Xbox Acquisition |OT4| It's Acquisition Season for Xbox with $69 Billion deal, NICE!

[Vivir]

@Ulster36thDiv

If you release 3 DLC bundles at say £20 each, for COD 2023 each year upto 2025… they’d still make their money plus the next game can have a 3 year rest.

You’d also have all the gamepass money still coming in, plus you’re not losing 30% of your revenue to Sony.

Also Sledgehammer could go make their own games, whilst IW and Treyarch concentrate on Warzone and COD 2026 and 2029 and Sledgehammers games would bring in their own profit.

DLC’s don’t bring the revenue of a COD title. It’s a different kind of beast. It’s one of the only service games where you can sell it annually and still be the best selling game of the year.

[BadNews]

@windblast

Even Matty/Grubb/Warren/Tassi are on the same boat. Spencer bought Bethesda and Activision to bollster Gamepass, not to make #321 money printing machines or even making investors happy af. Same case, same wording regarding the exclusivity.

I think another many forget about is Satya Nadella’s bonus is tied to gamepass subscription. So, of course he will give Phil full backing to grow gamepass as much as it can since its directly tied to him.

[Vivir]

@Deus

Wow, they approached MS ? I thought it was the other way around.

[n0tjack (NotTiffany)]

Sony down another 3% today; it’s most common to see stocks rebound after dramatic dips but the fact that it’s still taking hits will make the value destruction more permanent every single day.

$20 - $30 billion of the purchase price is a direct missile to Sony’s bottom line

[Roronoa_Zoro90]

@n0tjack

Sony down another 3% today; it’s most common to see stocks rebound after dramatic dips but the fact that it’s still taking hits will make the value destruction more permanent every single day.

$20 - $30 billion of the purchase price is a direct missile to Sony’s bottom line

I think this is an intended side-effect of the deal.

[Knottian (Daniel)]

@nrXic

…rchase was fantastic. But I’d argue that when it comes to new content for Game Pass, quantity should be a major consideration now that “big name draw” covered. So I’m hoping that we see a lot more smaller purchases to flesh out releases. And yes I think 100 talented indie teams should be a target. 10 AA studios. 2-3 AAA studios. Again, not to sound ungrateful or downplaying this purchase. Blizzard alone is a huge get. Few games are as big as theirs. IOI, Asobo, CD…all still important targets. Considering this most recent purchase I would rather billions are spent on hundreds of teams than on a Take Two. If it’s a history rich Japanese developer, I’m okay with that. Again, I know I’m sounding ungrateful because this purchase goes a long way in furthering justifying my GPU sub. But I want MOAR

100% with you my friend; I know the impact this has on the industry and for Xbox, but I wonder if that money could have been spent on a bevy of the aforementioned. For this reason, I selfishly hope we get any of the following still:

• WB Games
• Sega
• Asobo
• Supermassive Games
• Supergiant Games
• IOI
• Eidos
• CD
• Crytek
• Avalanche
• JP Games
• Mistwalker
• Hello Games
• CDPR (I’m on the @Hindle train for this one now, if they can fix Activision, they can fix anyone)

I would fully expect and be okay with a GP price increase to cover these if needed, because ultimately it’s about bringing in as many games and gamers to Xbox as possible, even if they’re not all games that I would personally play. Gaming is for everyone, let’s start bringing in content that just further proves that

[Knottian (Daniel)]

@Deus

This makes me further convinced those other deals may not be dead. But at this point, what the hell do I know given how much this blindsided all of our crew?

[Ulster36thDiv]

@Vivir

DLC’s don’t bring the revenue of a COD title. It’s a different kind of beast. It’s one of the only service games where you can sell it annually and still be the best selling game of the year.

If they put 3 decent DLC out every 4 months, good selection of maps, guns and operators, they’d make £60 a year off most playing the game.

You also have a battlepass and gamepass subscriptions.

Microsoft are making £15b in profit every 3 months at the minute… I reckon they could move COD to a 2-3 year cycle.

Fuck they could even make it free to play multiplayer if they wanted… ala Halo.

[Ulster36thDiv]

@n0tjack

Sony down another 3% today; it’s most common to see stocks rebound after dramatic dips but the fact that it’s still taking hits will make the value destruction more permanent every single day.

$20 - $30 billion of the purchase price is a direct missile to Sony’s bottom line

Now Microsoft goes for the icing on the cake…

Breaking news…Microsoft acquires Playstation division

[NierlyCrazy]

@Knottian

… 100% with you my friend; I know the impact this has on the industry and for Xbox, but I wonder if that money could have been spent on a bevy of the aforementioned. For this reason, I selfishly hope we get any of the following still:

WB Games Sega Asobo Supermassive Games Supergiant Games IOI Eidos CD Crytek Avalanche JP Games Mistwalker Hello Games CDPR (I’m on the @Hindle train for this one now, if they can fix Activision, they can fix anyone)

I would fully expect and be okay with a GP price increase to cover these if needed, because ultimately it’s about bringing in as many games and gamers to Xbox as possible, even if they’re not all games that I would personally play. Gaming is for everyone, let’s start bringing in content that just further proves that

[Ace_Maverick]

Jeff Grubb

Jeff Grubb

[Ace_Maverick]

Paul Tassi

[Biggzy (Hassan)]

@Ace_Maverick

I think there is more than a hint of truth to this and when you factor in the scandals that Activision is currently embroiled in, the board decided now was the time to sell because it might not get this kind of money for a long time.

[Ace_Maverick]

ModernWarzone

ModernWarzone

[javycane (Javier Ruiz)]

@Searsy82

… If you just choose to ignore that forcing all the studios to slave away on COD games is a large contributor to the low morale and the toxic work culture you have a point. Either they are going to fix it or they aren’t. No one is saying they are going to “gut” those studios. They are saying that you don’t need 4000 people working on one IP if you stop releasing a new one every 12 months. You can let groups like Toys for Bob go back to doing what they do best and keep 2/3 COD studios, balance their workforce, and still release one every 1.5-2 years. It is about rebalancing and better utilizing talent. Activision moved to this model because Kotick and co were focused on bleeding it dry to get rich. MS doesnt have the impetus to follow the same path.

Hey Im talking about THE COD studios Sledgehammer, IW and Treyarch. Im beyond thrilled that the other studios could be freed from the Support studio hell they had been placed on.

[javycane (Javier Ruiz)]

@Ace_Maverick

The responses for this about to be lol.

[Weaam]

I think Safe to Say Ain’t no Green Posts will stop the crazy predication now

[Weaam]

@Ace_Maverick

make it every 2 years like FM Was or don’t change anything.

this is casual market move and not aimed at hardcores

[Boosted_Gear]

@Knottian

This makes me further convinced those other deals may not be dead. But at this point, what the hell do I know given how much this blindsided all of our crew?

Even I, being the obnoxious optimist that can grind on people sometimes, would never have thought that they would go for Activision. I had this passing dream that it would be great to have Overwatch on Game Pass, but I thought that impossible.

[saintsflow20]

@Roronoa_Zoro90

I think it’s clear now that their japanese strategy is owning a so significant part of western gaming that japanese publishers will be forced (willing or not) to publish on Xbox, much like in 360 era. At this point I just want more ports and 2nd party exclusives, there is no real reason why D4 is the last one, from almost a decade ago.

This is my thoughts exactly.

Sony’s pitch to Japanese third parties is something along the lines of PlayStation being the best gateway to the Western market, and the only platform they really need. This works when PlayStation is outselling the competition 2:1 or more, but this market position has historically been the result of virtually all the tentpole third party IPs (CoD, Bethesda) being available on the platform. The consoles are a safe buy because they tend to eventually get most of the games.

Now that Microsoft owns the biggest WRPG and FPS franchises, however, PS consoles may no longer be the no-brainer option in many western markets. If the split between PS and Xbox becomes more even, ignoring Xbox becomes a lot harder to justify if you’re looking to break out in the West. For timed exclusives and stuff, Sony’s current approach of delaying PC releases of does not help either.

This will make it tough if not nearly impossible for Sony to approach Japanese devs for timed exclusives and acquisitions (And I’ll keep saying it, the Switch completely owning Japan has already made acquisitions hard for BOTH Sony and MS. Capcom will not give up releasing MonHun on Nintendo so easily). So while MS (nor Sony) may never acquire Capcom for example, this will eventually make it highly unlikely for Capcom, for example, to say, make SFVI a Sony timed exclusive. The Xbox fanbase will be too big to ignore, especially if Xbox ends up becoming a bigger seller than PS in the West.