Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard • Hacker News Board

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#221

Post by kmeisthax » Tue, Jan 18, 2022, 2:29 PM UTC

blibble wrote: post #121

s3r3nity wrote: post #16

Congratulations to Phil Spencer, who started out leading an upstart team at Microsoft for a new game console called "Xbox" and is now "CEO of Microsoft Gaming" - a Microsoft Senior Leadership position. Oh, and he now leads the third biggest gaming company on the planet: > When the transaction closes, Microsoft will become the world’s third-largest gaming company by revenue, behind Tencent and Sony. It will be interes…

I wonder if he realises what "fun" he's going to have over the next years cleaning out the cesspit that is Blizzard

Given that they plan to keep Bobby Kotick on, I don't think Microsoft understands the problem with ABK all that well.

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#222

Post by apocalyptic0n3 » Tue, Jan 18, 2022, 2:30 PM UTC

palijer wrote: post #84

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.

I looked around for a while, a d I can't actually find a list of any mergers that antitrust regulations actually prevented. I'm assuming some survivor bias is involved here and we don't hear about the ones that stopped early, but it seems that what I and most folks assume antitrust regulations do is different than what actually happens. I remember the Sirius/XM merge and how those were the only two players in the mar…

AT&T's acquisition of T-Mobile was aborted due to anti-trust complaints if I recall correctly.

The original purchase of Rite Aid by Walgreens was aborted due to similar concerns, although that one ended in a revised partial acquisition anyway.

The Staples acquisition of Office Depot/Office Max was stopped as well on anti-trust grounds.

They also blocked a merger of Nasdaq and NYSE.

Those are all since 2010. I'm sure I'm forgetting a few big ones too. They should definitely be blocking more, but they have stopped some.

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#223

Post by Ekaros » Tue, Jan 18, 2022, 2:30 PM UTC

mrkramer wrote: post #193

All cash deal. Yup. Inflation is going to eat all of your cash pile Microsoft so you better spend it fast. But my thinking is that they should've acquired Valve which controls digital PC gaming distribution not big gaming studios like Zenimax and Activision Blizzard.

I don't think Gaben will sell... And why would he, he has company he build over the years to do what ever he wants. With very robust income streams just by existing and occasionally releasing crap for Dota 2 and CSGO... Or continuing to sell other peoples games and taking 20-30% cut in process...

Already personally likely making more than enough money for him. I can kinda see point of selling when you want to do something for your dreams, but if company is doing your dreams what is the point.

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#224

Post by sbarre » Tue, Jan 18, 2022, 2:31 PM UTC

dmonitor wrote: post #190

sbarre wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even after this purchase, Microsoft's gaming division is still smaller than Sony by revenue.. There are still lots of other large publishers out there.. EA, Take Two, Embracer, Tencent, Epic, etc... I'm sure I'm forgetting some big obvious ones even. They are definitely not "buying all their competitors" as you put it.

Smaller than Sony or smaller than Playstation? Sony does a lot more than just vidya

I'll let you do your own research.

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#225

Post by giorgioz » Tue, Jan 18, 2022, 2:32 PM UTC

mrkramer wrote: post #193

All cash deal. Yup. Inflation is going to eat all of your cash pile Microsoft so you better spend it fast. But my thinking is that they should've acquired Valve which controls digital PC gaming distribution not big gaming studios like Zenimax and Activision Blizzard.

I was also thinking about inflation! How will the company/person receiving the 68.7 billions dollars protect them from inflation? Will they get swapped immediately for ETFs?

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#226

Post by cloogshicer » Tue, Jan 18, 2022, 2:32 PM UTC

izacus wrote: post #150

999900000999 wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I don't think it'll be amazing for users. The mobile market is just awful. It's almost impossible to find any good games that don't use these exploitative methods.

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#227

Post by bogwog » Tue, Jan 18, 2022, 2:32 PM UTC

s3r3nity wrote: post #16

Congratulations to Phil Spencer, who started out leading an upstart team at Microsoft for a new game console called "Xbox" and is now "CEO of Microsoft Gaming" - a Microsoft Senior Leadership position. Oh, and he now leads the third biggest gaming company on the planet: > When the transaction closes, Microsoft will become the world’s third-largest gaming company by revenue, behind Tencent and Sony. It will be interes…

Very impressive indeed. He was backed by a multibillion dollar behemoth and, against all odds, and despite the commercial failure of the Xbox One (something that would’ve bankrupted any other company), he managed to keep the company afloat long enough to launch another product.

Spending ~$70bn to acquire another company is also impressive. Sure, Microsoft has limitless resources, and using acquisitions to hurt the competition is something they love to do, but still.. He did it. This is his win.

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#228

Post by Iolaum » Tue, Jan 18, 2022, 2:33 PM UTC

lvl100 wrote: post #148

JohnWhigham wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Azure?

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#229

Post by nathanaldensr » Tue, Jan 18, 2022, 2:33 PM UTC

wongarsu wrote: post #207

raxxorrax wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think for gaming this is pretty negative that everything is consolidated under large developers. I also don't think that the atmosphere under Microsoft will be better than under Activision. I hope PC gaming can detach from Microsoft as soon as possible to be honest.

> I hope PC gaming can detach from Microsoft as soon as possible to be honest In what way is PC gaming attached to Microsoft? Microsoft Game Studios doesn't have a lot of market share in PC games besides Minecraft, and the industry is very diverse. Most games happen to run on Windows, but apart from DirectX they have resisted every attempt from Microsoft to use that in any way. If PC gaming is attached to anyone it's…

It's not either-or, it's both. Both Microsoft and Valve play pivotal roles in PC gaming.

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#230

Post by SloopJon » Tue, Jan 18, 2022, 2:33 PM UTC

sabertoothed wrote: post #4

The name Blizzard is still magical to me. As the maybe 15-year old playing Warcraft II and drawing strategies on a piece of paper. I don't play computer games anymore. But it was magical.

Even outside of the recent scandal, I've long had mixed feelings about Blizzard: harassing independent servers, always-connected DRM (I got booted out of single-player CoD: MW so many times), and milking franchises with remasters. I will say, though, that after a several year hiatus, a friend and I have discovered StarCraft 2 co-op with weekly mutations, and it's a lot of fun.

SC 2 recently went free-to-play. If the rest of their catalog is added to Game Pass, that will be something. Blizzard games have been stubbornly expensive years after release. I wonder what this means for Battle.net?