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

[iroboto]

Back for the meltdowns and list wars. Don't disappoint me. "lazy devs" for extra credit.

twitter is the place for meltdowns, and I'm sure for other gaming forums.
I'm fairly positive they'll leave these franchises on PS.

As DSoup says, fixing and grabbing the Blizzard IPs is where the main strategic benefit is. Most of these are on PC, but having a foothold into Asia now where they are now part of the Xbox ecosystem to play their games is the big win.

 

[iroboto]

I guess you need to buy talent when you don’t have it. I hope this is for the better, but monopolies are usually the death of so many jobs. I wonder if they’ll begin to buy direct competitors soon.

talent is being wasted over there.
WoW -- the too big to fail, is failing
Warcraft is dead
Starcraft is dead
Diablo is dead
OW is dying as well.

Most of these are big PC franchises outside of Diablo and OW. I see this as a good thing. Once again, I don't see this merger happening if MS is only looking to purchase to make things exclusive.

 

[eastmen]

twitter is the place for meltdowns, and I'm sure for other gaming forums.
I'm fairly positive they'll leave these franchises on PS.

As DSoup says, fixing and grabbing the Blizzard IPs is where the main strategic benefit is. Most of these are on PC, but having a foothold into Asia now where they are now part of the Xbox ecosystem to play their games is the big win.

integrate battlenet into the xbox app to drive more people to xbox and game pass. For wow add in perks for being a game pass subscriber.

talent is being wasted over there.
WoW -- the too big to fail, is failing
Warcraft is dead
Starcraft is dead
Diablo is dead
OW is dying as well.

Most of these are big PC franchises outside of Diablo and OW. I see this as a good thing. Once again, I don't see this merger happening if MS is only looking to purchase to make things exclusive.

Acitvision has made a lot of dumb choices in these franchises and I think as part of MS they can pivot a bit and look at each project and not have to worry about getting it out the door

 

[mr magoo]

For the love of God please fire Kotick and stream it on twich where Phil is dragging him out off the building and kicking him in the ass. Thats all fans want from this buyout

 

[Silenti]

talent is being wasted over there.
WoW -- the too big to fail, is failing
Warcraft is dead
Starcraft is dead
Diablo is dead
OW is dying as well.

Most of these are big PC franchises outside of Diablo and OW. I see this as a good thing. Once again, I don't see this merger happening if MS is only looking to purchase to make things exclusive.

They same was said about Bethesda titles. The only game I can think of that has remained multiplatform, and was not under short term contractual obligations to release elsewhere, is Minecraft.

 

[iroboto]

Acitvision has made a lot of dumb choices in these franchises and I think as part of MS they can pivot a bit and look at each project and not have to worry about getting it out the door

Yup, Blizzard is a maker of some very unique titles, and Activision is only interested in more profits year over year. Luckily this stance changes when MS takes over. Suddenly those IPs are worth a lot more because of it's pull to larger audiences and it's inroads into Asia.

 

[eastmen]

For the love of God please fire Kotick and stream it on twich where Phil is dragging him out off the building and kicking him in the ass. Thats all fans want from this buyout

Phil will be CEO of Microsoft gaming and Acitivsion will report directly to him. I expect Bobby and the rest of activision head honchos to stick around for the contracted term and then disappear

 

[iroboto]

They same was said about Bethesda titles. The only game I can think of that has remained multiplatform, and was not under short term contractual obligations to release elsewhere, is Minecraft.

Did anything get removed from Sony's store yet? (not counting new IPs).

I generally expect MP based titles to stay multiplatform. They need a big population to survive.

 

[eastmen]

Yup, Blizzard is a maker of some very unique titles, and Activision is only interested in more profits year over year. Luckily this stance changes when MS takes over. Suddenly those IPs are worth a lot more because of it's pull to larger audiences and it's inroads into Asia.

Yea even COD going from every year to every other year can breath life into the franchise. Esp if they keep 3 teams working on it.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

talent is being wasted over there.
WoW -- the too big to fail, is failing
Warcraft is dead. Starcraft is dead. Diablo is dead. OW is dying as well.

I do wonder if it's too late for some of these given key people, who were at Blizzard for a decade or two, have left in the last 2-3 years to go to different companies. In time, maybe Microsoft can entice some of them back to work on reinvigorating some of these franchises.

 

[AzBat]

Crazy! Mind blown.

Trying to figure out which Activision titles I actually play though. Probably not going to affect me, but damn this is nuts.

Tommy McClain

 

[iroboto]

I do wonder if it's too late for some of these given key people, who were at Blizzard for a decade or two, have left in the last 2-3 years to go to different companies. In time, maybe Microsoft can entice some of them back to work on reinvigorating some of these franchises.

lol.. I feel like all Blizzard fans are rejoicing here. Yea I hope they can bring back some of them. I mean, fuck MS better bring back all of them. I have been waiting forever for Warcraft 4. And there needs to be a new mmo to replace WoW.
Starcraft needs to return. OW2 needs massive help as well.

I know they left to form new studios so hopefully this may bring them back into the fold once they clean shop

 

[mr magoo]

psst

https://twitter.com/x/status/1483449988889911303

 

[snc]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1483438540453289985

love this account :d

 

[cheapchips]

I was surprised that Activision Blizzard have around 10,000 employees. Their output doesn't seem reflect that many people. Guess there's plenty of WoW support staff and maybe 2 HR people

 

[SmooTh]

psst

https://twitter.com/x/status/1483449988889911303

And Spyro and Conker and Banjo.
Xbox Smash clone incoming

 

[arandomguy]

I was surprised that Activision Blizzard have around 10,000 employees. Their output doesn't seem reflect that many people. Guess there's plenty of WoW support staff and maybe 2 HR people

Actvision Blizzard's largest segment is mobile and it's growing faster than PC or console. King Digital alone is more than 25% of revenue and operating income.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

lol.. I feel like all Blizzard fans are rejoicing here. Yea I hope they can bring back some of them. I mean, fuck MS better bring back all of them. I have been waiting forever for Warcraft 4.

The erosion of Blizzard started really slowly after the merger but it was very detectable and only got worse over time. Getting all the iconic game designers back will take a while because they're scattered all over the place on other projects for varying durations but the fact that there is even any hope is better than it was this morning!

 

[Deleted member 11852]

love this account :d

I missed this guy so much!

 

[Nesh]

Figured , smart move by ms

Game pass is getting better

How is it getting better?