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Breaking: Microsoft to acquire Activision-Blizzard in near 70$ billion deal

Dolomite

Member
Current landscape of gaming is trash. I hate to be negative, but MS throwing money at everything won’t save the Xbox.

PlayStation being cocky and complacent has allowed this to occur.

Console gaming looking bleak IMO. Been trending this way.

Makes me appreciate Nintendo a lot tbh.
Gaf should probably abandon the delusion of Xbox needing to be saved. Xbox division, gamepass subs and content have literally been on an upswing since Matt Body bounced and Phil took over.

Being less universally loved than Playstation is not detrimental to MS's continued success
 
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Kenpachii

Member
Isn't this list fake? Could've sworn Nintendo had $16 billion in revenue and Microsoft $15 billion (gaming division), or maybe that was including a part of 2021 as well. IIRC guys like Zhuge posted such info on their Twitter a while ago.

found on some internet website, no clue if its real and what the current market is. But it gives a good indication on where the market sits at.
 

DryvBy

Member
Yeah, would be a shame if Activision games suddenly sold out and went all corporate on us, instead of being that rich authentic indie-fare that they are today.

Because that's what I was saying... Let me simplify it for you.

You zug games. Zug zug gets bought. Zug zug now games as services. Zug zug zug Phil Spencer models zug games as a service. Much zug :(
 

Jigsaah

Gold Member
Um. What!? 70 billion...so MSFT gets infinity Ward, Blizzard, wait XBOX owns Wow? Overwatch? Diablo? COD!!?

Gamepass is going up in price. This is a guarantee. Slowly but surely. 20 bucks, then 25. 29.99
 

0neAnd0nly

Member
Gaf needs to abandon the delusion of Xbox needing to be saved. Xbox division, gamepass subs and content have literally been on an upswing since Matt Body bounced and Phil took over.

Being less universally loved than Playstation is not detrimental to MS's continued success
I expanded my thoughts following that.
I have been in the industry in both media and for work, I am not console warring and “save” was probably not the best term. I meant that XBOX isn’t going to gain momentum on Sony’s position in the console sphere (or Nintendo) just by buying everything. It’s just an annoying arms race at this point, I don’t like it as a whole. It isn’t necessarily meant as a negative towards XB, just don’t like the current outlook.
 
This part:

iai8XKF.jpg


Plot twist, Phil Spencer is the evil overlord.
Sony right now:




PS: Don't get all worked up, it's just a joke, I mostly game on PlayStation.

HAHAHAHAHAHA :messenger_tears_of_joy:
 
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Everyone here who is happy about this, or even just dismissive, let me remind you why you shouldn't be. Here are a few things we can all thank Microsoft for.

-Paywall to play online, now on Sony and Nintendo system.

-Microsoft points so you could never buy anything for its actual value and had to overspend and be left over with points, this is now common with every game that has its own in-game currency.

-Premium themes and Avatars.

-You think Bethesda started microtransactions with horse armor, nope, guess who? Microsoft of course! Pretty sure Perfect Dark Zero had microtransactions in the form of skins before Oblivion even released.

-You couldn't even play f2p games without Gold until recently, on 360 you even needed Gold to watch Netflix.
 
We shall see

I would only be optimistic if this leads to there being no exclusives at all, and Microsoft/Sony come to some sort of arrangement like the Blu-Ray days before for movies

It almost seems like it’s too big for it to not maybe force Sony’s hand into allowing GamePass, and possibly Sony releasing their service on Xbox

I’d honestly love it if that happened and think it would be good for the industry

These games are too big and expensive to be walked off
Who knows, maybe Project Spartacus is Sony's GamePass in a way more literal sense than suspected!

That aside, I do think at least something like COD will probably continue to be multiplat. COD is like Minecraft in a sense, and that has continued to remain multiplatform. But maybe it could also mean only Warzone stays multiplat and new SP COD campaigns are exclusive or at least timed exclusive? Maybe it means mainline COD in general stays multiplat but some spinoff series becomes exclusive? Until anything's said otherwise it's probably best to assume at least for the immediate future COD remains mutiplat but Xbox/PC/GamePass might get exclusive items, DLC and/or timed exclusive content.

If they bring back IP like Quest for Glory, Phantasmagoria, Space Quest etc., IP that basically have been gone for decades, I can easily see those being exclusive. But say they make a Tony Hawk MMO game (I'm surprised this hasn't happened yet TBH), they might want to have that be multiplat Xbox/PC/PS/Switch since it'd be so online-orientated and community size is paramount for those types of games.

We'll have to wait and see, like you said, but just from the prospects of what IP could come back and what ways others could benefit from cross-pollination with other Microsoft 1P studios and IP is very exciting. I know this is also major for them in terms of getting a very large mobile gaming footprint but since I don't game on mobile I really don't care about that aspect of the deal as a gamer.
 

twilo99

Member
Why do console warriors keeping lying when they say this? Who actually believe this lie?

That's just my opinion on the matter. Sony has been a pioneer in milking exclusives and they pretty much created the whole system and showed everyone how profitable it can be, so now when the competition does the same it seems to be a huge surprise to everyone?
 

RaySoft

Member
"Bleeding money" would mean they are in the red, which is clearly not the case. Plus as some others have said, them spending the money actually results in them paying less money overall since that's $70 billion not sitting with interest that they have to pay taxes on.
Xbox as a division within MS is indeed bleeding money, but it helps ofc that other divisions can help with fresh bandaids.
 

0neAnd0nly

Member
Everyone here who is happy about this, or even just dismissive, let me remind you why you shouldn't be. Here are a few things we can all thank Microsoft for.

-Paywall to play online, now on Sony and Nintendo system.

-Microsoft points so you could never buy anything for its actual value and had to overspend and be left over with points, this is now common with every game that has its own in-game currency.

-Premium themes and Avatars.

-You think Bethesda started microtransactions with horse armor, nope, guess who? Microsoft of course! Pretty sure Perfect Dark Zero had microtransactions in the form of skins before Oblivion even released.

-You couldn't even play f2p games without Gold until recently, on 360 you even needed Gold to watch Netflix.
I agree.

It isn’t that MS should be scorned for their move. It’s business.

It’s just never good to have monopolies , and gaming is simply headed that way.

That’s really what it comes down to.
 

twilo99

Member
70b is way more than their $65 a share price .. its more like $95/share which doesn't seem like that good of deal.

I though they got it on sale lol
 
I am not happy the way the industry is evolving.

Third parties will soon be dead. And I fucking hate how legendary IPs are becoming exclusive.
They arnt exclusive. They are on PC and Xbox. Sony is denying these games on their platform by refusing to allow gamepass on it.

If Sony want these legendary games then just allow gamepass on PlayStation
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
To make back that 70 billion,
Microsoft would have to sell 1.2 billion video game copies at $60,
or have an average of 60 million Game Pass subscribers a year for 10 consecutive years.
And that does not account for the cost invested in making new games or Xbox Live revenue.
Thats not the way it works.

I can tell you dont own a home because when someone buys a house for $1M, they didn't "lose $1M". The asset itself is still worth money.

Activision also makes about $3 billion profit per year and rising a lot year after year.
 
Everyone here who is happy about this, or even just dismissive, let me remind you why you shouldn't be. Here are a few things we can all thank Microsoft for.

-Paywall to play online, now on Sony and Nintendo system.

Nintendo and Sega technically enabled this first with Xband in the early 1990s, then in fact Sega doing this with Saturn Netlink and then SegaNet for Dreamcast, all well before Microsoft.

-Microsoft points so you could never buy anything for its actual value and had to overspend and be left over with points, this is now common with every game that has its own in-game currency.

MS points also in some way inspired things like Fight Money in SFV which was actually a very good way to earn in-game currency for items. Then because gamers stupidly complained Capcom made Fight Money basically worthless.

-Premium themes and Avatars.

Didn't Nintendo have avatars with the Wii? And they did that very soon after Microsoft introduced Avatars with the 360 (I think they introduced them with 360 IIRC).

-You think Bethesda started microtransactions with horse armor, nope, guess who? Microsoft of course! Pretty sure Perfect Dark Zero had microtransactions in the form of skins before Oblivion even released.

Microtransactions history

And wow, would you look at that! Seems it started with games like Double Dragon 3: The Rosetta Stone, Maple Story, Second Life and Habbo Hotel. None of which are Microsoft games apparently (and all predating PD Zero at least two years if not 15 years in DD3's case). Just a simple search provided this.

-You couldn't even play f2p games without Gold until recently, on 360 you even needed Gold to watch Netflix.

Yeah this one was a boneheaded move they stuck with for a long time, but 1 out of 5 isn't good enough for a gatcha.
 
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Dolomite

Member
I expanded my thoughts following that.
I have been in the industry in both media and for work, I am not console warring and “save” was probably not the best term. I meant that XBOX isn’t going to gain momentum on Sony’s position in the console sphere (or Nintendo) just by buying everything. It’s just an annoying arms race at this point, I don’t like it as a whole. It isn’t necessarily meant as a negative towards XB, just don’t like the current outlook.
I hear you, my bad. And I agree in that the culture of acquisition is concerning at this point on all fronts. It stifles organic growth some and locks out previous audiences. I'm also sure than of Sony had the capital we'd see similar Publisher scale acquisitions
 

Papacheeks

Banned
Everyone here who is happy about this, or even just dismissive, let me remind you why you shouldn't be. Here are a few things we can all thank Microsoft for.

-Paywall to play online, now on Sony and Nintendo system.

-Microsoft points so you could never buy anything for its actual value and had to overspend and be left over with points, this is now common with every game that has its own in-game currency.

-Premium themes and Avatars.

-You think Bethesda started microtransactions with horse armor, nope, guess who? Microsoft of course! Pretty sure Perfect Dark Zero had microtransactions in the form of skins before Oblivion even released.

-You couldn't even play f2p games without Gold until recently, on 360 you even needed Gold to watch Netflix.

The plus is this hostile take over gets rid of Bobby as controlling CEO, and the rest of the scumbag boards members who literally destroyed their own IP's. Jason Schrier actually made a great point.



 

0neAnd0nly

Member
They arnt exclusive. They are on PC and Xbox. Sony is denying these games on their platform by refusing to allow gamepass on it.

If Sony want these legendary games then just allow gamepass on PlayStation
That’s sort of problematic tho.

Game pass is owned by a competitor. A competitor that can dictate price. They could hold Sony (or anybody) at hostage to their desires, so it isn’t a really “pro multiplat” move.

I understand your sentiment, but remember - business is business. It’s about winning and making the most $$$. Not “for the love of gaming” or whatever other friend statement these execs at *insert big 3/4* will say on stage.
 
Why do console warriors keeping lying when they say this? Who actually believe this lie?
I think the reason people constantly say that is because Sony "fans" (warriors) love to scream about how great exclusives are as long as they are Sony exclusives. As soon as anything looks to be going exclusive elsewhere, they cry and scream constantly.

That said, exclusives have not been a "Sony" thing - it just happened that Sony has had a LOT of great exclusives. I think this is why so many seem to think that Sony has led the charge for exclusives. I definitely think that in the past, Sony has leveraged exclusives with more success than anyone else, but it's odd when people "blame Sony" when another company makes a move.

I guess there are simply irrational emotional people on "both sides", so we get those sorts of takes.
 

0neAnd0nly

Member
I hear you, my bad. And I agree in that the culture of acquisition is concerning at this point on all fronts. It stifles organic growth some and locks out previous audiences. I'm also sure than of Sony had the capital we'd see similar Publisher scale acquisitions

Not entirely your fault, my wording was a bit hurried and poor in that post TBH.

But yes, I agree with everything you said.
 

rapid32.5

Member
MS can block COD for a few months from other platforms and still make tons of money later. COD fans will not wait that long, it's an eternity for them. It's a smart investment to divert masses to GamePass.
 
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Xbox as a division within MS is indeed bleeding money, but it helps ofc that other divisions can help with fresh bandaids.
How do you know it's bleeding money? We do have a general idea of what their revenue figures are annually, but if you just extrapolate profit margins based on the other companies they would be bringing in some profit.

In fact this would be the case even accounting for GamePass expenses, people forget that MS fully own the vertical stack (cloud hardware, software, data centers etc.) and don't have to pay out to rent that from other companies (which is where a lot of the operating expenses come from).

So it's probably more fair to say Xbox is bringing in some profit for MS, just nowhere near as much as Windows, let alone Office, Azure etc.

The plus is this hostile take over gets rid of Bobby as controlling CEO, and the rest of the scumbag boards members who literally destroyed their own IP's. Jason Schrier actually made a great point.





He's right about everything except equating this to a monopolistic purchase. Just because Acti/Blizzard have a lot of cache in gaming doesn't mean them being purchased gives MS 51% of even the traditional gaming market's revenue, let alone mobile's.

Legally speaking that's what you'd have to have in order to be considered a monopoly, IIRC.
 
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