I'm not sure how I feel about this yet. This might be the only way we'll get rid of the scumbag that is Bobby Kotick, but it appears he is remaining on board for now.
Let's just hope Microsoft doesn't go back to Xbox (timed) exclusives in 5 years, or PC will be a lot of games poorer. I think in general this much consolidation is a bad idea.
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maybe that was one of the conditions to being able to purchase to company is keeping him on the team and i doubt they will go back to timed exclusives they have seen and felt the power of pc gaming in terms of making money
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This might be the only way we'll get rid of the scumbag that is Bobby Kotick, but it appears he is remaining on board for now.
Ah yes, let's rejoice in a scumbag being replaced by even worse scumbags...
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WSJ said Kotick will leave after the deal is done. Which is probably the only good news out of this.
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Pretty crafty. Buying when stocks are hitting the lowest (due to recent events) and probably getting rid of Kotick as well. Stinks of monopoly
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I honestly was wondering how the "corporate culture" at Activision hadn't make more waves until now. Guess Micro$oft profiting from it explains why.
I would say it's a win/win if corporate greed cleans up the sewage of Activision and gives people a more decent workplace but then they are keeping Kotik so meh just another $$$ grab.
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For now, however, Kotick remains in his position with the public support of Activision Blizzard's board of directors, which in November 2021 expressed confidence in his "leadership, commitment and ability to achieve [the company's] goals.” and "that Bobby Kotick appropriately addressed workplace issues brought to his attention"
Translation: sorry but this dude is making us a shitload of money despite everything that's happening around him so he's still good in our books
I wish I'm wrong but it is likely that he stays. And even if they boot him out it still won't make a difference
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Yeah used to be that the market took care of a-holes like that but not anymore.
And the golden parachutes are blocking the sun these days... while they land on their feet in yet another board or top job in another company. Used to be these guys were paid the big bucks because they were taking all the risks. Not anymore.
But hey at least employees can sue Micro$oft next time. Of course since Micro$oft got what they needed from the previous lawsuit, chances are this one won't even see the light of day.
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I find it hard to follow your reasoning. Buying at an optimal price point stinks of monopoly? Besides, they seem to have paid more than one would have guessed from the estimated value of the company which is odd but may be some sort of consolation.
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when there's blood on the streets, buy
propertyshares
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Ha. Maybe Activision's games will come to Steam now.
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That's what I'm hoping too. Particularly the Tony Hawk remaster.
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that is my first thought like Call of duty might come back
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I hope so. Now that Microsoft owns both Bethesda (owners of the Wolfenstein IP) AND Activision (Developers of the 2009 game), Wolfenstein 2009 might even come back to Steam. (RIP to those collectors who bought it for hundreds of dollars, though.)
And maybe even Blizzard games? Although that'd be a massive shock if they do. But Imagine WoW, Overwatch and Diablo on Steam. Even if people had to double dip, I bet it'd bring in a lot of cash and boost the userbase all around.
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With all the acquisitions from M$ in the gaming industry recently, I think it's more likely that this will result in less games on Steam.
Once they have built themselves a little monopoly, they'll pull everything from Steam and you'll have to get Game Pass to play anything that's not indie.
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Only want Crash 4 from them to be honest. And Crash Team Racing PC port we never got.
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Hmm, could be worse...
So more stuff on Game Pass? Really need to start finding good deals on it.
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first result on slick deals?
(basically: sign up Xbox Live Gold, charge up 3 years, upgrade to Ultimate for 1 month, this will upgrade also the 3 years from Live Gold to Ultimate)
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They already are in most things they swallow but they pay the right people not to care.
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There are other companies with competing products. Basic stuff really
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Monopoly you say? Same as Nintendo & Playstation (But Thanks to Jim Ryan, many games are coming to PC and it looks like Ghost of Tsushima is Next)
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“When the transaction closes, Microsoft will become the world’s third-largest gaming company by revenue, behind Tencent and Sony”
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Bring Crash Bandicoot 4 to Steam or Game Pass now!
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I really hope that the games abandoned by Activision: ASM 1 2, Deadpool, X-men and others will return to sale and they can be purchased again. I missed out on so much because of Activision's greed😭😭😭😭
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I'm just happy that, by chance mostly I think, that there are no Activision, MS or even EA games that appeal to me. Not sure I'd be happy with this if so.
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Why what? That none of the games appeal to me, or that I'm not sure I'd be happy with the purchase?
If it's the latter, then it's because bigger, bloated, monopolistic, predatory companies that chew up and spit out smaller companies is often the result. Not close enough to know if that's the case here, and I certainly hope this will end the misery that staff at Activision had to endure - but Activision were already too big in my opinion.
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well Activision was in a pretty bad state so maybe this saves a lot of jobs and brings a ton of games like maybe pro skater and crash 4 to Steam
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Totally agree that something had to change at Activision - and cool for those that this brings their games closer to. But not forgetting that when mergers like this happen, it's rare when many duplicated jobs and departments aren't scrapped - so if anything, could mean less jobs. I'm totally speculating, and although I'm not exactly a MS fan, it's true that you don't hear as many stories about mistreatment of staff there. But think I would rather have seen a corporate shakeup at Activision, and Bobbies ass fired - but we'll see how this shapes out.
I'm also not a fan of game passes (or whatever they're called these days) so would not like to see exclusives on those kind of platforms.
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i have never used game pass but why do you dislike it? sound like people will get more for their money - anyway my hop is that they are still separate companies or parts of the overall Microsoft brand and Microsoft just oversee it all and no i doubt with such a large amount of games (49 so i saw plus a few under other names) on Steam already i very much doubt the would be exclusive to game pass well maybe at first they might but not long term - Microsoft know the value of Pc gaming like Sega has and Sony are even starting to get into - so maybe this will bring more and more to pc and Steam (and elsewhere like Epic and GOG of course)
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The whole game pass thing just holds no appeal to me - I'd rather just have my own library and not be forced to spend money monthly, but only when and if I see a title that I like - and would still have access to in say 20 years, without having paid 20 years of monthly subs. (Yeah, I know the whole argument about not "really owning" the titles, but I don't envisage a time when Steam would disappear overnight).
For sure it's good for some players - just not me. I hope you're right about exclusives - that they will be rare, but MS does have a tendency towards that end - and with a bigger selection they could use this to encourage more monthly subscribers with exclusives.
Looking over reddit, twitter and other forums, seems the news had been met with mixed reactions, and it is too soon to know how this could play out - but to go back to my original point - am just glad none of their titles are games that I play nor want to :)
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Thank you. Thank you so much.
Xbox is one of the most consumer-friendly AAA studios, Activision-Blizzard is the polar opposite.
This could bring a lot more pressure on the workplace harassment issue, and hopefully will be rectified quickly, and also on theier anti-consumer practises like lootboxes and too much MTX.
And maybe, hopefully, we'll get some genuinely good Call Of Duty titles that aren't published yearly. But my god 68 BILLION dollars? HOw much did they buy Zenimax for? 7? And that would probably be a way better investment. But still, great move.
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To each their own, but I don't see how this is even remotely a good thing. I'm deeply concerned about the future where 2-3 companies can buy and own anything they set their sights on. This is horrible to me
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I suppose I didn't think that through, that is a valid point. I'm not hoping for a Disney-type "I own all my competitors" kind of thing, but Activision-Blizzard is an immoral company and Bethesda is good but needs some tweaking. Unfortunately they won't change their practises until someone keeps a tight leash on them, and I'm hoping that's what Microsoft does to them.
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I, for one, welcome our AOL-Time-Warner-Pepsico-Viacom-Halliburton-Skynet-Toyota-Trader-Joe's overlords.
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Xbox is one of the most consumer-friendly AAA studios
For the moment. As soon as positions switch so will their stance and they might push console exclusivity again. I'm reminded of when they tried to push always online DRM on Xbox One. And how Games for Windows Live was abandoned (I bought Age of Empires III there, now I don't have access to it anymore).
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Well what company hasn't made mistakes (not to defend Microsoft of course) but Windows Live was replaced when they saw how well Steam was doing and how much easier and more profitable having their games on there was. As for console exclusivity - yes it might happen but i think maybe rather than say have to buy an x-box to play their games if they want the bigger £££ then doing a Sega and selling their games every place such as Playstation and Switch as well as continue to support game pass and Steam and more on PC and table/mobile will be happening - could maybe of course do what Epic does and do timed exclusive (i'm not sure of the value in this)
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"Battle for the Metaverse" sounds like a good movie/game title.
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a new pitfall would be great though (i know your joking) but it would
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Pitfall could've been a big rival to the Tomb Raider or Uncharted series but Activision decided not to go in that direction for whatever reason.
The last Pitfall game was in 2009, on the Wii.
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I got so frustrated when I read that Kotick was to remain CEO of Activision Blizzard. Luckily it only seems to be until the takeover is done.
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queue the incoming articles from every games website asking if call of duty is going to be exclusive going forward. i suspect that this is where microsoft makes a huge gamepass marketing push to the mainstream. call of dutys included on gamepass, or you pay 70 dollars on playstation. theyll convert a lot of people without pissing them off and still rake in tons of money from the microtransactions (and warzone is f2p anyway)
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i can see that happening but also could see Microsoft maybe on the games side not making/producing consoles and just making and bring games out which are sold on pc (Steam/Epic/GOG ETC....) mobile phones and tablet and on console though Playstation and Nintendo like Sega have done for years now and done very well
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A lot of people are speculating he's only staying on for the transitioning period, then kick him to the curb once Phil Spencer officially becomes CEO. Really hope that's true.
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I have mixed feelings about this, because I really don't like monopolies, but on the other hand, there is a possibility that all Blizzard games and latest Call of Duty games could come out on Steam
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oh i didn't realise Blizzard and king were included so they get Candy Crush on mobile which is nice and maybe Overwatch or world of war craft might come to Steam?
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will they bring back all the pulled games? transformers? spider man? cabela's hunting?
one can only dream
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maybe but of course those were co -owned with other companies like maybe Hasbro? but we can hope
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Activision's license deal with Hasbro ended in 2018 so unless they strike up a new license agreement those titles wouldn't be brought back under Activision.
I really want Transformers Devastation, so I do hope to see that as well as War for Cybertron and Fall of Cybertron back on Steam.
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had to look up what games they have. good IP turned into casino games
MS is hoarding serious game Devs, and i have no faith on them
at least this kill the battle.net
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Didn't know Activision (or Blizzard) was still around
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Activision / Blizzard have been crap for a rather long time, whereas Microsoft has always been one of the least awful and most consistent companies in almost everything they do (they aren't great, but they aren't terrible, unlike EA, Bethesda, Ubisoft, Squenix, literally 90% of AAA developers, etc).
That said, consolidation only hurts markets in the long run, and I fear this trend will just result in more anti-consumer trends like microtransactions. Maybe it will be good today, maybe it won't be bad tomorrow, but give it 5 years and people will probably be pointing at this as the death knell of some age of gaming that hasn't been named yet.
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Glad to see this source and not some vapid article with nothing to add to the subject. Also, good news imho.
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I'd play for the sake of nostalgia. I wonder if I would be able to recognize anything though. Isn't there a uhm... old skool server in operation by the way?
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Not going to happen, this collides with the Game Pass business model. Aside from that WoW was such a non-factor that I doubt Microsoft even cares what will happen with this game. This deal was about mobile and CoD, maybe Overwatch 2 if MS saw potential in the sequel or the IP.
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Source
Microsofts press release
Microsoft announced Tuesday it will buy video game giant Activision Blizzard in a $68.7 billion all-cash deal.
Shares of Activision soared about 37% in pre-market trading before being halted after the Wall Street Journal first reported the deal.
Microsoft shares fell more than 2% following the announcement
Activision, which is known for popular games such as Call of Duty and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, has been mired in controversy for the last several months following reports of sexual misconduct and harassment among the company’s executives. On Monday, Activision said it fired dozens of executives after an investigation.
Under the deal, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick, who has faced calls to resign over the cultural problems within his company, will remain CEO and report to Microsoft’s Xbox boss Phil Spencer.
Microsoft has gotten more aggressive with gaming over the past several years. It bought “Minecraft” maker Mojang for $2.5 billion in 2014. And last year, Microsoft completed a $7.5 billion acquisition of game maker Bethesda.
The deal also plays into a long-term vision for Microsoft as it competes with Meta (formerly Facebook) to build technologies to create a virtual world called the metaverse. In fact, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was the first Big Tech CEO to publicly acknowledge the value of the metaverse, months before Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Today, virtual worlds are dominated by gaming, but the hope is they expand to cater to other demographics and replace a lot of traditional social networking activity online.
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