Microsoft buys Activision-Blizzard

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118499652#Comment_118499652

I agree actually. If I had €70bn to spend, I wouldn't have blown it all on Activision, though I can see why they did.

EoinMcLovin

https://twitter.com/markets/status/1483709133622808577?t=XAexu06wb6QSC4I8rBNYVQ&s=19

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recyclops

If I was Sony I would be worried about rumours like the below really catching on

“Sony will have a monumental challenge on its hands to stand on its own in this war of attrition,” said Amir Anvarzadeh of Asymmetric Advisors. “With Call of Duty now most likely to be added exclusively to the Game Pass roster, the headwinds for Sony are only going to get tougher.”

If we have seen anything in the last two years its how easily manipulated below are and if kids and uneducated ( in videogames) parents start believing this Sony will be in heaps of trouble come next September - December.

We all love Sony exclusives but they are nothing compared to this behemoth

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118499697#Comment_118499697

They only sold it because of the scandal apparently. "They" being the board. They'd past peak stock price and they would never get another opportunity for a big payout like this.

The stock is currently at $82. So even a day after the announcement you can still buy Activision stock and be guaranteed $13 per share profit.

That's how bad this scandal has hit them.

quokula

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118499438#Comment_118499438

Nobody is trying to claim Sony is some chivalrous knight. I'm pointing out the hypocrisy of the handwaving at Microsoft's anti-consumer actions and the disingenuous false equivalence between these acquisitions and ones like Naughty Dog or Insomniac.

You can hypothetically say "Sony would also do this extremely anti-consumer stuff if they could" but that doesn't change the fact that they actually haven't in reality, and it doesn't make what Microsoft is doing any more justified.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118499795#Comment_118499795

What exactly is the argument against the acquisition? The Ftc or whoever the government body is who look into anti-trust, what exactly are the arguments for blocking this? Jesus that's some amount of money, can't be having that?

You can't even argue that they would be taking the catalog away from PlayStation because Xbox have been very clear they would love to bring GP to Playststion, so the only ones blocking the games on PS are Sony.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118499795#Comment_118499795

But I'm not justifying the actions of a corporation. I'm not emotionally tied to any of them. I have all of the consoles.

PS: I think the transition to GaaS is pro consumer (because of my personal experience with it so far), even if the acquisitions are not. So I'm not sure if, on the whole, the entire thing is anti consumer.

Kotick getting $375 mill once deal is done

Retr0gamer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118499795#Comment_118499795

This is the same Sony we are talking about that charges you to play online games, stored PSN account details and payment details as plain text, pushes proprietary storage every chance they get, installed a root kit on your PC if you played a sony music CD on your PC?

quokula

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118499813#Comment_118499813

Legal arguments are one thing, I don't think anyone here is talking about legal arguments. It's a pretty extreme anti-consumer move though to actively take a significant multiplatform player out of the market. And I'm not sure trying to blame Sony for not making their own platform redundant and turning it into a vessel for Microsoft subscriptions is a valid argument against the fact that MS are doing this to reduce competition.

Varik

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118499763#Comment_118499763

You can't buy the stock anymore as it was halted. You and I also couldn't have bought it anyway at that time as it was during pre market.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118499861#Comment_118499861

That's his remaining personal shares only, he'd also be getting another~300m in cash due to the takeover and additional shares too.

Retr0gamer

Lets not fool ourselves. Unfortunately we live in a world where the likes of Bobby Kotick were always going to come out of this smelling of roses.

J. Marston

It's annoying that rubbish like COD is so influential.

quokula

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118499882#Comment_118499882

I don't see how any of that is relevant to this acquisition in any way? You tried to to say that what Microsoft are doing here is totally fine because it's no different to Sony buying Insomniac or Naughty Dog. I pointed out how that is completely untrue and backed my point up with a lot of facts about how Sony helped to build up those studios and funded and published their biggest games before bringing them on board as first party developers. So instead of acknowledging that or trying to dispute it you're now going off on a complete tangent to justify your hatred of Sony that has nothing to do with the original point. This isn't a thread for childish console wars.

McFly85

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118499882#Comment_118499882

what does any of that really have to do with what MS have just done? A company having crappy business practices shouldn’t legitimise a different companies crappy actions.

Varik

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118500036#Comment_118500036

I think there was 1 recently that'd be an exception but ye, Sony pretty much only ever bought companies they'd been working with for years usually exclusively.

Sonics2k

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118500005#Comment_118500005

Basically this, no matter how much gamers themselves despise the little shite, the markets and shareholders love him because he's brought in billions for the company over his years as CEO.

Kotick was always going to come out of this a wealthy man, even if ActiBlizz miraculously went bankrupt, he was going to walk away very happy.

Exclamation Marc

I've said this a few times but it seems lost on some people that both corporations can be in the wrong. The rhetoric of "Yeah well Sony did XYZ" is not the point. They've both been guilty of shítty practices that are anti-consumer but the fact that its becoming more aggressive is not good in the longer term. The name of the company making the acquisition is irrelevant, I'd say the same if it was Sony.

Sure its great in the short term to say hey, all these games are now on Gamepass which is super affordable and my €15 will get me more, and it is (notwithstanding that the majority of excellent games were created, developed and funded under a traditional gaming model). But the industry is moving towards consolidation which will have an impact in the longer term for games down the line. It's not good if we end up with two or three gigantic companies where the majority of games end up being controlled by the same directors, QA process, funding arrangements, marketing plan, management structure and editing cycle because some games will get lost in the cycle.

Ubisoft pumps out the same reskinned Far Crys and Assassin's Creeds because they're money makers and shareholders demand returns so its no wonder that Ubisoft play it safe year in and year out and the games remain relatively unchanged; shareholders don't give two flying fúcks how well the games are received once they sell (either copies of the game or microtransactions). So if that happens and overarching creative decisions are suddenly being made by a couple of CEOs and their shareholders rather than a slew of independent developers, there's a real risk that there will be a much narrower perspective and freedom afforded to games and developers and there's a huge risk that quality and diversity will suffer. Sure, there's a small chance it might not happen, but anyone who thinks there's absolutely no risk of that has their heads in the sand.

BlitzKrieg

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118499425#Comment_118499425

Sorry this really doesn't pan out because you are ignoring the most important aspect here

Time

Going back to only just 2010/2011 you could have a mid sized games developer be bought by a platform and both microsoft and sony did that.

But I'd say from 2013 onwards (around the time when THQ collapsed) almost all those mid sized developers started getting bought up by larger publishers.

Now its borderline impossible to buy up just a game studio, none of those developers are independent anymore. They are either already owned by one of the other big publishers (EA, Ubisoft, take2, Sega, Embracer group etc) or they're already own by one of platformer holders.

The developers that are still running by themselves are ironically Bungie or developers who are so big now that they are platforms in their own right (Valve, Epic).

Hell most small teams are also being picked up by publishers like Devolver digital and Annapurna interactive.

Right now it's either cut a deal with the publisher as middle man or buy them outright if as a platform holder you want any form of exclusivity.

Retr0gamer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118500036#Comment_118500036

It's not console wars BS and I never said what MS are doing is good. It's the white knighting of Sony that is ridiculous as if they haven't bought out third parties before but instead nurtured them at their teat and then brought them lovingly into the Sony family. That nurturing is more than likely testing to see the suitability of the studio for acquisition by Sony, or else just Sony looking after their third parties, their development support is pretty great from speaking to developers.

Sony are a ruthless big corporation who do exactly what MS do except in this case MS have bigger pockets.

Grumpypants

I know 70billion seems like crazy money, but with 130billion in the bank and negative interest and run away inflation, companies are trying desperately to get rid of cash (this is why we have the massive boom in acquisitions). If your money is going to lose 7-10% a year for the next 5-10 years then it is better off invested in talent and IP that can go on earning for the next decade.

They also not only have a huge chunk of popular games for Gamepass (which will likely grow to 35 million users by the time this deal is actually done). But they also have a foot into esports with Overwatch and Starcraft. Maybe they are not at their height anymore but the foundation is there. And also COD mobile is huge never mind King and then you have the massive back catalogue of Activision IP.

Pull Raven off COD and get them going on Singularity 2!!

I don't think MS have any interest in walled gardens. They made a conscious effort to shift xbox from being a hardware company to being software one. They need to get on as many platforms as possible. They are already not locking in the Gen 5 consoles, games are on PC, cloud streaming puts them on mobile and tablets and TVs. They have tried to get it on Switch and very likely would just to get it on PS too.

Microsoft is thinking 5-10 years down the line when we are all sitting in the metaverse watching esports while being drip-fed mountain due through directly into the bloodstream.

They have Sierra IP too. 😁

Mr Crispy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118500769#Comment_118500769

Pull Raven off COD and get them going on Singularity 2!!

Amen!

Retr0gamer

... I thought the reviews were bang on the money with singularity. It's a mediocre B-tier shooter that I was so meh about I dropped.

But still.... I miss those B-tier Raven shooters.

Sony are also limited by not publishing on PC. A major acquisition like this would make no sense if it meant having to pull out of the PC market.

I know they're now slowly moving into PC but it's very much an after thought, releasing games from last gen.

The Raging Bile Duct

I can imagine the pitch meeting for Singularity:

'What if we combined Bioshock with Portal except we made it for a budget of two fiddy.'

johnny_ultimate

I will officially dock two 'evil' points from Sony's substantial tally if they release remastered Bloodborne on PC.

SuperBowserWorld

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118499690#Comment_118499690

Joking about the collapse in the 80s when Atari and shovel ware killed the video game industry for a time.

It's changed now. Even shovel ware seems to have a huge market. 🙃

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118501631#Comment_118501631

Sure 8-bit micros in Europe had more than their fair share of shovel ware!

Most of it isn't even catalogued and is lost to time.

Anyway, we digress.

brady12

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118494353#Comment_118494353

there is a chance this could happen . I'd say if they get away with this one and try and acquire another major player that could be defo the time they get pulled back.