Board 8 > Microsoft to acquire Activison Blizzard

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://news.microsoft.com/features/microsoft-to-acquire-activision-blizzard-to-bring-the-joy-and-community-of-gaming-to-everyone-across-every-device/

Oh.

wow

How did this info not get out?!

I didn't see this coming, MS is marching towards monopoly control much faster than I expected. The silver lining would be sweeping changes in how Acti-Blizz treats its employees but I'm doubtful on that front, we'll have to wait and see. Still this has pretty disturbing long-term implications, MS is not going to stop here.

Kotick better be gone at least.

Excuse me what

Yeah, not liking the industry consolidation implications here.

but maybe they can fire kotick now and give us a silver lining

No fucking justice
ATVI up almost 40% premarket

I hate this fucking world

Yeah getting rid of kotick would be a nice silver lining but he's still going to make bank from this

Nanis23 posted...

No fucking justice
ATVI up almost 40% premarket

I hate this fucking world

why? it's still down 30% overall in the past year

Soon the entire HD and mobile gaming space will be under Microsoft.

Whew

No more COD on Sony platforms I guess.

Sorozone posted...

No more COD on Sony platforms I guess.

or crash and spyro

From the other topic

The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and completion of regulatory review and Activision Blizzards shareholder approval. The deal is expected to close in fiscal year 2023 and will be accretive to non-GAAP earnings per share upon close. The transaction has been approved by the boards of directors of both Microsoft and Activision Blizzard.

If the deal isn't closing for another year, and Bobby is reported to be staying in until the deal closes, then that means another year of his leadership.

Yea this is huge, didn't see this coming.

Gross

Peace___Frog posted...

From the other topic

If the deal isn't closing for another year, and Bobby is reported to be staying in until the deal closes, then that means another year of his leadership.

Fiscal year 2023 overlaps with calendar year 2022.

Holy shit! This is kind of a big fucking deal (in more ways than one).

Do we see Sony respond by trying to buy Ubisoft or something like that? What other big, multiplatform dev studios are still out there?

Yeah. Completely bonkers.

Any antitrust experts in here? Anyway this doesn't go through?

In a way I wanted to see Activision Blizzard burning down and crashing
But maybe Microsoft coming in the rescue and making them redeem themselves is better I dunno

And I don't even hate them for the same reasons Kotaku does

Seanchan posted...

Holy shit! This is kind of a big fucking deal (in more ways than one).

Do we see Sony respond by trying to buy Ubisoft or something like that? What other big, multiplatform dev studios are still out there?

square, capcom

Seanchan posted...

Holy shit! This is kind of a big fucking deal (in more ways than one).

Do we see Sony respond by trying to buy Ubisoft or something like that? What other big, multiplatform dev studios are still out there?

Logical next step is for Sony to end up buying Epic Games somehow.

Seanchan posted...

What other big, multiplatform dev studios are still out there?

Bandai Namco
Capcom
EA
Rockstar
Sega
Square

probably overlooking a few obvious ones

Sorozone posted...

Any antitrust experts in here? Anyway this doesn't go through?

in this brave new disney/fox world? kinda doubt it.

Microsoft can buy what they want but they'll never get the Japanese devs.

Kotick still CEO though

lol

shane15 posted...

Microsoft can buy what they want but they'll never get the Japanese devs.

If they snatch up Sega, I will legitimately cry

https://www.destructoid.com/microsoft-confirms-they-are-keeping-bobby-kotick-after-buying-activision-which-is-already-a-bad-look/

So basically now every call of duty yearly entry is just something new on game pass.

How long until conspiracy theories that all the bad press for ActiBlizz over the last year was an intentional hit job to lower the company's value?

Thanks for all the other company suggestions. My brain sort of went numb at this news. So we've still got the following big boys:

Bandai Namco
Capcom
EA
Take Two (i.e. Rockstar)
Sega
Square
Epic Games

EA seems like it would be the biggest reciprocal response for Sony to try to pull off. I'd probably put Epic 2nd on that list.

I do have to wonder though if this truly means we won't see things like Call of Duty on Playstation. There's still a ton of money to be made publishing on the "other" platform. Like, you put CoD on Game Pass (and maybe raise the prices a bit...) to create extra value there and lock people into the subscription. But you still sell the boxed/digital copies for all platforms, because, why not.

Then again...aren't they going to be no longer publishing Bethesda games for Playstation? So yeah, maybe I'm wrong.

I don't think Sony can pay the 30bn it would cost to acquire a premium Japanese game publisher.

Rockstar is TakeTwo which just bought Zynga for big money so buying them would be ludicrously expensive.

But I can see next year MSFT buying EA and gatekeeping FIFA and Madden.

Mac Arrowny posted...

https://www.destructoid.com/microsoft-confirms-they-are-keeping-bobby-kotick-after-buying-activision-which-is-already-a-bad-look/

Very bad news right there

DeepsPraw posted...

How long until conspiracy theories that all the bad press for ActiBlizz over the last year was an intentional hit job to lower the company's value?

Well, the share price that Microsoft just paid to buy Activision Blizzard is what ATVI's price was a year ago!

swordz9 posted...

Very bad news right there

Wow fuck Microsoft. What a shit company.

I'm of the mind that Kotick is more than likely gone once Microsoft assumes direct control. They can't exactly say "Kotick is gone" when they are still a ways off from the acquisition being complete, can they? Somebody has to run the company until then.

I feel this only really affects the dude bro community. Non of those guys are buying games on PC so they'll be left with no choice but to buy an Xbox.

maybe I'm being naive but it seems to me like buying activision blizzard and then making their games platform exclusive would be burning a ton of money. and it doesn't really seem in line with spencer's MO previously

... how in the absolute what

xp1337 posted...

or crash and spyro

These were already dead franchises. I could see MS reviving them post-acquisition though.

Steiner posted...

maybe I'm being naive but it seems to me like buying activision blizzard and then making their games platform exclusive would be burning a ton of money. and it doesn't really seem in line with spencer's MO previously

I assume the idea is to build up content for gamepass and have it become equal sized to Netflix.

The prices paid for content on the major streaming platforms make this kind of deal look reasonable enough.

Yeah, I wouldn't read into Kotick staying too much. Keywords here are "for the time being". Acquisitions can be chaotic and you don't wanna throw things into turmoil more than necessary. But I'm pretty sure he'll be out before too soon.

Also, this is a crazy acquisition...

Oh thank God it's just Activision Blizzard. I don't think I've played their games for a good amount of time since...Guitar Hero on PS2.

Steiner posted...

maybe I'm being naive but it seems to me like buying activision blizzard and then making their games platform exclusive would be burning a ton of money. and it doesn't really seem in line with spencer's MO previously

They're doing it with Bethesda, so I'm not sure why they wouldn't with Activision/Blizzard. It's kind of their M.O. now. Pretty big blow to Sony, but I know it still hasn't moved me to buying an Xbox Series. (Then again, I don't play activision/blizzard games anyway so this move wouldn't move me either way.)

We really wont know anything about Kotick until the deal closes.

voltch posted...

I don't think Sony can pay the 30bn it would cost to acquire a premium Japanese game publisher.

Rockstar is TakeTwo which just bought Zynga for big money so buying them would be ludicrously expensive.

But I can see next year MSFT buying EA and gatekeeping FIFA and Madden.

At this point I don't think Sony is even in the conversation of buying any of these devs to block MSFT. Only another FAANG company can really offer any sort of resistance. Maybe Amazon springs on EA or Take Two. Like if Sony wasn't a Japanese company they would have been bought a decade ago, same with Nintendo when Microsoft entered the console market.

Epic Games is safe for now, because I'm almost certain Tencent will match any offers short of the US government stepping in and kicking out foreign investments.

Wow. Terrible for the industry but hopefully they will at least clean house on the upper management. On the other hand, other than CoD (which has heavily declined) and their recent PS1-based stuff (Crash, Spyro, Tony Hawk remakes and Crash 4), Activision Blizzard is largely PC and mobile focused these days. Losing CoD and any future Crash/Spyro/Tony Hawk games is a blow for Sony but the rest is more Microsoft consolidating its dominance in the PC space, expanding into the mobile sector, and making Gamepass even more appealing so maybe not much will change even if CoD goes exclusive. CoD is arguably at its least relevant since 3 so what will actually be lost? Still a big seller though it is seeing greatly diminishing returns.

Interestingly Sony have been pushed into a more Nintendo-like situation this generation with a heavy reliance on first party games and unique hardware. Frankly this is understandable as it would be extremely difficult for them to retaliate. What is even the largest publisher they could buy? I struggle to see them going past a Devolver and definitely not an EA or an Epic Games.

Still hoping Microsoft gets Konami at some point but their gacha business just prints money.

Sony and Nintendo are not even in the same galaxy as Microsoft. If they weren't Japanese companies they would have been bought by FAANG ages ago.

MSFT will probably not make CoD exclusive, what they will do is a one or two month exclusivity window, and the games appear on Gamepass on day one.

Top management is usually shown the door in an acquisition like this. Kotick will be gone.

Anyway, I'm not sure if Microsoft has "run them outta town" intentions for Sony - a lot of money can be made licensing their IPs on other platforms.

GranzonEx posted...

Sony and Nintendo are not even in the same galaxy as Microsoft. If they weren't Japanese companies they would have been bought by FAANG ages ago.

MSFT will probably not make CoD exclusive, what they will do is a one or two month exclusivity window, and the games appear on Gamepass on day one.

I could see this being a play by MSFT to make Nintendo and Sony eventually include gamepass on their platforms.