Microsoft buys Activision/Blizzard. Thoughts?

[McStabStab]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1483431175041347584

View: https://twitter.com/xbox/status/1483431175041347584?s=21


Let’s discuss this and its implications.

 

[Ryzengang]

$70 Billion... What a wild piece of news this morning. I am really interested to see what this means for the future. Although I highly doubt it, could Call of Duty become exclusive? Lots of interesting scenarios to consider here.

 

[WoodenSaucer]

Whoa! First Bethesda, and now this? That's crazy. How long before they have a monopoly?

 

[Withywarlock]

Whoa! First Bethesda, and now this? That's crazy. How long before they have a monopoly?

Bethesda was one of the biggest acquisitions, I'm sure, but by no means their first and only (remember the unending news and speculations on Rare's acquisition?). Microsoft have been at the feeding frenzy for donkey's years picking up loads of studios but this is the pinnacle of acquisitions. The only way you top this is if they were to buy Sony, Nintendo or Steam.

We're in for some very strange times indeed. I wonder how the mistreated and negligent employees and management are going to be handled under Microsoft's leadership.

EDIT: Bobby "I'll have you killed" Kotick will remain within the company, but still serving as CEO under Phil Spencer. Given how hands-off MS are, I can't imagine a whole lot improving, especially for the first 12 months. They wouldn't want to rock the boat, even if that might throw a few of the Cosby Cultists overboard.

 

[SBan83]

After spending that much money, you'd have to think they want the games to be exclusive. But who knows, maybe they'll charge Sony a royalty to sell Call of Duty on PlayStation. Either way, not looking good for Sony, who can't survive on their own IPs the same way Nintendo can.

 

[WoodenSaucer]

After spending that much money, you'd have to think they want the games to be exclusive. But who knows, maybe they'll charge Sony a royalty to sell Call of Duty on PlayStation. Either way, not looking good for Sony, who can't survive on their own IPs the same way Nintendo can.

Haha. Good to see you over here, too! We need to just talk all of the IGN forum people into coming over here so we don't have to visit two forums.

But you're right. Sony can't do what Nintendo does. Nintendo can barely do it themselves.

 

[DXCHASE]

Crazy times the gaming industry is going through. Im sure the fact that roughly 40 upper level management leaders being fired over abuse allegations had a little bit to do with this...lol I see this as a good move and absolutely do not think they will make the titles coming from them xbox exclusive.

Although this is a blow to Sony, you got to remember Sony absolutely DOMINATES overseas regardless of what games are exclusive and who owns what developers. Nintendo comes in at a distance third as always.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Gamepass is going to be an even more incredible deal.

Long term where do people see this going? My instinct is to worry that 3 companies owning pretty much everything is going to be a negative over time.

But if Microsoft at least is very hands off to the development teams and we are mostly talking about larger budget games, it does still leave a whole lot of indie studios as well as mid level publishers. At least for now.

 

[Ryzengang]

Gamepass is going to be an even more incredible deal.

Long term where do people see this going? My instinct is to worry that 3 companies owning pretty much everything is going to be a negative over time.

But if Microsoft at least is very hands off to the development teams and we are mostly talking about larger budget games, it does still leave a whole lot of indie studios as well as mid level publishers. At least for now.

I am a bit concerned as well but selfishly I have to admit that, as a gamepass subscriber, this is probably going to be pretty awesome.

 

[Withywarlock]

Gamepass is going to be an even more incredible deal.

Long term where do people see this going? My instinct is to worry that 3 companies owning pretty much everything is going to be a negative over time.

I was going to argue that the long-term ramifications for an acquisition of this size means that Game Pass will continue on its steady march trampelling preservation, but Activision-Blizzard didn't care about that much either so nothing's being lost. On the plus side, my Battlenet account will (hopefully) be merged with my Xbox one, so that's one less launcher to worry about.

What this shows however is that no company is too small. Of all the publishers I genuinely thought Take-Two and Activision-Blizzard would be the last to be cannibalised, but this just makes everyone else all the more vulnerable.

Sony and Nintendo have acquired studios before, and it's staggering how Microsoft gets an exclusive amount of flak for their ambition, but then I suppose the studios they buy up have greater name value. The purchase of Obsidian Entertainment probably reaches more ears than, err, Bend Studio of Bubsy 3D and Syphon Filter fame.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Sony and Nintendo have acquired studios before, and it's staggering how Microsoft gets an exclusive amount of flak for their ambition, but then I suppose the studios they buy up have greater name value. The purchase of Obsidian Entertainment probably reaches more ears than, err, Bend Studio of Bubsy 3D and Syphon Filter fame.

Have Sony or Nintendo bought anything on the scale of Bethesda, let alone Activision Blizzard?

Activision bought Blizzard obviously, EA pretty famously good at trashing things. But buying up some of the biggest publishers consisting of multiple studios on the bounce is scary stuff.

Quite shocking that Sony are still bigger than Microsoft in gaming, I dont think that will be the case for too much longer at this rate. I dont have a particular problem with MS, but any company doing this worries me for the long term.

Where will Valve and Epic stand (EDIT) if/when MS starts to make everything Gamepass/store exclusives`?

 

[WoodenSaucer]

At least we will always have our indies that won't have to crawl to Microsoft.

 

[Colif]

Its funny to me that the 1st blizzard game I ever bought is also the last one I will ever buy - Diablo 2
Full circle. Guess they had no where to go from there.

The people who made it Blizzard left years ago. I won't miss them. All that was left was the clingers one... hope they let go now.
Blizzard, to me, just had a past. No future.

Tries to remember last good game they released... fails.

 

[SBan83]

Haha. Good to see you over here, too! We need to just talk all of the IGN forum people into coming over here so we don't have to visit two forums.

But you're right. Sony can't do what Nintendo does. Nintendo can barely do it themselves.

Lol yes, small world. And true, Nintendo always went their own way and 3rd party games have been afterthoughts for them and their users. Whereas PS has always been about the mainstream plus a few really good IPs, but the latter didn't define them as Nintendo's did (Mario, Zelda, Animal Kingdom, Pokemon, etc.)

 

[Colif]

So in the past, if you wanted to move an install of wow, you could just move entire folder and redirect launcher shortcut to new folder.
GL doing that if they make all the games downloadable via Windows store as they all saved as Virtual image files, and on a hidden drive on your PC.
Be nice if MS made it easier to reuse these images. Most of time you just have to dl their games again.

 

[Withywarlock]

Have Sony or Nintendo bought anything on the scale of Bethesda, let alone Activision Blizzard?

Not yet, and I doubt Nintendo would, their acquisitions are very limited. I have to hand it to them both though, they're careful in their curation. Meanwhile Xbox Division is going for quantity over quality.

Activision bought Blizzard obviously, EA pretty famously good at trashing things. But buying up some of the biggest publishers consisting of multiple studios on the bounce is scary stuff.

This is what worries me: Microsoft is doing exactly what Electronic Arts get raked over the coals for. Their only saving grace currently is time, as in time needed to put these studios' nose to the grindstone and put games out there so they don't look like EA, THQ, and all the rest involved in 'Miss. Unicron'.

Quite shocking that Sony are still bigger than Microsoft in gaming, I dont think that will be the case for too much longer at this rate. I dont have a particular problem with MS, but any company doing this worries me for the long term.

I wasn't aware that Sony is still bigger. I certainly think it's the better choice, even now with Gamepass, but we shall have to see. Consoles are sold at a loss, that's a well established fact, and Game Pass is yet to see profits whilst laughing in the face of Sony's Playstation Plus and beyond. And it's going to take a while before that $68bn makes a return on investment. But these acquisitions are made to do just that... eventually. And there's a lot that can happen between now and then; see this between Zenimax's acquisition and the release of Starfield, for instance.

Where will Valve and Epic stand (EDIT) if/when MS starts to make everything Gamepass/store exclusives`?

To borrow a phrase from Microsoft's newly acquired Warcraft IP, "You will serve the Horde, or be crushed beneath it." As I said previously, Microsoft has shown the entire industry its hand: that no company is too small for them to seize.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

This is what worries me: Microsoft is doing exactly what Electronic Arts get raked over the coals for. Their only saving grace currently is time, as in time needed to put these studios' nose to the grindstone and put games out there so they don't look like EA, THQ, and all the rest involved in 'Miss. Unicron'.

Not sure what 'Miss Unicron' is tbh ?

Seems to me what MS is doing with this and Bethesda is way beyond the scope of any hoovering of studios that EA has done over the years. Hopefully they don't screw things up for some of these franchises as badly as EA did to some of theirs.

 

[Colif]

if they buy enough of them they MIGHT be lucky enough to get enough people to make a good game

 

[Withywarlock]

Not sure what 'Miss Unicron' is tbh ?

A joke that would fly over anyone's head, I realise. Unicron being the main villain of the 1987 Transformers film, a giant planet-eating robot planet. "Miss" being the "Miss [country/world]" competition. Thus it's a competition of who is the hungriest corporation. Like I say, bad joke all round xD

Seems to me what MS is doing with this and Bethesda is way beyond the scope of any hoovering of studios that EA has done over the years. Hopefully they don't screw things up for some of these franchises as badly as EA did to some of theirs.

That's why I'm worried: Microsoft are hoovering up those who do the hoovering. Given how Halo: Infinite's multiplayer store looks eerily familiar to that of Anthem's, things don't look too good. It's a bad time when I can say Call of Duty's stores since Modern Warfare have been good value for money, and that might yet change for the worse. Thankfully 343 Industries have said that they're looking into it, but I've heard that too many times to believe they'll change it.

But hey, all of my talk is leaning way too much into 'guilty until proven innocent.' Their games are going to take time to make and the changes to their studios are going to be slowly introduced so the devs can settle in. I would really like to be optimistic because pessimism - and being right more often than not - has made me real tired of video gaming and has pushed me into the tabletop, which is not without its problems but I'm blissfully unaware of them. Xbox doing this though is massive news and should be watched very, very closely.

if they buy enough of them they MIGHT be lucky enough to get enough people to make a good game

A thousand monkeys at a thousand typewriters come to mind.

 

[WoodenSaucer]

I wasn't aware that Sony is still bigger...

Xbox is bigger in the US, but PlayStation is bigger worldwide.

 

[Withywarlock]

Xbox is bigger in the US, but PlayStation is bigger worldwide.

Ah, of course! Cheers for the reminder!

 

[Brian Boru]

no company is too small. Of all the publishers I genuinely thought Take-Two and Activision-Blizzard would be the last to be cannibalised

AB were the third-largest of the gaming software companies. The pecking order 2 months ago —with $Bn market caps—was:
Roblox $75
Nintendo $53
Activision Blizzard $47
EA $35
Take-Two $20
Square Enix $6
Ubisoft $6
CD Projekt $5

 

[Colif]

shame thats billion, I wouldn't pay $35 for EA

Even if its not billions, it still about right, Nintendo is about only one there I would trust to make a good game now. Just stay yourselves, don't become like the others...

 

[Withywarlock]

AB were the third-largest of the gaming software companies. The pecking order 2 months ago —with $Bn market caps—was:
Roblox $75
Nintendo $53
Activision Blizzard $47
EA $35
Take-Two $20
Square Enix $6
Ubisoft $6
CD Projekt $5

Ooh thanks for sharing that, very interesting reading indeed. Even so, third is not a figure to turn one's nose up at; anyone beneath them is now easy money in comparison. I reckon Nintendo's safe where they are given their care and old-fashioned ways have been the reason behind their success more than their undoing. As for Roblox, I imagine with that sort of money they'll be smart enough to invest it before their value drops considerably, but I've not followed them closely enough to say.

So with these figures I'm only more concerned as to what's to follow. I see Electronic Arts, Take-Two, Square Enix, Ubisoft and CD Projekt Red being eaten alive in the coming years, if it even takes years.

Just stay yourselves, don't become like the others...

Fingers crossed, but then who's going to stay the jolly green giant's course if they don't go the way we hope?

 

[Brian Boru]

Long term where do people see this going? My instinct is to worry that 3 companies owning pretty much everything is going to be a negative over time.

Which 3 companies? MS, Sony, Nintendo? Or you include Roblox or EA or…?

~100 years ago there were ~200 car companies. And then there were 3. Now there are maybe 3 dozen of some size. Industries start with an explosion, then the winning formulae rise to the top and hoover up the rest that haven't closed down, and then it depends.

If the investment level for progress is huge—eg large aircraft or computing chips—then the big companies usually hang onto the market. With smaller barriers to entry, new companies can arise and get decent market share. Gaming is in this category—eg the rise of very recent growth of Roblox and Epic.

So long-term I don't see the industry owned by a few. There will always be the top players, but plenty of other significant players also—eg car industry is dominated by Toyota and Volkswagen, but there are plenty of other significant players like Ford, GM, Daimler, BMW etc etc. And then there's the very recent rise into the stratosphere of Tesla—who knows where that one will lead.