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

[Johnny Awesome]

It's funny that so many people on these forums don't understand the value of the IP and even physical assets that MS is acquiring in this deal. Some personnel will leave, but many will not and MS will have gained a ton of functional studios.

I can't believe some are saying they should have just pissed away billions on exclusivity contracts. Far better to own the IP.

 

[eastmen]

It's funny that so many people on these forums don't understand the value of the IP and even physical assets that MS is acquiring in this deal. Some personnel will leave, but many will not and MS will have gained a ton of functional studios.

I can't believe some are saying they should have just pissed away billions on exclusivity contracts. Far better to own the IP.

Yup.

Looking at that list of potential purchases for MS that was presented at the trial and damn do I wish they had bought sega. Not for nothing but MS would have made emulators for all of sega's systems and added all first party sega games from the master system on up including arcade versions to game pass. They likely would also have allowed 3rd parties to offer their games for sale. It be great to have access to all that again without resorting to roms

 

[iceberg187]

 

[wco81]

So apparently there were some documents in discovery and MS pointed out that they point to Project Q, PS5 portable with 8 inch display for $300 or less?

 

[Shortbread]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1674096329050423306

 

[eastmen]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1674096329050423306

It doesn't affect anything. What is good for Activision as a stand alone company and what is good for ABK as part of MS are different things.

ABK / SONY/ Nintendo and others are like Blockbuster before netflix saying that a rental service where we ship discs to someone to rent makes no sense , we have brick and mortar stores that people go to. We see what happened with Blockbuster in the long run .



Today the Judge has said subscription services are in the same market as full priced games and they are just another payment model ,





So if the FTC gets the injunction it would take 3 years for the case to go through the courts.

I don't see the injunction getting granted but hey maybe she heard something that makes her want to grant one. I think her asking why the pc isn't the same market based on price is the series s is the same market at $300 and then asking why the switch at the same price isn't the same market

 

[see colon]

I also think that MS doesn't actually need exclusivity. Just having COD/Diablo/WOW and whatever else day one on game pass is enough to make the purchase on the xbox side of the business make sense. All the king stuff makes sense for the mobile/windows portion of the business also.

I've said this before, but the value of Gamepass is only quantifiable if games exist for a price outside of Gamepass. For example, MLB The Show being on Gamepass is a big deal because it's an annual release that is $70 on PS5, but included on Gamepass for Xbox. If you play MLB The Show online, you would have to pay for Live or PSPlus, and the jump from Live to Gamepass Ultimate is $5, soon to be $6. Even at $6, that's $72 a year, meaning it's essentially equal to the cost of the game, and if you keep subscribing, next years game gets added at launch.

When you add a catalog of games from a portfolio as deep as Activision, and you have multiple $70 games launching each year, that quantifiable value only increases.

 

[Shortbread]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1674101426492932128

https://twitter.com/x/status/1674107215857188901

https://twitter.com/x/status/1674108505408536606

https://twitter.com/x/status/1674155080742731778

https://twitter.com/x/status/1674156189188341761

 

[Shortbread]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1674157657408651266

https://twitter.com/x/status/1674158462022852609

 

[eastmen]

Again to use netflix and block buster. Netflix invested heavily into streaming early on way before it was viable for a service. Only one company is around now. It may take another decade or two before cloud streaming is a real alternative vs dedicated hardware but by then it will likely be way to late to start up a cloud gaming business. Just look at how bad most of tehse apps are doing for movie streaming

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Keep in mind fast growing doesn't necessarily mean major or even large or even significant. If X brings in 1 billion USD in revenue while Y brings in 100k dollars in revenue in a year and then the next year X brings in 1.5 billion in revenue and Y brings in 200k in revenue, then Y is the fastest growing part of your business, but it's still small potatoes.

And it being small potatoes also doesn't mean that it couldn't be a pillar of your business strategy. As Nadella said, it's a "big bet". IE - it's a big gamble, a huge gamble. It's a minor part now, but if the bet/gamble pays out perhaps in 10-20 years it might actually be worth something or the bet/gamble doesn't pay off and it remains small potatoes or even discarded by the wayside as a potentially promising market that can't be exploited due to limitation of technology not allowing it to draw in a significantly large number of consumers.

Every company likes to hype up a potential market, especially to investors.

Regards,
SB

 

[Shortbread]

Microsoft Accuses Sony of Paying to Block Games from Xbox Game Pass

Sony pays "block fees" to publishers

www.pushsquare.com

Microsoft has claimed Sony pays publishers and developers "block fees" to stop them from putting their titles on Xbox Game Pass. In response to Sony's assertions that the Call of Duty franchise influences "users' console choice" and lacks a proper rival, the Xbox Series X|S maker has said Sony is stalling the company's ability to grow its subscription service. This is because of payments made to developers that prevent them "from adding content to Game Pass and other competing subscription services".

https://twitter.com/x/status/1674128223234412570

So they're both full of shit.

Whatever the outcome of the FTC injunction case, one thing is for sure, both Microsoft and Sony are whiney hypocritical twats.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

Sorry, this is something completely inane that popped into my head when I saw that, so do not take this seriously.

Sony (externally via PR and talks with regulators): Oh shit, MS buying ABK might foreclose our ability to compete and we may have to shut down PlayStation. They're probably going to make COD exclusive!
Sony/PlayStation Fans: Shit MS buying ABK is going to hurt Sony so much!

I've been making the point that companies public messaging differs from internal positions throughout but a lot of people gave been willing to overlook it. In the last few days, we've had examples where Microsoft, Sony and Activision, have all been exposed as peddling a public narrative that they didn't believe internally.

Some of these mental gymnastics is impressive, but I bet this will be forgotten quickly by the people who support their preferred plastic box/megacorp. It's pathetic.

It's funny that so many people on these forums don't understand the value of the IP and even physical assets that MS is acquiring in this deal. Some personnel will leave, but many will not and MS will have gained a ton of functional studios.

The value of any given IP is dependant on what profit it can generate or what you can sell it for. For the financial year 2022-23 (ending 31 March 2023), Activision-Blizzard net profit was $1.85bn. With Activision-Blizzard, analysts are not predicting "some" people will leave, but many because of the appalling conditions. People will see out their contracts then bail. It doesn't take much in the way of personnel change to turn a functional studio into one that's in talent rebuild mode.

Keep in mind fast growing doesn't necessarily mean major or even large or even significant. If X brings in 1 billion USD in revenue while Y brings in 100k dollars in revenue in a year and then the next year X brings in 1.5 billion in revenue and Y brings in 200k in revenue, then Y is the fastest growing part of your business, but it's still small potatoes.

Which is a statement supported by the evidence given by Nadella on cloud, something "exceeding expectations" sounds less positive when you concede that your expectations were "low".

https://twitter.com/x/status/1674128223234412570

So they're both full of shit. Whatever the outcome of the FTC injunction case, one thing is for sure, both Microsoft and Sony are whiney hypocritical twats.

I read this last night and eye-rolled. So basically, everything Microsoft have been accusing Sony or doing, Microsoft have now been discovered as doing.

The testimony of Kotick and Nadella were bad, and definitely did not help Microsoft's case. But I've learned that the antics during trials often aren't that relevant to the outcomes. However it has demonstrated how the heads of three large companies with an interest in video games are just a bunch of wankers.

 

[Shortbread]

I read this last night and eye-rolled. So basically, everything Microsoft have been accusing Sony or doing, Microsoft have now been discovered as doing.

The testimony of Kotick and Nadella were bad, and definitely did not help Microsoft's case. But I've learned that the antics during trials often aren't that relevant to the outcomes. However it has demonstrated how the heads of three large companies with an interest in video games are just a bunch of wankers.

You can't make this shit up. It's like fanboys / console warriors are running both these companies.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1674173368646483969

 

[cheapchips]

Whatever the outcome of the FTC injunction case, one thing is for sure, both Microsoft and Sony are whiney hypocritical twats.

"But they did it first!"

<insert Spiderman pointing meme>

 

[Deleted member 11852]

You can't make this shit up. It's like fanboys / console warriors are running both these companies.

I'm shocked he's blaming Sony for controlling (defining) the successful market conditions, because they don't. Customers do. They will buy appealing products and subscribe to appealing services.

It's incredibly naive for Microsoft's CEO to think that if you cannot differentiate your product in a content market (video games), with content not available anywhere else, then people who value varied content will not be drawn to competitor's platforms where they can not only play all the content on your platform, but the exclusive content for that platform too.

Microsoft bet big on GamePass drawing people in, and it has not to the degree they wanted. That's not Sony's fault. The victim-blaming is strong from this CEO. "Our strategy didn't work, it's the other guy's fault". F***ing hell, Microsoft. You really are utterly defeated aren't you?

 

[Shortbread]

I'm shocked he's blaming Sony for controlling (defining) the successful market conditions, because they don't. Customers do. They will buy appealing products and subscribe to appealing services.

It's incredibly naive for Microsoft's CEO to think that if you cannot differentiate your product in a content market (video games), with content not available anywhere else, then people who value varied content will not be drawn to competitor's platforms where they can not only play all the content on your platform, but the exclusive content for that platform too.

Microsoft bet big on GamePass drawing people in, and it has not to the degree they wanted. That's not Sony's fault. The victim-blaming is strong from this CEO. "Our strategy didn't work, it's the other guy's fault". F***ing hell, Microsoft. You really are utterly defeated aren't you?

Microsoft and Sony would do great if they both offered (all) their respective first-party IPs/games across each others platforms. Leaving them to strictly compete on hardware, online services, and ecosystem engagement & userbase retention. This current attitude and gaslighting between the both of them is embarrassing.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

Microsoft and Sony would do great if they both offered (all) their respective first-party IPs/games across each others platforms. Leaving them to strictly compete on hardware, online services, and ecosystem engagement & userbase retention. This current attitude and gaslighting between the both of them is embarrassing.

I doubt Sony would agree with that, indeed Jim Ryan's testimony makes it clear that exclusive platform content is one of PlayStation's biggest differentiators. And I'm not convinced the added time to support other platforms would work in some scenarios, e.g. if Sony's re-re-lease of The Last of Us Part I on PS5 also had to accommodate the Series S, how much extra time, money and effort would that take?

 

[Deleted member 11852]

When you add a catalog of games from a portfolio as deep as Activision, and you have multiple $70 games launching each year, that quantifiable value only increases.

To users, because GamePass is tremendous value for money for consumers. Microsoft have yet balance the tremendous value to consumers with commensurate profitability for themselves. They're not actually a charity, but you could be forgiven for almost believing that!

 

[Deleted member 11852]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1674096329050423306

Kotick is being honest here. He obviously has much to gain personally from the merger taking place but he doesn't agree with this. The only shocking thing here is a glimmer is dissenting honesty, but he likely has to say this because he's probably said it in writing and if he says something contrary that can be provided in evidence, that is perjury.