Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard • Hacker News Board

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#381

Post by kybernetyk » Tue, Jan 18, 2022, 3:17 PM UTC

Good. Maybe they can fix WoW.

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#382

Post by tosh » Tue, Jan 18, 2022, 3:17 PM UTC

Microsoft now runs two of the apps I spend a lot of time in: Visual Studio Code and StarCraft II :)

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#383

Post by me_me_mu_mu » Tue, Jan 18, 2022, 3:17 PM UTC

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.

No way. The politicians are also bagholders now.

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#384

Post by ekianjo » Tue, Jan 18, 2022, 3:18 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…

> If PC gaming is attached to anyone it's Valve

PC Gaming runs on Windows, not on Valve's OS (while valve is intending to change that progressively).

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#385

Post by gigatexal » Tue, Jan 18, 2022, 3:18 PM UTC

holy smokes!

now maybe the personnel and HR and abuse can be handled since this is going to be run by a company with adults in the room and we can focus on not abusing people and instead focus on games! Here's to Diablo 4 and maybe a Starcraft 3?!

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#386

Post by dmonitor » Tue, Jan 18, 2022, 3:18 PM UTC

Narishma wrote: post #295

yalogin wrote: post #232

Will the DoJ jump in? Only two gaming consoles in the world and one of it is buying one of the biggest game developer for both platforms. Very good reason for DoJ to jump in

This is the second big publisher they're buying recently, after Bethesda.

Bethesda is an order of magnitude smaller

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#387

Post by atlgator » Tue, Jan 18, 2022, 3:18 PM UTC

I hope they don't ruin cross-platform COD. It's not without it's quirks but getting friends on PS, PC, and Xbox in the same game has been incredible.

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#388

Post by _ph_ » Tue, Jan 18, 2022, 3:19 PM UTC

sovnade wrote: post #288

_ph_ wrote: post #267

I wonder what this means for the classic IPs of Blizzard, like WarCraft, StarCraft and Diablo. Especially StarCraft could use an update - I would immediately buy a SC III for the Mac. Unfortunately, there was no update since SC II was ported to Metal some years ago.

There's not likely to be any more mac x86 development from anyone going forward, and I think M1 is enough of a branch that it makes it difficult to justify it.

I can understand the difficulty of Mac ports, if a game doesn't support Metal yet, but that is the case with StarCraft. In theory, a recompile might do.

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#389

Post by WHA8m » Tue, Jan 18, 2022, 3:19 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…

> Microsoft Game Studios doesn't have a lot of market share in PC games besides Minecraft

You could see it coming that this is controversial.

1. Microsofts share in publishing video games isn't exactly what you'd call small. They acquired Zenimax Media [1] last year, which is kind of big. That said, Microsoft can't be seen as a dominator in the publishing market.

2. But the argument wasn't necessarily about who owns the most studios. Microsoft absolutely dominates in the platform market on PC. Games are developed for Windows. Period. Everything else is either niche or an extra.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZeniMax_Media

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#390

Post by sergiotapia » Tue, Jan 18, 2022, 3:19 PM UTC

This just solidified my position as a hardcore Sony fan. How can I support a gigantic megacorp merger like this?