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I really thought MS would have handled this Activision/COD thing a lot better

poppabk

Cheeks Spread for Digital Only Future
Have you ever been in a company that merges with another. It takes a looooong time just to integrate all the systems. It's why I found it funny that people were talking about steam price increases a couple of weeks after the merger was finalized as some kind of MS master plan. They are probably still trying to get everyone on Teams and not Webex or Slack or whatever.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Maybe there's "no money" in improving old CoD games, but MS could generate a lot of goodwill with fans if they did that. Goodwill is worth a lot in the long run.
I agree. I don’t think there’s much sales going on for 10 year old cod games.

However the same held true for Bethesda and MS unloaded a ton of oldie games on the same day and didn’t blink.
 

Pelta88

Member
In every way the merger pushed the XB business to the fore. The consistent obfuscation in the Q reports became too obvious and couldn't stand up to basic investor scrutiny. In short, with Acti they had to show a return. Telling investors about "hours played" and "engagement" would have got MS laughed off of the trading floor so again, they have to show a return...

The current situation where XB, according to bevy of their disgruntled influencers, was forced to "Bend The Knee" and place their exclusives on a PS console is a direct result of the 68.7 Billion purchase. Lulu Cheng who was being cheered in the acquisition thread, took her 300M and hit the exit. Bobby Kotick's golden parachute was more than the GPD of some small countries, and he gave a middle finger salute on his way out. After both he and Lulu were done pretending that they cared about the XB instal base.

But let us not forget, this was one of Phil's "defining" moments... A moment that came at the expense of the XB brand itself. A total and utter shambles. Imagine spending close to 100 Billion only to end up here...

tumblr_inline_oudmj0fwYl1ts1xwi_500.gif
 
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Not saying this would save sales of the series consoles but, people were in a frenzy last summer when the old cod games servers were fixed, people were thinking about buying a series s to play them or dusting off a 360 and re subbing to xbl or gamepass or whatever to play them. I honestly thought MS would make a bigger effort to make xbox the place to play cod, put anti cheat in the old games update textures dedicated servers etc... something. Even if it wasn't within months of the deal, by now I thought we would have had something even if it was just say bo1 or bo2 by now.
Phil said many times that these games wouldn’t be exclusive. You don’t spend 70B to not make money on your investment.
 
has any publisher/studio actually performed better after MS purchased them?

if not, are there any publishers/studios that at least maintained their level of quality after the purchase?
 
While true (for a month), most Xbox owners aren't out there buying games, they're entirely GamePass dependent. That story got a ton of hype, there were no games coming out on Xbox, and the ones that were - were also on GamePass. They were literally the only games anyone would want that weren't also free. It doesn't take a lot of sales to be a "best seller" on Xbox.

If that era of CoD games were made BC and playable on PS5 with fixed matchmaking then they’d of sold very well on PS5, too. Contrary to popular belief, casual shooters are most popular on the PlayStation platform as well, and we all know 2023 was very light on PS5.

As for the GamePass stuff, you guys will need to pick a narrative and stick to it.

Regarding the OP… what could MS have done in this short time to make Xbox the “place to play CoD”? Bear in mind they have deals in place preventing exclusivity.
 

havoc00

Member
If that era of CoD games were made BC and playable on PS5 with fixed matchmaking then they’d of sold very well on PS5, too. Contrary to popular belief, casual shooters are most popular on the PlayStation platform as well, and we all know 2023 was very light on PS5.

As for the GamePass stuff, you guys will need to pick a narrative and stick to it.

Regarding the OP… what could MS have done in this short time to make Xbox the “place to play CoD”? Bear in mind they have deals in place preventing exclusivity.
Resolution bumps for older titles, anti cheat, discounted dlc etc etc.... None of the way older cods are bound to those deals with sony
 

CLW

Member
Phil Spencer at the helm he could SINGLEHANDIDLY run Sony AND Nintendo into the ground if given the opportunity.
 

Reizo Ryuu

Gold Member
There's an infinite warfare (pc) placeholder on the xbox store:
So it looks like they are doing something.
 
There's no money in reactivating old CoD games for the small number of players who care and want to go play old CoD games

Which is why MS won't do it lol

MS didn't become the world's most valuable company by market cap by giving tiny groups of people things for free

Wouldn't they want people to play the new games? Unless they remake them I wouldn't expect anything either.
 

AJUMP23

Gold Member
You get Diablo 4 on GP this month and it has been about 10 minutes since the purchase happened.

They laid a bunch of people off if that makes you feel better.
 
I’m waiting for the influx of cod oldie games. When Bethesda cleared, like 15 games went up one morning on GP.
Imagine the hype if they did that and added World At War everyone would jump on just to play some OG Zombies. Including myself and I kinda fell off playing COD after OG MW2.
 

JackMcGunns

Member
Not saying this would save sales of the series consoles but, people were in a frenzy last summer when the old cod games servers were fixed, people were thinking about buying a series s to play them or dusting off a 360 and re subbing to xbl or gamepass or whatever to play them. I honestly thought MS would make a bigger effort to make xbox the place to play cod, put anti cheat in the old games update textures dedicated servers etc... something. Even if it wasn't within months of the deal, by now I thought we would have had something even if it was just say bo1 or bo2 by now.

By now? lol, have they even finalized the deal? smh. Next we want a Time Machine and games before an acquisition
 
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