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Microsoft/Activision Blizzard Acquisition - Information Thread, update: The Deal Has Closed

Bacon

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Xbob42

Xbob42

Posted
Posted
3 minutes ago, SuperSpreader said:

 

MS isn't gonna fix that though are they

Nope, rampant piracy eventually will though!

 

If Hollywood doesn't starve all their writers to death because they think AI is currently capable of writing quality content.

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crispy4000

crispy4000

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1 hour ago, DPCyric said:

 

I actually think this merger is a net positive for the industry and gamers for the following reasons:

1. Activision/Blizzard has been a bad working environment for a while now and especially with the recent failure of Redfall Microsoft will want to improve the work culture.
2. Microsoft has other studios making them money they aren't in a situation where they need to pump out Call of Duty every year to survive.

3. All those unused Activision IP's have an opportunity to be used now.

4. With development freed up where a Call of Duty isn't needed every year development studios can work on other things so employees won't be burned out doing the same game over and over again.

5. This forces Sony to be a bit more competitive if they wanted they could make their own Call of Duty but that isn't necessary. However maybe now they will be more careful when launching stuff and not supporting it (ala PSVR2 and the Vita)... maybe just maybe PS+ will be improved as well which is a benefit for Playstation owners.

 

1. The stink of Activision's workplace culture issues is a managerial problem that goes all the way up to Kottick.  I don't think Microsoft is willing to take the retributive steps to totally clean house, or go much further than Activision already has internally.

 

2. They've argued they're the underdogs on a downward trajectory, and purchasing Activision will help them find competitive footing.  They're not spending $69 billion for Activision employees to ease up.

 

3. Most of Activision's dead and burried IP is even less valuable than Rare's.  If they do bring things back, they'll likely be kept from Sony/Nintendo regardless.

 

4. Taking resources away from CoD would need to result in another type of leverage worth the money and risk.  Like, say, a 3rd person Call of Duty offshoot that isn't ported to PlayStation.

 

5. We're likely seeing Sony invest so much more in live services games as a result of this.  That's not the worst timeline  ... buying up other major publishers as Microsoft is.  But I think a lot of people are frustrated that Sony isn't sticking to their guns.  It's going to be a lot of Destruction All-Stars until they land a hit.

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Commissar SFLUFAN

Commissar SFLUFAN

Posted
Posted
VNAUXDZQ7BLXFATNRS3WXZY5PA.jpg

UK extends Activision deadline after receiving Microsoft's 'complex' proposal

WWW.REUTERS.COM
Britain's competition regulator on Friday extended its final deadline on Microsoft's Activision Blizzard deal to Aug. 29 after its received a "detailed and complex" new proposal from Microsoft that claimed material changes in circumstance.

 

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TwinIon

TwinIon

Posted
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Aside from all the big, potentially industry shifting consequences from all this, I'm super curious to see if Sony ends up following through and not providing dev kits to any MS owned studios. It's one thing to not give one to Mojang for Minecraft, but if Sony ends up kneecapping future all future Act/Blizz games (including COD) on PlayStation, that seems like a frankly self destructive level of petty. I assume MS will continue to send Bungie dev kits, but who knows, maybe this is the point where the console wars get personal.

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stepee

stepee

Posted
Posted
15 minutes ago, Brian said:

So they only own the legacy games and not the IP?

 

They own the first four games I think but besides that From owns the IP. Wasn’t Sekiro a Tenchu game originally? Maybe I made that up in my head canon. I’m glad it wasn’t though, it doesn’t need to be a Souls game. I want more MGS style stealth and rooftop hopping not punishing combat.

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Brian

Brian

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4 minutes ago, stepee said:

 

They own the first four games I think but besides that From owns the IP. Wasn’t Sekiro a Tenchu game originally? Maybe I made that up in my head canon. I’m glad it wasn’t though, it doesn’t need to be a Souls game. I want more MGS style stealth and rooftop hopping not punishing combat.

I skipped Sekiro because that shit is too hard for me. I would love a remake or a new Tenchu game. 

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Remarkableriots

Remarkableriots

Posted
Posted
10 hours ago, Spork3245 said:


At what point is the FTC making a complete waste of tax payer money?

lina-khan-1689265101566.png?width=1280

FTC Boss Accused of Wasting Taxpayer Money With Xbox Verdict Appeal - IGN

WWW.IGN.COM
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) chair Lina Khan was questioned by the House...

So maybe this just leads to not fighting mergers anymore so taxpayers money isn't wasted?

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SuperSpreader

SuperSpreader

Posted
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1 hour ago, TwinIon said:

Sony ends up kneecapping future all future Act/Blizz games (including COD) on PlayStation, that seems like a frankly self destructive level of petty.

 

PlayStation I think is bigger in Europe than Xbox. They would be affecting Microsoft as well. 

 

Imagine if you slice their COD revenue by half for the next 10 years, I would do it. Giving them the 10yr is only enough time for them to slowly creep away users, rip off the band-aid now and hurt MS. 

  • True 1
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TwinIon

TwinIon

Posted
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3 minutes ago, SuperSpreader said:

PlayStation I think is bigger in Europe than Xbox. They would be affecting Microsoft as well. 

 

Imagine if you slice their COD revenue by half for the next 10 years, I would do it. Giving them the 10yr is only enough time for them to slowly creep away users, rip off the band-aid now and hurt MS. 

I'm not sure I follow. Activision already has PS5 dev kits and already utilize a bunch of the PS5 exclusive features. The question is if Sony will prevent Activision from having new dev units for the PS5 pro or PS6, thereby preventing Activision from really optimizing for future Sony platforms.

 

Making COD worse on the Playstation does hurt MS a little, but they MS has money to burn and it would come at a significant cost to Sony, both monetarily and potentially in market share.

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Spawn_of_Apathy

Spawn_of_Apathy

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, Remarkableriots said:

So maybe this just leads to not fighting mergers anymore so taxpayers money isn't wasted?


One does wonder if the FTC has any legal ground to stop any merger at this point. Courts and regulars will just take the buyer at their word that they really really promise to not stifle competition or gouge consumers if we just let them own a majority share of some industry. 
 

I mean how’s that Ticketmaster and Livenation merger working out for everyone? I mean must be going well. Nobody seems to give a fuck if we repeat the same mistakes. 

  • True 1
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crispy4000

crispy4000

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, TwinIon said:

I'm not sure I follow. Activision already has PS5 dev kits and already utilize a bunch of the PS5 exclusive features. The question is if Sony will prevent Activision from having new dev units for the PS5 pro or PS6, thereby preventing Activision from really optimizing for future Sony platforms.

 

Trade secrets are a thing.  You gotta wonder if even Nintendo would give them dev kits in time with other favored publishers (ie: Ubisoft, Sega, etc).

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Spawn_of_Apathy

Spawn_of_Apathy

Posted
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It makes sense to me that Sony wouldn’t give Activision dev kits prior to a hardware reveal or release. But once it’s out they’d only be hurting themselves if they didn’t. If the PS6 only ever got PS5 versions of games and this lagged behind the Xbox and PC versions that would be solely on Sony. And if they lost customers of it that would again be because of their own inactions. 

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crispy4000

crispy4000

Posted
Posted
24 minutes ago, Spawn_of_Apathy said:

It makes sense to me that Sony wouldn’t give Activision dev kits prior to a hardware reveal or release. But once it’s out they’d only be hurting themselves if they didn’t.


I listened to Phil being questioned about this in regard to Minecraft.  They didn’t receive them at the time of other publishers, before launch.  But he couldn’t give a straight answer for why there was no native PS5 SKU today as the Series consoles have.

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Spawn_of_Apathy

Spawn_of_Apathy

Posted
Posted
7 minutes ago, crispy4000 said:


I listened to Phil being m questioned about this in regard to Minecraft.  They didn’t receive them at the time of other publishers, before launch.  But he couldn’t give a straight answer for why there was no native PS5 SKU today as the Series consoles have.


the answer could be something along the lines of it’s just cheaper to make a ps4 version and let PS5 backwards compatibility handle the rest, rather than work on two SKUs. I don’t even know how much that matter for Minecraft though. I don’t think there is anything any of those games are doing that need a PS5. But eventually COD will outgrow the PS5 and need the power of whatever next gen consoles. Maybe that’s how long it would take for COD to get a native PS6 SKU. But if there’s no dev kits for Activision the only thing left is maybe the Switch version. lol 

 

But yeah if MS has PS5 dev kits and aren’t using them for versions of Minecraft, that’s on MS for PS5 players getting a lesser version that Series players. But if Sony refuses to send/sell MS dev kits then it’s on Sony. Which is all I was pointing out. Sony keeping PS6 dev kits from Activision permanently only ensures the PS6 doesn’t get versions that match the Xbox. 

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  • Commissar SFLUFAN changed the title to Microsoft/Activision Blizzard Acquisition - Information Thread, update: 9th Circuit Court denies FTC's motion for injunctive relief
crispy4000

crispy4000

Posted
Posted
4 hours ago, Spawn_of_Apathy said:


the answer could be something along the lines of it’s just cheaper to make a ps4 version and let PS5 backwards compatibility handle the rest, rather than work on two SKUs. I don’t even know how much that matter for Minecraft though. I don’t think there is anything any of those games are doing that need a PS5. But eventually COD will outgrow the PS5 and need the power of whatever next gen consoles. Maybe that’s how long it would take for COD to get a native PS6 SKU. But if there’s no dev kits for Activision the only thing left is maybe the Switch version. lol 

 

But yeah if MS has PS5 dev kits and aren’t using them for versions of Minecraft, that’s on MS for PS5 players getting a lesser version that Series players. But if Sony refuses to send/sell MS dev kits then it’s on Sony. Which is all I was pointing out. Sony keeping PS6 dev kits from Activision permanently only ensures the PS6 doesn’t get versions that match the Xbox. 


I get the feeling it’s more that Microsoft wants Xbox to be considered the lead platform/ecosystem for the franchise.  Not doing a PS5 SKU furthers that goal.

 

If the PS5 Pro is real and Microsoft won’t challenge it directly, we’ll probably see more shenanigans of the sort.  Perhaps no genuine PS5 Pro enhanced version of CoD until the next Xbox launches.

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Brian

Brian

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Quote

In 2022, the most downloaded PS5 game in the U.S. was Call of Duty Modern Warfare II. The most downloaded PS4 game was also MWII. The third most-downloaded PS4 game? Minecraft. Microsoft is now on the verge of becoming PlayStation's most important third-party. - Stephen Totilo

Bill Gates Swag GIF

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jaethos

jaethos

Posted
Posted
5 hours ago, crispy4000 said:


I listened to Phil being questioned about this in regard to Minecraft.  They didn’t receive them at the time of other publishers, before launch.  But he couldn’t give a straight answer for why there was no native PS5 SKU today as the Series consoles have.

The series consoles don't have a native version either, it's still just the XboneX version.

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crispy4000

crispy4000

Posted
Posted
10 hours ago, jaethos said:

The series consoles don't have a native version either, it's still just the XboneX version.


You’re right.  That’s so dumb considering next-gen Minecraft was one of the first things they demonstrated behind closed doors running in the hardware.

 

Minecraft Dungeons is the one that doesn’t have a next gen version on PS5 only.  Legends however does.  Leave it to the FTC to not get their argument straight.  Legends does imply they have dev kits.

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Spawn_of_Apathy

Spawn_of_Apathy

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, crispy4000 said:

Sony just signed Microsoft’s 10 year deal for regular releases of CoD.  Firm as sign of any as they’re admitting they lost.


I wonder if they signed the same 20% deal they had with Activision or if MS forced them to take 15%. I doubt Sony would have tried to negotiate back up to they 30% they get for everything else. 

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