Microsoft completes $69B deal to buy Activision Blizzard • Hacker News Board

Re: Microsoft completes $69B deal to buy Activision Blizzard

#531

Post by sirspacey » Sat, Oct 14, 2023, 9:22 PM UTC

izzydata wrote: post #20

It's strange to see some gamers praise this acquisition as if it will have any positive effect on some of the games they enjoy. In no world will Microsoft decreasing the competition going to be a good thing for consumers.

I completely disagree. I’m a long-time gaming enthusiast who has followed Activision, Blizzard, and Microsoft Xbox since their beginnings.

Microsoft has done a singularly great job valuing the communities around games, often more than the companies they acquired.

Activision in particular was the death of Blizzard. They have a poor reputation which is very well deserved. I consider this acquisition a rescue of IP I’d given up on. I’m looking forward to the next chapter under Microsoft.

For context, it’s important to review Microsoft revenue in gaming (a loss) and how they justify it - they see gaming as a brand play. Unlike most AAA corporations in gaming, protecting the brand of their games and studios is far more important to them.

Re: Microsoft completes $69B deal to buy Activision Blizzard

#532

Post by TillE » Sat, Oct 14, 2023, 9:52 PM UTC

CobrastanJorji wrote: post #473

imbnwa wrote: post #460

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you imagine a Leisure Suit Larry in 2023

I regret to inform you that the most recent original Leisure Suit Larry game, "Leisure Suit Larry: Wet Dreams Dry Twice," came out in 2020 (2021 on console, 2022 on mobile).

If you're making a Larry game that's tame enough to be allowed on mobile/console stores, why even bother at that point.

Re: Microsoft completes $69B deal to buy Activision Blizzard

#533

Post by TillE » Sat, Oct 14, 2023, 9:58 PM UTC

keithalewis wrote: post #472

Flashing lights on a screen and noise from a speaker have never been so valuable. Who'd of thunk there were so many people willing to pay good money to waste their time?

You could literally write the same comment, word for word, about the film industry, but for some reason the disdain on HN is reserved only for videogames.

It's not the 80s anymore, so it's really weird to be treating games as an embarrassing hobby for boys, rather than part of the multibillion dollar entertainment industry.

Re: Microsoft completes $69B deal to buy Activision Blizzard

#534

Post by deprecative » Sat, Oct 14, 2023, 10:00 PM UTC

hyperhopper wrote: post #480

deprecative wrote: post #444

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because it is for now . If they mess with it then it'll not be a good deal and folks will leave it.

The first part of all the shit that's bad, is to have a phase where it's good first. "It's good for now" is just the typical path to it becoming shit.

This is as equally true of "it's shit now and will continue to be". Capitalism demands profits and enshitification ensues. Might as well enjoy what you can while you can.

Re: Microsoft completes $69B deal to buy Activision Blizzard

#535

Post by Macha » Sat, Oct 14, 2023, 10:01 PM UTC

chongli wrote: post #507

endorphine wrote: post #494

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> love RTS games, but they're probably never going to achieve the level of success they have in the past. You can still make them, but like arena shooters, movement shooters, and fighting games, they really are from a different era that modern players struggle to come to terms with Interesting take. Why do you think that is? They just fallen out of fashion or something else?

Not the GP but I’ll give my take: The long term value for an RTS is with the multiplayer. The problem is that the games are incredibly demanding to play. It takes a lot of practice and experience to get good enough to get off the “bottom rung” of the online ladder, just to be able to reach close to a 50% win rate. Many gamers find this too stressful to deal with. They end up quitting the game and moving on to somethi…

I think the other thing that is that the RTS community has de-emphasized modes other than 1v1 to the extent that it's basically a 1v1 game like fighting games. At least with MOBAs there's a destressing factor of losing with a team that stops the feeling of sole total responsibility that makes so much ladder anxiety. Similarly, arena shooters also have team deathmatch modes.

Re: Microsoft completes $69B deal to buy Activision Blizzard

#536

Post by kungito » Sat, Oct 14, 2023, 10:07 PM UTC

chongli wrote: post #507

endorphine wrote: post #494

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> love RTS games, but they're probably never going to achieve the level of success they have in the past. You can still make them, but like arena shooters, movement shooters, and fighting games, they really are from a different era that modern players struggle to come to terms with Interesting take. Why do you think that is? They just fallen out of fashion or something else?

Not the GP but I’ll give my take: The long term value for an RTS is with the multiplayer. The problem is that the games are incredibly demanding to play. It takes a lot of practice and experience to get good enough to get off the “bottom rung” of the online ladder, just to be able to reach close to a 50% win rate. Many gamers find this too stressful to deal with. They end up quitting the game and moving on to somethi…

I'd say it's like this for any older game which still has a multiplayer community regardless of genre. There just isn't a big influx of new players and the bad ones give up.

Re: Microsoft completes $69B deal to buy Activision Blizzard

#537

Post by Macha » Sat, Oct 14, 2023, 10:10 PM UTC

nerdjon wrote: post #53

manuelabeledo wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of these grievances are more about changes in the architectural direction than anything else. I don't see how using the Cell processor could be considered "anti-consumer". After all, we are talking about a time when consoles didn't generally use "off the self" processors - Nintendo had a customized PowerPC, too. Using more generic architectures is a quite recent development. > Paying developers either for exclus…

Maybe the cell processor was not anti-consumer but I also mentioned Sony being cocky which it very much was. As far as Bungie, they were bought by Microsoft by the time Halo was made exclusive. I am not remembering any exclusive games from Rare before being bought by Microsoft? You are right that Phil Spensor was the GM in 2014. That is a year after the Xbox One release ate, after many of the past mistakes were made.…

> You are right that Phil Spensor was the GM in 2014. That is a year after the Xbox One release ate, after many of the past mistakes were made. I don't know of examples of Microsoft engaging in many of these behaviors and in fact doing the opposite since he came in (existing contracts that was made before him being an exception). If I am wrong I would love examples, but I am not aware of them.

Most of your Sony examples are from the PS3 generation which predates the Microsoft Xbox One debacle. So we may as well bring up the Games for Windows Live and years of trying to push PC gamers to Xbox instead of investing in PC for Microsoft.

Re: Microsoft completes $69B deal to buy Activision Blizzard

#538

Post by anakaine » Sat, Oct 14, 2023, 10:23 PM UTC

c0pium wrote: post #520

vel0city wrote: post #496

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if this is a part of the quality difference. I've only used the app version, never the web.

On the same wired pc with the same internet, playing through the app has consistently been a better experience than through a browser.

It's been about a year since I last used it. Back then Halo worked better through a browser and the app was very flaky. I wound up getting an xbox console and the experience with streaming on the console has been pretty good. All over wifi AC1600.

Re: Microsoft completes $69B deal to buy Activision Blizzard

#539

Post by manuelabeledo » Sat, Oct 14, 2023, 10:47 PM UTC

pjmlp wrote: post #482

manuelabeledo wrote: post #360

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are comparing a 70%-30% market share split in consoles, to a virtually 100% for Microsoft in OEM PC sales, and a >85% for Nvidia in AI and research oriented GPUs [0] Microsoft also controls ~95% of the PC gaming market, which makes up ~40% of the total video game market [1]. So remind me again, which studios were bullied by Sony to give up access to the majority of the market, in exchange for nothing? [0] https:/…

Moving goalposts. First they are to blame, then they are poor fellows without an option.

They are just not comparable.

Microsoft has the means and the marketshare to compete, and they do, they just failed to take the lead so far. There is no scenario where Sony could pressure developers to release exclusive games and content, and give nothing in return.

On the other hand, Microsoft has all the leverage in the world to pressure OEMs to distribute their software, and block competition. Historically, their marketshare has always been over 90%. Nvidia dominates in the professional market.

These are all publicly available numbers.

So far, you have failed to even provide clear and verifiable examples of developers "bullied" by Sony to not release content for XBox. You may want to take a look at Microsoft behaviour though, since they have a history of trying to get indie developers to prioritize their platforms or else [0]

[0] https://www.techdigest.tv/2014/02/are_microsoft_b.html

Re: Microsoft completes $69B deal to buy Activision Blizzard

#540

Post by keithalewis » Sat, Oct 14, 2023, 11:35 PM UTC

TillE wrote: post #533

keithalewis wrote: post #472

Flashing lights on a screen and noise from a speaker have never been so valuable. Who'd of thunk there were so many people willing to pay good money to waste their time?

You could literally write the same comment, word for word, about the film industry, but for some reason the disdain on HN is reserved only for videogames. It's not the 80s anymore, so it's really weird to be treating games as an embarrassing hobby for boys, rather than part of the multibillion dollar entertainment industry.

Agreed about the film industry. The writer and actor strikes are making it clear how vile the people running that are. There are wonderful and worthwhile films and games, but not the majority of them. The best way to exploit people is to convince them they want to be exploited. That takes multibillion dollar investments, but it seems to be down to a science now. Edward Bernays was a pioneer.