Commissar SFLUFAN

I will magnanimously relinquish my tests to those more in need.

I'm gonna be contrarian and say that it's really not all that necessary. Sure, there will be some references that you won't get, but they're very few and far between.

I really like what Phil Savage -- the PC Gamer UK EIC -- had to say about this: How Microsoft acquiring Activision will affect PC gaming | PC Gamer WWW.PCGAMER.COM PC Gamer reacts to Microsoft's latest, biggest purchase.

Here's a thought: BattleNet will become PC Game Pass

When the deal closes more than likely.

WSJ is reporting that Kotick will (unsurprisingly) be out once the deal closes:

Its codename is "Spartacus"

It's Gary Whitta so OF COURSE that's what it's gonna be

US competition enforcers launch overhaul of merger approval process WWW.THEVERGE.COM And the Senate will take on antitrust enforcement this week.

By sheer coincidence... US competition enforcers launch overhaul of merger approval process WWW.THEVERGE.COM And the Senate will take on antitrust enforcement this week.

The only ActivLizzard products that I foresee remaining multiplatform are those with a significant GAAS presence, i.e. Warzone. It will be pretty much identical to how Fallout 76 and The Elder Scrolls Online remained multiplatform after the Bethesda acquisition while Starfield, TES VI, and future projects will be Xbox/PC exclusive. And let's face it: the MS platform is GamePass (not Xbox) and for that content is king.

I really don't put much stock in the "Sony/Nintendo/etc. is shitting themselves" perspective at all. For all intents and purposes, these companies have been operating with EXTREMELY different corporate strategies for more than a few years now to the point where I'm not even sure that they're even competing in the same market space.

Tonga tsunami: Before and after eruption WWW.BBC.COM Satellite and aerial images show impact of eruption of underwater volcano near Tonga island chain. Tonga is absolutely smothered in ash, but I really don't see any significant structural damage.

None really, but WoW is still a helluva revenue generator.

MS can't acquire Rockstar Studios on its own unless Take-Two (stupidly) decides to sell it. MS would have to acquire the entirety of Take-Two Interactive and I just don't see that happening at this point.

I really do believe that MS's ultimate goal is platform agnosticism.

Rockstar is entirely owned by Take-Two Interactive who have a market capitalization of $18.3 billion and are frequently rumored as an EA takeover target. Epic is 40% owned by Tencent, the world's largest videogame company.

FromSoft owns the IP, not Activision.

The board isn't going to rock the boat during the acquisition/transition period.

Microsoft is paying $95/share for ActivLizzard which was trading at around $65/share until the announcement. One year ago, ActivLizzard stock was trading at $93/share which means that MS is effectively paying the "pre-scandal" price for ActivLizzard stock.

Nope - none whatsoever (But we both know the toothless antitrust regulators will just wave this through)