Microsoft buys Activision Blizzard

[Alienman]

not inot AAA segment that much
is this good or deperesing?

I guess it's bad from the standpoint of having one mega-publisher. But all these studios haven't produced anything worthwhile for years. To me, MS acts as some kind of developer studio pensioner home. I doubt much good will get produced before they are dismantled.

 

[Abu Antar]

Phil Spencer was wearing a Hexen t-shirt on the 2023 Xbox showcase, which I found rather curious. Such things aren't done at random, and Hexen is a weird one to foreground given how long it has been dormant and how it is nowadays only familiar to dedicated retro FPS fans.

My guess: MS doesn't have its big exclusive souls-like whereas Sony has a couple. Hexen has grim dark fantasy setting, exploration of interconnected locales, boss fights, multiple classes to chose from, basic leveling in the case of second game. So one can look at Hexen and see a vintage IP whose name can be used for a major exclusive souls-like.

besides metroid prime and powerslave, any other fps metroidvanias out there?

Supraland comes close.

 

[deuxhero]

So, all these IPs are now part of the Minecraft Cinematic Universe. Are you guys looking forward to seeing Halo and Diablo references in Fallout, or Minecraft sword in TES6, or how about this: instead of a new Gabriel Knight game, you get him as one of the characters in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater. The future is bright, bros.

Spoiler

You joke, but Micro Kart would have some fun options. Could have Doom Guy, Master Chief, Steve, Vault Boy, Dagoth Ur, Crash, Spyro, King Graham of Daventry, Laura Bow, and Groove Champion racing through Vvardenfell's Foyadas, the Isle of Hags, the Space Cadet pinball table, the Mayan jungle, and hell itself.

Spoiler

I'm sure MS could figure out how to screw it up though.

 

[Don Peste]

Oh, I didn't realize it means they now own Infocom. Now that's exciting news!

 

[Tweed]

Oh goodie, now you can buy 500 Zorkmids for the low cost of 4.99 and spend them on hints, straight up solutions, or graphics for your boring text game because you cannot imagine apple.

 

[Baron Dupek]

Prices are rising in Brazil, Argentina and Indonesia

• Call of Duty (2003) – from R$ 34.90 to R$ 91.90
• Call of Duty 2 – from R$ 34.90 to R$ 91.90
• Call of Duty: Black Ops – from R$ 79.99 to R$ 184.00
• Call of Duty: Black Ops II – from R$ 109.90 to R$ 274.00
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2009) – from R$ 34.99 to R$ 91.90
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019) – from R$ 249.00 to R$ 274.00
• Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice – from R$ 199.00 to R$ 274.00
• Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time – from R$ 179.00 to R$ 184.00
• Spyro Reignited Trilogy – from R$ 150.00 to R$ 184.00
• Prototype – from R$ 34.99 to R$ 91.90
• Prototype 2 – from R$ 79.99 to R$ 184.00

sweet, sweet revenge?

 

[Cyberarmy]

Same shit in Turkey. Prototype 1 got its price raised for %1500!!
Nice for 15 year old game :D

 

[Alex]

Prices are rising in Brazil, Argentina and Indonesia

• Call of Duty (2003) – from R$ 34.90 to R$ 91.90
• Call of Duty 2 – from R$ 34.90 to R$ 91.90
• Call of Duty: Black Ops – from R$ 79.99 to R$ 184.00
• Call of Duty: Black Ops II – from R$ 109.90 to R$ 274.00
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2009) – from R$ 34.99 to R$ 91.90
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019) – from R$ 249.00 to R$ 274.00
• Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice – from R$ 199.00 to R$ 274.00
• Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time – from R$ 179.00 to R$ 184.00
• Spyro Reignited Trilogy – from R$ 150.00 to R$ 184.00
• Prototype – from R$ 34.99 to R$ 91.90
• Prototype 2 – from R$ 79.99 to R$ 184.00

sweet, sweet revenge?

Now those who made that decision will get even more tax from those who buy these products. If anything that is probably what they wanted.

 

[deuxhero]

Oh, I didn't realize it means they now own Infocom. Now that's exciting news!

Infocom<Sierra<Activison<Microsoft. Layers of acquisition.

 

[jfrisby]

I've always thought the Infocom / Sierra adventures would be well suited for VR/holodeck type adaptations one day in the future, probably can just get the AI to do that automatically soon. Good deal for MS.. I remember reading about Ken Williams interactions with Bill Gates, weird how it turned out.

 

[Alex]

I've always thought the Infocom / Sierra adventures would be well suited for VR/holodeck type adaptations one day in the future, probably can just get the AI to do that automatically soon. Good deal for MS.. I remember reading about Ken Williams interactions with Bill Gates, weird how it turned out.

Yes. I, for one, can't wait to sit in front of my computer and put on a vr helmet to suddenly find myself sitting in front of a much older, virtual computer running Zork.

 

[RaggleFraggle]

These mega-publishers own more franchises than they know what to do with. Indeed, I suspect they don't even know they own most of these. As such, I don't expect they'll do anything with these franchises. It's a stupid waste of perfectly good IPs. This is why we need to reform copyright and reduce copyright lengths so that these will enter the public domain where they belong and fans can revive them in new forms. It's worked out amazingly well for the Cthulhu mythos, hasn't it? Yeah, you have silly social justice takes like "The Litany of Earth" and Lovecraft Country, but those are overshadowed by the stuff that's not trying to force a message.

 

[Don Peste]

Empire Earth 3 R3mastered

 

[Infinitron]

Source:

This week we have a very special episode with Phil Spencer, the CEO of Gaming at Microsoft, who sits down with us to answer questions about Activision Blizzard King and their teams joining the Xbox family.

00:00 Introduction
01:06 Welcome Activision Blizzard King to the team
03:26 Halo World Championships
07:37 Minecraft Live
09:07 Answering questions about Activision Blizzard King
32:52 What Games Phil's Playing
37:11 Final Thoughts
38:40 Outro

 

[Alienman]

Throwing stuff at the wall again, I assume.

 

[deuxhero]

I get the impression MS is willing to take more middle budget games to fill out gamepass and give point to Xbox over PS. Certainly better than sacking everyone in the new acquisitions as redundant.

 

[Ismaul]

They've been really pushing the image that Phil Spencer is a man of the people, a gamer like us, haven't hey?

Every PR thing with him has him trying to establish gamer cred.

32:52 What Games Phil's Playing

 

[Hellion]

I'd be excited at the possibility of a proper new Gabriel Knight game. Normally for a new Quest for Glory too, but if Summer Daze is any indication then the Coles have completely lost "it" by this point. Maybe they'll find it again with a few MS dolla billz.

Then again...

Ok nevermind forget I said anything.

 

[Cyberarmy]

Empire Earth 3

There was an Empire Earth 3!!!!!!!!!!! WTF?!

Oh, it looks horrible...

 

[Lucumo]

Empire Earth 3

There was an Empire Earth 3!!!!!!!!!!! WTF?!

Oh, it looks horrible...

Yeah, my PC gaming magazine of choice put the review in a place where all the trash games went and which didn't get more than a couple of sentences.

 

[Infinitron]

They've been really pushing the image that Phil Spencer is a man of the people, a gamer like us, haven't hey?

Every PR thing with him has him trying to establish gamer cred.

32:52 What Games Phil's Playing

It's obviously PR, but to be fair, it's hard to explain Microsoft's rescue of inXile after two disastrous releases in a row except by him being an Interplay fanboy.

 

[Abu Antar]

Was Wasteland 3 a flop?

 

[pOcHa]

Oh goodie, now you can buy 500 Zorkmids for the low cost of 4.99 and spend them on hints, straight up solutions, or graphics for your boring text game because you cannot imagine apple.

would be really funny if that is the reason behind graphics whoring

Ken Williams interactions with Bill Gates

more info plox

 

[Infinitron]

Was Wasteland 3 a flop?

Hard to say since it was a Gamepass title. It has a decent number of reviews on Steam though.

The two disasters I'm referring to are Torment: Tides of Numenera and Bard's Tale IV.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Was Wasteland 3 a flop?

The announcement of InXile's acquisition by Microsoft occurred in November 2018, 21 months prior to the release of Wasteland 3 in August 2020.

Brian Fargo might have been better served by scraping together enough funds to complete Wasteland 3, which seems as if it would have sold well even without Microsoft.