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Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

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Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#501

Post by zenron »

madeofpalk wrote: post #36
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 think there should be more (gaming) companies, and (gaming) companies should not be owned by the platforms, so I see this as a pretty big negative for the industry and customers. Congrats to Phil on his resume bump I guess.

You are not entitled to play games or buy platforms. It is a net negative for the gaming industry to be limited in their revenue streams. You cannot split the baby because some customers CHOSE to buy PS5 but the game THEY want to play is on Xbox. If they want to play it, buy an XBOX too. If that is too expensive, the gamer should increase their disposable income.

Gaming is not a human right.

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#502

Post by phkahler »

enkid wrote: post #81
madeofpalk wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there should be more (gaming) companies, and (gaming) companies should not be owned by the platforms, so I see this as a pretty big negative for the industry and customers. Congrats to Phil on his resume bump I guess.

There actually are a ton of gaming companies right now. The indie game space seems to be much healthier and accessible than say, the indie movie business. I hardly buy AAA titles anymore because you can get so many good games for under $20 dollars made by independent studios. Of course, this is based on mostly staying on PC and Steam. I would suspect consoles are not as indie friendly, but it does seem like they have…

>> There actually are a ton of gaming companies right now.

Yeah, but from TFA:

>> Upon close, Microsoft will have 30 internal game development studios, along with additional publishing and esports production capabilities.

I don't see a need for this and agree with the notion that companies should not buy companies. There are cases where it makes sense, but I think another mechanism needs to be created because buying and selling companies is often too much like buying and selling people in addition to being anti-competitive.

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#503

Post by yccs27 »

ekianjo wrote: post #380
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…

> 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 You forgot to mention he started with billions of dollars backing him up. It was not like a small startup or something.

I feel like the "at Microsoft" already implies billions of funding. However, teams within big companies are not immune to reduced funding and cancelling if their strategy does not work.

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#504

Post by ssully »

neogodless wrote: post #425
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.

> other companies are going to find it very hard to compete with Game Pass I haven't really ever used it. I used to buy everything Blizzard made (OK that's an exaggeration, but I was all about WarCraft/StarCraft/Diablo...). Before Steam, I bought lots of games on disk. Now I buy most things on Steam. And I haven't bought anything Blizzard since Diablo III. Why wouldn't Steam continue to be competitive against Game Pa…

I would look at consoles first. Why would someone buy a Playstation, when you can now buy an Xbox + GamePass and get access to a large chunk of the biggest games?

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#506

Post by dmerrick »

sovnade wrote: post #294
seanalltogether wrote: post #106

Blizzard was the one game company that I bought all of their games no questions asked. Part of me is sad that this day has come, but the other part of me is kinda hopeful that this will allow for more dedicated focus on traditional Blizzard IP.

Back in the day sure, but the blizzard of 20 years ago is long gone. Diablo 3 is an abysmal followup to D2, every CoD is just an annual rehash, hearthstone is an absolute moneygrab, and HotS is the most watered down moba I've ever played. Overwatch is cool though. edit: and oh my god, let's not forget the absolute dumpster fire of warcraft 3 reforged.

Diablo 2 Resurrected turned out awesome

CoD was never Blizzard

WoW (vanilla) was so good it had a second successful launch 10 years later

Starcraft 2 remains immensely popular

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#507

Post by politician »

kungito wrote: post #365
curiousllama wrote: post #315

It's wild how Microsoft has been able to vertically integrate gaming. They now own the distribution (Xbox Cloud Gaming, Xbox Game Pass), the games (Call of Duty, WoW, Starcraft + what they owned before), the OS (Windows, Xbox), the hardware (Xbox, many PCs), and the back end compute (Azure). The only thing they're missing, the network bandwidth, is mostly a commodity anyway. That's a heck of a moat.

They are still missing a mobile platform and that's why I believe they will retry within the next few years

They should just copy Steam Deck.

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#508

Post by minerva23 »

michaelbuckbee wrote: post #203

I think that Microsoft's Game Pass has really changed the gaming ecosystem. If you're not familiar it's basically "Netflix of Videogames" where for a low monthly price (compared to buying a game at full retail) you get access to whole downloadable/streamable library of games. It's such an outsized value that it's a big reason to choose an Xbox console over a PlayStation and it's pretty clearly the driving force behin…

Can you imagine if they make it so Game Pass covers your WoW subscription? WoW could see a comeback.

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#509

Post by 999900000999 »

f6v wrote: post #484
999900000999 wrote: post #355

As someone who spent a good time in gaming, I'm perplexed and sad. Consolidation always leads to job loss, the industry is very very small. At the same time, legacy publishers have a very different role now. If I'm an indie dev, I don't need you to print the discs or box things up. The only 2 things publishers really do are QA and Marketing. QA, for projects with a good community, can be free or very cheap. Marketing…

> QA, for projects with a good community, can be free or very cheap. Battlefield 2042, GTA Definitive Edition, Warcraft Reforged, and Cyberpunk 2077 beg to differ.

I'm thinking the one person passion project.

At the same time, the best QA team on earth won't help if you rush the games.

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