Microsoft-Activision-Blizzard Discussion Thread (Part 1)

That’s not what I would take from this at all; while other Big Tech companies are taking an aggressive anti-union stance, Microsoft is positioning itself to be the only one of them that is offering to support the formation of and cooperation with unions. This is far more wide-reaching than anything to do with just pleasing regulators for the ABK deal.

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Yeah we will not know until after the acquisition.

I agree.

Curious to hear your opinion on that.

Well… in short, as someone who’s been part of a union in the past, I think it’s well-passed time for the game industry to have its own union(s) especially as the landscape is trying to shift back to working locally after the last two years of remote work. Unions are demonized in the media, but many of the elements we take for granted are a direct result of unions (five-day workweek, for example) and there are a bevy of problems that exist in the industry that could be directly tackled by collective action. When it comes down to it, we all should want the lives of the employees at these studios to be better as empathetic human beings and even affects you directly (it leads to less burnout, turnover, better games, etc.).

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I see. Thanks.

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Any time :slight_smile:

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Glad someone finally posted it :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

‘Other games’ is the key phrase here but at the end of the day, I truly believe this is great news. Matt’s comments about stewardship of the teams and their IP, and not taking away from communities should only be seen as a good thing; Xbox players get those titles day and date with Game Pass and other players that may not be able to afford changing platforms have access. At the end of the day, it means more revenue for Xbox; which means more games, more studios/employees, and more security for Xbox and Game Pass. Couple this with Bungie’s requirements for the Sony acquisition and it truly feels like we’re entering a new phase of the industry.

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They are essentially saying the same as they did with Bethesda. Anyway, nothing will change until 2024. Especially considering that the deal is not done and not to mention them dansing around their words allowing to interpret them in a lot of different ways in comparison for the example to what Jim and Bungie said.

I stick to my opinion.

I think there’s a mixture of the two - its treatment of Minecraft and that of Bethesda properties. The ‘other games’ does a lot of work here and I have no doubt that we’ll be seeing exclusives from some, if not all, of those properties.

Either way, I don’t think any Xbox fan should be worried - every scenario still benefits Xbox/GP gamers.

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Other games probably means Overwatch 2 and maybe Diablo 4 (which will probably come to PS4, but without PS5 version). Bethesda after all released Skyrim Some Edition and Quake Remaster as multiplat too. So maybe Guitar Hero will be multiplat. Or even VR. Who knows.

Though I don’t see a reason for Microsoft to keep the games multiplat in the first place considering the success of Fortnite F2P cloud.

  • Warzone 1 and Warzone 2 and Zombie F2P via cloud
  • Cloud TV app and puck
  • console sales
  • growing PC Game Pass
  • browser cloud

The value of a consumer in your ecosystem is so much more important than any community on the platform of the competitor.

I’ll just repost what I said in the XGS thread:

In the case of Call of Duty, exclusivity doesn’t matter. The fact that these overpriced, yearly games that rarely go on proper sale will be Day 1 on Xbox Game Pass with guaranteed marketing rights, XGP Ultimate Perks and no more locked modes, early betas or shit on PlayStation is a MASSIVE win.

Xbox will be THE place to play Call of Duty.

Same goes for other MP games.

I hope Acti-Blizz gets much more resources to create new games and move away from being CoD-factories. These games will all be exclusive.

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As someone who lives in a civilized country, the importance of unions and a proper, respectful relationship between employers and employees cannot be overstated. A lot of things you accept as normal is outright illegal here.

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As long all Activision games come to gamepass day one, I don’t care if a few of them stay multiplatform and am pretty sure the majority of gamers have the same mind set.

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/sigh

They haven’t been dancing around their words. I tried telling you this months ago man. They have been entirely clear and consistent the entire time. Ppl just didn’t want to hear it.

Agree with the 2024 part in terms of us being able to play released games, BUT we will still surely see those titles prior to that point. I can’t see MS just ignoring those games in dev for 6+ months from FY end next June to end of '23. I’d expect E3 and TGA presence from ABK under their new owners.

image

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They gave a lot of info about what ABK acquisition means for their “we want billions pf gamers to play” future. It seens they are really confident with the deal going through or at least, that they will do everything in their power to so it.

Exiting timea for xbox gamers!!

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I completely agree that they are both confident and tipping their hand strongly that they are willing to invest resources in a follow up court fight on this one if the FTC does anything funny for some reason during review.

What do we have here? Infinity Ward open world RPG?!?!

Narrative Director in Krakow, Poland | Design at Infinity Ward

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People being freed from the CoD mines?!?!

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