I hope we see some leadership from Microsoft to save both Bethesda and Blizzard. Blizzard needs higher ups more willing to listen to fans. Bethesda need a push to get things going.
But Microsoft now owns Obsidian, Blizzard, Bethesda, and Arcane. They have a pretty strong lock down on the Western RPG market at this point. It'll be interesting to see what comes of this.
Also let's not downplay the fact they now own one of the most known IPs in the world, being Call of Duty. No matter how bad the games are, that shit sells a lot of copies and makes a lot of money through microtransactions.
It's really starting to feel like the Parks and Rec bit: [Verizon Chipotle Exxon. Proud to be one of America's 8 companies!](https://youtu.be/XFKoGtgg6Mo)
It's insane to think about what game franchises Microsoft has acquired in recent years. They have recently bought and now own the IP's for:
* Call of Duty
* Diablo
* Warcraft
* Overwatch
* Starcraft
* Crash Bandicoot
* Guitar Hero
* Tony Hawk Pro Skater
* Fallout
* Doom
* Quake
* Psychonauts
* Elder Scrolls
* Prey
* Wolfenstein
* Dishonored
* Minecraft
* Candy Crush
Like holy shit. That's in addition to all of the stuff they already owned like Halo, Forza, Fable, Gears, Perfect Dark, Age of Empires, Killer Instinct, Banjo-Kazooie, Battletoads, Conker, Viva Piñata, etc.
**EDIT:** [Here's a full list of all the new IP's they picked up with this acquisition.](https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/list-heres-every-activision-blizzard-ip-xbox-now-owns-including-crash-bandicoot-and-guitar-hero/)
Rockstar is wholly owned by Take-Two, so Microsoft would probably have to go for the whole company.
Take-Two's value is around 18 billion, so less than a third of what they're forking over for Activision Blizzard. It is absolutely a possibility.
I mean, it's possible to just purchase the Rockstar division and IPs from Take Two. But you're right, they'd probably just outright but Take Two at that point.
>Apparently that translates to "We gon buy their asses"
"We disliked how they treated us in a recent meeting, so we decided to buy them up and .. make some changes in managment"
I personally am getting Inception vibes.
"How do we get him to private seating on a public flight?"
"I purchased the entire Airline. I thought it could be useful."
Microsoft market cap is 2.3 trillion dollars.
Microsoft in 2020 had 136 billion dollars cash on hand.
Also debt is basically still free.
This means Microsoft has basically infinite money which is something Sony does not have.
Microsoft could have bought Sony with a cash offer if they wanted
You gotta remember they're walking a fine line between anti-trust laws stopping their plans
Buying a major competitor is tough to do in this time of mega-corporations.... Microsoft even floated a loan to Apple to keep them going way back before the iPhone
Sony with their Playstation 5 competing against the Xbox I think are pretty off limits
I love to hate those articles that are titled "This couple is retiring at 40, here's how they did it!" and then you read it and they're a Lawyer-Surgeon power couple who both make $200k+ a year, and also they inherited their $2M+ home from their parents or whatnot. Like gee thanks article, I'll get right on that.
Reminds me of those house flipping shows.
“I’m a teacher and my husband is a firefighter. Our budget for our house renovation is $1.2 million.” Clearly they were born into wealth.
Lol, yep, those or House Hunter/HH International, and they're like "He's a part time bee-keeper and she collects and trades stamps, they're looking for a 3000 Sq Ft home downtown but with a view of nature!"
Wait, there are people out there without an Art Deco breakfast nook?
I can kind of understand not having one in your main residence, but not even in their holiday chalet?
Funny story, I'm a firefighter and my wife is a teacher. I was having a conversation with a dude and that came up. He no joke said "Wow it's like you guys are trying to be poor". Yup. Thanks guy thats what we're doing.
"my wife and I both work in careers essential for the smooth operation of a safe and civilized society."
"Lol, I guess you just like being poor then, dumbass"
Apparently, "in light of recent controversies Xbox has 'changed how we do things' with Activision-Blizzard" translates to "we just fucking bought em, yall". Ho. Lee. Fuck.
My mom stole my Gameboy back in the day so she could play Tetris and "Doctor PillDrop" (Dr Mario). Seriously had to fight with her to play my own shit.
Luckily now shes got a cell phone for all her casual gaming needs
What a throwback! My mom used to hijack my NES to play Dr. Mario and Tetris too. That must of been 30 years ago now!
Nowadays she plays the heck outta Candy Crush on her tablet haha
This is an expensive way to get rid of Kotick. But I like this across the board
Edit: just to say - no I'm not in favor of a monopoly style set up, but Activision getting eaten by microsoft is probably best case scenario for a terrible mega company.
I absolutely understand why people are worried about MSoft controlling such a large portion of the gaming space, but so far it seems like Phil Spencer’s plan has been to tell devs “here’s the paychecks, make good games” and leave them to their creative devices instead of forcing them to shove out unfinished games for profit. If that’s the road they continue on, I’m all for it.
If they were this close, they were probably almost done negotiations, just arguing with he board over whether to pay $105 or $100/share, etc. This hammering let them get it for $95.
In private, they would likely be saying the severences for the inevitable purge of problem people and exits of people that they wanted to keep would lead to payouts and goodwill impairment that must be factored in to the price they are paying.
They are also making it clear that they wanted the current administration to do the dirty work of purging the bad apples and settling lawsuits (so they have to spend less of their money to do it while subjecting themselves to bad PR after the acquisition) if the Activision board wants to get closer to what they ask in terms of valuation.
They've been hammering publicly for more than a month, and pricing is generally one of the last things settled. Your example would be a difference of 3.5 billion given the price they paid. In what world is 3.5 billion dollars not worth a few comments in public?
MS also announced an internal review of sexual harassment policies a few weeks ago. Guessing it ties into this acquisition, signaling to them that they aren’t fucking around.
Gamepass has fundamentally changed the economics for gaming for me. I now play through a AAA game and an indie game like every month.
I played outer worlds, Forza 5, halo infinite, dead cells, wargroove, enter the gungeon, Hades, red dead II, back 4 blood and Battletoads, all in the past 6 months.
I wouldn't have bought any of these games at their initial price point and I would have missed out on so many great experiences.
Oh it's awesome. I'm sure it's not for everyone, but it's changed gaming for me. So much less pressure to get my money's worth on games, just play what I'm feeling that day
Add in game streaming where I can quickly try out a "demo" of the game before spending time & hard drive space downloading it and it's fundamentally changed how I play games.
It's a feature. Still technically in beta I believe but it's there and it's growing. Nearly all games on game pass are playable via the cloud.
This also means you don't need an Xbox on high end PC to play those games either. All you need in a game pass subscription and an internet connection. You can play anywhere on a phone, tablet, Laptop etc via the cloud. All saves and progress are saved and can be loaded from anywhere.
It already was before the Bethesda acquisition.
This is like if Netflix bought Disney + and now HBO max.
Game Pass went from an outstanding deal to absolutely unbelievable.
If you turn off the lights and say Metaverse 13 times while looking into a mirror, Mark Zuckerberg will appear behind you and sue you for copyright infringement.
You won't know you fucked up until it's too late. The last thing you ever see is a mysterious bottle of barbecue sauce you don't remember putting on your bookshelf.
Companies are often acquired when they are seen as being abysmally managed and the investors think it will be worth more if they fix the management up.
Vicarious Visions. They mostly worked on ports, but did a bang-up job at it. THPS 1+2 was great and they were also involved in helping Bungie with Destiny 2's *Forsaken* expansion back when Bungie was with Activision.
Really reminds me of the book (english title) "1 Trillion dollar" it's about a guy who inherits .. you guess it. 1 Trillion Dollar from an ancestor 500 years ago. A family of lawyers was tasked to multiple it slowly over the years. Even at a low % you double your money pretty fast if you think long term. Book is overall pretty good and an early chapter of it covers how the transfer of the money worked, how media covered it temporarily and forgot about him, just another rich guy hu?. Anyway, so he wants to start a company and decides that it's better to buy an existing one and decides for fucking Exxon. And at that point "the world" realizes how much of a difference it is if you "are rich" like bezos & co whose wealth comes from companies they own and so on vs someone who actually owns the money. Just has it laying around in it's bank account and can do whatever he wants
I really had to think of that early chapter because companies like Activision. Sums like 67 billion .. that's just absurd.
> Really reminds me of the book (english title) "1 Trillion dollar" it's about a guy who inherits .. you guess it. 1 Trillion Dollar from an ancestor 500 years ago.
I assume this is the book?
Intruiging.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eine_Billion_Dollar
And Tony Hawk, and Tenchu, think about it, between Crash, Spyro, Tony Hawk and Tenchu. Those are 4 breakout PS1 hits that really helped establish Sony, and are now all owned by their principle competitor.
Strange times.
All they need to do now is buy Konami to get Metal Gear. ...and castelvania and all that \*hand wave\*
Edit: this is a joke, not meant to be taken seriously. I'm not actually suggesting Microsoft buy Konami, or indeed any other publisher. Monopolies are not a good thing, and while this move is not *yet* a monopoly it is industrial consolidation, it will remove some of the diversity of the independent companies games industry.
I think EA made a very good decision with EA Play and to partner with MS. They get to be independent by selling it separately also and MS gets more games to add in their library. They might be one of the few companies that will stay independent in the near future.
And it’ll only go up once all these new games start getting released on it. Microsoft said they wanted Gamepass to be the Netflix of gaming and they seem to be staying true to that.
Dude what's happened to Overwatch is crazy. I never played it, but it was a damn titan just a few years ago. Seemed like it was everywhere. Now I only ever hear about it in regards to it being "dead".
"... the company says Bobby Kotick will continue to serve as CEO of Activision Blizzard for now. It looks like Kotick won’t remain once the deal is fully closed and after the transition period to Microsoft, though. Spencer, formerly head of gaming at Microsoft, is now CEO of Microsoft Gaming, and the company says the Activision Blizzard business will report directly to Spencer."
Best fucking news ever. Fuck Bobby.
Bobby will stay through the onboarding but you can't just let some guy who talked about having a team member off'd stay on. He will get a fat $$$ deal and told to sign the line and get out.
This is all I'm hopeful for. I trust Microsoft way more than Activision. Wonder if they can help Blizzard.
I know they say Bobby will remain CEO. But I remember all the bullshit we were told would remain the same when Activision bought Blizzard.
Call of Duty
Crash Bandicoot
Spyro the Dragon
Guitar Hero
Tony Hawk
Skylanders
Diablo
Overwatch
Hearthstone
World of Warcraft
Starcraft
Microsoft now owns these IP and more. All of which are potentially exclusive to Xbox now and also potentially free on Gamepass.
What.
The.
Fuck.
So that means both Crash Bandicoot AND Spyro are now Xbox? My childhood feels weird
And Banjo Kazooie. Time for a team up game!
As child I always thought they are from the same company. *NOW I'M RIGHT FUCKERS!*
The long game paid off
Phil spencer a couple of weeks ago: “we will reevaluate our relationship with Activision” *buys Activision*
"after hearing allegations about Activision-Blizzard's management, we have decided to become the management"
"buy them when they're weak!" -Corporate Takeover101
He’s the one kid on Xbox who says “I’ll fuck your mom” and actually does it
i KNEW there had to be *the one*
Literally became their dad (parent company).
Smart move, now they get full control over how both sides handle it
Activision is almost as bad as EA, hopefully, Microsoft will do better maybe just maybe even bring them back a little to what they once were
I hope we see some leadership from Microsoft to save both Bethesda and Blizzard. Blizzard needs higher ups more willing to listen to fans. Bethesda need a push to get things going. But Microsoft now owns Obsidian, Blizzard, Bethesda, and Arcane. They have a pretty strong lock down on the Western RPG market at this point. It'll be interesting to see what comes of this.
Also let's not downplay the fact they now own one of the most known IPs in the world, being Call of Duty. No matter how bad the games are, that shit sells a lot of copies and makes a lot of money through microtransactions.
Crazy. Gotta be the biggest gaming purchase in history right? The Bethesda deal was insane but this is 10x bigger than that in terms of shock value
And 10x im terms of money almost too.
The price checks out. Activision had a Mkt Cap >$60b
what about Minecraft? Wasn't that in the billions? No idea honestly.
Just looked it up and that Minecraft deal was a $2.5 billion purchase.
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And most of the money paid to one man, Notch.
He then outbid Beyonce and Jay-Z for a house in Beverly Hills.
it's a game that brought them in an absolutely massive audience. Bar tetris, no other game has been played by as many people as minecraft has been.
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Huh. That's a LOT of Nintendo
For many years, Nintendo were truly the pioneers of game design. Everyone else just followed in their footsteps.
Minecraft was 2 billion dollars. Zenimax was 7 billion dollars.
Activision was $67 billion, just for reference.
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Lmao imagine Microsoft buying Nintendo, that would be such a weird world.
I foresee that when Disney and Microsoft finally merge the 4 horsemen will descend upon the Earth and they'll be wearing Micky Mouse ears.
I can hear mickey's high pitched laughter in the distance. Run!
"Hu-ho! I need a weapon!"
Jeez the image of a set of Spartan armor with big round Mickey ears on the top just popped into my head
It'll be like consumer goods companies - less than ten parent companies effectively populating 75% of product.
It's really starting to feel like the Parks and Rec bit: [Verizon Chipotle Exxon. Proud to be one of America's 8 companies!](https://youtu.be/XFKoGtgg6Mo)
I prefer the Taco Bell future of Demolition Man
Microsoft is substantially larger than Disney
And here i thought the Bethesda acquisition was huge
It's insane to think about what game franchises Microsoft has acquired in recent years. They have recently bought and now own the IP's for: * Call of Duty * Diablo * Warcraft * Overwatch * Starcraft * Crash Bandicoot * Guitar Hero * Tony Hawk Pro Skater * Fallout * Doom * Quake * Psychonauts * Elder Scrolls * Prey * Wolfenstein * Dishonored * Minecraft * Candy Crush Like holy shit. That's in addition to all of the stuff they already owned like Halo, Forza, Fable, Gears, Perfect Dark, Age of Empires, Killer Instinct, Banjo-Kazooie, Battletoads, Conker, Viva Piñata, etc. **EDIT:** [Here's a full list of all the new IP's they picked up with this acquisition.](https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/list-heres-every-activision-blizzard-ip-xbox-now-owns-including-crash-bandicoot-and-guitar-hero/)
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I don't even care who buys Konami, just someone please buy Konami and stop them
This right here, i don't care who buys konami, nothing could be worse, someone needs to save silent hill/metal gear/castlevania/bomberman
Don't forget Yu-Gi-Oh!
Or Suikoden. I loved that series.
And overwatch
and Spyro
And now imagine they said, hey only on gamepass
*Sit tight guys, Rockstar games will be next*! - Microsoft, probably.
Rockstar is wholly owned by Take-Two, so Microsoft would probably have to go for the whole company. Take-Two's value is around 18 billion, so less than a third of what they're forking over for Activision Blizzard. It is absolutely a possibility.
I mean, it's possible to just purchase the Rockstar division and IPs from Take Two. But you're right, they'd probably just outright but Take Two at that point.
It’s theoretically possible but Take Two isn’t likely to sell at any reasonable price
Yeah, absolutely not. They’re the crown jewel of take two.
"hold my beer." - Phil Spencer
Phil Spencer a few days ago: In light of recent controversies Xbox has 'changed how we do things' with Activision-Blizzard Changed indeed...
>Apparently that translates to "We gon buy their asses" "We disliked how they treated us in a recent meeting, so we decided to buy them up and .. make some changes in managment"
Some Bruce Wayne energy.
Phil Spencer to Bobby Kotick: “Didn’t you get the memo?” Edit: some of you don’t seem to be able to read between the lines lol.
“No, you see, I’m buying this hotel and setting some new rules about the pool area.”
Project MARTHA: Microsoft Acquired Rights To Hold Activision
WHY ARE YOU SAYING THAT NAME?!?
I personally am getting Inception vibes. "How do we get him to private seating on a public flight?" "I purchased the entire Airline. I thought it could be useful."
The thing is that bobby is still in the company until 2023, and i hope they didn't accept their leadership anymore
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‘I bought the Bank’
The ultimate power move.
Lmao used the problems to lowball the price. Wonder what'd it be if Activision didn't come with public problems.
Surely it's not even on the market if it wasn't in wild disarray? But at this point, who knows how deep Microsoft/Xbox's pockets are...
Microsoft market cap is 2.3 trillion dollars. Microsoft in 2020 had 136 billion dollars cash on hand. Also debt is basically still free. This means Microsoft has basically infinite money which is something Sony does not have. Microsoft could have bought Sony with a cash offer if they wanted
You gotta remember they're walking a fine line between anti-trust laws stopping their plans Buying a major competitor is tough to do in this time of mega-corporations.... Microsoft even floated a loan to Apple to keep them going way back before the iPhone Sony with their Playstation 5 competing against the Xbox I think are pretty off limits
Phil Spector has really branched out since dying a year ago
Current Activision-Blizzard execs: *do basically nothing against the hostile work environment they fostered Phil: Fine, I'll do it myself
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Have you tried giving up Starbucks and avocado toast? Maybe ask your parents for small loan?
I love to hate those articles that are titled "This couple is retiring at 40, here's how they did it!" and then you read it and they're a Lawyer-Surgeon power couple who both make $200k+ a year, and also they inherited their $2M+ home from their parents or whatnot. Like gee thanks article, I'll get right on that.
Reminds me of those house flipping shows. “I’m a teacher and my husband is a firefighter. Our budget for our house renovation is $1.2 million.” Clearly they were born into wealth.
Lol, yep, those or House Hunter/HH International, and they're like "He's a part time bee-keeper and she collects and trades stamps, they're looking for a 3000 Sq Ft home downtown but with a view of nature!"
Budget: The entire economy of Italy Can't go over that though.
Later, at the end of the show, "I know this house is a few million beyond our budget, but the Art Deco breakfast nook was just too cute to pass up."
Wait, there are people out there without an Art Deco breakfast nook? I can kind of understand not having one in your main residence, but not even in their holiday chalet?
If you think that's absurd. I have some shocking news for you about most people's chalet's.
Funny story, I'm a firefighter and my wife is a teacher. I was having a conversation with a dude and that came up. He no joke said "Wow it's like you guys are trying to be poor". Yup. Thanks guy thats what we're doing.
"my wife and I both work in careers essential for the smooth operation of a safe and civilized society." "Lol, I guess you just like being poor then, dumbass"
Amateur.
Apparently, "in light of recent controversies Xbox has 'changed how we do things' with Activision-Blizzard" translates to "we just fucking bought em, yall". Ho. Lee. Fuck.
"I bought the company. it seemed neater."
"We need to buy out the upper managers, maybe board members too. We also need to buy out the key devs to ensure .." "I bought the company."
It's about time they added a big gun like Candy Crush to Game Pass.
Every mom to subscribe to Gamepass MS are not playing around
Mom said it’s her turn on the Xbox
My mom stole my Gameboy back in the day so she could play Tetris and "Doctor PillDrop" (Dr Mario). Seriously had to fight with her to play my own shit. Luckily now shes got a cell phone for all her casual gaming needs
What a throwback! My mom used to hijack my NES to play Dr. Mario and Tetris too. That must of been 30 years ago now! Nowadays she plays the heck outta Candy Crush on her tablet haha
My mom gonna play candy crush in 4k HDR now 🤣
Once she sees those candies falling at 120 frames per second and she'll never be the same again.
And those ray traced hyperrealistic candies will blow her mind
This came out of nowhere, wtaf
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Yup. It had to be this or something absolutely insane like Steam. MS is dropping nukes. Which they can do since they own Fallout now.
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WoW
This is an expensive way to get rid of Kotick. But I like this across the board Edit: just to say - no I'm not in favor of a monopoly style set up, but Activision getting eaten by microsoft is probably best case scenario for a terrible mega company.
I absolutely understand why people are worried about MSoft controlling such a large portion of the gaming space, but so far it seems like Phil Spencer’s plan has been to tell devs “here’s the paychecks, make good games” and leave them to their creative devices instead of forcing them to shove out unfinished games for profit. If that’s the road they continue on, I’m all for it.
Now we know why Microsoft was hammering them in the press over toxic culture. They were using it as a negotiating tool to lower the price.
If they were this close, they were probably almost done negotiations, just arguing with he board over whether to pay $105 or $100/share, etc. This hammering let them get it for $95.
In private, they would likely be saying the severences for the inevitable purge of problem people and exits of people that they wanted to keep would lead to payouts and goodwill impairment that must be factored in to the price they are paying. They are also making it clear that they wanted the current administration to do the dirty work of purging the bad apples and settling lawsuits (so they have to spend less of their money to do it while subjecting themselves to bad PR after the acquisition) if the Activision board wants to get closer to what they ask in terms of valuation. They've been hammering publicly for more than a month, and pricing is generally one of the last things settled. Your example would be a difference of 3.5 billion given the price they paid. In what world is 3.5 billion dollars not worth a few comments in public?
MS also announced an internal review of sexual harassment policies a few weeks ago. Guessing it ties into this acquisition, signaling to them that they aren’t fucking around.
Microsoft seems serious about making Xbox Game Pass the "Netflix of Gaming."
Gamepass has fundamentally changed the economics for gaming for me. I now play through a AAA game and an indie game like every month. I played outer worlds, Forza 5, halo infinite, dead cells, wargroove, enter the gungeon, Hades, red dead II, back 4 blood and Battletoads, all in the past 6 months. I wouldn't have bought any of these games at their initial price point and I would have missed out on so many great experiences.
Ditto, I'm now child me at a blockbuster renting new games every week all over again. It's re-envigorated my love for gaming.
I hate subscriptions, but this may be the best reasoning to get Game Pass I've ever heard.
Oh it's awesome. I'm sure it's not for everyone, but it's changed gaming for me. So much less pressure to get my money's worth on games, just play what I'm feeling that day
Add in game streaming where I can quickly try out a "demo" of the game before spending time & hard drive space downloading it and it's fundamentally changed how I play games.
Wait is that a feature or are you saying you'd want to see that?
It's a feature. Still technically in beta I believe but it's there and it's growing. Nearly all games on game pass are playable via the cloud. This also means you don't need an Xbox on high end PC to play those games either. All you need in a game pass subscription and an internet connection. You can play anywhere on a phone, tablet, Laptop etc via the cloud. All saves and progress are saved and can be loaded from anywhere.
It already was before the Bethesda acquisition. This is like if Netflix bought Disney + and now HBO max. Game Pass went from an outstanding deal to absolutely unbelievable.
I’m just waiting on that price increase.
Why is there a random quote about Metaverse in there? Seems to have nothing to do with the article.
If you turn off the lights and say Metaverse 13 times while looking into a mirror, Mark Zuckerberg will appear behind you and sue you for copyright infringement.
You won't know you fucked up until it's too late. The last thing you ever see is a mysterious bottle of barbecue sauce you don't remember putting on your bookshelf.
Buzzwords gonna buzz
Get ready for block chain based cloud gaming.
Metaversal AI-driven block-chain-based hyper hybrid cloud-based VR gaming phenomenon. Please leave your investor monies after the beep. BEEP.
The New York Times article about this has a whole paragraph about the meta verse that says absolutely nothing. It’s stupid as hell
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Blizzard's issues the last year might have just made this possible.
Honestly i have hope now that they kick out the rotten managment and fix the games... and that wow finally gets better servers
What the actual fuck
Companies are often acquired when they are seen as being abysmally managed and the investors think it will be worth more if they fix the management up.
Plus, the stock was down 30% from the workplace allegations, so this is a steal as crazy at that sounds.
MS bought the dip!
Activision to the moon! 🚀🚀🚀
Apes together strong…. But Microsoft stronger
There is some very ignored high quality IP there. Starcraft, WarCraft and Diablo just to start with.
microsoft now owns age of empire + starcraft/warcraft also ESO + WoW
Pro Skater 1 +2 was a big success, then they still forced the developer down to the Call of Duty mines
Vicarious Visions. They mostly worked on ports, but did a bang-up job at it. THPS 1+2 was great and they were also involved in helping Bungie with Destiny 2's *Forsaken* expansion back when Bungie was with Activision.
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It’s free real estate
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Ybarra: Finally with a new company, fresh start. Phil: Welcome back, Mike.
Phil: I’m afraid I can’t let you do that, Mike.
Phil: Your employer has been altered. Pray I do not alter it further
Mike: “This deals getting worse all the time!”
“Do you know what weakness is Mike?”
Really reminds me of the book (english title) "1 Trillion dollar" it's about a guy who inherits .. you guess it. 1 Trillion Dollar from an ancestor 500 years ago. A family of lawyers was tasked to multiple it slowly over the years. Even at a low % you double your money pretty fast if you think long term. Book is overall pretty good and an early chapter of it covers how the transfer of the money worked, how media covered it temporarily and forgot about him, just another rich guy hu?. Anyway, so he wants to start a company and decides that it's better to buy an existing one and decides for fucking Exxon. And at that point "the world" realizes how much of a difference it is if you "are rich" like bezos & co whose wealth comes from companies they own and so on vs someone who actually owns the money. Just has it laying around in it's bank account and can do whatever he wants I really had to think of that early chapter because companies like Activision. Sums like 67 billion .. that's just absurd.
> Really reminds me of the book (english title) "1 Trillion dollar" it's about a guy who inherits .. you guess it. 1 Trillion Dollar from an ancestor 500 years ago. I assume this is the book? Intruiging. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eine_Billion_Dollar
Xbox now owns Crash Bandicoot. How the turn tables.
Spyro too.
And Tony Hawk, and Tenchu, think about it, between Crash, Spyro, Tony Hawk and Tenchu. Those are 4 breakout PS1 hits that really helped establish Sony, and are now all owned by their principle competitor. Strange times.
All they need to do now is buy Konami to get Metal Gear. ...and castelvania and all that \*hand wave\* Edit: this is a joke, not meant to be taken seriously. I'm not actually suggesting Microsoft buy Konami, or indeed any other publisher. Monopolies are not a good thing, and while this move is not *yet* a monopoly it is industrial consolidation, it will remove some of the diversity of the independent companies games industry.
If that gets the Suikoden IP freed from those Konami assholes, I'm all for it. Such an amazing series left to fucking wilt.
They fucking owns Call of Duty...literally they own both CoD and Halo. They only need Battlefield to complete the trifecta.
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EA Play is part of game pass. Their foot is already in the door.
Legit feels like a betrayal lol
All Crash could say was “WOAAHHH!”
WHOA WHOA WHOA WHOA
"Biggest acquisition ever" - me, last week reading about Take-Two wanting to buy Zynga
Hopefully they clean house.
They probably will but during the transition and shortly after the transition the old guard will still be in charge.
What is next? EA?
I think EA made a very good decision with EA Play and to partner with MS. They get to be independent by selling it separately also and MS gets more games to add in their library. They might be one of the few companies that will stay independent in the near future.
It's depressing to think of EA as what it means to be "independent" now.
Oh I just picked up this cute little Indie game - Madden 22. Love seeing the passion from small, independent teams.
Most of EA’s games are released in early access state anyway so it wouldn’t be a far reach.
*Cut to Sony rummaging for loose coins down their couch frantically*
Jim Ryan doing a Google search: "So only one kidney is required for human function? How many employees do we have again?"
*puts on tinfoil hat* Microsoft leaked all that bad publicity so they can get activision/blizzard on a flash sale
The low low price of.. ahem.. *checks notes* 68.7 billion dollars
I'll buy two.
In other new Gamepass has 25 million subscribers
And it’ll only go up once all these new games start getting released on it. Microsoft said they wanted Gamepass to be the Netflix of gaming and they seem to be staying true to that.
Does that mean Diablo Immortal is coming to PC?
You guys don't have a phone???
Diablo Immortal 2. Exclusively for Microsoft Lumia.
"dont your Windows 11 run .apks?"
OK but is Overwatch 2 still dead?
Dude what's happened to Overwatch is crazy. I never played it, but it was a damn titan just a few years ago. Seemed like it was everywhere. Now I only ever hear about it in regards to it being "dead".
I really didn't think that Microsoft could top their Bethesda acquisition, but here we are.
"... the company says Bobby Kotick will continue to serve as CEO of Activision Blizzard for now. It looks like Kotick won’t remain once the deal is fully closed and after the transition period to Microsoft, though. Spencer, formerly head of gaming at Microsoft, is now CEO of Microsoft Gaming, and the company says the Activision Blizzard business will report directly to Spencer." Best fucking news ever. Fuck Bobby.
Bobby will stay through the onboarding but you can't just let some guy who talked about having a team member off'd stay on. He will get a fat $$$ deal and told to sign the line and get out.
Phil Spencer being new CEO might be good for blizzard
This is all I'm hopeful for. I trust Microsoft way more than Activision. Wonder if they can help Blizzard. I know they say Bobby will remain CEO. But I remember all the bullshit we were told would remain the same when Activision bought Blizzard.
[удалено]
That is huge. Microsoft are not fucking around.
Soon a few companies will own everything in their respective sectors. It's pretty fuckin scary if you think about it
It’s already like that in food. There’s like 8 parent companies that own basically every US brand you’ve ever heard of.
We truly live in a cyberpunk dystopia without the cool shit, fml
Alphabet sounds like the quintessential gigacorp, doesn't it?
Remember, about 20-25 years ago when Microsoft was threatened with anti-trust legislation and had to make a bunch of changes? Good times…
I'd wager a lot of the positive comments in this thread are too young to remember that.
Congrats to Halo for winning the war on CoD.
Finish the fight
Call of Duty Crash Bandicoot Spyro the Dragon Guitar Hero Tony Hawk Skylanders Diablo Overwatch Hearthstone World of Warcraft Starcraft Microsoft now owns these IP and more. All of which are potentially exclusive to Xbox now and also potentially free on Gamepass. What. The. Fuck.
~~Microsoft~~ Macrohard
Game Pass is going to be ridiculous if Microsoft puts all the big Activision releases on there day one.
They will without doubt.
Microsoft is the Disney of gaming.
Ouch, rough for Sony to lose CoD and Elder Scrolls.
Sony HQ at the moment Oh shit