Microsoft's acquisition of Activison Blizzard

[Swift_Star]

EA and Ubisoft will be licking their lips at COD coming off Playstation.

As one door another one opens.

This is not wrong.

 

[Gamernyc78]

"" indeed.
Time to update the thread title.

Yeah u was wrong about when it was going to happen and still waiting on what they talking about!

 

[Swolf712]

If it's a small divestiture my guess is it's ABK selling off the publishing rights to CoD or ABK games only in the UK

Jez would still riot.

 

[Papacheeks]

I always thought the best thing that could happen coming from a old-school Blizzard fan is a Divesture of Blizzard. But with the caveat that Diablo 4 stays with Activision, but the property and all of Blizzards back property's are their own.

I would be ok with Blizzard rebuilding itself and maybe getting on the road to a redemption arc.

But thats a pipe dream, its probably something like Toys4Bob or something getting spun off.

 

[Danja]

EA and Ubisoft will be licking their lips at COD coming off Playstation.

As one door another one opens.

Playstation would be dumb to not try to align Battlefield with Playstation for now.

With Vince Zampella taking it over, it's the right time to revive a strategic partnership with EA.

 

[CloudStrife]

Absolutely, lock ABK off the platform...go to Ubisoft with a bag or just buy them and make it the big new shooter.

People will spend their money on xDefiant instead of COD. If they do it now, they will save themselves from losses in the future.

I dont suspect they will remove Cod from the platform. They will advertise it until their contract is up. Afterwards I'd keep it on PS but never ever advertise and place another shooter front and center. They need to move fast though. XDefiant with Sony's resources fully behind it could be something. Also, I feel like Ubisoft is on the verge of turning things around for the better.

 

[anonpuffs]

Jez would still riot.

Fuck Jez

 

[Loy310]

Absolutely, lock ABK off the platform...go to Ubisoft with a bag or just buy them and make it the big new shooter.

People will spend their money on xDefiant instead of COD. If they do it now, they will save themselves from losses in the future.

Realistically, the big pubs that are left are going to go with the bigger playerbase. Sony needs an inhouse shooter and a very successful one at that to maintain a playerbase lead so they can attract devs with exclusive deals.

 

[Swift_Star]

I’m going to enjoy these last few years where gaming is still normal until it becomes a Spotify like place. This sucks.

 

[Swolf712]

Playstation would be dumb to not try to align Battlefield with Playstation for now.

With Vince Zampella taking it over, it's the right time to revive a strategic partnership with EA.

Battlefield's been in more of a decline than CoD though. I don't think that's going to fix their potential woes as much as some here hope it will.

Plus I'm pretty sure they still have a marketing deal with Xbox.

 

[Loy310]

Battlefield's been in more of a decline than CoD though. I don't think that's going to fix their potential woes as much as some here hope it will.

Plus I'm pretty sure they still have a marketing deal with Xbox.

Never count out EA.

 

[Dabaus]

Realistically, the big pubs that are left are going to go with the bigger playerbase. Sony needs an inhouse shooter and a very successful one at that to maintain a playerbase lead so they can attract devs with exclusive deals.

Instead of trying to create their own GAAS game in house, they shouldve have just acquired already established teams that have something good going. Like the splitgate devs or some of the ones that show up at geoffs show. This create a team from scratch and hope for the best takes way too long, way too risky, and way too slow. Sony need to make some money moves, not team up with the next garage studio from a dev whose best days are behind them.

 

[Sleepy Brown]

They need to find new ways to earn revenue troll

They're literally trying to make more money with new GaaS titles, PlayStation PC, PlayStation Mobile and PlayStation Productions. They are trying to grow with new live-service IPs. They know that they can't acquire publishers for $50+ billion. So they are trying some new stuff before it's too late. A new strategy.
So do some research troll.

...not feeding the money to the rival, how ignorant can you be? "COD is huge COD is huge COD is huge", keep repeating those lines like a shill you are huh? So what you are trying to say is that Sony should just eat what its rival is ditacting it to eat, not having to worry about the possibility of COD being foreclosed in the future? If that is what you are suggesting then I must say it is even stupidier to even do that instead of actively finding a COD substitute that Sony can have more control over.

Yes, because COD is huge. IT IS. Accept it. And Sony knows that there are millions of PlayStation fans who only buy PlayStation consoles to play Call of Duty. It's the same reason why Sony is allowing Minecraft on PlayStation. They even caved and allowed cross-play, cross-saves and they even published Minecraft in some countries. A Microsoft IP.
They won't block COD and Minecraft just because some fanboys are butthurt about the fact that Microsoft owns the IP. Both IPs are too big and too important for the PS ecosystem for millions of PS fans.
It is what it is. Microsoft has unlimited money and is buying one publisher after another, one famous 3rd party multiplatform IP after another. Accept it. That's the reality now.
So... "how ignorant can you be"?

 

[Papacheeks]

You know the fucking funny thing about that is? Activision has swallowed most of their internal studios to be a COD factory.

Spyro? Dead
Tony Hawk? Dead
Backlog IP? Dead

Blizzard take forever to release new games and so far all they do is Overwatch and Diablo and WOW. Warcraft 3 Reforged had a fucked up launch and StarCraft is dead.

AB is currently a shell of its former self to please the stock market and focus entirely on profits. Everyone works on COD at Activision, to the point where that new Crash game wasn't even marketed.

Maybe Activision and Blizzard can go back to more diverse releases thanks to Microsoft not needing them to be factories of a single IP. That's the plan, anyway. I want a StarCraft 3.

Didn't a lot of the old gaurd, alumni leave blizzard couple years back? Like that dude who worked on Hearthstone left to go make Snap which is kicking the shit out of it. Guys who worked on starcraft, wow, some diablo peopl left to form new studios who now have a couple new big titles in the mix.

You are right that its a shell. It sucks Toy4bob, Vicarious visions were turned into Cod factories. I still scratch my head how you can look at VV's work with Destiny 2 Forsaken Expansion, Tony hawk remake and then say " hey that shit you did is done, make cod now". Blows my mind.

Toys 4 bob in my eyes with their animation work withj Crash 4 were on their way for some Ratchet esque animation designs in future titles.

You see a lot of chuck jones style in some of the animations.

 

[Welfare]

So you following a hobby via tracking sales of plastic boxes is "perfectly fine", but the person you were belittling for being too invested into plastic boxes is not fine? "Rules for ye, not for thee" I take it?

When you doom and gloom an entire industry because the eternal third place console maker buys a publisher that has one notable consistently released console game, you are way too invested.

Stop acting like the behavior by most in this thread in reaction to Microsoft acquiring ABK is normal.

Also no they aren't; they're at little over 21 million after almost 3 years on the market, and have been tracking at OG Xbox levels globally for months. Even you were depressed & worried about how slow Xbox systems were selling at. But now with today's news you want to retroactively pretend like your own concern & worry is invalid? Today's news doesn't suddenly mean Xbox systems were selling above OG Xbox levels globally for the past six or so months. It doesn't mean they're suddenly well over 21 million.

Lol.

You have to stop saying OG Xbox levels since you're factually incorrect.

OG Xbox sold 24M lifetime from 2001 to 2005, so a little over 4 years. Xbox Series is going to sell over 24M in 3. Right now XBS is tracking at Xbox One numbers.

I wasn't depressed lol otherwise why would I continue to follow and report the numbers?

Ampere had XBS selling 1.6M in Q1 2023, so it's going to be +22M as of now.

Microsoft didn't "secure" a deal with Nintendo because they don't own the content yet! They made an oath, which then dropped down to a promise. That is not the same thing as making a legally-binding deal.

They signed a contract on the basis they would own the content. Yes that is in fact a legally binding deal that the US court and EC recognize as being made.

You should go re-read the conditions MS presented to the EC and other regulators to get approval for Zenimax, then. They specifically said case-by-case if the game could either boost Xbox console sales by a certain threshold or boost Game Pass subscriptions by a certain threshold, without creating a scenario where they leave more money on the table than they could recoup through boosts in one of the aforementioned two situations.

Case by case

Elder Scrolls Online: Kept as multiplatform
Fallout 76: Kept as multiplatform
Deathloop: Kept as PS timed exclusive
Ghostwire: Kept as PS timed exclusive
Indiana Jones: Turned Xbox exclusive
Starfield: Turned Xbox exclusive
Elder Scrolls 6: Turned Xbox exclusive

Where's the sweeping change in how Zenimax delivers content? Zenimax titles also continue to appear in rival subscription services.

Turning TES from a multiplat to an Xbox console exclusive violates the conditions they themselves stated to regulators. Making Starfield an exclusive does, as well. Same with Indiana Jones, and it doesn't matter if MS can choose to amend contracts or not: the understanding (or implication from their previous statements to regulators) was that they would only amend if the resultant situation provided one of the two aforementioned benefits without creating a void in revenue left on the table by making a game console exclusive.

You are aware the EC unconditionally approved the Zenimax purchase right? Microsoft is under no legal requirement to do any of that. The EC didn't need that because Zenimax as a whole was deemed to not be a concern.

Obviously the games you mentioned would not be Xbox console exclusive; they are old games, and in terms of stuff like ESO, live-service GaaS MMOs. Duh. Touch base again when MS decide to make the next mainline DOOM, Quake, Fallout and Wolfenstein games console multiplats. Or hell, even the sequel to HiFi Rush (if it gets one).

So Zenimax games can and will be multiplatform? Glad we agree.

Okay, sure, let's see how Phil's track record is on utilizing IP of other acquisitions like Rare....

Oh, what's that? His track record is garbage? What a shock. Starcraft is such an easy target to claim you want to bring back, same with Guitar Hero. Those are just additional money streams for Microsoft. Let's see them bring back something mainly for the creative passion it could enable, that MS/Xbox upper management could actually have input in beyond just pumping money in the ass to fund it.

Killer Instinct? Rare Replay?? Battletoads??? Perfect Dark????

Pentiment was allowed to exist in modern Xbox development my guy of course Xbox is going to let those devs do what they want.

Let's see what ideas Gamer Guy Phil™ has for Leisure Suit Larry, or Quest for Glory, or Gabriel Knight and Space Quest. Would they even dare touch Leisure Suit Larry or Police Quest else potentially upset so-called progressive supporters like ResetERA...oh who am I kidding? The mods and admin over there would go head over heels supporting those coming back, it's Microsoft now so now it's all good! (/sarcasm).

Assemble Entertainment own Leisure Suit Larry now.

I'm speculating nothing; I'm going off numerous emails and internal documents Microsoft themselves have shared amongst themselves for several years regarding an acquisition strategy squarely aimed at pushing Sony/PlayStation out of business. Obviously, that would include strategies to cut in on their margins of provided content.

One email from Mat Booty is not numerous and even then nothing they've done since has shifted Sony's market share.

Again, they have done none of that with Minecraft and Zenimax titles on PlayStation. It's fear mongering.

The only reason MS couldn't remove Minecraft off PS was because Notch stipulated the game remain multiplat to make that deal happen. Good Guy Phil™ obviously wanted it exclusive, he's said so himself per the leaks. Good Guy Phil™ has already stated they plan to make all future Zenimax content console-exclusive to Xbox...fits right in with expressed intents in the emails.

It's not fearmongering if its based on actual statements and evidential action done by Microsoft themselves.

So Minecraft stayed multiplatform and some Zenimax content that wasn't stipulated to be multiplatform isn't. Cool.

Oh and those 10 year deals are with mostly peanut-sized companies and non-competitors who never posed any actual challenge to Microsoft's own plans for growth in the cloud gaming market. And are you suggesting that after 10 years, MS can just pull their access to that content away and it won't be a big deal, despite several regulators at least claiming cloud SLC was a concern?

I guess we can look forward to Boosteroid and Black Nut putting out COD competitors in 2033. Awesome

Uh yeah, Microsoft can do with its content what it wants to. You think Microsoft is forced into perpetually being a multiplatform publisher?

The whole point of signing those deals is increasing access to Call of Duty so Microsoft makes more money. They have the ability to not pursue that if the calculus works in their favor, but we also know they assume having COD on more platforms makes them more money anyway, so there won't be a need to work that out.

After the 10 years are up, they'll just sign more realistic 2-4 year deals.

 

[Papacheeks]

They sell smaller game IPs.

Sony steps up and buys Spyro and Crash.

Insomniac & Spyro and Crash & ND reunited at last.

World Peace achieved.

That would be the best news out of this to be honest. Imagine Insomniac making a crash/Spyro kart racer?

 

[Loy310]

Instead of trying to create their own GAAS game in house, they shouldve have just acquired already established teams that have something good going. Like the splitgate devs or some of the ones that show up at geoffs show. This create a team from scratch and hope for the best takes way too long, way too risky, and way too slow. Sony need to make some money moves, not team up with the next garage studio from a dev whose best days are behind them.

We will see if the board in Japan change their minds on major acquisitions, as of right now they dont seem interested.

 

[Fenton]

 

[Sleepy Brown]

Yeah u was wrong about when it was going to happen and still waiting on what they talking about!

CMA bending the knee and MS buying Activision-Blizzard? I was spot on.
It just didn't need the CAT. FTC losing was already enough for the CMA to cave.

 

[Swift_Star]

I’m really wondering what divestiture CMA accepted it… it must be something really irrelevant for MS and not CoD that’s for sure.
And let’s not forget: massive layoffs incoming.