Microsoft Tries to Buy Activision Blizzard

[Neon Ignition]

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2022-01-18-microsoft-near-deal-to-buy-call-of-duty-maker-activision-blizzard-report

Megaton

[Neon Ignition]

This is... I mean. First and foremost Kotick is so gone.

Second, it's beyond massive that merely on its own Call of Duty is going to be an Xbox exclusive franchise. Given the franchise is bigger on PS than it is Xbox that is a massive market shift and really cracks open a vacuum in the PlayStation winter line up and genre share. I know much will be made about Tony Hawks, Crash Bandicoot and Spyro too but I can't imagine much will be done with them given MS already has dormant character franchises. The Blizzard side of things is big too, Warcraft itself is a big one and this really plays into the PC market expansion for MS.

Given the recent debacles it's clear MS will have to do a lot of house cleaning with this one but this has to be a purchase way too big now for Sony not to evaluate its options.

Given Halo is a key consideration... I really hope MS slows Call of Duty down and frees up some of the many studios that Activision has shunted on to COD support.

[teddymeow]

Is it going to be exclusive though?

I know we went through all this hoo-hah with Bethesda and will they / won't they but do we honestly see MS leaving all that money on the table from PS owners?

[Neon Ignition]

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[Deuteros]

I wouldn't write those franchises off as 'Xbox exclusive' so soon. There's a lot of money to be made from having them available on PlayStation consoles. Sure, they'll probably launch earlier and with exclusive content on Xbox which, amusingly and historically, has been the other way around.

[Neon Ignition]

Honestly, after the last few buyouts, I think there's no doubt all their franchises are about to vanish from rival platforms.

Apparently it would clear during Summer 2023 so if we give leeway for pre-existing deals then 2024 onward could be when things start becoming Xbox only. It's a huge shift for Series S/X but road mapping into the future the PS6/Series S/X2 generation starting line is going to be insane

[Junko]

Irrelevant edit

[Neon Ignition]

I think if it's very PC orientated or F2P it'll remain as is. If it's a standard franchise it's done on PlayStation.

They'll lose X amount of million sales from dropping a PS5 version but will retain a significant percentage of that number by transitioning them over to Xbox through brand loyalty and that smaller number of Xbox engaged players will be infinitely more important to them than the PS loyal ones lost.

So... who's buying up Take Two?

[nonny]

Kotick has to walk...

Then I think it gets really, really interesting. At least we now know why Overwatch 2 went into perpetual limbo. They should honestly just can that idea now and release a major DLC update to the existing game instead.

The big one is of course Call of Duty. What is clear is MS doesn't need battle royale in Halo Infinite any more, they have Warzone for that.

[fishbowlhead]

Well there goes the neighbourhood. Thats if the monopoly commission passes it that is.

[Tobal]

i have no dog in this fight, Activison games haven't appealed to me in many years and Blizzard... nothing since a brief spell with overwatch when it first released.

2 years down the line no COD for sony i bet, they can make enough money of pc/phone and xbox

[nonny]

Until this transaction closes, Activision Blizzard and Microsoft Gaming will continue to operate independently. Once the deal is complete, the Activision Blizzard business will report to me as CEO, Microsoft Gaming.

Upon close, we will offer as many Activision Blizzard games as we can within Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass, both new titles and games from Activision Blizzard’s incredible catalog. We also announced today that Game Pass now has more than 25 million subscribers.

I read that as once the ink is dry Kotick walks off into the sunset...

[fuse]

Right, so Phil "evaluating our relationship" Spencer just bought the company, and seemingly isn't even getting shot of Kotick? That is massively disappointing. Parts of the business are still striking!

Also not a fan of huge acquisitions and exclusivity in the market. This is not a small studio struggling to get by, this is just about limiting customer choice.

Whole thing stinks.

[Neon Ignition]

I'd imagine if it's pre-existing it's safe. Like Infinite and Warzone are both live and doing well so MS has little reason to pull resources from either but it'll probably affect the development of new ones which like you say is where Overwatch 2 would potentially run aground.

Man, Blizzard utterly wasted the first games success.

This is amazing news for EA though, the FPS market for Battlefield on PlayStation just blew itself wide open for them

[Cassius_Smoke]

I think what MS really needed was some more FPS. It's definitely lacking in that space.

MS can have them. I haven't played anything from them for at least a decade.