Microsoft’s $69bn deal to buy Call of Duty maker Activision Blizzard cleared by UK
Microsoft’s $69bn deal to buy Call of Duty maker Activision Blizzard cleared by UK
Competition regulator had initially moved to block acquisition but concerns addressed
I'm torn between wanting Activision to get new management and not wanting Microsoft to aquire two major companies and dominate the market
It's really bad. This is all about Game Pass. MS wants to acquire enough of the industry big IPs to force people onto Game Pass. All of tech right now is trying really hard to get people locked into subscriptions because it's effectively free, easy money. You don't have to convince consumers to constantly buy new stuff. You just need to dissuade them from canceling a subscription, which is much easier.
Then they just gobble up more of the market share until they've hit their theoretical maximum. Then they can raise prices because they've captured the market and driven competitors away. They've already made it so you pretty much need Game Pass if you own an Xbox. Long-term they could stop selling PC games on Steam, but they probably won't because the PC market is so much smaller than console and they can point to that as a "win" for consumer choice.
Sony has nothing successful enough compared to Game Pass and as they fall further behind they'll likely abandon it entirely.
I am in a similar boat, but i don't think this is THAT big of a deal.
Blizzard is mostly a shell of its former self. FF14 has taken over as the default theme park MMO and Riot own the majority of the sweaty RTS super genre. Also whatever Overwatch counted as.
As for Activision proper? Mostly they've let their IPs languish in favor of CoD. And CoD is still huge, but it is not the industry controlling monster it used to be AND MS are "committed" to keeping that multi-platform (because that is where the money is).
I still think Bethesda/Zenimax was the big "holy shit" acquisition. Obviously Skyrim is one of the biggest games of all time and prints money. But it was mostly all the sub-studios (Machine Games, for example) that very much dominate the "third party" market.
I think King is probably the really big part of this acquisition but... I've never understood the mobile market so I am not even sure if that is still as dominant as I think it is?
I mean when Microsoft purchased Bethesda it made things better than they were at the time and we got access to a lot more older titles. Just look at what Redfall was and then compare it to Starfield. Microsoft didn’t have any hands in Redfall but did in Starfield.
I don't think this is really a good comparison since Starfield was in development for years before Microsoft came in. Plus, Redfall was forced by management to shoehorn in a live service model with mtx during its development, butchering what it had been before.
And, this is just my personal opinion, but I think Starfield is a pretty mediocre game. Besides the ship design, it's largely the same design that Bethesda has had since Oblivion.
People keep thinking this is bad for Activision. Activision wants this. That should tell you all you need to know.
Bobby Kotick might quit after the buyout because he's a power-hungry wannabe-murderer, but there's zero chance he doesn't get hundreds of millions in payout no matter what happens. He's happy about the buyout.
This isn't going to affect much of how Activision develops games, except 0 of them will be on Sony hardware going forward, unless they actually honor that deal for Call of Duty, but that's it. All this does is ensure consumers have less choice.
People keep thinking this is bad for Activision
This isn't bad for Activision or Microsoft. It's bad for everybody else.
Welcome the new management, same as the old management.
Fuck Activision
Fuck both Activision and Microsoft*
Anyone have a map of who remains after the mega mergers of the last 15y? At this point I'm just waiting for our EA/Bioware/Activision/Blizzard/Microsoft/Tencent future.
Isn't $69B also the amount the IRS just said Microsoft owes them? 🤔
Nah, it's only 29B. But ifthey have such money why won't they pay taxes? 🤔
Will Microsoft also bend the knee to China for gaming $$$? We'll soon find out.
Why would they not?
I remember for Rainbow 6 Siege the cost of updating two separate instances of the game (Chinese version had slot machines on maps removed, no blood, no skull/death icons, etc) was adding development time so devs tried to push a single “global” version to everyone. They claimed it was going to save on development time but the player base was not pleased
There is only pointless hope that Microsoft will make Activision Blizzard great again cause their gaming track is just a total joke so far. And AB, as a gaming company, are totally fcked. Every game they did in the last 5 years is a middle finger to their fans and thumbs up to their share holders. There is no way AB gets a single dime of my money..
What did the anti-monopoly office (whatever they are called) smoke to greenlight this?
If they bring back Heroes of the Storm I will dick ride Microsoft for the rest of my life
Mason: what do the numbers mean?
Reznov: TPM, 4GB, Secureboot. All is required
4GB? More like 400GB...
4GB min ram for ms windows 11 lol
Nice.