Microsoft buys Activision Blizzard

[Morgoth]

Microsoft wins FTC fight to buy Activision Blizzard​

 

[Elttharion]

So, a Japanese publisher is next. Probably Sega considering how close they are to MS nowadays.

 

[Tacgnol]

Microsoft wins FTC fight to buy Activision Blizzard​

Key bit re:CMA:

Minutes after Judge Corley’s decision, both the CMA and Microsoft have agreed to pause their legal battle in the UK to negotiate how the Activision Blizzard deal could be modified to address the CMA’s cloud gaming concerns. The CAT will need to approve this pause, but it increasingly looks like all parties are willing to secure a remedy in the UK.

CMA is gonna blink. The writing was on the wall when Sunak basically threatened them with removing their power if they didn't reconsider. This gives them a way to save face if they come to some sort of "negotiated" agreement.

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

So, a Japanese publisher is next. Probably Sega considering how close they are to MS nowadays.

Microsoft only seems to think real hard about buying Sega but never pulls the trigger.

I figured Microsoft would’ve bought them a few years ago to flesh out their Xbox Game Pass. Like it made sense to me something they might do is buy them up, and have them start making the kind of arcade games they used to do, the kind of stuff people don’t seem willing to buy anymore as a full retail game but sure as shit would play for “free” on a monthly subscription service like Game Pass. They’re definitely the kind of thing Sega could pump out fairly quickly. I did find it a bit funny during all this that they were mauling over buying Sega again like I was thinking they would...but they didn’t do it. And unless they throw a bunch of money at Sammy it doesn’t sound like Sammy is interested in selling.

The best time for Microsoft to have bought Sega was the first time they were thinking of it. Back before the Xbox came out. Before Sega kind of went under, a bunch of their talent left, studios got consolidated down, and Sammy came in and bought them up.

Microsoft seems friendly with Sega, and they’ve thought about buying them more than once, but if they were really going after a Japanese studio I’d think Capcom or Bandai Namco would be the smart buys. Bandai Namco especially would give Microsoft, who historically does terrible in Japan, the rights to many popular Japanese franchises. Would also give them the Smash Bros. team.

 

[Elttharion]

So, a Japanese publisher is next. Probably Sega considering how close they are to MS nowadays.

Microsoft only seems to think real hard about buying Sega but never pulls the trigger.

I figured Microsoft would’ve bought them a few years ago to flesh out their Xbox Game Pass. Like it made sense to me something they might do is buy them up, and have them start making the kind of arcade games they used to do, the kind of stuff people don’t seem willing to buy anymore as a full retail game but sure as shit would play for “free” on a monthly subscription service like Game Pass. They’re definitely the kind of thing Sega could pump out fairly quickly. I did find it a bit funny during all this that they were mauling over buying Sega again like I was thinking they would...but they didn’t do it. And unless they throw a bunch of money at Sammy it doesn’t sound like Sammy is interested in selling.

The best time for Microsoft to have bought Sega was the first time they were thinking of it. Back before the Xbox came out. Before Sega kind of went under, a bunch of their talent left, studios got consolidated down, and Sammy came in and bought them up.

Microsoft seems friendly with Sega, and they’ve thought about buying them more than once, but if they were really going after a Japanese studio I’d think Capcom or Bandai Namco would be the smart buys. Bandai Namco especially would give Microsoft, who historically does terrible in Japan, the rights to many popular Japanese franchises. Would also give them the Smash Bros. team.

If MS wanted to really pull the rug from under Sony they would just buy SE. They have the money for it and Square had a significant number of flops in the last few years.

In reality they could go for any Japanese publisher. The main reason I see them going after Sega is because they are already quite close (at least MS thinks so) and they would also puchase a bunch of PC centric studios and IPs.

 

[tommy heavenly6]

Modern Sega is kind of a zombie anyways. It's not worth buying just for the Yakuza games and the occasional Sonic game. Persona would lose all relevance in Japan if kept as XBOX/Windows exclusive.

 

[lycanwarrior]

I dunno if this has already been mentioned on this thread but the news in the financial reporting on the blocked deal is that it will be nearly impossible to overturn in the UK.

The CMA's (semi-governmental agency who have blocked it) decision can only be overturned if it can be demonstrated to the tribunal that they acted "irrationally, illegally or with procedural impropriety". The tribunal won't actually engage with any of the facts of the merger whatsoever - a successful appeal has to win solely on the basis of professional malpractice. That's quite a high bar given that the CMA's powers are, in law, extremely broad and it is staff with non-political civil-servant types who don't usually (in the UK) take bribes. Consequently the CMA tend to win most of these appeals.

It's actually a really hard job for MS/Activisions lawyers to get this overturned. The UK case won't be arguing the toss over call of duty or whatever - they need to find errors of procedure in the CMA's process. Hard.

They'll likely not include Actiblizz games in Gamepass for the UK or have a 3rd party distributor for the games there, from my understanding.

Hell, they might just pull the games out of the UK as the CEO has hinted at earlier.

I'd be interested in a link for that because my understanding is that it's the merger that has been blocked and they can't just do it anyway and then make something slightly different for the UK. The block is "extra-territorial" which means it applies worldwide.

Doubt MS will pull out of the UK. That's just stuff execs say when they are butthurt.

https://wccftech.com/microsoft-ceo-doesnt-rule-out-carving-activision-blizzard-games-out-of-the-uk/

Although this is might be moot point now that MSFT/ACTiblizz is negotiating with CMA again as we speak lol.

 

[fizzelopeguss]

The wog is chatting complete shit. It's their second market.

As for the Kwazhars And the Eurocucks, I don't know what the fuck they're thinking greenlighting this. Especially the latter with all their pigeon-chesting over yank tech companies having too much clout. The backhanders must be apocalyptic.

 

[Elttharion]

Modern Sega is kind of a zombie anyways. It's not worth buying just for the Yakuza games and the occasional Sonic game. Persona would lose all relevance in Japan if kept as XBOX/Windows exclusive.

Total War is a cashcow and CA is the biggest UK studio IIRC. They can release the games on the Nintendo consoles and just exclude Playstation. That way they would keep the franchise relevant while strangling Sony at the same time.

 

[Abu Antar]

Don't forget Football Manager.

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

Modern Sega is kind of a zombie anyways. It's not worth buying just for the Yakuza games and the occasional Sonic game. Persona would lose all relevance in Japan if kept as XBOX/Windows exclusive.

Pretty sure Persona sells more in the West than Japan. Japan still buys console games, but Japan has been more mobile game centric for maybe more than a decade now. While I’m sure there’d be a hope on Microsoft’s part that if they did do something like buy Sega that it’d help them in Japan, they wouldn’t be buying them for Japan like it’s the pre Xbox or the 360 years, they’d be buying them for Xbox Game Pass.

If Microsoft bought Sega they’d likely be having them operating more like in their Dreamcast/Xbox days. It wouldn’t necessarily be for anything Sega does now, it’d be for the back catalog they can use for Xbox Game Pass, and it’d likely be for smaller future games they could regularly put out on Game Pass. Like all the stuff they do now would be stuff they want, but theoretically you’d be getting Sega so they could regularly be putting out new game like they did during their arcade and console days.

 

[Hellraiser]

Microsoft wins FTC fight to buy Activision Blizzard​

And even more IPs will be forever lost in a corporate blob. MS is probably worse than EA with the handling of old IPs (well maybe minus the mobile spinoff raep EA did). EA at least had SMAC, Dungeon Keeper, Wing Commander and bunch of other old stuff rereleased on GOG, MS can't fucking even put Freelancer on it let alone Starlancer, the lazy cunts.

 

[Late Bloomer]

And even more IPs will be forever lost in a corporate blob. MS is probably worse than EA with the handling of old IPs (well maybe minus the mobile raep EA did). EA at least had SMAC, Dungeon Keeper, Wing Commander and bunch of other old stuff rereleased on GOG, MS can't fucking even put Freelancer on it let alone Starlancer, the lazy cunts.

Good. Everything Blizzard has touched in the last 10 years deserves the Microsoft treatment. This is a win.

 

[Tehdagah]

Activision nowadays pretty much only makes Call of Duty and the occasional Blizzard game. Even if they exclude PlayStation, Sony will lose like, 5 franchises at most?

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

Microsoft wins FTC fight to buy Activision Blizzard​

And even more IPs will be forever lost in a corporate blob. MS is probably worse than EA with the handling of old IPs (well maybe minus the mobile raep EA did). EA at least had SMAC, Dungeon Keeper, Wing Commander and bunch of other old stuff rereleased on GOG, MS can't fucking even put Freelancer on it let alone Starlancer, the lazy cunts.

This idea makes no fucking sense. If anything, the total opposite is going to happen, and you’re going to see Activision producing more than just Call of Duty games.

I don’t get the rationale people are working under with this buyout. Activision makes like one game a year now. They’ve got all these studios and they’re all focused on a yearly CoD cycle. That’s probably going to change under Microsoft. And it’s not going to change because Microsoft is closing all the studios after spending a $68 billion to get them.

 

[abija]

Why would Microsoft mess with the CoD formula until it stops delivering?

 

[Tacgnol]

I dunno if this has already been mentioned on this thread but the news in the financial reporting on the blocked deal is that it will be nearly impossible to overturn in the UK.

The CMA's (semi-governmental agency who have blocked it) decision can only be overturned if it can be demonstrated to the tribunal that they acted "irrationally, illegally or with procedural impropriety". The tribunal won't actually engage with any of the facts of the merger whatsoever - a successful appeal has to win solely on the basis of professional malpractice. That's quite a high bar given that the CMA's powers are, in law, extremely broad and it is staff with non-political civil-servant types who don't usually (in the UK) take bribes. Consequently the CMA tend to win most of these appeals.

It's actually a really hard job for MS/Activisions lawyers to get this overturned. The UK case won't be arguing the toss over call of duty or whatever - they need to find errors of procedure in the CMA's process. Hard.

They'll likely not include Actiblizz games in Gamepass for the UK or have a 3rd party distributor for the games there, from my understanding.

Hell, they might just pull the games out of the UK as the CEO has hinted at earlier.

I'd be interested in a link for that because my understanding is that it's the merger that has been blocked and they can't just do it anyway and then make something slightly different for the UK. The block is "extra-territorial" which means it applies worldwide.

Doubt MS will pull out of the UK. That's just stuff execs say when they are butthurt.

https://wccftech.com/microsoft-ceo-doesnt-rule-out-carving-activision-blizzard-games-out-of-the-uk/

Although this is might be moot point now that MSFT/ACTiblizz is negotiating with CMA again as we speak lol.

It was always going to happen. The government was pissed at the CMA's decision and threatened them with having their power removed if they weren't more "friendly" to big business. Even the opposition (who look likely to get into power next year) were questioning the CMA's decision and suggesting they may also reduce their power.

They were just waiting for a way of saving face, which is what the FTC overturn gave them.

 

[Cyberarmy]

Why would Microsoft mess with the CoD formula until it stops delivering?

Yeah, it's free money. And they'll probably give Halo franchise to them also, so the cycle will be complete.

 

[Hellraiser]

And even more IPs will be forever lost in a corporate blob. MS is probably worse than EA with the handling of old IPs (well maybe minus the mobile raep EA did). EA at least had SMAC, Dungeon Keeper, Wing Commander and bunch of other old stuff rereleased on GOG, MS can't fucking even put Freelancer on it let alone Starlancer, the lazy cunts.

Good. Everything Blizzard has touched in the last 10 years deserves the Microsoft treatment. This is a win.

If you ask me what is sooner going to happen is that COD and Blizzard's latest disappointment(s) overshadow some less consoomed IPs, and not necessarily IPs from the Acti-Blizz's portfolio.

Of course there's always the question if IP squatting is so bad if in the end someone can make a spiritual succesor (even by the original developers and it also can fucking suck despite them working on it) and the games become de facto public domain as abandonware due to lawyers having no clue who the fuck owns the IP, unless for storyfaggotry/lorefaggotry reasons. Westwood's closure hurt in part because people wanted to see where the story from Tiberian Sun goes, and because this was before game design went to utter shit due to so there was reason to be hopeful westwood could have churned out a few more great games if the (((suits))) didn't kill it, but say Freelancer? There are no dangling threads for the storyfaggot, people just crave the gameplay style. Ditto for Age of Empires where also you don't really need the IP, Supreme Commander showed this best I think (and sadly remains one of the few proper as good as they should be spiritual successors).

So honestly I don't know if it matters that MS becomes another EA-like IP-squatting blob, although the non-jaded part of me would like to dream that OG devs can make a proper sequel or reboot in the... uh... Vigilante 8 and Interstate 'XX series? Hexen? Dark Reign maybe? Jesus, Activion really kind of has jack shit besides COD looking at the 90s-00s releases list, assuming they still own those IPs. I guess I might as well:

 

[ferratilis]

Activision nowadays pretty much only makes Call of Duty and the occasional Blizzard game. Even if they exclude PlayStation, Sony will lose like, 5 franchises at most?

It's not only about Sony. Microsoft wants to get into the mobile market, and Activision earns more from mobile than PC and consoles combined.

 

[Kem0sabe]

It's a huge win for Microsoft on all fronts. They get a massive mobile cash cow and the biggest PC/console franchise (CoD) which dominates the market every release.

Regarding Blizzard, if Diablo iv had failed then I would say they were dead weight, but it's been a massive success for them that will earn millions for years to come. WoW if it's subscription is eventually integrated into gamepass and released on xbox, has the potential to have a massive resurgence. Warcraft and StarCraft are also huge IPs ready for a big come back if MS handed them over to a competent rts developer.

 

[Ryzer]

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 (2022) was their best selling game, both for PC and Consoles, ranking high in steam statistics probably at the 3rd or 4th position.
Each Modern Warfare sells a ton, since they greatly improved the animations with Modern warfare 2019 and they haven't released Modern Warfare 3 yet.

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

Why would Microsoft mess with the CoD formula until it stops delivering?

To make more games to fill out Game Pass. Warzone already shifted the formula anyways. Now they can sit on the free-to-play Call of Duty which generates them millions every day (which is why Call of Duty was never in danger of leaving PlayStation) while releasing one big CoD from Infinity Ward

Vanguard also recently underperformed. It seems having a free-to-play CoD that the player base is dumping millions into daily probably also fucked with that yearly release cycles profitably pre game.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

I dunno about this.
On one hand, Microsoft getting bigger and potentially dominating the gaming market is bad because it will create a monopoly. Microsoft already has an effective stranglehold on PCs, they don't need to strangle the PC gaming market as well.
On the other hand Activision / Blizzard was a shit company that treated their customers and IP like crap, so good riddance.
This isn't Westwood we're talking about, them getting the EA treatment would be deserved.

Hopefully this means that we'll see Blizzard games make their way to Steam (perhaps even GOG. Lost Vikings, Starcraft and WC3 would be welcome there) and not have to deal with the shitty blizzard client.

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

It's a huge win for Microsoft on all fronts. They get a massive mobile cash cow and the biggest PC/console franchise (CoD) which dominates the market every release.

Regarding Blizzard, if Diablo iv had failed then I would say they were dead weight, but it's been a massive success for them that will earn millions for years to come. WoW if it's subscription is eventually integrated into gamepass and released on xbox, has the potential to have a massive resurgence. Warcraft and StarCraft are also huge IPs ready for a big come back if MS handed them over to a competent rts developer.

Blizzard is too big for one single bad release to knock them out even if they were to have a failure. They’d need like a whole generation of monetary failures before they’d get axed. And under Microsoft in their current position maybe even more than that...just look at how Microsoft hangs onto the current Gears of War and Halo developers.