Microsoft to acquire Activision Blizzard

[Indy in the Fridge]

Why did people expect MS to announce Bobby's firing in the same corporate memo about the acquisition? I'm pretty sure the deal hasn't even been closed so it's not as if they can just oust him immediately. They lack any power to do so right now.

Give it time, guys.

 

[Dragoon]

if you think Sony won't continue to get CoD you're crazy. It'll be just like Minecraft. Too much money left on the table. Same with Destiny.

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It makes more sense for MS not to do that though. These guys dropped 70+ billion, and COD was the primary reason is my guess.


This also makes the GP unquestionably the best gaming tool avaiable. At this point, EA and Ubi will be bought in the next 2-3 years.

 

[Deleted member 12867]

So when can we expect the next Guitar Hero?

 

[808s & Villainy]

Because they are Singleplayer story games, not multiplayer microtransaction money printing machines.

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In what world wasn't Skyrim a money printing machine? They seem to keep porting it whenever they can and it continues selling no matter how old it is at this point

 

[djplaeskool]

The old "massive scandal discount"

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ActiBlizz stock now up 30%. lmao
Some folks already getting paid big

 

[doemaaan]

I said got dayum.

 

[LifeLine]

Microsoft won

 

[Deleted member 22750]

68 billion in cash and you think they still need Sony for COD? 68 billion in cash!!! They do not need Sony or Nintendo, period.

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Yeah

they are saying they will support what exists

cod and the rest are pc/Xbox going forward

 

[bob1001]

if you think Sony won't continue to get CoD you're crazy. It'll be just like Minecraft. Too much money left on the table. Same with Destiny.

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They'd be stupid not to make it exclusive. Millions of people would pick an Xbox over a Playstation just for CoD. Having such a major advantage over your competitor is worth a momentary loss in sales, it would benefit them in a major way in the long run.

 

[Dr. Mario]

This is bad for the industry as a whole. I own a gaming PC and don't even play Activision games so this definitely doesn't affect my gaming habits going forward but consolidation is a very bad thing for the industry as it kills competition. Anyone celebrating this news is either too far gone in corporate shilling or is extremely naive. Nothing good is going to come out of this for the medium we love.

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I hate Activision Blizzard and don't like Microsoft buying them, but 'it kills competition' is a complete surface level take for me. Like, what about making Xbox an actually competing platform behind Nintendo and Sony kills competition? Xbox building a portfolio has created many games over the past years that wouldn't exist or be as popular otherwise.

 

[Defuser]

MS finally giving into the stereotype that fanboys wanted of them for years. Buy out everybody.

 

[Bufbaf]

Wow. Wowowow.

 

[LaytonWright]

Ubisoft, EA, TakeTwo and CDProjekt are all trading higher. Traders putting down their bets.

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See I see UBI going MS, EA or Take Two gets a Sony purchase and CDPR is acquired by EPIC

 

[dsk1210]

Won't actually effect my ability to buy any of the games but still not got a great feeling about one Microsoft owning all these game companies.

 

[Dunlop]

That horse bolted years ago. They get away with it because money is power.

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They are not even second place in the console race out of 3 players...

 

[DJKippling]

if you think Sony won't continue to get CoD you're crazy. It'll be just like Minecraft. Too much money left on the table. Same with Destiny.

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History repeats itself. People said the exact same thing about Bethesda games... they will 100% not release future cod games on PlayStation. (warzone will continue though).

 

[Futabaisthebest<3]

Monopoly consolidation is so boring and unhealthy. How's this good when Kotick is still sitting in the office for a year after acquisition?
And this?

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lol

 

[Antrax]

How in the hell did this not leak? Some super tight lips at Microsoft on these M&As. Bethesda didn't leak either

 

[zma1013]

In what world wasn't Skyrim a money printing machine? They seem to keep porting it whenever they can and it continues selling no matter how old it is at this point

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Not a microtransaction money printing machine and as big as Skyrim is, it is not on the level of Call of Duty.

 

[Landy828]

Honestly, out of the big 3, Microsoft is the only one I would want to pick them up. They have the resources to get behind some of these franchises and set things in a better place.

I feel like the "This is bad" reactions are hyperbole. I guess I get it if you're diehard stuck to one piece of hardware maybe 🤔. I'll just play what I want wherever it's available.

I honestly think this is the only way some of these franchises don't die out. Recent Microsoft has been all in on having great games made and backing existing projects. It's not old Microsoft.

 

[Diablos]

This is horrible for the industry. MS is going to wreck the entire industry. Just wait until they start fucking with Japan.

 

[dmr87]

This is what you call a Gigaton, so many new angles to process.

 

[thepenguin55]

Eyeroll at all the posts predicting CoD will stay on Playstation.
Y'all in denial. Microsoft isn't paying 70bn to keep releasing their games on Sony's platform.

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Depends. Short term I think it does stay on Playstation. I know Sony had deal with Activision for early access to exclusive content to COD for awhile but I don't know if that deal is up yet or not. Warzone will stick around on Playstation and most likely this years COD will be on Playstation as development is likely to far along too justify scrapping it now. That could even be the case for next years COD but 2024 is a different story. That said, yeah, other than that I think we can expect everything from Activision/Blizzard being largely exclusive to PC and Xbox with maybe some one off Switch ports here or there.

 

[raspberrymousse]

Please can we not have endless threads speculating whether these games will be exclusive… They will be exclusive, all of them. They'll honour whatever commitments they have and then make them exclusive, so let's stop it at that

 

[Ferrs]

The type of people to buy COD every year will surely sub to GP in record time. And I wonder how much of a pull potentially moving from PS to Xbox would be if it meant just a GP subscription rather than a £60 purchase every year.

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People underestimate how many people buy a console for literally 3 games: anual CoD, anual FIFA/NBA, and GTA. Having one being exclusive is in no way a small thing for a lot of people.

 

[Chasex]

We already learned this from Bethesda acquisition. CoD is now an MS exclusive.

Anyways this is just music to my ears. Been saying for years GamePass is the future. The future had already arrived, but today it officially, officially arrives. It's basically Netflix at this point. Dang near everyone who games should be subscribed.

 

[ReginaldXIV]

*hears Succession music*

FULL FUCKING BEAST!

The only silver-lining to this is if they clean house from the top to the bottom, which doesn't seem like they'll be doing if this deal goes through.

 

[indosmoke]

Wait a minute Kotick isn't fired. Wtf

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I'm not even sure they can fire the guy before the deal closes (probably not?).

I'd be very, very surprised (in a bad way) if he's not out the minute the acquisition is completed.

 

[TolerLive]

Holy fucking shit

 

[Banderdash]

They should go after embracer next

 

[PlanetSmasher]

They'd be stupid not to make it exclusive. Millions of people would pick an Xbox over a Playstation just for CoD. Having such a major advantage over your competitor is worth a momentary loss in sales, it would benefit them in a major way in the long run.

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Basically. This deal is blatantly, utterly telegraphed as a kill shot. It's not "we need more studios to bolster Game Pass", it's "we want to make sure nobody has a reason to buy a Playstation if they have a choice between platforms".

 

[disparate]

if you think Sony won't continue to get CoD you're crazy. It'll be just like Minecraft. Too much money left on the table. Same with Destiny.

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That sounds true of a service game like Warzone, which would be like Minecraft, ESO, or FO76. I don't see this being true of full COD releases.

 

[RoastBeeph]

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They provided language identical to this when Bethesda was acquired. They mean Xbox, PC, and Cloud. The only games that will remain on other consoles are online only multiplayer games like Elder Scrolls Online. World of Warcraft is still PC only but I expect they will bring it to Xbox and Cloud.

Overwatch will remain on all consoles. Call of Duty, Diablo, etc. will be Xbox/PC/Cloud only.

 

[TechnoDisaster]

This definitely wasn't on my 2022 bingo card. Activision has big problems but I never expected them to go down this route. I can only hope it leads to a better company culture there.

#FireKotick

 

[Tobor]

I'm not going to lie, I fucking hate this. This is MS trying to destroy Sony by any means necessary. I HATE it.

 

[Dezzy]

This seems wrong for a few reasons.

 

[Helix]

Microsoft please buy Nvidia next and put the RTX 3090 on gamepass 🙏

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lets put a realistic spin on this. MS buys Nvidia in a move their RTX card platform to power their xCloud servers

 

[Fabtacular]

This was a deal I thought about previously but then just wondered what, outside of COD, MS would want with Acti-Blizz. Blizz side of the house is a total shitshow where it seems like nothing gets done (as WOW and Overwatch whither on the vine, Diablo appears to be in dev hell), and Activision is basically just COD.

And does it really make sense to make COD exclusive, given the hit that will put on its cultural relevancy? But if you don't, what are you paying all that money for?

 

[Singh]

I cannot see Sony buying out anymore, but I wonder if Apple would be interested in Sony now as a direct competitor to Microsoft lol.

 

[delete12345]

Won't actually effect my ability to buy any of the games but still not got a great feeling about one Microsoft owning all these game companies.

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Not until 2023 when new company policies start kicking in.

 

[elenarie]

Expecting Kotick to be out after 3 years, once the usual and standard share vesting period ends (1/3rd per year upon acquisitions). Assuming they are keeping things standard here. 😛

 

[Betty]

With further buyouts all but assured I kinda hope PlayStation is squeezed out and ends up getting bought by MS too, then the majority of devs will all be on one console which would be great.

 

[Muji]

I've had playstations all my life but god damn if I didn't have a PC i would not know what to do gaming wise. That's just too many quality ass games to ignore.

 

[Protome]

How in the hell did this not leak? Some super tight lips at Microsoft on these M&As. Bethesda didn't leak either

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This kind of thing leaking wouldn't just be a "Wow they leaked our news before we got announce it" situation it'd be a "Wow, they fucked with stock prices" situation and would have massive legal repercussions for whoever did it if they got caught, so it was always going to be less likely to leak.

 

[ShinobiBk]

Why are people doing this to themselves again?

This same thing was being said about Elder Scrolls and Fallout, despite it being completely illogical.

They will unquestionably stop publishing on Sony platforms. Call of Duty will be exclusive to Xbox and PC within the next couple years.

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The question is if WarZone will still be supported on PS. Would they even be able to support while making the yearly releases exclusive? Cause they're supposed to integrate with each other

Will Caldera be the last map ever released on PS? That's interesting to me

I don't think you pay 70 billion unless you are specifically trying to get people into your ecosystem which I guess we are referring to as metaverse now

 

[FusedAtoms]

I can't wait to do COD wager matches for ETH or BTC in the metaverse 😎

 

[Deleted member 46948]

Not only is he not fired, but, he just made a whole lot more money. Good guy Phil strikes again!

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What a puzzling take.

 

[PlumCantaloupe]

So there is now a timeline where Sony cedes Japan to Nintendo and now North America to Microsoft within the next year or two? 😬

 

[808s & Villainy]

Microsoft please buy Nvidia next and put the RTX 3090 on gamepass 🙏

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Gross

 

[Sei]

This is the biggest video game acquisition of our life time, I don't think Sony or Nintendo would ever do something like this.