Cannot confirm or deny that I may have been the insider.
Activision Blizzard Merger with Microsoft Could Fall Apart According to Insiders - WCCFTech
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Everything from the post to the picture and the tag was perfect for this thread.
The second is very optimistic. MS has been buying good studios to pad their value of noteworthy games, hence they bought Bethesda. Yet, every time they buy studios, the good people leave, so continuity of quality is never sustained. Bungie wanted out, 343i is a mess internally. So much hype on the Initiative, but it went from AAAA development to working on a Perfect Dark Remaster/Remake. Rare is dead.
All the studios bought since 2018 mostly indies have nothing to show, the turn around for indies should be a year to 2 years, still nothing from those 5 indies. Inxile is miles away from releasing anything. I've heard about a new fable years and years ago, no where to be seen. Forza Motorsport was always a launch title for MS, it's been two years from launch. Something is not correct with the internal engine at MS, the director of their internal studios, their dev team's motivation and skill levels are just not up to standard.
If Bungie wanted out, they can't get the Initiative firing, they can't get games out, farless good games after years upon years, it's a bigger problem than we know. MS dev problems are not going to go away if they don't acquire Activision, they won't suddenly get the motivation and zeal. The reason they are buying so many studios it's because they know their internal studios are just not measuring up after years and years....
I want to play devil's advocate here WRT the smaller-scale 2018 acquisitions: the optimist in me would WANT to say that MS were busy with beefing those teams up so they could elevate beyond indie and smaller AA games into AAA projects, meaning those games would need to take more time. For all we know, they could have been doing that the whole time.
However, seeing is believing, and all we've seen are target renders, no gameplay, and news of several of those teams with projects in various states of duress, suggesting that they are struggling. Playground and Obsidian have been the most busy of the bunch, but they have either put out basically more of the same (FH5), or have released even smaller-scale games in the meantime (Obsidian, with Pentiment coming this month in a few days).
If we don't get a release date for Avowed in 2023, if that's in fact a 2024 game, then all I can say is there has been some sloppy management with Obsidian in any case, considering since Outer Worlds (which was before their being acquired) they've only put out Grounded (Version 1.0 at that), and now Pentiment which does not seem like the kind of game that needs four years of development when you have a company like Microsoft bankrolling. And a late release date for Avowed means an even later release date for Outer Worlds 2.
Ninja Theory are going to find themselves in a tough spot too with Hellblade II because it's inevitably going to be compared against GOW Ragnarok. For its sake, it'll need to hit somewhere between Plague Tale: Requiem on the lower end and GOW Ragnarok on the higher end, and they've had some lofty talk about the game in the past, plus it's expected to be a UE5 showpiece. Anything that doesn't meet those expectations is going to cripple wider reception. I don't even know where Project: Mara is or if that's even still a thing, for that matter.
Did you see Jez Corden's Windows Central article basically putting a gun to Sony & CMA's heads with the threat Microsoft will somehow buy up all the 3P exclusives going forward if the deal doesn't go through?
It was funny. Ironic too because people like him have criticized Sony for timed exclusivity in the past, but now feel okay with the idea of Microsoft cranking it up to 11 if the deal falls apart, because apparently the deal falling apart would be Sony's fault alone and they'd need to be "punished".
I personally don't care one way or another if the deal goes through, I don't actually inherently object to the deal itself. It's things surrounding the deal, bigger than Microsoft & Sony, that I'm more concerned with, honestly. But dudes like Jez are so narrow-minded about it, which is why they write those laughable articles.
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These guys where the same idiots who wanna People to boycott the avengers game because Spiderman was only a PlayStation character
Yeah, and the funny part is Spiderman was already in Ultimate Alliance 3 which came to the Switch, so the thing of him being PS-exclusive isn't even necessarily true.
But you think they'd be mad at Microsoft for completely turning away the opportunity to work with Marvel IP. Nah, gotta make Sony the villain on that one for whatever odd reason.
That was one of the games Phil name dropped in an interview earlier this year as worth reviving...but that's just the thing. It's still just all talk for now, same with Starcraft.
Honestly I think they should bring back Leisure Suit Larry but call it Leisure Skirt Laura, a sleazy bi NEET who's awkwardly trying to be a playgirl. That way you can still keep the spirit of the original games but avoid the backlash
Why not? Seems like multiple regulatory entities have concerns around the deal. Is your boss that confident it will go through?
Seems it will pass ftc and eu with concessions…….good luck with the uk as it seems they might want a blood sacrifice and rightfully so.
Tbf what concessions could MS offer? The CMA are even thinking beyond and knocking the down-the-line plays MS could do and accounting for them in their concerns. Even if MS said fuck it we'll always keep COD everywhere, like Minecraft, CMA has something to say about mtx etc.
They didn’t buy Activision to ignore Warzone money. To do what? Cut out 100 million plus potential consumers? No way. Xbox’s market share is not good.
Let them buy it. Don’t care
It’ll go thru. But they could’ve got the eidos scraps instead of having to hold off on further acquisitions due to the scale of this one … i mean they’re contracting work out to Eidos anyway to save the projects they currently have in shambles.
They dug themselves into a bigger mess.
Let them buy it. Don’t care
It’ll go thru. But they could’ve got the eidos scraps instead of having to hold off on further acquisitions due to the scale of this one … i mean they’re contracting work out to Eidos anyway to save the projects they currently have in shambles.
They dug themselves into a bigger mess.
She has probably played Candy Crush tho. it will 100% go through.
it's still such a crazy deal in reality.
MS knew they would never get the marketing rights for COD back given their market position, so they weasel into a deal behind the scenes to buy the publisher outright.
without this and bethesda they would really have nothing. they're getting outsold 3:1 now, 5:1 if you don't count the Series S.
Their marketshare is shrinking lower and lower each year. There's a real reality that without this deal, Xbox is done.
They're truly fighting for survival with this deal. it'll pass, they'll make sure of it. no matter what.
MS knew they would never get the marketing rights for COD back given their market position, so they weasel into a deal behind the scenes to buy the publisher outright.
without this and bethesda they would really have nothing. they're getting outsold 3:1 now, 5:1 if you don't count the Series S.
Their marketshare is shrinking lower and lower each year. There's a real reality that without this deal, Xbox is done.
They're truly fighting for survival with this deal. it'll pass, they'll make sure of it. no matter what.
One of them could be to break off CoD into its own studio and keep them independent. It's not unheard of.
If it doesn't pass the UK it won't pass. They won't stop selling in one of their biggest markets.
I agree with what youre saying, but if the conessions are COD stays multiplatfrom indefinitely (or at least 10 years or something) then i think microsoft wasted their money and i wouldnt be surprised if their investors felt the same. Its like you said, theyre still losing market share and they spend 70 billion dollars to keep the status quo? They dont want concessions, any, hence the the "let us compete statement."
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