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Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

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Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#781

Post by VRay »

simonh wrote: post #571
pjmlp wrote: post #452

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are going at it with their own Surface Duo based on Android, it is like Android but with Microsoft twist, so.

Duo is an utter facepalm. What are they thinking. It doesn't make the device cheaper or lighter, in fact it makes it heavier and more expensive. It constrains your interaction and UI model. It introduces unnecessary mechanical complications and points of failure. It made sense for Nintendo on the DS because it did reduce costs and the device could be small and light enough for it to work. The Duo is just different fo…

I agree with you 100%, I've never even heard of or seen a use case for the dual-screen flip smartphone

That said, my friends seem to love their Samsung foldable phones. "Having a tablet available at any time in your pocket is a game changer"

(I don't understand how it's a game changer, but there you go, one counterpoint)

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#782

Post by brightball »

mathattack wrote: post #560
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.

People may be flooding into vertical integration, though the history of that isn’t great. (Look at AOL/TimeWarner or Verizon/AOL/Tumblr/Yahoo) All it takes is missing one generation and the house of cards gets written down. Someone can create the next generation blockbuster for a lot less than $69bln. To argue against myself, they’ve become a lot better at picking trends since Balmer left too.

It probably means more to keep the Blizzard catalog off of Oculus than anything else. IMO many games in their catalog would be ideal in that environment and keeping them off of it goes a long way towards buying time.

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#783

Post by shadowgovt »

airstrike wrote: post #735
shadowgovt wrote: post #672

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The conspiracy theorist in me suspects this acquisition is a way for a disgraced ownership and upper-level management to golden-parachute out of the company without having to just quit. Simply quitting would be seen as a sign of failure and would leave a lot of their performance-based compensation behind... But getting bought, that's a different story.

Why would Microsoft want to participate in that scheme, though?

To gain control of another game studio with a stable of popular franchises.

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#784

Post by bhauer »

sylens wrote: post #757
JAlexoid wrote: post #450

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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)

Purely anecdotal but I feel like we are at a point where a lot of people would definitely stop and take a close look at a non-Android alternative to the iPhone

I would be very happy with a third option. As an iPhone user, I really am unhappy with iOS, but any time I even briefly entertain the idea of switching to Android, I laugh at the idea. Both options are bad, and I'm stuck with the lesser of two evils.

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#785

Post by choward »

obert wrote: post #699
skohan wrote: post #631

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I honestly think behind climate change, the current state of anti-trust enforcement is one of the biggest issues facing Americans right now. It's disappointing that it's not even expected for anti-trust action to happen anymore.

I think America might want to tackle health care, drug addiction, inequality, racism, sexism before worrying about anti-trust

Need to tackle corruption before we can solve any of those.

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#786

Post by _notathrowaway »

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.

Honestly, why should any regulator bother with this? It's video games, it is clearly not any kind of essential infrastructure/software.

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#787

Post by habeebtc »

999900000999 wrote: post #111
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.

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.

Indeed the Steam Deck is very exciting because what we've seen is that the mobile space is where Linux has been able to defeat Microsoft in end user adoption.

As some other folks have pointed out, the existence of WINE and other compat layers is actually hindering gaming on Linux, by disincentivizing game devs to make games directly for linux. A huge hit with the Steam Deck could actually start bringing more games directly to Linux.

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#788

Post by everdrive »

icu wrote: post #576
t3rabytes wrote: post #493

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Game Pass has built up a helluva goodwill bucket, from talking with friends of mine.

The Games Pass is such ridiculous value that my "non-gaming" partner got a Series-S with Games Pass to play MS Flight Simulator, and as an aside, to have games available to myself and our kids (it was impossible to get the Series-X in the UK in the lead up to Christmas without paying scalpers). I have a PS5 (sadly from a scalper), and I begrudgingly got Plus to fully experience the PvP aspect of Demon's Souls but the…

This feels a little like Amazon Prime in that the cost of the total bundled deal is technically good, except that I don’t really want everything in the bundle, and would rather receive much less value for only somewhat less money. It probably works for a lot of customers, but I really avoid as many subscription services as I can.

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#789

Post by screye »

WillPostForFood wrote: post #717
screye wrote: post #677

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microsoft just purchased a bunch of has-been IPs that still have great amount of nostalgia. When Zenimax was acquired, it was coming off a couple of failed fallout games, a meh ESO and delayed Elder scrolls 6. Similarly, Activision-Blizzard has been in the midst of COD and Overwatch losing their gaming monopoly to Fortnite, Blizzard failing to create a good game for about 5 years and the big workplace lawsuit. It fee…

>Microsoft just purchased a bunch of has-been IPs that still have great amount of nostalgia The #1 and #2 titles of 2021 are has-beens? And they also had the #1 and #2 of 2020. https://venturebeat.com/2022/01/18/npd-the-top-20-best-selli... https://venturebeat.com/2021/01/15/npd-reveals-the-best-sell...

Call of duty makes most of its income through sales. So, the revenue seems a lot higher than it actually is. Relatively speaking COD sales have stagnated for a decade [1] while the gaming industry has exploded. In terms of revenue, Fortnite and PUBG eclipse COD's annual revenue [2], while having lower development costs.

COD is admittedly not a has been, but it is like a top athlete in the twilight of their career. Still performing at the top, but no more #1 and the trends aren't looking great.

[1] https://vgsales.fandom.com/wiki/Call_of_Duty

[2] https://vgsales.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_highest-grossing_vid...

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#790

Post by unethical_ban »

unethical_ban wrote: post #297
parkingrift wrote: post #196

No acquisition of this size should ever be allowed. This is way too much consolidation. Microsoft is buying their way to becoming the #2 or #3 gaming company in the world. They should have to innovate and compete their way to the #2 or #3 gaming company in the world. Who is going to be able to compete with Xbox Game Pass?

Counterpoint: It's gaming. It is a space with a low barrier to (indie) entry and it is not part of some critical infrastructure. Maybe it is lamentable, but I am not sure antitrust would be my way to go for this.

Self-reply: The more I think about it, the more ridiculous it is. Call of Duty, Minecraft, Warcraft, Doom and TES are under one roof where they were under five (or non-existent) 15 years ago.

Whether or not it's legal, it should not be celebrated.

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