Microsoft's acquisition of Activison Blizzard

24 Jun 2022
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I honestly hope if Sega ever intends to sell, then I would favour Tencent buying them. Every company is fine instead of Microsoft.

Sadly it would most likely be Microsoft, there are just too many signs. The two also have a history together going back to the late '90s with Dreamcast.

This is why I've made my peace with that future a long time ago. In the chance it does happen, it won't diminish my love for Sega's classic output with their home consoles, or arcade systems of the time. I just know it'd be an inferior Microsoft buying the legacy and history of a superior ex-platform holder, and using that to foreclose on a superior current platform holder who's their direct competitor.

It just comes down to how much of their cultivated audience over the generations the BoD and shareholders at Sega want to alienate by selling out to Microsoft. I don't blame the developers themselves, they have little say in those matters.

If Sega sells I hope it's to a Japanese company, let Capcom buy their gaming assets

Kinda don't see what use Capcom would have with Sega's IP honestly. They have arguably more popular equivalents in most of those genre spaces. PSO? Capcom has Monster Hunter. Virtua Fighter? Capcom has Street Fighter. Deep Fear? Capcom has Resident Evil.

Capcom don't have a strong arcade racing pedigree or 3D platforming pedigree, which is where IP like Daytona/Outrun/Crazy Taxi etc. and Sonic would be strong fits. They also don't have much a presence in modern JRPGs, so stuff like Persona and SMT would be a big gain.

But outside of those? I kinda don't see the point. Tencent would be tolerable, long as they can keep the CCP politics out of the games, tho FWIW they have been distancing from the CCP lately which is good. Otherwise yeah, preferably anyone but Microsoft.
 

Old Gamer

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Tbh, Sega is weird. They are cancelling games and firing employees in their Europe branch. They bought Rovio to look more attractive. They're also porting all their games to Xbox and launching them Day 1 on Game Pass. Very unusual behaviour for a company with long-term plans.

It's like Microsoft is only interested in the Japanese part so they're trimming down the fat. Rovio is obviously so Phil can fool Nutella again for a big cheque.
They're not weird. Their board was infiltrated by "former" MS employees and friends a few years ago.
They're doing a Nokia.
 
24 Jun 2022
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All of those people are long gone, on both sides. Its been so long that even their replacements are, themselves, long gone.

I hope you're right. But, my gut is still telling me something different. Guess we will see what happens next year that could give more indication one way or the other (hopefully the way where MS doesn't end up acquiring Sega/Atlus).
 
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On Demand

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COD next thread on trashera hardy has anybody posting. 😂

This is what green rats are excited about MS buying because of “competition.” They don’t care about games from Activision. They just want to say Xbox has exclusive games and take them off PlayStation. Which ain’t going to do anything for Xbox.

Starfield did nothing to change Xbox image and sales and that was suppose to be Xbox biggest game. Activision for sure will also be redundant.
 

Dabaus

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When this eventually closes, I wonder what MS's next move will be?
-All of their plans for this decade and almost all of the next are out in the open
-public knowledge their business model isnt sustainable
-Admitted to the world xbox is a failure to garner sympathy from regulators
-Starfield was starflop and probably didnt have any impact on console sale or GP subscriptions
-Speaking of, Gamepass hasnt grown in almost 2 years
-they will be ending this year with less than 30 million consoles sold while the PS5 will be close to 60 million
-Staring down the barrel of a switch 2 launch and a ps5 pro, both of whom probably will have a steady software pipeline
- Nowhere near the numbers they wanted to hit and continue to miss goals every quarter while the clock is ticking
-Even after they close this deal they will still be tied up with the FTC in court for who knows how long as they try to unwind this deal
-Halo is irrelevant as is most of their other IP from Mismanagement
-Series S is outselling the X 3:1 and is the defacto lead console for them while third parties transition to full next gen and drop cross gen


-Do they attempt another acquisition where they may be tied up with regulators for another year or 2 with no guarantee it will even be approved, especially if its international?
-What company would even want to be bought after its known that the business model isnt sustainable and MS lied to Bethsda that they would be completely taken of Playstation (Pete Hines emails)
-Do they have a cooldown period and try to integrate ABK?
-Write this generation off and try to launch early next gen? Will anyone even care?
 
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Zzero

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@Dabaus expect the FTC stuff to get wrapped up pretty quickly (by US legal standards, any way) but everything else you pointed to paints a very challenging picture. I don't think MS makes any more huge acquisitions unless a publisher literally falls in their lap, due to belt tightening company-wide at Microsoft. So whatever they do they have to do with existing assets.
 
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27 Jun 2023
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Just seen them advertise MW3 with a bunch of og mw2 maps it's disgusting how greedy these fucker are but seeing the PlayStation at the end was the icing on the cake they shouldve asked for they're money back last year
 

Calverz

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"Have we" like you belong here. You only keep your account waiting for the day it goes through so you can gloat. Zero contribution otherwise.

Fuck off.
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anonpuffs

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“Welcome to Icon-era”
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you and your xbox buddies over at gaf seem to enjoy gawking at this site and how the "toxic ps fanboys" are infighting all the time. But if instead of trolling the ponies you applied that energy to discussing how to make xbox better, maybe phil would actually make xbox relevant again and you wouldn't have to rely on buying up some 3rd party games to find a "win". You can have the ambassadors pass that up the chain as freebie advice to good guy phil: he needs to fire matt booty, resign, and get someone competent at managing XGS.
 

Calverz

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28 Mar 2023
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you and your xbox buddies over at gaf seem to enjoy gawking at this site and how the "toxic ps fanboys" are infighting all the time. But if instead of trolling the ponies you applied that energy to discussing how to make xbox better, maybe phil would actually make xbox relevant again and you wouldn't have to rely on buying up some 3rd party games to find a "win". You can have the ambassadors pass that up the chain as freebie advice to good guy phil: he needs to fire matt booty, resign, and get someone competent at managing XGS.
So is this a yes then?
 
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