Microsoft in talks to buy Activision

[Iceman]

 

[Iceman]

Current market cap after all the recent news of what's been gong on there was down to $50B. Hopefully they are going to clean shop there. Can't imagine they are going to let Kotick and his boys hang around.

 

[DarthSkywalker]

Sony are so screwed. They don't have Microsoft's money.

 

[Drizzle]

So if this deal happens, Microsoft would most likely clean house at Activision. But my question is would they attempt to make any Activision-published games exclusive to the Xbox? On the one hand it makes sense if Microsoft buys them but they'd also lose out on so much in sales by keeping something like Call of Duty an Xbox exclusive title.

Sony are so screwed. They don't have Microsoft's money.

They'll just borrow some from Spider-Man.

 

[DarthSkywalker]

So if this deal happens, Microsoft would most likely clean house at Activision. But my question is would they attempt to make any Activision-published games exclusive to the Xbox? On the one hand it makes sense if Microsoft buys them but they'd also lose out on so much in sales by keeping something like Call of Duty an Xbox exclusive title.


They'll just borrow some from Spider-Man.

They aren't cleaning house apparently.

They'd make the vast majority of games Xbox exclusive just like they are with the Bethesda games. They don't care about losing money. They care about becoming #1 in market share. They have so much money to burn. Why Game Pass exist. They are out here to run over Sony, who thought they could bully them.

 

[DarthSkywalker]

 

[Iceman]

So if this deal happens, Microsoft would most likely clean house at Activision. But my question is would they attempt to make any Activision-published games exclusive to the Xbox? On the one hand it makes sense if Microsoft buys them but they'd also lose out on so much in sales by keeping something like Call of Duty an Xbox exclusive title.


They'll just borrow some from Spider-Man.

They better clean house. I don't think the buy would be attractive with all the negative headlines if they didn't.

The one major thing that will certainly happen is that all the Activision games will be on game pass day one, hopefully including all the past titles (anything without licensing issues). This would help their pc game pass push too with Starcraft and Warcraft.

 

[MessiahDecoy123]

If they don't clean house they're idiots.

And ditto for taking blizzard and activision games away from PC and Playstation.

You're losing like 50% of the market share.

 

[Drizzle]

They aren't cleaning house apparently.

They'd make the vast majority of games Xbox exclusive just like they are with the Bethesda games. They don't care about losing money. They care about becoming #1 in market share. They have so much money to burn. Why Game Pass exist. They are out here to run over Sony, who thought they could bully them.

And this is just another reason why I can see myself buying a Series X down the line in addition to still owning a decent amount of old 360 games that I don't intend to get rid of. I love Playstation and the PS4 definitely came out on top over the Xbox One IMO (as I'm sure many would agree) but the PS5 and Series X/S are a little more evenly matched this generation.

 

[DarthSkywalker]

If they don't clean house they're idiots.

And ditto for taking blizzard and activision games away from PC and Playstation.

You're losing like 50% of the market share.

They won't take them away from PC. They never do.

They want to sell their consoles/Game Pass. They don't lose market share. They gain it. Because people are forced to buy their system. This is the point of Nintendo and Sony exclusives. How does that change here?

 

[Iceman]

If they don't clean house they're idiots.

And ditto for taking blizzard and activision games away from PC and Playstation.

You're losing like 50% of the market share.

They're making a big push on pc for the pc equivalent of game pass - pretty much everything Xbox already releases on pc too.

I'm not sure what they will do with the likes of CoD but this financial side is the same for exclusives in general. God of War, Uncharted, Spider-Man, Mario, Zelda and co would sell tons on other platforms.

 

[DarthSkywalker]

And this is just another reason why I can see myself buying a Series X down the line in addition to still owning a decent amount of old 360 games that I don't intend to get rid of. I love Playstation and the PS4 definitely came out on top over the Xbox One IMO (as I'm sure many would agree) but the PS5 and Series X/S are a little more evenly matched this generation.

I have a PS5 and I'm happy with it. Nothing about the two big acquistions from Microsoft do anything for me, really. There is some Bethesda stuff I play, but I'll live. Sony still has all the major games I want to play that aren't Nintendo exclusive. But for the rest of the world? This is going to get fun when Overwatch 2 only comes out on Xbox and PC.

 

[DarthSkywalker]

They're making a big push on pc for the pc equivalent of game pass - pretty much everything Xbox already releases on pc too.

I'm not sure what they will do with the likes of CoD but this financial side is the same for exclusives in general. God of War, Uncharted, Spider-Man, Mario, Zelda and co would sell tons on other platforms.

Yep. Like no one ever says, "but they cut the sales of Spider-Man, Zelda and God of War" in half. I honestly don't think all these acquisition should be legal, but considering what Sony has got away with over the years, it makes sense.

I said this was going to happen after they bought Bethesda. They weren't done. They probably still aren't.

 

[Wolvieboy17]

Honestly I can see them making the next COD an exclusive for PC and Xbox, but free on Game Pass. It's still a better value proposition for PC gamers and Xbox make more money of GP Ultimate subscription numbers than games anyway, especially a game like COD which retains it's users for 12+ months.

 

[DarthSkywalker]

 

[DarthSkywalker]

Honestly I can see them making the next COD an exclusive for PC and Xbox, but free on Game Pass. It's still a better value proposition for PC gamers and Xbox make more money of GP Ultimate subscription numbers than games anyway, especially a game like COD which retains it's users for 12+ months.

They haven't done that in a while.

 

[Wolvieboy17]

They haven't done that in a while.

This is certainly true. But on the whole, when you look at Overwatch, Diablo, WoW, COD... This is a massive list of games with hardcore fanbases that keep coming back every 3 months with new updates, content, seasons, skins etc. The value Game Pass offers actually folds super neatly into a lot of those titles, so that's an insane amount of value. More so than the Bethesda deal, I think.

 

[DarthSkywalker]

Watch Call of Duty start giving out maps for free. The next few years are going to be nuts.

 

[DarthSkywalker]

 

[Wolvieboy17]

Honestly, I hope so. Would be fantastic to see Blizzard rise again.

Would also love to see the triumphant return of some fantastic studios that Xbox now owns, who've been stuck making COD games/maps/content updates for far too long. Would love to see Treyarch, High Moon, Beenox, Raven etc making their own games again.

 

[DarthSkywalker]

With the purchase, Microsoft only trails Tencent and Sony for revenue in video games. Good lord.

 

[DarthSkywalker]

View attachment 52552

Honestly, I hope so. Would be fantastic to see Blizzard rise again.

Would also love to see the triumphant return of some fantastic studios that Xbox now owns, who've been stuck making COD games/maps/content updates for far too long. Would love to see Treyarch, High Moon, Beenox, Raven etc making their own games again.

Microsoft does work differently then other companies. They will try for prestige, like Sony and Nintendo exclusive now. We just saw it with Halo.

 

[Gee]

Well, first of all, hopefully they will fire Kotick.

With how MS has handled Age of Empires IV, hopefully they bring that kind of magic (back) to Blizzard so I can finally have Warcraft IV and StarCraft III.

 

[Drizzle]

I have a PS5 and I'm happy with it. Nothing about the two big acquistions from Microsoft do anything for me, really. There is some Bethesda stuff I play, but I'll live. Sony still has all the major games I want to play that aren't Nintendo exclusive. But for the rest of the world? This is going to get fun when Overwatch 2 only comes out on Xbox and PC.

Yeah, buying a PS5 was a no-brainer for me since I'm all in on God of War: Ragnarok and Spider-Man 2, among other titles, but there aren't really any Xbox exclusives that scream out "YOU NEED TO BUY AN XBOX ASAP" to me, at least not right now. I've played my fill of Halo and Gears of War back on the 360 and while they'd be fun to revisit for nostalgia's sake, I can't justify buying another console right now, moreso for space reasons than anything else. But even if I was actively hunting for a new Xbox, at least Microsoft seems to be doing much better with supply than Sony is since I actually spotted two Series S consoles in the wild at Target last week and there was a Series X bundle that was lingering on Gamestop.com for at least two or three days. Of course, demand for the PS5 is probably much higher but it's at least nice to know I won't have to follow in-stock Twitter alerts around the clock if I really want a Series X.

Disney when they inevitably buy out the Spider-Man rights from Sony:

 

[Wolvieboy17]

Yeah, and they've also shown recently that they're keen to put talented studios to work on new, interesting titles to expand the Game Pass originals. Would love to see what Treyarch or High Moon would do with a platform to pitch new games again.