Microsoft Acquires Activision Blizzard

[Glen-i]

Yeah, that's a very thinly veiled, and racist, "America should own everything" article. Just the title alone says that.

[Jimbob]

CMA finally approves the deal

Nice news to wake up to.

Edit: And......it is done.

 

Edited October 13, 2023 by Jimbob

[Glen-i]

It was inevtiable, really. Capitilism marches on if there's money to be made.

[drahkon]

Sad day for gaming.
Terrible, terrible precedent. Now MS can do literally anything with their spending power. And other big companies will follow and make acquisitions of their own.

 

[Glen-i]

8 minutes ago, drahkon said:

Terrible, terrible precedent. Now MS can do literally anything with their spending power. And other big companies will follow and make acquisitions of their own.

Not just MS, this opens the floodgates for other companies with too much money to start consolidating stuff, purely to prevent competitiors from doing the same thing.

[drahkon]

7 minutes ago, Glen-i said:

Not just MS, this opens the floodgates for other companies with too much money to start consolidating stuff, purely to prevent competitiors from doing the same thing.

Of course, but MS has the most spending power by far and as is evident they are not afraid to use it to phase out the competition. And they will keep doing so.

It's gonna be a shitshow in the next months/years.

Edited October 13, 2023 by drahkon

[darksnowman]

They're right about one thing: it's a good day to play.

[Julius]

Not a surprise to see it go through at all, as unfortunately this is just the state that entertainment industries - for any medium - are in at the moment. Just have a look at what's been going on with football over the last few years in particular (never mind the rest of the last three decades) - these companies are inevitably going to end up owned by a tech giant or some state with ass-backwards QoL and trigger (knife?) happy rulers. 

Anyways, what strikes me about this deal at the time of typing is simply that it doesn't feel nearly as big a purchase as it was when it first got announced back at the start of last year. Don't get me wrong, it's obviously still massive and a big blow to the idea of any fair competition in the industry that you can buy big names and make them exclusive - and that goes for anyone buying people up, not just MS - but while CoD is still huge, it hasn't actually grown its player base in any notable way in years, and things like Warzone seem to be only having a cannabilisation effect which we've also seen over with the Hoyoverse games, where they bring out a new game and their players/spenders don't double, they just move across to the hot new things. Overwatch 2 launched into a quiet state of virtual nothingness - I know people are playing the game, but it's not part of the conversation in the same way that the first game was at launch and thereafter. There's very little growth potential for the foreseeable future in these big AAA IP as they are now, and while the impacts of that might be minimised somewhat by trying to view it as a player count vs sales as part of Game Pass and most likely - eventually - platform exclusive, I'm curious to see how MS react when, inevitably, this purchase doesn't have the impact they forecasted, and doesn't bring people over.

In a very strange way it actually provides impetus for PlayStation to get off their arse and create a competitor, potentially in the form of a new IP, with all but guaranteed growth in contrast (because, y'know, starting from nothing). 

I think my biggest (realistic - the actual hope is that this deal sets such a bad precedent that the buyouts stop, but that's pure fantasy at this point) hope for this purchase is that Xbox eventually realise this and that the actual growth potential in this purchase is in the smaller projects...but it's also been over half a decade now since they came out and announced a plethora of smaller studio pick-ups which we've still seen virtually nothing from. Their Game Pass curation and IP management so far has been simply embarrassing - the fact that we're halfway through the generation and after so many pick-ups that they're still struggling to get decent enough first party content speaks volumes. . 

48 minutes ago, Glen-i said:

Not just MS, this opens the floodgates for other companies with too much money to start consolidating stuff, purely to prevent competitiors from doing the same thing.

Totally agree, but like @drahkon says, Microsoft are simply peerless when it comes to their spending power in the gaming space. If Apple, Google, or Amazon step up and actually pull their fingers out to get their own gaming platforms properly off the ground? Then yeah, we'll some competition; but the absolute worst kind.

Like you say, it's going to be a bunch of consolidation plays to react to this almost out of necessity, and it could easily get ugly, and because of their relative buying power, Nintendo, PlayStation and others will likely need to play to their cards wirth teams that they're already buddy-buddy with. It blows my mind that I've seen people around the internet dare to compare Microsoft's level of acquisitions to what we've seen from PlayStation and Nintendo so far - at the end of the day, while these are corporations, good lord do some people need to learn to read the room. We're all losing and now everyone's playing catch-up to the big spenders. 

59 minutes ago, drahkon said:

It's gonna be a shitshow in the next months/years.

I genuinely hate it as someone who wants to play games...but it is super interesting to follow from a business case study POV. 

Either way, thank goodness I've got a backlog longer than the sun is blinding and that the indie space continues to produce bangers. 

[Glen-i]

1 hour ago, Julius said:

I genuinely hate it as someone who wants to play games...

If there's one very thin silver lining to this, is that maybe Vicarious Visions could be rescued from their Call of Duty assistance prison, along with other similar developers that Activision banished there.

Those guys injected some much needed revitilisation to Crash Bandicoot and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater with some high quality remakes, effectively reviving them from the dead, only to then get taken apart by Activision. Some thanks, huh?

Of course, that all depends on whether MS actually care enough about the other IP's they just got, which I'm not super confident about.

Edited October 13, 2023 by Glen-i

[killthenet]

You'd think they would want to do something with the likes of Tony Hawk, Crash and Spyro though - reviving those series with new entries will add some much needed variety to their software lineup (and would also hopefully come to other platforms, even if not at launch)

Definitely worrying news in general though, the audacity of them to say its going to offer consumers more options going forward, when the endgame is obviously to restrict new game releases to only being available on Game Pass (at which point they'll jack up the price for a monthly subscription)

[Glen-i]

13 minutes ago, killthenet said:

You'd think they would want to do something with the likes of Tony Hawk, Crash and Spyro though - reviving those series with new entries will add some much needed variety to their software lineup (and would also hopefully come to other platforms, even if not at launch)

I can only hope, but I look at the likes of Banjo and Conker, and it doesn't fill me with confidence.

Now granted, Perfect Dark is getting another shot, and I can only hope that Microsoft capitilise on Banjo's incredibly well received Smash Ultimate appearence, so I'm hoping it's a sign of MS being more experimental.
There's also the factor of Tony Hawk himself, the guy is absolutely passionate about skateboarding, and after THPS 1+2, he went back to Vicarious Visions to ask them to make a THPS 3+4, it actually got off the ground, but got cancelled once Vicarious Visions were disbanded. Tony has stated in an interview that he was very upset about that. Hopefully, he gets wind of it, and tries again with Microsoft.

[Ashley]

5 minutes ago, Glen-i said:

There's also the factor of Tony Hawk himself, the guy is absolutely passionate about skateboarding, and after THPS 1+2, he went back to Vicarious Visions to ask them to make a THPS 3+4, it actually got off the ground, but wiped out once Vicarious Visions were disbanded. 

Fixed

[Dcubed]

ABK has been so poorly run that this is nothing but a good thing for everyone involved.

When your employee union is celebrating that you're being acquired? You know that the company was in seriously dire straits.

This acquisition actually gives hope that we might see ABK's studios finally be released from the COD dungeon, and gives hope that the likes of THPS and Crash Bandicoot might yet live again.  It also means that Nintendo platforms will finally stop being left out of major ABK releases like COD.  This is a good thing... and the fact that it's taken a $70 billion acquisition for Kotick's head to get out of his company's arse is the real travesty here.

Edited October 13, 2023 by Dcubed

[Dcubed]

 

[Choze]

1 minute ago, Dcubed said:

ABK has been so poorly run that this is nothing but a good thing for everyone involved.

When your employee union is celebrating that you're being acquired? You know that the company was in seriously dire straits.

This acquisition actually gives hope that we might see ABK's studios finally be released from the COD dungeon, and gives hope that the likes of THPS and Crash Bandicoot might yet live again.  It also means that Nintendo platforms will finally stop being left out of major ABK releases like COD.  This is a good thing... and the fact that it's taken a $70 billion acquisition for Kotick's head to get out of his company's arse is the real travesty here.

The problem with this viewpoint is that it is too reliant on positivity and hopefulness over the hash reality and evidence. Its a huge change in industry dynamics and not for the better.

The boring honest answer is that there will be less innovation, lowered industry wages, competition etc.

Kotick also gets a $400 million payday. MS are by far and away the biggest games publisher and developer on the planet. Win win for MS and Kotick no matter how you spin it.

 

 

[Dcubed]

And this is why we got the PS+ price hike... Sony are very afraid of losing that PS+ revenue from the ABK acquisition.

[Hero-of-Time]

9 minutes ago, Dcubed said:

And this is why we got the PS+ price hike... Sony are very afraid of losing that PS+ revenue from the ABK acquisition.

As well they should be. The purchase of Activision will eventually have serious consequences for Sony. They can't go head to head with a company who can just throw money around as they please, especially when the courts are happy to just let this happen.

[Choze]

9 hours ago, Dcubed said:

And this is why we got the PS+ price hike... Sony are very afraid of losing that PS+ revenue from the ABK acquisition.

This is confirmed fake btw. Not part of the actual leak.

BTW there have been several absolutely historic developments over the last week. Including the first vertical mergers being stopped in over 30-40 years!

illumina grail lost their court case in the US and the deal was cancelled. Adobe also abandoned buying Figma. Among much else.

 

Edited December 19, 2023 by Choze

[Dcubed]

6 minutes ago, Choze said:

This is confirmed fake btw.

Actually it has been confirmed to be real...

Edited December 19, 2023 by Dcubed

[Choze]

1 minute ago, Dcubed said:

Actually it has been confirmed to be real...

BTW, sales figures for every single PS4 and PS5 era game have now been leaked as well.  It's all on the Install Base forums...

Thanks, I'll have a closer look since you cant avoid anything of the leaks right now lol!

Either way I suggest following new legal and political developments. There may be repercussions given this past week's historic success in other 'vertical merger' cases and the Epic case.

 

[Dcubed]

Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead!

[Ashley]

Hehe Booty. 

[Dcubed]

https://www.ign.com/articles/microsoft-lays-off-1900-staff-from-its-video-game-workforce
 

Quote

"It's been a little over three months since the Activision, Blizzard, and King teams joined Microsoft. As we move forward in 2024, the leadership of Microsoft Gaming and Activision Blizzard is committed to aligning on a strategy and an execution plan with a sustainable cost structure that will support the whole of our growing business. Together, we've set priorities, identified areas of overlap, and ensured that we're all aligned on the best opportunities for growth.

"As part of this process, we have made the painful decision to reduce the size of our gaming workforce by approximately 1900 roles out of the 22,000 people on our team. The Gaming Leadership Team and I are committed to navigating this process as thoughtfully as possible. The people who are directly impacted by these reductions have all played an important part in the success of Activision Blizzard, ZeniMax and the Xbox teams, and they should be proud of everything they've accomplished here. We are grateful for all of the creativity, passion and dedication they have brought to our games, our players and our colleagues. We will provide our full support to those who are impacted during the transition, including severance benefits informed by local employment laws. Those whose roles will be impacted will be notified, and we ask that you please treat your departing colleagues with the respect and compassion that is consistent with our values.

"Looking ahead, we'll continue to invest in areas that will grow our business and support our strategy of bringing more games to more players around the world. Although this is a difficult moment for our team, I'm as confident as ever in your ability to create and nurture the games, stories and worlds that bring players together.
"Phil."

Jesus! That didn't take long!

I'd imagine that most of the job losses will be on the publishing side of ABK (marketing, testing, localisation etc), since they're going to be the most redundant; but still.  Fucking hell!

[Julius]

32 minutes ago, Dcubed said:

https://www.ign.com/articles/microsoft-lays-off-1900-staff-from-its-video-game-workforce
 

Jesus! That didn't take long!

I'd imagine that most of the job losses will be on the publishing side of ABK (marketing, testing, localisation etc), since they're going to be the most redundant; but still.  Fucking hell!

Damn, that's a lot of people. Hopefully they all find work sooner rather than later, but sadly, this always inevitable with acquisitions, especially on this scale 

In related news, Mike Ybarra (Blizzard president) is also leaving, as is Allen Adham. 

Probably gone to go start up a company or to get that sweet NetEase backing, but damn, those are two BIG names that they haven't tied down as part of the acquisition. What a decision. 

[bob]

Damn, that's a lot of people. Hopefully they all find work sooner rather than later, but sadly, this always inevitable with acquisitions, especially on this scale 
In related news, Mike Ybarra (Blizzard president) is also leaving, as is Allen Adham. 
Probably gone to go start up a company or to get that sweet NetEase backing, but damn, those are two BIG names that they haven't tied down as part of the acquisition. What a decision. 

Maybe they were let go as part of the 1900 people?