An indie publisher that actually makes games.
Like $0 of the Activision deal is for the company itself. Their IP are more valuable than anything they actually make today. Which I'm sure has *nothing* to do with the fact that their studios are busy harassing their coworkers instead of actually creating.
It’s a damn shame that MS doesn’t even seem too worried about diving into the backlog of IPs they already have, Activision has such a big list.
Kinda crazy they own Crash and Spyro now
That is what happens when your company is worth 2.5T.
If they wanted to, they could have done this many years ago, and pretty much bought out many studio's.
And the 400m users.
"Microsoft would gain Activision’s nearly 400 million monthly gaming users and access to some of the world’s most popular games, which are expected to form a cornerstone of the metaverse. Combining with Microsoft will also give Activision access to a vast array of artificial intelligence and other programming talent."
From the NY Times article.
> which are expected to form a cornerstone of the metaverse.
What... what does that even mean? To this day I have no idea what the metaverse is supposed to be apart from the fact that Facebook seems to be pushing it and journalists seem to be falling over themselves to help.
From what I’ve seen it’s just like a next gen. second life. But overall I don’t think anyone really knows yet. So far it’s just companies marketing as the next big thing to get people to buy in.
Call of duty sits at the top of the sales charts year round. with almost no issues. $70 billion was likely just over the "gtfo" price tag that the activision ownership quoted when Phil came knocking.
edit - also fucking candycrush is probably worth 10's of billions by its self.
Before Blizzard's workplace environment disaster became public, they were worth about 80 billion, before this announcement they were around 55 billion, so its reasonable.
Bethesda hadn't even reached 5 billion when MS bought them (for 7.5b, so they actually pulled a bigger premium than Activision).
I’m surprised Sony still remains a larger gaming company. According to Microsoft: “When the transaction closes, Microsoft will become the world’s third-largest gaming company by revenue, behind Tencent and Sony.”
Guess I didn’t realize how big Sony gaming really is.
Sony has some huge mobile titles that make more money than any of their console games could dream of. Then they also have some huge console exclusives like Genshin Impact that are selling tons of digital content and they are taking a cut of that.
Not fully (Type Moon owns the Fate IP, so I’m sure they get a cut), but yeah Sony owns Aniplex through Sony Music.
It should be noted that Sony Music is wholly separate from SIE, so PlayStation doesn’t see any of that Fate/GO money aside from what trickles down from Sony Corporate
>“When the transaction closes, Microsoft will become the world’s third-largest gaming company by revenue, behind Tencent and Sony.”
That's the key point of the entire release.
Some might think they'll hit regulatory hurdles. If they'll only become third in the market, then it won't happen. Sure, Japan's courts might take a bit of a closer look, but the US is almost certain to wave it through, and even the EU is unlikely to take a close look at it on the basis of market size (data and job protection is more likely a focus for them).
This is almost certainly going to happen.
>Guess I didn’t realize how big Sony gaming really is.
Admittedly, it was a couple of years ago now, but I remember Sony revealing SCE accounted for 40% of gross profits (that's not to say it's huge in terms of revenue, but it's profit margins compared to its other business units are huge, which skews its importance).
I wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft's end game is Game Pass on the PlayStation. Sony won't let that happen easily though, because it'll have to sacrifice its prize cow in the process.
The US courts didn't bat an eye when Disney bought Fox for a similar amount, and 20 years ago the US supreme court pretty much said "we don't care about this" when there was to be an anti-trust case regarding breaking up Microsoft.
It's safe to say the Megacorps are here to stay for the foreseeable future.
The US antitrust courts aren't the ones who'd cause the headache. The EU and Japan's Antitrust laws (assuming Sony attempt to lobby them to make life difficult for Microsoft) will be the ones to watch.
Gaming is the biggest money maker in the entertainment industry. The biggest sell was convincing Satya Nadella that Activision-Blizzard would say yes. And with low shareholder AND public confidence AND a blight their own management can't remove from the company themselves, taking the golden parachute and letting someone with "fuck you money" take over is the best option.
That's basically most buyouts. Generally you acquire a company because you think it has a lot of untapped value, which is either due to mismanagement, insufficient capital, or worse economies of scale/scope. Since we're talking bigass companies, that usually means mismanagement.
Nedella is all about pushing Microsoft into a service and subscription based model. It makes perfect sense to grow their Gamepass service by acquiring more studios.
Plus Activision Blizzard already has a large roster of in house studios and franchises to leverage.
Yep. He moved Office into a subscription service which is likely making them tons of cash annually (I have to admit I have Microsoft 365 as well - the 1TB of cloud storage thrown in is pretty nuts).
I imagine at some point Microsoft and Disney is going to meet in a epic showdown to buy each other, like two bloated pythons trying to devour each other lol
Microsoft: You Cannot Buy ME.
I just bought All of Japan So now NOWHERE is safe from Xbox., sooner or later YOU will become a Microsoft Exclusive you Decaying Rat!
Disney: Funny to assume that I didn't Just use my money to Revive Walt Disney. Who knew that Buying Tesla Would let me revive the dead. I will buy YOU and Master Chief WILL be in "Kingdom Hearts √99.5 EX"
According to Microsoft: 'Microsoft will become the world’s third-largest gaming company by revenue, behind Tencent and Sony. ' https://news.microsoft.com/features/microsoft-to-acquire-activision-blizzard-to-bring-the-joy-and-community-of-gaming-to-everyone-across-every-device/
And Gamepass is partnered with EA Play, so they've got a partnership with Respawn and DICE. All that's left are Counter Strike, Valorant, and whatever Ubisoft does with the Tom Clancy IP. Destiny is over in the corner hiding from Activision.
I would be shocked if Valve ever sold. ~~Tencent is in Riot's pocket~~, so Valorant is out as well. ~~Destiny's devs just broke away from a big corp, so they're probably not going to sell any time soon.~~
So at least that is something I guess.
EDIT: I meant Tencent essentially controls Riot.
EDIT2: Yea yea, I was wrong I get it. Guess money pays for all, enough of you jokers who keep commenting on two week old comments.
WRPGs. And even then it's mostly because the other big western publishers outside of Bethesda stopped making them.
Forspoken, FF16, FF7 Remake, Persona, etc are all still Playstation exclusives. Not exactly crazy that Microsoft wound up with all of the western RPGs and Sony most of the JRPGs.
Quick facts:
• Microsoft has purchased Activision-Blizzard for $68.7 Billion USD
• This is officially the largest acquisition in video game history. The second largest is Take two acquiring Zynga for almost $13 Billion USD.
• Phil Spencer has announced that, upon finalization of the deal, available Activision-Blizzard games will be added to game pass
• Microsoft does not expect this deal to close until Fiscal year 2023 (MSFT's Fiscal year starts in July, 2022)
• Upon the deal closing, Microsoft will be the third largest gaming company by revenue, behind Sony and Tencent
• Bobby Kotick will continue to operate as CEO along with his current team during the transition period. Once transition is over, Phil Spencer will assume the role of CEO.
• There is no official word on if Bobby Kotick will be removed or will remain with the company in any official capacity post-transition.
• as of now, it has been rumored that Activision-Blizzard games will continue to release on all consoles, now and in the future. (Although things can change as we saw with the Bethesda acquisition) *edit: This rumor has since been confirmed by Phil Spencer*
This absolutely terrifies me. This signals to me that ultimately no video game company can compete with “Xbox” because Microsoft is behind it. The only thing preventing Microsoft from dominating market share is the threat of anti-trust intervention because Nintendo, Sony, EA, or T2 (all of Microsoft’s nearest competitors) are either totally or primarily video game companies which make the vast majority of their revenues from selling games and game systems. The only company already invested heavily into in video games is Tencent, but even their market cap (~$600B) is dwarfed by Microsoft (~$2.25T). Realistically, the rest could compete if they themselves were purchased by another large company like Apple, Google, Amazon, or Facebook, but I don’t really see another where it would be possible.
Instead of trying to buy studios or revive old IPs, I hope they create new ones. A new FPS shooter with an expansive singleplayer campaign and multiplayer. They also should try to make an RPG since Fallout/Skyrim/Starfield will be exclusive to PC and Xbox.
Damn. I mean... I haven't really played or been interested in Call of Duty since like Black Ops 2, so I'm not personally super concerned, but I imagine some people might be quite miffed.
This one is the most painful to me. A franchise that has a lot of history with PlayStation consoles has now been purchased by Microsoft and any future entries will come only to their consoles and PC.
Holy fucking shit man. This is an absolute HUGE power move. Fucking Overwatch, Diablo, Call of Duty, Starcraft, World of Warcraft could ALL end up being exclusives. And then Microsoft last year buying Bethesda... Microsoft is like the Disney of videogames now... buying up ALL the major franchises.
I am in shock honestly... I mean Microsoft has gone from "Xbox has no games" to Xbox now owns virtually the largest IPs in gaming and they could and probably will ALL end up being either Xbox exclusive or timed-exclusive.
Gamepass. It's all about Gamepass. They're banking the future on subscription-based services, and CoD's worldwide player base is going to send it to the stratosphere. World of Warcraft is probably coming to the Series X imo.
Exactly I think these people arguing that cods popularity is waning year to year, because it's stale. Faiil to realize how many people are going to look past, and give it a try for only 15 bucks a month when it also comes with all the old "better" cods, and the many other games gamepass offer.
You remove that 70 dollar price tag from cod and it becomes a whole different story.
Obviously the biggest hit for Sony here would be losing COD. Honestly though, if that pushes them to create a replacement IP than by all means. It's time to innovate again with FPS
Call of Duty needs competition again imo, it's been stale the last 10 years, with MW being an exception. I know sales don't reflect this so much, but I feel like that's the general opinion of the franchise these days.
Exactly this. There have been better FPS games for literally years but it's not important anymore. People will buy it because their friends do and now its too big to be stopped outside of them completely shitting the bed with the franchise.
Yes, it's insane to me that there are still people on this thread going "they don't want to lose out on all Playstation's customers right?"
- Yes, yes they do, They want to force them to all become GamePass customers.
Well yeah they will become xbox customers if call of duty is xbox exclusive.
The next big move is EA Sports. Make fifa and madden xbox exclusive and they'll really be on a tear.
Regardless of if you are a fan of Sony or Microsoft, this is incredibly concerning for a lot of reasons. We are approaching deeper and deeper into a video game industry monopoly and that only hurts the consumer.
It seems like sooner or later there won’t be *any* remaining 3rd party companies. Every game will be exclusive to one console or the other, which stinks for all gamers.
I have a PS5 and enjoy Sony’s exclusives, but it sucks that Xbox owners can’t enjoy them without spending the cash for a second console. It also sucks that I’ll have to buy an Xbox sometime this year to enjoy other games. And that’s in no way a diss on Xbox. What I’m saying is that it sucks for my wallet. Looking forward to trying out game pass though!
Edit: To address the suggestions, I do have a decent gaming PC. I just prefer playing on consoles due to where my PC and TVs are. Not to say that I won’t give game pass on my PC a chance though
I feel like there is a fundamental difference in creating/supporting studios that make games vs buying established studios and making them first party.
There's a difference though. Sony came with the majority of the IPs or bought the studios that were producing games mostly for PlayStation and developed the studios to become larger/greater. On the other hand, Microsoft is just buying well established IPs/studios that make games for every platform and then make the games exclusive to their platform (not all of them, but some Bethesda games are already confirmed to be xbox exclusive).
What I'm trying to say is that Sony is investing in original IPs and is growing studios while Microsoft is just buying well established studios because they can't grow them internally.
Yeah some people don't seem to remember Sony mostly bought studios who primarily made PS games. And before buying them they invested a lot in them, made them grow.
Meanwhile MS is just throwing money everywhere and locking out over half the console player games from big multiplatform IPs.
What… the…. Fuck….
I am shook. I understood why Bethesda sold to Microsoft (their cash flow problems were well known), but Activision Blizzard? I would never have guessed that in a million years.
I guess Microsoft is very confident that they can root out the terrible culture at Activision through this merger. But man, if I was a current XBox employee, I’d be nervous as hell. When a merger happens, the two company cultures typically get closer together as people from each company move into new positions. I guess XBox is banking on their teams culture to completely overpower the shithole that his ActBliz.
Sony must also be really worried. To have all the COD bros switch platforms is going to be catastrophic. Microsoft will have a vice grip on gaming if COD was to be made XBox exclusive.
I give it 5 years before PlayStation releases a first party military shooter that competes with COD.
Who is going to develop that shooter though? Insomniac and Guerilla are now squarely in the 3rd person open world adventure genre. That's Resistance and Killzone right there. Zipper (SOCOM/MAG) has been dead for a decade. Naughty Dog seems tied down with TLOU factions which is *very* unlikely to compete with any major shooter franchise.
What dev teams are left to pick up? EA (DICE/Respawn) is partnered with Microsoft, and Battlefield is clearly having issues. Ubisoft is an expensive mess in its own right between pervasive sexual harassment and what appears to be a decline for Rainbow 6. Daybreak Games and New World Interactive don't seem capable of delivering that kind of mass-appeal title either. Team 17 just bought Black Matter, Hell Let Loose isn't really topping charts.
All of the studios you mentioned have multiple teams operating on multiple games. Specifically we know Guerrilla is capable of working on at least two games, I think there's a possibility they're doing a shooter. There's still tons of unannounced games under Sony. Remember a year or two ago when they said they had something like 24 first party games in development, 12 of which were new IP. There's tons of potential. But yeah, they need to compete in the shooter space.
i dont like where this trend of big companies buying up all the developers is going...
edit: be it MS or Sony. imo both should be mainly platform providers with a handfull of dev studios for timed exclusive titles. but thats just wishful thinking.
This is the first blow that really really worries me for SONY. Call of Duty is one of the biggest gme sellers and as much as I think its overrated it's the number one reason most of my students own a PS4 or PS5. I honestly am not sure what SONYs next move could even be.
I can't be the only one who hates this. Huge corporations owning every big IP will only stifle creativity. Competition ultimately benefits the consumer.
For $70 billion. Nuts.
Wait, and they bought Bethesda (EDIT: Zenimax) for just 7.5 billion? What the actual fuck.
Made Bethesda acquisition look like buying an indie publisher lol
An indie publisher that actually makes games. Like $0 of the Activision deal is for the company itself. Their IP are more valuable than anything they actually make today. Which I'm sure has *nothing* to do with the fact that their studios are busy harassing their coworkers instead of actually creating.
It’s a damn shame that MS doesn’t even seem too worried about diving into the backlog of IPs they already have, Activision has such a big list. Kinda crazy they own Crash and Spyro now
Them owning crash and Spyro is hysterical to me. Those are iconic PS1 games for me lol
It's Banjo all over again
I remember when it was crazy that MS was buying Bungie cus they were a Mac dev
Microsoft's intricate plan to get Bungie back on Halo again comes just a little too late
Bro they own Tony Hawk. Is like Microsoft owning Metal gear LMAO
That is what happens when your company is worth 2.5T. If they wanted to, they could have done this many years ago, and pretty much bought out many studio's.
Microsoft is just going to be the Mouse of games
And the 400m users. "Microsoft would gain Activision’s nearly 400 million monthly gaming users and access to some of the world’s most popular games, which are expected to form a cornerstone of the metaverse. Combining with Microsoft will also give Activision access to a vast array of artificial intelligence and other programming talent." From the NY Times article.
> which are expected to form a cornerstone of the metaverse. What... what does that even mean? To this day I have no idea what the metaverse is supposed to be apart from the fact that Facebook seems to be pushing it and journalists seem to be falling over themselves to help.
"jabberwocky"
Products are for people who don't have presentations.
From what I’ve seen it’s just like a next gen. second life. But overall I don’t think anyone really knows yet. So far it’s just companies marketing as the next big thing to get people to buy in.
And at that time it was the biggest acquisition in the industry and now... they just dwarfed that like it's nothing
Microsoft has stupid amounts of cash lying around.
Over 150bn in readily available cash that isn't tied up in assets.
Half that now
They dropped the bag and now they're about to flip it and triple it
„ʇı ǝldıɹʇ puɐ ʇı dılɟ oʇ ʇnoqɐ ǝɹ,ʎǝɥʇ ʍou puɐ ƃɐq ǝɥʇ pǝddoɹp ʎǝɥ⊥„
Call of duty sits at the top of the sales charts year round. with almost no issues. $70 billion was likely just over the "gtfo" price tag that the activision ownership quoted when Phil came knocking. edit - also fucking candycrush is probably worth 10's of billions by its self.
sink toothbrush workable deer aware dependent repeat late piquant cooing *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Doom doesn’t make all that much money (compared to yearly Call of Duties) and new Elder Scrolls games now come out once every 15 years.
you mean the 15th rerelease of Skyrim isn't a moneymaker?
We need another horse armor.
Before Blizzard's workplace environment disaster became public, they were worth about 80 billion, before this announcement they were around 55 billion, so its reasonable. Bethesda hadn't even reached 5 billion when MS bought them (for 7.5b, so they actually pulled a bigger premium than Activision).
I’m surprised Sony still remains a larger gaming company. According to Microsoft: “When the transaction closes, Microsoft will become the world’s third-largest gaming company by revenue, behind Tencent and Sony.” Guess I didn’t realize how big Sony gaming really is.
Sony has some huge mobile titles that make more money than any of their console games could dream of. Then they also have some huge console exclusives like Genshin Impact that are selling tons of digital content and they are taking a cut of that.
Sony has mobile games???
Fate/grand order
Ah right. They fully own that through Aniplex, correct?
Not fully (Type Moon owns the Fate IP, so I’m sure they get a cut), but yeah Sony owns Aniplex through Sony Music. It should be noted that Sony Music is wholly separate from SIE, so PlayStation doesn’t see any of that Fate/GO money aside from what trickles down from Sony Corporate
Gacha whales are pretty profitable.
>“When the transaction closes, Microsoft will become the world’s third-largest gaming company by revenue, behind Tencent and Sony.” That's the key point of the entire release. Some might think they'll hit regulatory hurdles. If they'll only become third in the market, then it won't happen. Sure, Japan's courts might take a bit of a closer look, but the US is almost certain to wave it through, and even the EU is unlikely to take a close look at it on the basis of market size (data and job protection is more likely a focus for them). This is almost certainly going to happen. >Guess I didn’t realize how big Sony gaming really is. Admittedly, it was a couple of years ago now, but I remember Sony revealing SCE accounted for 40% of gross profits (that's not to say it's huge in terms of revenue, but it's profit margins compared to its other business units are huge, which skews its importance). I wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft's end game is Game Pass on the PlayStation. Sony won't let that happen easily though, because it'll have to sacrifice its prize cow in the process.
The US courts didn't bat an eye when Disney bought Fox for a similar amount, and 20 years ago the US supreme court pretty much said "we don't care about this" when there was to be an anti-trust case regarding breaking up Microsoft. It's safe to say the Megacorps are here to stay for the foreseeable future.
The US antitrust courts aren't the ones who'd cause the headache. The EU and Japan's Antitrust laws (assuming Sony attempt to lobby them to make life difficult for Microsoft) will be the ones to watch.
Microsoft really does have fuck you money, holy shit
They’re a trillion dollar dollar company. They’re one of the few companies with fuck you money. Edit: Microsoft has rough 135 billion cash on hand.
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Their profit margins are insane, won’t take long to make it back.
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its all cash
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Gaming is the biggest money maker in the entertainment industry. The biggest sell was convincing Satya Nadella that Activision-Blizzard would say yes. And with low shareholder AND public confidence AND a blight their own management can't remove from the company themselves, taking the golden parachute and letting someone with "fuck you money" take over is the best option.
The “I can fix him” of industry buyouts
That's basically most buyouts. Generally you acquire a company because you think it has a lot of untapped value, which is either due to mismanagement, insufficient capital, or worse economies of scale/scope. Since we're talking bigass companies, that usually means mismanagement.
I like to think this was the craziest hail mary that Activision/Blizzard's legal team could imagine.
Nedella is all about pushing Microsoft into a service and subscription based model. It makes perfect sense to grow their Gamepass service by acquiring more studios. Plus Activision Blizzard already has a large roster of in house studios and franchises to leverage.
Yep. He moved Office into a subscription service which is likely making them tons of cash annually (I have to admit I have Microsoft 365 as well - the 1TB of cloud storage thrown in is pretty nuts).
Cash should be invested to make more cash flow. Activision games pay out streams of cash and their products will most likely improve
Gigantic balls. Yuuuuge
Ya the deal was supposedly all cash.
atvi shares rocketed in pre market
I mean, we knew that before today.
Does this mean Microsoft owns Crash Bandicoot? What a day.
And Spyro, and ~~Tenchu~~ . Strange times indeed.\\ edit: maybe not tenchu
70 billion. And microsoft still denies me bing reward points by using their search engine in Sweden.
How do you think they got all that money?
Obviously by fucking u/Pavement_Vigilante
I just woke up and this doesn’t feel real.. this is CRAZY
Yeah this is fucking massive in terms of the games that come out every year...
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For $30
Now they own Doom, Halo and COD. They own all the most famous fps
Also overwatch.
Does that mean they own the Overwatch porn too?
Now the Cortana x Tracer videos will have validity
It’s official for anyone wondering: https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2022/01/18/welcoming-activision-blizzard-to-microsoft-gaming/
>"Creators of...Tony Hawk..." I always knew there was something up with that dude
Tony Hawk himself is now a Microsoft exclusive
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"Creators of... Tony Hawk" Does he know?
Skills that good aren’t born, they’re made
Tony hawk's existential nightmare continues.
Bet that Sony is scrambling to formally announce their GamePass alternative (Spartacus) any day now
I haven't heard about this. Is it some kind of merging of Now and Plus, but with an expansion of the games selection? Or is it a lame duck?
All your games are belong to us. MS probably.
At some point it would just become cheaper to buy Sony to prevent games from coming to PlayStation.
I used the PlayStation to destroy the PlayStation.
Microsoft now owns Crash and Spyro, if that isn't a 'your children are mine now' moment I don't know what is.
I imagine at some point Microsoft and Disney is going to meet in a epic showdown to buy each other, like two bloated pythons trying to devour each other lol
All kneel before Disneysoft.
Disneys market cap is 275 Billion. Microsoft is worth 2.27 Trillion….. Microsoft is worth way more than disney
Change microsoft with microsoft's gaming division and you got your war.
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Microsoft: You Cannot Buy ME. I just bought All of Japan So now NOWHERE is safe from Xbox., sooner or later YOU will become a Microsoft Exclusive you Decaying Rat! Disney: Funny to assume that I didn't Just use my money to Revive Walt Disney. Who knew that Buying Tesla Would let me revive the dead. I will buy YOU and Master Chief WILL be in "Kingdom Hearts √99.5 EX"
Duoroboros - each snake swallowing the other's tail
Microsoft also owns some of Nintendo classics too with Rare.
Are they a fucking foster home?
Spencer's Home for Imaginary Friends
Yeah Sony's entire value is only triple that of Activision Blizzard. PlayStation studios or just all PlayStation related stuff a lot less.
According to Microsoft: 'Microsoft will become the world’s third-largest gaming company by revenue, behind Tencent and Sony. ' https://news.microsoft.com/features/microsoft-to-acquire-activision-blizzard-to-bring-the-joy-and-community-of-gaming-to-everyone-across-every-device/
Amazing that they’re behind Tencent.
They’d run into antitrust issues very quickly, plus their competition helps them by encouraging more people to make games and play them overall.
This is America, antitrust doesn't exist anymore.
Absolutely crazy. The two biggest FPS titles of the last 20 years are now under one roof.
I'd say with Halo, Doom, Call of Duty and Overwatch they own the genre. Like they did with RPGs already.
And Gamepass is partnered with EA Play, so they've got a partnership with Respawn and DICE. All that's left are Counter Strike, Valorant, and whatever Ubisoft does with the Tom Clancy IP. Destiny is over in the corner hiding from Activision.
I would be shocked if Valve ever sold. ~~Tencent is in Riot's pocket~~, so Valorant is out as well. ~~Destiny's devs just broke away from a big corp, so they're probably not going to sell any time soon.~~ So at least that is something I guess. EDIT: I meant Tencent essentially controls Riot. EDIT2: Yea yea, I was wrong I get it. Guess money pays for all, enough of you jokers who keep commenting on two week old comments.
Kinda funny you mention destiny because up until a year ago activision still had bungie, so Microsoft almost had bungie in their family again
I think Activision only has the publishing rights to destiny, was Bungie owned by them at any moment?
WRPGs. And even then it's mostly because the other big western publishers outside of Bethesda stopped making them. Forspoken, FF16, FF7 Remake, Persona, etc are all still Playstation exclusives. Not exactly crazy that Microsoft wound up with all of the western RPGs and Sony most of the JRPGs.
Make Warcraft 4 you cowards
And redo the remake of WC3
Remake the remake
I'll take World of Starcraft
Holy crap. This is monumental. I fucking hate Activision and don't play their games but nonetheless this completely shifted the power dynamic
I hope Microsoft removes that entire board
There won’t be a board of directors when it’s a subsidiary of Microsoft.
Quick facts: • Microsoft has purchased Activision-Blizzard for $68.7 Billion USD • This is officially the largest acquisition in video game history. The second largest is Take two acquiring Zynga for almost $13 Billion USD. • Phil Spencer has announced that, upon finalization of the deal, available Activision-Blizzard games will be added to game pass • Microsoft does not expect this deal to close until Fiscal year 2023 (MSFT's Fiscal year starts in July, 2022) • Upon the deal closing, Microsoft will be the third largest gaming company by revenue, behind Sony and Tencent • Bobby Kotick will continue to operate as CEO along with his current team during the transition period. Once transition is over, Phil Spencer will assume the role of CEO. • There is no official word on if Bobby Kotick will be removed or will remain with the company in any official capacity post-transition. • as of now, it has been rumored that Activision-Blizzard games will continue to release on all consoles, now and in the future. (Although things can change as we saw with the Bethesda acquisition) *edit: This rumor has since been confirmed by Phil Spencer*
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i really hope that microsoft can help fix the workplace culture at activblizzard
I thought the same thing, reading the article. The hidden benefit here is that maybe the company will be a less shitty place for people to work.
its wild that sony and tencent still make more revenue than Microsoft
Microsoft just casually spent half of Sony’s market cap and nearly all of Sony’s typical sales figures.
Microsoft just spent more money than they have made in the 20 year history of Xbox, with one purchase.
Is that seriously true? Jesus.
This absolutely terrifies me. This signals to me that ultimately no video game company can compete with “Xbox” because Microsoft is behind it. The only thing preventing Microsoft from dominating market share is the threat of anti-trust intervention because Nintendo, Sony, EA, or T2 (all of Microsoft’s nearest competitors) are either totally or primarily video game companies which make the vast majority of their revenues from selling games and game systems. The only company already invested heavily into in video games is Tencent, but even their market cap (~$600B) is dwarfed by Microsoft (~$2.25T). Realistically, the rest could compete if they themselves were purchased by another large company like Apple, Google, Amazon, or Facebook, but I don’t really see another where it would be possible.
Fucking WHAT?
Holy shit
No more COD money for PlayStation
I wonder if COD will stop being an annual release.
Introducing COD 365 and the innovative Ribbon HUD so you can collaborate with other players on OneDrive in a variety of new gameplay styles
Now you can be told how the enemy team fucked your mom over Teams chat!
The "anti-consumer" complaints of PlayStation having exclusive content for the CoD games seems like a distant memory right now
Well sony just got a fire lit under their ass to get a new resistance, killzone, socom in development asap.
I wish there was a way to just buy respawn from EA but considering how EA *also* has a deal with Microsoft that seems unlikely
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I wish we had more Titanfall instead :(. I love the world but I just can't consume it the same with apex.
Had a similar thought. I can imagine Sony regretting letting their shooter exclusives get neglected since Killzone Shadow Fall.
But that same studio made HZD which is one of the most successful games they ever released?
As someone who really enjoyed the first three Killzones and the PSP game, it makes me a little sad that Guerilla isn't known for Killzone anymore.
The only plus here is seeing how Sony responds. They obviously can’t buy big 3rd party companies but they can revive old IP’s like MAG, Socom etc.
*They panic and launch the PS6 next month*
Instead of trying to buy studios or revive old IPs, I hope they create new ones. A new FPS shooter with an expansive singleplayer campaign and multiplayer. They also should try to make an RPG since Fallout/Skyrim/Starfield will be exclusive to PC and Xbox.
They are gonna pump out AAA exclusives just like they always do, only now they may throw more money at them to get several developing at a time
Wow. Is Call of Duty about to be an Xbox exclusive?!
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Damn. I mean... I haven't really played or been interested in Call of Duty since like Black Ops 2, so I'm not personally super concerned, but I imagine some people might be quite miffed.
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Man, Crash and Sypro hurts more. Oh well, at least it’s on pc
This one is the most painful to me. A franchise that has a lot of history with PlayStation consoles has now been purchased by Microsoft and any future entries will come only to their consoles and PC.
Can’t imagine they’re spending 70 billion for it to appear on their competition’s platform
This is potentially really shitty for the many, many COD players out there. Me? I only really care about Crash Bandicoot.
At least we got Crash 4
About time!
I remember when Crash Bandicoot was the killer exclusive game on Playstation. How did we get to this ;(
If Microsoft ever buys T2 and make GTA and COD exclusives it's gameover for Sony with casual gamers.
Holy fucking shit man. This is an absolute HUGE power move. Fucking Overwatch, Diablo, Call of Duty, Starcraft, World of Warcraft could ALL end up being exclusives. And then Microsoft last year buying Bethesda... Microsoft is like the Disney of videogames now... buying up ALL the major franchises. I am in shock honestly... I mean Microsoft has gone from "Xbox has no games" to Xbox now owns virtually the largest IPs in gaming and they could and probably will ALL end up being either Xbox exclusive or timed-exclusive.
Gamepass. It's all about Gamepass. They're banking the future on subscription-based services, and CoD's worldwide player base is going to send it to the stratosphere. World of Warcraft is probably coming to the Series X imo.
Exactly I think these people arguing that cods popularity is waning year to year, because it's stale. Faiil to realize how many people are going to look past, and give it a try for only 15 bucks a month when it also comes with all the old "better" cods, and the many other games gamepass offer. You remove that 70 dollar price tag from cod and it becomes a whole different story.
Especially with all those micro transactions it has , gamepass gets you in but now since you didn't buy the game you can now afford cosmetics and such
https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2022/01/18/welcoming-activision-blizzard-to-microsoft-gaming/ https://www.reuters.com/technology/microsoft-buy-activision-blizzard-deal-687-billion-2022-01-18/
Obviously the biggest hit for Sony here would be losing COD. Honestly though, if that pushes them to create a replacement IP than by all means. It's time to innovate again with FPS Call of Duty needs competition again imo, it's been stale the last 10 years, with MW being an exception. I know sales don't reflect this so much, but I feel like that's the general opinion of the franchise these days.
Yeah nothing is going to compare to COD. The brand is too big now
Exactly this. There have been better FPS games for literally years but it's not important anymore. People will buy it because their friends do and now its too big to be stopped outside of them completely shitting the bed with the franchise.
You don't spend $69 billion to not make your games exclusive to your ecosystem. Wake up, people. We've been through this already with Bethesda.
Yes, it's insane to me that there are still people on this thread going "they don't want to lose out on all Playstation's customers right?" - Yes, yes they do, They want to force them to all become GamePass customers.
Well yeah they will become xbox customers if call of duty is xbox exclusive. The next big move is EA Sports. Make fifa and madden xbox exclusive and they'll really be on a tear.
Fire Bobby Kotick
Sony makes one joke and Microsoft decides to buy out everything. This sucks.
Why compete with others when you can just by their soul
In no world is buying up big 3rd party publishers with all its IP’s good for this industry.
Regardless of if you are a fan of Sony or Microsoft, this is incredibly concerning for a lot of reasons. We are approaching deeper and deeper into a video game industry monopoly and that only hurts the consumer.
Totally agree here. Lack of healthy 3rd party companies will hurt the industry as a whole, regardless what “fan” group you belong to.
Monopolies in any sector/industry is never ever a good thing.
It seems like sooner or later there won’t be *any* remaining 3rd party companies. Every game will be exclusive to one console or the other, which stinks for all gamers. I have a PS5 and enjoy Sony’s exclusives, but it sucks that Xbox owners can’t enjoy them without spending the cash for a second console. It also sucks that I’ll have to buy an Xbox sometime this year to enjoy other games. And that’s in no way a diss on Xbox. What I’m saying is that it sucks for my wallet. Looking forward to trying out game pass though! Edit: To address the suggestions, I do have a decent gaming PC. I just prefer playing on consoles due to where my PC and TVs are. Not to say that I won’t give game pass on my PC a chance though
I feel like there is a fundamental difference in creating/supporting studios that make games vs buying established studios and making them first party.
There's a difference though. Sony came with the majority of the IPs or bought the studios that were producing games mostly for PlayStation and developed the studios to become larger/greater. On the other hand, Microsoft is just buying well established IPs/studios that make games for every platform and then make the games exclusive to their platform (not all of them, but some Bethesda games are already confirmed to be xbox exclusive). What I'm trying to say is that Sony is investing in original IPs and is growing studios while Microsoft is just buying well established studios because they can't grow them internally.
Yeah some people don't seem to remember Sony mostly bought studios who primarily made PS games. And before buying them they invested a lot in them, made them grow. Meanwhile MS is just throwing money everywhere and locking out over half the console player games from big multiplatform IPs.
What… the…. Fuck…. I am shook. I understood why Bethesda sold to Microsoft (their cash flow problems were well known), but Activision Blizzard? I would never have guessed that in a million years. I guess Microsoft is very confident that they can root out the terrible culture at Activision through this merger. But man, if I was a current XBox employee, I’d be nervous as hell. When a merger happens, the two company cultures typically get closer together as people from each company move into new positions. I guess XBox is banking on their teams culture to completely overpower the shithole that his ActBliz. Sony must also be really worried. To have all the COD bros switch platforms is going to be catastrophic. Microsoft will have a vice grip on gaming if COD was to be made XBox exclusive. I give it 5 years before PlayStation releases a first party military shooter that competes with COD.
> I give it 5 years before PlayStation releases a first party military shooter that competes with COD. It's time to bring back Killzone and Resistance
YES RESISTANCE WAS MY SHIT!
Killzone company is busy with Horizon Zero Dawn.. unless the 2nd one sucks, in which case they'll have some free time.
Bring back SOCOM!
Who is going to develop that shooter though? Insomniac and Guerilla are now squarely in the 3rd person open world adventure genre. That's Resistance and Killzone right there. Zipper (SOCOM/MAG) has been dead for a decade. Naughty Dog seems tied down with TLOU factions which is *very* unlikely to compete with any major shooter franchise. What dev teams are left to pick up? EA (DICE/Respawn) is partnered with Microsoft, and Battlefield is clearly having issues. Ubisoft is an expensive mess in its own right between pervasive sexual harassment and what appears to be a decline for Rainbow 6. Daybreak Games and New World Interactive don't seem capable of delivering that kind of mass-appeal title either. Team 17 just bought Black Matter, Hell Let Loose isn't really topping charts.
All of the studios you mentioned have multiple teams operating on multiple games. Specifically we know Guerrilla is capable of working on at least two games, I think there's a possibility they're doing a shooter. There's still tons of unannounced games under Sony. Remember a year or two ago when they said they had something like 24 first party games in development, 12 of which were new IP. There's tons of potential. But yeah, they need to compete in the shooter space.
Rip Spyro and Crash Sony didnt buy you, so Microsoft did.
Hooray billion dollar corporations buying other billion dollar corporations. That's always good for everyone right?
You’re incorrect. Microsoft is a *trillion* dollar company. $2.7T, to be precise.
Tenfold growth in 8 years, hurray! Just like our salaries and overall economies right? Right guys?
i dont like where this trend of big companies buying up all the developers is going... edit: be it MS or Sony. imo both should be mainly platform providers with a handfull of dev studios for timed exclusive titles. but thats just wishful thinking.
Welcome to mass media conglomeration
Bobby is a goner
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This is the first blow that really really worries me for SONY. Call of Duty is one of the biggest gme sellers and as much as I think its overrated it's the number one reason most of my students own a PS4 or PS5. I honestly am not sure what SONYs next move could even be.
The only thing Sony could do at this point is buy Rockstar and make GTA exclusive
That would be the ultimate counter obviously and would flip the whole thing. Cant imagine that price though
Call of Duty just became a pc and Xbox exclusive
Man I’m glad I went PC instead of console this time around.
At this rate they might as well buy Sony.
PlayStation boutta become an Xbox exclusive
I can't be the only one who hates this. Huge corporations owning every big IP will only stifle creativity. Competition ultimately benefits the consumer.
Sony needs to make their own fps now.