Microsoft Tries to Buy Activision Blizzard

[Neon Ignition]

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Sega bats away buyout talk whilst at the same time feeling like it's making come to bed eyes at MS

[nonny]

My original PlayStation set on fire
My ps2 had a fuse keep blowing
My ps3 had the yellow light and held Skyrim hostage in the disc drive
My white 360 rrod
My elite 360 rrod

Only has my PlayStation 4 lived from launch day right up to me selling it for a ps5.

WTF?! I think I've had one Xbox 360 RROD and never had a single issue with any other console I've owned.

I did buy an import PC Engine back in the day that was DOA but that wasn't any failure through usage.

[dataDave]

When they say “values” does that mean how much they’re willing to drop financially, opposed to the other two?

[Neon Ignition]

Just in case the deal doesn't go through Activision Blizzard have a plan to get the $66bn anyway...

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[Neon Ignition]

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[fishbowlhead]

Of course MS have.

[Cassius_Smoke]

Jim Ryan's counter-proposal To Phil Spencer to allow Microsoft to acquire Activision Blizzard:

Ensure that all existing and future Activision Blizzard games are still available on PlayStation & have parity with Xbox.
(eh... Not how this works Jim)

Don't make PlayStation Activision Blizzard games more expensive than Xbox.
(Fair enough)

Treat all Activision Blizzard games equally on subscription services of Xbox and Playstation.
(Again, not how this works Jim)

Upon completion of the acquisition of Activision, discard all contracts for financial and marketing support that Sony is due to pay Activision in the future.
(Excuse me?!)

Agree to start discussions to treat Bethesda games equally on both PlayStation and Xbox.
(... What?)

[fishbowlhead]

Some of you seem desperate for this to go through, probably so you can get even more ridiculous value from GPU on your £1 subs (I did this too so I can’t complain on that front).

But, this buyout opens the floodgates for MS to buy literally everyone and anyone, and they can afford it as well, there’s NOTHING out of their reach financially bar other mega corps.

It’s a bad thing long term plain and simple, they will keep going until there’s nothing left to gobble given a chance, because it’s now proven they won’t win by playing fair.

[Neon Ignition]

I don't think it will open the floodgates, Activision is so wide raging and huge a business to have picked up that many other large buyouts would likely fail for MS because there really would be competition concerns then. Either way there will be more smaller scale buyouts like Obsidian etc but given the issues Acti creates for MS and the costs involved I don't expect another big buyout attempt unless this one fails as it's clear from all the info MS doesn't see Xbox on its own as a viable venture.

As for the Sony demands, it highlights that Sony was never going into this remotely in good faith. We're only days away from seeing if the FTC will get its legs kicked out from under it, like the CMA their arguments have been appallingly poor.

[Cassius_Smoke]

I think it will go through. The punishment for MS is the hold up and the court proceedings and I think they'll be unlikely to bounce from this to buying someone else huge. It'd set alarms off at the FTC.
From everything I've read and come to understand, MS actually want the mobile gaming side of things more, and COD is like a side dish.

I suspect the development teams for COD will mostly be left alone and just given the budget. Remember, if Horizon cost $220m, COD will cost the same or probably more. No way MS can keep bank rolling something like that without giving it to Playstation to get that money back. I think putting it on GP will be a mistake though. MS already admitted that GP cuts into available profit; pumping $220m into COD and then stripping back the chance of getting that back won't be a good thing. I can see the budget getting slimmed down if MS see that its not viable.

Phil Spencer conducted himself really well in court and was very open and honest. I'm still not the biggest fan of him, but he seems more human then I got the impression he was. Jim Ryan on the other hand seems like a corporate suit who struggles to grasp the business he's working in. I don't think its Sony throwing shades at MS, but more Jim.

[Cassius_Smoke]

I think it will go through. The punishment for MS is the hold up and the court proceedings and I think they'll be unlikely to bounce from this to buying someone else huge. It'd set alarms off at the FTC.
From everything I've read and come to understand, MS actually want the mobile gaming side of things more, and COD is like a side dish.

I suspect the development teams for COD will mostly be left alone and just given the budget. Remember, if Horizon cost $220m, COD will cost the same or probably more. No way MS can keep bank rolling something like that without giving it to Playstation to get that money back. I think putting it on GP will be a mistake though. MS already admitted that GP cuts into available profit; pumping $220m into COD and then stripping back the chance of getting that back won't be a good thing. I can see the budget getting slimmed down if MS see that its not viable.

Phil Spencer conducted himself really well in court and was very open and honest. I'm still not the biggest fan of him, but he seems more human then I got the impression he was. Jim Ryan on the other hand seems like a corporate suit who struggles to grasp the business he's working in. I don't think its Sony throwing shades at MS, but more Jim.

[eastyy]

I feel with Activision blizzard i do not want them to remain as they are now as frankly the stuff they have done needs a change in leader ship. Problem is with Microsoft with the acquisitions they have gone does seem like they have not done a good job of using what they have

[fishbowlhead]

I wouldn’t underestimate Jim Ryan, he’s been there from day 0 at Sony EU and helped set it all up, he knows exactly what he’s doing to make the buyout as difficult as possible, and rightly so when your competition has enough money to set up a colony on Mars, I’d do the same thing.

[hudson]

You just made me picture that scene in Total Recall where they can't breathe on Mars.

[Neon Ignition]

Another thing that would make the mobile argument stronger as well is that as big as COD is, MS can't buyout Activision on the basis of the franchise and an assumption it will be ever enduring. The deal has to primarily hold worth with COD not being the main meal. If it were just about owning popular IP... honestly, I'd rather buy someone else who has a broader range of notable franchises than one big whale one and several meh ones.