Microsoft to buy Activision Blizzard

FlawleZ said:
Is anyone else highly irritated having to download an "Xbox" app to play MS PC games? Most counterintuitive branding I've seen. Went to download AoE other day and couldn't find the MS Store anywhere. Turns out you have to download an app for a console to play MS PC games. If I wanted to play an Xbox game I'd buy an Xbox. And I think I would quit video games before I did that.
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The Console Companion app is dead. Back in 2019 Microsoft brought all gaming products and services under the Xbox brand. The Xbox app is not a "console app."
 
Armenius said:
The Console Companion app is dead. Back in 2019 Microsoft brought all gaming products and services under the Xbox brand. The Xbox app is not a "console app."
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I downloaded Flight Simulator on the Microsoft Store in 2020. It was also available on the Xbox Game Pass app at the same time.
 
vegeta535 said:
Sony interactive entertainment is only valued at 13 billion. MS could easily buy it is Sony was willing to sell it. If MS slapped down 100 billion on the table who know what Sony might do.
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According to Wikipedia, Sony Interactive Entertainment's revenues are significantly greater than Activision Blizzards, while operating incomes are much closer between the two. I don't have an MBA, but I know that these things factor into a company's valuation in addition to their assets, equity, liabilities, etc. The numbers for the latter are not present for SIE, I suspect because they are a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sony and not a public company like Activision Blizzard.

At any rate, you may be correct that $100 billion may entice Sony to sell off SIE, though I'm not sure that regulators would be as keen on the move, even if video gaming is not often brought up in discussions on antitrust actions.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_Interactive_Entertainment

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Activision_Blizzard
 
JavaLava said:
Mixed feelings on this. On one hand its clearly a move to get into E-Sports and on the other hand....Activision hasn't really done much these days. Outside of pumping out a COD every year, some Blizzard titles every few years, sponsoring Overwatch eSports...what else have they done (controversy aside)?
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They've been minting cash with exactly that strategy, so what was the incentive for them do do anything different? Why bother throwing resouces at a new project with new IP when you can launch "Call of Duty: Pillow Fight Edition" and blow the doors off sales? Publicly traded companies don't exist to be creative, they exist to make money for shareholders. That's why Battlefield 2042 has been a disaster, because EA's management, consisting of Ivy League pencil pushing bean counters instead of gamers, told their devs to "just copy what's popular", not "make the game our core of fans actually want to play". Maybe some indy studios will take risks for the love of the game, but I don't expect much creativity from the AAA studios anymore, and honestly, that's on gamers. As long as gamers keep rebuying (even pre-ordering) the same recycled, broken, buggy crap, the big studios will keep feeding it to them.
 
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Zepher said:
If MS buys nearly all of the game studios and made them Xbox and PC exclusive, could Sony sue for Antitrust?
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Possibly, but they also launch exclusives, as does Nintendo. Given that there are also many companies in the space that are competing along these same lines, it might not be a successful endeavor for them. There are also plenty of independent studios that are platform agnostic. Interesting question to ponder though.
 
FlawleZ said:
Is anyone else highly irritated having to download an "Xbox" app to play MS PC games? Most counterintuitive branding I've seen. Went to download AoE other day and couldn't find the MS Store anywhere. Turns out you have to download an app for a console to play MS PC games. If I wanted to play an Xbox game I'd buy an Xbox. And I think I would quit video games before I did that.
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I'm actually highly irritated that everyone and their mother now requires an app and a launcher to play something you buy on a different storefront. Having to wait for someone else's launcher to load when I click on a game I want to play on Steam is just annoying. Just open the game when I click the button, why do I have to open a launcher first?
 
69 Billion. For that money everything activation is going exclusive. Shareholders would accept nothing less.
 
I don’t know how huge deals like this work, but I never would have thought Activision was worth 10x Bethesda in a buyout.
 
Crazy, for years we wanted Microsoft to get more into PC games. Now Microsoft is like hold my beer.
 
FlawleZ said:
Is anyone else highly irritated having to download an "Xbox" app to play MS PC games? Most counterintuitive branding I've seen. Went to download AoE other day and couldn't find the MS Store anywhere. Turns out you have to download an app for a console to play MS PC games. If I wanted to play an Xbox game I'd buy an Xbox. And I think I would quit video games before I did that.
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No, it's branding. Xbox is for gaming what Office is to productivity. It makes branding sense to bring everything under big names and stick to it.
 
What the actual fuck.
I wonder if all of A/B's sub stuff will be on XBL now.
I wonder if A/B's culture will change.

...I wonder if Satya Nadella is as OK with tripping over masturbating employees in the halls as Blizzard management seems to be...
 
Bobby just wrote his own golden parachute. He will be out after the transition is done.
 
LFaWolf said:
Bobby just wrote his own golden parachute. He will be out after the transition is done.
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Likely only reason he wasn’t already fired as everything came out was so he could get the deal done.

Westwood said:
I'm holding off on comments that "may not age well". Curious what effect this may have on World of Warcraft.
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Would probably be great (re)growth for the game subscription to be included with Gamepass Ultimate. Not sure I’d expect to see an Xbox port for at least a long time if at all. Would probably need to be a spin-off or another kind of clean-break like a sequel where it’s planned from the beginning.
 
TheGardenTool said:
Likely only reason he wasn’t already fired as everything came out was so he could get the deal done.



Would probably be great (re)growth for the game subscription to be included with Gamepass Ultimate. Not sure I’d expect to see an Xbox port for at least a long time if at all. Would probably need to be a spin-off or another kind of clean-break like a sequel where it’s planned from the beginning.
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I seriously doubt they will roll in WoW sub with ultimate. Maybe a price break on the sub. WoW sub alone is as much as Xbox ultimate.
 
Zepher said:
If MS buys nearly all of the game studios and made them Xbox and PC exclusive, could Sony sue for Antitrust?
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With the canvas that I know nothing, in many country antitrust has it is right now is, tend to be from the customer perspective, has long has customer love google, amazon, facebook and if something is free to use it is really hard to have an antitrust case.

There is a chance here that short term, it look like it does not hurt customer at all (price of game not rising and so on)
 
HockeyJon said:
I'm actually highly irritated that everyone and their mother now requires an app and a launcher to play something you buy on a different storefront. Having to wait for someone else's launcher to load when I click on a game I want to play on Steam is just annoying. Just open the game when I click the button, why do I have to open a launcher first?
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This, it is not just having so many of them and the big and heavy Rockstar launcher starting when you launch from steam (a superb platform to push update, cloud save, etc... if you want them) and just want to play the single player version is hurting the PC experience versus the console one.

People are now using third party app to have a single game launcher for like 8 different store with their own platform, if Microsoft buy enough studio and get their store together, maybe they can become big enough for a single store to be enough but I doubt it.
 
I bet MS interest in this is like 30% King, 50% Activision, 20% Blizzard. I bet $5 Blizz gets spun off in a year or 5. Activision has not done them any favors, big corporate mentality didn't mesh well there.
 
Who knows, maybe microsoft will be kind and let Blizzard spin-off with microsoft having control instead of activision. Microsoft studios generally seems to treat the developers better. Pyschonauts 2 is the perfect example of a really quality game that took a long time to develop, and microsoft let them do it.
 
We're living in a strange time where Microsoft isn't considered the most actively evil big tech company. Who would have thought a decade or two ago? This purchase seems to be welcomed by most of the gaming community.
 
Aireoth said:
If you can't beat em in a straight fight, pump all the oxygen out of the room and suffocate them.

I'd feel bad for sony but their the ones behind the times fighting cross play and refusing to launch titles on PC.
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I think Sony will cave here soon, but honestly, Sony isn't really making the type of games that draw in massive income.

Big numbers come from bullshit like candy crush. Sony is more so still making.. Actually good singleplayer games like God of War, last of us, etc. Those are great games, but they aren't $$$$$$$ like candy crush.

I give credit to Sony for still funding games that are actually good, because most other publishers aren't anymore. They just want more candy crushes or Warzone's.
 
they are paying a 45% premium over the share price, that's why the CEO is not going anywhere. that's a lot of profit for shareholders.
 
vegeta535 said:
I seriously doubt they will roll in WoW sub with ultimate. Maybe a price break on the sub. WoW sub alone is as much as Xbox ultimate.
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Too concrete in the thinking. Microsoft wants to boost Gamepass sub numbers. What better way than to just combine them.
 
shinotenshi said:
they are paying a 45% premium over the share price, that's why the CEO is not going anywhere. that's a lot of profit for shareholders.
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The stock lost more than 30% since the allegations came out. At this moment it is almost 20% below its 52-week high.
 
I'm surprised MS had to pay $68+ billion. Seems high, but what do I know.
I do miss playing Guitar Hero on the Xbox...
 
Markus Guitarus said:
We're living in a strange time where Microsoft isn't considered the most actively evil big tech company. Who would have thought a decade or two ago? This purchase seems to be welcomed by most of the gaming community.
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Bobby Kotick is far more evil than Bill Gates with all his Taiwanese ladyboys. They're both evil just that one has a really nice yacht.

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Please bring World of Warcraft back to it's glory days with 10.0 and the next expansion.

But seriously, how will this effect WoW short-term and long-term?
 
Markus Guitarus said:
We're living in a strange time where Microsoft isn't considered the most actively evil big tech company. Who would have thought a decade or two ago? This purchase seems to be welcomed by most of the gaming community.
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Anyone that sees companies as good/evil is brainwashed.

There are no good corporations once your bigger than mom/pop shops, that is 10x so for megacorporations like Microsoft and Apple.
 
I just want MS to buy Sega. never in a million years would I think i would be saying that, MS has come a long way.
 
Aireoth said:
Anyone that sees companies as good/evil is brainwashed.

There are no good corporations once your bigger than mom/pop shops, that is 10x so for megacorporations like Microsoft and Apple.
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True enough. Though I will say some of my worst shopping experiences have been with the exalted mom 'n' pop stores.
 
Markus Guitarus said:
True enough. Though I will say some of my worst shopping experiences have been with the exalted mom 'n' pop stores.
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Yep. There's a reason why everyone uses Amazon. Even stuff like CPU's i've returned to them with no questions asked and have a full refund.
 
I really wish they'd bought Paradox Interactive... then I might actually see a followup for Tyranny in my lifetime...
 
vegeta535 said:
Imagine if they brought Sega and Nintendo. It be the only way they actually break into the Japanese market.
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It's highly doubtful Nintendo would ever sell for any amount of money unless they were basically failing and had to sell off the IP as parachutes for key investors in Japan. Nintendo is dominated by old school Japanese money, they'd never let it get owned by anyone else while they're successful.

Honestly, I wouldn't want them to ever get bought either. Nintendo is the only one left making a gaming system that has quality AAA titles that come on a physical media, and it doesn't require internet access to get running.
 
Game pass looking to be the best value for gaming. Already has a partnership with EA, soon will have Blizzard and Activision games. I’m happy I pre-purchased a two year subscription because that price is going to go up.
 
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