Microsoft's acquisition of Activison Blizzard

Nhomnhom

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25 Mar 2023
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The CMA blocking it was the lucky break for people that like the traditional game market. With this deal going through we either get MS acquiring the bulk of the market unopposed or consolidation wars.
 
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anonpuffs

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FTC shouldve requested a new judge after it was disclosed her son works for MS and the way she had been handling the gamers lawsuit.
I think the Biden administration leaned on them to make a show of doing enforcement but never intended to block it. The establishment dems and republicans are ALL in bed with big corporate donors.
 

Arminius

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19 May 2023
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It’s only a matter of time before 6 to 8 mega corporations own everything video game related.
 

Nhomnhom

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The judge is corrupt. This trial was bogus. We all knew that.
The next judge is probably going to be corrupt too. Gaming was doomed the moment Nadella took an interest in it. These companies are just too big and get to do what they want one way or the other. If MS has to burn the entire traditional gaming market so that they'll control the ashes they'll do it.

Once they are done with Sony it's Nintendo and Valve next.
 
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BloodMod

Fear the Old Blood
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20 Jun 2022
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I rarely write my personal opinion here, but let me say that such widespread corruption destroying a creative industry is a very, very sad thing to contemplate.

This is a very sad day for gaming. Only a corporate whore (or more pathetic, an aspiring one) would claim otherwise.
 

anonpuffs

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The judge is corrupt. This trial was bogus. We all knew that.
That's literally kangaroo court level stuff. I'm really sad that my cynicism was extremely accurate. This country is effectively dead, and the court system is a sham. I mean, I knew it already, but such a blatant reminder is just...smh
 
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Dabaus

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Laytonwright from resetera said:

"will say their current make loads of live service games will be a massive flop. Jim is hoping for one of these to become COD spoilers it really wont.

Actual prediction just from a POV of someone within Industry. Sony will see this and will try to atleast secure two big companies within 5 yearsish.

I know for a fact and that it went industry wide (see greg miller and others about a year or so ago) that Sony were eying up square enix. I think this extrapolates that.

Dont be shocked if its Square and they go for capcom/sega to secure the exclusives or they go for a major Western Dev.

If MS have wow, Sony should really get XIV and Square soon and lock that down. I can see both having a package via respective Sony/MS offering all expansions via their subscription model.

I am not for Consolidation i'd prefer companies be apart, but the Activision/Blizzard deal will be seen as a massive change in the industry and could start an arms race for companies being aqcuired."

 
24 Jun 2022
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Nowhere as they seen to be harassing trans people left and right.

Which is crazy. I don't even care about these types of things to the degree some on Reset do, but I wouldn't let that kind of stuff fly if Zenimax were a company I ran. At the very least it screws up worker morale, and coworkers should be respectful to one another.

Just basic things, really, and by extension you wouldn't have trans employees being harassed. Guess that's too much for Microsoft though, prob part of the reason they kept Zenimax "limited-integrated" (but integrated enough to foreclose on PlayStation for future Zenimax content, including games that were already contractually obligated to come to PlayStation).
 
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Welfare

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23 Jan 2023
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Dude you try tracking sales of plastic boxes that keep dropping in sales so much even the company that makes them doesn't want to be transparent with the sales of those plastic boxes.

C'mon, you cannot try belittling others over "plastic boxes" when you are also obsessed with "plastic boxes" 🤣
Following sales is a hobby of mine and I do it for all platforms lol not just Xbox.

Also Xbox consoles sales are doing better than anyone here thought anyway so lol
You're so naive to only look at this in terms of generic customer interests. ABK did not need MS to buy them to justify bringing COD back to Switch; they could have looked at bringing mobile COD Warfare to Switch instead.

MS buying Zenimax, so far, hasn't resulted in a SINGLE new game from Zenimax that wasn't already in the works pre-acquisition, or that they wouldn't have pursued if they were still on their own. If anything, it now means non-MS gamers get LESS Zenimax games, i.e MS renegotiating the terms of the Indiana Jones contract.

Where are the "better worker conditions" for the Zenimax teams? What IP outside of COD have MS or ABK even indicated expanding to new platforms? What good does COD staying multiplat matter if MS set licensing terms that squeeze out Sony's potential revenue & profits on that content access, and leverage other content in package deals to artificially increase the buying price for direct competitors as a result, which in turn actually harms customers as well?

Some of you really have not thought all of this through, or have already forgotten the intentions clearly expressed in leaked documents.
Generic customer interests lol.

Bobby wouldn't bring COD to Switch on his own and his own words still left doubt that he would actually bring it to Switch 2. That's a hypothetical, Microsoft securing a deal with Nintnedo is substance. COD Mobile was not coming to Switch and wasn't a consideration.

Microsoft is allowed to own exclusive content to its platform and we already know they chose not to amend the Deathloop and Ghostwire contracts. Whenever Zenimax releases catalog titles like a probable Fallout remaster, that'll be multiplatform. I don't see them keeping a Fallout 3 Remaster or Quake 2 Xbox only. Online games like 76 and ESO will continue to see PlayStation support.

We've seen recently Microsoft become aware that they are too hands off with Zenimax, and there have been successful pushes in Microsoft and ABK to unionize. Over time, hopefully more Zenimax employees unionize.

Phil said he wants to revive StarCraft. Seeing how Age is now on Xbox, console players and mobile through cloud could get StarCraft 3. Seeing as the deal hasn't actually closed yet, I can't answer to what Microsoft will actually do with all of ABK's dormant IP. Probably a revival of Sierra IP.

You're speculating Microsoft will squeeze Sony on margins when that isn't the case with Minecraft or Zenimax, so stop fear mongering. And what do you mean with that last bit, with the package deals? They already have 10 year deals with a bunch of companies signed. That's not an issue for at least a decade.