Microsoft buys Activision-Blizzard

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I would imagine best case scenario for someone who is solely playing on Playstation is that Sony just give up the race to the bottom and allow a gamepass cloud streaming app on playstation. At least with this and future game releases its the best case.

Too much money in the COD franchise to make it console and PC exclusive. But i agree with one of the above posters, maybe they're thinking outside of the console box and more a conglomerate gaming streaming service.

Strongly doubt it. Similar was said when MS bought Bethesda.

So things like Deathloop they had to allow on PS5 with the timed exclusivity because that deal was already in place. But if there's nothing contractually in place, they're going to be Xbox exclusives. Same will more than likely happen with ActiBlizz.

Hopefully this is the last we'll see of Bobby Kotick in the games industry, though he'll have undoubtedly made a fortune out of the deal.

I was thinking I can't remember when I actually last played an Activision Blizzard game (other than the likes of Candy Crush on mobile), so had a look through their back catalogue and, honestly, in the last decade there's not much there worth playing unless you love FPS games. The Sekiro IP is owned by From Software, Activision just published it in the west, so unclear where that will stand. Going back a little further you've got more interesting games like THPS and Guitar Hero, and of course Blizzard's back catalogue from when they were still a top tier studio. It'll be curious to see if they make WoW subscriptions a part of gamepass, that would be one way to try to win some players back from FFXIV. I guess games like Warcraft and Starcraft will only ever be on PC Game Pass as even if made available via cloud streaming they really need a mouse and keyboard.

It will be interesting to see if MS can detoxify the brand and revive some of their more interesting IPs going forward. They really need to clear out a lot of Activision and Blizzard's upper management if they don't want to take on a lot of the stains of recent history.

Hmmm.

All Microsoft did was pay a ton of money for another FPS (call of duty), crash bandicoot, tony hawk ,

Yawny yawn yawn

Or ???

My game pass play later list is long enough already 😂

Given how huge Call of Duty still is year in year out, regardless of quality, the idea that it will now not only exclusive to Xbox but also day one free on Gamepass, is huge. Then you add in how insanely popular Overwatch 1 was which means Overwatch 2 might also become Xbox/Gamepass only.

Those games would have come out regardless, and would have been on Xbox regardless. But the fact they'll likely now be Xbox only and Day One Gamepass, and therefore no longer on PS, is huge for the industry. Same with all the other franchises they have.

i'm.... not happy about this....

The potential/likelihood of Call of Duty, or Overwatch being console exclusive to Xbox feels way more off than any of the Bethesda titles to be honest.

I would genuinely hope Overwatch and CoD will be free to play on Xbox (via GamePass, so not free) but still available on the PS consoles.

WoW is PC only as is, so no change there, same with Diablo I guess.

I dunno, uneasy about this.

And I say that as an Xbox Series X owner with GamePass - this is not me being a disgruntled sony-pony.

I mean all of that is instantly offset by the fact Kotick will be staying on as CEO of Activision Blizzard (apparently the payoff he'd be entitled to if he's removed without proper cause is in the hundreds of millions when taking shares etc into account). But even then, there's two separate issues; the issues within Activision Blizzard as a company, and the impact Microsoft buying Activision Blizzard has on the industry.

The issues within AB are already being forced through due to the lawsuits and reputational damage they're facing. It's unknown how big an impact MS buying them will have on that regardless.