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

[Boozy The Clown]

Sony HQ ...

 

 

 

[Mr. Gerbik]

Why is the thread title "Microsoft has acquired Activision Blizzard. Woah." instead of: "Microsoft has acquired Activision Blizzard. Wow."?

[SuperCapes]

28 minutes ago, Orion said:

 

I don't have Steam, PSN, Battlenet, Uplay, Origin or a Nintendo ID. I've just got Game Pass Ultimate for the next three years. You might be fucked. I'm cracking open a bottle to celebrate.

 

Sounds like even if they delivered you a thrice fried fecal steak, you would be happy. 

 

This deal is frightening, not exciting. 

 

At least the biggest pipe in gaming is going to get his comeuppance right? A big fat check. 

 

 

[Zombait]

I do worry the long term affect this would have on Sony, I mean if this Dreamcasts PS5 and knocks Sony out of the games industry you're then gonna beholden to just Microsoft and at their whim GamePass can and will increase in price to whatever MS decide and what are you gonna do then? Also you have the eventuality that Phil Spencer gets replaced by a Don Mattrick type suit and not a gamer....then it all starts to crumble. 
I dunno I just don't feel comfortable with this huge accusation, it feels a bit Disney brute forcing their service buying everything up & giving you only one way to consume the content. I don't think it's anything to be celebrated and that would be the same for any company doing this not just MS.

[Hello Goaty ♥]

There's always Nintendo to fall back on 

 

 

[bear]

23 minutes ago, Mr. Gerbik said:

It's because it's different with Microsoft. If Embracer or Sony had bought them, of course they'd stick to existing crowd-pleasing hits. But Xbox has a different business model, their main goal is making Game Pass attractive and bring in more subscribers. So alongside the crowd pleasing hits, there's a good chance they'll put smaller teams to work on fan favourite older ip, the kind of titles that get the specialized press and hobbyists like us talking.

I'm a bit confused about Embracer being mentioned here. Their whole strategy seeks to be about releasing a huge amount of games, not just focusing on the AAA stuff, and that includes remasters of stuff like Destroy All Humans and new games in old franchises like Jagged Alliance and Outcast. 

[dizogg]

All the posts laughing at Sony are super cringey. Stop cheerleading international corporations. And I love my Xbox!

[Clipper]

41 minutes ago, K said:

People often respond to acquisition news by saying stuff like “oooh - does this mean we could see a new [ancient game series that I liked but has been dead for years]?” 
 

Has this ever happened before? I would have thought that if you’ve spent billions of dollars on something, you’d want to stick to the big, proven, existing crowd-pleasing hits, rather than experiment with stuff that’s been out of commission for years. Is there anything in the Activision vaults that’s worth reviving?

It’s just fun to speculate and wistfully hope in idle fantasy land 

 

I doubt many are too serious, I know I’m not

 

 

[Mr. Gerbik]

14 minutes ago, bear said:

I'm a bit confused about Embracer being mentioned here. Their whole strategy seeks to be about releasing a huge amount of games, not just focusing on the AAA stuff, and that includes remasters of stuff like Destroy All Humans and new games in old franchises like Jagged Alliance and Outcast. 

Yeah, you're right. Was the first name that came to mind but I hadn't thought that one through. They're all about exactly those kinds of revival at a lower budget

 

[Gabe]

17 minutes ago, Zombait said:

I do worry the long term affect this would have on Sony, I mean if this Dreamcasts PS5 and knocks Sony out of the games industry you're then gonna beholden to just Microsoft and at their whim GamePass can and will increase in price to whatever MS decide and what are you gonna do then? Also you have the eventuality that Phil Spencer gets replaced by a Don Mattrick type suit and not a gamer....then it all starts to crumble. 
I dunno I just don't feel comfortable with this huge accusation, it feels a bit Disney brute forcing their service buying everything up & giving you only one way to consume the content. I don't think it's anything to be celebrated and that would be the same for any company doing this not just MS.

How would this 'knock out Sony'? If they were relying so heavily on AB titles that not having them would send them into a spin, then they would be in massive trouble already - and that's clearly not the case.

 

Xbox still doesn't have those 3rd-person open world action adventures that Sony has in abundance, nor would I say it has mass appeal to non-Western markets still. Sony still has a lot of talented studios that will continue making the same stuff, which will continue to sell in big numbers. Where is the Xbox equivalent of God of War? Of Spider-Man? Of The Last Of Us? Nowhere, currently, and can anybody hand on heart say any of their studio acquisitions can match those titles in terms of polish and production values?

 

Sony will be fine.

[RubberJohnny]

I think the ink not even being wet on the agreement is a little early to be forecasting the death of companies and a one console future as if it's inevitable.

 

Everyone is a massive, financially healthy company that's been in the industry for decades with annual earnings in the multiple-digit billions, no one is going to doing a Sega these days.

[RubberJohnny]

Also I was looking at some historical market caps, these can't be right, can they?

 

https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/TTWO/take-two-interactive-software/market-cap

 

How's it possible that you could pick up Take Two in 2000-2005 for <2 billion? They were making way more than that with the GTAs then, surely?

[Orion]

41 minutes ago, SuperCapes said:

 

Sounds like even if they delivered you a thrice fried fecal steak, you would be happy. 

 

This deal is frightening, not exciting. 

 

 

 

 

No I'm happy because I just reupped for three more years of Game Pass and thinking of all the new games I will get to play in that time.  I'm quite happy tbh with my cheap, shitty steak if the alternative gaming world is paying £70 for games. 

[Transient Curse]

In a way I think there's a strong case for this just meaning Sony will build up their own IP now. 

 

While I know Call of Duty has ruled the roost for a long time, the fact that the game is made by 3 different teams, and Respawn, who don't make COD games anymore, put out a few games where the shooting felt remarkably similar. Means it's not exactly secret info on how it's done.

 

While Microsoft will of course want to say "the best call of duty ever, only on gamepass" Sony could hire a bunch of developers from those 4 teams who know exactly how Call of Duty works and make their own game and call it Military Service: Declassified or something and it could well plug the hole. 

 

I agree that the IP is what is being bought, but Sony's own brand pull is significant. I would say they're not automatically in trouble here. Microsoft still don't have answers to the games that people say they love on Sony consoles - god of war, etc. And spiderman. 

 

Tbh, to me, this feels like a less exciting, less interesting set of IP than Microsoft bought last time around, it surprises me that they'd spend so much for it. 

 

I am interested to hear what their plans are for COD in particular.  I also wonder how badly Vanguard flopped and if it was enough to put the company on the market (😉).

[Boozy The Clown]

26 minutes ago, dizogg said:

All the posts laughing at Sony are super cringey. Stop cheerleading international corporations. And I love my Xbox!

 

All the posts talking about armchair business expertise are super boring.  It's not about cheerleading a corporation. It's about throwing some shit back at certain posters for the whole of the last generation. Maybe you're not talking about my post though I haven't read the thread. I know there's a few people lurking in here who are fucking seething at this and that is funny to me. That's all it is.... laughs.

[SuperCapes]

3 minutes ago, Orion said:

 

No I'm happy because I just reupped for three more years of Game Pass and thinking of all the new games I will get to play in that time.  I'm quite happy tbh with my cheap, shitty steak if the alternative gaming world is paying £70 for games. 

 

Don't get me wrong, value is value, absolutely. I would however, choose quality everyday. Considering the best games on Gamepass have come from non Microsoft entities, they have yet to prove anything. I am part of the problem though, as I just pay for gamepass as if it's tax. Don't use it for months and still pay for it on the chance something will come along to try. 

 

None of that is the scary part though. Monopolising the industry is no good for any of us.

 

I am actually fairly optimistic this may cause Sony to put even more effort into new IPs and strengthening their current lineup. I would say the same for Nintendo but they really could not care less. 

[Isaac]

11 minutes ago, Wahwah* said:

I agree that the IP is what is being bought, but Sony's own brand pull is significant. I would say they're not automatically in trouble here. Microsoft still don't have answers to the games that people say they love on Sony consoles - god of war, etc. And spiderman. 

 

Four of the top ten selling PS4 games of all time were Call of Duty games.

 

Hell, three of the top five were Call of Duty games.

 

This will cause millions to switch allegiance, or at the bare minimum, to buy a Series S alongside their PS5s.

 

There are so many people who just buy a console for CoD.

[TehStu]

Microsoft have no games and now they have a bunch of devs, presumably to make games, because that's the way you make games. Are we to assume these 600 in-house studios will keep shovelling out the same stuff? I mean, Playground got to make a Fable, which is nice (admittedly, not new IP). Anyone else branching out?

[Waggo]

Don't think console wars are really relevant anymore though tbh, it is all about content now at least as far as MS are concerned.  

 

Isn't Phil on record as saying that he is not in the slighest bit bothered if you are playing MS games on a Playstation, as long as you are playing those MS games?

 

So I think Sony fans will still be able to play COD and everthing else if not on their Playstations, then directly through their TV or whatever in the near future.

 

You don't drop $70 billion notes and then keep everything the same as it was. The gaming world is seismically changing around us and I think most of us have yet to grasp that.

[Isaac]

1 minute ago, Waggo said:

Don't think console wars are really relevant anymore though tbh, it is all about content now at least as far as MS are concerned.  

 

Isn't Phil on record as saying that he is not in the slighest bit bothered if you are playing MS games on a Playstation, as long as you are playing those MS games?

 

So I think Sony fans will still be able to play COD and everthing else if not on their Playstations, then directly through their TV or whatever in the near future.

 

You don't drop $70 billion notes and then keep everything the same as it was. The gaming world is seismically changing around us and I think most of us have yet to grasp that.

 

They want SaaS revenue.

 

He will be happy to let MS games onto Playstation, via game pass, but I cannot see Sony allowing game pass onto their platform.

 

So yeah, it'll be either console, PC, or BYOD (mobile, TV, whatever) via xCloud.

 

I could see a future where game pass comes to Switch though, in the form of xCloud. I think Nintendo would be far more open to it than Sony.

[Transient Curse]

1 minute ago, Isaac said:

 

Four of the top ten selling PS4 games of all time were Call of Duty games.

 

Hell, three of the top five were Call of Duty games.

 

This will cause millions to switch allegiance.

 

There are so many people who just buy a console for CoD.

 

OK, they're screwed.

[carlospie]

Some people are never happy. This is great news. What a day to be alive. 

[RubberJohnny]

14 minutes ago, SuperCapes said:

None of that is the scary part though. Monopolising the industry is no good for any of us.

 

I am actually fairly optimistic this may cause Sony to put even more effort into new IPs and strengthening their current lineup.

 

These two lines are contradictory, if you're saying this is just competition and it's driving others to not rest on their laurels and do more to stay competitive too then that's great and the consumer wins, that's literally the polar opposite of monopolising things though.

[Down by Law]

Mad there's been no recent CoD clones really, back in the 360 era the engine did all the heavy lifting but a 60fps shooter in this day and age is no problem on UE. Maybe they could even release it with 18 maps like back in the day and not cripple it with update sizes bigger than the average hard drive every five minutes. 

[Robo_1]

Hmmm, what do people make of this:

 

 

I mean that seems rather more reassuring to Playstation gamers than their far more ambiguous comments after the Bethesda buy out.

 

[layten]

Just now, Robo_1 said:

Hmmm, what do people make of this:

Existing F2P content isn't going anywhere.

[SuperCapes]

7 minutes ago, RubberJohnny said:

 

These two lines are contradictory, if you're saying this is just competition and it's driving others to not rest on their laurels and do more to stay competitive too then that's great and the consumer wins, that's literally the polar opposite of monopolising things though.

 

I should have said could be bad for us, but I will try and have a positive outlook.

 

I still think it is more frightening than exciting though. Sure, right at this moment in time, could be great, but what happens if they start buying other large entities up? Kind of like Tencent (which is also worrying). 

[ontwofronts]

Keep COD as it is, put MW2 multiplayer for series x on GP, 4K Dolby Vision and Atmos and they’ll have me forever

[Broker]

6 hours ago, Thor said:

So, aside from what they're already doing with PSVR, what do people think Sony should do here, if anything?  Personally I think they should be eyeing up Square Enix, and also going after exclusive licence of Marvel's entire gaming IP if possible. 

I doubt the could afford it, but Sony should buy Take2 or EA if they want to compete with this acquisition. The real danger is that Microsoft eventually acquire FIFA and GTA as well, which really would push Sony into second place forever. If they could afford one of those they could carry on being in competition. 
 

With their resources the best they can do is probably Square or Capcom.

 

6 hours 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. 

Never bet against Nintendo. 

 

5 hours ago, Mike S said:

 

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?

We’re moving towards a beautiful future where all out favourite franchises are as well managed as the office suite. 

[Orion]

35 minutes ago, SuperCapes said:

 

Don't get me wrong, value is value, absolutely. I would however, choose quality everyday. Considering the best games on Gamepass have come from non Microsoft entities, they have yet to prove anything. I am part of the problem though, as I just pay for gamepass as if it's tax. Don't use it for months and still pay for it on the chance something will come along to try. 

 

 

I can usually find a new game to play every week. Last week was The Gunk. Today its Nobody Saves The World. If you can't find anything to play, cancel it. Especially if you see it just as a tax and serving up shit. To millions its not though, we get incredible value. As Ry said earlier for many of us struggling to keep up with game prices its a life saver. 

 

For 1st party stuff I'd argue the Forza Horizon games are some of the best arcade racing games you can buy and Sea of Thieves with friends is one of the best online multiplayer games available.