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Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

news.microsoft.com

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Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#561

Post by NineStarPoint »

sofixa wrote: post #319
fourseventy wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This acquisition makes Microsoft the third biggest gaming company in the world... Not even the biggest, and far from a monopoly...

Don't get hung up on "monopoly". Their games are only available on their own vertically integrated platforms. They're abusing their dominant market position and should be slapped hard ( full break up and multi billion fines).

I agree in theory, but having exclusives is a requirement to compete with Sony and Nintendo, two companies that are somewhat outside the reach of US regulators. How to handle competition against foreign pseudo-monopolies isn’t an easy question.

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#562

Post by madeofpalk »

docmars wrote: post #448
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.

While I mostly agree with you, I think Microsoft is doing this to compete directly with Sony's plethora of studios to offer more AAA titles on Xbox and Windows exclusively — so from that light, it's not entirely a bad thing. We already know that Bethesda is keeping their autonomy to make the same great games we love from them, and Starfield is a chance to prove it. The only downside being: Playstation owners losing o…

> with Sony's plethora of studios to offer more AAA titles on Xbox and Windows exclusively

Which is also a bad thing!!!

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#563

Post by dleslie »

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 used to hold the same opinion as you, and for the most part I still do. But I think the subscription model is a solution to the race to the bottom, because it creates an artificial level of quality assurance.

Take PlayPass, for instance: the play store is a landfill of endless trash, but PlayPass adds both a level of curation and it unlocks all the microtransactions.

So for a low yearly fee you get access to the best Play Store games, never pay for microtransactions, and don't need to go digging to find gems in the garbage heap.

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#564

Post by vymague »

cududa wrote: post #551
faisal_ksa wrote: post #527

I hate to see a monopoly in the gaming industry. Controlling the content will prevent any competition both in gaming consoles and in PC gaming. Forget about gaming on Linux or any new platform. Forget about sony's PlayStation and Nintendo. We are going to see the real face of Microsoft. What do you think Microsoft will do next? Buy unreal engine and unity and have control over the content and the tools to make them?…

You can run gamepass on Linux, so when all these games hit gamepass (which they will) it’s a net positive for Linux gamers.

How? Quick googling says no.

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#565

Post by djtango »

curiousllama wrote: post #455
jpablo wrote: post #402

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't that basically the same Nintendo and Sony? Save for the cloud platform.

Nintendo yes. But they've long been a closed, relatively niche ecosystem. Their entire market cap is less than the value of this deal. Sony, perhaps. But I do think the cloud platform is a critical piece, because it is a huge source of value capture (e.g., all CoD compute on Azure is no small deal). It also allows significantly more dominance in distribution via cloud gaming - and coincidentally, Microsoft has been m…

Activision are much better at monetising than Nintendo.

Think candy crush and loot boxes vs fun single player mario games

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#566

Post by twobitshifter »

keewee7 wrote: post #439
kungito wrote: post #365

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

They haven't completely given up on mobile. The Microsoft Launcher for Android is really close to what a modern Microsoft mobile platform would feel like. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/launcher https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Launcher

I could see using this for work with office 365 integration but that’s the complete opposite direction of gaming for me.

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#567

Post by farisjarrah »

xeromal wrote: post #532
aparticulate wrote: post #517

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nintendo operates on different rules due their absurd array of reliable IPs. I get the sense that MS, Sony are still trying to sort out their own "Mario, Zelda, Pokemon" clone with mainstream movies/merch potential and all that entails.

Halo is probably the closest thing they have to a Marioesque IP.

I'm not that big on FPS games. When I play Nintendo I generally play things like Mario Party or Mario Kart. A friend recently gave me an Xbox Series S, and off the top of my head I couldn't think of a single multi-player party sorta party game. I'm sure there are plenty of these games, but they definitely don't have the same type of draw as Mario.

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#568

Post by cma »

JAlexoid wrote: post #450
kungito wrote: post #365

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I don't think they will. There's no point. There is a stable duopoly, where Microsoft can reap the benefits of competition between the two, without wasting any resources. May not be best for consumer - really great for business. (especially, if courts hold that Apple/Google cannot outright ban apps from their stores)

> There is a stable duopoly, where Microsoft can reap the benefits of competition between the two, without wasting any resources.

The huge competition where both charge 30% of gross sales, far higher than even the federal corporate tax rate, which is only charged on the net.

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#569

Post by LynxInLA »

ho_schi wrote: post #519

Competition oversight? Probably dead since Regan? After they stopped controlling AT&T the UNIX-Wars happened, impcompatiblity, lawsuits, closed-source has become a normal thing and proprietary software locked users in and competitors out. What platform will Microsoft support? Likely not: * Linux * BSD * MacOS * Nintendo * Sony Does anyone miss id Software? Native ports on Linux, incredible source-code and impressive…

Microsoft seems likely to support at least Nintendo. With Game Pass and Minecraft, they've leaned more towards gaming as a platform. Some Switch games have full MS support including Achievements, which was surprising.

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#570

Post by nvarsj »

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.

We're way past the point where government is meant to be a check on unchecked capitalism. Mega monolith corps are the now and future.
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