So, i have been thinking to myself why Activision? For that amount of money MS could have bought multiple studios/publishers. Then it hit me Battle.Net, Blizzard is the only company that has its own PC platform that people will happily download and play there games on. And not just here in the States or the UK, it is a worldwide service that transcends into the European and Asian markets.
The benefits of having such a powerful brand like this
They have now, easily, the strongest Esports lineup of games.
Microsoft doesnt have to rely on making the windows store relevant on PC anymore. They can just focus their energy on making BattleNet there open PC Platform.
Microsoft now has PC IP’s with mass appeal in markets they are lacking behind such as China, South Korea, Japan. They can finally take a huge slice out of the Asian, European markets
As I said previously, Microsoft was not going to buy just anyone like Embracer for example but were waiting for the right opportunity, and opportunity knocked with Activision Blizzard when the absuse reports came out and Bobby looked weak for the first time in forever.
Microsoft did not become a $2 trillion company by being nice, but being ruthless and they smelt and opportunity and took it.
You are indeed right that this purchase is largely about bolstering Microsoft’s position on PC and mobile and in markets they are not as strong. It’s close to being the ultimate power move you can get and it will be fascinating to see what the ramifications are for Xbox.
Even if you put in Starcraft, Halo, Overwatch,etc at the same time, they’re still completely behind the actual games that dominate esports(League, Dota, CS, Valorant(Riot and Valve))
Do they have some potential to be great in that regard? Absolutely, and they should invest in that but its not an automatic thing, basically.
Battle.net isn’t replacing the Windows store or Xbox app. They didn’t buy Activision to rebrand all their stuff. This makes no sense. If anything they’ll slowly migrate all that content over to their storefront.
The Windows Store is a huge barrier for their ambitions on PC and it has been for years now. Battle.net has shown it can handle games, so if Xbox can’t sort out games on the Windows Store, which they have not been able to do so far, it might just be easier to rebrand Battle.net and use that.
Windows Store might not be top notch, but I never received so many warning emails for possible account breaches than Battle Net, it’s far from perfect. XD
Battle.net while good only has 17 games on it right now, complexity comes when building out at scale. I wouldn’t be jumping to any conclusion that Xbox store issues are solved just yet.
Strongest lineup when it comes to number of titles but not popularity and I doubt it is even close.
Exactly! Just make Battlenet your store front for your gaming catalog and for third parties as well. Keep everything on Steam and whatever other services you’re on.
I’m leaning to agree with you @Cayde4Ever. Removing games form Steam wouldn’t be wise but also having a competing Storefront could cause marketing and messaging issues. I guess 3 pc stores now, with Xbox, BattleNet and Steam. This is a great discussion. I have no idea how they will maneuver this. I wish it was as simple as just Xbox.com.
