BREAKING: Microsoft has officially acquired Activision-Blizzard-King

https://x.com/astaranx/status/1713493089333981304?s=46&t=O_AGT9SEnlptKOF_2SxtqQ

Well I guess I can expect rows of 6 going forward.

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Reader opinions is one more proof that our civilisation is going to trash.

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Fair enough. I think they stressed the fact you did not need an Xbox or PC to play ABK games, but you can interpret as you want.

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The funny thing is Game informer has something like that but at least the writer and editors push back or give reasoning for why it happened

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https://x.com/jezcorden/status/1713462146292449285?s=46&t=O_AGT9SEnlptKOF_2SxtqQ

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A merger between Playstation and Sony to counter it? Sure why notā€¦

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That is hilarious and I totally missed it the first time. Nice catch.

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Iā€™m not expecting that at all. Xbox has been dropping that ā€œmore games for more people, wherever they want to playā€ speech at every given opportunity. So games from established popular IPs will almost certainly be released cross-platform. (Diablo, Spyro, Crash, Tony Hawk.)

New IPs, as well as long forgotten or previously PC-only IPs could be made Xbox-exclusive, though. (WoW, Hexen, Interstate '76ā€¦ pleeeease!)

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Personally Im not expecting many exclusives, at least in the short term, I donā€™t really view this the same way as Bethesda where most major titles will be exclusive, with ABK im thinking the opposite

I think itā€™s possible new IPs might be exclusive like if Infinity Ward really is working on some kind of Destiny-like IP I could see that being exclusive

If Starcraft comes back I can see it being Xbox/PC only

That Odyssey survival thing from Blizzard however Iā€™m thinking will be multiplat although maybe if itā€™s still years away they could drop PS

Other things like a Guitar Hero revival, or even sequels to things like Crash or Spyro, I just get the impression they will bring those everywhere

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This reads like a realistic analysis of the situation to me. While the petty side of me would like to see everything be exclusive, the more rational side says that as long as it all comes to Game Pass Iā€™m cool with it.

I could see a tweak to the above where all currently active franchises (with new titles released since this gen began) continue to be multi-platform, while dormant and new IPs become exclusive. From your list that would make Spyro and Tony Hawk exclusive, with Diablo and Crash continue being multi. That seems reasonable too.

edit: Seeing the points made by @KakkaKarrotKake and @Zip re: Guitar Hero being a cash cow, Iā€™m bound to agree that it would make sense for it to be multiplat. So how aboutā€¦ All GaaS and online multiplayer games continue to be multiplat, and all single player games being made exclusive? As I type that out it makes even more sense to me than the above.

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Going forward everything but COD will be Xbox and PC only. (excluding the mobile on stuff)

Guitar hero would be an absolute cash cow for songs and would make sense to be everywhere possible. Include the base game and maybe some perk song packs in game pass for sure, but no need to miss out on all the song sales from PS and Switch 2.

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We go through this with every acquisition. They didnā€™t spend $70 billion (one of, if not THE biggest acquisition in gaming history) to give games to their competitors - especially Sony. Not excluding CoD, Iā€™m sure there will be games with established communities that will stay the same. But there will be many exclusive titles that will stay on Xbox/PC. I wouldnā€™t expect the next diablo, Spyro, Crash or Tony Hawk to hit other platforms.

They just went through hell getting this deal done. Not a chance in hell they will start being all nice and friendly with Sony and Nintendo now. Phil and Co know that in order to hit their metric of success, they have the make the Xbox platform ā€¦UNMISSABLE! You canā€™t do that putting your games on your competitors platforms. New era, new rules!

You canā€™t keep doing the same thig over and over expecting a different result. Pretty sure Phil and Co know thisā€¦

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This. Jim Ryan cashed in any chance of getting any other game for 5 more years of CoD. Xbox isnt giving them anything.

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Yeah, this is honestly the most likely scenario. It seemed like this was kind of the idea they had with Bethesda stuff and with what Phil said in testimony, so could 100% see this.

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Phil wouldnā€™t even commit to keeping future Diablo or Overwatch games multi plat while he was being grilled by that FTC lawyer.

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While true, part of that would be because committing to those there wasnā€™t really relevant to the trial and would have taken away some leverage they had with Sony to negotiate on stuff. I donā€™t read much into that either way.

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Yep thatā€™s fair. Personally I donā€™t see them treating this any differently to Zenimax games but weā€™ll see.

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Cause he aint finto! lol

I think COD is the only special case here. If they are willing to make Starfield and ES6 exclusive I donā€™t see why they wouldnā€™t be willing to do the same for Diablo 5.

They need to make some sort of moves so that when next gen kicks off, people know they need to buy an Xbox and not a Playstation. I understand making games multiplatform this generation, but at some point you need to set the tone for the next which is their real shot at turning things around.

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