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[Kev Kev]

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.

you think thats the only way they can make money?

 

[Punished Miku]

It's pretty funny that a whole bunch of ex-Microsoft employees have now rejoined the company through this acquisition. Off the top of my head I can think of Mike Ybarra who was senior executive at Xbox and Rod Fergusson who was head of the Coalition.

Moral of the story, never quit without putting in your notice.

 

[synce]

There's no reason to make anything exclusive since almost all revenue from games today is from mtx and dlc, not actual game sales. Still, this is an idiotic move. I don't see MS in the game 10 years from now, though I can say the same about Sony, flinging around stupid amounts of money when they don't have to. Mobile companies have the right idea. Nintendo's also being smart about maximizing profit.

 

[FStubbs]

This is some big news. Wonder if the big picture is Microsoft countering Tencent's expansion into Western studios.

This is an interesting thought.

At the very least, CoD being exclusive to MS starting in say 2023-2024 will be a huge blow to Sony. Next to FIFA/Madden CoD is THE console seller. Sony had better quickly cozy up to EA and get Battlefield fixed.

I think we can also put to rest any idea MS is losing money on gaming. This is an order of magnitude bigger than the Bethesda buyout, and no way the board would approve it if MS was losing money on gaming and/or thinking of moving away from Xbox.

 

[BigBooper]

Since Activision was the other big one, if MS wanted they could leave PS as the only publisher charging $70 for next gen games, right?

 

[Hawking Radiation]

I only have 2 requests from Phil:

- Get rid of Kotick and restructure that place

- Get rid of aim assist in COD

 

[Urban]

Ill guess thats why sony is building a MP only shooter.


1-2 years and no Activision/Blizzard will come out on Sony consoles imo

 

[Edgelord79]

Lol wow. This is what happens when you are at work and forget to bring your phone.

 

[Toots]

We need to stop letting rich people have all the money, they do nonsense with it…

 

[samwizered]

Wow. And I thought the Zenimax acquisition was insane. This is a monster of an acquisition.

Microsoft's grip on games grows ever stronger, and I don't think I like it.

 

[Agent_Nobody]

Remember this?

Xbox's Phil Spencer tells staff he is "evaluating all aspects" of relationship with Activision Blizzard

Xbox boss Phil Spencer has written to staff saying he is "evaluating all aspects" of Xbox's relationship with Activisio…

www.eurogamer.net

In an email seen by Bloomberg's Jason Schreier - and later confirmed by Microsoft in a statement to IGN - Spencer told Xbox employees he and the gaming leadership team were "disturbed and deeply troubled by the horrific events and actions" at Activision Blizzard, and that "this type of behaviour has no place in our industry".

Spencer added that he was "evaluating all aspects of our relationship with Activision Blizzard and making ongoing proactive adjustments" in light of the Wall Street Journal's report.

That is one fucking nuclear ‘proactive adjustment‘.

 

[Hawking Radiation]

Since Activision was the other big one, if MS wanted they could leave PS as the only publisher charging $70 for next gen games, right?

I dunno I might be wrong here but game development still costs a heck of a lot of money. I don't see Xbox suddenly dropping prices of next gen games.

 

[Gone]

That does seem to be a killer blow. I’ve got an Xbox and PlayStation so it’s no skin off my nose but there really is nothing Sony can do to respond to this.

It’s like all the oil money coming into random Premier League clubs while giants like Man Utd and Liverpool have to sit there and watch themselves get left behind.

Except Man United do a shit job with all the money they have.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

What in the world did I just wake up to.

Sony is shook today.

At this point really not much.

But at some point what will happen is:

1. Activision/Blizzard games coming to Xbox and PC Game Pass (like Bethesda)
2. Maybe some future games only go to Xbox and PC

Other than that, it's status quo. It's not like anything is changing tomorrow. So for all the people out there freaking out, nothing is changing any time soon. And even if MS skews games away from Switch and PS, just play it on PC.

 

[Kdad]

This is an interesting thought.

At the very least, CoD being exclusive to MS starting in say 2023-2024 will be a huge blow to Sony. Next to FIFA/Madden CoD is THE console seller. Sony had better quickly cozy up to EA and get Battlefield fixed.

I think we can also put to rest any idea MS is losing money on gaming. This is an order of magnitude bigger than the Bethesda buyout, and no way the board would approve it if MS was losing money on gaming and/or thinking of moving away from Xbox.

(Technically the board hasn't approved it yet...) (But they will )

 

[Marvel14]

Doesn't qualify as a monopoly. monopoly means no competitor can survive without being part of their business. MS only got 10% more market at most. and they were just 20% or less before. Sony were more of a monopoly than they are.

MS today is not MS 20 years ago. they are big but they don't have control over anything today. Google have more control over information. Apple have more control over their OS ecosystem. Amazon is competing with MS on cloud. Even Linux is growing.
If this was done 10 years ago then it would have been different.

Strictly speaking a monopoly is when one firm holds 100% of the market. But monopolistic competition is when a single large player can dictate prices, use its size to restrict entry, dampen growth of smaller players or drive out weaker market incumbents. The bigger MS gets in the videogame market, the more it will be able to practice monopolistic competition. Also , high tech industries have significant barriers to entry due to high knowledge, logistics and investment entry costs so there's a built in feature to shield incumbents from competition.

Were you just making chit chat or did you mean to start a discussion about economics?

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

Actually the funny thing about it, which just came to me, is that now on Xbox you can upload and use any picture you want for free, as long as it isn't offensive and passes their filter.

My GAF avatar would likely fail to upload then lol.

 

[fallingdove]

I have no problem with that.

Looking at all the money I spent buying DVDs, BRs and CD music discs over 30 years, what a waste of money. I dont need physical ownership for everything. There's only so many times I'm going to watch Casino or Goodfellas on DVD.

Yeah, damn those one-time transactions for 100% ownership.

 

[TheMay30thMan]

The poor mod team. They’ll be working overtime after this. The ban page is going to be the next few days.

 

[GasTheWeebs]

Abandoned better be good to make up for this

 

[Hawking Radiation]

For the photoshop talent on this forum.

Please replace face with Jim Ryan and possibly the text regarding this buyout lol

 

[Foilz]

am i reading the sites incorrectly, does ACTivison only have 6 actual game studios ? will the deal include blizzard themselves? looking through the ip list it doesnt seem like an all that great list of games.

• Blur
• Caesar
• Call of Duty
• Candy Crush
• Crash Bandicoot
• Diablo
• DJ Hero
• Empire Earth
• Gabriel Knight
• Geometry Wars
• Guitar Hero
• Gun
• Hearthstone
• Heroes of the Storm
• Hexen
• Interstate ’76
• King’s Quest
• Laura Bow Mysteries
• The Lost Vikings
• Overwatch
• Phantasmagoria
• Pitfall
• Police Quest
• Prototype
• Quest for Glory
• Singularity
• Skylanders
• Solider of Fortune
• Space Quest
• Spyro the Dragon
• StarCraft
• Tenchu (legacy games)
• TimeShift
• Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater
• True Crime
• World of Warcraft
• Zork

 

[Kdad]

Remember this?

Xbox's Phil Spencer tells staff he is "evaluating all aspects" of relationship with Activision Blizzard

Xbox boss Phil Spencer has written to staff saying he is "evaluating all aspects" of Xbox's relationship with Activisio…

www.eurogamer.net

That is one fucking nuclear ‘proactive adjustment‘.

Just making public statements to put downward pressure on ATVI stock...Phil should get a bonus for the billions he just saved them...

 

[Joshmyersbv]

Fucking gross

 

[WitchHunter]

you think thats the only way they can make money?

AB had a measly 2 bill revenue yearly. They wanted the userbase.

 

[chromatic9]

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.

It probably will help xbox massively for the next few decades at least.

Sony/PS can't do anything to stop it whether being cocky or not as while MS look to see off Sony in the short term really this is about MS being the main streaming/gaming outlet in the future and are heading off any competitor/mega corp such as google amazon apple etc. MS want to sew this up so you can't even enter to compete.

 

[Kdad]

AB had a measly 2 bill revenenue yearly. They wanted the userbase.

Their 2020 revenue was 8 billion...did you mean profit?

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

But this is different from arcades going out of style. That happened naturally. Is MS bought 75% of all 3rd party studios and then just decided to NOT launch a new next-gen console 5 years from now......that's not natural. It's not what the gaming public was asking for and demanding. It'll be MS manipulating the market.

But how probable is this concern actually manifesting? That is the question to ask, and right now the probability IMO is...well not exactly 0% but certainly less than 5%, given where things are.

Given the Xbox consoles are doing pretty well right now sales-wise, if MS ever get to a point where even the consoles can earn some slight profit just on their own, that gives even more incentive to continue making dedicated gaming consoles. They may be digital-only (I doubt this), but they'll still be dedicated systems. We've got at least one more generation for that, from them & Sony.

 

[DragoonKain]

I don't play any of their games, so I really don't care about this news, but I found out Crash is their IP and I never knew that. The more you know.

I guess we'll find out if COD is exclusive. Would be hard to picture.

 

[The Real Napsta]

Neville from the YouNoMeDawg crew's take.

 

[angrod14]

If MS has so much "F You" money like people say, why don't they just buy Rockstar and stop fucking around?

 

[Kdad]

I don't play any of their games, so I really don't care about this news, but I found out Crash is their IP and I never knew that. The more you know.

The original owners of Crash and Spyro were Universal Interactive, the video game development division of Universal. Universal Interactive then got acquired by Seagram. Seagram eventually had to strip assets due to financial difficulties so they sold Universal Interactive to Vivendi. Vivdendi acquired Universal Interactive and merged Sierra Entertainment as a subsidiary to Universal Interactive which was renamed to Vivendi Universal Games. Sierra Entertainment was the home for Crash and Spyro under Vivendi Universal. Eventually, Vivendi acquired Activision and renamed Vivendi Universal to Activision Blizzard, a subsidiary of Vivendi. Activision Blizzard acquired enough shares from its parent to become independent from Vivendi. Once Activision Blizzard became independent, Crash and Spyro was moved from the Sierra Entertainment brand to the Activision brand.

 

[Kev Kev]

Neville from the YouNoMeDawg crew's take.

hey there daaaaaawg

i know its you dawg dont hide behind that username

 

[th4tguy]

Why?

MS will never have COD or Diablo exclusive to MS. Millions play them on PS and they'd never get rid of that cash cow. Now, COD on Gamepass? That's more likely.

The same thing was said about Elder Scrolls and Starfield.
I would actually be MORE surprised if you are right.

 

[tommib]

The poor mod team. They’ll be working overtime after this. The ban page is going to be the next few days.

Actually it’s been pretty cool around the forum. The real meltdowns are on Twitter!

 

[Edgelord79]

Honestly can't even fathom how much money Microsoft has. This is ridiculous.

 

[Javthusiast]

My rat heart is beating green and blue. (green after Series X/S launch and getting into game pass)

So this is great news for me. It also means Sony stepping up, buying companies and creating a game pass like service to provide us with a ton of games for a nice price. Eventually owning a ps5 in addition to my Series S right now, I will have a ton of value from both companies for relatively cheap prices, since I don't plan on buying Sony exclusives day one for 70 bucks. Will wait for sales or Spartacus inclusion later.

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

it is wrong on Tencent completely and i think its CY20 whereas the Xbox number was FY

What's the difference between CY and FY if you don't mind me asking? I know what FY is, haven't heard CY tho.

 

[fermcr]

70$ billion for Activision-Blizzard is a lot of money. They aren't worth that much. It seems Microsoft overpaid... but I'm poor, so what the hell do I know?

 

[captainnapalm]

What's with all this "metaverse" stuff? The Microsoft CEO mentioned it in his email about the acquisition. So are a lot of articles talking about the deal, including the New York Times.

So Mark Zuckerberg rebrands Facebook and now everyone's already totally on board with the "metaverse"?

 

[LordBlodgett]

I hope EA is next even if it’s a year or more from now, Dragon Age and Mass Effect would be better off. I rather have Microsoft controlling those ips than what might happen.

People keep talking about EA as a potential target, but I think it is highly unlikely. EA makes a huge portion of it's revenue from licensed sports games, which are worth little to a platform holder because no league is going to allow them to be exclusive to one platform. I actually think FIFA and NBA2k make it less desirable for platforms like Sony or Microsoft to buy EA or Take 2. EA certainly has a ton of good IP but their studios have a pretty bad track record over the last couple years too

 

[The_hunter]

Hopefully they can turn call of duty around. Will this save blizzard? I hope so, I like their games.

 

[Edgelord79]

perfect tme to buy it

Agreed. Kotick's actions have probably saved the $10 billion or so off the sticker price.

 

[BigbyTheSheriff]

All this talk about monopoly and anti-consumerism, yet it's Sony raising prices to 70 bucks, asking another 10 for simple upgrades/patches, removing games from PSN so they can sell Director's Cut for more. And don't get me started on Nintendo's price gouging for 20 year old remasters, barely functional (but still expensive) online, or creating a digital scarcity with Mario 3D All Stars.

Maybe we should wait and see how gaming landscape actually change under the MS' supposed "monopoly" instead of projecting this pessimistic narrative with lots of ifs and maybes.

My only hope is that they let Acti studios do something more than Call of Duty. Give me another Tony Hawk, Crash, Spyro, Starcraft etc.

 

[Concern]

There's no reason to make anything exclusive since almost all revenue from games today is from mtx and dlc, not actual game sales. Still, this is an idiotic move. I don't see MS in the game 10 years from now, though I can say the same about Sony, flinging around stupid amounts of money when they don't have to. Mobile companies have the right idea. Nintendo's also being smart about maximizing profit.

Some of these takes are just too much.

Im starting to miss the "Xbox has no games" posts already too.

 

[reksveks]

What's the difference between CY and FY if you don't mind me asking? I know what FY is, haven't heard CY tho.

calendar year; sorry just shortened it to CY.

15.36Bn for MS FY21 (2020Q3-2021Q3 in terms of calendar)

 

[YCoCg]

If MS has so much "F You" money like people say, why don't they just buy Rockstar and stop fucking around?

Are current Rockstar worth it? All the talent has left and they're currently struggling with the GTAV port and restarted GTA6 multiple times now.

 

[Kev Kev]

Some of these takes are just too much.

Im starting to miss the "Xbox has no games" posts already too.

so many trolls and warriors coming out of the wood work for this lol

 

[Hawking Radiation]

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.

C'mon man.

Xbox will gut Activision and take very good care of the IP's. Phil is not stupid. He will make sure the quality of games coming out of these developers will be higher than they are now. He's going to make sure their games are more accessible than ever.
This also pretty much forces Sony to respond with a similar service which is only a good thing. Do you want to continue paying $70 for next gen games? or would you prefer if Sony follows suit and launches big AAA titles day 1 on their competing service?

Fierce competition is a good thing. Remember we as the consumer win in the end when these companies fight tooth and nail for our hard earned $$$.

 

[Raven117]

This is 100% a move AGAINST Sony. Don't lie to yourself and others here on GAF. Just stop it!

What are you talking about? Certainly its against Sony, but its also a move against Apple. Microsoft is fighting a different war than Sony is.