Microsoft has acquired Activision/Blizzard/King

[CreepinDeth]

https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2022/01/18/welcoming-activision-blizzard-to-microsoft-gaming/

For almost $70 billion dollars. Holy crap, this is major and can have some deep implications/repercussions in gaming. Not sure how I feel about it yet although I'm leaning on not good since it's consolidating more of the industry.

[BLUEVOODU]

@CreepinDeth - $70 billion is huge.  Huge.

I cannot imagine how this is going going to change gaming.  Hopefully it's not going to be a repeat of Rare lol...    Sad face.


I agree on your consolidation mention.  There's been too much consolidation into massive corporate silos across tons of different industries.  Mergers and acquisitions are at a ridiculous pace... and accelerated during covid.

It'll be interesting to see how this plays out... and how it molds the future of the gaming industry.   

[retro junkie]

@BLUEVOODU rare was the first thing I thought about when I saw this happening. 

[CreepinDeth]

They also fumbled Lionhead Studios (Fable) which was admitted to in the Youtube documentary - Power On. (Which I highly recommend if anyone is interested in how the Xbox came to be and how Microsoft has handled their past failures.)

Based on that documentary I would say they learned their lesson about what to do with studios. In this gen, the studios they gobbled up are making highly anticipated games like Hellblade 2 and Starfield. Activision is different than Rare or Lionhead as in they have IPs that are much bigger than anything those studios had in their heyday and basically print money every year. Could they mess all that up? Yes, it's always a possibility but I feel they can actually keep this ship from sinking in this specific acquisition. 

[BLUEVOODU]

well yeah... at 60Billion... lol... I Would hope they won't fumble. 

I hope you're right. I know the RTS genre is a bit dead right now.  I miss playing Starcraft 2... but it was frustrating getting stopped    Get better, right?!  Hopefully they're able to resurrect some of these games.

The part I don't like... is their integration with everything Microsoft - IE Live.  To me, it's sluggish service.  When they brought Minecraft into the mix, it really slowed the interface of the game down.  There were other issues after the integrations as well.  Now, it's not horrible, but it's still a bit sluggish. Thankfully the Minecraft mini games can still be accessed on PS4. 

[CreepinDeth]

Yeah, if I play an online game it's probably going to be on Steam. I don't like Live or anything that has their online service. I have Gigabit internet but I'm still capped on their online services.

[Grindspine]

....ANNNND... Sony is buying Bungie as a follow-up to that gambit.

https://www.gfinityesports.com/gaming-news/sony-bungie-acquisition/?fbclid=IwAR0AHwKW9sqk0mdEsrypQLJhg26uCxADch4pjwG5yuUEuQS67L0Hb5niQ7w

[BLUEVOODU]

Yeah, if I play an online game it's probably going to be on Steam. I don't like Live or anything that has their online service. I have Gigabit internet but I'm still capped on their online services.

I've been absent in the pc gaming realm as of late.  I've been more of a handheld, quick console, and quick pick gamer. 

....ANNNND... Sony is buying Bungie as a follow-up to that gambit.

https://www.gfinityesports.com/gaming-news/sony-bungie-acquisition/?fbclid=IwAR0AHwKW9sqk0mdEsrypQLJhg26uCxADch4pjwG5yuUEuQS67L0Hb5niQ7w

@Grindspine Dude... that really needs its own topic!  That could have an interesting impact for Sony and the rest of gaming.