A bit of wider industry news today. News which completely blows my mind - Microsoft are out to acquire Activision Blizzard. Pending all the regulatory approvals they need to go through which takes times and can be denied.
This continues the very worrying trend of these mega companies amassing huge resources. Microsoft now control a ridiculous amount of publisher and developer teams, easily helping towards more lock-in with Microsoft services and products. For Microsoft, it makes sense of course, since they can continue dumping titles into Game Pass and get more subscriptions for recurring revenue.
Activision Blizzard has been in a lot of hot water lately, which is probably a big understatement. Employees and investors have repeatedly called for the removal of the current CEO, Bobby Kotick. The press release is a bit vague on what will happen with Kotick, as it mentions Kotick "will continue to serve as CEO of Activision Blizzard" and then "Once the deal closes, the Activision Blizzard business will report to Phil Spencer, CEO, Microsoft Gaming". So it somewhat makes it sound like Kotick might only be there until the deal is fully done but it's pretty vague. Probably intentionally vague due to the ongoing issues. Update: Kotick will remain, a Microsoft spokesperson confirmed via email. Update #2: They tried to clarify again later that they were speaking generally about the acquisition so it's anyone's guess what will happen with Kotick (IGN).
This will be an "all-cash transaction valued at $68.7 billion" which is so much money I can't even begin to imagine it.
Microsoft will then own the likes of Activision, Blizzard and King studios with Warcraft, Diablo, Overwatch, Call of Duty, Candy Crash and global eSports activities through Major League Gaming. The press release states this will make Microsoft "the world’s third-largest gaming company by revenue, behind Tencent and Sony".
Since Microsoft isn't quite the same as the Microsoft of old, we might end up seeing more Activision Blizzard games come to Steam and so making it even easier to run them on Linux through Steam Play Proton. Imagine having Diablo, Starcraft, Overwatch, various newer Call of Duty games and so on being a few clicks away on Steam + Linux.
What do you think to this news? The deal is expected to close in 2023.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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Quoting: F.UltraDepends on what kind of Money MS would throw at then, I think the right amount would make Tencent sell, isn't that their entire business with Epic, to draw up the worth of it to sell it all for a huge profit? Or do we see Tencent as a long time owner?I meant in a scenario where Tencent wouldn't want to sell the company for whatever reason. Personally I think since the Epic business model is unsustainable in the long term, I don't see any reason Sweeney wouldn't (fully) bend to MS in case of a purchase offer.
Microsoft only need to wait until their stock market comes down for like they did on this case with.
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slaapliedje Jan 19, 2022
Quoting: RaabenIt's weird seeing so many think this is a good pattern and praising MS for being gamer friendly lately. Does no one else see these grabs as a great lock-in? Give it a little time, buy another beloved studio or three, then start the MS store exclusivity. With no other possibility from any of those shell publishers anymore, it will be a forced success - what Epic tried but with the capital to pull it off. And then, it could even be a simple swap to UWP and game over WINE/Proton.Seriously.
Within recent years; inXile, Obsidian, Bethesda. Now Activision/Blizzard.
Still laughing that so many journalists are rounding off to 70 Billion... ignoring the 1.3 Billion dollar difference between 70 and 68.7...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbVb63qPDQ8
Last edited by slaapliedje on 19 January 2022 at 3:36 am UTC
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Quoting: slaapliedjeQuoting: RaabenIt's weird seeing so many think this is a good pattern and praising MS for being gamer friendly lately. Does no one else see these grabs as a great lock-in? Give it a little time, buy another beloved studio or three, then start the MS store exclusivity. With no other possibility from any of those shell publishers anymore, it will be a forced success - what Epic tried but with the capital to pull it off. And then, it could even be a simple swap to UWP and game over WINE/Proton.Seriously.
Within recent years; inXile, Obsidian, Bethesda. Now Activision/Blizzard.
InXile and Obsidian still hurt. Bought, played, and loved all their Linux releases and was stoked to have some of my favorite studios native-friendly and then bam.
4 Likes, Who?
I have my doubts, but I do hope this acquisition tries to fix some of the culture at Activision-Blizzard, from all of the reports of mass layoffs and underpaid workers, it does not sound like a pleasant place to work.
Transactions like $68.7 billion dollars to buy companies??? If even a small fraction of that went back to the open-souce projects that these corporations rely upon, what a world we would live in.
Last edited by metalinux on 19 January 2022 at 4:15 am UTC
Transactions like $68.7 billion dollars to buy companies??? If even a small fraction of that went back to the open-souce projects that these corporations rely upon, what a world we would live in.
Last edited by metalinux on 19 January 2022 at 4:15 am UTC
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I hope that Microsofta recent move to opensource will open up blizzards games for native Linux versions and an open source version of battle. net 
But I guess the main thing is better working conditions for all employees and that we still get the same great games over our old channels without steam and the ms store.
Funding is save now :)
But I guess the main thing is better working conditions for all employees and that we still get the same great games over our old channels without steam and the ms store.
Funding is save now :)
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If it means that Heretic II and Hexen II: Portal of Pravus finally gets put on Steam and GOG, then I call it a good thing on my book (though I still hate Microsoft)
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Regardless of the current company policy: Monopoly=Bad because policies can be changed by the blink of an eye. And if everything is owned by one company, nobody is left to challend then on their shitty behaviour.
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rustybroomhandle Jan 19, 2022
I do hate this.
But what did Microsoft spend this buttload of money on? Maybe 5 franchises, some of them on their last legs. King is probably worth more to them than Blizzard in the long run.
But what did Microsoft spend this buttload of money on? Maybe 5 franchises, some of them on their last legs. King is probably worth more to them than Blizzard in the long run.
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Quoting: rustybroomhandleI do hate this.I guess we'll find out whether they have enough extra to buy some spare legs.
But what did Microsoft spend this buttload of money on? Maybe 5 franchises, some of them on their last legs.
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rustybroomhandle Jan 19, 2022
Quoting: Purple Library GuyQuoting: rustybroomhandleI do hate this.I guess we'll find out whether they have enough extra to buy some spare legs.
But what did Microsoft spend this buttload of money on? Maybe 5 franchises, some of them on their last legs.
They need to sort out the workers issue first. I hope someone has reached out to some of them to see how they feel about all this.
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Craggles086 Jan 19, 2022
Am feeling disappointed by this..
When all the gaming legends of the 80s and 90s are either no more, or are all owned by two or three companies worldwide, it will be a sad day.
Hopefully there is still room for established names to publish on the indie scene. :)
When all the gaming legends of the 80s and 90s are either no more, or are all owned by two or three companies worldwide, it will be a sad day.
Hopefully there is still room for established names to publish on the indie scene. :)
3 Likes, Who?
Microsoft shows Epic how to act against Steam.
I am sure they have a long term strategy. The time will come, when the MS owned games will be Windows/XBOX exclusive.
I am worried, that Gaben has just missed the point to also own a few important franchises/Studios, to compete. If you only have the plattform, you are fucked in the long term. At least when there is a content owner, who owns a majority of content and has big infrastructure/customer base like Windows.
I am sure they have a long term strategy. The time will come, when the MS owned games will be Windows/XBOX exclusive.
I am worried, that Gaben has just missed the point to also own a few important franchises/Studios, to compete. If you only have the plattform, you are fucked in the long term. At least when there is a content owner, who owns a majority of content and has big infrastructure/customer base like Windows.
1 Likes, Who?
I don't really care for it, while i do run some wine games i'm not paying 60-100 eur for them, as they tend to cost nowadays. I'd only consider paying more than about 10-15 eur for games that run natively. I don't really see how the microsoft acquisiton will change these studios' non-interest in linux, seems like their general attitudes are aligned on this matter.
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Quoting: slaapliedjeQuoting: RaabenIt's weird seeing so many think this is a good pattern and praising MS for being gamer friendly lately. Does no one else see these grabs as a great lock-in? Give it a little time, buy another beloved studio or three, then start the MS store exclusivity. With no other possibility from any of those shell publishers anymore, it will be a forced success - what Epic tried but with the capital to pull it off. And then, it could even be a simple swap to UWP and game over WINE/Proton.Seriously.
Within recent years; inXile, Obsidian, Bethesda. Now Activision/Blizzard.
Still laughing that so many journalists are rounding off to 70 Billion... ignoring the 1.3 Billion dollar difference between 70 and 68.7...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbVb63qPDQ8
Well they are not wrong. That it happens to be 68.7bn is just a side effect of Microsoft having to buy ActivisionBlizzard of the stock market, had they dealt with a single owner then it would have been 70bn and people like nice round numbers.
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Some comments have been removed due to rule violations. This is not a place to suddenly have a rant about "socialism". Stop it.
9 Likes, Who?
Quoting: GuestNext up Ubisoft?
Nah. Microsoft is highly opportunistic with its aquisitions. Unless it explodes in its hands -some angry Activision shareholders being able to fight this- this is obiously them getting Activision at discount price thanks to the recent exploits of the Bobby Kotick charming persona. Culture aside, Activision is a money printing machine.
They might not do good games (in the good old Blizzard sense of it), but they do games that sell a lot to the masses. Hadn't this abusive stuff exploded we would be here reading again how Bobby announces record profits, appoints himself a crazy performance bonus, how he thanks his eployees for their desperate crunches that made for another year of financial success and then fires them in mass to squeeze a little more profit now that development is not needed anymore.
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Recent history showed people want to use Steam as they consider it the superior storefront.
Would Microsoft force their own store upon gamers, it would reinforce Valve's commitment in Linux even further.
As for UWP, even Windows gamers don't want it.
That's just my view on the subject though, only time will tell.
Would Microsoft force their own store upon gamers, it would reinforce Valve's commitment in Linux even further.
As for UWP, even Windows gamers don't want it.
That's just my view on the subject though, only time will tell.
1 Likes, Who?
All in all, my reaction to this comes down to,
Short term: Meh. Whatever.
Long term: Fear of monopolistic shenanigans
Short term: Meh. Whatever.
Long term: Fear of monopolistic shenanigans
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kaktuspalme Jan 19, 2022
At first I was shocked but a second later, I don't care. Haven't played any of their games the last couple of years. Indies amaze me much more atm.
But I still hope Microsoft continues publishing Games to Steam.
But I still hope Microsoft continues publishing Games to Steam.
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Quoting: kaktuspalmeAt first I was shocked but a second later, I don't care. Haven't played any of their games the last couple of years. Indies amaze me much more atm.
For me we should be happy. Activision had no budget for games with less than a 10 billion revenues potential. Bobby wanted to absorb Blizzard to save his dieing company... but for wow, not the rest.
With Activision there would be no hope to get a new Diablo or Starcraft. Not without some shit attached for the boardroom schemes (remember d3 awful drops and real money ah? Or SC2 being only playable in multiplayer in competitive ladder with no custom games support? Both games then were fixed in the expansions and became what they were meant to be since the beginning, but having failed at launch they never reached the success they deserved).
Microsoft at least has the capacity and will to fund niche projects. Look at aoe4. A new RTS in the age of F2P, microtransactions, ntf and mobile?
After today I believe we could get a Diablo 4 or Starcraft 3 that are good games. Ok. Just maybe on Steam, probably not Linux. But better that way that never have them.
Last edited by Mal on 19 January 2022 at 6:56 pm UTC
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