This deal was far too big for Microsoft to let fail, and the FTC did a terrible job arguing against it. I mean, the judge even exasperatedly asked if this was all over 1 game (COD).
I do hope that this pulls the industry forward in terms of cloud functionality and access.
Mulligan!
Update, September 28, 2023: Microsoft has responded to the FTC’s announcement plans for a new hearing.
A spokesperson said, “We still anticipate that we will close the transaction by October 18, and we have full confidence in our case and the deal’s benefits to gamers and competition.”
One last shot to avoid it! They keep teasing me. It’s starting to feel cruel.
Ah, but are the FTC going to come back with a better argued case the second time round… Don’t really need The Call of Duty Exclusivity Argument 2: Electric Boogaloo.
I’ll just say it, but this feels like a colossal waste of money.
On Microsoft’s part or the FTC’s?
MS. Unless there’s some huge mobile gaming numbers in there.
I think ultimately it won’t change anything in the landscape of gaming. It might eventually drive Call of Duty downward IMO which I suppose could be a big shift. But unless Microsoft is going to investigate a revival of the Activision catalog outside of CoD and a handful of others, this will only hasten the loss of more franchises from the gaming consciousness.
Warcraft, World of Warcraft, Diablo, Starcraft, Overwatch… where are these entities today? Can Microsoft bring them all back to the heights they once held?
There will probably be a lot of stuff like Starfield that will get in the pipeline, but until they deliver on something, it’s all going to be talk.
The merger hasn’t really impacted my interest in Call of Duty, but the upcoming game being Modern Warfare III hasn’t really inspired me this year. Warzone needs work. That’s the game mode that is still the most compelling part of the package.
One of the problems with Microsoft’s acquisitions so far is it isn’t leading to more games. It seems to be leading to even less output than they had before. That’s going to be doubly frustrating knowing they’ll be sitting on a LOT of former big name games. Will they make a new Crash Bandicoot, Tony Hawk, Spyro? Does Sekiro get a sequel?
Maybe in the end it’s all about just CoD, the surviving Blizzard games, and a lot of mobile. Warzone mobile is about to hit. Is that the real value? I guess we’re going to find out.
If you look at the list of games at the bottom… what they actually own, and didn’t just publish, isn’t exactly massive. That’s all the non-Blizzard IP. CoD is just so huge by comparison to all of that. This acquisition really is mostly about Call of Duty with a sprinkling of Blizzard’s stuff on top.
MS has already told us what this deal is all about for them, whether it’s worth something billion dollars is a whole other question.
Yes? We (and apparently the FTC) get hung up on CoD because that has the gamer name recognition, but Activision has a strong mobile presence.
Of course it’ll lead to less games. Would EA make battlefield without cod? Competition is important. Consolidation under gigantic megacorps is always bad for everybody but the corp.
Microsoft is all sweetness now, when they’re a distant second or third place and are trying to push though an acquisition. After they win it, and at this point it seems pretty clear they will, they will flex their new muscles. Who benefits? Not gamers, that’s for sure.
Important to keep perspective. Game pass is an incredible deal and MS is immolating piles of cash money to offer it. Just like the free games on Epic, ain’t nothing gonna last forever. Huge companies are not your friend.
Yea the real money is in mobile - mobile dwarfs all conventional gaming by some 1.5x or so. But more importantly it’s a straight line up in growth. I just don’t know Activisions mobile portfolio. 70b is still huge numbers, that’s like 1/3 of all gaming revenue for 2022 over every platform combined.
You keep saying this, but that doesn’t necessarily make it so.
Right, so as @stusser notes, this is ultimately a bad deal for those of us who play traditional games on consoles and PCs.
Yes I’m aware of that and am convinced they’re lying or more likely obfuscating the truth in some way.
I doubt they’re lying, I wouldn’t be surprised in the least if they’re obfuscating. That still leaves a lot of daylight between “profitability” and “immolating piles of cash.”