OP
OP
Microsoft's acquisition of Activison Blizzard
- Thread starter Darth Vader
- Start date
NVidia are coming at it from a geforce now perspective, which has nothing to do with Starfield, before you edited that part out.
ok.
So, paint chips, gas fumes or crack? Which is your favorite?
Regardless of how I feel about it, I still feel like there's a good chance these regulators let this buyout happen. It has been entertaining to see this move from MS go anything but smoothly.
P
peter42O
Guest
In all honesty, I don't know why anyone including those at Microsoft would have expected this acquisition that's worth $70B to go smoothly. Microsoft said a year ago that they expect the deal to close by June 30th, 2023. Basically, 18 months after the announcement of the acquisition. When you're expecting 18 months give or take, no one is expecting a smooth acquisition.
I doubt they expected anyone to be against the deal based on how incredulously they've acted in recent interviews.
P
peter42O
Guest
I'm sure they expected Sony being against the deal with perhaps a few others joining in. I don't see Nvidia as a big deal at all. They're in favor of the deal and wants games on their GeForce Now service but as far as I know, they don't pay to get the games added. It's up to the publisher/developer. As for Google, they had Stadia which had the better streaming tech compared to XCloud and they did nothing with it to build it up. No studios and when they started them, it didn't last long. Streaming the only option. I'm not giving you $60 for three year old games like AC Odyssey. Horrible pricing structure/pricing model. Should have been subscription based with the option to still buy the game(s) if you choose to do so. Basically, I don't take them seriously with their issues because they didn't take their own platform seriously. Google expected to come in and dominate and they got their ass kicked and didn't want to invest into their platform. No one to blame but themselves.
Eh, I personally don't think it's good for the industry to allow Microsoft to potentially leapfrog over everyone by buying up publishers and permanently locking long established IP into their ecosystems, but others would argue that it's the only option they have to stay in the race.
It all sucks ass, but it is what it is in my opinion. If it happens, Playstation will just need to make some moves of their own so they don't end up missing out on a bunch of stuff.
P
peter42O
Guest
The gaming industry continues to grow and become bigger every year regardless of if Microsoft (or whoever else) acquires publishers. After all, if the publisher is looking to sell, they're not going to those who don't have the money to acquire them. They're going to rich companies because they want maximum return. In terms of locking down established IP, that doesn't matter because Microsoft would be the company that's funding all of it so what right does any company who isn't spending a dime to produce all those IP's have in saying what can or can't be done, just because it affects their bottom line?
Microsoft took 19 years before finally spending actual real top tier main event money on Xbox. Did anyone truly believe that they were never ever going to spend their money? At some point, it was going to happen. And it just so happened during a time where two major publishers were looking to sell.
Look at Ubisoft. They're easily looking to sell. Do you think that if in a year or two from now, they went to Microsoft looking to sell to them that Microsoft would say no? Of course not. That would be horrible business. You don't pass up great opportunities or a once in a life time opportunity like ABK just because it may piss off some people. Oh well.
Sony will make moves. They could acquire Ubisoft if they wanted to and have some huge franchises under their banner but I don't see them acquiring any publisher because it's not what they do and I don't believe that they would want to spend the money necessary to keep the publishers intact especially Ubisoft which has over 20K employees. Sony isn't taking that on. And even with Square Enix, Sony gets the main games they want as exclusives for a massive fraction of the cost that it would be to acquire them so why buy the cow when you get the milk for free? Sony will continue to acquire developmental studios especially with those that are low cost, high reward while also investing into publishers in order to veto any potential sale by another company. Along with their main single player games, if they can nail at least 2 of the 10+ live service games that they're working on and I do believe that they will easily accomplish this, then they'll be just fine without Bethesda's games or ABK's games (even though Sony has Overwatch 2 and will have Diablo IV for probably a decade or some shit) or any other publisher's games for that matter.
When you have 70% world wide market share and a powerful brand in PlayStation, it doesn't matter if they "lose" access to a few publishers because it's not going to affect them in any major way. As an Xbox fan, I will say this straight out - even with ABK and COD exclusive to Xbox, PlayStation will still have at least 65%+ console market share world wide. PlayStation fans truly don't understand or realize how powerful and strong their branding is. Sony would have to have an Xbox One/Wii U/PlayStation 3 level fuck ups all at the same time for there to even be a remote chance of them losing market share and their #1 spot. And that's simply not going to happen.
You keep saying that but Activision was not looking to sell. They knew all their big games were coming out. They were doing better than ever but then there was that big controversial article about Bobby Kotick. Phil approached him while he was panicking.
They were not in the market before that point. MS took advantage of the controversy.
P
peter42O
Guest
Activision went to Facebook first. They said no. Kotick literally went to Spencer. Spencer went to Nadella. Nadella basically said hell yeah and well, here we are. Of course, the Kotick/ABK shit led to them selling but who's fault is that? Microsoft's? LOL. That's Kotick's fault for being a fucked up human being who saw a way out while getting a massive payout.
Ubisoft is a bad example. Beyond how bloated they are with the number of studios and employees the buyer would have to manage, imo there are much more appealing ips out there. There's also the issue of all of the allegations they are facing that any buyer would inherit.
Being #1 isn't the main thing that's important to most of us. We would just like to continue playing our favorite ips (some of which have been on PS since the 90s) on our platform of choice and that will become increasing difficult if some participants in the industry keep throwing money around in an attempt to push others out of their way to the top.
Last edited:
That scandal truly came out onto media at the time MS needed it the most. Like so many things get parroroted in media (true or not) at the most inconvenient time for MS competition.
What a coincidence.
P
peter42O
Guest
Their allegations are no worse than ABK's. The main issue with Ubisoft is their desire to get in on the massive money making free to play market which they haven't been able to do. There are more appealing IP's out there but AC and FC are huge. A game like Rainbow Six Siege would be big for Sony. An already successful live service game and first person which as of now, they don't have.
I understand wanting to play your favorite IP's on your platform of choice but this is where I disagree with this mindset. If the IP is what truly matters, then you'll do what is needed to play it. If not, then these so called favorite IP's aren't really a favorite. After all, there's games I want to play on Xbox but can't. I can only play them on PlayStation so I bought and own a PS5 and will play them there.
Regardless of how much money Microsoft throws around, they're not just going to be able to push Sony or Nintendo for that matter out of their way to the top. Come on. Do you guys have such little faith and confidence in Sony while at the same time, also having massive confidence in Microsoft to NOT fuck it all up?
We'll just have to agree to disagree on the favorite IPs point. I shouldn't theoretically have to buy an Xbox to play the latest entry in an Ip that's been on Playstation consoles since before the original Xbox even launched for example.
As for the Ubisoft and live service point, that's what the Bungie purchase was for (Destiny being first person for example), and why Sony wants them to assist their other devs with making live service games. I'll concede that Ubisoft's IP just don't interest me though, even though they can sell well.
My personal concern is that after ABK, MS will move on to a publisher/ IP I actually will miss a lot more and potentially screw it up after buying it while trying to feed the Gamepass machine. Basically the rest of us get screwed as a side effect of their quest for growth.
Last edited:
P
peter42O
Guest
Why shouldn't you have to buy an Xbox to play the latest entry in an IP just because it was previously on PlayStation despite the fact that Sony doesn't own that IP and have no say with what to do wit it at all? Too many of you are acting as if just because it was on PlayStation that Sony owns it or that you're entitled to it. Fact is that they don't and you're not. Acquiring IP's and making them exclusive to your platform is how the gaming industry has always worked and will continue to work. But fair enough, we'll agree to disagree.
We'll see what Bungie has lined up for the future. I'm a Ubisoft guy and don't want them to die so if that means Sony or Microsoft acquires them, so be it.
Yeah, I understand that concern but only to a certain extent because at the end of the day, YOU do still have the option to play the game/IP if it truly means that much to you. My concern is the opposite - Microsoft acquires another publisher like ABK that I don't care about. lol
Really hoping gaming doesn't turn into two sides perpetually hoping their team buys up all of their favorite devs/ips before the others guys can have a chance to take them all away. That type of shit started THIS gen.