Microsoft acquires Activision/Blizzard

[Andrew NDB]

https://www.darkhorizons.com/microsoft-acquires-activision-blizzard-for-68b/

[neatoman]

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I mean really, is anyone in favor of this? Yeah, I know Activision is terrible and even the games people like are exploitative in some sense but I don't think it will stop just because Microsoft owns them now. I'm seriously trying to think of something good that might come out of this, the best I can come up with is cross promotional **** like a Warcraft/TES crossover or Jet Force Gemini in Overwatch, which is barely even a silverlining.

[Sumac]

Is there any difference?

[LeotheLateBloomer]

Yeah...I'm not a fan of this.

[Andrew NDB]

This strikes me a little bit like when around 2008 there was the big stories everywhere about "Marvel is banking everything, their rights and all on everything we know as Marvel on Iron Man, Incredible Hulk, and Captain America succeeding in theaters! This is a huge gambit and they put everything on the line! Everybody better cross their fingers so they don't have to sell!" And then their gambit paid off. They succeeded. Marvel Studios was born. Hurrah!

And then they sold to Disney anyway. Like, "poof." And there wasn't even much blowback. That's always struck me as weird. And this does, too. Except Activision/Blizzard surely weren't even in those originally dire straits.

[sdp]

I don't get the Marvel/Disney comparison at all. Activision is at an all time low price because of their controversies so they bought them at a discounted price. I mean normally you'd say this isn't good because of Microsoft being a monopoly, which is true but the reason this will be not seen as a big deal is because gaming is moving to streaming, so consoles are essentially so by the time this goes through it won't matter as much to sony platforms not getting CoD for example. In fact if Sony had money I'm sure they'd be acquiring japanese studios to counter this for exclusives to their platform.

So yeah, in the future most people are just going to use Xbox game pass on their apple, amazon or microsoft devices and play CoD, bethesda games etc on those instead of consoles. You might hate the direction but it's clear that's where we're going.

[Sumac]

It seems Sony mostly cares about their Western audience and prefers to bankroll Western style games. Not sure why they'd buy Japanese developers at this point.

[turtle1237]

Been playing a LOT of Crash Bandicoot on the switch as of late. Wonder what it means for the series on other systems. Will I have to break down and get a Xbox system just to play Crash 5 lol.

[Sumac]

It seems the idea is that ActiBlizz franchises still maintain their presence on other platforms, but XBox will receive some exclusive content.

It means, that as a PC gamer, I can give less than ****, lol.

[shredder orokusaki]

As apc gamer it is good news.A ll those ocmpanies Microsoft has bought stopped releasing their games on playstation. This forces console gamers to upgrade their pc and become pc gamers. Id software, double finearkane, tango game works, macine games, obsidian, ninja theory, undead labs. bethesda .... and now activision all of these will stop releasing their games on playstation and now all those console gamers who played only on playstation will have no choice than to upgrade their computers and become pc gamers. What idotn undersrtand why two huge companies like bethesda and activision agreed to get bought. Their games sell well and are powerful companeis they didnt need microsoft or sony.

[LeotheLateBloomer]

Been playing a LOT of Crash Bandicoot on the switch as of late. Wonder what it means for the series on other systems. Will I have to break down and get a Xbox system just to play Crash 5 lol.

Eventually yes. That is if they ever make another Crash game.

[shredder orokusaki]

Been playing a LOT of Crash Bandicoot on the switch as of late. Wonder what it means for the series on other systems. Will I have to break down and get a Xbox system just to play Crash 5 lol.
No because they release evryhign on pc so just play it on yor pc like ido. Iplayec crash badncioto 4 on my pc when it released on March and it was great game.

[turtle1237]

Eventually yes. That is if they ever make another Crash game.


Yeah I am also worry Crash may end up like Banjo-Kazooie who has not had a new game in over ten years, Yeah he was in smash, but that does not mean a new Banjo game. Microsoft may get the rights to Crash and just forget about him in a few months.

Crash has had a HELL of a comeback in the past 5 years from the N Sane remakes, to the CTR remake, Crash 4 which is a great game, and even that mobile Crash on the run in 2021. If they toss Crash aside like they did Banjo-Kazooie, I can say at least it was a good 5 years.

[neatoman]

I don't get the Marvel/Disney comparison at all.

I can kind of get it. In theory it is better companies to grow and compete with each other, even terrible companies like Activision, than it is for major companies to merge with each other. So much like it would have been better for Marvel to grow into a rival for Disney, it would have been better if Activision to just keep doing it's thing until it could compete with Microsoft on some level. That said, not so sure that would actually work out. I'd say we would have been more likely to see the demise of Activision than Activision branching out into other types of software.

[LeotheLateBloomer]

I can kind of get it. In theory it is better companies to grow and compete with each other, even terrible companies like Activision, than it is for major companies to merge with each other. So much like it would have been better for Marvel to grow into a rival for Disney, it would have been better if Activision to just keep doing it's thing until it could compete with Microsoft on some level. That said, not so sure that would actually work out. I'd say we would have been more likely to see the demise of Activision than Activision branching out into other types of software.

Buying whole third-party publishers is not good for the industry. I'm more of a fan of the approach of buying individual studios where they slowly but surely prove themselves with the quality of their games before being bought.

Activision Blizzard is a mess right now and Xbox has involved themselves with them. Bobby Kotick will still leave with a huge amount of cash. It's quite disgusting, really.

[CyberCubed]

EA will probably get bought in the next couple of years. Battlefield, their sports games, and Mass Effect have all had absolutely dire releases in the last years that killed their brands. They're trying to revive Dead Space with a remake from a game that doesn't need it. They're basically in the same straights as Activision.

Rockstar will probably never be bought as GTA will never stop printing money, and I don't think Ubisoft will ever agree to a sale since they're a French company.

[LeotheLateBloomer]

Who knows? Nobody thought Activision of most companies would ever get bought out but here we are.

[Sumac]

And now Sony buys Bungie. (https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2022-01-31-sony-buying-bungie-for-usd3-6-billion)
No Halo from Bungie on XBox ever again?

I wouldn't be surprised, if Nintendo buys Square Enix or Platinum in the next two weeks.

[oldmanwinters]

I wouldn't be surprised, if Nintendo buys Square Enix or Platinum in the next two weeks.

There's just something about Nintendo that strikes me as too arrogant to buyout a major development studio. Like... "we can always outsource a game if we want, but we don't need them." Considering how easily they let Rare walk away to Microsoft after carrying their 16-bit and 64-bit systems for most of the mid-to-late 90s, they just don't seem the type to get into the Hungry-Hungry Hippo approach to business.

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

Battlefield, their sports games, and Mass Effect have all had absolutely dire releases in the last years.

Same for all companies. A lot of video games were delayed because of the Coronavirus pandemic through 2020 and 2021.

[Andrew NDB]

No Halo from Bungie on XBox ever again?

Apparently Bungie hasn't owned Halo since 2007?

[Sumac]

Apparently Bungie hasn't owned Halo since 2007?
I mean, in case if MS would have convinced them to return to Halo.
Now this possibility is out of the window.

[Cure]

343 exists solely to make Halo games. Even before this buyout, Bungie would have never touched Halo again.

[oldmanwinters]

IGN says The Big N says "meh":
https://www.ign.com/articles/nintendo-acquisition-dna

[LeotheLateBloomer]

They don't need to acquire publishers. Working with them and allowing them to develop for some of their IPs is a good way to gain third-party support. There are times when Nintendo does things for better or worse, this one is for the better.

[shredder orokusaki]

According to this and what many people say thee is a big possibiity that the aquisiton will get blocked https://www.pcgamer.com/will-microsofts-acquisition-of-activision-blizzard-go-through-games-lawyer-thinks-its-likely/ because of the damage that will cause to Playstation. As pc gamer i say it dont matter to me as i play evrything on my computer and it dont make any difference if a game releases on pc xbox and playstation pc and xbox or pc and playstation. But i understand why the goverments might block it. They might do it to prevent microsoft from becoming one of the most powerful companies in video games like they are the biggest company on computers.

[Andrew NDB]

It's back on.

https://www.darkhorizons.com/judge-rules-on-microsoft-activision-deal/

[LeotheLateBloomer]

It's finally been approved. They really want to get their service on as many devices they can. That's the focus of this acquisition. I doubt that it will mean that they will revive old franchises though.