Microsoft accquires Activision Blizzard

[Lurkmoar]

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/18/microsoft-to-buy-activision.html



I think we're smack dab in the age of oligopolies. Oh well, back to the indie market I go.

[Zevox]

Huh. Microsoft continues to buy up game developers that are big names but barely matter to me personally. (The only thing I play from Activision-Blizzard is Hearthstone, and even that I'm down to mostly just playing Battlegrounds now. Similarly, I just shrugged when they bought Bethesda, because I don't care about anything they make.) Guess that works for me for now, but it is a concerning trend in the long run.

[factotum]

Because you think Microsoft is somehow *worse* than Activision Blizzard already is known to be? That's a pretty high bar, you realise?

[Cygnia]

Well, this looks like a chock full o' suck...

[Psyren]

They've committed to the titles not going exclusive but I'll be shocked if Master Chief doesn't end up in their version of Call of Duty somehow. And certainly there will be stuff like an exclusive Spartan skin for Soldier 76 now.

On the Blizzard front I'm actually kind of excited, it's hard to see how they could possibly do a worse job with WoW and Overwatch than Kotick/JAB. (Yes, I know Kotick is staying on through the deal, but I put very good odds on him getting a cushy golden parachute and announcing his departure shortly after.)

I think we're smack dab in the age of oligopolies.

*astronaut meme*
Always has been.

[veti]

Because you think Microsoft is somehow *worse* than Activision Blizzard already is known to be? That's a pretty high bar, you realise?

This, exactly. I think there's a good chance of marked improvement. Microsoft games are - well, mostly not my cup of tea quite honestly, but at least they usually put out a decently polished product.

Activision is famous for its toxic workplace culture, exceptional even by the standards of the games industry. Microsoft at least makes some effort to care about its employees.

[Mechalich]

I feel like Microsoft overpaid, or at least could have gotten a better deal by waiting six months. Activision Blizzard is not a company on an upward trajectory and is in the midst of a series of highly public disasters on both the business and gaming sides of the property. Sure there's a bunch of major IPs to be gained from this (though some of them are fairly moribund at this point) but the timing is odd, especially since the ongoing pandemic provides something of an artificial boost to the video game industry as a whole.

[Keltest]

I feel like Microsoft overpaid, or at least could have gotten a better deal by waiting six months. Activision Blizzard is not a company on an upward trajectory and is in the midst of a series of highly public disasters on both the business and gaming sides of the property. Sure there's a bunch of major IPs to be gained from this (though some of them are fairly moribund at this point) but the timing is odd, especially since the ongoing pandemic provides something of an artificial boost to the video game industry as a whole.

You wait too long though and the titles youre picking up stop having any value.

[Rynjin]

I'm genuinely interested to see what Microsoft does with ActiBlizz. It's mildly concerning that they're snapping up so many big name properties in a general sense, but it's nice that there's a chance Blizzard won't just completely die now, as seemed to be inevitable.

Maybe they'll save Heroes of the Storm lmao.

[NeoVid]

Considering the... current situation with Activision, I don't see how this could make things worse. Microsoft grabbing every dev studio they can worries me on principle, but the results have turned out pretty well so far. Not axing Kottick immediately isn't promising, but if he doesn't last long under the new management, I'll consider that a very good sign.

Though the only thing that could convince me this is a great development is if Jeff Kaplan and the other Overwatch devs who walked out due to not being willing to be associated with Activision return to working on the game.

[Keltest]

Considering the... current situation with Activision, I don't see how this could make things worse. Microsoft grabbing every dev studio they can worries me on principle, but the results have turned out pretty well so far. Not axing Kottick immediately isn't promising, but if he doesn't last long under the new management, I'll consider that a very good sign.

Though the only thing that could convince me this is a great development is if Jeff Kaplan and the other Overwatch devs who walked out due to not being willing to be associated with Activision return to working on the game.

Most of them have other projects and studios theyre working on now, so i cant imagine that theyll just drop those to go back to Blizzard, but they might be more willing to form a partnership of sorts where they consult or something.

[sihnfahl]

Not axing Kottick immediately isn't promising, but if he doesn't last long under the new management, I'll consider that a very good sign.

They probably have plans to, but for continuity's sake, he stays on in what's effectively limited to an advisor. He makes no decisions that aren't filtered through his MS superiors, he only fills in what plans were in the works, etc.

He's toxic enough that they won't let him with any supervisory positions.

Though the only thing that could convince me this is a great development is if Jeff Kaplan and the other Overwatch devs who walked out due to not being willing to be associated with Activision return to working on the game.

They may have to rework the entire thing with Overwatch due to the mismanagement with Overwatch 2's announcement.

[Mechalich]

They probably have plans to, but for continuity's sake, he stays on in what's effectively limited to an advisor. He makes no decisions that aren't filtered through his MS superiors, he only fills in what plans were in the works, etc.

The deal isn't final yet - and won't be until 'fiscal year 2023' which means October at the earliest - firing Kotick (or really any Activision Executive) prior to the completion of the handover would significantly complicate the deal structure from a legal and logistical perspective. Kotick will probably leave once the handover is completed, and it likely won't be considered a 'firing.' His position, which will become superfluous, will simply be eliminated.

[Anteros]

I'm genuinely interested to see what Microsoft does with ActiBlizz. It's mildly concerning that they're snapping up so many big name properties in a general sense, but it's nice that there's a chance Blizzard won't just completely die now, as seemed to be inevitable.

Maybe they'll save Heroes of the Storm lmao.

A Moba with every Microsoft property to pull from could be interesting.

On the one hand, I don't think one company monopolizing properties is ever good for the consumers. It almost always ends up terribly. On the other hand, Activision and Blizzard were already a dumpster fire, so it's not like this can make them much worse. On my phantom third hand, I can't really remember the last time microsoft made a truly good game. Everything they get their claws in becomes high budget, but homogenized garbage.

[Lurkmoar]

From what I've seen online, part of Kotick's contract is a 250 million severance, if he was let go before the terms of said contract was up.

I have never had a doubt that about Kotick getting a golden parachute, no matter how much I wished he crashed into a cactus.

[Velaryon]

I'll echo those who said that this is a worrisome trend in general but perhaps a good thing in this particular case. I don't think it's going to have much effect on me personally, in that I haven't really been playing too many Activision Blizzard games anyway. The only one I've played in the last few years is Overwatch, and I've mostly walked away from that due to general dissatisfaction with its direction. Frankly, the best news that could come out of this from my perspective would be if they scrapped Overwatch 2 entirely and started over from scratch. Not that I'm expecting that, but it would be very welcome news to me since I think the entire franchise is headed in the wrong direction and has been for some time.

As for Activision Blizzard's biggest brands, I really couldn't care less what happens to World of Warcraft or Call of Duty.

[Giggling Ghast]

Reportedly Kotick will get a payout of more than $300 million, which is a shame because he does not deserve it and was at least partly responsible for the company’s pitiful state of affairs.

On the other hand, he was already rich, so whatever. At least he’ll be gone.

[Anteros]

As for Activision Blizzard's biggest brands, I really couldn't care less what happens to World of Warcraft or Call of Duty.

I care what happens to wow primarily because every other mmo seems determined to mimic their model until the end of time.

[Seerow]

A Moba with every Microsoft property to pull from could be interesting.

On the one hand, I don't think one company monopolizing properties is ever good for the consumers. It almost always ends up terribly. On the other hand, Activision and Blizzard were already a dumpster fire, so it's not like this can make them much worse. On my phantom third hand, I can't really remember the last time microsoft made a truly good game. Everything they get their claws in becomes high budget, but homogenized garbage.

Their last 6 months include Halo Infinite, Forza 5, Age of Empires 4, and Psychonauts 2. I could see your claim applying to Halo and Forza (I don't care enough for either genre to really feel able to distinguish between homogenized garbage and great, but reviews have been generally positive), but not the latter two. They're also behind Sea of Thieves which is one of the more unique games to have come out recently, and is a fantastic game.

Which is to say, I think Microsoft gets a much worse rap than it deserves for how its games do. Also with the Bethesda acquisition, while we haven't seen any games out of it yet, at the very least we haven't heard any stories coming out of Bethesda of them being forced make any changes to the games they make.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Also with the Bethesda acquisition, while we haven't seen any games out of it yet, at the very least we haven't heard any stories coming out of Bethesda of them being forced make any changes to the games they make.

For what it’s worth, from the ESO forums I gather that the Endeavors system* is in part due to Microsoft buying Bethesda (something about Microsoft’s gamble-box policy). That’s an improvement, mind, albeit a small one.

The official forums seem to be policed better too and the game in general less toxic but that could be any number of other factors including: COVID driving more people back to the game diluting the number of toxic folk, the toxic people leaving during the year-and-a-half I was away from the game, or simple luck on my part as I haven’t been back that long.


*Endeavors system == all the stuff that used to be exclusive to the ESO gamble boxes is now also available for Endeavors currency, and the Endeavors are earnable by performing tasks in the game, admittedly in very small, limited numbers, on a daily and weekly basis.

[NeoVid]

A point about this merger that I hadn't considered: This makes Microsoft close enough to an industry monopoly that it could very well get them hit by antitrust laws again.

[Rynjin]

A point about this merger that I hadn't considered: This makes Microsoft close enough to an industry monopoly that it could very well get them hit by antitrust laws again.

I think that'd be complicated by the fact that it's a global market, and Microsoft is not the largest publisher in the world even with this merger (Tencent and Sony still beat them).

[Mechalich]

A point about this merger that I hadn't considered: This makes Microsoft close enough to an industry monopoly that it could very well get them hit by antitrust laws again.

The merger is large enough that is will require official approval from the government, which is not guaranteed though it is expected. This is one of several reasons why the merger won't be finalized for many months and perhaps not for a year or more.

[CircleOfTheRock]

People are being very alarmist about this happening, but I don’t think it’s necessarily too worrying. Yes, Microsoft buying everything up would be bad, but while Blizzard has a lot of games that they have made, there’s not that many running franchises that Microsoft is swallowing here.

There’s still a lot left to play. There are other things. It’s not an industry monopoly unless you pretend that neither things other than consoles nor Nintendo nor Sony exist. And Nintendo’s said that they won’t be bought up a foreign entity, iirc, and PC gaming as a thing is way too spread out for anyone to have any more control over it than Steam does by providing a large number of games or than Microsoft does by having the most popular platform for it (Windows).

[CircleOfTheRock]

but while Blizzard has a lot of games that they have made, there’s not that many running franchises that Microsoft is swallowing here.

I looked it up and WoW + Starcraft + Diablo + Overwatch is a fair few, but my main point, that Blizzard isn’t big enough to turn Microsoft’s share of gaming into anywhere near a monopoly, still stands.

[Keltest]

I looked it up and WoW + Starcraft + Diablo + Overwatch is a fair few, but my main point, that Blizzard isn’t big enough to turn Microsoft’s share of gaming into anywhere near a monopoly, still stands.

Its Activision-Blizzard. So CoD and a bunch of other stuff that nobody knows off hand because Activision likes to buy their way into sticking their name on stuff like EA does as well.

[Psyren]

Its Activision-Blizzard. So CoD and a bunch of other stuff that nobody knows off hand because Activision likes to buy their way into sticking their name on stuff like EA does as well.

The other big one would be King (the Candy Crush folks) which makes more money than WoW, possibly even more than CoD. Those three franchises make up the vast majority of their revenue, and none of the others account for more than 10%. (Overwatch revenues have fallen off precipitously.)

[Keltest]

Man, remember when non-subscription games werent expected to continually drain peoples wallets for the entire duration of their gaming experience?

Hopefully Microsoft can help return us to that era.

[Lurkmoar]

People are being very alarmist about this happening, but I don’t think it’s necessarily too worrying. Yes, Microsoft buying everything up would be bad, but while Blizzard has a lot of games that they have made, there’s not that many running franchises that Microsoft is swallowing here.

There’s still a lot left to play. There are other things. It’s not an industry monopoly unless you pretend that neither things other than consoles nor Nintendo nor Sony exist. And Nintendo’s said that they won’t be bought up a foreign entity, iirc, and PC gaming as a thing is way too spread out for anyone to have any more control over it than Steam does by providing a large number of games or than Microsoft does by having the most popular platform for it (Windows).

My first post references oligopoly, not monopoly. There is a difference, but in the end, both are not good for the end users.

[warty goblin]

It's also a big play in the mobile space, since the phone version of CoD is a big deal.

I think Microsoft is angling towards being the Netflix of videogames, and this is a huge move towards that goal. Not the Netflix of a decade ago either, which relied on licensing third party content - Google basically tried the gaming equivalent of that with Stadia and went nowhere - but the modern first party content producing Netflix. Sony could maybe challenge them in this space, but Gamepass is a huge lead, and from what I gather xCloud is getting pretty close to getting streaming gaming ready for prime time. That's a huge tech edge, with xCloud making them nearly console sales agnostic once it starts to be really pushed for smart TVs etc. A world where you just turn your TV on, and there's the latest CoD ready to play instantly with no hardware purchase necessary starts to make owning a console seem superfluous. Like buying CDs.

And now they have the content library and production capability to really capitalize on this. I know everybody rags on it, but Activision makes a new CoD game every year, and CoD is like 2-3 normal games worth of content. That's an immense technical ability that not a lot of other studio systems can match. With this, Bethesda, and their other acquisitions in the last couple years, they've got mass market appeal, and a strong pitch to more niche tastes, sort of the gaming equivalent of Netflix's more prestigious projects.