Microsoft buys Activision Blizzard

[Zlaja]

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

Yeah, and the retards are lapping it all up. HEY, GUYS, WE MIGHT EVEN GET AN ARCANUM SEQUEL NOW, HURR DURR!

 

[markec]

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

 

[jfrisby]

Ken Williams interactions with Bill Gates

more info plox

Sorry for the bad formatting, pasting from a PDF. Ken's book (Not All Fairy Tales Have Happy Endings):

As mentioned elsewhere in the book, Bill Gates was always my hero and
the person I most wanted to emulate.
As with Jeff Bezos, if we bumped into each other on a Seattle street I’m sure
he wouldn’t recognize me. But, back in the day, we ran into each other a
few times.

The first time we met was at a San Francisco press conference when Microsoft was launching Windows as a replacement for MS-DOS, a prehistoric
text-based operating system. I was there to take a look at Windows and try
to decide how Sierra was going to adapt our products to it
Bill Gates was there in the flesh and after making the announcement was
quickly surrounded by reporters eagerly asking questions.

I had a long series of questions about Windows that had not been answered
during the presentation and I didn’t want to return to Oakhurst without
answers. I walked over to the circle of reporters seeking anyone with a
Micosoft badge. I found someone and asked, “Is there anyone here who is
a techie? I have questions.” Bill himself shouted to me from where he was
trapped with all the reporters, “I can help you.” He looked very relieved to
have an excuse to escape the reporters and we stepped outside the room
where Bill proceeded to answer every question I could throw his direction.
I had always thought he was a genius, but now I had proof.

Our next meeting was at a hotel in San Francisco where we were negotiating Microsoft’s possible purchase of The Sierra Network. I talk about that
in detail in another chapter, but I’ll talk about a couple memories from our
meeting here.

At one point I asked Bill directly why he wouldn’t acquire all of Sierra. I
didn’t really want to be acquired but Microsoft wasn’t in the game business, and it seemed to me a natural category for them. Bill thought for a minute about his response and said that he really didn’t like the games
segment. It was too hit oriented. He cited the example of United Artists, a
legendary film company, who was going through disastrous times. Bill said
that when you are in a business that depends entirely on having a series of
hits, it just a matter of time until you fail. You can’t ship hits forever and
sooner or later revenues will collapse. The industry is too volatile.
This made sense, and I often cited this conversation as part of why I was
so insistent on diversifying Sierra out of “just games.” I wanted to get
to a position where our revenues were diversified across entertainment,
education and productivity software. I saw it as our best hope for corporate
immortality.

After our meeting, there was an incident I found funny. We met for several
hours, with just the two of us, in a large meeting room at a hotel in San
Francisco. As we were breaking up a hotel employee suddenly came into
the room. “Who is Mr. Bill Gates?,” he asked. I was astounded that there was
someone who didn’t recognize The Bill Gates. “Why?,” asked Bill. “I have
the bill for the food and drinks,” came the reply. “What food and drinks?,”
asked Bill. The waiter pointed at some stale pastries sitting at the back of
the room and a bowl of melted ice with some soft drinks floating in it. We
had never noticed it. Bill was indignant and thought it was ridiculous. The
hotel wanted $42 for service we hadn’t ordered and didn’t use. He refused
to pay. The waiter was persistent, and was threatening to go seek his boss.
I offered to pay. This got Bill to agree to pay, and he offered his credit card.
I thought it was bizarre that we had been discussing tens of millions of
dollars, and then the meeting ended in debate over a $42 bar tab.

Our last encounter came when I tried to buy Microsoft Flight Simulator directly
from the author, Bruce Artwick. I negotiated a good price. I forget the details,
but recall it as $50 million. The problem was that Microsoft had the exclusive publishing rights and was paying a royalty to Bruce Artwick. My feeling
was that this was fine. I was happy to take the royalties being paid to Bruce
Artwick and continue using Microsoft as the publisher. The income from
Microsoft would be pure profit and fall straight to Sierra’s bottom line.

I met with the marketing department at Microsoft headquarters to discuss
the pending acquisition, and to my enormous surprise Bill himself came
into the meeting. I had considered this to be many notches below his level
and an infinitesimal piece of Microsoft’s revenue. I explained my plan
to acquire Microsoft Flight Simulator and gave my pledge that Sierra would honor the Microsoft publishing agreement. I meant it. Bill sat quietly as
Microsoft’s team asked what I foresaw when the agreement would come
up for renewal. I said that I respected Microsoft and that, as proud as I was
of Sierra’s distribution ability, I felt Microsoft had us beat. I was happy to
work with Microsoft and wanted to see the relationship continue.
Bill was not happy. He pointed out that he felt Microsoft would not want to
publish a Sierra product and would have to ask whether or not they should
continue to push Flight Simulator if Sierra were to acquire the product
from Bruce Artwick. I was shell-shocked. It had never occurred to me that
Microsoft would blow up what I thought was a done-deal. The meeting
ended poorly. I was sure Gates was bluffing and that Microsoft would not
stop selling Flight Simulator. He obviously had some personal interest in
the product. It can’t have been a material part of Microsoft’s revenue and
I wasn’t planning to do anything other than to continue evolving the
product with Microsoft still selling it.

I called for a Sierra board meeting and argued that we proceed with the
purchase. The board wasn’t going for it. It was simply too much money.
Microsoft held the exclusive rights to market the product and if they were
to quit marketing the product, we’d have spent $50 million on nothing.
That would be a tough one to explain to Sierra’s shareholders!

Microsoft went on to purchase Flight Simulator for themselves.

 

[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.

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.

I meant having the games entirely remade by an AI, but whatever. I think there's a lot more IP value in the stories/puzzles going forward than the 'gun feel' /mechanics /setting of a shooter.

 

[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.

I meant having the games entirely remade by an AI, but whatever. (...)

I know, I was just making a joke.

Although, to be honest, I think an emulator that gave you not only the output of the emulated computer, but also let you see and hear how it looked; maybe even change its configuration by inserting boards and peripherals, could be an interesting idea. I doubt current VR could make this anything more than a gimmick, though.

 

[Abu Antar]

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

Yeah, and the retards are lapping it all up. HEY, GUYS, WE MIGHT EVEN GET AN ARCANUM SEQUEL NOW, HURR DURR!

Not only are we not getting Arcanum sequel, but I hope with all of my heart that they let the Ip rest. Enough IP corpses have been dug up, and molested.

 

[pOcHa]

Ken Williams interactions with Bill Gates

more info plox

Sorry for the bad formatting, pasting from a PDF. Ken's book (Not All Fairy Tales Have Happy Endings):

As mentioned elsewhere in the book, Bill Gates was always my hero and
the person I most wanted to emulate.
As with Jeff Bezos, if we bumped into each other on a Seattle street I’m sure
he wouldn’t recognize me. But, back in the day, we ran into each other a
few times.

The first time we met was at a San Francisco press conference when Microsoft was launching Windows as a replacement for MS-DOS, a prehistoric
text-based operating system. I was there to take a look at Windows and try
to decide how Sierra was going to adapt our products to it
Bill Gates was there in the flesh and after making the announcement was
quickly surrounded by reporters eagerly asking questions.

I had a long series of questions about Windows that had not been answered
during the presentation and I didn’t want to return to Oakhurst without
answers. I walked over to the circle of reporters seeking anyone with a
Micosoft badge. I found someone and asked, “Is there anyone here who is
a techie? I have questions.” Bill himself shouted to me from where he was
trapped with all the reporters, “I can help you.” He looked very relieved to
have an excuse to escape the reporters and we stepped outside the room
where Bill proceeded to answer every question I could throw his direction.
I had always thought he was a genius, but now I had proof.

Our next meeting was at a hotel in San Francisco where we were negotiating Microsoft’s possible purchase of The Sierra Network. I talk about that
in detail in another chapter, but I’ll talk about a couple memories from our
meeting here.

At one point I asked Bill directly why he wouldn’t acquire all of Sierra. I
didn’t really want to be acquired but Microsoft wasn’t in the game business, and it seemed to me a natural category for them. Bill thought for a minute about his response and said that he really didn’t like the games
segment. It was too hit oriented. He cited the example of United Artists, a
legendary film company, who was going through disastrous times. Bill said
that when you are in a business that depends entirely on having a series of
hits, it just a matter of time until you fail. You can’t ship hits forever and
sooner or later revenues will collapse. The industry is too volatile.
This made sense, and I often cited this conversation as part of why I was
so insistent on diversifying Sierra out of “just games.” I wanted to get
to a position where our revenues were diversified across entertainment,
education and productivity software. I saw it as our best hope for corporate
immortality.

After our meeting, there was an incident I found funny. We met for several
hours, with just the two of us, in a large meeting room at a hotel in San
Francisco. As we were breaking up a hotel employee suddenly came into
the room. “Who is Mr. Bill Gates?,” he asked. I was astounded that there was
someone who didn’t recognize The Bill Gates. “Why?,” asked Bill. “I have
the bill for the food and drinks,” came the reply. “What food and drinks?,”
asked Bill. The waiter pointed at some stale pastries sitting at the back of
the room and a bowl of melted ice with some soft drinks floating in it. We
had never noticed it. Bill was indignant and thought it was ridiculous. The
hotel wanted $42 for service we hadn’t ordered and didn’t use. He refused
to pay. The waiter was persistent, and was threatening to go seek his boss.
I offered to pay. This got Bill to agree to pay, and he offered his credit card.
I thought it was bizarre that we had been discussing tens of millions of
dollars, and then the meeting ended in debate over a $42 bar tab.

Our last encounter came when I tried to buy Microsoft Flight Simulator directly
from the author, Bruce Artwick. I negotiated a good price. I forget the details,
but recall it as $50 million. The problem was that Microsoft had the exclusive publishing rights and was paying a royalty to Bruce Artwick. My feeling
was that this was fine. I was happy to take the royalties being paid to Bruce
Artwick and continue using Microsoft as the publisher. The income from
Microsoft would be pure profit and fall straight to Sierra’s bottom line.

I met with the marketing department at Microsoft headquarters to discuss
the pending acquisition, and to my enormous surprise Bill himself came
into the meeting. I had considered this to be many notches below his level
and an infinitesimal piece of Microsoft’s revenue. I explained my plan
to acquire Microsoft Flight Simulator and gave my pledge that Sierra would honor the Microsoft publishing agreement. I meant it. Bill sat quietly as
Microsoft’s team asked what I foresaw when the agreement would come
up for renewal. I said that I respected Microsoft and that, as proud as I was
of Sierra’s distribution ability, I felt Microsoft had us beat. I was happy to
work with Microsoft and wanted to see the relationship continue.
Bill was not happy. He pointed out that he felt Microsoft would not want to
publish a Sierra product and would have to ask whether or not they should
continue to push Flight Simulator if Sierra were to acquire the product
from Bruce Artwick. I was shell-shocked. It had never occurred to me that
Microsoft would blow up what I thought was a done-deal. The meeting
ended poorly. I was sure Gates was bluffing and that Microsoft would not
stop selling Flight Simulator. He obviously had some personal interest in
the product. It can’t have been a material part of Microsoft’s revenue and
I wasn’t planning to do anything other than to continue evolving the
product with Microsoft still selling it.

I called for a Sierra board meeting and argued that we proceed with the
purchase. The board wasn’t going for it. It was simply too much money.
Microsoft held the exclusive rights to market the product and if they were
to quit marketing the product, we’d have spent $50 million on nothing.
That would be a tough one to explain to Sierra’s shareholders!

Microsoft went on to purchase Flight Simulator for themselves.

i thought it was impossible to dislike bill gates even more

 

[toughasnails]

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

Yeah, and the retards are lapping it all up. HEY, GUYS, WE MIGHT EVEN GET AN ARCANUM SEQUEL NOW, HURR DURR!

Not only are we not getting Arcanum sequel, but I hope with all of my heart that they let the Ip rest. Enough IP corpses have been dug up, and molested.

You might as well get another Arcanum game. Remember, if you have an extant but dormant IP laying around, you'll go for it rather than launching a brand new IP. Remember Spec Ops The Line? Well you most likely don't remember the series it was marketed as a reboot of. There's really no connection between them, old Spec Ops games weren't well received nor do they have any following. And yet. That's just what you do. An unwritten rule.
And with Arcanum, what do we have? "Cult classic" RPG from "the minds behind the original Fallout". One can work with that.

 

[lukaszek]

And with Arcanum, what do we have? "Cult classic" RPG from "the minds behind the original Fallout". One can work with that.

one could think that there arent enough people remembering baldurs gate yet here we are

 

[Abu Antar]

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

Yeah, and the retards are lapping it all up. HEY, GUYS, WE MIGHT EVEN GET AN ARCANUM SEQUEL NOW, HURR DURR!

Not only are we not getting Arcanum sequel, but I hope with all of my heart that they let the Ip rest. Enough IP corpses have been dug up, and molested.

You might as well get another Arcanum game. Remember, if you have an extant but dormant IP laying around, you'll go for it rather than launching a brand new IP. Remember Spec Ops The Line? Well you most likely don't remember the series it was marketed as a reboot of. There's really no connection between them, old Spec Ops games weren't well received nor do they have any following. And yet. That's just what you do. An unwritten rule.
And with Arcanum, what do we have? "Cult classic" RPG from "the minds behind the original Fallout". One can work with that.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Funny the radio finally announced this today.

 

[911 Jumper]

 

[Caim]

King's the real moneymaker of the trio, the rest is just some chump change.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Does it matter?

Rumors say eventually even digital media will be crippled after all physical media is gone. How long before everything gets shelved?

 

[lycanwarrior]

Bond

James Sarah...Bond...

 

[Atlantico]

That ticks a lot of diversity boxes

 

[Infinitron]

That woman's CV: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahrbond/

She seems pleasant and attractive. To be granted so many responsibilities, I'm sure she must know what she's doing. But affirmative action policies surely gave her a head-start early on.

 

[Atlantico]

I'm sure she must know what she's doing

 

[Elttharion]

I am guessing she will take Spencer's place soon. Also she looks like dollar store Rosario Dawson.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Bond

James Sarah...Bond...

Based on that plastic jewelry…….cheap whore. (Very cheap)

 

[abija]

She seems pleasant and attractive. To be granted so many responsibilities, I'm sure she must know what she's doing. But affirmative action policies surely gave her a head-start early on.

Father was a telco CEO.

 

[Atlantico]

She seems pleasant and attractive. To be granted so many responsibilities, I'm sure she must know what she's doing. But affirmative action policies surely gave her a head-start early on.

Father was a telco CEO.

Affirmative action times two

 

[Abu Antar]

Matt Booty getting promoted is the bigger deal here. Be completely incompetent, and fuck things up for years, get promoted.

We have an expression for things like that: He fooled life itself.

 

[Late Bloomer]

 

[Lambach]

Kotick is a grade-A psychopath and an unimaginably greedy piece of shit that would sell his own mother's liver for a 0.01% bump in his stock price.

But he was still the only remotely rational and business-aware person in that entire shit-filled nuclear wasteland currently known as "Activision-Blizzard". Whoever replaces him is guaranteed to be an order of magnitude worse, at least, considering Act-Blizz is now under Microsoft.