Microsoft buys Activision Blizzard

[Lord_Potato]

LOL. Right after shutting down a couple of studios.

What can I say? We're just irresistible!

 

[Hell Swarm]

What the fuck are they even doing?

Probably cleaning toilets. It's all the goblins in Poland are good for.

 

[Naraya]

Poles cheap (but for how long?).

 

[911 Jumper]

I hear “based” Poland is becoming more GAE friendly so I'm not surprised.

 

[ADL]

This is separate from Infinity Ward Poland (Call of Duty open world RPG)? Cool.

 

[911 Jumper]

Microsoft plans to release next 'Call of Duty' version on subscription service, WSJ reports
Source: Reuters

 

[Tehdagah]

Microsoft plans to release next 'Call of Duty' version on subscription service, WSJ reports
Source: Reuters

 

[911 Jumper]

Microsoft plans to release next 'Call of Duty' version on subscription service, WSJ reports
Source: Reuters

I'm sure CoD on GP will be used to justify the price increase for the service.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

IT'S HAPPENING!!! Xbox are taking the nuclear option to try to keep their Game Pass strategy alive: https://www.wsj.com/tech/microsoft-call-of-duty-game-pass-53e8930c

Microsoft Plans Boldest Games Bet Since Activision Deal, Changing How ‘Call of Duty’ Is Sold​

Software company will add the latest installment of the hit videogame series to its Game Pass subscription service at launch​

Microsoft MSFT -0.19%decrease; red down pointing triangle plans a major shake-up of its videogame sales strategy by releasing the coming installment of “Call of Duty” to its subscription service instead of the longtime, lucrative approach of only selling it a la carte.

The plans, which mark the biggest change to Microsoft’s gaming division since it closed the $75 billion takeover of Activision Blizzard, are expected to be announced at the company’s annual Xbox showcase next month, according to people familiar with the matter. Consumers will still have the option to purchase the game outright for playing on consoles or computers.

“Call of Duty” is one of the most successful entertainment properties ever, generating over $30 billion in lifetime revenue. Activision, which makes it, has long released new editions annually, selling about 25 million copies on average for around $70 each in recent years.
A Microsoft spokeswoman declined to comment.

Before the Microsoft deal last year, Activision was reluctant to fully embrace subscription-based models for a game that still attracts a premium price. Microsoft’s subscription service, Game Pass, costs $9.99 to $16.99 a month, and provides access to hundreds of games from Microsoft and dozens of other companies. The service is available only on Microsoft’s Xbox consoles and PCs.

All that means that, with Microsoft’s new plan, people could end up paying Microsoft less for the new “Call of Duty” than it would have made with the traditional approach. The tech company’s hope is that, instead, it will draw new users to Game Pass who will end up paying it more over the long term.
Last September, Microsoft’s science-fiction game “Starfield” was released on Game Pass at launch and it drove a record number of new subscriptions in a single day, Microsoft has said.

“Call of Duty” was central to regulators’ concerns over Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision, which closed in October after 21 months. The prolonged review was partly over concerns that the “Call of Duty” franchise could give Microsoft an unfair advantage in cloud gaming, a new and more affordable way of accessing games, if it were to decide in the future to withhold the series from rivals. Microsoft pledged not to do so.

“Call of Duty” made its debut in 2003 and has since ranked No. 1 in overall franchise sales each year from 2009 through 2023, according to research firm Circana. Bobby Kotick, who helmed Activision for more than three decades and left shortly after the Microsoft deal closed, saw the subscription model for games as bad for both the industry and players.

“I have a general aversion to the idea of multigame subscription services,” Kotick said during a court hearing last year over a Federal Trade Commission lawsuit filed against Microsoft to block the Activision deal. “Maybe part of it is being in Los Angeles and having large, big media companies move their content to these subscription streaming services and the business results have suffered.”

Other industry executives have shared similar views, including Take-Two Interactive Software Chief Executive Strauss Zelnick, who has said subscriptions are fine for catalog games but not new front-line releases.

Microsoft’s decision has been the source of online speculation. Activision said on the X platform in October that the delays in closing the merger cost Microsoft the ability to release last year’s “Call of Duty,” “Modern Warfare III,” on Game Pass. Activision, which also owns “World of Warcraft,” “Candy Crush” and other hits, hasn’t yet revealed the name of this year’s “Call of Duty” game.

Microsoft launched Game Pass in 2017 and earlier this year it said the service had 34 million subscribers, up from 25 million in 2022.

Since major game releases can still garner premium prices, some analysts argue that subscription services pose too great a risk of cannibalizing a-la-carte sales. “We strongly believe that an overall shift to a subscription model for the industry would negatively impact value creation at the publishers,” TD Cowen analyst Doug Creutz wrote in his final report on Activision last year.

But Microsoft isn’t in a position to keep its own new releases off Game Pass if it wants other game companies to populate the service with their latest and greatest titles. Adding “Call of Duty” at launch would signal that the software company is committed to the subscription strategy, said Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter.

They may also roll all WoW-subscibtions to Gamepass at some point.

 

[911 Jumper]

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

 

[Tehdagah]

He was right. In the end Diablo Immortal was a huge hit.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Which part of the world played it most is what I wonder.

 

[911 Jumper]

Activision wins $14.5 million in Call of Duty cheat maker lawsuit

Activision has prevailed in a lawsuit against the maker of popular Call of Duty cheats.

As spotted by VentureBeat, a federal court has awarded a $14.465 million judgment to the publisher in its lawsuit against EngineOwning, Garnatz Enterprise Ltd, and 11 individuals.

The defendants were also ordered to pay $292,912 in attorneys’ fees, while the court issued a permanent injunction against the cheaters’ site.

Filed in January 2022, the lawsuit alleged that Germany-based EngineOwning is “engaged in the development, sale, distribution, marketing, and exploitation of a portfolio of malicious cheats and hacks for popular online multiplayer games, most prominently the [Call of Duty] games”.

EngineOwning’s cheats, according to its website, include auto-aiming, auto-firing, and showing the location of other players, for a price ranging from €4.49 (three-day access) to €39.95 (90 days).

Activision had argued that the cheats have caused it to “suffer massive and irreparable damage to its goodwill and reputation and to lose substantial revenue.”

Source: VGC

 

[Morgoth]

 

[whydoibother]

Game Pass is basically Microsoft doing charity work for the industry, and this retard is missing out on it.

 

[Morgoth]

Granted, it would be extremely irrational putting GTA VI out on Gamepass.

 

[Russia is over. The end.]

Activision wins $14.5 million in Call of Duty cheat maker lawsuit

Activision has prevailed in a lawsuit against the maker of popular Call of Duty cheats.

As spotted by VentureBeat, a federal court has awarded a $14.465 million judgment to the publisher in its lawsuit against EngineOwning, Garnatz Enterprise Ltd, and 11 individuals.

The defendants were also ordered to pay $292,912 in attorneys’ fees, while the court issued a permanent injunction against the cheaters’ site.

Filed in January 2022, the lawsuit alleged that Germany-based EngineOwning is “engaged in the development, sale, distribution, marketing, and exploitation of a portfolio of malicious cheats and hacks for popular online multiplayer games, most prominently the [Call of Duty] games”.

EngineOwning’s cheats, according to its website, include auto-aiming, auto-firing, and showing the location of other players, for a price ranging from €4.49 (three-day access) to €39.95 (90 days).

Activision had argued that the cheats have caused it to “suffer massive and irreparable damage to its goodwill and reputation and to lose substantial revenue.”

Source: VGC

How do you niggas sell cheats officially and expect not to get owned?

God gave you crypto and Tor. No, I want to use white internet and visa/mastercard.

 

[Hellraiser]

Take-Two ... makes rational decisions.

T2... rational... this guy runs a company that reports losses for who knows how many quarters in a row despite having the golden egg laying goose known as GTA Online. I could take (*badum tish*) them closing private division etc. at face value as signs of rationality as it produced nothing of value (ignoring even that they went about "finding the second minecraft" the wrong way), but clearly the whole thing is being managed worse than a 5 year old's lemonade stand and PD's failure is a symptom of greater issues with the monkeys running the show.

 

[whydoibother]

Granted, it would be extremely irrational putting GTA VI out on Gamepass.

They can put everything else on there. Put the new game a year after release or so. No reason not to dump your existing catalogue on Game Pass.

 

[Abu Antar]

If they put one game on there, they will set up expectations that their newer games should be on there. I get his reasoning.

GTA5 is still in some top 10 weekly charts in several countries. Red Dead Redemption series is now at 90 million copies sold.

I understand why others will put up some games, though. They get a hefty sum of cash.

 

[whydoibother]

If they put one game on there, they will set up expectations that their newer games should be on there. I get his reasoning.

Blizzard and EA put some games on Steam, others not. Its not unusual.
How is it different from some games being on PlayStation, and others not?

 

[Abu Antar]

If they put one game on there, they will set up expectations that their newer games should be on there. I get his reasoning.

Blizzard and EA put some games on Steam, others not. Its not unusual.
How is it different from some games being on PlayStation, and others not?

This isn't about Xbox/PlayStation/Steam. You still sell a copy of the game, digital or physical.

GamePass is a completely different thing. It's a service, and your game is supposed to be available for "free". That's how the majority of gamepass subscribers see it. "Free" on gamepass, or I won't get it.

 

[FreshCorpse]

Granted, it would be extremely irrational putting GTA VI out on Gamepass.

They can put everything else on there. Put the new game a year after release or so. No reason not to dump your existing catalogue on Game Pass.

There is the obvious reason that doing so canibalises sales from your back catalogue.

Most mature streaming services have very, very little stuff on them for this reason. Netflix, back in the DVD days, used to have so much stuff that they hosted AI prizes to better recommend people obscure things from their deep stacks.

They no longer have that problem since they switched from renting out DVDs they had bought to streaming licenced material. Now Netflix use their (considerable) machine learning expertise to optimally select the smallest, cheapest amount of material they must licence/commission to ensure that people stay subscribed. Then they use dark patterns to draw peoples interest to that stuff. Bridgerton is - quite literally - colour by numbers. This is because Netflix costs less than half the price of a new DVD per month. It will always, by necessity, be a very basic and limited service.

The story arc of Gamepass is charging a bit more, and having nearly nothing on it. This is because it costs 12 USD/month. Any other expectation suggests that you have been taken in by hype.

 

[911 Jumper]

Xbox Game Pass Standard Tier Doesn't Include Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Starfield, Diablo 4, and More

Xbox Game Pass Standard, the new basic tier of Microsoft's subscription service which costs $14.99 a month, doesn't include major games such as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Starfield, Diablo 4, and much more.

Microsoft announced the revised Game Pass tiers in July and as of September 12 the changes went into place. Xbox Game Pass Ultimate has risen from $16.99 to $19.99 a month and still includes all the typical benefits, but the Xbox Game Pass Standard tier is quite different from its predecessor.

It replaces Game Pass for Console (though those already subscribed don't have to upgrade) and includes significantly less benefits. Subscribers no longer gain access to day one titles or access to EA Play, Xbox Cloud Gaming, perks, Quests, and discounts on games in the Game Pass library. Microsoft said players would also be denied access to "specific entries to the Game Pass Ultimate library," and that list has now been revealed to be fairly extensive.

More at the link:
Source: IGN