Activision-Blizzard executive tweets that Jimbo said "I don't want a Call of Duty deal, I just want to block your merger"
- Thread starter Remij
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Deleted member 417
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That goes both ways, imo. Bobby and Lulu haven't been exactly stoic about Sony this entire time. Nonetheless, when the dust settles, I expect everyone will go back to the arrangements that make them and their companies the most money. The whole revenge fantasy fanfic people have been coming up with for MS and now ABK isn't rooted in reality.
Burn bridges with who? Activision execs are irrelevent. They are either going to be absorbed by Microsoft or they are getting the sack when the deal fails
In the latter case it will be Activision begging to restore their relationship
That's also why ABK execs are being a lot more inflammatory. There is nothing for them to maintain with Sony. They either get the deal or they are gone. All about their own self interest at this point
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Yes, I would be surprised if business people made decisions based on their feelings as opposed to objective analysis of multiple factors - the biggest being making money. I suppose time will tell.
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Deleted member 417
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I want to agree, but Playstation was created as revenge against Nintendo. Some say Xbox was created in revenge against Sony.
Which MS exec said something along the lines of "I'll be happy when a copy of Ken Katuragi's Resignation letter is hung on my wall"
But, if the deal fails ABK will suck up to the console which has the largest marketshare, which is Sony by a large margin.
No, neither of these were "revenge."
Playstation was created because Sony wanted to get into the gaming business and Nintendo backed out of their deal. So they went on their own. Xbox was created literally because MS was worried about Sony getting the upper hand in the "living room." (the behind the scenes story of Xbox is hilarious, with Bill Gates calling it an insult to everything he's ever done until someone asked "what about Sony?").
Neither of these are revenge, and the idea that serious people in business are motivated by that is incredibly silly. IF the deal fails ABK will be on PS, as usual. The execs just want the deal to close so they can get a big payout for their shares.
I would say that PS being created due to Nintendo's actions is only one factor. The rest, the decision to go ahead, likely had a lot of reasoning, analysis, and projections behind it. That is, Sony thought they had a product that would sell. Not to mention, for both Sony and MS, gaming was a potentially very lucrative market.
That's how I see it too. People looking for a big payday and, as such, their opinions and words are relatively worthless. As well, with Bobby and Lulu, it is clear neither care about gaming, gamers, or even their own employees.
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Deleted member 417
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It depends on your view of revenge. I'm not talking a mass killing spree from a Hollywood action film, but as muted and carefully calculated actions go, they were revenge at a business level. From what i've read, Katuragi was spitting feathers at Nintendo after they left Sony and Phillips holding the back.
Wasn't one of the reasons Sony got into the console market was to ensure the future of their CD business after Nintendo burned them and kept on with Cartridges?
I believe that would fall under good business strategy. Implementing one aspect of their product line into another and, as it turned out, making the correct decision. I'm not saying Nintendo's actions had no bearing, just that there would be more at play when deciding to launch a new product in a new field (for Sony) than an emotional reaction. Such things, though, may have provided an impetus. After all, we likely wouldn't have Playstation if things had continued as originally planned back then.
As I recall Sony wanted no part in the videogame business even after Nintendo shit all over them. Crazy Ken was the one that fought hard to keep the project alive and, well, the rest is history.
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peter42O
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Love Lulu!! And no surprise that Sony/Jimbo want to block the ABK deal. When you're not willing to accept a 10 year deal for something that you won't own and have no right to whatsoever, it becomes obvious that all they care about is trying to get the deal blocked. What would be hilarious though is if they succeed and then ABK goes to Microsoft with an offer for COD to make it exclusive for Xbox/PC. I would laugh my ass off if that were to happen.
This is not like they had anything to lose in therms of their relationship with Activision, either you sour the relationship now (top brass will not get their money if the deal is blocked, so they'll be pissed). Or have one of the biggest publishers out there be bought by your main competitor giving them control of one of the best selling games series (CoD) who can use it to cause all sorts of problem and risk sharing new hardware specs when new stuff is coming down the line.
What did she do?