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[Fess]

You’ve layered an extra warped expectation of quarter-price subscription value on top of not buying the individual games you love.

That’s a big shock to the system when a third party game not on Game Pass releases.

I don’t use the console side, cloud or Live, so the price is spot on when I only use 1/4 of the Ultimate features
And I buy plenty of games not on Gamepass, just not on Xbox or Microsoft Store.
/PC gamer

 

[Katatonic]

MS just wanted to gatekeep COD since that was PS' biggest moneymaker. Anti-competitiveness at it's finest.

 

[Bumblebeetuna]

They announced the PS5 version of Indiana Jones before the Xbox version even released and Halo looks very much like its coming to PlayStation.

Nothing is off the table at this point.

Case by case doesn't seem to be what's happening, considering what they did with Indiana Jones.

I’m saying their intent wasn’t to make all Activision games exclusive. Pointing out other games aren’t exclusive only strengthens my point.

 

[namenotfound]

I think the only ones losing are Xbox owners. Sony get's Microsoft first party games and Xbox hardware sales tanked. Kotick got to cash out his shares in Activision at all time highs for a fixed price so no issues with having to structure his sales to reduce Activision stock volatility. Microsoft wins because ActiBlizzKing is a revenue/profit beast. Candy Crush, DIablo Immortal, Call of Duty Mobile, Call of Duty Warzone, Call of Duty yearly release and live service, World of Warcraft, Diablo IV live service, World of Warcraft subscription and cash shop. Maybe Blizzard will try MOBA again with Starcraft but this time mobile instead of PC especially after having success with Diablo Immortal. They actually have a strong portfolio for a mobile game store with mobile centric games and potential differentiation with mobile ports of older games. Phil Spencer may have won in a way he wasn't planning in that ActiBlizzKing brings in so much money every year that the previous lack of success from internal Xbox studios can be glossed over because their live service catalog is so successful because of acquisitions. Spencer may want Xbox hardware to be #1, not working out but possibly making more money at higher margins than before

 

[XXL]

I’m saying their intent wasn’t to make all Activision games exclusive. Pointing out other games aren’t exclusive only strengthens my point.

I agree about ABK, but I don't think case by case is the reality...based on what happened with Indiana Jones.

 

[Crayon]

Phil has a view of the console business that seems kind of tainted by online discourse. Almost like a ceo from an unrelated company was a big online fanboy warrior in his spare time and then was put in charge of xbox. If you remember the narratives on the run up to this generation, you'd think that xbox had already made a roaring comeback and won. Then with ABK, forum dwellers for or against the deal, had a very simplistic version of events to unfold.

ie: "spend sony out of business" by making several huge franchises exclusive to xbox, which was about to dominate the ps5 because reasons. What's weird is that Phil seemed to be thinking the same way as us forum tards, but the dynamics turned out to be more complicated than that. Those emails showed insight into how he was thinking. Buying nintendo and steam? He was daydreaming of winning the console war, which is really just a framework we use to fight over shit online. Also seemed to be informed by their own online fud, which is insane.

 

[mayham2199]

I really just wanted to drop that joke in here and move on lol. I don't agree. They literally said it's going to stay multiplatform the day they announced it. It's illogical to even want Call of Duty to be an exclusive and that was never the plan. I don't blame them for not wanting to sign contracts for 10 years of releases on PS when no one else in the industry has ever signed something like that ever, for any reason. You don't need contracts to be a multiplatform publisher. No one else does this and it was a ridiculous request. Not to mention, the OP says "exclusive to Xbox" when obviously MS would keep it on PC at a bare minimum. In reality, they were going to keep it everywhere and add it to Nintendo systems and cloud, literally the opposite of any kind of exclusivity.

I think they wanted the 3 year contract in order to keep their options open. They looked at what they would lose by removing it from PS so they at least wanted to know what that scenario would look like financially. I think if their consoles sales were doing very well and the business was as well that they would do it if they could in order to further push more people to GP and their console. It just doesn't make sense not to do it if you have a healthy platform business already with great console and sub growth.

 

[diffusionx]

Phil has a view of the console business that seems kind of tainted by online discourse. Almost like a ceo from an unrelated company was a big online fanboy warrior in his spare time and then was put in charge of xbox. If you remember the narratives on the run up to this generation, you'd think that xbox had already made a roaring comeback and won. Then with ABK, forum dwellers for or against the deal, had a very simplistic version of events to unfold.

ie: "spend sony out of business" by making several huge franchises exclusive to xbox, which was about to dominate the ps5 because reasons. What's weird is that Phil seemed to be thinking the same way as us forum tards, but the dynamics turned out to be more complicated than that. Those emails showed insight into how he was thinking. Buying nintendo and steam? He was daydreaming of winning the console war, which is really just a framework we use to fight over shit online. Also seemed to be informed by their own online fud, which is insane.

Phil got the job because he said he would turn Xbox into a service and Nadella wants services. His plan was to set up a constant cadence of game releases to keep people subscribed to GP, kind of like how Netflix always has content coming to keep people watching. To do that you need a lot of content, so they went on the buying spree. But, it's been difficult. Last year was the first year it looked like their plan was rounding into shape, but unfortunately all three of the games kind of sucked (Starfield, Forza, Redfall). So I think they threw in the towel.

 

[JusticeForAll]

It seems to me nobody benefited.

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

Indeed. I’ve never seen something as mishandled as Xbox. At least, not in gaming!

SEGA might be a close 2nd as far as consoles go. I think they had a decent shot at a 45-50 million Saturn gen if they didn't make the mistakes they made. That probably would've brought the PS1 closer to 65-70 million and N64 closer to 25-30 million.

But in terms of going from highest highs to lowest lows? Absolutely it's Xbox.

I really just wanted to drop that joke in here and move on lol. I don't agree. They literally said it's going to stay multiplatform the day they announced it. It's illogical to even want Call of Duty to be an exclusive and that was never the plan.

But the terms of the initial contract strongly hint their plan was foreclosure on PlayStation for COD after 2026/2027. Which would've lined right up for a 10th-gen Xbox. The language is all there.

Keep in mind both the EC and even CMA later ruled that full foreclosure of COD on PlayStation was NOT their concern, nor did they think it would create an anticompetitive/monopolistic effect on the console market. They would not have mentioned this unless they noted at least partial foreclosure plans from Microsoft earlier on. Or more specifically, seeing what MS were already doing with Zenimax games and logically concluding they'd aim for similar strategy w/ ABK (which the leaked emails later proved to everyone else).

I don't blame them for not wanting to sign contracts for 10 years of releases on PS when no one else in the industry has ever signed something like that ever, for any reason.

Well no one else in the industry purchased one of the biggest 3P pubs for $70 billion, either. Unprecedented M&A, unprecedented terms & conditions influenced by regulators.

Also, it was MS themselves who decided on extending it from 3 years to 10 years. Regulators didn't "force" them to set that time range; MS chose it themselves.

You don't need contracts to be a multiplatform publisher.

You do if you're MS and you're buying ABK for $70 billion

No one else does this and it was a ridiculous request.

Again, it wasn't a request. Microsoft themselves decided to offer 10 years. That wasn't stipulated by regulators; Microsoft was trying to make regulators less concerned and since Jim Ryan exposed the BS Phil & co. were saying publicly vs. privately (& bringing private business deals out in the public to parade in front of regulators), MS made a 10-year deal to take pressure off themselves.

Not to mention, the OP says "exclusive to Xbox" when obviously MS would keep it on PC at a bare minimum. In reality, they were going to keep it everywhere and add it to Nintendo systems and cloud, literally the opposite of any kind of exclusivity.

OP clearly meant in terms of console exclusivity and, again, that was part of MS's plans. They were going to do with ABK what they were already doing with Zenimax: console exclusivity via foreclosure on PlayStation after a certain point of time.

Again, this is why the initial offer for COD on PS was for 3 years, until 2027. After which we all knew what MS were going to do: remove COD for PlayStation and make it console exclusive to Xbox. They already did that with Bethesda (Starfield, TES VI etc.) so outside of GAAS titles there was no reason to expect future ABK titles on PlayStation after a certain period of time, with the original terms.

That's why Jim Ryan balked at those terms, it's why SIE & Sony Corp were against the acquisition. If there were guarantee from the onset that PlayStation would receive ABK games (specifically COD) in perpetuity and with full parity, there wouldn't have been as much pushback, at least from Sony. Regulators and other companies like Google had pushback anyway since it was the 2nd big 3P MS were buying in a small span of time, though.

 

[ShaiKhulud1989]

Serious analytics aside, in hindsight this deal felt like someone successfully sold an iceberg to a Titanic crew arguing that their ship will be the biggest ice seller around, plus will make it to the headlines.

And hey, it went just like that. With a twist.

ABK was too big for an already clueless Xbox team to handle and basically sunk the console. Well, at lest Microsoft have an army of lifeboats to keep Xbox afloat as a publisher, though some people (almost 2000 of them) weren't lucky enough to share a piano with Phil and Co.

Meanwhile Bobby is sitting ashore in his little cocaine castle and sniffing gold from hookers butts.

Consolidation is marvellous, innit?

 

[EN250]

To think I exiled myself to avoid getting banned as I was mad at the few cheering for this deal to happen

Never thought MS would just say f#ck it, let's sell games to everyone to get more money

Bill Gates* to uncle Phil:

(*Nadella)

 

[Shane89]

Gamepass downgrade, COD on high tiers Gamepass, Massive Laysoff, Redfall disaster, Starfield failure, Xbox sales almost zeroed.

 

[Burger King]

Sooner or later cod will stop selling so much

 

[Starbuck2907]

If Microsoft went in with the intention of making Activision games exclusive to Xbox they ended up with the most unimaginable opposite.

As soon as Xbox console sales started to plummet and they realised they wouldn’t be able to make CoD exclusive for a decade why on earth didn’t they back out?

They wanted Activision games on gamepass. Gamepass is their focus, not console sales, which are chump change in comparison to subscription profits. They also wanted Activision’s mobile divisions, which make tons of money.

I don’t think you understand their corporate strategy. If you did, you wouldn’t be asking this question.

 

[Beechos]

They wanted Activision games on gamepass. Gamepass is their focus, not console sales, which are chump change in comparison to subscription profits. They also wanted Activision’s mobile divisions, which make tons of money.

I don’t think you understand their corporate strategy. If you did, you wouldn’t be asking this question.

Not only this but I think activision value has gone up since the purchase based on their Financials. If ms were sell, it has a market valuation of like 75 billion.

 

[Jinxed]

They're in the red when you consider the losses Xbox was making prior to purchase of ABK.

Also FWIW post-acquisition ABK have generated less revenue for MS vs. when they were still an independent 3P publisher. IJS.



2nd pic looks like a mugshot in progress.



But how much of that was net profit? MS probably need the costs for ABK (and Zenimax) to recoup through net profits. So that $1 billion from D4...how much net is that for MS after giving Sony & Valve their cuts, having covered development costs (MS probably absorbed those costs into Xbox after the acquisition), after marketing, after whatever taxes?

Obviously I'm not an accounting expert, but that wasn't simply $1 billion in free money for MS off of D4.



Were ABK really ever at risk of bankruptcy? They were probably at risk of certain credits for easy loans going out the window, but it's not like COD, WOW, D4, Candy Crush etc. were going to stop making money. They'd of been perfectly fine w/o the acquisition.

Completely different from Zenimax, who actually were at risk of going bankrupt.



The allure is understandable, but some of these companies need to realize that player time and money and finite. Do any stop to think that the GAAS market is simply saturated for big heavy-hitters?

Like, the only way someone can get a new heavy hitter now is if one of the currently entrenched IPs had a massive drop-off. Closest we've seen to that recently was Helldivers 2 making huge waves, and I think that was due to declining Destiny 2 player base & COD players looking for something new after MW3.

And, stupid SIE, didn't capitalize on the moment the way they should've. Now they're scrambling to recharge HD2 and get another big GAAS out.

Not only that, they need to realize that the people who've invested hundreds to thousands of dollars into the game and have been playing fortnite for years will never move to another game.

 

[Jibran#one]

Don mattick didn't killed Xbox Phil did.
Instead of competing against playstation and giving them competition they just surrendered into that their games would come to ps.
It's mindboggling how stupid their decisions are from last gen to this gen spent nearly 100 billion to go third party and basically killed their hardware division.

 

[ShaiKhulud1989]

They wanted Activision games on gamepass. Gamepass is their focus, not console sales, which are chump change in comparison to subscription profits. They also wanted Activision’s mobile divisions, which make tons of money.

I don’t think you understand their corporate strategy. If you did, you wouldn’t be asking this question.

The deal was instigated on the height of a COVID craze. Many things changed since then, including the deal itself thanks to CMA. GamePass is missing projections so hard it’s even been excluded from Satya’s salary as a KPI.

Not only this but I think activision value has gone up since the purchase based on their Financials. If ms were sell, it has a market valuation of like 75 billion.

Microsoft payed a very solid premium for AKB in 2020 when overall company was way healthier financially and before it started to generate net loss thanks to post-merger costs. If the company was healthy we wouldn’t witness an almost entirety of Zenimax worth of layoffs.

 

[BattleScar]

Consolidation is bad.
We'll see just how bad in a few years.

 

[Beechos]

Microsoft payed a very solid premium for AKB in 2020 when overall company was way healthier financially and before it started to generate net loss thanks to post-merger costs. If the company was healthy we wouldn’t witness an almost entirety of Zenimax worth of layoffs.

That's pretty much the norm with all mergers and acquisitions. People will usually lose their jobs and whatever promises were made to get it approved will eventually be reneged on because of "changing market conditions".

Base on a google search the numbers are pretty astounding.

On average, about 30% of employees are considered redundant after a merger or acquisition. However, some statistics suggest that the number of employees who leave after a merger or acquisition is even higher:

• Over 33% of acquired employees leave after an acquisition.
• 47% of key employees leave within a year of a merger or acquisition.
• 75% of employees leave within the first three years after a merger or acquisition.
  

 

[ShaiKhulud1989]

That's pretty much the norm with all mergers and acquisitions. People will usually lose their jobs and whatever promises were made to get it approved will eventually be reneged on because of "changing market conditions".

Base on a google search the numbers are pretty astounding.

On average, about 30% of employees are considered redundant after a merger or acquisition. However, some statistics suggest that the number of employees who leave after a merger or acquisition is even higher:

• Over 33% of acquired employees leave after an acquisition.
• 47% of key employees leave within a year of a merger or acquisition.
• 75% of employees leave within the first three years after a merger or acquisition.

It's all grand, but there were waves of layoffs beyond simple redundancy, because they've happened inside XGS too. It's just Xbox cutting costs because they are bleeding and Satya is asking his 65 billions back.

 

[gokurho]

Eurogamer: It's been 12 months since Microsoft purchased Activision Blizzard, so what's changed? News - Microsoft - Activision/Blizzard

Eurogamer put up an article detailing basically everything that's happened in the last year. Some highlights/lowlights: https://www.eurogamer.net/its-been-12-months-since-microsoft-purchased-activision-blizzard-so-whats-changed

www.resetera.com

One in ten is banned on purple forum

 

[ShaiKhulud1989]

Eurogamer: It's been 12 months since Microsoft purchased Activision Blizzard, so what's changed? News - Microsoft - Activision/Blizzard

Eurogamer put up an article detailing basically everything that's happened in the last year. Some highlights/lowlights: https://www.eurogamer.net/its-been-12-months-since-microsoft-purchased-activision-blizzard-so-whats-changed

www.resetera.com

One in ten is banned on purple forum

First ban is especially hilarious. It's beyond parody at this point and just shows how corporate Era always was. (It's now even a part of a copropate husk called MOBA Network)

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

First ban is especially hilarious. It's beyond parody at this point and just shows how corporate Era always was. (It's now even a part of a copropate husk called MOBA Network)

The ex-box ambassadors are raging right now

 

[Electret]

Eurogamer: It's been 12 months since Microsoft purchased Activision Blizzard, so what's changed? News - Microsoft - Activision/Blizzard

Eurogamer put up an article detailing basically everything that's happened in the last year. Some highlights/lowlights: https://www.eurogamer.net/its-been-12-months-since-microsoft-purchased-activision-blizzard-so-whats-changed

www.resetera.com

Poor Judge. Still taking out his bitter vindictiveness about Xbox's decline, their movement toward third-party publisher, the ambassador program ending, and his ilk of miserable corporate sycophants losing all relevance and influence by banning others who dare speak of the fanboy honeypot shitshow that was their ABK thread.

He's been doing this for months now. It's quite funny he still hasn't been able to get his emotions under control, nor anyone else on their roster of clown moderators has intervened.

 

[username12]

You don't make a $70 billion purchase with the intention of gutting the userbase. Minecraft was only $2.5 billion, and that is one of the least exclusive games there is.

 

[RoboCain]

The purchase that tilted MS into rapidly going third party. Horrible purchase really.

We didn't know their plan back then. Now they own a ton of developers and two tons of intelectual properties. They don't need Xbox to profitable anymore, they can gamble big IP after big IP until something catches on. Doom, Wolfenstein, Quake, COD, Fallout, Elder Scrolls, Diablo, Starcraft, WarCraft, OverWatch, not to mention the mobile side of things.

 

[Daniel_Mallorca1985]

FTC:

Remember that Microsoft said during the FTC trial:

- No layoffs
- No gamepass price increases

They're liars

 

[XXL]

Eurogamer: It's been 12 months since Microsoft purchased Activision Blizzard, so what's changed? News - Microsoft - Activision/Blizzard

Eurogamer put up an article detailing basically everything that's happened in the last year. Some highlights/lowlights: https://www.eurogamer.net/its-been-12-months-since-microsoft-purchased-activision-blizzard-so-whats-changed

www.resetera.com

Those poll results....

 

[FunkMiller]

The only way you could possibly think the merger was good for anyone other than shareholders at this point would be if you were

a) so far up Phil's relaxed asshole, you could see what condition his larynx was in.

b) Bobby Kotick.

Never should have been allowed to go through.

 

[FunkMiller]

Eurogamer: It's been 12 months since Microsoft purchased Activision Blizzard, so what's changed? News - Microsoft - Activision/Blizzard

Eurogamer put up an article detailing basically everything that's happened in the last year. Some highlights/lowlights: https://www.eurogamer.net/its-been-12-months-since-microsoft-purchased-activision-blizzard-so-whats-changed

www.resetera.com

One in ten is banned on purple forum

I really have no idea what kind of numb, brain dead cunt you'd have to be to continue posting over at that site. GAF isn't perfect by any stretch, but by Christ, I'll take any of its negatives over the complete inability to state an opinion that doesn't 100% jibe with whatever shut-in fuckwit they've got moderating that place at any given time.

 

[DeltaPolarBear]

We didn't know their plan back then. Now they own a ton of developers and two tons of intelectual properties. They don't need Xbox to profitable anymore, they can gamble big IP after big IP until something catches on. Doom, Wolfenstein, Quake, COD, Fallout, Elder Scrolls, Diablo, Starcraft, WarCraft, OverWatch, not to mention the mobile side of things.

Activision would lose money if they lose access to PlayStation. Microsoft doesn't need XBox anymore. You describe a future where the Xbox console didn't need to exist.

 

[Mobilemofo]

COD (and King) makes fucktons of money, guess where all that money goes now

Especially King. Christ, they are rolling in it.

 

[RoboCain]

Activision would lose money if they lose access to PlayStation. Microsoft doesn't need XBox anymore. You describe a future where the Xbox console didn't need to exist.

Xbox can live on as a brand, an ecosystem and a service. I mean is like their Origin or Ubi Play, they get the platform cut, but is not their main focus anymore.

My comment was more about they first presented the acquisition as a way to make their consoles more competitive but in reality was all about having a foot on the gaming industry in the inception of the hardware agnostic ecosystem war that started silently with the Steam Deck and will blow up once you can play Steam on a 4K console.

 

[ZehDon]

Microsoft: If we buy ABK, not a lot will change.
Sony: If they buy ABK, PlayStation will never recover!
NeoGAF: OMG - they cannot be allowed to buy ABK!

Microsoft: *buys ABK. Not a lot changes*
Sony: *crickets*
NeoGAF: Lol, nothing changed - why did they buy ABK?

Anyway, what I see as the major benefit of Microsoft's ABK purchase is Xbox are now too big to be pushed out of the industry. Sony's launching it's most expensive games ever, on it's most expensive hardware ever, with it's most expensive services ever, and seems happy to roll with remakes and remasters for games that aren't even 10 years old. The industry needs some kind of competition in this space.

 

[Crayon]

Eurogamer: It's been 12 months since Microsoft purchased Activision Blizzard, so what's changed? News - Microsoft - Activision/Blizzard

Eurogamer put up an article detailing basically everything that's happened in the last year. Some highlights/lowlights: https://www.eurogamer.net/its-been-12-months-since-microsoft-purchased-activision-blizzard-so-whats-changed

www.resetera.com

One in ten is banned on purple forum

The MS capture there was out of control at that time. It was pointless to discuss it. Someone posted that chart from italy where they the portal outsold xbox and they got a ban just for posting it.

One of the angles defending the abk merger was about sony trying to kill xbox when they dropped the ps2 price? I tried to bait someone into absurdity but they had no issue equating the merger with timed exclusive dlc? It was wild. There were a few reality bending events going on when I decided to leave.

Protip: You can disagree with some of the wrong things, and you will be fine as long as 30 people can beat up on you for it. If you say something smart enough to shut them up, then you get the ban.

 

[@gkTH]

That's alright.
The Playstation receives

• MS games on PS5
• CoD games still on PS5
• MS is exiting Xbox and making the PS to be a dominant platform

The purchase was for competitor (not competition) for real !!!

 

[bender]

The biggest change is the amount of people employed by Activision-Blizzard.

 

[havoc00]

How does Bobby always win?

 

[AeonGaidenRaiden]

That's alright.
The Playstation receives

• MS games on PS5
• CoD games still on PS5
• MS is exiting Xbox and making the PS to be a dominant platform

The purchase was for competitor (not competition) for real !!!

Except on Xbox you get the game for "free" and the commission of sales on the PS5 also goes to Microsoft's pockets. They dont care that its on another console, now that they own the IPs they get the sales cash to them even though people are buying it on another console.

 

[REDRZA MWS]

I make that two counts of ‘plastic boxes’
One count of ‘pro-consumer options’
One count of ‘anything with Xbox games is another Xbox’
One count of ‘billion (trillion) dollar corp’

The money is all going to MS no matter how you slice it.

 

[Kumomeme]

 

[Hero of Spielberg]

Xbox owners: Get COD on GP as well as Diablo and others to come I'd imagine.

Playstation owners: Nothing really changes I guess.

Bobby Kotick: Gets even more billions in his Scrooge McDuck money bin and gets out of all the hot water he might have been facing.

Phil Spencer: Gets a feather in his cap for overseeing the largest merger in the industry.

Obviously Kotick is the biggest winner out of it all.

 

[SportsFan581]

I really just wanted to drop that joke in here and move on lol. I don't agree. They literally said it's going to stay multiplatform the day they announced it. It's illogical to even want Call of Duty to be an exclusive and that was never the plan.

Absolutely, MS dangled that out there day one because that was their preferred concession to get the deal closed. If they had wanted exclusivity they would have fought for it.

GP subscribers should have been an option, since CoD on there isn't a bad get.

 

[Daniel_Mallorca1985]

The mislabeled "gamers' lawsuit" over Microsoft's purchase of ABK has been dropped. Judge Corley had repeatedly postponed a case management conference as everyone was and still is waiting for the Ninth Circuit. The same class-action lawyers have various AI copyright cases pending and can now focus on those.

 

[Ashamam]

I voted PS owners as to recover some of that money games are making their way to PS that would have been/were MS exclusives

Umm... You would assume the alternative to MS buying ABK was them not buying ABK. In which case wouldn't Sony have retained those titles anyway? ie: Sony dodged a potential bullet but the acquisition ended up changing nothing on that side of things.

 

[Laptop1991]

So far B and C, definitely not Phil at present.

 

[PatientGamer]

PlayStation gamers won here.. they're now getting games that under any other traditional 1st party arrangement, they wouldn't see the light of day.

 

[BlackTron]

Umm... You would assume the alternative to MS buying ABK was them not buying ABK. In which case wouldn't Sony have retained those titles anyway? ie: Sony dodged a potential bullet but the acquisition ended up changing nothing on that side of things.

He's not talking about ABK titles, he's talking about existing XGS games that went to Playstation, in addition to future ones that might like Halo.