Microsoft to Acquire Game Studio Activision Blizzard for $68.7 Billion

Phil Spencer stated, repeatedly, that Sony and Nintendo were NOT their competition, everyone called him a fool for that, and the usual other platform fans ridiculed him.
They fail to see the business plan at play here, Microsoft want Xbox as a service AND they want to sell consoles, they said they plan at least another 2 console generations. But they have a platform and infrastructure geared for service provided gaming. When you stream games you are running it on Xbox Series X hardware in a server rack somewhere.

But Phil was absolutely correct, their competition is Amazon, Netflix, Facebook, Apple, companies as big as they are and with just as deep pockets.

What gaming will look like in the future who knows? But one thing is certain is Microsoft have taken a huge lead this generation in shaping that future. Hopefully Nintendo and Sony stay along for the ride as competition is good.

Microsoft is slowly following Apple to an extent in becoming more of a services company. IMO. Obviously more so in Microsoft's case.
 
people talk about this monopoly and that monopoly , but you look at MS , and they are running over the PC market , no one can compete with them , they are now the OS and the biggest gaming company , the days of Sony as a console competitor to the Xbox is starting to get to an end , that Microsoft war chest is too big to fight , they will give away game pass subscriptions until they break Sony completely , that's not even mentioning the fact they have their proprietary API DX , that dominates both Console and PC (PC is the only option , and Console its 1/3 of the market).

Not sure how the regulator feels about it , but after Betsheda , now Activision , not sure what is left.

If I am an investor , I dont like that buy , very expensive , not going to return the money anytime soon , you get a ton of new employees , which is always bad , and you have a culture problem to fix.

But as a "I lose money but hurt my competitors" move , that will be significant.

Think about no more call of duty or overwatch on playstation..... that will hurt.
 
NotTooLate said:
people talk about this monopoly and that monopoly , but you look at MS , and they are running over the PC market , no one can compete with them , they are now the OS and the biggest gaming company , the days of Sony as a console competitor to the Xbox is starting to get to an end , that Microsoft war chest is too big to fight , they will give away game pass subscriptions until they break Sony completely , that's not even mentioning the fact they have their proprietary API DX , that dominates both Console and PC (PC is the only option , and Console its 1/3 of the market).

Not sure how the regulator feels about it , but after Betsheda , now Activision , not sure what is left.

If I am an investor , I dont like that buy , very expensive , not going to return the money anytime soon , you get a ton of new employees , which is always bad , and you have a culture problem to fix.

But as a "I lose money but hurt my competitors" move , that will be significant.

Think about no more call of duty or overwatch on playstation..... that will hurt.
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Sony Studios is bigger than Microsoft Games Studios....
 
diamond.g said:
Bungie is independent now....
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Bungie was bought by Microsoft to continue the Halo franchise as an exclusive for XBoxes. After Halo Reach, Bungie's management team re-purchased their independence, giving up the Halo IP to Microsoft, who created 343 Industries under the XBox Game Studios umbrella to continue developing the games. Bungie then began development of Destiny, choosing to exclusively partner with Activision as their publisher. After Destiny 2, Bungie ended that exclusivity but is not currently developing new IP. Activision is still the publisher of record for Destiny.

Bungie won't stay independent. I'll give you one guess who they are predicted to partner with again.

Sony Studios is bigger than Microsoft Games Studios....
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This hasn't been true since the Bethesda purchase.
 
cateye said:
The problem is, there's a vocal segment of Apple users who value exclusivity to the platform over content. I do everything on Macs and iOS devices—except game. I vote with my wallet. I think mobile gaming, dominated by boring match 3 mechanics and games with limited depth and effort, is a waste of my limited gaming time. I won't spend money on games for any Apple device, putting that money into Game Pass for my Series X.

It was the best investment I ever made as a gamer.
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I admit I still have a bad taste in my mouth over iPados/iOS Bioshock. Buying a premium game, having it break 3 months later, and then never fixing it to work. While not really Apple’s fault, I purchased it through apple’s App Store and it’s walled garden that is suppose to not have stuff like that occur.

Apple just isn’t interested in the same gaming segments I am, so I choose to go elsewhere. The series x/s is great, and so is game pass in general.

Too bad I travel for work, so console gaming is unavailable unless I am home, in my experience hotel WiFi sucks for cloud gaming. On device gaming is so much better in my opinion, but there simply are not the games I wish to play available.
 
cateye said:
Bungie was bought by Microsoft to continue the Halo franchise as an exclusive for XBoxes. After Halo Reach, Bungie's management team re-purchased their independence, giving up the Halo IP to Microsoft, who created 343 Industries under the XBox Game Studios umbrella to continue developing the games. Bungie then began development of Destiny, choosing to exclusively partner with Activision as their publisher. After Destiny 2, Bungie ended that exclusivity but is not currently developing new IP. Activision is still the publisher of record for Destiny.

Bungie won't stay independent. I'll give you one guess who they are predicted to partner with again.
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wccftech.com

Bungie’s New IP for 2025 to Feature a New Secret World in Parallel With the Destiny Franchise, Design Director Says

Bungie’s upcoming new IP will feature a new secret world in parallel with the Destiny franchise, the studio’s design director has said.
wccftech.com wccftech.com
They are working on something other than Destiny...
 
diamond.g said:
wccftech.com

Bungie’s New IP for 2025 to Feature a New Secret World in Parallel With the Destiny Franchise, Design Director Says

Bungie’s upcoming new IP will feature a new secret world in parallel with the Destiny franchise, the studio’s design director has said.
wccftech.com wccftech.com
They are working on something other than Destiny...
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Thanks for the correction. I should've been more precise—nothing that has been demo'ed and known to exist as a specific product. Obviously, everyone is always working on something. :)
 
"I will buy all the studios and game publishers!"

1. Set a goal to buy out one of direct competitors.
2. Gently fueling the toxic topic of sexual harassment and "bro culture".
3. Waiting for the collapse of shares and the chaos of management.
4. Buy out a direct competitor for an amount significantly less than the company was worth before the start of a series of scandals. Profit!
 
lilface said:
This is huge news for someone who has played WoW for 15+ years and is a exclusive Mac user… what are the chances Blizzard games will stop being supported on apple computers now? It’s not the majority but I assume there’s quite a chunk of players who are wondering what will happen. Been waiting for the new iMac Pro to buy specifically for graphic design + gaming and now I am questioning everything!!
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Microsoft is the largest third-party developer for macOS. In contrast, the hope for Overwatch 2, Diablo IV for Mac may be brighter.
 
cateye said:
This canard needs to die. Bungie had a fraught relationship with Apple and Apple's disinterest in gaming, even back then, was writing on the wall to developers like Bungie that their growth and ambition would be capped if they were exclusive to a capricious-at-best partner. Being bought by Microsoft was the best thing to happen to Bungie and elevated them from indie darling to AAA studio overnight.

Mac users have twisted history to represent that somehow Bungie was strong-armed into "abandoning" the Mac which is patently false. The Mac has always been a graveyard for gaming.
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I don't disagree with "Being bought by Microsoft was the best thing to happen to Bungie and elevated them from indie darling to AAA studio overnight."

And I never said they were strong-armed.

But they did abandon the Mac.
 
smeagol said:
To the folks saying Apple should start purchasing triple AAA studios to compete, you’re missing the plot there. The only thing Apple has in common with Microsoft in the gaming space is the word “game”. I would consider Nintendo more of a direct competitor. They’re going after the same market, casual gamers, kids, and kids at heart.

Who you should be worried for is PlayStation. This is Microsoft’s direct competitor. If Microsoft keeps buying up these massive publishers and gets everyone on the game pass/Netflix model, they’re really forcing the industry to move to that model eventually and it may not be as rosy as you think. singe A, double A and indie devs are going to get crushed and I think innovation is going to be lacking.

Take Call of Duty for example. Huge game, massive player base, but very formulaic every year. I don’t want one single company ruling the industry. We need to have a gaming space where everyone can enjoy all kinds of games and devs get properly compensated for their hard work.

Hopefully this deal gets flagged as anti-competitive and dies on the vine.
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While I partially agree, even our kids think Apple Arcade is laughable, look at Nintendo's iOS games, they are pretty lacklustre compared to console.
 
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moabal said:
What is going to happen to future PlayStation titles like Crash Bandicoot and Spyro?
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As a bean counter, I'd say they'll still be available on the PS for many years to come. Making it an XBox exclusive makes little sense, because PS has too many titles to kill off that brand. System exclusive only makes sense if the competition ain't much competition. *Cough* 1990's Macintosh *Cough* These concoles are sold at a loss so they can sell games.

Back in the 1990's when MS brought Bungie and took HALO from a Mac exclusive, that was a dagger in the heart to the Mac gaming. Pretty much HALO was Mac gaming, except for shareware stuff.
 
Ricebucket said:
I don't disagree with "Being bought by Microsoft was the best thing to happen to Bungie and elevated them from indie darling to AAA studio overnight."

And I never said they were strong-armed.

But they did abandon the Mac.
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Fair, I don't mean to put words in your mouth. Speaking more broadly, however, I find it difficult to comprehend how some Mac users can still hold a grudge about this fact. The Mac has never been a viable platform for gaming exclusivity. Bungie did what was best for Bungie, as they should have.
 
lilface said:
This is huge news for someone who has played WoW for 15+ years and is a exclusive Mac user… what are the chances Blizzard games will stop being supported on apple computers now? It’s not the majority but I assume there’s quite a chunk of players who are wondering what will happen. Been waiting for the new iMac Pro to buy specifically for graphic design + gaming and now I am questioning everything!!
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I highly doubt that Microsoft will suddenly cancel Mac games. Activation also makes mobile games such as Candy Crush and Hearthstone. There is little reason for them to suddenly stop supporting Macs. In fact, I think they might go just the opposite and double down on making games for Mac if only for bragging rights. Microsoft being the biggest game developer for Apple devices would be quite a brag for Microsoft, IMO.
 
GalileoSeven said:
As long as the PC doesn't get shut out from future releases, this is whatever (don't have an XBox or any other consoles). ?‍♂️
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Why would they? Having XBox and PC games benefits Microsoft. Not everyone wants a console.

I would expect that games would be exclusive to XBox and PC, keeping the games away from other platforms.
 
Orange Bat said:
I highly doubt that Microsoft will suddenly cancel Mac games. Activation also makes mobile games such as Candy Crush and Hearthstone. There is little reason for them to suddenly stop supporting Macs. In fact, I think they might go just the opposite and double down on making games for Mac if only for bragging rights. Microsoft being the biggest game developer for Apple devices would be quite a brag for Microsoft, IMO.
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Aside from Minecraft, are there any other MS-owned game IP on macOS?
 
Stella said:
Why would they? Having XBox and PC games benefits Microsoft. Not everyone wants a console.

I would expect that games would be exclusive to XBox and PC, keeping the games away from other platforms.
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That is not true. Those games will be also available on every platform by "Cloud gaming". In the end, Microsoft vision is that everybody in the world can play Xbox Series X games from any device they want.

But for the premiere experience, you will still have to buy a console.

In the end, it is also good for Apple, as gaming on MAC and iOS devices should be possible with Cloud gaming.

I'm sure Apple hates Cloud gaming by Microsoft though as it means people will spend less on games in the App Store.
 
4743913 said:
Apple should buy Frontier Games and Aspyr today.
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Frontier Developments? In the past year, Frontier have behaved like amateurs. Very disappointing. Elite Oddyssey has been an absolute gong show. JP 2 sales have been disappointing.

Asphyr would be a good buy though.
 
UBS28 said:
That is not true. Those games will be also available on every platform by "Cloud gaming". In the end, Microsoft vision is that everybody in the world can play Xbox Series X games from any device they want.

But for the premiere experience, you will still have to buy a console.

In the end, it is also good for Apple, as gaming on MAC and iOS devices should be possible with Cloud gaming.

I'm sure Apple hates Cloud gaming by Microsoft though as it means people will spend less on games in the App Store.
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There are games in the app store? ;-)

Seriously, after making that mistake once, I'll never buy direct from Apple again. GoG or Steam all the way.
 
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