Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard • Hacker News Board

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#961

Post by edgyquant » Wed, Jan 19, 2022, 6:15 AM UTC

no_wizard wrote: post #624

awill wrote: post #572

Microsoft is not building the future of gaming, they're buying it. Seeing a bunch of excellent third-party cross-platform games become xbox-exclusive is really sad for gamers. Microsoft has not been making money on xbox. They're not investing money made with xbox. They're using Office/Windows/Azure funds to boost Xbox, and it's not a fair fight. Sony and Nintendo don't have that kind of money. I get Sony has acquired…

Doesn't Sony have an insurance / financial business subsidizing their operations[0]? Not to mention a movie studio that rakes in the cash, especially since riding the backs of Disney with Marvel[1] The interesting one here for me has always been Nintendo, they are a still a pure gamers play, and have managed to thrive in a world of shifting sands, sometimes bucking entire trends in the industry with success, like goi…

While Sony is a medium sized corporation its revenue is 10% that of Microsoft.

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#962

Post by simooooo » Wed, Jan 19, 2022, 7:31 AM UTC

danhab99 wrote: post #848

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'm worried that the gaming industry is on a decline. Some of the biggest games are >5 years old, I can't think of a big franchise that started in the last 5 years, the steam greenlight program is a pile of shit, and new games are getting held to the standard of existing games which discourages new-comers. I almost wanna throw my hands up and give in, like how big can a problem be before it stops being a problem.

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Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#963

Post by ksec » Wed, Jan 19, 2022, 7:45 AM UTC

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

May be a Microsoft branded version of Android. Or like how Android currently work on Windows. Windows with Android compatibility.

Or a xPhone where they could leverage Xbox gaming on Mobile with Android compatibility.

It is sort of strange to think Microsoft prospect all of a sudden looks fairly bright.

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#964

Post by ksec » Wed, Jan 19, 2022, 7:52 AM UTC

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.

Is kind of strange, but I think Microsoft have some of the best keyboard and mouse on the market. ( Or at least use to have since I no longer use them ) And Surface Laptop, while far from perfect, you could see their continuous refinement year after year. Most company give up after a while. But Microsoft is actually making lots of progress for the PC industry.

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#965

Post by NavinF » Wed, Jan 19, 2022, 7:55 AM UTC

raxxorrax wrote: post #600

awill wrote: post #572

Microsoft is not building the future of gaming, they're buying it. Seeing a bunch of excellent third-party cross-platform games become xbox-exclusive is really sad for gamers. Microsoft has not been making money on xbox. They're not investing money made with xbox. They're using Office/Windows/Azure funds to boost Xbox, and it's not a fair fight. Sony and Nintendo don't have that kind of money. I get Sony has acquired…

Also the tactic to use scandals for a drop in market cap before acquisition is quite common in IT. Last year they were valued for 30bn more. Activision/Blizzard certainly had a big sales tag on their forehead.

> Last year they were valued for 30bn more

On what day? Looks like they dropped from 70bn last year same time to ~50bn at the start of the year and then sold for 69bn.

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#966

Post by icemelt8 » Wed, Jan 19, 2022, 7:55 AM UTC

pelasaco wrote: post #777

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.

Unfortunately they didn't support their own game engine as they could: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_XNA Stardew Valley and Terraria were actually IMO the best games produced with that

No post body was provided.

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#967

Post by ksec » Wed, Jan 19, 2022, 7:58 AM UTC

animanoir wrote: post #274

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 Apple of gaming is Rockstar Games.

I cant believe the Apple of Gaming discussion with no mention of Nintendo.

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#968

Post by goldcd » Wed, Jan 19, 2022, 8:41 AM UTC

shudza wrote: post #916

goldcd wrote: post #863

I'm not sure how good a deal this really is. I can definitely see why MS bought up publishers and developers to add to their stable - they can now, like Netflix, sell a monthly recurrent service that will keep their customers entertained with 'free' releases available on day#1, plus a leased library. But (to me at least), they were already there. I'm there on PC and think the sell is even easier on Xbox. Buying Activ…

except that Blizzard has the best IP, and the only viable MMORPG today

good point - htf did I miss that?

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#969

Post by D_Guidi » Wed, Jan 19, 2022, 8:53 AM UTC

paulpan wrote: post #438

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.

It'll depend on the perspective. For the gaming industry, this seems to push Microsoft into 3rd place (by size) behind Sony and Tencent. So hardly a monopoly and akin to T-Mobile's acquisition of Sprint a few years ago. It makes Microsoft much more competitive against Sony and even Nintendo since it'll likely bolster their 1P offerings in the future. But if Microsoft uses their ownership to favor their own game subsc…

they can release Activision and Bethesta titles only with game pass, and let Sony and Nintendo be free to implement game pass in their platform

Re: Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

#970

Post by unsigner » Wed, Jan 19, 2022, 9:04 AM UTC

vsnf wrote: post #938

unsigner wrote: post #827

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 c…

You are right, of course. The Xboxes are better and better hardware-design-wise each generation, and the Surfaces are highly rated.

I should have been more specific - I was thinking of the CPU and GPU design.