Microsoft buys Activision Blizzard for $70bn

my dream was to have someone like BluePoint games remakaking the entire Shenmue franchise!
Those dudes know how to remake games!
With the close inspection of SUzuki-sama.... that's my dream !
Are they really that good? I am not into dark souls and the other games they remade so I am not sure. In general I am against remakes because they always try to spice up their remakes with modern gameplay elements and I am not sure if I want to see modern elements in Shenmue. That would kill the game for me.
 
I am gonna buy Playstation products as long as they exist but still I have say Sony keeps failing and failing.

I grew up playing PlayStation consoles since the first one so it is special to me but when a see Sony making bad decisions i will say as well, some decisions that Sony did about PS5 i really don't understand.

The thing about censorship, Sony put an internet browser on PS5 but we can't use it, no themes on PS5, no options to customize the menu of PS5 the way we want, a feature that we have in PS3, PSP, PS4, PS Vita but Sony decided to not put this on PS5. The thing about the browser and customization Sony can fix this with an update, i hope Sony do this.

Microsoft have the game pass, people say that this is an amazing service, many new games and old games for a good price every month, i never tried this, maybe i will try one day.

Sony should listen more about what the customers really want. Maybe we will get the Spartacus service where we will get PS1, PS2 and PS3 games, if this happen it will be a beautiful decision by Sony.

Like spud said we know neither Sony or Nintendo can compete on a financial level with Microsoft. Nintendo continues to do its own thing and it still sells well, a lot of people like Nintendo Switch even if it's not the most powerful hardware, I also like Nintendo Switch.

Sony is not "dead" but Sony needs to start to make good decisions in this generation, the Spartacus service, maybe buying or making deals with KONAMI, CAPCOM, SQUARE-ENIX, FROMSOFTWARE, SEGA or other japanese studio, Sony needs to have beautiful exclusives as well.

I agree with some things bcdcdude and Tosh said, sometimes i feel that i don't understand the game industry anymore, feels almost unrecognisable now. sometimes i really miss the old days.

To end my post i just want to say i never understood this consoles wars, people trying to prove to each other what is the best console and company, i will never understand this wars, i love video games.
 
Last edited:
Console wars is childish. Everybody has their prefered platforms and that is ok. But some people defend the platform like their life depends on them is really childish. I prefer Sony and I am willing to overlook some flaws but that i am totally neutral towards Microsoft. The brand does not click with me but I am ok with it that many people see it different.

I want Ms to thrive to offer enough competiton to keeps moving. The buy everything attitude MS is bad though.It kills the industry in the long run.

Sony is in hard position now. They cannot just carbon copy MS with their services they lack the money of doing so. But I have to agree that they should invest into on online service. It is not my cup of tea i want to buy an play games on my own terms and not when Sony says i can play them and when not. But it is important to enhance their service for the people that care.

But I also think that Sony is far from dead, the just seem dead at the moment. Nobody knows though but they are working on behind closed doors.
 
Last edited:
I dont think that Sony can actually do anything about that in terms of buying studios.
Yes, Sony Playstation can buy and or already bought separate studios like Housemarque (Returnal),
studios for single projects,
but Sony can not compete with a 70 billion USD deal for a whole publisher.
Thats probably already half of what Sony Playstation itself is even worth.
Microsoft could literally buy every of those companies. Capcom, Square Enix, Sega, Koei Tecmo etc.
No problem.
Xbox doesnt have the same gaming success as Sony or Nintendo but Microsoft has a huge amount of money.

And at the same time Sony wouldnt actually gain anything from buying
something like Square Enix or other japanese companies
because Sony already has time exclusive deals with these companies
and all of these games from japanese companies
are already selling more copies on Playstation than on Xbox.
So buying these publishers wouldnt change that much other than
maybe completely stealing off something like Resident Evil or Monster Hunter from the Xbox.
But is that worth the money?

Microsoft now completely stole the largest COD userbase, Playstation, in one single day
and that franchise alone was already worth like 20 billion USD for Playstation.

Sony can not counter or answer in the same way, its not possible.
Microsoft could literally buy all of these companies if they would be interested.
So if you think that Sony is just going to buy Square Enix, Capcom, Sega and co,
i doubt it. Sony Playstation is not in the state to simply buy whatever they want.
But you can bet that Microsoft will be the first at the door
if some of these companies are asking about an offer.

And whatever Sony's offer would be, Microsoft could easily beat that. Thats how it is.
Microsoft is going all in with their golden war chest and we are not talking about Microsoft vs Sony,
we are talking about Microsoft vs Tencent vs Amazon etc.
 
Microsoft have the game pass, people say that this is an amazing service, many new games and old games for a good price every month, i never tried this, maybe i will try one day.
Do it bro!! I played a LOT of games that I wanted but couldnt afford it. The entire yakuza series, Gears series, Forza series (FM 7, FH4, FH5, FM8 ((in the future)) ), Ori's series, The outer worlds, octopath traveller, Anthem (dont laugh at me! I actually liked it)... Amazing indies that usually make me buy them on steam (the gunk, the forgotten city, twelve minutes, mind scanners, the medium, haven)

And then games that I have to play like Flight Simulator (Rome, here we go!), Mass effect LE...
 
But I also think that Sony is far from dead, the just seem dead at the moment. Nobody knows though but they are working on behind closed doors.
Sony recently announced the specs for the PlayStation VR 2. Quite impressive actually, on par with Valve's Index headset and (presumably) only at a fraction of the cost. For me this is the distinction that has me leaning towards a PS5 over a Series X, if I could ever actually find one in stock at retail. It's absolutely galling to me that for all the money that Microsoft clearly has to throw around they just aren't investing in VR. Until that changes I see no reason to jump ship to Microsoft over just upgrading from my PS4 Pro and staying within Sony's ecosystem.
 
Yes the PSVR2 could have pontential. Was not into VR last gen becaus there were no games that I liked but now with games life the VR half Life I might give the PSVR 2 a chance if that game or similar games .

I will never go back to MS. The one S and also the 360 were just collecting dust. I won't buy another console that is not used. The most used console of the xbox family was the first Xbox.

The series x would just collect dust too. So won't buy it. I would play MS games on my gaming laptop. I am not saying that MS is bad. It is bad brand for me I do not like their approach buying everything without really creating something but is just me. I do not have any hard feelings for Xbox Fans. I am in peace with them. if they like the Box more and think Sony is bad I am fine with it.

But still their buy everything approach and make everything corporate kills the creativity in games.

What bugs me with Sony the most is that we do not know if they have any plans to counter to games MS snatched. They need new or old jump and runs based on ips they own. To counter COD they should bring Socom or Mag back to have a decent shooter and so forth.

They are sitting on so many ips and apparently do not use them.
 
Last edited:
The old rule of the gaming industry was that console manufacturers didn't actually make their money on the hardware. They made their money on the software through licensing. Now I can't imagine much has changed through the years.

Honestly, I've seen this coming from the moment MS started playing up Game Pass and bought out Bethesda. I did wonder "who's next?" I thought SEGA was next but turns out it was Actiblizz.

I think it's clear MS is moving more and more towards software. I think the inevitable goal is that they want game pass to be an everywhere service on every device it can possibly be on. They wanna be the Netflix of gaming.

Personally, I think it would be very stupid for them to take the big tent pole franchises away from Sony and I don't think they'll do it. Sure, they may get some exclusives, but I think they'd be nuts to take COD away from PlayStation owners. Instead, they're gonna make money by letting that stuff go third party...they own it and now they'll make money of it.

But their ultimate goal seems to be to get Gamepass onto everything and if you own all the developers making that software then you can grow your library and entice more and more people to sign up. Who wouldn't sign up to Gamepass to get their annual COD fix for "free?"

I think the time will come when Microsoft will abandon hardware and go completely software. The signs are already with their X cloud stuff. The real teller will be if they get Gamepass on PlayStation and that's where I fear Sony is gonna hurt. I still don't think that will happen. I think Sony would be absolutely stupid to cave to that.

I gotta tell you, I don't like where this industry is going lately. I really don't. I feel pessimistic about gaming as a whole to be honest with you. With Microsoft buying up the big boys and gaming becoming more and more homogonized by the day, I fear that this industry will become more and more monopolized and I think that spells the death of creativity. I'm already seeing it with Hollywood...cinema is not what it used to be...at all.

Maybe I'm pessimistic but I think MS's "buy everything" mentality could be very bad in general.
 
I'd need to keep abreast of things more closely to properly defend my view, but I've maintained it since the 7th gen: as "gaming" becomes more normalized, the focus turns increasingly to company profit. I don't mean some generic "boo capitalism 'n suits something something Jim Sterling," but just the reality of company mentality. Games make much more money these days, regardless of method, than they did in the '80s--early'00s. It's no longer nerdy, but normal, if not cool.

For instance: I think Microsoft precisely joined the console market (vs. mere PC gaming) when they did due to the cost benefit. They could've tried a generation earlier, but they saw the right moment. This is just another early bird move on their part.
Indeed, unlike the original Xbox's wobbly start, I think this really is a "playing the long game" move for MS, now that the Xbox brand is established. Again, they've mentioned they are concerned with the Metaverse: they're planning ahead, and they'd also like to cash in on the phone market. (In many ways, I think they may value the acquisition of Candy Crush more than, say, COD.)

My question: while I think Game Pass will probably exist for at least a decade, will the companies and franchises they've acquired (such as A-B) remain relevant? It's hard to know, especially as there seems to be this nostalgia fetish that's been going on for some time in most media. Will that bubble burst? Despite current pleasure, how many Tony Hawk remakes do we "need?" By contrast, how long has there been clamor for more Starcraft? A-B is a company worth the tradeoffs, in terms of IPs, or so they say by their purchase.
I think they're willing to gamble on these things, and they have the money to do so. Even if some of the higher-ups were/are people who truly love video games, they still have a job to do, chiefly for investors who do not care about our retro nostalgia (even if they share it privately).

I agree with the posts about monopolization concern, but I won't repeat those points. It'll be interesting to see if the deal is indeed finalized (I suspect it will be). If there's a third acquisition (there likely will be), that one may be the charm.
 
@danielmann861

I think they will go the same path as with Bethesda. Whatever deals there already are with Sony,
will be fulfilled but then with actual new projects / releases in 2024 and later,
they will be Xbox / PC exclusive. COD too.

The thing is, up until now, it made sense for Activision Blizzard to go multiplatform
and get special deals here and there just to make the most out of it for the own company.
But now, they are going to be 100% owned by Microsoft, which means
they dont have to care at all about this stuff. If Microsoft pays for the next COD game development
and the whole franchise is owned by Microsoft, Activision Blizzard doesnt need to think about
missing sales numbers on Playstation because Microsoft has already planned this.
And when Microsoft is okay with that, thats all it matters.

So yes, i think Microsoft is going to 'steal' the whole Playstation COD, Diablo etc userbase
with the upcoming games in 2024 and or later. exactly like how they are going to do that
with the next Elder Scrolls, Doom etc.

They paid 70 Billion USD to own these IPs, i doubt they are going to share them with anyone else
in the future.

Activision Blizzard is worth more money than Konami, Capcom, Square Enix and Sega together.
Even Nintendo probably is worth less than Activision Blizzard.
For comparison, EA is worth about 40 Billion, Square Enix something like 7 Billion, Sega is worth about 4 Billion.
Sony has probably around 40 Billion USD for acquisitions at max.
 
Last edited:
for me, this news just means i can justify buying a xbox series s or x now. lol

i did own a xbox one for a little while last gen, mainly due to halo but there really wasn't enough exclusive games for me to keep it + owing 2 game consoles always seemed overkill.. but if Microsoft start getting some serious exclusives having both consoles will be a must have. also game pass seems like an awesome deal compared to ps now / ps+.
 
I don't know who owns Valve at the moment but they should be Microsoft's prime target if they want domination of the worlwide games market. If they owned Gamepass and Steam, plus all those developers, maybe buy Take 2 to get control over GTA and that's it. World Domination for Microsoft.

If you got Windows, Office and Azure, all those publishers are just small change.
 
Microsoft buying Activision Blizzard is definitely going to be where were you when moments in gaming history. I can't think of anything in a extremely long time that was this shocking. Microsoft is swinging for the fences on this round.

I'm very much looking forward to Spartacus and really intrigued by how or who does Sony purchase to match this maybe not in spending $ but headlines? Square Enix would be a big get for them but I don't know how big of a splash. If they went after Take Two or EA those would be massive. Epic would be a great get for them as well.
 
Last edited:
I think Epic would be impossible because 40-60% of them are owned by Tencent. This wont work.
EA with 40 bil USD is probably too expensive because thats around the budget Sony has
and buying EA does not include licenses for EA's sport games. Its not possible to make something like Fifa exclusive.

Square Enix, Capcom, Konami, Sega are pretty 'cheap'
but all their games are already selling more copies on Playstation than on Xbox.
So making them exclusive is kind of pointless.
So i dont know what Sony can do. Microsoft pretty much bought the biggest thing you can buy in this market.

Valve is completely privately owned as far as i know, so i doubt they are going to join anyone.
 
Last edited:
I think Epic would be impossible because 40-60% of them are owned by Tencent. This wont work.
EA with 40 bil USD is probably too expensive because thats around the budget Sony has
and buying EA does not include licenses for EA's sport games. Its not possible to make something like Fifa exclusive.

Square Enix, Capcom, Konami, Sega are pretty 'cheap'
but all their games are already selling more copies on Playstation than on Xbox.
So making them exclusive is kind of pointless.
So i dont know what Sony can do. Microsoft pretty much bought the biggest thing you can buy in this market.

Valve is completely privately owned as far as i know, so i doubt they are going to join anyone.
I totally forgot about tencent having such a big chunk of Epic. For some reason I thought Sony had a minority stake in Epic. There was a quote going around on a games Reddit by some insider on Twitter that Sony had around $135 billion but I haven't been able to find it or verify it since. They MAY have that like total as a company and even then it's like you said there's not anyone else out there that they could grab to make that huge of a splash.

SE would give you the Final Fantasy franchise which would be a win but really just to RPG gamers. Sega would give you quite a bunch of unquie and different IPS like Sonic, Persona, Shenmue, Jet Grind etc but even then why would they buy them.

I don't see them snatching up Konami or Capcom. Could Ubisoft be possible and if so what would that give them aside from Tom Clancy's games, and Assassin's Creed?

Would they go after Take Two and make GTA exclusive that would be the biggest one left on the market but I don't know if they could purchase T2.

It's going to be interesting to see what Sony does if anything at all. Their big splash this year will probably be Spartacus and some other exclusives in the pipeline.
 
I think something between 130 and 150 billion USD is actually what Sony is 'worth'
but thats not their budget for acquisitions. The last comment i saw on this topic
said that Sony has around 40 billion USD for buying stuff.
So if they would buy EA, then the whole budget would be already gone.

The thing with Square Enix is, they already have a lot of Playstation deals.
FF7 Remake, FF16, Forspoken ... and the multiplatform stuff has better sales numbers on Playstation than on Xbox.
So, would it make much sense to buy them just to exclude Xbox players from multiplatform IPs?

And its the same for Sega or Capcom.
Playstation already has exclusive deals with Sega Atlus and Persona for example.
Yakuza sells more copies on Playstation than on Xbox.
Same for Monster Hunter World or Resident Evil 7 and 8.

All of these companies are japanese, so its the Xbox that cant keep up with Playstation there.
Playstation already is in the lead there without owning them.

All of this would just exclude Xbox players from these products but they already are
the smallest user group in these games. So i dont know if its worth to pay billions of dollars for that.

Microsoft took the biggest COD (one of the biggest IPs there is) user group, the Playstation users,
and made it their own. I dont see a way for Sony to do the same.
They would need to own something like Fifa and Madden and make it Playstation exclusive but thats not possible
because of the license.
 
I fully agree the only thing I could see is if they somehow bought Take Two and made GTA exclusive that would be a game changer for them. Cause GTA is a cash cow in every sense of the word that thing prints money.

This got me thinking what other huge announcements does everyone remember happening that was on par with this one?

I remember people flipped out about GTA IV coming to Xbox but the one I'll always remember is when the Final Fantasy XIII trailer played during Microsoft's E3 conference back in 2008. At first there was a few gasps and then It was like all of
the air was sucked out of the building. It was truly crazy.
 
I fully agree the only thing I could see is if they somehow bought Take Two and made GTA exclusive that would be a game changer for them. Cause GTA is a cash cow in every sense of the word that thing prints money.

This got me thinking what other huge announcements does everyone remember happening that was on par with this one?

I remember people flipped out about GTA IV coming to Xbox but the one I'll always remember is when the Final Fantasy XIII trailer played during Microsoft's E3 conference back in 2008. At first there was a few gasps and then It was like all of
the air was sucked out of the building. It was truly crazy.
E3 2015, Shenmue 3 announcement, mah boy.

(Okaay, maybe FFVII remake helped too)


((We should make a new topic of this!))
 
Back
Top