Microsoft to acquire Activision Blizzard

[Nick]

$68.7B deal. Gamepass library keeps getting deeper.

 

[JungleSkip]

Man, sure wish there was any discernable use of anti-trust in the world.

Insane.

 

[Captain Tragedy]

I guess it is one way of getting rid of Kotick.

 

[Nick]

Man, sure wish there was any discernable use of anti-trust in the world.

Insane.

And it’ll only get worse because now the few remaining independent studios will be sought after by Sony and I can see Microsoft making another (much smaller) purchase like a SEGA or IO Interactive.

The only big independent studios left really are EA, Ubisoft, and Epic Games.

 

[Viator]

So this is the largest entertainment deal since 21CP/Disney, yes?

I do have fears of antitrust, however; I think this could be more beneficial for Activision/Blizzard than some might realize. Especially as once the deal closes, Spencer will be directly settling matters. I'd have to think he'd make sure things are cleaned up, especially given the California lawsuit against the company. Could be a good start, even amidsts...questionable and problematic manners of doing things like this.

And it’ll only get worse because now the few remaining independent studios will be sought after by Sony and I can see Microsoft making another (much smaller) purchase like a SEGA or IO Interactive.

The problem Microsoft would have to deal with, would be with SEGASammy. Not saying it's impossible, but SEGAsammy is a larger group than some might realize. I do think Microsoft will make some form of partnership deal to bring games from SEGA to Game Pass proper though.

EDIT: To though say, this does put Microsoft in a very interesting position with Activsion/Blizzard. One that I have to wonder if they'd do things with company management for game distribution, at the same level that they do with Mohjang. In that, Mohjang's IP is not exclusive to the XBOX brand, but XBOX/Microsoft reaps the total sales of all of it's titles. That feels like the more logical area in this, especially as Bethesda is seemingly going to be more prudent in being exclusive to the XBOX brand.

 

[Parkscope Joe]

No bueno.

 

[PerceptiveCoot]

Disney and Microsoft basically own 95% of the media consumption of the human race now.

EDIT: Assuming the DOJ is still asleep at the wheel of course. If this was 90s Microsoft....

 

[GA-MBIT]

Just insane in terms of monopolization. In terms of games and the overall ActiBliz situation, it might be for the best.? Kotick supposedly getting the boot and Spencer taking the wheel might be the exorcism the company needs. Hopefully some of the IP sees better utilization with stuff like Crash/Spyro/Skylanders and it'll be nice to see Kings Quest, Tony Hawk, CoD on Game Pass. Would love to see Toys for Bob return. Acti/Blizz Minecraft content is a guarantee. Microsoft has a crazy lineup of bought IPs between Rare, Bethesda, Mojang, Activision, Blizzard. I hope Sega doesn't happen but I feel like something like that is probably on the table for the future. It's weird to think that if Crash or Tracer had made it into Smash Ultimate, Microsoft would have 3 reps + Mii Costumes. And if they get Sega make it 6 fighters lmao.

Weird mixed bag of a situation. Definitely one of the biggest industry shakeups for a while and will definitely be a major influence on this coming generation of consoles.

 

[Nick]

What are you guys' thoughts on if CoD will become a Xbox exclusive? On one hand, CoD has a huge player base and in 2021, it Vanguard and Black Ops Cold War were 2 of the top 3 biggest selling games on the service so you'd think they'd be crazy to give that up.

...On the other, Playstation has a huge player base and 2 of their top 3 selling games were CoD games Pulling those from store and making them exclusive means that the purchase price for many to play COD is going from $60 to $300-$500 for an X|S if you are a Playstation player but HAVE to play COD. Of course, there is cloud gaming, so you could play with Gamepass on PC or on other devices (the chromecast-like "dongle" that they are rumored to start selling this year). The dongle won't get you 4K gaming or anything, but it'll be a cheap way into the Xbox ecosystem.

Personally, I see Xbox keeping COD and most titles exclusive to Gamepass, but there is something that could still allow these on Playstation. Phil Spencer could go to Jim Ryan or whoever it is over at Playstation and basically say, "You guys can have Call of Duty, Elder Scrolls, Starfield, Crash, even Halo. But you guys are going to have to pay us a fair value for all of that content and you can only have it if you are willing to put Xbox Gamepass front and center on your store and we would also get whatever your new subscription game service is and do the same"

 

[PerceptiveCoot]

What are you guys' thoughts on if CoD will become a Xbox exclusive? On one hand, CoD has a huge player base and in 2021, it Vanguard and Black Ops Cold War were 2 of the top 3 biggest selling games on the service so you'd think they'd be crazy to give that up.

...On the other, Playstation has a huge player base and 2 of their top 3 selling games were CoD games Pulling those from store and making them exclusive means that the purchase price for many to play COD is going from $60 to $300-$500 if you are a Playstation player but HAVE to play COD. Of course, there is cloud gaming, so you could play with Gamepass on PC or on other devices (the chromecast-like "dongle" that they are rumored to start selling this year). The dongle won't get you 4K gaming or anything, but it'll be a cheap way into the Xbox ecosystem.

Personally, I see Xbox keeping COD and most titles exclusive to Gamepass, but there is something that could still allow these on Playstation. Phil Spencer could go to Jim Ryan or whoever it is over at Playstation and basically say, "You guys can have Call of Duty, Elder Scrolls, Starfield, Crash, even Halo. But you guys are going to have to pay us a fair value for all of that content and you can only have it if you are willing to put Xbox Gamepass front and center on your store and we would also get whatever your new subscription game service is and do the same"

Would Universal ever trade Marvel?

Also who cares? The point is decisions that change an entire industry are in the hands of a select few individuals, and that ultimately redounds upon the health of the industry over the long-term.

 

[Viator]

I have to wonder what the strategy is. If I was Microsoft, I'd do something similar to Mohjang, with a few trepditations.

I'd have two groups on how things will be handled. Group A being Cross-Platformed IP, IP that has too large to exclusively keep, and then the other group, Group B, being IP that'd make sense to keep on XBOX.

Group A:

• Call of Duty = The bread/butter of Activision/Blizzard outside of WoW/Warcraft/King. It's a Minecraft level IP in how evergreen it is. I think they'll scale it back to being an off-year title like the Forza Horizon franchise, but I do not see Treyarch/Infinity Ward being let go. I also think Warzone will be a promiment home for Xcloud and XBOX Game Pass. Especially as mobile outlets get expanded over the next few years.
• Overwatch = Blizzard's Dota/LoL of the bunch. Even more than other titles, Overwatch lives on the competitive Esports sector. Keeping the outlets of accessibility for the game as wide as they can, with marketing and favoring it for GamePass/Xcloud makes a lot of sense to me here.
• King/Candy Crush = This is the largest thing Microsoft got out of the deal. I am not even joking. King, and Candy Crush, is a massive gold mine that's going to reap a large amount of profits; so keeping it on mobile platforms and expanding it to be a quintessential Windows app for casual mobile gaming, feels like what should be the case.
• Warcraft/WoW = While I don't think WoW might have as large, it still is a larger IP than that of Elder Scrolls. It's online WoW has generated a large cash pool, and I've have to assume Microsoft would want to have it grow and be a core IP for the company. However, I think what matters the most, is if they can nuke it. And I mean, nuking it, like Final Fantasy XIV's Dalamud, nuking. I think it needed to be nuked a long time ago to allow the development teams a new start. And having that new start be on XBOX and PC makes a lot of sense.

Group B:

• Diablo = I'm gonna be shocked if the future of Diablo is multiplatform. XBOX and PC feels the right way to have it, and could even be worked on with Obsidian's teams.
• Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon = Phil Spencer and those at XBOX have said that they want to increase the number of family IP. Bringing back Vicarious Vision and Toys for Bob proper to be the main development group for those two IP's and Banjo+Kazooie, feels like the most sensical direction they can take. All three are landmark entertainment IP of the 90s, and Crash and Spyro have had tremendous success. Why not have a dedicated group making platformers.
• Starcraft = Yes. I think Starcraft makes sense. As Blizzard IP's go, it was a major pillar of Blizzard. I think having Starcraft be a Microsoft exclusive makes a lot of sense, especially if like Warcraft, it gets rebooted.

I think after this, the future of XBOX will rely on "Game Pass" third party partnerships, like EAPlay and Ubisoft+ being on Game Pass. It's what I think could end up as the most logical outcome for SEGA, given SEGAsammy being as large of a corporation as it is. It also reduces any potential anti-trust issues in the future.

 

[Nick]

Would Universal ever trade Marvel?

Also who cares? The point is decisions that change an entire industry are in the hands of a select few individuals, and that ultimately redounds upon the health of the industry over the long-term.

I'm not talking about trading. I'm talking about sharing so they can make money where the high demand is. @AlexanderMBush has a good roadmap above for what's possible.

And You should care based on your "health of the industry" post. We all should for that reason. Acquiring Activision Blizzard is one thing, but holding a new CoD game exclusive to Xbox is even more damaging. This has turned from a console war to a content war and Xbox may be selling less consoles, but is winning the content war for this generation at this point since they are buying it all, which will lead to Xbox being a unstoppable powerhouse if this continues.

 

[Viator]

Let there be no mistake, I think there is the high potential for a lot of problems with this. And I think it can do a lot more harm than good. However, Activison/Blizzard was going to bury themselves in the ground and I get the feeling it would've been either Microsoft, or Tencent.

Not great options on either sides, but it makes legitimate sense.

This has turned from a console war to a content war and Xbox may be selling less consoles, but is winning the content war for this generation at this point since they are buying it all, which will lead to Xbox being a unstoppable powerhouse if this continues.

This is probably what is going to define this moment. Activison/Blizzard getting bought out, means so much more on a "Content-War" level, due to how far reaching Activision/Blizzard's brands are.

It's a larger scale Mohjang, with multiple IP by the corporation having a high turnaround of audience reactions. From CoD's groups to Blizzard's, this is going to rock so many communities and smaller industries, that I doubt the gaming landscape will be the same. But at that same token, I do think the future is going to rely on a mix of hardware sale and on digital streaming sale per month.

Sony is actively developing a Playstation version of Game Pass, and NIntendo has something on a smaller scale already. Microsoft's actions with Game Pass and XCloud, have fundamentally changed how media can be consumed; and in turn, how media can be profited.

 

[Nick]

Sony is actively developing a Playstation version of Game Pass, and NIntendo has something on a smaller scale already. Microsoft's actions with Game Pass and XCloud, have fundamentally changed how media can be consumed; and in turn, how media can be profited.

Sony is doing their Sparticus project, yes, but if they weren't planning to before, now they 100% need to go all out on this and make sure all of their games are included with this service if they want it to be an attractive option.

 

[Viator]

Sony is doing their Sparticus project, yes, but if they weren't planning to before, now they 100% need to go all out on this and make sure all of their games are included with this service if they want it to be an attractive option.

I think no matter what, Sparticus was going to happen. But I do think it would've been smaller scale.

Now though? I'm gonna be shocked if Sony isn't automatically as of the past few hours, trying to get major third party groups like CAPCOM, Square, and SEGA ((With the more ease of accessibility from JP groups)) into a licensing partnership to allow their titles on Sparticus. I also think we're gonna see a lot of the PSNow cards go out of sale in other regions ahead (as they are already being pulled from UK).

Even if it's broken, Sony needs an answer now to Game Pass. Especially with Activision/Blizzard in Microsoft's corner.

 

[Nick]

I think no matter what, Sparticus was going to happen. But I do think it would've been smaller scale.

Now though? I'm gonna be shocked if Sony isn't automatically as of the past few hours, trying to get major third party groups like CAPCOM, Square, and SEGA ((With the more ease of accessibility from JP groups)) into a licensing partnership to allow their titles on Sparticus. I also think we're gonna see a lot of the PSNow cards go out of sale in other regions ahead (as they are already being pulled from UK).

Even if it's broken, Sony needs an answer now to Game Pass. Especially with Activision/Blizzard in Microsoft's corner.

Yup, third party content is actually a big part of Gamepass still even with all the stuff they own. Gamepass Ultimate includes EA Play and they have started a relationship with Ubisoft now for the release of Rainbow Six Extraction which is debuting Day 1 on GamePass January 20th.

Sony definitely needs some third party deals. I think EA Play would be an easy one for them to strike with and if they can get the Ubisoft library, that would give them a lot more than Gamepass has as far as Ubisoft content.

 

[Viator]

Yup, third party content is actually a big part of Gamepass still even with all the stuff they own. Gamepass Ultimate includes EA Play and they have started a relationship with Ubisoft now for the release of Rainbow Six Extraction which is debuting Day 1 on GamePass January 20th.

Sony definitely needs some third party deals. I think EA Play would be an easy one for them to strike with and if they can get the Ubisoft library, that would give them a lot more than Gamepass has as far as Ubisoft content.

Agreed. Square also seems like the most logical one to broker a partnership deal for Sparticus as-well, considering SquareJP is looking to prioritize it's more flagship IP not to XBOX's brand, but to Playstation and Switch. If they can broker a partnership deal for Sparticus with them, that can allow Sony to market the FF, KH, and FFXIV series of games rather well (note how I classify XIV differently).

 

[Nick]

Unsurprising, but worth mentioning.

 

[Jerroddragon]

You have that much money...and over making your own Ips with new artists lets buy games...that we wish we made

I just hate that pretty much this makes Sony have to invest in more studios as well and I bet we see more third party games only on one system

For the employees this is a win, bet things get much better than them

 

[Nick]

• Call of Duty = The bread/butter of Activision/Blizzard outside of WoW/Warcraft/King. It's a Minecraft level IP in how evergreen it is. I think they'll scale it back to being an off-year title like the Forza Horizon franchise, but I do not see Treyarch/Infinity Ward being let go. I also think Warzone will be a promiment home for Xcloud and XBOX Game Pass. Especially as mobile outlets get expanded over the next few years.

Was thinking about this a bit, I was thinking there's a chance COD is in both Group A & Group B being both exclusive AND multi-platform at the same time. Here's what I mean. They could finally split up the multiplayer part of the game and the campaign. I could see a world where the Campaign is exclusive, but the multiplayer is multi-platform. Phil Spencer has championed cross platform play, so there's reason to think he himself wouldn't like the idea about making COD multiplayer exclusive.

They could charge $30 or so on the Playstation store to play multiplayer and then everyone would be happy. People who play the campaign will play it on Gamepass, most multiplayer players don't play the campaign, so they'd still get what they want and at a LOWER cost. And on Microsoft/Xbox's end, they get to basically have their cake and eat it, too. They keep the campaign exclusive and would still make pure profit on Playstation multiplayer.

Just a theoretical, but I wouldn't be surprised to see it.