Microsoft is trying to acquire Activision Blizzard (UPDATE: CMA says NO!).

[Strafe]

11 minutes ago, Down by Law said:

 

I don't think i've ever played a King game, they just make mobile stuff. Blizzard makes Overwatch and Diablo - not my cuppa tea.  All the other Activision developers I liked such as Raven now toil away in the CoD salt mines. Sekiro was the last Activision game I bought but it's about as much an Activision product as the Witcher III is to Bandai Namco.

 

I mean look at this image

 

 

Treyarch , Raven, High Moon, Beenox, SledgeHammer, Infinity Ward and Toys for Bob all make Call of Duty content ! 

 

Yes this is a big purchase as far as slinging money around goes but Bethesda was far more interesting a purchase from a gaming, not a business point of view IMO.

Fair enough, it just read like you’d only considered CoD. 

[Robo_1]

Just now, Thor said:

We're on the brink of megacorps from dystopian sci-fi. In a different industry, all cars in the future will be driverless, and provided by an Amazon/Google subscription, tracking your every move in said vehicle.

 

I mean somebody on Twitter just made a comment which made me... sort of chuckle. Responding to the question of "how can Sony compete with MS now", the answer came, "be bought by Amazon"... which I guess neatly sums it up.

[Mr. Gerbik]

13 minutes ago, Thor said:

That's a license.

I'm trying to explain that it's a temporary deal. Microsoft could make the same deal with Disney. They don't have to buy Squeenix for that.

[Alex W.]

Just now, Thor said:

We're on the brink of megacorps from dystopian sci-fi. In a different industry, all cars in the future will be driverless, and provided by an Amazon/Google subscription, tracking your every move in said vehicle.

All end user cars will be marketed as driverless, but they’ll all be snapped up by Uber and your only option for road transport will be a £100/hour private hire driven by someone paid in exactly enough Huel not to starve.

[Giddas]

For those thinking Nintendo could be next, how many takeovers of large Japanese companies by Western ones have there been?

 

[Thor]

1 minute ago, Giddas said:

For those thinking Nintendo could be next, how many takeovers of large Japanese companies by Western ones have there been?

 

I don't think anyone's saying Nintendo is next...

[Mike S]

22 minutes ago, Flanders said:

Is no one else a bit depressed by this then? Feels like there’s a bit of mass denial going on about the not even long term implications.
 

Talk of what companies Sony can buy…there isn’t going to be a PlayStation console or even service of any kind in 10 years unless Sony gets bought by fucking Apple or Amazon.
 

And I think people who assume Nintendo will carry on in rude health when ruthless megacorps have bought up the rest of the industry in which they operate are completely delusional, to be honest. 
 

 

 

I'm struggling to see any upside in one company buying up all of the major publishers/developers.

 

Even the increasingly bizarre fanboy cultists must surely be able to see how potentially awful this could be once competition has been eliminated?

[teddymeow]

Who'd be more likely to buy Nintendo?

 

Microsoft or Tencent?

[SeanR]

The first 3rd-party publisher…

 

goddamned sellouts! 

[Bacon Horsemeat]

5 minutes ago, Giddas said:

For those thinking Nintendo could be next, how many takeovers of large Japanese companies by Western ones have there been?

 

 

Exactly.

 

This is essentially Microsoft buying up all of the country's game devs and publishers and rebranding it as Team USA. Much like tech in general, we are seeing West vs East.

[TehStu]

17 minutes ago, Thor said:

We're on the brink of megacorps from dystopian sci-fi. In a different industry, all cars in the future will be driverless, and provided by an Amazon/Google subscription, tracking your every move in said vehicle.

It's happening. I don't see any sort of 90s DoJ hand slapping of Microsoft happening, despite all these big tech cases in the oven. The consolidation of absolutely everything is happening. I buy a brand of crackers and one day they suddenly had these little coupons on the box you can cut out to help donate money to schools and that's the only way I knew the company was bought by General Mills (Honey Nut Cheerios, etc). 

 

We've allowed all this money to move upstream and, hey, they've gotta spend it on something. 

 

Genuinely, we're not going to do anything to stop this, any more than me whining about privacy will arrest big data. So I view this acquisition through the lens of "how do I benefit?", and it's probably "free Diablo on Game Pass, cool".

[Giddas]

takeover making more sense now https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2022-01-18-microsoft-to-review-its-sexual-harassment-and-gender-discrimination-policies

 

[RubberJohnny]

I think it's just a sign that videogames have been undervalued for a while, the microtransactions and mobile growth have really just made a dramatically massive amount of money (to the point they're like 87% of the App Stores revenue). This just hasn't been noticed by people who just want to claim consoles as the important bit though.

 

I think either the market will crash and these valuations will all start looking a bit daft, or they'll be some serious regulation brought in with a bunch of companies following China's lead and clamping down on games in the same way as gambling (and not without cause, really).

[Harsin]

3 minutes ago, teddymeow said:

Who'd be more likely to buy Nintendo?

 

Microsoft or Tencent?

 

Omni Consumer Products

[Rex Grossman]

This thread makes for some depressing reading.

 

I get that people want to pick sides – being tribal is part of human nature – and are excited to dance on Sony's grave or get their Xbox tattoo re-inked but overall I don't see that this is good for gamers.

[teddymeow]

1 minute ago, Harsin said:

 

Omni Consumer Products

 

I'd buy that for a dollar!

[Thor]

1 minute ago, TehStu said:

Genuinely, we're not going to do anything to stop this, any more than me whining about privacy will arrest big data. So I view this acquisition through the lens of "how do I benefit?", and it's probably "free Diablo on Game Pass, cool".

 That's almost exactly my reaction, just replace Diablo with the CoD campaigns.

[Cyhwuhx]

10 minutes ago, Giddas said:

For those thinking Nintendo could be next, how many takeovers of large Japanese companies by Western ones have there been?

 

 

Apart from cultural fit issues, there's also the problem of the Japanese government being rather protectionist of their companies.

[MattyP]

3 hours ago, Isaac said:

Call of Duty exclusive on Xbox is the biggest get there, isn't it?

 

Changes the game.

I wouldn't have thought they'd make it exclusive would they and loose a significant amount of sales from PS owners? See CoD a bit like Minecraft really which is multiplat. 

 

What they will do is make it more appealing for people to play on the Xbox platform.. here you can play CoD on PS for £70 or well just sub to GamePass and get it as part of the service.

 

I can see this having a massive impact on those that care about Activisions output and CoD in particular. However personally I get to tinker with a CoD without buying anything and it comes part of the GP service at no extra cost. Great. Not bought one for at least 10 years so be interesting to see what all the fuss is about...

 

Next all they have to do is get EA to push FIFA onto GP day one and job done.

 

[Harsin]

Just now, MattyP said:

I wouldn't have thought they'd make it exclusive would they and loose a significant amount of sales from PS owners? See CoD a bit like Minecraft really which is multiplat.

 

 

Leaving transactional currency on top of some kind of flat topped piece of furniture if you will?

[Sarlaccfood]

6 hours ago, Rex Grossman said:

This thread makes for some depressing reading.

 

I get that people want to pick sides – being tribal is part of human nature – and are excited to dance on Sony's grave or get their Xbox tattoo re-inked but overall I don't see that this is good for gamers.

This thread’s actually been pretty measured hasn’t it?

 

 

 

I guess the gifs take a bit more time to make when you’re doing it with one hand. 

 

 

[Stanley]

17 minutes ago, Thor said:

I don't think anyone's saying Nintendo is next...

Well, Nintendo going third party has been said for like 20 years. 

[Ry]

Just now, Rex Grossman said:

This thread makes for some depressing reading.

 

I get that people want to pick sides – being tribal is part of human nature – and are excited to dance on Sony's grave or get their Xbox tattoo re-inked but overall I don't see that this is good for gamers.

 

Personally I don't give a fuck either way. Sony, MS and Nintendo don't give a fuck about people. They are a business. 

 

Now for the consumer, Xbox is the way to go. The frankly amazing deal that is gamepass just got even better and you can get it for free via rewards or dirt cheap by conversion tactics. 

 

Sony put me off this gen by announcing first party games are £70. Now that's against consumers. 

 

The "this is bad for gaming" I'm seeing tossed around. What does this actually mean? Sony are buying studios also. So technically that's bad for gamers. Also, what's bad? If a game isn't out on a console you own then tough, deal with it. It's always been this bloody way. Everyone can't have every game unless they have plenty of time and are frankly, rich.  

 

Then I see "it means less competition". In what way? (This is also a genuine question btw) Sony are still going to release some absolutely magnificent and beautiful exclusives. Nintendo will always do their thing and produce some of the best games ever. 

 

Are Sony going to lose money by MS buying Zenamax/Bethesda and Activision Blizzard? Yes. But they are not going out of business. They will still make billions and continue to use slave labour to produce consoles. (Just like MS and Nintendo do)

 

You could say it's for selfish reasons, but I love this hobby. But im frankly not well off and basically on minimum wage. I get to play a ton of games for cheap or free. And millions of other people can as well. That's what's important, as many people as possible having fun and varied experiences for as little money as possible. Rather than the old way of parents having to spend £60 for a game.

[tronied]

Come on Microsoft, do the right thing now and make a new Interstate 76 game 🤞

[bear]

44 minutes ago, RubberJohnny said:

 

LOL nope, Sega has had lawsuits in recent years over the use of "black company" tactics like harassing staff, they kidnapped a developers girlfriend to stop him from leaving the company in the late 90s. They've always been the shittiest company on every level and it's baffling why people have any affection for them.

 

The theft of the Dreamcast dev hardware which broke the system open for piracy were even pretty obviously organised crime elements inside the company who wanted to get in on the Hong Kong bootleg disc money train, only for the newly popular internet to steal their lunch in turn.

Fair enough, it's always Konami podcasters make jokes about regarding links to the Yakuza and stuff so that threw me. 

 

[kensei]

27 minutes ago, Giddas said:

For those thinking Nintendo could be next, how many takeovers of large Japanese companies by Western ones have there been?

 

 

I don't think it'll happen, I'm just wondering why it wouldn't be attempted given Nintendo is publicly traded. If Apple wanted to buy their way into games they have also more money than god.

 

I assume the red tape on the Japanese side is hellish?

[bradigor]

Fuck sake (from the gaming prediction thread from last year!)

 

Quote

 

Ubisoft bought by Microsoft who clear out the upper management of the company - Nope

 

Late and wrong company. Lets hope they do a clearout though

[TehStu]

Just now, bradigor said:

Late and wrong company. Lets hope they do a clearout though

 

Well,

Quote

[Update: Speaking to the New York Times' Karen Weise, Kotick would not confirm whether he would be CEO after the Microsoft acquisition, only saying that "post close, I will be available as needed."]

Feels like "carefully worded" speak for being shown the door. So, that's a start.

[CarloOos]

Raven were still knocking out absolute bangers all the way through the 360 era, I wonder if anyone good still works there or whether it’s a shell these days.

[Capwn]