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Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

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Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#801

Post by kyriakos »

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

Would be really hard to launch a new platform. Even if its excellent on its own unfortunately it can't survive without a big app catalog.

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#802

Post by DaiPlusPlus »

TameAntelope wrote: post #704
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?…

A real monopoly in video gaming isn't nearly as valuable as it first seems. Firstly, "video gaming" is really competing against things like reading a book, walking your dog, board games, etc., so it's not like Microsoft can just start jacking up prices and people will have nowhere to go with their time. Secondly, creating and releasing new games has never been easier. So many small indie game companies are creating g…

> Firstly, "video gaming" is really competing against things like reading a book, walking your dog, board games, etc

You're not wrong, but I can't agree with this.

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#803

Post by gimmeThaBeet »

oneoff786 wrote: post #530
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?…

I think no chance that Tim Sweeney sells Epic. Unity is a public company and I think would benefit immensely from being acquired by Microsoft.

I agree, imo unless something drastic changes, there's little chance Tim Sweeney sells control of epic. But I believe Tencent bought nearly half of it all the way back in 2012 I think? I think they raised money from some PE groups a few years ago, the internet seems to agree that Tencent still has 40%? But, it being a private company, I wouldn't stake too much on the accuracy of that.

Point is I agree it's not for sale, for the reason you describe, but also that one of the leviathans already has nearly the entire minority interest.

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#804

Post by snotrockets »

MrJagil wrote: post #63

The old Blizzard always seemed much closer to Apple than Microsoft in culture. An incredible attention to detail and the onboarding experience, clean, fun and friendly design and a slightly rebellious attitude expressed through their willingness to enter new markets. The "new" Microsoft though, really is different than the old and might actually do quite well in stewarding this supposedly sinking ship into fairer wat…

The rampant sexual harrasment is more in line with Microsoft's alleged culture.

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#805

Post by GeekyBear »

palijer wrote: post #84
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.

I looked around for a while, a d I can't actually find a list of any mergers that antitrust regulations actually prevented. I'm assuming some survivor bias is involved here and we don't hear about the ones that stopped early, but it seems that what I and most folks assume antitrust regulations do is different than what actually happens. I remember the Sirius/XM merge and how those were the only two players in the mar…

> I looked around for a while, a d I can't actually find a list of any mergers that antitrust regulations actually prevented.

Just today, the DOJ and FTC announced plans to toughen up on mergers and acquisitions.

>The Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice Antitrust Division kicked off a process to rewrite merger guidelines for businesses on Tuesday, signaling a tougher stance toward large deals.

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/18/ftc-doj-seek-to-rewrite-merg...

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#806

Post by MrDresden »

mrtranscendence wrote: post #715
encryptluks2 wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Game Pass has major issues still. No integrated backup mechanism; only 3 changes to your home PC per year... Imagine reinstalling more than 3 times to find out that you can no longer play offline; absolutely horrible download speeds... Compared to Steam which maxes out bandwidth; and the interface for Xbox Game Pass on PC is terrible.

> absolutely horrible download speeds... Compared to Steam which maxes out bandwidth Yeah, I've noticed that. I don't know why they do that, it's annoying. If I can download a game in a half hour I'd like it in a half hour, not next Tuesday, please.

I wonder if this is due to MS hosting their content at fewer datacenters and thus needing to balance the data flow to each user better.

Valve has boxes hosted at many ISPs around the world and so each location could have lower usage numbers, thus less need to throttle.

Pure speculation though.

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#807

Post by jasondigitized »

activitypea wrote: post #766
megumax wrote: post #147

I don't really understand these acquisitions made by Microsoft, first Mojang, then Bethesda and now Activision. Is Microsoft trying to revive these companies or it's just trying to leech of the market? At this moment, Activision is living out of in-game purchases, not making good games. Bethesda was almost dead when they bought it. >Legendary games, immersive interactive entertainment and publishing expertise acceler…

They're building the Netflix of games with the catalogue to match. Seems like short and mid term, they're focused on owning as many brands/IP as possible, and predictably, efficiently releasing solid games that don't rock the boat too much. See Gears Of War, Forza and Halo. With Bethesda and ActiBlizz, they have enough IP under them to release 3-4 okay games every year, which will make Game Pass a good value proposit…

This. It’s similar to Netflix realizing they need to own as much content as possible to retain and attract subscribers and keep fat margins. GamePass is where the money is. Once they have your credit card the friction to up sell you is dramatically lowered.

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#808

Post by StreamBright »

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.

>> has been able to vertically integrate

MS for a long time had such opportunities which it missed almost every single time.

On the other hand, Apple had similar opportunities and succeeded almost every single time.

The MS list:

- Windows Mobile

- Zune

- MSN

The Apple list:

- iTunes

- iMessage

- iCloud

- iOs (some more)

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#809

Post by taurath »

It’s interesting to me how indie gaming has started to really pop off at the same time there’s massive consolidation throughout the gaming industry. The ecosystem is really turning into blade runner, with these giant zaibatsu corps and a big wave of individuals.

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#810

Post by FalconSensei »

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

> "a lot of people"

Depends what you mean by a lot of people, and what kind of alternative you have in mind. Tech folks want something open source, like the degoogle androids we already see. Non-tech folks don't care much about Android, they just want something that works and has all the apps. So it would be hard to have any real competition, considering even Microsoft had to pull the plug

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