Obviously it's quite subjective, but yes. I despise a lot of what Activision does with their loot boxes and micro transactions.
Microsoft acquired Activision Blizzard King for $69 Billion on 2023-10-13
- Thread starter Rangers
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There are cheaper ways to grow your pool of developers than buying Activision. I am pretty sure MS could find 15 studios that would be willing to sell themselves for far less than $4.6 billion dollars a piece which is the average cost of what MS is paying per studio to acquire Activision.
But with what IP?
I can't comment to much as I don't play a lot of their games however it seems industry standard.
Industry standard across most major publishers and the legality of what they do doesn't necessarily have much to do with the ethics of them. That's not really an argument that should be made, "well everyone does it". If everyone thought that way about company's actions across many industries then they would contribute to get away with anything and become worse.
Again, it's very subjective and it's ok if you don't agree. We shouldn't completely derail this thread into a discussion on the morality of gambling mechanics in modern video gaming. It would go on forever.
The ones that these studios own
Plus MS can create some new ones. Something they were relatively incompetent at during all these years
With the money they had they could have created whole franchises.
If Sony can buy small studios and bring out new and successful IPs, so can MS. But they obviously have a different business model.
Depends how you see it and it can go both ways.
For example becoming big in a multimillion industry may in relative terms own a bigger percentage. But becoming big in a multibillion industy is enormously more significant even if in relative terms you own less percentage compared to the former example.
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Yeah but its still better to own something people recognise and want than build something new from scratch. Thats why some brands are so valuable like coca cola,apple, levis etc. Building new ips its not always easy and even if you have new game that is great this is not guaranteed success. Titanfall imo is far better than any cod but its dead. Sadly.
I think msft is trying to create new ips as good as they can, forza forza horizon, sea of thiefs, grounded, fable, psychonauts etc just on top of my head (althou i may be wrong if some of those are not org IPs created by msft, so apolgies).
Sony bought insomniac and naughty dog when they were already very famous and had successful IPs. I think you are being very one sided.
You are speaking in general but you aren't making specific arguments. Yeah it is better for MS to own pre existing highly popular multiplatform franchises. Also generally speaking for every single company its better to have a monopoly, own 100% of the market and own every popular brand anyways. Every company wants to ideally own and control everything.
So your statement "it is still better to own something people recognise" isn't meaningful in itself nor does it bring anything new on the table.
It is though much more meaningful and beneficial for the market when you can bring out something new that people will enjoy enough to start recognising.
That adds more in variety in the market and better competition.
All these years MS barely managed to do that, whereas Sony managed. Again, not speaking about concepts of "morality" or "virtuosity". Only MS's lack of competence in bringing enough new IPs that are successful and leave an impact
Surely they made a few IP's here and there, but there are few notable mentions. Nintendo and Sony manage much better without having to own pre-existing third party franchises.
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"So your statement "it is still better to own something people recognise" isn't meaningful in itself nor does it bring anything new on the table.
It is though much more meaningful and beneficial for the market when you can bring out something new that people will enjoy enough to start recognising.
That adds more in variety in the market and better competition."
Agree, i will rather see some new IPs coming from all big players, but there is a reason why we get every year new cod, fifa, nba etc etc The most anticipated game this year is next God Of War. Also remakes are huge, last of us is like 3rd or 4 remake at this time?
Nintendo and Sony make some new Ips but most successful ones are? Mario, Metroid, Pokemon, GOW, GT, Uncharted, Ratched, Horizon
Again you go after what people market/wants, if people want sequels you give them that.
And if you own studio that have IP that is desired i think you focus first on that. I think Bungie will continue to work on Destiny2.
"Surely they made a few IP's here and there, but there are few notable mentions. Nintendo and Sony manage much better without having to own pre-existing third party franchises."
true, msft screwed up very badly xone era, they almost killed xbox at this point. They are trying to fix it now, many studios are working on new Ips or trying to reviwe old ips, the coalition is working on new project, playground working on new fable, rare working on new Ip there are few new ips known only by code names at this point . One does not exclude the other.
The best new IP from Sony this gen is (imo) Returnal, and they own IP after acquiring studio, so i dont know if they are doing much better but better for sure. For now at least.
It is though much more meaningful and beneficial for the market when you can bring out something new that people will enjoy enough to start recognising.
That adds more in variety in the market and better competition."
Agree, i will rather see some new IPs coming from all big players, but there is a reason why we get every year new cod, fifa, nba etc etc The most anticipated game this year is next God Of War. Also remakes are huge, last of us is like 3rd or 4 remake at this time?
Nintendo and Sony make some new Ips but most successful ones are? Mario, Metroid, Pokemon, GOW, GT, Uncharted, Ratched, Horizon
Again you go after what people market/wants, if people want sequels you give them that.
And if you own studio that have IP that is desired i think you focus first on that. I think Bungie will continue to work on Destiny2.
"Surely they made a few IP's here and there, but there are few notable mentions. Nintendo and Sony manage much better without having to own pre-existing third party franchises."
true, msft screwed up very badly xone era, they almost killed xbox at this point. They are trying to fix it now, many studios are working on new Ips or trying to reviwe old ips, the coalition is working on new project, playground working on new fable, rare working on new Ip there are few new ips known only by code names at this point . One does not exclude the other.
The best new IP from Sony this gen is (imo) Returnal, and they own IP after acquiring studio, so i dont know if they are doing much better but better for sure. For now at least.
Silent_Buddha
Legend
But we were talking about the effects of the purchase on the industry.
As such, if X purchase is a larger percentage of the industry then it has a larger effect on said industry. Doesn't matter about the dollar value at that point. The larger share of a market an entity has when purchased means that the purchaser just gained a larger influence on that industry.
Sure the dollar amount of the purchase for Activision-Blizzard is huge and record setting. But in terms of it's impact, or alternatively how much control it'll grant its purchaser, over the industry it's not unprecedented.
Think of it another way, despite multiple attempts by multiple publishers in the past to corner a controlling interest in the gaming industry, they've always ultimately failed because gamers are fickle and there's always new talent waiting to exploit an opportunity.
COD is huge, yes. But if MS does something to piss off the gamers, they can and will abandon that IP in a heartbeat and look to find their fix in other places. Ergo, MS pulling COD from PS (largest group of COD players) entails a large risk of them turning COD into an irrelevant IP.
Regards,
SB
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D
Deleted member 11852
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It's unprecedented in that the acquirer here is partisan to particular platform in the console space.
What other acquisition has been larger? Something I' learned through this acquisition is how absurdly massive and evergreen Call of Duty is. I had no idea because competitive shooters are not something I care about. But there is a reason that the world's largest monopolies are all progressive the acquisition beyond the initial consideration stage which is where most most videogame industry acquisitions start and end.
I think a lot of people don't realize that this is all a cycle that continues to repeat. Just look at why activison exists. It was the first 3rd party company. Back when it was formed only the console makers produced games. Atari made atari games and that was it. Then activison was formed by the makers of atari's most popular games. Then as Activison grew they bought more and more companies 25 of them and then they were bought by vivendi or merged with them. You then had Vivendi games , blizzard , activision and Sierra all in one company.
What is going to happen is that people are going to naturally leave Acitvision after the purchase and start their own studios which will grow and be bought or will buy other companies and so on and so forth.
All these big companies are built off the backs of purchased small companies. I can't think if any large Developer that hasn't bought another developer at some point. Nintendo has done it, Sony has done it , Microsoft has done it and so on and so forth. That wont ever change.
People think Activision is such a big deal but heck EA bought origin and at the time Origin made he wildly popular ultima series (which in part inspired dragon quest and the jrpg genre) and wing commander. They bought Westwood that made the wildly popular command and conquer games.
Our vision for gaming: More choice and more games for people everywhere
news.microsoft.com
FTC decision on Microsoft's Activision deal may come by late November (NASDAQ:ATVI)
A U.S. Federal Trade Commission decision on Microsoft's (MSFT) planned $69 billion acquisition of Activision (ATVI) may come as early as late November. The review is still at the staff...
seekingalpha.com
We'll have UK,US,NZ,AU in November if I didn't forget one.
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Deleted member 11852
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Apart from playing Starfield and Elder Scrolls VI on PlayStation. Fuck PlayStation.
PC, TV, Mobile, tablet, laptop and console are all devices which they'll let you play on.
Can't guarantee every product under each category though.
D
Deleted member 11852
Guest
Then don't say "any device". It's not any, it is select devices - which may be devices which Micosoft offer Edge or a bespoke client on. Dodge that awkward bullet with a more accurate choice of words.PC, TV, Mobile, tablet, laptop and console are all devices which they'll let you play on. Can't guarantee every product under each category though.
Xbox is a console device, so if they support that then console is covered in the any device.
They never said any and all devices.
The device is console, not the product PS.
They are supporting tv device, not all tv's (yet)
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