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

[eastmen]

Starfield is a new IP that is single player? I'm not sure how this is the same as a pure CoD esport title.

Not sure what the difference is. They will both be microsoft exclusive. I mean halo is an e sport title also and it's only on microsoft platforms.

They have no real way of forcing anything, except for pricing. If they make the next cod exclusive there will just be outrage and they'll lose 1/2 - 2/3 of the cod revenue they bought. The only thing they can really do is make it a better deal with gamepass, or off exclusive dlc, but those won't entice anywhere near a majority to switch over.

Well the deal isn't done in time for the next game. The game after that will most likely be done. I am sure their plan is to provide exclusive content to microsofts platforms with call of duty and then transition.

I'm not sure it'll ever happen for COD. The backlash from COD being made exclusive will make the disagreements about MS making Bethesda titles exclusive seem like a tiny match next to a forest fire.

It could happen, but I think it's more likely that they'll keep COD multiplatform much like Minecraft. It's a way to not have most gamers turn sour on MS and keeps at least some goodwill in the face of MS potentially making other IPs exclusive.

Also, that's 100's of millions (possibly billions) of USD a year they'd be throwing away if they made it exclusive.

Regards,
SB

Doubtful. it's early enough in the transition. Even with Sony leading this generation its only by roughly 5m consoles. So its early enough that microsoft can still make call of duty exclusive and people who feel its an important game can buy an xbox or buy a pc to play it.

Unless your implying that Activision will simply continue making call of duty for ps4 ?

The article itself focuses on the Government looking into this WRT Apple, Google and Meta (Facebook). That makes sense as those platforms impact far more peoples lives. Mobile devices and mobile apps have significantly more consumer penetration than PCs and consoles. No doubt any new rules and regulations related to regulatory oversight of mergers would obviously apply to MS and any other digital tech company as well. But this is definitely not something that is being instigated due to anything MS do WRT to the video games market.

Regards,
SB

Microsoft said in the investor call this would make them third behind Trencent and Sony. So i doubt any of this would affect this purchase. It could prevent them from purchases of this size again in the future however. But I guess that depends on what Trencent and Sony do. If they keep buying up studios then Microsoft may be able to keep buying studios.

 

[Lurkmass]

We should make no mistake that Microsoft's ultimate end goal is to take advantage of having full ownership over Activision's content and that includes applying exclusivity to their most popular IPs. I imagine pretty soon we won't be seeing Activision games on other platforms anymore ...

 

[Silent_Buddha]

True, but this was already known. Some tweets are suggesting its much more bigger... but who knows!?

True, out of those companies that you listed, I could see a potential shocker in Square-Enix being acquired by Sony. They are pretty close and Square-Enix continue to release some titles exclusive to PlayStation. Although I'm not sure they would want to give up developing titles for NSW. That's an acquisition that could backfire on Sony in Japan if they were to make Square-Enix titles exclusive to PlayStation due to how popular NSW is in Japan. Outside of Japan, most gamers probably wouldn't care if Square-Enix stopped making NSW games.

I can't see anything else happening with Take-Two. Unlikely they would do a 12.7 billion USD acquisition if they were in negotiations to be acquired by another company. Likewise, unlikely they'll do another large acquisition after that.

EA might be tempted to buy someone?

I don't really see anything happening with Capcom or UBIsoft. But who knows at this point? I never would have thought Activision-Blizzard would get acquired before today.

Regards,
SB

 

[techuse]

There would be some vocal backlash but in the end gamers would just go and buy an Xbox to play COD.

 

[Rangers]

I dont really like this. It feels weird and unnecessary.

I remember MS bought Nokia and like in short order closed them down and laid everybody off. What were they even thinking?

If they werent in such a bad hardware position due to the S I'd feel better about it. I dont feel like theyre selling many consoles currently. The hardware is the most important part always IMO.

 

[RDGoodla]

Microsoft would be stupid to make cod exclusive. The backlash would be immense and they probably make 2/3 of their console revenue on playstation. You never know. I think the likely scenario is cod ends up free on gamepass but $70 on playstation.

Probably Sony has deals with Activision.

If COD releases on ms subscription then it will be also on Sony’s subscription.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

Microsoft said in the investor call this would make them third behind Trencent and Sony. So i doubt any of this would affect this purchase. It could prevent them from purchases of this size again in the future however. But I guess that depends on what Trencent and Sony do. If they keep buying up studios then Microsoft may be able to keep buying studios.

Given that Sony and Nintendo did not object to the Zenimax acquisition, I doubt they would here. I think there may actually be some surprising contributors to the regulatory consultation in due course. I wonder if the likes of Steam and Epic are wondering what Microsoft's future strategy may be for their increasing stable of games. Steam does well from Call of Duty sales but Microsoft may decide next week to only release their games through their own store because by releasing it elsewhere means they are giving up the ~30% retain cut which just seems foolish.

Companies chase goodwill until they don't need too, after which they chase profits. It's their goal and Microsoft now have an ever-increasing pile of investment that they need to recoup and shareholders have notoriously little patience. If this acquisiton goes ahead I can see this being the line that caused shareholders to demand more visibility in Microsoft's gaming business in financial reports. You can't just spend shareholders money without showing them that you are doing so responsibility and that the investments are paying off.

Back to CoD, I still don't see any problem myself but I am so far outside of the demographic of Call of Duty players I am probably overlooking things.

 

[mr magoo]

We should make no mistake that Microsoft's ultimate end goal is to take advantage of having full ownership over Activision's content and that includes applying exclusivity to their most popular IPs. I imagine pretty soon we won't be seeing Activision games on other platforms anymore ...

Highly doubt it, i dont think MSFT spend so much money on bethesda and activision to have more exclusives titles. They already need to put games on windows and xbox why would they ignore ps4 install base + ps5 + switch? That is millions of potential customers. Money is good, more money is better

Call of Duty Vanguard Sales Show This Franchise Will Still Dominate the Next Generation | Den of Geek

"The PS5 accounted for roughly 41% of Vanguard‘s physical sales in that region so far (UK), and the PS4 accounted for about 29% of those sales (the Xbox One and Xbox Series X accounted for 19% and 11%, respectfully)."

 

[techuse]

Highly doubt it, i dont think MSFT spend so much money on bethesda and activision to have more exclusives titles. They already need to put games on windows and xbox why would they ignore ps4 install base + ps5 + switch? That is millions of potential customers. Money is good, more money is better

Call of Duty Vanguard Sales Show This Franchise Will Still Dominate the Next Generation | Den of Geek

"The PS5 accounted for roughly 41% of Vanguard‘s physical sales in that region so far (UK), and the PS4 accounted for about 29% of those sales (the Xbox One and Xbox Series X accounted for 19% and 11%, respectfully)."

Because they want people to buy Xbox rather than PS. Sacrificing some short term revenue while you buy up the all the large franchises and lock them to your console serves that purpose quite well.

 

[Janne Kylliö]

I imagine pretty soon we won't be seeing Activision games on other platforms anymore ...

Unless the platform holders of the other platforms allow Game Pass + xcloud streaming on their platforms...

 

[arandomguy]

An interesting move would be if Microsoft attempts to completely upend the console model. It's a calculated risk but they can make everything exclusive to Gamepass and through a PR battle push the message that Playstation owners aren't locked out, just that Sony has to essentially accept Gamepass "side loading" onto the Playstation 5 (and/or 4).

 

[techuse]

If Microsoft can buy Activision they could also buy EA. Where would it stop?

 

[AlphaWolf]

I dont really like this. It feels weird and unnecessary.

I remember MS bought Nokia and like in short order closed them down and laid everybody off. What were they even thinking?

If they werent in such a bad hardware position due to the S I'd feel better about it. I dont feel like theyre selling many consoles currently. The hardware is the most important part always IMO.

Your feelings don't really match up with facts.

 

[Lurkmass]

Highly doubt it, i dont think MSFT spend so much money on bethesda and activision to have more exclusives titles. They already need to put games on windows and xbox why would they ignore ps4 install base + ps5 + switch? That is millions of potential customers. Money is good, more money is better

Call of Duty Vanguard Sales Show This Franchise Will Still Dominate the Next Generation | Den of Geek

"The PS5 accounted for roughly 41% of Vanguard‘s physical sales in that region so far (UK), and the PS4 accounted for about 29% of those sales (the Xbox One and Xbox Series X accounted for 19% and 11%, respectfully)."

Well it's exactly what's happening with their last acquisition (ZeniMax Media) so why should this one be any different ? Microsoft might think it's at least worthwhile to convert some of those customers to their own platforms or deprive their competitors access of content even if it is a loss or it requires a long timeframe for a return on investment ...

 

[eastmen]

True, out of those companies that you listed, I could see a potential shocker in Square-Enix being acquired by Sony. They are pretty close and Square-Enix continue to release some titles exclusive to PlayStation. Although I'm not sure they would want to give up developing titles for NSW. That's an acquisition that could backfire on Sony in Japan if they were to make Square-Enix titles exclusive to PlayStation due to how popular NSW is in Japan. Outside of Japan, most gamers probably wouldn't care if Square-Enix stopped making NSW games.

I can't see anything else happening with Take-Two. Unlikely they would do a 12.7 billion USD acquisition if they were in negotiations to be acquired by another company. Likewise, unlikely they'll do another large acquisition after that.

EA might be tempted to buy someone?

I don't really see anything happening with Capcom or UBIsoft. But who knows at this point? I never would have thought Activision-Blizzard would get acquired before today.

Regards,
SB

I agree with Square and the switch. But they could be a good fit with sony and may not have to worry as much about multiplatforms since sony is a much more stable company with multiple revenue sources.
At the same time I feel like the majority of Square games end up in development hell though. I have to be honest , i think i play square games even less often than activision.

I dont really like this. It feels weird and unnecessary.

I remember MS bought Nokia and like in short order closed them down and laid everybody off. What were they even thinking?

If they werent in such a bad hardware position due to the S I'd feel better about it. I dont feel like theyre selling many consoles currently. The hardware is the most important part always IMO.

The nokia deal was a bad move because microsoft wasn't willing to stay the course. They should have tried staying in it another generation of phones or two as they were getting market share in other countries.

Highly doubt it, i dont think MSFT spend so much money on bethesda and activision to have more exclusives titles. They already need to put games on windows and xbox why would they ignore ps4 install base + ps5 + switch? That is millions of potential customers. Money is good, more money is better

Call of Duty Vanguard Sales Show This Franchise Will Still Dominate the Next Generation | Den of Geek

"The PS5 accounted for roughly 41% of Vanguard‘s physical sales in that region so far (UK), and the PS4 accounted for about 29% of those sales (the Xbox One and Xbox Series X accounted for 19% and 11%, respectfully)."

Why doesn't sony put games on switch and xbox that is millions of potential customers ?

This is the same logic with microsoft keeping bethesda games exclusive. It will end the same way. Microsoft wants those millions of people to buy game pass ultimate and to a lesser extent microsoft hardware.

Because they want people to buy Xbox rather than PS. Sacrificing some short term revenue while you buy up the all the large franchises and lock them to your console serves that purpose quite well.

Exactly. Microsoft just spent 70B on one company. Do people really think if they miss out on 10m call of duty sales on a playstation platform ? That is chump change.

 

[mrcorbo]

MS are either thinking very very long term or there is a ROI factor here that we're not considering. Anyone have a grand total now for new studio/publisher investments since GamePass was launched?

 

[Shifty Geezer]

How much Game Pass is gonna be needed to pay this off?

 

[Deleted member 11852]

Because they want people to buy Xbox rather than PS. Sacrificing some short term revenue while you buy up the all the large franchises and lock them to your console serves that purpose quite well.

We are past the point where it would actually be cheaper to give away free Xbox consoles. Microsoft cannot engineer people wanting Xbox - and I've never really understood why Xbox seems to struggle to appeal/sell consoles, even in the 360-era where it should have utterly destroyed PS3 in sales - but the reason to invest (or take early losses) in any market is about the long-term return.

It definitely feels like by the time Microsot get a return here, we'll all be fighting polar bears for valuable real estate in the Arctic.

How much Game Pass is gonna be needed to pay this off?

About fifteen years. Assuming all GamePass revenue is channeled to just this and is not diverted to paying for the cost of running GamePass, covering the cost of acquiring Zenimax or running any of the 20+ first party studios. This doesn't account for GamePass's growth, but also assume the most optimistic revenue - i.e. everybody pays the full price for GamePass Ultimate every month. Which is staggeringly unlikely.

 

[techuse]

How much Game Pass is gonna be needed to pay this off?

A Microsoft monopolized console market pays it off.

We are past the point where it would actually be cheaper to give away free Xbox consoles. Microsoft cannot engineer people wanting Xbox - and I've never really understood why Xbox seems to struggle to appeal/sell consoles, even in the 360-era where it should have utterly destroyed PS3 in sales - but the reason to invest (or take early losses) in any market is about the long-term return.

It definitely feels like by the time Microsot get a return here, we'll all be fighting polar bears for valuable real estate in the Arctic.

Xbox being the only console able to play all the large 3rd party franchises would certainly engineer demand. When you can't play COD, Battlefield, EA sports games or any of the other big franchises that drive sales on a Playstation things would change drastically.

 

[Lurkmass]

MS are either thinking very very long term or there is a ROI factor here that we're not considering. Anyone have a grand total now for new studio/publisher investments since GamePass was launched?

Return on investment could come in the form of "maintaining or establishing monopoly power". Hoarding a limited resource like intellectual properties is almost as valuable as hoarding profits ...