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[Majukun]

https://www.ign.com/articles/microsoft-activision-blizzard-acquisition-game-pass-exclusives

- Games with established multi-platform communities will not be exclusive
- Some undefined games will be hand-picked for exclusivity
- As many AB games as possible will come to gamepass

does seem to mostly repeat what was already stated but in a more precise and deliberate way

To me it seems like a big waste for them to not put everything under exclusivity, but seems like they don't care about xbox anymore and they are all about gamepass

 

[skit_data]

moistly

 

[lh032]

COD franchise coming to Playstation

 

[CosmicComet]

There were some fools that said Acti-Blizz would remain entirely multiplat the way Bungie is going to be.

Idk how Sony made such a shit deal and isn't even getting a single exclusive out of it.

 

[Clear]

The plain fact is that making absolute declarations about things like exclusivity make for good sound-bites but pretty risky business practice.

Its a no-brainer to allow your company wiggle-room to make per-title decisions going forwards to maximize profit without needing to manage PR backlash over previously made statements.

 

[Topher]

 

[adamsapple]

- Some undefined games will be hand-picked for exclusivity
- As many AB games as possible will come to gamepass

 

[Topher]

There were some fools that said Acti-Blizz would remain entirely multiplat the way Bungie is going to be.

Idk how Sony made such a shit deal and isn't even getting a single exclusive out of it.

Why do you need to make this about Sony?

Disregard

 

[adamsapple]

Why do you need to make this about Sony?

Did you miss the post right above the one you quoted ?

 

[CosmicComet]

Why do you need to make this about Sony?

Acquisition cross talk in an acquisition thread. Sony is already implicitly involved in this thread with talks of certain games remaining multiplat.

The Bungie deal still pisses me off with how weak it was.

Sony could have done so much more with 4 billion.

 

[ChuckeRearmed]

So literally the same as with Bethesda and we remember how it turned out.

As we remember with Bethesda

We have games that exist on other platforms and we’re going to go and support those games on the platforms they’re on. There’s communities of players - we love those communities and will continue to invest in them

What we’ll do in the long run is we don’t have intentions of just pulling all of Bethesda content out of Sony or Nintendo or otherwise.
So again, I’m not announcing pulling content from platforms one way or the other. But I suspect you’ll continue to see us shift towards a first or better or best approach on our platforms

With the addition of the Bethesda creative teams, gamers should know that Xbox consoles, PC, and Game Pass will be the best place to experience new Bethesda games, including some new titles in the future that will be exclusive to Xbox and PC players

 

[Ozriel]

To me it seems like a big waste for them to not put everything under exclusivity, but seems like they don't care about xbox anymore and they are all about gamepass

they have to keep the big, multiplatform games with huge communities multiplatform post acquisition for two reasons:

1. To keep the IPs as dominant as ever and rake in as much revenue as they can

2. To ease regulatory concerns and to ensure the acquisition gets approved.

Not sure how you got the “they don’t care about xbox” part.

Games like Overwatch 2, Call of Duty series and likely Diablo will remain multiplatform and potentially expand to Switch 2.

stuff like Crash or Spyro? Up to MS discretion

 

[Ozriel]

So literally the same as with Bethesda and we remember how it turned out.

As we remember with Bethesda

No. Not the same with Bethesda. There they announced they wouldn’t pull games off competing platforms.
So no pulling of Doom or Fallout 76 etc.

 

[spons]

Some, mostly, many. Get your fucking story straight.

 

[Topher]

Did you miss the post right above the one you quoted ?

Actually, yes I did.

Acquisition cross talk in an acquisition thread. Sony is already implicitly involved in this thread with talks of certain games remaining multiplat.

The Bungie deal still pisses me off with how weak it was.

Sony could have done so much more with 4 billion.

Yeah....ok. Sony is indirectly involved. Overreaction on my part. Apologies.

 

[adamsapple]

Some, mostly, many. Get your fucking story straight.

They literally can't and won't name franchises that will be exclusive until the deal closes lol.

Any names they say now can be used as gotchas against the deal.

 

[Majukun]

they have to keep the big, multiplatform games with huge communities multiplatform post acquisition for two reasons:

1. To keep the IPs as dominant as ever and rake in as much revenue as they can

2. To ease regulatory concerns and to ensure the acquisition gets approved.

Not sure how you got the “they don’t care about xbox” part.

1) you don't make these kind of deals (68 bln) for direct profit usually...even considering a copy of the past years net profits of actbliz, it would take a decade to microsoft to start making a direct profit from that. Also if there's one thing MS is not lacking, is money.

2) to me it seems that they would had no issue passing regulatory concerns, since those are about monopolies and they are not creating one, but I also admit my own ignorance in terms of US laws and regulations

they don't care about xbox because this was their biggest chance to eat some userbase from sony, a big chance in fact.
instead they choose not to risk angering some people, but damning the xbox brand to languish in the second place of a two horse competition (nintendo does its own thing)

 

[ChuckeRearmed]

No. Not the same with Bethesda. There they announced they wouldn’t pull games off competing platforms.
So no pulling of Doom or Fallout 76 etc.

They won't do it with released ABK games either. New games won't be coming. Nobody expects the next Doom or the next TES or the next Fallout to come to Playstation no? Remaster is a separate matter and those might be multiplatform. We don't know yet.

 

[Little Chicken]

There's nothing stopping them from creating CoD or Diablo spin-offs in the future that are Game Pass exclusive while keeping the original series multiplat.

 

[TheGodfather07]

There were some fools that said Acti-Blizz would remain entirely multiplat the way Bungie is going to be.

Idk how Sony made such a shit deal and isn't even getting a single exclusive out of it.

if cod really does continue to stay multiplat, then it was microsoft who made the shit deal. getting Acti was all about who gets call of duty. if it still comes to PlayStation, whats the point? to have crash bandicoot exclusively?

 

[Craig of War]

This is as clear as it gonna get
COD stays Multi
New Crash New Spyro Exclusive
& New IP's also exclusive that all folks you guys can stop arguing now

 

[remember_spinal]

if cod really does continue to stay multiplat, then it was microsoft who made the shit deal. getting Acti was all about who gets call of duty. if it still comes to PlayStation, whats the point? to have crash bandicoot exclusively?

Yeah, diablo, overwatch, cod still remaining on playstation makes this a nothing burger type deal.

 

[Ozriel]

1) you don't make these kind of deals (68 bln) for direct profit usually...even considering a copy of the past years net profits of actbliz, it would take a decade to microsoft to start making a direct profit from that. Also if there's one thing MS is not lacking, is money.

2) to me it seems that they would havede no issue passing regulatory concerns, since those are about monopolies and they are not creating one, but I also admit my own ignorance in terms of US laws and regulations

There have been multiple articles here about how MS are so keen to be seen as the good guys for US regulators that they often snitch on the likes of Google and proactively take steps to show that they’re the good guys

The ‘not a monopoly’ argument is compelling, but this is still the biggest tech deal ever seen in the US. So scrutiny will still be there.

And yeah, while they aren’t all about making profits from the games, they see what’s happened to Halo. Much of the value of Activision resides in Call of Duty. What would happen if more than half of the console userbase found a new shooter IP to replace Call of Duty?

Best to do everything you can to keep COD as the foremost FPS IP.

 

[In Cold Blood]

https://www.ign.com/articles/microsoft-activision-blizzard-acquisition-game-pass-exclusives



does seem to mostly repeat what was already stated but in a more precise and deliberate way

To me it seems like a big waste for them to not put everything under exclusivity, but seems like they don't care about xbox anymore and they are all about gamepass

The "communities" thing is interesting. The only real communities are in online games like Warzone, Fortnite etc. Campaigns don't have communities like that.

 

[Ozriel]

Yeah, diablo, overwatch, cod still remaining on playstation makes this a nothing burger type deal.

Gamepass and competition exists.

For example, Diablo 4, Overwatch 2 and COD 2024 would set a PlayStation owner back $190.

‘Free’ on Gamepass.

These are all about getting Gamepass content, growing the userbase and shutting out new entrants like Google, Amazon or Facebook.

 

[Majukun]

There have been multiple articles here about how MS are so keen to be seen as the good guys for US regulators that they often snitch on the likes of Google and proactively take steps to show that they’re the good guys

The ‘not a monopoly’ argument is compelling, but this is still the biggest tech deal ever seen in the US. So scrutiny will still be there.

And yeah, while they aren’t all about making profits from the games, they see what’s happened to Halo. Much of the value of Activision resides in Call of Duty. What would happen if more than half of the console userbase found a new shooter IP to replace Call of Duty?

Best to do everything you can to keep COD as the foremost FPS IP.

that didn't happen for more than a decade, and not for the lack of trying.
i know a lot of people that literally just play the annual cod and nothing else...an exclusivity would gave brought all those players and many more inside the xbox fence, giving them a chance to actually compete on the console market

 

[mansoor1980]

starfield on ps5?
my mistake , it is about activision and COD

 

[Majukun]

if cod really does continue to stay multiplat, then it was microsoft who made the shit deal. getting Acti was all about who gets call of duty. if it still comes to PlayStation, whats the point? to have crash bandicoot exclusively?

the baffling thing is that while non exclusivity is part of the bungie deal, it's not part of the MS/AB one.
they decided to act this way, but they don't have to, which makes it double-strange to me.

 

[Craig of War]

that didn't happen for more than a decade, and not for the lack of trying.
i know a lot of people that literally just play the annual cod and nothing else...an exclusivity would gave brought all those players and many more inside the xbox fence, giving them a chance to actually compete on the console market

Times have changed it not about only plastic boxes anymore when will fanboys realize this lol

 

[yurinka]

they have to keep the big, multiplatform games with huge communities multiplatform post acquisition for two reasons:

1. To keep the IPs as dominant as ever and rake in as much revenue as they can

Yes, as happened with Minecraft it would be dumb to leave all that money on the table. Specially considering PS and Nintendo have a giant chunk of the 3rd party sales and that in PC and Xbox they'll have their future games in GP. This acquisition is very expensive, so they'll want to keep getting revenue and profit from as much sources as possible, as they did with Minecraft or Bethesda before.

2. To ease regulatory concerns and to ensure the acquisition gets approved.

There shouldn't be any regulatory concern related, MS doesn't have a monopoly in gaming, in fact isn't even the marktet leader. In fact, they aren't market leaders in console, PC, mobile, VR or game subscriptions. In fact in many of these rankings they will have multiple companies above them after the acquisition.

They won't do it with released ABK games either. New games won't be coming. Nobody expects the next Doom or the next TES or the next Fallout to come to Playstation no? Remaster is a separate matter and those might be multiplatform. We don't know yet.

The main focus of MS gaming is Gamepass, not Xbox. They decided to expand their gaming business to mobile, other consoles and specially Windows in order to increase user reach and revenue. And also are moving their gaming business business model from being focused on console hardware and game sales to being focused on subscrition.

Their main goal buying Minecraft, Bethesda or Activision Blizzard King is not to buff Xbox with many console exclusives more (even if these companies may give them more, at least pretty likely as their CFO said about Bethesda timed ones), but to provide content to GP to help it acquire and retain as much subscribers as possible and get moneys from all platforms. If possible from the main one of their corporation (Windows) and the biggest one of gaming (mobile).

 

[TheGodfather07]

the baffling thing is that while non exclusivity ias part of tehe bungie deal, it's not part of the MS/AB one.
they decided to act this way, but they don't have to, which makes it double-strange to me.

the cod player base is just too big on PS. even microsoft dont want to cut them off. not instantly anyway. who knows what will happen in the future though?

 

[Majukun]

Times have changed it not about only plastic boxes anymore when will fanboys realize this lol

well that's what i said in my post, they don't care about the xbox anymore and are focusing on gamepass, but at this point why did they come out with the new xbox in the first place? just exit the console market and put gamepass on everything...sony would probably put less resistance to GP coming to PS if Microsoft was not a direct competitor anymore

 

[Heisenberg007]

This is as clear as it gonna get
COD stays Multi
New Crash New Spyro Exclusive
& New IP's also exclusive that all folks you guys can stop arguing now

I wouldn't even count on that either. Crash and Spyro have a bigger community on PlayStation than Xbox or PC.

"If we acquire a game that comes with a big community across a number of platforms, the last thing we want to do is take something away. If anything, we feel that it's our job to be caretakers, to be shepherds, to continue to build and nurture that community, not to cut it up into pieces and try to take some of it away." -- Matt Booty.

This might even include Fallout, Doom, and Elder Scrolls as well, who knows. Redfall and Starfield are new IPs with no established communities anywhere, so they don't count and, therefore, are exclusive.

 

[ManaByte]

COD franchise coming to Playstation

Yea Warzone.

Good luck leveling up your guns though.

 

[CosmicComet]

if cod really does continue to stay multiplat, then it was microsoft who made the shit deal. getting Acti was all about who gets call of duty. if it still comes to PlayStation, whats the point? to have crash bandicoot exclusively?

Lol what? It can come to Xbox first and/or come to Gamepass per this very thread.

Either of which instantly makes Xbox the preferred platform to buy the arguably biggest game franchise out there.

Why would you pay 70 bucks to play it on Playstation then?

Even if none of that were true, idk how you could argue owning the COD franchise and getting all the money associated with it from all platforms is a bad deal for Microsoft.

Destiny is nowhere near COD so Sony could have locked it up as a console exclusive and still benefitted by making its catalog more attractive from a 1st Party standpoint. Instead, they payed Bungie 4 billion to stay basically exactly the same.

MS bought out Zenimax for 7 billion only, an entire friggin publisher with tons of valuable IP and new games coming forward WILL be console exclusive.

Sony couldnt even lock down a single large studio for 4 billion. They seem to really suck in the acquisition space compared to MS, even on a dollar per dollar basis as opposed to the obvious warchest difference.

 

[Swift_Star]

CoD will keep being multiplat. Good for them. Crash and Spyro probably will be muiltiplat by the same reasoning.

 

[Mattyp]

if cod really does continue to stay multiplat, then it was microsoft who made the shit deal. getting Acti was all about who gets call of duty. if it still comes to PlayStation, whats the point? to have crash bandicoot exclusively?

They now have CoD drop day 1 on Gamepass for ‘free’ every year. This alone will make people jump ship, let alone all the IPs that come with Activision that they will make exclusive. None of this is a shit deal, they bought the biggest third party developer in gaming while their chips where down to some political bullshit.

Sony buying bungie was a knee jerk reaction to stop what exactly makes me scratch my head. Microsoft putting Destiny on game pass if they bought bungie? Who gives a shit. All in all spending $4 billion for Destiny makes Bethesda look like a complete steal.

Doom
Quake
Wolf
Prey
Elder Scrolls
Starfield
Fallout

All future titles exclusive.

 

[CosmicComet]

Also, there is nothing stopping them from keeping Warzome multiplat and new CODs could be console exclusive. The language allows for that easily.

Same way Elder Scrolls Online remains multiplat but the new mainline one will be console exclusive.

 

[Craig of War]

well that's what i said in my post, they don't care about the xbox anymore and are focusing on gamepass, but at this point why did they come out with the new xbox in the first place? just exit the console market and put gamepass on everything...sony would probably put less resistance to GP coming to PS if Microsoft was not a direct competitor anymore

"When I think about the platform that we're building, we're building a platform that can reach billions of players. Whether it's on console, whether it's on PC, whether it's through Xbox Cloud streaming – where players on any device that they want to play on should be able to find the content that they want to play, whether it's in a web browser, whether it's in an app, or whether it's on a device that's dedicated to playing games. That's just fundamental to where Xbox is going."

That a Quote from Phil Spencer take it how you will but they are going for the masses they don't care if fanboys don't like it lol

 

[Godot25]

So Call of Duty, Diablo and Overwatch are staying multiplat
New Blizzard survival IP is exclusive
Games like Spyro and Crash are....ugh? You can hardly say they have "established multiplatform communities" unless you are talking about 20 years ago

 

[adamsapple]

So Call of Duty, Diablo and Overwatch are staying multiplat
New Blizzard survival IP is exclusive
Games like Spyro and Crash are....ugh? You can hardly say they have "established multiplatform communities" unless you are talking about 20 years ago

They can 'handpick' whatever franchises they want to, including CoD, once the deal is closed.

But, again, people still shorthand CoD for the entire deal. There's a couple of decades of IP and backlog of games that come with this deal.

MS will have game pass content for years, at the very least, not even including future projects.

 

[TheGodfather07]

They now have CoD drop day 1 on Gamepass for ‘free’ every year. This alone will make people jump ship, let alone all the IPs that come with Activision that they will make exclusive. None of this is a shit deal, they bought the biggest third party developer in gaming while their chips where down to some political bullshit.

Sony buying bungie was a knee jerk reaction to stop what exactly makes me scratch my head. Microsoft putting Destiny on game pass if they bought bungie? Who gives a shit. All in all spending $4 billion for Destiny makes Bethesda look like a complete steal.

Doom
Quake
Wolf
Prey
Elder Scrolls
Starfield
Fallout

All future titles exclusive.

who the heck is going to jump ship and buy an entire new console just for cod on gamepass when they could just buy a $70 copy on PS4/PS5 and call it a day? thats not very smart. casuals dont even know what gamepass is. they dont even know that microsoft acquired activision. without cod as an exclusive, its a useless deal. the bethesda one makes much more sense because the games will actually be exclusive meaning PS gamers will have no choice but to buy an XBOX to play those games.

 

[ChuckeRearmed]

that didn't happen for more than a decade, and not for the lack of trying

Yeah, history teaches that usually IPs kill themselves. Halo was not killed by any other games - it declined by itself due to Xbox One fiasco and not that great late games.
But for example GTA - still insanely strong after all those years and not a single GTA killer did really that well.

 

[Majukun]

"When I think about the platform that we're building, we're building a platform that can reach billions of players. Whether it's on console, whether it's on PC, whether it's through Xbox Cloud streaming – where players on any device that they want to play on should be able to find the content that they want to play, whether it's in a web browser, whether it's in an app, or whether it's on a device that's dedicated to playing games. That's just fundamental to where Xbox is going."

That a Quote from Phil Spencer take it how you will but they are going for the masses they don't care if fanboys don't like it lol

i'm a nintendo guy who doesn't have a switch now, bought also a 360 on the ps3/wii era and a ps4 last gen while currently being a pc gamer...i don't really march under any banner in the console war if that's what are you implying.

still MS strategy doesn't make sense to me, but i'm not a billionaire international company CEO, so what do I know....

 

[Calverz]

COD franchise coming to Playstation

Thank you for funding future exclusive Xbox titles.

 

[ChuckeRearmed]

The main focus of MS gaming is Gamepass, not Xbox.

Game Pass is a platform by itself. It is essentially a walled garden basically. With exclusive content. And their acquisitions are about making exclusive content for that platform.

Minecraft was a released game that they were still supporting. Dungeons (and Ori) is the reason why Phil said that they won't do multiplatform releases anymore as it created false expectations.

 

[Majukun]

who the heck is going to jump ship and buy an entire new console just for cod on gamepass when they could just buy a $70 copy on PS4/PS5 and call it a day? thats not very smart. casuals dont even know what gamepass is. they dont even know that microsoft acquired activision. without cod as an exclusive, its a useless deal. the bethesda one makes much more sense because the games will actually be exclusive meaning PS gamers will have no choice but to buy an XBOX to play those games.

casuals do know about the acquisition, especially because they mostly play cod and nothing else.
also we are still at the start of a new gen of console, not many people already have a new gen console, and having cod exclusively on one side could help them make the decision that much easier...not anymore though.

 

[Godot25]

They can 'handpick' whatever franchises they want to, including CoD, once the deal is closed.

But, again, people still shorthand CoD for the entire deal. There's a couple of decades of IP and backlog of games that come with this deal.

MS will have game pass content for years, at the very least, not even including future projects.

Why people think it is so easy?
If FTC will let this deal through with Microsoft saying "we will keep COD multiplatform" they can't just suddenly make it exclusive because FTC then can revisit this merger.
It's same with people who thinks that Sony can now say that they will keep Bungie games multiplat and then after closing made their games exclusive.

 

[Mattyp]

who the heck is going to jump ship and buy an entire new console just for cod on gamepass when they could just buy a $70 copy on PS4/PS5 and call it a day? thats not very smart. casuals dont even know what gamepass is. they dont even know that microsoft acquired activision. without cod as an exclusive, its a useless deal. the bethesda one makes much more sense because the games will actually be exclusive meaning PS gamers will have no choice but to buy an XBOX to play those games.

The same people who buy consoles just to play CoD & FIFA each year but no other title.

Casuals don’t know what gamepass is? They don’t know Microsoft bought CoD? It was mainstream news for everyone. Had two hardcore PlayStation fans jump the last year to join our group of friends after the news and haven’t looked back and never thought would infect them into the green rat plague.

 

[Craig of War]

i'm a nintendo guy who doesn't have a switch now, bought also a 360 on the ps3/wii era and a ps4 last gen while currently being a pc gamer...i don't really march under any banner in the console war if that's what are you implying.

still MS strategy doesn't make sense to me, but i'm not a billionaire international company CEO, so what do i know....

If that is so than why do you even care what they do & where they choose to put their games on
Just play the games who cares about the business decision