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Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

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Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#931

Post by skinnymuch »

keithnz wrote: post #893
keewee7 wrote: post #439

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 use this on my phone, I really like it. All they have to do is leverage it and start a store, but not sure if the timing is right just now. I think if MS embraced ad blocking and made edge (both mobile and desktop) support extensions including ublock origin they could really eat into that platform. At the moment you can run Firefox with ublock origin on Android ( which I do ) but quite a few extensions don't work (…

People outside tech and geeky niches won’t leave something like Chrome because of stricter ad blocking.

Just like privacy, security, and the intense amounts of FB/Meta hatred, these issues aren’t the same for the populous at large.

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#932

Post by arthurfm »

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…

> it was impossible to get the Series-X in the UK in the lead up to Christmas without paying scalpers

Not completely impossible. I managed to purchase an Xbox Series X directly from Amazon UK on 20th December. Amazon also had sufficient consoles in stock they were able to not run out for more than 12 hours [1].

[1] https://www.theverge.com/2021/12/23/22852161/xbox-series-x-a...

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#933

Post by skinnymuch »

zitterbewegung wrote: post #747
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.

Activision-Blizzard was the worst performing gaming companies during COVID so it stands to reason that this would be the best gaming developer considering how well Bungie did as an acquisition for Halo and the acquisition of mojang. There is so much IP that is tied up with Activision-Blizzard that it seems like a good deal.

Bethesda/Zenimax massive $8B acquisition hasn’t appeared to have any issues yet though it is very new. Decent chance this acquisition doesn’t happen, but it does mean Microsoft can go after another 1-2 medium sized gaming companies with success.

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#934

Post by joveian »

kevingadd wrote: post #681
dleslie wrote: post #549

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know that ever growing library of unplayed games that all steam users have? Game Pass is that, but instead of paying for games individually you pay a low fixed rate, and it includes many hot new releases that are still full price elsewhere.

Many of them on launch day too, instead of waiting 6-18 months for a sale

But if you wait 6-18 months for a sale it might actually work...

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#935

Post by namlem »

015a wrote: post #918

Everyone here is talking about how this is great for gaming, or bad, or how they're becoming a monopoly... The only emotion I can feel is disgust. Disgust that Microsoft would tacitly approve of Kotick's decades of harboring, encouraging, and protecting sexual assault within his companies. The man allegedly, and settled out of court, for telling his secretary he was "going to have her killed". He hid internal sexual…

It's already been announced that Kotick is expected to leave after the transition period. I would be shocked if MS didn't address the culture issues at Activision Blizzard.

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#936

Post by skinnymuch »

Hamuko wrote: post #706
kizer wrote: post #586

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Next headline: MS to acquire Epic Games? Tencent is in the way there. Really, I could see them launching their own engine. Think of all the studios and talent they have now. They have the engines behind Halo, CoD, WoW, Overwatch. Could build an Unreal competitor.

Tencent and Sony have investments in Epic Games, not sure if either party wants to start selling to Microsoft.

Yeah it wouldn’t happen. Them two being the two biggest gaming companies too.

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#937

Post by skinnymuch »

tytrdev wrote: post #798
tytrdev wrote: post #796

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They still rely extremely heavily on Nvidias ability to create more and more powerful hardware. I recently found out that like 70% of the world's supercomputers are powered by nvidia GPU compute. People often talk about the tech power of different countries (personally I've heard a ton of people talk about China in this way), but at the end of the day they are still reliant on the hardware manufacturers. Who am I to…

Also apparently tencent owns like 40% of Epic Games? It's all bullshit folks. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6-r7GNlZvk&ab_channel=Cap.H...

What’s the bullshit part of Tencent owning 40% of Epic Games? Fortnite possibly wouldn’t be what it is if not for Tencent’s early investment and support of Epic Games. That then further goes into Unreal Engine not being what is today either.

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#938

Post by vsnf »

unsigner wrote: post #827
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.

The only thing they're missing is hardware design capabilities.

I disagree. The Surface line, which came out in 2012 and has been continuously refined each year after, are some really beautiful, inventive, and highly technical pieces of hardware. The hinge on the Surface Book especially generated a bit of buzz when it came out, and the rest of their lineup is quite solid.

To say this also ignores the XBox and its controller, which often trades places with the modern PlayStation controllers for what is considered best-in-class.

Microsoft has plenty of hardware design capabilities.

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#939

Post by brailsafe »

me_me_mu_mu wrote: post #415
nemacol wrote: post #260

I dread the day they switch the Blizzard app launcher to a MS account. You just know it is going to be a nightmare to sort out. Beyond petty nonsense - Sure wish we had some antitrust laws in this country. The consolidation of every industry gross.

Maybe it actually works

maybe you're talking about account issues, but I find that the battle.net launcher has been pretty great.

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#940

Post by stubish »

u2077 wrote: post #352
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.

This is what I’m worried about. With them owning both the games and the OS that they are played on, we could be forced into a subscription. Paying to own may be a thing of the past.

I think we can already see what the future market will look like. Gamepass exists right now as a subscription service at $US10 per month and cheaper in many regions. And games to own cost anywhere between 2 months to 1 year of subscription. It does not make economic sense to stop pay-to-own, given almost all owners will keep the subscription in addition or will want to pay-to-own additional games in the future. The reason subscription services like Gamepass are taking off is it makes so much economic sense to many consumers. It even makes sense for infrequent gamers, as they no longer need to purchase dedicated hardware with the streaming services. If paying to own stops being a thing, I think it will be because the market is so small it isn't worth running the store fronts any more.
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