Microsoft acquires Activision Blizzard. (Gaming)
Yes. You read that correctly. I did a double take too. Lots of folks are blessing shi-et today with this news.
"Welcoming the Incredible Teams and Legendary Franchises of Activision Blizzard to Microsoft Gaming" is the official announcement to this action. Not only is this Industry-shaking, but... well. It's Activision Blizzard, whose social reputation is, at this point, not requiring any more utterance. I'm not sure what to think.
Side Note: Right now Bungie is like, *whew*, not THIS time Microsoft. :P
Edit:
The one day I go on vacation…
— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) January 18, 2022
BREAKING: The WSJ reports that Microsoft is buying Activision Blizzard, the troubled publisher behind Call of Duty and World of Warcraft, which has been facing crisis over the last year following numerous reports of sexual misconduct and discrimination. A seismic gaming deal
— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) January 18, 2022
This deal certainly raises some antitrust questions!
— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) January 18, 2022
Microsoft PR: “Bobby Kotick will continue to serve as CEO of Activision Blizzard… Once the deal closes, the Activision Blizzard business will report to Phil Spencer, CEO, Microsoft Gaming.”
— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) January 18, 2022
Not 100% clear yet whether Bobby will stay on after the ink dries.
I’m on vacation today (lol) but if I were not I would be calling up some antitrust experts because Xbox buying Bethesda and now Activision sure seems like the type of horizontal merging that the DOJ frowns upon
— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) January 18, 2022
While monopolies are undoubtedly bad news for the video game industry, this acquisition could have some positive effects on Blizzard both culturally and strategically. Under Activision, every game had to be a billion-dollar franchise. Under Xbox, that will likely change
— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) January 18, 2022
Bobby’s ultimate goal (other than to get away with everything he did) was to turn Blizzard into another Activision studio cranking out yearly hits. Under Xbox, Blizzard may be able to regain some of its autonomy and fix some big problems. Maybe!
— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) January 18, 2022
Important to also note here that many of Blizzard’s issues were entirely self-inflicted and had nothing to do with Activision, including sexual misconduct and discrimination
— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) January 18, 2022
An excerpt from Bobby Kotick’s email to staff today: pic.twitter.com/qIyM02R31S
— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) January 18, 2022
![[image]](https://i.imgur.com/6SghsB8.jpg)
...and of course, since this is a Destiny Bungie forum...
Good morning.
— dmg04 (@A_dmg04) January 18, 2022
What news did I miss?
Oh. Wait. What? Holy shit. What?????
I said “woah.”
- No text -
I think you mean "WoW"
by Cody Miller 
, Music of the Spheres - Never Forgot, Tuesday, January 18, 2022, 08:10 (823 days ago) @ CougRon
edited by Cody Miller, Tuesday, January 18, 2022, 08:17
So think about how big this is.
For a game like Destiny, there were only 5 publishers who would have been able to publish the game because it was so big:
Microsoft
Sony
Nintendo
EA
Activision
Now that Microsoft owns Activision, the list of major publishers has decreased by 20%. That's huge.
I'm getting nervous about how gamepass is going to negatively affect the industry with such a potential selection of exclusives now. Get ready to never own anything anymore.
I think you mean "WoW"
by Korny , Dalton, Ga. US. Earth, Sol System, Tuesday, January 18, 2022, 10:25 (822 days ago) @ Cody Miller
I'm getting nervous about how gamepass is going to negatively affect the industry with such a potential selection of exclusives now. Get ready to never own anything anymore.
I can't wait! With single-player games charging $70-$80 for "ownership", I'd say Gamepass obliterating the ownership market can't happen soon enough. Especially with so many games being live service or Multiplayer only, I think it's high time we shift to a model where we pay essentially two new games worth for a full year of access to hundreds of titles, first-party and otherwise.
Gamepass really is the best thing to happen to the games model in ages.
Game Pass fucking rules.
Everyone is just bitching that Bobby K is getting a big pay day. Like, fine. He was always going to get a big pay day. At least this way, maybe he fucks off and MS can clean house and the base line folks that work there can see actual improvements. I’m less concerned with punishing Bobby Kotick and his ilk than I am in actually seeing the working conditions improve for the employees. Give him his fucking parachute and let him leave. Of course there’s no guarantee anything will improve, but I have more hope for that now than I did yesterday.
+1
- No text -
I think you mean "WoW"
by Cody Miller , Music of the Spheres - Never Forgot, Tuesday, January 18, 2022, 13:43 (822 days ago) @ Korny
Especially with so many games being live service or Multiplayer only,
The only place where it makes sense :-p
Oracle? Great Journey?
Get ready to never own anything anymore.
Get... ready? Cody, the perpetual license train by-and-large left the station almost a decade ago. It's not get ready, it's here. It's now. And it's not going away. But since you're new here, uh... I guess, Welcome to the Service Economy! Where we service ourselves by servicing you!
Well, unless it's an NFT. Those you TOTALLY own. Like for realzees.
Microsoft acquires Activision Blizzard.
by Cody Miller , Music of the Spheres - Never Forgot, Tuesday, January 18, 2022, 07:58 (823 days ago) @ INSANEdrive
They spend 68.7 Billion, and all they had to do to get me to buy an xbox was stop putting ads in the interface.
Microsoft acquires Activision Blizzard.
They spend 68.7 Billion, and all they had to do to get me to buy an xbox was stop putting ads in the interface.
https://pi-hole.net/ (SFW)
Microsoft acquires Activision Blizzard.
Microsoft acquires Activision Blizzard.
by Cody Miller , Music of the Spheres - Never Forgot, Tuesday, January 18, 2022, 09:06 (822 days ago) @ squidnh3
Damn those ADS!
(Every time you post about ads it makes me laugh about that thread)
Man I was a dummy eh?
Microsoft acquires Activision Blizzard.
Man I was a dummy eh?
To be fair, there are 3 different meanings of "ads" when it comes to gaming.
Microsoft acquires Activision Blizzard.
Damn those ADS!
(Every time you post about ads it makes me laugh about that thread)
Man I was a dummy eh?
If we're doing it right, looking back, we all are.
Microsoft acquires Activision Blizzard.
by cheapLEY , Tuesday, January 18, 2022, 17:00 (822 days ago) @ Cody Miller
You own a PS5. It’s got ads on the dashboard.
Microsoft acquires Activision Blizzard.
by Cody Miller , Music of the Spheres - Never Forgot, Tuesday, January 18, 2022, 23:31 (822 days ago) @ cheapLEY
You own a PS5. It’s got ads on the dashboard.
Oh no.
That fucking 'explore' tab. At first it looked like just a thing to give you info about your recent games… but a closer look reveals… tiny ads (in this case for a controller). You can't move it like you could with PS4 icons.
I can't unsee. Motherfucker.
I'm going to find every last sony ad server and block them from my router. Scorch earth this shit. I hate they got my money. Can only mitigate now.
Sony's response "For me, it was tuesday"
by kidtsunami , Atlanta, GA, Wednesday, January 19, 2022, 06:25 (822 days ago) @ Cody Miller
- No text -