Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard • Hacker News Board

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#141

Post by blargpls » Tue, Jan 18, 2022, 2:11 PM UTC

boringg wrote: post #112

bitwize wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microsoft owns CoD, Doom, Quake, Minecraft, Fallout, Elder Scrolls, and soon Warcraft, Starcraft, and Overwatch. They're becoming the Disney of gaming, which is scary, but hey, Microsoft gonna Microsoft.

They do own those legacy games but sadly Starcraft is not going to be re-born anytime soon - maybe warcraft IV but we will see. What will happen to Bobby Kotick now?

Looks like he will stay (for now):

> Bobby Kotick will continue to serve as CEO of Activision Blizzard, and he and his team will maintain their focus on driving efforts to further strengthen the company’s culture and accelerate business growth.

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#142

Post by Miner49er » Tue, Jan 18, 2022, 2:12 PM UTC

palijer wrote: post #117

koheripbal wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It might have made it cheaper, but I still think it's a bad deal for MS. Activision doesn't create very much new IP these days, and that's where the talent is that brings new games and gamers to your platform.

I don't think creating new IP correlates that much with profitability these days. Taking a look at box offices, TV, and gaming as well shows that existing IP is plenty profitable on its own.

Maybe not profitability, but I'd say it does with revenue growth. Activation's revenue has been mostly flat for a few years.

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#143

Post by sto11z » Tue, Jan 18, 2022, 2:12 PM UTC

MrJagil wrote: post #63

The old Blizzard always seemed much closer to Apple than Microsoft in culture. An incredible attention to detail and the onboarding experience, clean, fun and friendly design and a slightly rebellious attitude expressed through their willingness to enter new markets. The "new" Microsoft though, really is different than the old and might actually do quite well in stewarding this supposedly sinking ship into fairer wat…

Apple doesn't have a gaming division. Why would they be interested in acquiring Blizzard?

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#144

Post by raxxorrax » Tue, Jan 18, 2022, 2:12 PM UTC

MrJagil wrote: post #63

The old Blizzard always seemed much closer to Apple than Microsoft in culture. An incredible attention to detail and the onboarding experience, clean, fun and friendly design and a slightly rebellious attitude expressed through their willingness to enter new markets. The "new" Microsoft though, really is different than the old and might actually do quite well in stewarding this supposedly sinking ship into fairer wat…

Not sure if an image campaign is enough to convince me that they have changed. They had to embrace open source to some degree because developers were plainly fleeing their environments en masse. Today it is extremely hard to find an expert for hard technical problems. Perhaps everyone is hiding somewhere, but I haven't found them yet.

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#145

Post by zkid18 » Tue, Jan 18, 2022, 2:12 PM UTC

Excellent job, MSFT M&A team.

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#146

Post by zamalek » Tue, Jan 18, 2022, 2:12 PM UTC

user-the-name wrote: post #104

zamalek wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microsoft tries to have an inclusive culture, and generally succeeds far more than their peers. Once Kotick is out I may well end my Blizzard boycott.

"Bobby Kotick will continue to serve as CEO of Activision Blizzard, and he and his team will maintain their focus on driving efforts to further strengthen the company’s culture and accelerate business growth."

I'm expecting/hoping for Microsoft employees to protest his involvement. They have successfully steered Microsoft in the past.

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#147

Post by megumax » Tue, Jan 18, 2022, 2:13 PM UTC

I don't really understand these acquisitions made by Microsoft, first Mojang, then Bethesda and now Activision. Is Microsoft trying to revive these companies or it's just trying to leech of the market? At this moment, Activision is living out of in-game purchases, not making good games. Bethesda was almost dead when they bought it.

>Legendary games, immersive interactive entertainment and publishing expertise accelerate growth in Microsoft’s Gaming business across mobile, PC, console and cloud.

I wonder what this "cloud" means. Is Microsoft planing an alternative to Google Stadia?

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#148

Post by lvl100 » Tue, Jan 18, 2022, 2:13 PM UTC

JohnWhigham wrote: post #58

freeflight wrote: post #15

Wow, has MS gotten that profitable or has Acti/Blizz been doing that badly to be considered a „good deal“? Tho, it certainly fits what MS has been going for with its gaming division; Game pass ultimate has a weird lack of „third party aaa” titles in certain genres. For example EA Play is included in game pass ultimate, but by now all the new EA stuff is locked behind “EA Play pro”. Having the whole Acti/Blizz lineup…

Nadella transformed a company that was at risk of turning into the next IBM into the 2nd most valuable company in the world. Where have you been the past 9 years of his tenure?

I am betting this is not going to last. Their core products are losing customers.

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#149

Post by Mindwipe » Tue, Jan 18, 2022, 2:13 PM UTC

glanzwulf wrote: post #77

atlasunshrugged wrote: post #34

I wonder if this will trigger any antitrust lawsuits. I know Microsoft isn't that of the 90's but it seems like the political situation is ripe for politicians to go after "big tech" and this is a pretty major acquisition that will help Xbox be the dominant player in terms of content.

Nothing will happen as we live in the post-Disney/Fox merger.

TBF the mood music has changed on mergers and I'm not sure that would have gone through today.

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#150

Post by izacus » Tue, Jan 18, 2022, 2:14 PM UTC

999900000999 wrote: post #111

agd wrote: post #53

With these kind of acquisitions, other companies are going to find it very hard to compete with Game Pass. I think we'll look back in 10 years and wonder why antitrust regulators did nothing, but it may be too late by then.

As a GamePass subscriber, I mildly disagree. Saw an indie game last night and felt like buying it. Steam Deck is Valve opening up an alternative to Microsoft land. Although I will admit I'm tempted to cancel my pre order since I'm worried it won't run well.

I don't quite understand what you're trying to say here?

If Microsoft starts subsidizing Game Pass games from their other businesses (like Amazon, Google and Apple do for their other services), it'll make the business model of actually selling games unviable by pure race to the bottom. As a result, you'll lose independent development and market diversity because everyone will need to beg Microsoft (and maybe Sony and Apple as other megacorps) for money scraps.

This is very similar what actually happened in mobile games market - a race to the bottom that only left a few winners filled with exploitative anti-patterns that feed on peoples addiction to recoup their costs instead of selling the product.

It'll of course be amazing for users - games will be cheap! And free! Just like views on YouTube are, where creators are getting more and more burned out fighting against the algorithm which decides how much they deserve to be paid.