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.
wvstolzing Jan 18, 2022
Quoting: elmapulQuoting: NanobangOne of these days Microsoft will acquire Microsoft and we'll all die from the resulting black hole.
lol
actually this day exists its called yesterday.
You mean their stock buybacks? yahoo finance link
Quoting: GuestQuoting: LordDaveTheKindNo idea, but it looks like everyone missed this point.Quoting: GuestDon't forget Nintendo off that listI recall there are a few constraints on acquiring a Japanese company. Am I wrong?
A lot can happen in 21 years though.
Quoting: BielFPsThe only factor that I can think it could prevent this acquisition would be Tecent.Depends 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?
Last edited by F.Ultra on 18 January 2022 at 6:06 pm UTC
The other part is their sheer size. They own GitHub! LinkedIn! Many game studios and many other technologies.
I've really looked forward to AAA games for most of my gaming life, but I'm finally starting to shift like others here. Games I've spent a ton of time lately: Deep Rock Galactic, SnowRunner, Ready or Not. I have been sinking time into them and they are made by smaller companies.
Kimyrielle Jan 18, 2022
Ok, and tbh, is anybody really going to miss what was one of the most toxic companies to work for in America?
Other than that, geesh, did REALLY nobody in charge ever read a Economics textbook to realize that market concentration is bad? Will this stop only when there is only MS and Sony and their two consoles left? Does nobody realize that for a free-market economy to work, it takes a think called competition. And does nobody realize that if companies can spend that kind of money to buy all their competitors, we're not taxing corporations nearly high enough?
Whatever.
BlackBloodRum Jan 18, 2022
Quoting: KimyrielleOther than that, geesh, did REALLY nobody in charge ever read a Economics textbook to realize that market concentration is bad? Will this stop only when there is only MS and Sony and their two consoles left? Does nobody realize that for a free-market economy to work, it takes a think called competition. And does nobody realize that if companies can spend that kind of money to buy all their competitors, we're not taxing corporations nearly high enough?Well, for a free market economy to avoid one particular dysfunction takes competition. And over the last few decades, masses of mergers and acquisitions, plus network effects in the new rising tech sectors, have led to more and more areas of business with very few firms controlling them, which in turn is leading, more lately, to monopoly pricing and other nasty stuff. So I wholeheartedly agree there. And I absolutely agree about the tax thing.
So yeah, this is just one more example of a general bad trend.
However, I would want to argue that, first, there is no such thing as a free market economy and there really can't be one. And, to the extent that free market economies are approached, they suck in various other ways even if there is robust competition. So it's not like just killing the oligopolies would magically make everything great. Necessary but not sufficient.
Last edited by Purple Library Guy on 18 January 2022 at 6:25 pm UTC
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