Microsoft Tries to Buy Activision Blizzard

[wakka]

Yeah they would never bother to pay for exclusivity, not even nearly worth it.

It's better for MS to keep it on all formats, monetise the hell out of it and get their perks other ways such as exclusive Xbox content, Xbox only beta periods, Game Pass releases etc and make all of Acti's other franchises format exclusive.

100%

[Cassius_Smoke]

MS past with game studies would say that we will get 2 Cods out of them, before the preproduction well drys up and we never see COD again.
We are 22 studios deep now and all those IPs they own are pretty much dead in the water.

[nonny]

I honestly don't believe MS would ever remove COD from other platforms as it just doesn't make financial sense.

If anything they'll bring it to more platforms. The switch for example, with it's huge install base is missing the entire franchise... I'm sure if MS gets this through we will see older titles and Warzone on switch. It makes sense to make the titles multiplayer community bigger, not smaller.

[Brad]

Sony should let deal through. Begin work on new socom and by the time that’s ready ms should have ****ed up cod and they can have socom be the premier shooter on their platform.

[fishbowlhead]

Honestly I’d say let MS waste all those billions, they won’t get it back on the buy out, ever.

Once they get an idea on a daily basis on just how much cod is draining the devs resources (though i’m sure they know already) they will start pulling those resources onto other projects. That will then cause cod to become less and less frequent, which will make it less and less profitable.

Eventually it will be like halo, once every gen or 5 years.

[Neon Ignition]

I do wonder whether Sony would revive SOCOM or expand on the Firewall franchise instead.

I suppose likely neither and revive Killzone instead... or MAG

[Asura]

Sony should let deal through. Begin work on new socom and by the time that’s ready ms should have ****ed up cod and they can have socom be the premier shooter on their platform.

While I'd love to see them bring back SOCOM, or make their own title, I think Sony have made the point that the success of CoD can't be duplicated (it's one of their oppositions to the merger), and history has kinda shown this.

Homefront is a great example. Made on a CoD-size budget, with many CoD staff, who were making a game which was an unapolagetic CoD ripoff, but ultimately it didn't go anywhere. And while it has its fans, I've always seen the Killzone series as this weird AliExpress knockoff of sticking Halo and CoD in a blender.

[Neon Ignition]

Though, at the same time they're stretching the point too far as well. COD might sell 15-20m each year with their new entries but development and marketing costs will be massive. Sony cries poverty over not having an exclusive FPS of value but meanwhile sits on Last of Us, Spider-Man, God of War etc which are all 20m sellers released on a regular basis meaning it's somewhat of a lie that they don't have an equivalent in a business sense.

Given the hurdles I can imagine this buyout would be one of the last ones MS would be carrying out but so far I still feel like Sony doesn't have any valuable argument against it

[Asura]

I still feel like Sony doesn't have any valuable argument against it

They absolutely don't, at least, not the sort that would hold water with people like us.

The only arguments they might have will surely be technical ones, concerning the details of corporate/IP law and competition on a macro-scale. Sony themselves have set plenty of precedents of buying success by throwing money at developers, so this is very much a pots-and-kettles situation.

[wakka]

Yeah, on a moral level, it's a bull**** argument. But I agree with Asura that you can't realistically spin up a COD level FPS franchise just because you want to. The game is astronomically popular. It's like deciding you'll make an equivalent to Pokemon.

[Lebowski]

look at what happened to Titianfall ex cod developers, Universal acclaim for the second game, amazing single player too, but didn't get the hype or marketing push that EA gave to battlefield and pretty much was DOA.

Ive seen it first hand via clans i've been in that no matter what people will buy the latest's game in the series every year. Reviews don't matter Negative publicity doesn't matter, and no matter how bad the game is they will buy it. Its all about keeping a group of people together as that's their social circle. Ive been trapped in this myself with Destiny the group of people became more important than the game and lackluster updates expensive dlc and the same seasonal content re-skined season after season didnt put me off, until i finally thought enough is enough and put the game down.

[nonny]

I don't think you need to create a COD level franchise... you just need to create a solid shooter and evolve.

Apex Legends almost shadow dropped at launch and has become huge... At a detriment to the superior Titanfall 2.

It's the single player campaign stuff that is risky and even COD pretty much rehashes ideas over and over in this regard.

With Sony actively looking at service games and having Bungie at their disposal now it does make me wonder what they'll do next.

They definitely have several options at their disposal.

[Neon Ignition]

https://www.eurogamer.net/ftc-reportedly-softens-stance-on-blocking-microsoft-activision-blizzard-merger

The FTC is starting to line up a green light

[hudson]

I don't think you need to create a COD level franchise... you just need to create a solid shooter and evolve.

Apex Legends almost shadow dropped at launch and has become huge... At a detriment to the superior Titanfall 2.

It's the single player campaign stuff that is risky and even COD pretty much rehashes ideas over and over in this regard.

With Sony actively looking at service games and having Bungie at their disposal now it does make me wonder what they'll do next.

They definitely have several options at their disposal.

FIFA Soccer toppled Pro Evo's market share back in the day (some might say, Pro Evo killed itself). I think it was mainly due to all the licenses FIFA had (using the premier league, teams, kits all that jazz), so Sony just need to make a decent CoD type game and get some official army licenses, right?

[Cassius_Smoke]

SOCOM. Get some good gun play going. Well polished graphics. Keep it simple and don't try to compete with COD.