Microsoft acquired Activision Blizzard King for $69 Billion on 2023-10-13

Hilarious that some people are pulling out 2 year old articles on Everwild as if they are telling the story of what's going on as MS Studios.


I'm sorry if you think the articles are too old, however, they do show MS's mismanagement and incompetence with managing their Xbox studios and why they have no games to show and why they now need to be buying up Activision to have games to launch on GamePass, both Everwild and the Perfect Dark reboot have been hit by major studio issues and therefore both games have been significantly delayed, there have been issues in other Xbox studios as well, here's an article from last year on Undead Labs and of course here is one from earlier this year regarding 343 Industries

Since its launch in late 2021, the latest game from the developer, Halo Infinite, has struggled to support its free-to-play live service model with a steady stream of content and adequate solutions for the title's technical issues. In the wake of the recent layoffs, multiple former 343 Industries employees have come forward with scathing criticisms of Microsoft's leadership and management policies, arguing that both Halo Infinite and 343 Industries would be in better positions were it not for "incompetent leadership.”

Ouch. Let's just hope that MS fixes all of their Xbox studio management issues before they infect Activision with those same failed policies.

Oh and on EverWild, I'm sure the game will be fantastic, when/if it is EverLaunched. :yes:
 
If it EverWould launch.

Thats how you make a pun.

Yes good point. Thank you. I didn't give it enough thought and didn't plan that out too well. Even if I had spotted it I have limited editing post rights so probably wouldn't be able to fix it anyway. Ah well.
 
It sounds like some people connected to the European Commission do not have much faith in MS's "committments" Not really surprising.
It also sounds like they think MS shouldn't be allowed to make shortcuts either.


Also it seems that Microsoft has more "influence" with the European Commission than perhaps they have with the UK's CMA, I guess they aren't paying their UK lobbyists enough ..lol




How many more "dirty games" are MS going to play ..lol
This says a lot and I find it hypocritical that this is ignored while assumptions and conspiracy theories about how regulators are trying to sabotage poor MS take more credence here.
 
I'm sorry if you think the articles are too old, however, they do show MS's mismanagement and incompetence with managing their Xbox studios and why they have no games to show and why they now need to be buying up Activision to have games to launch on GamePass, both Everwild and the Perfect Dark reboot have been hit by major studio issues and therefore both games have been significantly delayed, there have been issues in other Xbox studios as well, here's an article from last year on Undead Labs and of course here is one from earlier this year regarding 343 Industries
Lets not pretend that this is a Microsoft exclusive problem. EA, the Activision, and the Ubisoft have all had plenty of HR controversies regarding toxic workplaces, plenty of flops and games stuck in development hell. Every time Ubisoft shows Skull and Bones it's a different game! Beyond Good and Evil 2 has a sorted history involving HR issues and development problems?

This isn't to excuse anything that Microsoft employees have done, just to demonstrate that this isn't an exclusive problem to some sort of mismanagement by Microsoft. It happens everywhere in the industry. Both because people are trash, and because making games is hard.
 
Lets not pretend that this is a Microsoft exclusive problem. EA, the Activision, and the Ubisoft have all had plenty of HR controversies regarding toxic workplaces, plenty of flops and games stuck in development hell. Every time Ubisoft shows Skull and Bones it's a different game! Beyond Good and Evil 2 has a sorted history involving HR issues and development problems?

This isn't to excuse anything that Microsoft employees have done, just to demonstrate that this isn't an exclusive problem to some sort of mismanagement by Microsoft. It happens everywhere in the industry. Both because people are trash, and because making games is hard.
I’m personally all for rare to take their time and reboot as much as they need to. They aren’t making some clone of some game, this isn’t a stamp and go adventure title.

If SoT is the bar in terms of game design, and we are looking at something along that line of very different gameplay, I’m all for it.

I want new games not more clones
 
I want new games not more clones
Yes 100%. I completely understand why studios, publishers and even fans like sequels but I do feel that we are in a period of profound repetition. There's just too much money tied up in game development to no have a risk averse strategy, but I think that's the #1 oppressor of innovation. Rare has a least been a studio that's been able to pull off genre switches better than most, but there are plenty of examples of the fans soft revolting if a game is different than a previous game by a developer. Obviously there were issues beyond this, but you can still find people upset that CP2077 doesn't have a 3rd person option (without mods) because Witcher games were 3rd person. And that's just a tiny change to the formula from a studio that's basically only made action RPGs.
 
Also, let's be really fair: They are making Sea of Thieves and have 30 million players. It's not like they're mismanaged too badly if they have a live service game with 30 million players. Sony can't claim anything like that.

These narratives get tired. IMO MS doesn't need ABK, but it will help fill in the gaps nicely for them.

I realize the marketplace at large has different tastes, but I've been pretty happy with Gears Tactics, The Medium (funded by MS, which I personally think is better than most RE games), Flight Sim, Psychonauts 2, Pentiment, Grounded, Sea of Thieves, Gears of War 5: Hivebusters, Halo Infinite, Forza Horizon 5, Deathloop, Ghostwire Tokyo, Age of Empires II, and Hi-Fi Rush. That's what I've been playing. I'm not sure why everyone is crying so much. On top of that they paid devs so that GP had Vampire Survivors, A Plague Tale Requiem, Hades, Guardians of the Galaxy, Persona Series, Immortals FR, CIV 6, Tunic and Death's Door for me to enjoy as well. All great games.
 
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These narratives get tired. IMO MS doesn't need ABK, but it will help fill in the gaps nicely for them.
This is the weird thing. What the Activision-Blizzard acquisition would bring to Microsoft is shooters, RPGs and GAAS. Which are not gaps that Microsoft have in their console or PC title lineup.
 
This is the weird thing. What the Activision-Blizzard acquisition would bring to Microsoft is shooters, RPGs and GAAS. Which are not gaps that Microsoft have in their console or PC title lineup.
They have a hell of a developer team though. Always multiplatform, always top end graphics, and always running well and always on time.
 
They have a hell of a developer team though. Always multiplatform, always top end graphics, and always running well and always on time.
And the multiple employment law lawsuits takin place against Activision-Blizzard may explain this. It's was the equivalent of a software sweatshop with managers abusing and bullying staff.
 
And the multiple employment law lawsuits takin place against Activision-Blizzard may explain this. It's was the equivalent of a software sweatshop with managers abusing and bullying staff.
Were these the lawsuits? I always thought it was about sexual abuse and coverups. But it wouldn't be surprising if it was overwork crunch time.
 
This is the weird thing. What the Activision-Blizzard acquisition would bring to Microsoft is shooters, RPGs and GAAS. Which are not gaps that Microsoft have in their console or PC title lineup.
Crash, Spyro, and Tony Hawk Pro Skater say Hi. They all have Guitar Hero guitars and are racing go karts.
Also, a whole bunch of Sierra adventure game IP.
 
Also, let's be really fair: They are making Sea of Thieves and have 30 million players. It's not like they're mismanaged too badly if they have a live service game with 30 million players. Sony can't claim anything like that.

These narratives get tired. IMO MS doesn't need ABK, but it will help fill in the gaps nicely for them.

I realize the marketplace at large has different tastes, but I've been pretty happy with Gears Tactics, The Medium (funded by MS, which I personally think is better than most RE games), Flight Sim, Psychonauts 2, Pentiment, Grounded, Sea of Thieves, Gears of War 5: Hivebusters, Halo Infinite, Forza Horizon 5, Deathloop, Ghostwire Tokyo, Age of Empires II, and Hi-Fi Rush. That's what I've been playing. I'm not sure why everyone is crying so much. On top of that they paid devs so that GP had Vampire Survivors, A Plague Tale Requiem, Hades, Guardians of the Galaxy, Persona Series, Immortals FR, CIV 6, Tunic and Death's Door for me to enjoy as well. All great games.
Didn't Forza Horizon 4 just hit 15M users ?
 
Crash, Spyro, and Tony Hawk Pro Skater say Hi. They all have Guitar Hero guitars and are racing go karts.
Also, a whole bunch of Sierra adventure game IP.

Even with just RPG's , shooters and the like , there can't be too many. Games take a long time to create and if you don't want Gears 1 , 2 ,3 ,4 ,5,6 ,7 or Halo 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 and so on or Horizon Zero down 1,2,3,4,5,VR or Spiderman 1,2,3,4,5 you need to have a lot of teams working on a lot of diffrent ips in each genre to break up the staleness. MS's other franchises that they grew or purchased can now have more time between releases to be better products and keep them fresh.

There are other companies I'd rather MS have bought before this but MS wanted Activision for its IP's , Dev teams and mobile foot print
 
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