looked worse but NOW. man.
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In June 2025 it will cost $125 per month.
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Diablo Immortal Exclusive to Windows Phones.
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They still make Windows phones?
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Arguable - do you think AB would be more creative as a third party driven by stock price?
Sometimes acquisition can free dev teams from bottom line math. It probably all depends.-
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I hate to say it but Blizzard would no longer have the pressure to deliver only billion dollar home runs every single time.
All of the incubator projects that got squashed which led to long time employees forming their own studios (because there is a METRIC FUCKTON of VC out there so now there are multiple new $100 million companies in OC now) might actually manifest in new products that aren’t as conservative.
Like, we know Diablo 4 and OW2 are going to be amazing, but they’re also piggybacking on old established IPs. Diablo Immortal, even though it actually looks and plays well, was a blatant grab at what they knew would generate dumptrucks of cash.-
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Jesus fucking Christ if Microsoft enables a new NOLF I'll offer myself as a blood sacrifice to give thanks.
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I think the more interesting outcome will be if they're permitted to return to a 'when it's ready model' of development.
There's no doubt that WoW has suffered a lot trying to push out their expansions before they've had the right amount of dev time and there's been a lot of talk from former devs that it's in no small part because of the COD mindset imposed on them post merger.
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games have really bad market footprint. instead of using cash cows to fuel the innovation, they just... stay with the cash cows. now, your COD and BF and WoW and all that are *REALLY* important to arrive at some manageable cash flow. we all know that.
however, stagnation has been really biting recently, where multi million dollar (and multi year) endeavors go POOF within a week.
consolidation does not alleviate that - better management and planning/pipelining does. learning what to create and when to launch it.
as a brain teaser, in theory, consolidation SHOULD actually help the games industry. getting more free cash flow under one roof means they COULD spin up a lot of riskier stuff, because everyone is still gonna be employed if it flops.
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man, if MS puts all the blizzard games on steam, I could play diablo 3 on my steamdeck natively.
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oh man didnt think about that, those games could come to Steam!
Wonder what hapesn to Bnet, it get shut down? The xbox app sucks, wish they'd just embrace Bnet and make it Xboxnet or something.-
Well Activition with Bungie ported Destiny 2 last year to Steam IIRC.
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Agreed!
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Maybe they will interface it with the Xbox App, like they do for EA Play + Gamepass. At least initially, until they suck in all the infrastructure to Azure
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Their online infrastructure predates Valve's founding, it predates Steam by nearly a decade, and it is well within their rights to sell their games directly.
Is it anti-consumer that Minecraft or countless numbers of indies on Itch.io avoided selling on Steam in order to avoid giving Baron Harkonnen a cut?-
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Developers and publishers are better off not giving 30% to a company that almost entirely exists for rent seeking if they have the option (Minecraft) or the means (ABK).
In terms of means, AB has what I would argue is the best launcher. Them deciding to keep their games there wasn't a detriment because of execution. Going forward we'll see what happens. Hopefully it remains an option, and hopefully it doesn't get rolled into the Game Pass app-
Steam isn't rent-seeking. Rent-seeking means wealth extraction without contributing value to the production of a good. Rent-seeking would be if Valve tried to manipulate the regulatory environment to knock out its competitors and then never updated its platform again.
Valve makes a service that people want to use. It integrates friends, messaging, social media, streaming, news, virtuality reality, and soon mobile gaming into a centralized platform with a huge number of users. The 30% fee Valve gets from every sale is their compensation for all that work to make their platform better. Developers benefit because they get access to all those users. Nothing is stopping them from not using Steam, and many choose not to! Nothing wrong with that. But if developers didn't get any value from Steam, no one would use it and the platform would die. It's obviously a mutually beneficial exchange for most developers.
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Yeah did WoW come to gamepass? That would be weird.
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So for Real though, Diablo Immortal on PC Game pass? I could see it. THey have controller settings built in.
Also I assume the Blizzard remakes will come to gamepass? thats pretty cool. -
Maybe this is as good a place as any to point out I have a signed and notarized build of DevilutionX on my site so you can play Diablo 1 natively on your M1 Mac
https://macsourceports.com/game/diablo -
I wonder how much MS has its eye on Bnet. You wouldn't normally think MS would care about that, but Bnet is a key differentiator from other studios and publishers. If Blizz was expanding that tech for something like a metaverse push, I could see why MS might want to pounce now. I have no insight and only arm chair speculation, but it's an interesting technology question.
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WoW and new expansions will most certainly have an included $15 sub for GPUltimate users... damn, I may actually have to go back if its free. They better get those extra servers built in Azure. This is crazy.
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Holy fucking shit that's insane. Also stupid Blizzard/Microsoft mmo idea World of Fable.
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Considering they have millions of people paying them $15 a month for gamepass, I imagine some spreadsheet somewhere said this was the right move.
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25 million, to be exact. And that number keeps growing. This is their new cash cow. Truly the Netflix of gaming. I mean think about it, Netflix has over 200 million subscribers world wide. If Ms achieves half that in the next five years they'll be rolling in dough.
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even at $10 a month, that means MS is making 250 million month.
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$120 a year for someone is basically about two brand new AAA games a year. And most people don't spend that much on even on publisher.
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To be fair, with the gold conversion deal I'm paying closer to $2/mo and have been for years. I wonder what % of those subs used that deal.
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I don't know how to feel about this over the long, long haul. Feels like too much consolidation but in the short term hopefully there's a quick path to getting rid of the bad leadership and giving the employees a better work environment!
Also, Blizzard games on Game Pass sounds pretty freakin sweet from a short term consumer perspective.-
Call of Duty on game pass would be fucking nuts.
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Staff changes can't happen very fast. There's the obvious regulator approval process, and given the size of this deal it's going to get scrutinized heavily in many markets, not just the US. That 18mo window does sound about right. MS might try to prep a lot for changes after they're cleared to finalize, but they can't put projects at risk either. There's going to be limits on what can be shared to MS for them to make too many staffing decisions. This is common in buyouts. Some key leadership may change, but the lower ranks take longer so they don't disrupt the projects.
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Especially since the name Xbox was derived from "DirectX Box", an early name for the concept they were trying to do (a box/console that could play DirectX games without needing to be a full fledged Windows PC.
There's a story that goes that Bill Gates was originally livid at the concept that it wasn't going to run Windows (as in, also be a regular PC - the thing always ran something akin to Windows) but he cooled off and obviously they moved forward with it
https://www.gamesradar.com/microsoft-xbox-edge-game-changers/
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Starcraft themed Gears of War.
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Don't forget Satya Nadella. This guy has been on fire since he took over in 2014 for Ballmer. M365 + Gamepass + Azure etc. all have been massive hits and turned Microsoft around.
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That was a very different time. MS goal now is to make as much content available on GamePass as possible. Recurring revenue is the name of the game.
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Yep, I think they see M365 very similar to Game Pass and these investments show it.
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Microsoft has the resources and the media cover to fully crush the nascent labor organizing going on at AB in a way that Kotick currently cannot.
Like, yes, I’m sure that from an HR standpoint things will improve, but the actual important work of union organizing is probably in a very tenuous position now. I can so easily see it dissolve like cotton candy that got dropped into water after this. -
Don’t get your hopes up. Half that staff at 343 that worked on Halo Infinite were contractors. Washington State law requires contractors to be converted to employees after 18 months. So MS just replaces them every 18 months instead.
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https://www.computerworld.com/article/2589538/it-personnel-microsoft-to-pay-97-million-to-settle-permatemp-case.html
https://www.reuters.com/article/businesspropicks-us-findlaw-dont-treat-c/dont-treat-contractors-like-employees-idUSTRE53063S20090401
https://www.cga.ct.gov/PS99/rpt%5Colr%5Chtm/99-R-0775.htm
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It's still very much a thing in many sectors and across many companies. I'm sure that includes gaming too. There have been new ways around this. It's mentioned in the articles about moving the contractors to a 3rd party company. This is knows Purchased Services. The company purchases the service of the 3rd party company. There is no mention of the individual or their name in the contract between those companies. But, the reality is that the same person is used to fill the contract obligation. There is still a danger to this practice for similar reasons. Go too far to treat the PS resource like an FTE and you're falling into the same legal trap even if they are from another provider. I haven't seen a legal case against this arrangement, but the spirit of what's being done is identical to the original condition.
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It's a numbers game with the company and HR. They don't want the headcount on the books, but still need the work to get done. Where I work at the requirement is that contracts are fixed price SOW where you have to state very specific deliverable so that once that work is done the resource is supposed to clear out. Also, keep the budgeting aligned, supposedly. If a team is shorthanded this is the path used to augment the team and they just re-writing the SOW to extend the person. It still runs afoul of the legal precedent set though.
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Jason brings it up in this Bloomberg piece https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-12-08/how-microsoft-s-halo-infinite-went-from-disaster-to-triumph
And then here is a screen cap from when he discussed it more on Twitter. https://www.reddit.com/r/halo/comments/rbtref/jason_schreier_insight_into_ms343_labour/ -
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Excerpt of email from Kotick: https://twitter.com/jasonschreier/status/1483457074268880901?s=21
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Yeah, 10 years from now I don't think it will be good. In the short term, there will be a benefit for people that have Gamepass, and a little more creative freedom for studios like Ninja Theory, until the bean counters start cracking down
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Last April: http://www.shacknews.com/chatty?id=40565977
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And since I see their whole mindset from the bird’s eye view, strap in for tiered GamePass in a couple years:
http://www.shacknews.com/chatty?id=40483834-
I mean this kind of a no brainier as is eventually raising the base price. Once they think they've hit the ceiling on their growth potential the next step for achieving never ending growth, that the shareholders demand, is juicing the price.
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They already kind of do that already. i.e you get Gears 5 base game for the regular sub price but if you want to play the expansion you have to pay for the Ultimate game pass for extra and then you get extra benefits. So it wouldn’t be surprising in the least.
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Hehe anything seems possible now. My tier predictions were not too welcome around here either.
But yeah, US video game industry. It’s being run more and more like a high stakes blood sport to acquire an industry that they regulators do not understand that can easily be shaped to cater to addicts.
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You might not know I worked on the Xbox end when Vivendi and Activision merged and then for ATVI afterwards.
It was clear more than a decade ago what Xbox expected from publishers and developers as far as their branding and technical priorities went. It was always about creating a GamePass/metaverse-ish online platform independent of hardware.
It was also really clear how ATVI approached mergers & acquisitions and where the game development sat in relation to strategizing strictly for the institutional stockholders.
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I imagine Sony would buy Sega up at this point.
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Yeah I think they kind of have to. But also it took people like Corey Balrog pushing Sony to finally get them to port big titles to PC. Sony doesn't yet realize they need to compete on PC. Adding Sega would give them a strong foothold.
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I hope not, remember Street Fighter V?
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Sega was going to partner with MSFT originally with the Dreamcast but their owner passed away and the people who replaced him backed out and stuck to the Dreamcast. Elements of the deal remained like the DC using Windows CE.
This pushed MSFT to make the Xbox on their own.
So I guess Xbox is to Sega as was Playstation was to Nintendo as a parallel.-
I'm specifically talking about all the rumors for last year about MS buying Sega. Sega started to shed parts of its busiess that MS would be uninterested (all those physical location game center stuff). I wouldn't be surprised if we see more rumors if not an outright announcement before Q2.
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Well I'm just providing insight that this has been a thing for a long time so it's almost a matter of time.
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What's nutty to me is that for years there were this small handful of companies we knew to treat PC gaming well
- Blizzard
- Valve
- id Software
- To a lesser extent, Bethesda
Zenimax owns Bethesda and bought id Software. Now Zenimax is owned by Microsoft.
And now Blizzard is owned by Microsoft.
And I can almost guarantee you the concept of Microsoft buying Valve has been brought up before.
Other than things like games skipping the PS5, Microsoft buying Zenimax is probably a net positive. Zenimax's studios are great but Zenimax themselves as a company left a lot to be desired with its litigious nature and less than ideal decisions like launching Fallout 76 in the state it did.
Microsoft buying Activision Blizzard is probably a net positive as well, given their issues at the moment. I actually haven't kept up with what the fuck all happened or went down (I know it was all really bad but it's not something I read much about) but it seems like a drastic change would be necessary and Microsoft would be that change.
I don't think Microsoft buying Valve would be a net positive. As critical as I am of Valve's "flat" structure and how it doesn't encourage game completion or shipping games, but the result are games like the HL games being how they are (including Alyx). I don't know if it's a good idea to rock that boat.
Also I'm not sure if I could find it because it was on a podcast but on Idle Thumbs they discussed the rumor that J Allard had to step down from being head of Xbox because it was discovered he was part of a swingers club that would have wild sex parties and the club was made up entirely of Microsoft employees (it wasn't created by Microsoft, it's just if you have 30,000 employees in the same spot these things just sort of crop up naturally). At some point the lawsuits and accusations started flying and Microsoft had him step down. So, Microsoft has some experience dealing with this shit.-
I don’t think Microsoft could buy Valve if they wanted to.
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The PS5 will be fine since the deal won't go through for at least couple more COD games.
But I do wonder how the PS6 will fare when people know it will never have COD, Overwatch, etc.-
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Oh it definitely will. Probably the 2024 version I'd guess.
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PC and XBOX I mean.
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Microsoft is going to give it away for free on Xbox to game pass subscribers. They’re in the subscription game.
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this is the same dumb shit people said when they bought bethesda, they have no reason not to make every single thing an exclusive. In fact that is more likely to get game pass on playstation.
Sony just los every single one of these franchises unless they bend over and start carrying their direct competitors game subscription service on their devices LOL
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I think you're probably right since COD is mostly a multiplayer franchise and so more people playing is better for the game than having an exclusive.
I figure on one end of the spectrum is "Of course Elder Scrolls 6, Starfield and Fallout 5 are going to be Xbox exclusives"
On the other end is "They let Mojang basically be an independent company and even went out of their way to make sure Minecraft can do cross platform multiplayer"
I figure COD is more towards the Mojang end of the spectrum.-
They also had like a Bedrock edition of Minecraft (rewritten from Java to C++) that has no fun to write mods for it. You could mod it to a very limited extent.
It does run a lot faster than the Java version.
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Man I dunno, they paid billions..
I'd expect at a minimum a delayed PS release. like they get a year old COD.
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Anyone photoshop Phil as Dr Evil yet?
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Bobby K is going to be on board after the purchase but I imagine that its only during the integration and he'll be going in 6 months.
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sounds like everyone is reporting to phil spencer from this article and the polygon one https://www.polygon.com/22889270/microsoft-buys-activision-blizzard-xbox-phil-spencer-ceo .
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I can head Phill shouting, "Dang it Bobby!"
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And then he throws pocket sand and runs away.
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Maybe Raven can work on Wolfenstein again?
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I would pre-order this.
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Summon of Responsibility
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The last game, young blood wasn’t fantastic. Besides, Machibe games is working on Indiana Jones ip.
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[deleted]
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They will for sure. Just you watch, MS is going to be re juice like a MAD Lad all those amazing IPs all the companies where sitting on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This really is incredible news for all the IPs that they all owned and mark My word the quality of the titles is going to go wayyyyyyyyyyy up!!!!
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Diablo 4 looks promising
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Tbh I haven’t been following it at all since it was first making the rounds, I just remember the game looking good.
is it actually going to be shitty?
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Call of Duty is still selling as much as it ever did, right? That alone should bring in plenty of cash. Before you even start talking about mobile
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Don't know where to find the data but this recent article says Vanguard was off from last year and the chart shows that CODs biggest hits were from like almost a decade ago
https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/call-of-duty-sales-are-down-36-in-the-uk/
Maybe mobile props it up?-
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Yep, you don't need to sell as many but hook a smaller audience that has higher repeat business.
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Vanguard sales are down but Cold War and MW19 are some of the best selling CoD's of all time; even so Vanguard was the #2 selling game of the year 2021. Wanna guess what number 1 was? Cold War.
That is without even considering Warzone and micro transactions.
Sources:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2021/12/13/call-of-duty-vanguard-fails-to-top-black-ops-cold-war-as-2021s-best-selling-video-game/?sh=394d1dc45542
https://vgsales.fandom.com/wiki/Call_of_Duty-
[deleted]
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Cold War was a printing press.
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lol
At Sony we wanted to make a very strong and principled stance against employee harassment, which is why 30 minutes ago we decided to never work with Activision Blizzard again
https://twitter.com/KazHiraiCEO/status/1483438540453289985 -
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Alright, MS-Activision pun names & games mashups in this subthread
I'll go first: Clippy of Duty-
Destiny 365
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some of the software we use is getting O365 roadmaps to connect to calendars.
I have extremely rapid fire tasking/calendaring/journaling stuff that quite literally isn't even supported to write to/from the cloud... until very recently.
plus, about 10 mailboxes used to be just straight up too large for O365... without forced archiving. I'm not sure what the tiers are now. we have E5 but some mailboxes are well over 100GB
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Outlookwatch
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Chuck Norris emojis for everyone
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And out come the web3 crowd looking to monetize… playing the game?
https://twitter.com/gregisenberg/status/1483432456548196358?s=21-
What community is referring to?
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Nevermind I followed the thread a bit and then almost killed myself.
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Yep those are the go to areas to shred. IT is always a whipping boy
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Bethesda studios has been slimming down through attrition.
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Yea, devs etc are probably safe but other positions are probably redundant
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For something like ATVI they probably negotiated retention of most of the workforce. I'm sure folks will get shuffled into different divisions and at least be given an offer of a role, even if it's not one they like or of the same level of 'title' / within the bureaucracy that they hoped.
It's at that point people resign / move on, but I'm skeptical they'll outright layoff a lot of folks. -
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holy fuck...….. wow.... wowow…. 🤯
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-BkrwO_Dck am I right!!!??? All day and everyday with this type of MEGA announcement!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-BkrwO_Dck OMG....!!!!!!! This is Ultra MEGA Omega Massive news!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
[ passes out ]-
The 71K views on this video are all from Shackers clicking your links.
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LOL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-BkrwO_Dck feels good Man \m/ :) \m/
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ill take "games that havent had a new drop in years", alex
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yea thats not first person, that's all-person lol. (also almost 2 years old now)
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valcan are you confirming hexen 3?!?!?
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YES + https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-BkrwO_Dck & just wait for E3 2022 I was just told a few tid bits... OMG x1000!!! The juice meter is at 1000!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and pumping.
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Age of Empires owned by the same company as Warcraft and Starcraft feels wild to me.
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Craft of Duty
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Call of duty on gamepass??
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Some Sony executives are not going to be sleeping tonight. Sony to buy EA or a Nintendo alliance? They need something to push back with.
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Sega or Capcom, keep japan in japan.
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No need to recoup it, the only thing that matters is that Activision and its properties continues to grow in value. Like when you make an investment, you don’t ask yourself how long it will take you to recoup that investment amount. All you care about is that it grows in value, or at the very least holds its value. All about that stock price baby.
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This has to be trolling, right? please
https://twitter.com/garywhitta/status/1483493313952972805-
Nintendo / Sega / Sony merger confirmed
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He found a tasty taco place and is going to report back later this week
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dont play with me solrflare
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Fallen order 2 should be well past the script stage.
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The steering wheel will not be detachable joy cons
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I think he is hinting to an announcement of one of his game related projects.
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Time to reboot Blackthorne
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WSJ reporting that Kotick is expected to step down once complete
https://www.wsj.com/articles/microsoft-to-buy-activision-blizzard-games-11642512435-
[deleted]
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No matter what they say now I cannot believe he will be there in a year.
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Gotta stay long enough to get that fat payout.
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Needs to financially to survive no but doesn’t mean you leave extra money on the table when it’s potentially on offer.
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Especially to make sure the deal happens.
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Damn
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Fail upward, it's the only way to fly.
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#worthit
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This is freaking huge. Ok:
1. fire Bobby Kotick (or just arrange an 'accident' for him, I'm fine with either one)
2. take all but ONE team off CoD and make it a three year cycle... or whatever time they need to actually make a good game
3. Finish Diablo
4. wrap up WoW... wind it down and put it out to pasture
5. Cancel Overwatch 2
6. revive Project Titan (cancelled Overwatch MMO) and roll everything useful from Overwatch 1 and 2 into it - make that the sequel to WoW
7. Make GamePass even more unbelievably amazing than it is today
8. Free up all other talented teams who were stuck making CoD bullshit and give them freedom to make some totally new kick ass games - new IP - NOT based on any existing property-
congrats you're fired
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I really can't see them increasing the price any time soon. You don't spend almost 70 billion so you can add $3 to the 25 million gamepass subs you have. They're looking to get those subs up to 100 million, and increasing cost isn't the way to do it. Don't get me wrong they will put up prices but not until they have huge market share.
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Digital foundry direct about this went up
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FU1rZ5Ff65I&t=1
I'm not a big game podcast listener but I'm curious what the industry insiders take on this will be. Definitely listening to nextlander or waypoint/giant bomb whenever they do their thing. Anyone know when these are scheduled?-
The bobcat is probably finishing up now and should go out tonight. Nextlander goes up for patrons Wednesday evening and Thursday for everyone else.
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lol bombcast
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Them helping with D2R made a ton of sense though. But yeah more meat for the COD grinder sounds like a terrible use of their talents.
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Kotick explains why they made this deal
https://venturebeat.com/2022/01/18/bobby-kotick-interview-why-activision-blizzard-did-the-deal-with-microsoft/-
"Bobby Kotick: The most important is — it’s funny, you and I were talking about AI last time — as you look at the increased competition between Tencent, and NetEase, and Sony, and now you have Google and Amazon, and Apple, and Facebook, and Microsoft and Netflix. We were looking at over the course of the next couple of years, and starting to realize that we need thousands of people to be able to execute against our production plans. We need them in disciplines like AI and machine learning, or in data analytics, or in purpose-built cloud and cybersecurity — and that we just don’t have. And that competition for that talent is expensive, and really hard to come by.
And so, as we’re starting to think about all these skills that we need, that we don’t have and that were really necessary, we realized that we should be thinking about ways to get that talent. This was an acknowledgement and recognition. And then Satya [Nadella, CEO of Microsoft] and Phil [Spencer, head of gaming at Microsoft] and I have had conversations over many, many years of bigger things that we could do together."
AI machine learning data analytics purpose-based cloud cybersecurity???
Hey I have a thought, how about ya make a fuckin video game that's fun, wtf ?-
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pleaaaaase boot him out on his ass
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It sure is something to 'report' on stuff like this without something about how much management and board members stand to profit given how many shares they own.
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[deleted]
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This pretty much sums up my feelings on the matter
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As company Activision seems like it’s been mostly stagnant on new IPs and main focused on milking the established cash cows until the bottom falls out.
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the game industry is on such thin margins these days, maybe the future is consolidation to allow for more breathing room in taking risks in game design
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Lol this entire thread is full of folks who are wary of it.
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Let Me ask you this, if it was Sony or Nintendo that bought them instead would you be celebrating?
I mean this means all the those games will be on the PC so unless you are not a PC gamer I am not sure why anyone would think this is bad. On that note let's not kid our self Blizz/Acti was in a total shit state it would of never been saved with out aid. The only other solution would of been that everyone went independent but We all know that would of never happened.
Honestly I have no idea what the beef could be, the company was in a down ward spiral and MS saved them and all those IPs they should get a medal. It's not like Blizz and Activ where doing anything with their IPs anyways, will see what MS does with them.
Last but not least the majority was like "Brahhh you have no games lol" well they fixed that so why be made about it(not saying you are specifically mad btw).
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I think this is generally a positive, but really in so far as Phil Spencer is in charge. Put some bean counter or MBA in a suit and it will be bad for gamers.
I also don’t believe they will make COD exclusive, they have a great way to try to force Sonys hand. Included with gamepass with extras or pay $70 for the PS5 version. PS5 owners are going to quickly start wanting gamepass on PlayStation and Spencer has openly said he would love that to happen. Sony doesn’t have anything to compete with that.
Microsoft wants you to spend $15 a month they don’t really care if you buy the console.-
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That may be the belief but at the end of the day video games sure aren’t getting any cheaper and people’s disposable income sure isn’t getting much larger so one platform seems like great value and on another one I get the privilege of “owning” the game at full price.
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In any case exclusive or not, gamepass or not Sony doesn’t come out ahead. Maybe they could try to buy take two and have GTA6 exclusive. I don’t know if they have the cash or the will for that. I’m sure Microsoft has already tried.
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Replies to this douche nozzle web3 crypto bro’s take on this are gold. https://twitter.com/gregisenberg/status/1483432456548196358?s=20
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That would be cool
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Does this mean Microsoft has the Project Gotham Racing IP?
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The horde will be renamed to developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers developers
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Given that Activision-Blizzard was already a dystopian nightmare of a mega-corporation gone wild, maybe this is for the best? But hell...I also dislike the idea of one company owning everything.. Feelings mixed!
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Fortunately, one company doesn’t own everything. Even as a PC gamer, Sony has recognized that it will need to serve that market. The rumors have pointed to more online IP that can riff on the Destiny/COD/Diablo/WoW formulas for online communities.
Will they be able to pull it off? I don’t know, the jury’s out. But I do think that Sony’s experience in the movie end of the entertainment business will help inform its partnerships and partners, especially in the US. If they need propping up, Disney and Netflix will be their partners. -
There's still Sony and EA at least.
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Reddit sums up our feelings pretty well.
https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/s76lrq/log_in_into_your_microsoft_account_to_comment_in/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf
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My head is spinning because I thought the zenimax purchase was too mucj. How the hell did Spencer walk into Nadella's office and say
"The company has $130 billion in cash. I want you to give me/my division 70 of that."
And Nadella said "Okay".
I hated my Xbox one and said there was nothing they could do to get me back but this isn't leaving me with options.
Just buy Nintendo next.-
I think it was probably a pretty easy sell, actually. Videogames are the hottest thing in entertainment right now, by far, with endless growth potential. Imagine a box that sits in every household on Earth, bringing in monthly subscription fees from now until the heat death of the universe. Microsoft wants as big a piece of that pie as they can possibly get, and this was an easy way to take a step in that direction.
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They're going to end up dominating with Gamepass. But you already know that :)
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I’m in a wait and see position still. It’s certainly a money maker, and there’s enough money to cushion any rough patches, so there’s that. But the saga for what happens with the global game industry is far from over.
It will always come down to the games. The public is pretty fickle on a long term, generational scale.-
I think the writing's on the wall that free-to-play / Gamepass-style services are the future, and $70 discs are going the way of Blockbuster video and cable TV.
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I don’t believe that, based on not only consumer habits, but more importantly, developers who want autonomy to make the kinds of games that they feel passionate about.
It will affect the AAA market, but even that is not set in stone. I think about the young gamers who worship at the alter of old PS2 games, for example. They are intense in their collector mentality and want to own their games. They might pay for a service, but they’re also going to purchase games they love, so that they can have them without them disappearing off the services. If devs decide they want to do projects that they can always offer and support, they’ll want to break free from services too.
It all will come down to developer support, which Sony has a special talent for, despite what the media FUD has been on that, which mostly came from Xbox influencers and marketing. I saw how involved Sony (and Nintendo) were with third party developers compared to Xbox way back when. Some of those people are gone now or in different roles but the know how is still there. Xbox/Microsoft will be wise to be serious about that level of support and production management, but the jury is very much out on that still. Everything will be a lot clearer in ‘23-24.
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I don’t think Microsoft will lose money, especially in the short to medium term.
I don’t think Nintendo or Sony will need to worry about the security of their platforms either, in the short to medium term or longer.
I mostly feel for all the talented developers out there who have to figure out a new paradigm for funding mid-tier innovative gaming and keeping their studios afloat past a single release.
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It's not so much you're competing for money but people's limited time. If you can grab their time, they won't spend money on something else. Or more on premium experiences with your service.
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I’ve had a pet theory for many years that there are two types of gamers: those who start many games and finish few and those who demand a full experience from beginning to end.
The other axis are who spends money on games vs. who pirates games/ gets them for free.
The third axis is of course the people who spend a lot of time gaming vs the people who only watch others play and don’t do much hands on.
GamePass caters to the short attention span type who wants to try everything. I used to be one of those much more, so I know the mindset. Having a deluge of games served up in a subscription is perfect for that.
Now I’m a much more satisfied gamer overall, although I play fewer games and spend less time overall. It makes it easier for me to buy a game at full price when I want.
I do feel like my style of game consumption is more demanding in advance of quality or artistic merit, but service based gamers are still going to get tired of low quality experiences.
We really have to wait for Microsoft to actually release their big bangers and after that first wave of releases to see how much they care about providing the customer base with quality vs quantity and at what price (not to mention if indie devs decide to continue working within that funding structure or want something else(.
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COME ON!!!!!!!!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I14b-C67EXY&t=10s-
Never forget. There are so many good parts to this.
"Give it up for meeee!"
"I...love...this...company....YEEEAAAHH!"
No Steve. You love...the power and privilege that comes from...running this company.
Microsoft was lucky they got rid of that guy. If he had hung around for another five years they'd probably still be throwing money at mobile, buying blackberry or some shit.
Anybody still remember the Nokia acquisition?
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Hm. I'm very good with this.
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WoW and ESO are now owned by the same company o_0
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All they need to buy next is Games workshop for all the Space Marines.
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True! Also don't forget Space Marines 2 is real https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-BkrwO_Dck :)
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GW is too greedy to sell.
And, now that you've mentioned it, you're going to have to give up your rights to this post to put on Warhammer Plus.
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Lololol fake Kaz still got it
https://mobile.twitter.com/KazHiraiCEO/status/1483438540453289985 -
Lolololol
https://i.redd.it/65rlljc5zhc81.jpg -
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