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

[Mogster]

6 minutes ago, p1nseeker said:

I just can't believe they will make COD Xbox console exclusive. It just makes too much money on PlayStation to pass up surely? It'll probably on gamepass and get DLC early etc

That's what some people were saying about The Elder Scrolls when MS bought Bethesda. Microsoft seem to want Game Pass subs more than anything else, so you can almost guarantee that CoD will be an exclusive.

 

Put it this way, there's a reason Microsoft don't release PlayStation ports of Forza, Halo and the rest.

[moosegrinder]

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2022-01-11-xbox-has-changed-how-we-do-certain-things-with-activision-following-misconduct-reports

 

This is interesting from the 11th.

[Eighthours]

Vicarious Visions can get back on Tony Hawk now, eh?

[Ry]

This is a major hit for retailers. 

 

The amount of sales lost will put great strain on the likes of shopto, Game Collection etc. 

[moosegrinder]

I've noticed second hand prices of prominent Game Pass games have tanked like a bastard. You can get Yakuza LAD for a tenner preowned on Xbox.

[yakumo]

Lets win the console wars by buying everyone.

 

 

[K]

I just struggle to believe that they're going to leave all that money on the table and make stuff console exclusive. These people are driven by money and by shareholders, and if you have one graph that shows $ and one graph that shows $$$, they are going to go with the $$$ one every single time. They would be idiots not to. Mark my words, there is no way in a million years that Nintendo are not going to release Zelda: Breath of the Wild on Xbox / PS / mobile.

[bear]

Guys, this really about battling the Epic Game Store for the number two spot behind Steam. 

[monkeydog]

Just now, yakumo said:

Lets win the console wars by buying everyone.

 

This isn't console wars. Who wants a slice of a piddly 300m customers?

 

[Cyhwuhx]

1 minute ago, yakumo said:

Lets win the console wars by buying everyone.

 

 

 

[QuackQuack]

That sound you hear is YouTube clickbaiters frantically Googling antitrust law

[Siri]

Just now, Eighthours said:

Vicarious Visions can get back on Tony Hawk now, eh?

Vicarious should be just given the keys to Blizzard's IP cabinet, honestly.

And then tell Arkane to make Starcraft: Ghost for a laff.

[Benny]

1 minute ago, bear said:

Guys, this really about battling the Epic Game Store for the number two spot behind Steam. 

 

It really does pay to have a gaming PC these days. Free stuff is just given away left and right, and in the sales games out mere months previously go for a tenner.

[Cyhwuhx]

Just now, QuackQuack said:

That sound you hear is YouTube clickbaiters frantically Googling antitrust law

 

I can see this take-over being greenlighted by the US simply as a response to Tencent. Anti-trust be damned.

[Quest]

My friend who bought a PS5 just for playing CoD is not going to like this news at all.

 

I'll be happy if this somehow results in Singularity being playable on the Series X. I'm a simple man.

 

[Uzi]

Just now, Benny said:

 

It really does pay to have a gaming PC these days. Free stuff is just given away left and right, and in the sales games out mere months previously go for a tenner.

 

Mate - you can play God of War/Horizon/Uncharted (soon) on PC while you play Forza Horizon 5/Halo Infinite/Gears 5 on the same damn PC

 

PEEEE SEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

 

Also - getting all these gams on gamepass. Nice. MS really seem to be going all in with the Netflix model - they got everyone hooked with £5 a month and now we play bloody 2-3x that!!! 

[Gabe]

1 minute ago, K said:

I just struggle to believe that they're going to leave all that money on the table and make stuff console exclusive. These people are driven by money and by shareholders, and if you have one graph that shows $ and one graph that shows $$$, they are going to go with the $$$ one every single time. They would be idiots not to. Mark my words, there is no way in a million years that Nintendo are not going to release Zelda: Breath of the Wild on Xbox / PS / mobile.

I realise this isn't a serious post, but having a game that has only ever been on your own platform and not going mutliplatform is a very different proposition from taking a mutliplatform game and making it exclusive, for a whole host of reasons.

 

CoD is also a different beast to anything Bethesda has ever done (not least in terms of having regular output and big revenue) so whether this will be treated differently to Fallout/Starfield etc is to be seen, I guess.

[layten]

Just now, Uzi said:

 

Mate - you can play God of War/Horizon/Uncharted (soon) on PC while you play Forza Horizon 5/Halo Infinite/Gears 5 on the same damn PC

 

PEEEE SEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

 

Also - getting all these gams on gamepass. Nice. MS really seem to be going all in with the Netflix model - they got everyone hooked with £5 a month and now we play bloody 2-3x that!!! 

You forget the PC's ultimate advantage.

Spoiler

 

[RubberJohnny]

Just now, Gabe said:

I realise this isn't a serious post, but having a game that has only ever been on your own platform and not going mutliplatform is a very different proposition from taking a mutliplatform game and making it exclusive, for a whole host of reasons.

 

Where was the fuss when Sony brought up all the Final Fantasies as exclusives this gen, then? They'd been multiplatform for a decade.

[Waggo]

I would imagine US anti competition laws are always going to favour the American company in MS over a Japanese Sony, so anybody pinning their hopes on that one are on a hiding to nothing.

 

 

 

 

[Gabe]

2 minutes ago, Cyhwuhx said:

 

I can see this take-over being greenlighted by the US simply as a response to Tencent. Anti-trust be damned.

But how can somebody in third (or below) be accused of being antitrust? They aren't the dominant player so I can't see why this won't go through. 

[Fargo]

Do Activision still own the James Bond licence ? Maybe this is why the achievements for a Goldeneye remaster seemed to leak a few weeks back! 

[Captain Kelsten]

It's hilarious to me that grown-ass men still think about 'console wars', like they're 11 years old and arguing on the playground

[Hexx]

Sod that. Mircrosoft can make them make Elite Force 3. DO IT YOU COWARDS

 

[footle]

Ah so that's how much King now costs - just looking at this through a console wars lens misses the point imo.

[layten]

1 minute ago, RubberJohnny said:

 

Where was the fuss when Sony brought up all the Final Fantasies as exclusives this gen, then? They'd been multiplatform for a decade.

That's different though as FF has always been a Nintendo Sony franchise.

[bear]

Just now, Fargo said:

Do Activision still own the James Bond licence ? Maybe this is while the achievements for a Goldeneye remaster seemed to leak a few weeks back! 

Don't think so, IO (who MS were supposedly buying last year) are working on James Bond now. 

[Giddas]

Be more likely EU antitrust I would think but who knows how that would work.

 

70 billion dollars is outrageous (checks out cost of new gaming PC).

[Strafe]

When does candy crush hit gamepass?

[moosegrinder]

Fuck Candy Crush, give me Hearthstone on my Xbox.