Microsoft Is Buying Activision Blizzard, Reportedly For $70 Billion

What the actual f************* I'm heading over to push square see you guys later looooooool

It's not April fool's yet...

Only game I care about from them is overwatch 2

Getting sick of Microsoft bullying the gaming industry with their money now, just because they flopped last gen doesn't mean they can buy all the big third party publishes left right and centre, if this is true they would have crash, overwatch, diablo and call of duty series as exclusives, to me they are ruining gaming for everyone else

Wow!

@Chaudy They are going to say that they don't care and that Activision don't make good games anymore and that Game Pass is a good idea in 2022 and that's why Sony are doing it in 2022 but Sony Pass will be good unlike Game Pass because Sony make the best games in the world according to every human being.

@UltimateOtaku91 hahahahajajahhaha omg this is crazy, this will create a huge monopoly.

Remember a few weeks ago when Soencer said Xbox was changing its relationship with activision over all the harassment?

Was he talking about this?

Surprising absolutely no one, it looks like Game Pass will continue to go from strength to strength in 2022 and beyond.

This is absolutely disgusting !

This is huge and very welcome for my wow addiction

@themightyant I guess that's because of the call of Duty brand. Probably worth billions

@abe_hikura If they acquire the company they can change the bosses.

Phil Spencer the biggest hypocrite in gaming history

"As a team, we are on a mission to extend the joy and community of gaming to everyone on the planet." 😂😂

Surely not...what the actual hell

@jrt87 why are you getting upset?

Nail in the coffin to ps if true and they make them all exclusive to Xbox/pc

@UltimateOtaku91 I bet your words would be different if Sony did this. Also, you can play Xbox games on console, PC and mobile devices unlike PS who brings ports to Windows OS years later and only because they realised it's not a bad idea after all.

This is mental. Lets hope Microsoft can fix these guys. This is huge for the back catalogue of games that can be added permanently to Gamepass.

Edit: just realised maybe this needed to happen for the Goldeneye release? Didn’t Acti have a stake in that?

Remember guys, Minecraft stayed multiplatform. Maybe Call of Duty will too along with most Activision games. I can't see them giving up all that money not to maximize their revenue on as many consoles (including PC) as possible.

Insane. Diablo IV for Game Pass day one.

OMFG, this is insane!

You know i bought a series S for gamepass but the more Microsoft becomes a monopoly and the more and more Bulls**t comes out of Phil Spencer mouth, the more I want or sell the series S and leave Microsoft behind.

I won't pay to support a MONOPOLY

Short of buying Epic and/or Embracer Group, I don't know how much further MS can go with this.

I am truly shocked.

What in the actual F?!?!?!? Okay initial thoughts

-for me as a consumer, this is cool, more games in my subscription service, let's go!

-okay so Activision must be in a very bad spot with all their government investigations. Hopefully the buyout means that the top guys are pushed out and a fresh start can happen (probably way too optimistic on my part)

-they NEED to reinstate Toys for Bob and Vicarious Visions. Get them making fun colorful games again and not just COD support

-and lol this is gonna be a fun week for the whole "monopoly" discussion

Wow this is huge news!!

Fire Bobby

No I have nothing more to say

@fbnaulin 70 billion dollars is likely going to become a bump in the price of game pass. This is worrying.

All this gatekeeping is getting ridiculous I own both consoles so i don’t care, but if games like call of duty and stuff are to become exclusives yea that’s ridiculous.

@themightyant If they keep it multiplatform though, they might still be able to get a chunk of that change from game sales from Call of Duty, so maybe 10 years drops to 5?

This is bad for the industry. More consolidation, less innovation. We haven't even seen Microsoft leverage Bethesda or prove they can manage that many studios.

Microsoft wading into anti-trust grounds here. I'll be curious to see if anything comes of it.

@themightyant Would you really mind the price going up if you're getting the amount of games being added with these purchases? For someone like me who loves a cod story, absolutely loves all the blizzard stuff this is amazing news and even a couple of extra quid a month would still be cracking value for money.

Jfudjebdjx8r8ekrn2ob NANIIIIII?!?!?!?! 😱😱😱😱 no wonder Phil was wishy washy when asked about Activision's "relationship"

@themightyant Nail on the head.

Xbox are building a monopoly buying up third party companies and then they will charge silly money for GPU. They arent doing this as charity work. They think they can make money on this.

For those of us at own all three major consoles and sub to services of all three... this is bad news.

Yes short term we get more games on GPU but long term its only going to result in less games. Anyone who thinks Xbox plan on releasing Activsion and Bethesda games at the same rate as if independent - they are out of their mind.

I think the craziest takeaway from this for me is that Microsoft now owns Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon.

@themightyant yeah absolutely very well put. A lot of those IPs are declining. Would be interesting to see what they do with them going forward

That is absolutely disgusting after everything revealed about Activision Blizzard over the past year. Microsoft should've let them rot away instead.

Then you've got the monopoly situation, Bethesda was already pushing in that direction but this is very clearly monopoly scale.

As I said - Microsoft's MAIN platform is Game Pass and the fact that Game Pass is on Console, PC and Mobile means that people have a LOT more choice in how and where they play these games.

The fact that you can go from PC to Console, keep your progress and don't have to buy a 'new' version is what makes this more accessible.

It was inevitable that Blizzard/Activision could NOT continue and the brand was severely hurt by Bobby Kotick so to me, a buy out or a complete restructure from the ground up was needed. MS are in the 'best' place and has the widest 'reach' of any platform - yes PS may well have more 'console' gamers, but MS has much larger reach with Game Pass.

I can see a day when Game Pass is on Playstation - maybe not able to 'download' and play, but could still allow gaming through Streaming and I can see a day when Sony have a similar service offered on Xbox. Whilst you can't play Uncharted locally on an Xbox or you couldn't play Starfield on PS locally, you could stream them...

MS have been working on getting Game Pass into peoples homes on the devices they have. Sony won't allow MS to put GP on PS at least not until they have a 'service' that they want to put on Xbox. Both know that the more that can play, the better. That would still mean their 'exclusives' are 'better' on their own hardware because they are built for them, can be downloaded and played locally, and only 'streamable' (potentially at 1080/60 only) on their 'rivals' hardware, that is still the 'edge' they have.

As Phil said, its inevitable...

@Bdbrady EXACTLY. MS has so many of its own dormant IPs - let alone now all the bethesda ones we have heard nothing about or no sign of since they bought them, i honestly dont see how this is a good thing... more old games for gamepass.. but i own all the activision games I want so - all this means is less games going forward

I was surfing on Purexbox in order to read another small news concerning GamePass and booooom. I can't believe!
Who's next? EA?!

@Bdbrady I agree they’ve done nothing with Bethesda yet just put their games on game pass and starfield potentially releasing this year. Now they’re just buying everything it can lead to potential problems. Not to mention if things like COD become exclusives which I kind of doubt but if it did dude that’s just ridiculous. This monopoly acquisition bullying is out of hand. I get last Gen they did awful but this is just ridiculous. Plus games like COD day 1 on game pass I can see prices going up. Which screws over most people who don’t care for these games

@themightyant Don't forget Candy Crush and World of Warcraft. Two of the most played franchises in the world. They can get money back from them, too.

If this means that they are going to do FPS Boost for Crash Bandicoot N.sane Trilogy and Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled, it all will be worth it! 🤣

@themightyant Most of those are the 'recent' franchises that Activision/Blizzard have been most known for in recent years - however, that also means they now own Crash Bandicoot, Guitar Hero, Spyro, Tony Hawks, Cabella, Tenchu etc etc

@NOLIMITGHST I'm also preemptively mad for Xbox fans when Sony then goes out and buys Square and other studios too. I own all the boxes, but there will be many on both sides of this "war" who will be left out of Final Fantasy, Persona, COD, etc.

I'm also curious because Bethesda seemed down when Microsoft bought them and Activision/Blizz seems down now too. I want to see them turn them around and not just get IP for cheap.

We will see...

I feel like there'll be a lot of (official / governmental) scrutiny over this one. Activation were screwed as a name (rightfully), and maybe a lot of the franchises are not necessarily going to be brand-specific. As a news bomb in itself, this is absolutely wild...

I don’t see this being about keeping games exclusive. Some games, yes. But COD and other franchises will probably remain multiplat. I think this is more to do with activision’s internal issues more than games.

@NotoriousWhiz yea if they can fix COD right now and future COD titles from now on that will pay off a huge chunk of the deal alone

@UltimateOtaku91 Just buy a Xbox. Simple

@thatCFguy agreed - there's sneakier ways to move people to Xbox without necessarily going exclusive too....

@themightyant absolutely, I also think a sharp price increase is coming to gamepass aswell. Though I make jokes about Playstation fans crying. I think this might so be bad for xbox users, it all depends on how much of an increase there is to gamepass price

@Hotwhiskey I have an xbox series S already, but I play my main multi plat games on my ps5, but tbh I'm thinking of selling my series S as this is just getting out of hand now and I won't support a monopoly that will end up ruining gaming and absurd gatekeeping

@Bdbrady I don’t like it on either side personally because it’s a blow to others for example say on PlayStation I buy every Bethesda game I’m a huge fan and I just buy a PS5 for $500, boom Xbox buys Bethesda a day later. Now I’m forced to buy a Xbox for $300+ just to play future games of the franchise I love and Vice Versa. I will say at least PlayStation bought companies they’re already relatively close too and most games were kept exclusive anyway so for the most part when Sony buys them it’s no surprise but Microsoft is just buying stuff most Activision players are on PlayStation so that’s a huge F U to them. I’m no fan of this on both sides it’s screwing over consumers heavy. Even if gsmepass has a price hike from it people like me who play none of these games are penalized for this monopoly act.

Is this early April’s fools!?! What !?! Bethesda was one thing this is insane.

@Bdbrady Agreed. I wonder how far they can go before regulators do something.

So when they said they'd "Changed how they deal with Activision" following the multiple reports of abuse and lack of action around them they meant "ooh we want some of that".

If they don't implement MAJOR reforms in that company from the executive level down, and stop blocking the efforts to unionise then Microsoft is no better than Activison.

@thatCFguy that’s what I’m thinking too because a game like COD to be Xbox exclusive when most of the Activision and COD player base is on PlayStation anyways just doesn’t make sense unless Microsoft is really just like F U Sony lol and most importantly F U CONSUMERS

People saying they should have let Activision rot away are missing one of the good points of this. Microsoft can clean this ***** up. And hopefully give them a brighter future.

I play on all consoles, and this is terrible news. Less competition and more consolidation is not what we need. I'd also be saying this if Sony bought Square Enix or Capcom too, so this isn't a one way street

Was not expecting this when I wake up. Wow. This is not gonna be good for the industry, but definitely good for Activsion. Push Square is gonna be the place to be today

@themightyant

>"Would you really mind the price going up if you're getting the amount of games being added with these purchases?"

>"YES. Because I don't suddenly have more time to play more games. I can't keep up with what's on there already. It gets beyond the point that adding more content is more 'value' if you don't have the time to play it".

Then don't subscribe. It's an optional service. You can just buy games you have time to play, you know.

@PhileasFragg I’m inclined to agree. Massive reform on how they treat their employees better be priority number 1.

I really don't see them making CoD exclusive. Maybe some exclusive perks but not the entire game.

@UltimateOtaku91 Enough with the monopoly posts you don't know what you're talking about.

Microsoft are attempting to become what they once were- get enough studios under their wing so that a 'Game Pass' button on Playstation is an inevitability, as was Windows etc in the past... it's like they all watched the Xbox doc on You-Tube, and went "oh yeah! We're MICROSOFT! BUYITALL'

(understanding this deal is prob 2-3 years in the making)

@Spiders so what do you call buying two of the biggest 5 third party developers and making their games exclusive

The denial is gonna be strong.

Here's a quote from Phil last year

‘I spend zero energy on ‘how do I make other gaming platforms smaller so that Xbox gets bigger’

Yeah let that sink in

@NotoriousWhiz That's not how economy of scale works.

Remember that Sony would do the same if they could but they can't so what they do is to pay millions of $ to Square Enix to prevent Final Fantasy games from coming to Xbox for as long as they can pay, they paid Capcom for the marketing and tournaments of Street Fighter V on one condition, bring the game to PC but not Xbox, they paid Activision for Call of Duty benefits, etc. You Sony fans remember that, they both are a business and Sony don't care about gamers outside PS and they do whatever they can to harm Xbox players.

@antifyre That's actually a very good point. If Sony really cared about their users all they had to do is allow Game Pass on PS. Microsoft would be pleased.

@NOLIMITGHST I believe even Microsoft see COD as the biggest money spinner, fix the issues, the cheating, keep it multiplat and that’s billions a year just on that. Also please give us Warcraft on console.

@UltimateOtaku91 An acquisition. 1) There's no word on what if anything will be exclusive. 2) I'm not saying this is a good or bad thing for the hobby or industry. It's just not a monopoly, not even close.

The only thing you can claim they have a monopoly over is "bro-shooters" in COD, Halo, and Gears, and that's a super subjective stretch. Fortnite's player base dwarfs these games.

@themightyant The economics work like this: the day you spend more money on Game Pass than the price of the games you play it's time to unsubscribe and just buy the games you play. There are two options. Besides, we don't know if Game Pass price will be affected and how long this will take.

@awp69 Microsoft haven't automatically fired Kotick though. If they wanted to fix Activision Blizzard's problems that's one of the first things they would've done.

Should have bought some Activision shares, ha.

Personally, I think the Bethesda buyout was a much bigger deal despite costing much less.

Activision deal seems like more of a PR stunt due to the huge price, bloat, and the fact that Activision is a shadow of it's former self.

This is the exact opposite of buying some edgy new studio on the way up and more like buying Yahoo or Xerox.

I guess my other question: is the end of 3rd Party Studios and Muli-plats good for gaming?

My, how the tables have turned... If Sony did that PS fanboys would be cheering to no end. Just buy an Xbox. For the record, I don't like any Actvision Blizzard games but I can see why this is a huge move.

@Banjo- which I also don’t like I don’t think either company should be going way out of their way buying up everything holding advantages over each other like this. It’s screws over consumers in both sides. Like I said if I buy a $500 PlayStation for es6 or fallout 5 then a day later Xbox buys Bethesda I get screwed and have hassle to buy a whole another console. If I bought an Xbox to play COD and PlayStation bought Activision, it’d like dang I’m screwed into buying a PlayStation. It’s just messed up not to mention I don’t play Activision games so imagine there’s a gsmepass price hike people that don’t even care for these games we get penalized for it. Things were just announced so we have no idea what’ll happen until later but I’m just not a fan of this buying everything up game on either side

@themightyant the time element is a fair point, my steam backlog is longer than my legs these days without gamepass!

This is simply bad for gaming. Regardless of if you prefer Xbox or Playstation or PC or whatever, moves like these will hurt the quality and availability of games for everyone. This is a sad day for all, except the shareholders that are making millions of profit.

I am in the Microsoft ecosystem this gen, and this does not excite me. I do not play anything activision publishes, and would much rather Microsoft expanded in the jrpg space.

@gollumb82 as a main ps player I’d have to disagree maybe the idiot fanboys sure but to me I don’t think either company should be going way out of their way buying up everything holding advantages over each other like this. It’s screws over consumers in both sides. Like I said if I buy a $500 PlayStation for es6 or fallout 5 then a day later Xbox buys Bethesda I get screwed and have hassle to buy a whole another console. If I bought an Xbox to play COD and PlayStation bought Activision, it’d like dang I’m screwed into buying a PlayStation. It’s just messed up not to mention I don’t play Activision games so imagine there’s a gsmepass price hike people that don’t even care for these games we get penalized for it. Things were just announced so we have no idea what’ll happen until later but I’m just not a fan of this buying everything up game on either side. I have an Xbox I’d be fine either way but still there’s a way bigger picture

Don't like this at all, and I'm not being hypocritical about it either. I didn't like when I read Sony was sniffing around SquareEnix and that only turned out to be rumors. Gigantic third party publishers being taken off the board isn't a good thing for gaming. I don't mind when studios like Double Fine or Ninja Theory get bought, especially if the extra funds are needed for the companies to stick around, but Activision and Bethesda? It's good for people into the console wars I guess, everybody else not so much.

All that said, once the deal is done, I just hope for the best. Maybe MS will clean up some of the crap (impossible to take care of all of it) going on at Activision and maybe we can get more than CoD on a consistent basis. A brand new Tony Hawk game would be great.

@UltimateOtaku91 this wasn’t about taking games from other platforms which COD might not be exclusive but feeding Gamepass. I feel like COD is like Minecraft.

But regardless I think you are a little too wound up right now. I mean you can totally not like this but you seems super upset and that’s not healthy.

@Grumblevolcano They can't fire anybody until the process is completed.

@abe_hikura sounds like it, right?

This doesn't do ***** for Xbox players. We already got all of those games, all this will do is take those games away from Playstation players and make Sony even more aggressive when it comes to making bigger and more 3rd party deals.

@mousieone Anything less than Bobby Kotick and the rest of the board being, physically, thrown out of the building (ideally from the roof without a golden parachute) would be too little.

Not just for the awful working environment, but look at their major franchises in the header image, and tell me that ActiBlizz have been handling them well. They're all coasting on past glories from a decade or more ago.

So, activision blizzard is so much of a ***** show, right now, that when Spencer said "we are evaluating our current business practices with them", what he actually meant was "if you want it done right, do it yourself"

If you think about the "acquisitions", etc, sony started it, technically, with the whole console exclusive deals with destiny, cod, square enix, etc. MS took it one step further and better, that's all. Don't hate the player, hate the game....that sony started, but couldnt finish.

@Gamer83 actually I get Bethesda. MS actually has history with them. And the two companies have similar corporate cultures. This is like getting in bed with the devil and it’s a little too close for comfort…

@Chaudy ooooooh they're gonna be MAAAAAAAAAAAAD lol

@Banjo- @Rural-Bandit News sites like IGN are reporting that he will stay after the deal is finalized.

@PhileasFragg I wouldn’t mine them ditching the board. I don’t think that’s in the cards. Bobby might be. At least I hope he is.

@Grumblevolcano the thing is they have to say that. They can’t say we plan on firing him.

@Grumblevolcano

No way I’m even going near ign. The toxicity and console wars of that community is why I switched to this site.

@Grumblevolcano Well, don't believe those "reports" from IGN, they are based on current circumstances. You'll see when the process is completed.

@mousieone I know i can still play these games but I just hate what Microsoft is doing in terms of buying the biggest third party devs, taking games away from millions of players across playstation and nintendo and then for Phil to say he doesn't like gatekeeping and doesn't care for making other platforms smaller just irritates me to a point I'm starting to hate the guy. They will also ruin the crash and spyro series like they did with banjo, whilst prioritising multiplayer games as that's what gamepass is turning into. They already had over 30 studios before buying Bethesda and this just adds to that, to me it just seems they aren't good enough to create their own games from their in house studios so they are buying the big AAA games and are still sore about last gen and want to take everything away from playstation that they possibly can, no matter what Phil says he does care about competition and wants to hurt sony.
That's what i meant about this making not want to support xbox anymore

Xbox/Microsoft are trying their hardest to put playstation to bed, and they want to be the only console to be considered going forward, this won't end with Activision either it will ubisoft, sega or Warner Bros next, in the long term (next 10-20 years) they want sony to say f**k this and not bother with their console division

@mousieone
From a company relationship standpoint no doubt MS was closer with Bethesda than either Nintendo or Sony so I agree if it was going to be bought than MS made the most sense. Still, I would've preferred Bethesda stay independent and MS pay for timed or full exclusives on certain releases like Sony did with Deathloop.

@NOLIMITGHST
In this day and age nothing and noone is safe. Change is always inevitable, but it may be shocking if it happens in such dramatic fashion. I'm platform-agnostic. I only care about games. Maybe we will finally have one console/ecosystem in which you can play all games. That's something I'd support.

@LX_FENIX The entire Activision Blizzard library on Game Pass does nothing for Xbox players!?

@NOLIMITGHST I understand what you mean and you're not hypocritical like others. I think that Microsoft just want to make Xbox (including PC and Cloud) huge because it's the only way to make Game Pass and the gaming division competitive and appealing indefinitely. It's a business strategy but the good side of it is that you can play on Series S, Series X, PC and mobile devices. When Sony buys a studio, it's PS5 or, if you're lucky, PC years later.

As I said, Sony pay millions of $ to Square Enix to prevent Final Fantasy games from coming to Xbox for as long as they can, they paid Capcom for the marketing and tournaments of Street Fighter V on one condition, bring the game to PC but not Xbox, they paid Activision for Call of Duty benefits, same with Destiny... I think that what Sony do is much worse because is money wasted in harming other platforms while acquisitions are a different thing (that Sony generally can't afford). I would be disappointed if Sony bought Square Enix but it would make more sense than buying timed exclusivity. As a consumer, Microsoft treat me much better than Sony so I'd rather be on the Xbox than on the PS ecosystem if I had to choose one.

@themightyant Actually, yeah, I could see that happening.

Wait, what?! This wasn't even in the rumor mill.....

Uhm....I know people hated Activision at this point, and the hate was earned.... But Microsoft buying a megapublisher....Bethesda was one thing, but buying the big/biggest ones. Honestly, I kind of have to step back and agree with a lot of the PS community...this is kind of too big, and makes it uncomfortable a little bit for many reasons.

In reality, there weren't many Activision properties left....they pretty much became a COD factory with little else to offer, while sitting on a mountain of unused IP, so I can see why they'd have been up for sale despite their COD treasure trove (the well will run dry eventually).

Honestly, thinking about it, I'm not sure there's anything they've done in the past 8 years or so other than Spyro/Crash remakes and Diablo I even care about, even free on Game Pass. I'm not sure it gets me much, and probably takes MS funding away from things I care about more for a while... (OTOH, console Starcraft when?!?!)

And yet the scale of this is just absurd. There's also the concern of how they insulate XB from the general political morass Activision has been in with internet types.

Less spoken of is that this includes King. Given the fortune 2K just payed for Zynga, I have to wonder, how much of this deal has NOTHING to do with getting WoW and COD and has everything to do with getting Candy Crush.... That could pay for Game Pass for 20 years alone....

Still, this is too big a buy. When megapublishers start buying megapublishers....profitable megapublishers that as far as we knew were not up for sale and were not financially hurting...What on earth motivated the sale? I know Activision was embroiled in scandals and became an internet devil, but those were mostly personnel related, and internal, nothing threatening their survival financially. I assume that will finally trigger a price increase on Game Pass for a host of games I'm not too concerned with (COD)... may be this is getting like Cable TV after all... I remember when Youtube TV jacked prices from $35 to $65 to add Oprah Network, Disney, Food Network and other junk I didn't care about, and you just had to roll with it or cancel (I cancelled.)

There's a lot of acquisitions I think I might have been excited about, but this one is simultaneously unappealing for the current state of the catalogue, though interesting in that it brings a raft of great, abandoned IP, but only means anything if they disassemble the COD machine, which I doubt the intend to do. And worries me in a lot of ways.

I also can't really imagine Diablo, Overwatch, and Call of Duty becoming Xbox exclusives. Those are too huge, too established franchises, that I can't imagine they'd just be pulled from many of their platforms. Maybe they'll do it, but those feel more "Minecraft tier", so it makes me wonder so much what really is gained by this other than another revenue machine through owning more of the games industry.

@Grumblevolcano @awp69 He'll be gone, they won't have a CEO as a subsidiary. But through the next year they're not a subsidiary yet, and still have their own investors, own board, and therefore their own CEO. There may or may not be pressure from up top to get rid of him purely for liability, but investors may not want such a big change until a deal is put through. That puts a lot more perspective on Phil's statement on Activision last week about their own board etc....we didn't know he was tangled up in a transition over them.

I have no dog in this fight at all. I have an Xbox and a Playstation and a Switch and a couple of other systems kicking around too.

I don't like Microsoft continuing to buy up huge developers. I think it is going to keep a lot of gamers from playing games they want to play, and I think continuing to carve out what is closer and closer to a monopoly is bad for creativity and the industry as a whole. I also don't like it that Bobby K is gong to get a huge payout from this sale.

Again: This will have no impact on me at all. I will still play the games I want to play. But some people won't be able to, and that is sad to me. I understand why it is good business for Microsoft, but I don't think it is good for gamers overall.

lol they're absolutely furious on Push Square. but here's the thing: i think some of the IPs are likely to be cross platform. Call of Duty, whatever you think of it, is a HUGE money-maker, and there's no real reason for Microsoft to HAVE to keep it exclusive. putting it on Game Pass would be enough, while selling it on PC and PS5 as well. Same with Diablo, to a lesser extent. it's a huge franchise, and Microsoft could simply sell it to everyone, while putting it on Game Pass for Xbox owners...

@themightyant
prices don't have to go up. Microsoft is not like netflix with loans and loses every year. people here were saying this when ebthesda was bought as well and didn't happen

@Rural-Bandit oh god they're FURIOUS lol

@Dydreamr I also get your point. It's incredible the amount of shooters we are going to get on Xbox but no Banjo-Kazooie and Viva Piñata since Xbox 360 so it's not like I think Microsoft is doing everything right since they are leaving some genres aside.

@UltimateOtaku91 well Banjo was a different era; you can’t really say they are going to ruin properties that AB was going to shelf. This era left Minecraft alone. If anything MS needs kid friendly content so I see them putting Toys for Bob back on the properties.

Also Gamepass needs constant new content. They need as many studios as possible for it, way more than what they have.

This has less to do with Sony and probably more to do with the lawsuit. AB was failing because of it. MS is seen as a “trusted” company in the US.

(That’s why I’m not fond of this but O hate AB)

@gollumb82 I feel exactly the same way. As much as Microsoft "exclusivity" looks bad — and is in ways — it also puts more AAA software onto the most affordable platform in Game Pass / Series S + PC. It ends up being a very gamer-friendly move, however "anti-consumer" it seems when looked at traditionally.

People need to update their software. This isn't the 16-bit/32-bit era there's no need for console wars.

@Stocksy people were saying the same last year with bethesda acquisition, didn't happen

@Grumblevolcano I think …hope…he’s just there temporarily to help with the transition then they fire his ass.

@Gamer83 thing is single player games are Bethesda’s strong suit but also don’t pay as well. I think what the acquisition did for them was a good thing. I’m against consolidation but o was okay with that one. This one worries me.

As someone who owns all the major consoles I do worry that MS has the potential to damage gaming long term. MS buying every third party does not bode well for the industry on the whole. I personally don't play any of the games published by this studio but I don't see them stopping until they own all of them.

@awp69 That's right, Microsoft is forced to deal with Activision's bigwigs until the process is over. Otherwise it would be like a medieval conquest LOL.

@mousieone Yes, that's what I mean, Microsoft wants to feed their ecosystem (Xbox, Game Pass, PC, Cloud) but at the same time I think it's friendlier than what Nintendo or Sony would do if they had the money.

I have both consoles, but this is a dark monopoly move. Similar to Disney owning Marvel and Star Wars and 20th Century Fox....
At first this might seem good for the consumer but after a few years the cracks and problems will really start to show with this

@UltimateOtaku91 you will still be able to play Overwatch on your Series S so no worries. And you seem really upset by this; but actually this suggests other companies that you probably care about more (Sega/SquareEnix) are at least safe.

I think this is good news for me. Outside of the whole… Activision/Blizzard being a bad company thing, I guess this means the Blizzard client will phase out and everything will eventually merge into the XBOX/Steam clients. Plus cross-buy support being likely as well… this is all good stuff.

Also hoping they can change the company culture for the better. The developers are no doubt talented (I thought the recent Crash, Spyro, Tony Hawk, and even CoD Vanguard we’re all great) but everything from employee fairness and financial/game decisions could be improved. Maybe they’ll do something crazy new with CoD and Overwatch, or maybe they’ll focus more on Spyro, Crash, and Tony Hawk titles given their (apparent) success.

It’s hard to tell what will change exactly, but I’m remaining hopeful.

@UltimateOtaku91 @Chaudy that's not a monopoly in any way. even with Activision Microsoft might have around 20B sales out of 200B gaming market, that's 10% hardly a monopoly

@themightyant haha sure; but all those crying Monopoly (still premature I think) will eventually be right. So for every massive publisher Microsoft buys, thats another one that is safe for PS users.

I think.

:/

@mousieone
Fair enough. At the end of the day, what's done is done. I don't like it but the agreement has been made. Once the purchase is finalized we just see where it goes. Maybe MS will surprise people with some of the decisions it makes regarding these IPs and more importantly maybe it does a better job cleaning up the culture around Activision-Blizzard than I expect it to.

Xbox confirm Kotick to stay on in his role.....

anyone got anything to say about that?

@K1LLEGAL i don't want to change my gaming preference, I play all my jrpgs and online games on playstation and use xbox solely for gamepass for its exclusives and the odd third party that i wouldn't normally buy. I'm kind of a trophy collector with playstation as well and was my main platform for overwatch and planned to be for overwatch 2 especially as it carries over my save to unlock the costumes I've got, but yeah you're right as long as they stay far away from square enix, sega, Namco bandai, compile heart, koei tecmo and capcom then I suppose I can calm down lol

They should just buy Sony and get to over with

@Stocksy of course not, Activision was getting blasted by xbox players a few months ago, seeing comments about how they won't play their games etc now that's changed 😂

@themightyant Xbox confirm he will stay on in his role.

haha. that will show him

This like the Bethesda acquisition was more about M$ Building An IP legacy to match Nintendo.

I mean they now will own Zork.

@themightyant but they did andf it didn't happen. Netflix has a huge debt, thats the only way to repay it, Amazon prime is not comparable as its not a simple subscription service, they have bundles a dozens services together,
sotify and uber most liekley are like neflix, microsoft is now. look what they do with microsoft365, price is totally normal

@UltimateOtaku91 hey I get it. I have an extensive achievement history; so if I have the choice I would always play on Xbox if possible (plus the controller). But as long as you still got access to the games that really is the main thing.

https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/bobby-kotick-will-remain-as-activision-blizzard-ceo-after-microsoft-acquisition/

@UltimateOtaku91 I think we have the same taste and preferences, though I play on the switch. I feel the same way you do.

@UltimateOtaku91 Activision was already owned by Tencent.

I do agree the consolidation of the industry is bad; I would have preferred Activision to just die outright.

It’s quite possible the regulators will require some of the studios to be split off.

Thank God Gamepass is on PC so I don't have to buy an Xbox

@UltimateOtaku91
"I have an xbox series S already, but I play my main multi plat games on my ps5, but tbh I'm thinking of selling my series S as this is just getting out of hand now and I won't support a monopoly that will end up ruining gaming and absurd gatekeeping"

Please ... Please do it, and then please don't come back! Because no one here needs unreasonable people spouting unfounded nonsense. Actually, no one in the PS sphere needs them either ... but well, you can't have it all, I suppose. MS tries their best to bring their games to as many platforms as possible. Of course they want to make money while doing so ... The same as other companies.

@Stocksy they cannot say what their plans are with someone of Koticks level until after the deal is done. Look at how long it took them before admitting what was exclusive from Bethesda. Stock holders would freak.

@Banjo- Sony for sure. Nintendo wouldn’t buy AB if they had the money …

I hope that Ultimate otaku 91 user keeps this up. His/her tears are enriching this whole experience for me.

@Chaudy It’s a bit rough over there this morning lol

@DeathByLasagna @Tarps I hope that these Activision Blizzard developers Toys for Bob and Vicarious Visions along with Rare go back to "family-friendly" content. Also bring back Banjo-Kazooie and Viva Piñata, cancel Everwild (whatever it is) if necessary LOL.

@gollumb82 I’d hope for an ecosystem like that too because I just don’t like it. I honest to god personally just spent $700 something buying my dad an PS5 bundle from GameStop for Christmas and all he plays is call of duty really. Then here it is 2 weeks later xbox buys them while I 95% doubt COD was to become exclusive but say hypothetically it was I’d have just wasted $700+ on top of then having to buy an xbox. That’s my point this crap on both sides really screws people over especially during these times. But like u said nobody of nothing is safe anymore

I imagine the plan with COD will be "free on gamepass" or pay $70 on PlayStation. The optics could not be worse for PS. I don't think it will effect PS much this gen, but if the optics are the same come the end of the gen, PS will be in big trouble. I own a PS5 and enjoy their games but this is really bad news for PlayStation

Pretty sure I speak for everyone when I say, "OMFG!"

@Banjo- at this point they just all need to come together I’ve been saying that since ps4,xbox one era which I hope is what xbox is trying to push in it’s weird way that looks bad for now. But me personally I have many friends on both consoles so it’s annoying for me to have to go back and forth buying stuff because exclusivity/no cross platform. Like some games I have multiple of just so I can play with 1 or 2 friends on the other platform. So if they are making games more accessible in that way trust me I’m all for it saves me money. I just hope to god this won’t be more gatekeeping like with Bethesda like I said though 90% COD would ever be exclusive but just saying.

@NOLIMITGHST I can't be sure (just like anyone else) but I think that Call of Duty will become an Xbox exclusive eventually like any other Xbox Game Studios IP. At least, it will be playable on Series S, Series X and PC. On phones too, I know people who play Call of Duty on their phones.

Hopefully this will mean old Call Of Duty games will get framerate and resolution boosts. I personally love COD games, not gonna lie. Nice one Microsoft, now all i need is a Series X and an LG OLED. Buy Capcom next.

@demian what didn’t happen? Price go up? It won’t until they actually put some games out. Can’t hike it when they’ve added nothing but some old games!

@Rural-Bandit That's right, they don't have a clue and Microsoft can't fire the bigwigs of Activision Blizzard even if they wanted to, it doesn't work like that in democracy. They can only do that when the whole process is completed and it's going to take a while.

I would bet anything that Sony immediately started negotiations to buy Square-Enix after this news dropped.

@themightyant thats all very true. Zenimax is a complete bargain, and a micro-transaction compared to this guess we shall see!

@NOLIMITGHST
Oh, that sucks. Still, there's plenty of CoD on Playstation as it is and should you wish it will be easy to sell the console for more than you paid for it. To be honest, I wish this was possible. One platform for all games, I mean. Only a few months ago I booted up GOG Galaxy on my laptop and it integrates all platforms for one's gaming convenience. You can't play some games, obviously, but it lists your entire library from all your gaming platforms. It was uncanny seeing The Last of Us next to Halo 😉 Just make Game Pass that encompasses all platforms with the ability to download all games and play them natively.
Also, can someone tell Phil to order Activision to make another Soldier of Fortune game, please?

@Stocksy what didn't happen was what the prophets here and on twitter were predicting. noone was saying about new games then, the narrative was 7B-> price hike
the narrative now is 70B-> price hike

@Rural-Bandit everyone has a price

@gollumb82 @Rural-Bandit No need for DualShock/DualSense and isn't PS5 huge? LOL.

In all seriousness, before all this started I wished Microsoft bought Nintendo just to save me the cheap hardware and controllers and play Nintendo's games in HD/UHD with better frame rates (that some people do already on emulators but "legally"). Not necessarily purchased but Nintendo becoming third party and publishing games for all platforms would be awesome. Just a crazy idea because I like Nintendo's software but not the hardware.

@UltimateOtaku91
I guess, its the answer for sony continue making long term exlusive deals.
MS buys the studios --> no more exlcusive deals for sony

@gollumb82 that’s the thing, you don’t even have to buy an Xbox!

About the nonsense that Microsoft supports Bobby Kotick, Phil Spencer has confirmed that Microsoft and Activision will "continue to operate independently" until it's wrapped up. So surprise, Microsoft can't do anything about it yet!

Bobby K's days are numbered! Good riddance.
I think Microsoft would be crazy to make CoD exclusive. That's a lot of money to leave on the table.

Been bouncing around the 3 sister sites this morning, what a day lol. Push Square is a sad place today 😔

What does this mean for Gamepass though, in terms of pricing? I can’t see Microsoft retaining its rate as it stands now, I’m hoping it doesn’t increase… too much.

I absolutely agree with you, @Clankzz.

Personally, @Enriesto, I buy CoD every single year and only play the single-player component as the multiplayer aspect holds zero interest for me. Thus if CoD ends up on the Game Pass day one, I've saved myself £70 every single year. Plus I would be buying Overwatch 2 and Diablo IV, so again, a huge saving to be had my me, and I would imagine many others...

What a start for Microsoft in 2022! Imagine if this had of been Capcom or Square Enix.

And over night my 2 years of game pass just grew in value even more and I don’t have to pay an extra penny.
Bring on the games to game pass.

OMG... I don't think I care for any Activision Blizard games... do I...? But my... this is huge.... Call of Duty is huge... for another year likely PS will get Activision/Blizard games, but 2022 might be the last year PlayStation sees a Call of Duty game.

I don't think that the price of Game Pass will go up but that the number of subscribers will increase if the price stays the same and the value is even better. The mobile games like Candy Crush and game sales are also a huge money flow. Some people talk like Game Pass has eradicated purchases and do the maths considering just the current number of subscribers.

@Medic_Alert I don’t understand it much myself! I’m certainly not worried about the service’s sustainability. However, I’m a consumer. A single chap making ends meet as a data engineer in Canada (also paying off student debt). Given my economic situation, I have to be careful with the media services I consume, even if they’re as wonderful a deal as Gamepass. Call me paranoid - I’m only worried that a year or two later, the rates will go up more than we expected, and that may mean gamers like myself may have a harder time paying for a service that they love.

Buy Sony, buy Sony!

They are buying up all the good studios and those games will be on gamepass and most likely be play anywhere titles as well. Crazy good job MS!

@Banjo- well, I mostly agree. I am not a fan of COD. Diablo and some of the other franchises will be cool on Gamepass.

Damn, too many comments to read all of the do a few thoughts.

1. Once MS owns them the current Activision board will be let go and I expect Kotic will be fired if he's still there once MS takes over.

2. A lot of IP that weren't being utilized will be brought back. Gamepass needs more family games

3. Monopoly isn't a thing yet so just stop with that talk. Tencent and Embracer are out there as well folks.

4. Warzone will remain multiplatform for sure but with the goal being getting people to sign up for Gamepass I wouldn't expect more CoD going multiplat.

5. Price of Gamepass won't be going up yet. They are using spare cash (crazy to think about) to invest and make more money. They want to keep growing that subscription base and jacking prices up right now ain't the move.

I really do hope that Sony's Spartacus is actually a decent service and that they put up a fight because competition is key. Maybe Embracer or Tencent will start their own services st some point with all the studios and developers they own?

Lastly.... with all that RTS talent can someone please make an amazing Halo Wars 3?

Shocked! THIS is how you make a statement to a market! And this IS Microsoft setting out its future in gaming. It's taken a massive lead in that this generation. I only hope Nintendo and Sony can hang in for the ride.
But Phil did say, repeatedly, that Sony and Nintendo are not their competition, and he was ridiculed by idiots who couldn't see what they meant, maybe they can now? Or will all Blizzard and Activision games all of a sudden by crap and worthless according to Sony and Nintendo fans...
As a COD and Xbox fan I'm stoked! But it's going to be a very long hard process that will have to pass through global competition commissions.

@rockodoodle It's pretty cool that Game Pass will have all this now:

https://www.purexbox.com/forums/xbox-series-x/xbox_game_studios

The big question is

"Who's next?"

Toys for Bob…..Banjo Kazooie incoming?

@Banjo- think about it… could a Banjo reboot from the studio behind Skylanders be a possibilty?

@Lupaie79 It would be great. Now they have three studios that have worked on Skylanders and do that kind of thing: Beenox (Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled), Toys for Bob (Crash Bandicoot 4, Spyro Reignited Trilogy), Vicarious Visions (Crash Bandicoot N.sane Trilogy) along with Rare.

I will sound off that Toys For Bob making Banjo would be amazing

I'm drooling at the thought of a crash /spyro game on gamepass

@UltimateOtaku91 one could still argue PlayStation outsells Xbox 3 to 1. I don't see anything like a monopoly.

@iplaygamesnstuff That crap was recently debunked, but believe it if you want.

I just woke up after my night shift and this is the news I see...
Had to rub my eyes and double-check what I was reading!

We all thought the Zenimax deal for $7.5 billion was crazy money and now they spend $68.7B on arguably one of the biggest publishers out there.
COD, Warcraft, Crash, Spyro, Tony Hawks, Diablo, Starcraft, etc.
All will these games will come to Game Pass and in the future Day One...Crazy!

Hopefully this means Sony will leave the console business and just concentrate on making games like what happened with sega. Let’s face it the PS5 is an over priced mess of a console, looks ridiculous and £70 a game is just laughable for a one and done 15hr game which most of Sonys first party’s are. Microsoft are killing it this gen!

I just hope with the deluge of IPs Microsoft are getting through these acquisitons we dont see the key ones lose any focus.

Crash, Spyro etc they have a massive opportunity to capitalise on the recent revivals of those games. MS said a while back they wanted more family friendly games on Xbox. They have a key opportunity for that now.

@HaggisNight I think either Sony or Ninty leaving the business would be bad. Competition creates quality.

Leave only one player in the market eventually that drive for quality will be compromised.

I still think all 3 can coexist in the same market. Microsoft are competing more against the major investors in the market like Tencent and to some extent maybe EA/Epic with this more than anything else.

@iplaygamesnstuff "One could still argue PlayStation outsells Xbox 3 to 1".

PS5 shipped 13.4 million as of September 30, 2021 and Series X/S shipped over 12 million as of January 11, 2022.

@themightyant office365 is a great example, I got 3 years for 90 eur on black friday, that's 2.5 per month.

@Krzzystuff and some starcraft/warcrafts rts would be nice, especially now that Age of empires did so well

@HaggisNight
This is huge news, but let's not kid ourselves, PlayStation is still a huge brand with big sway.
Unless COD goes exclusive, then the casual players won't suddenly feel the urge to buy an Xbox and even then, PS still has plenty of appeal.
Competition is good for gamers on all platforms.

@iplaygamesnstuff To be fair, though, a lot of those 3:1 sales to PS are for people that want to play CoD with their friends. If CoD flips, that goes the other way. Even if CoD doesn't flip, a massive chunk of people buying PS's are buying the to play Xbox games....

Though I wonder how cannibalizing Halo by also owning CoD is going to help them. Unless 343i starts working on CoD and the old good Acti studios like Raven and Toys for BoB get returned to the proper kinds of products they actually want to work on. The one silver lining to this steaming pile is that the very broken and ruined Activision could possibly be restored to doing good things. So long as they keep 343 away from them.

@UltimateOtaku91 To be fair to Phil, I'm sure he does spend 0 energy thinking about how to make PS smaller to make MS bigger. Clearly he's just thinking of how to make MS bigger. Buying most of the megapublishers definitely does that. Why think of how to make PS smaller?

@demian 200b includes the mobile market. In fact the majority of that 200b is the mobile market. Market caps aside, all of PlayStation only does about 25b revenue. BlizzActi does 8b. 1/4 of that comes from King (mobile, Candy Crush) which is now part of MS, yes. MS isn't set to become a mobile gaming monopoly any time soon, but it's important to see just how much of traditional gaming they are controlling now, and probably set to control more, where most of that "200b" figure isn't the traditional gaming market at all, but the hyper-competitive mobile space.

Crazy news. I guess Sony won’t be promoting this years cod.
I reckon they’ve over paid there though.
Other than cod what else is there? I reckon a couple of billion could have bought cod exclusivity throughout the generation.

Gotta say, not all that excited over this. First thought was how isn’t it a putty Bungie isn’t still with activison

@NEStalgia So... Xbox gets Call of Duty, which people always include in the casual crowd, the casual crowd of people playing FIFA and GTA on PS might move to Xbox if there is more on there. I mean, there are FIFA and GTA players on Xbox already but if there are more mass games on Xbox, Sony might become like Nintendo and be seen as an exclusives machine which won't get them the PS4 figures, that's for sure.

@AdamCorela Sony buying Square would be a massive blow to Nintendo which wouldn't help stablize the industry, that's for sure. That would be an immense casualty. Plus I'd miss Square content on XB of course, they've been doing so well. Strategically I could see it, but I hope it doesn't happen.

@Tharsman All the weirder since Sony always pays to get exclusive content from CoD, either early launch or bonus credits or whatnot. COD has been a Sony-favored franchise they were willing to pay for and now it's ripped out from under them.

I would not want to be Jim Ryan today. Much as I dislike the stooge. This rewrites the entire industry overnight without as much as a rumor and even if he were the best leader ever he'd still be caught flat footed.

@Bleachedsmiles Bungie had a publishing deal with Activision but it ended. It's not just Call of Duty what Xbox gets but Candy Crash, one of the most profitable games in the world, plus a lot of beloved IPs. For the Game Pass market, it's also about three new studios capable of doing "friendly" games: Beenox, Vicarious Visions and Toys for Bob. Microsoft have too many "serious" studios already.

@Banjo- Exactly. I mean, I already DO see PS as an exclusives machine so it's no change for me, but that's also going to really hurt them, really badly, if that happens. And that's not a good thing. Sony needed to get a real competitor, get kicked out of arrogant mode, and reverse the 8th gen monopoly they had. But not by replacing them with a new monopoly that just owns the market. XB has been great as an underdog, but if they just become "New PS4", we still lose. And Sony can't afford to be cranking out 200M+ budget games once or twice a year that only sell 8-15m copies. They have time to respond with something and really compete. But I lack confidence Ryan can lead that. We were on track for a real 3-way fight this gen. But I'm fearing with this, and especially if another acquisition happens, we're going back on track to lopsided generational yo-yo monopolies.

Tbh, the move makes sense. MS already has a big FPS in Halo and Activision has COD. Additionally, Activision makes a lot of games that PC gamers love. Seems like a good fit.

I’m so late to this news 🤣 Activision is my least favourite dev they literally make very very little of interest to me.

This is insane though, I’ve not really got any words. My mind is blown.

@NEStalgia This generation is going to be fascinating. Nintendo recovered from Wii U's unfair rejection and Wii U Pro becomes a craze in Japan but also around the world, even without new games. Secondly, Sony left their most successful generation behind and doubles down on expensive cinematic semi-open world adventures but without as many casuals around this time. Finally, Microsoft recovers from the Xbox One curse and make a joke of the "Xbox has no games" joke.

Looks like the FTC and DOJ is looking to reform merger laws in regards to tech giants. It’s going to be bumpy I think.

Happy for those that only play on Xbox consoles, sad for everyone else.

Great news. Ofc the current COD games will maintain multiplatform, not so sure about future titles, like we saw on the Starfield decision to be on Xbox and PC only. I'm more interested in the ability of all this studios (Zenimax + Activision Blizzard) working together to create new interesting IPs.

Singularity 2 confirmed

'our relationship with Activision has changed' ...

@mousieone I love your dog.

Everybody get your engines ready...Xbox heading in for the kill.

@NEStalgia "All the weirder since Sony always pays to get exclusive content from CoD, either early launch or bonus credits or whatnot. COD has been a Sony-favored franchise they were willing to pay for and now it's ripped out from under them."

It might feel like forever, but CoD always made exclusive dlc deals with the platform they felt was leader in the FPS market. During the previous gen, it was 360 that would get the exclusive CoD deals.

It does say something that the PS4 generation was so heavily dominated by PS4, that most people have come to think "this is the way it has always been."

I'm speechless, I don't even know what to think, As soon as i saw the article my mouth dropped... This is insane 🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️

@ultraviolet If we get remasters and sequels for Singularity and Metal Arms, I'll consider this a win.

@Fenbops thanks! Opal is only 9 weeks old.

@mousieone Say hello for me 😁. Tell him/her I'm a bear (I mean Banjo, I'm not a bear 😂).

@Hobbesyall How so? Activision/Blizzard needs taking over and sorting out. If MS have the money to do it then why not? Ultimately it won’t affect the largest franchises coming to other consoles such as PlayStation. There may be timed exclusives but they are normal now anyway. Disgusting? Cant see that at all unless you would care to elaborate?

@Tharsman CoD etc will still come to PS etc. I think a lot are getting too bogged down here with unnecessary concerns.

The salt and mental gymnastics over at Push Square is effing hilarious. I'm glad MS bought Activision instead of Tencent. My GPU subs for three years is totally worth it.

I think there is a danger of hysteria here. Some of the comments on social media are frankly laughable. Calm down people. The likes of CoD are not going to go Xbox exclusive- if they do then they will be timed exclusives anyway but Spencer has always been clear that he sees gaming as being for all regardless of what system you play on. There seems to be a massive knee jerk reaction happening here that MS will just kill PS off and take all of their games for themselves. It is just not going to happen. Sony are not going to stop making consoles like Sega did. Why on Earth would they? PS5 is still selling well despite the shortages and will take off once the shortages end which they will this year. Nintendo are never going to just make games - they will always innovate and bring out new systems or at least build on the Switch model for the next 10 to 20 years and they will always have their IP.
Yes MS have bought some huge studios and this is a huge one - massive - but there needs to be a reality check. The games will still be there and we will still be able to choose which system we game on and enjoy gaming. Gaming wars are old and pointless and need to be left back in the 90’s.
Chill and enjoy gaming getting better and better as it is.

@jarvismp It's definitely too soon to assume CoD will remain on Playstation. Personally I also think it probably will, because it's such a massive and established multiplat franchise. I too see it being more like the Minecraft buyout. But it's too soon to really predict that, and the language being used is similar to Bethesda's games, where they have to be vague for the next year until the deal actually goes through so that business interests aren't harmed in the event of a failed merger. Even Sony's board room right now probably has no better a guess than we do and has no choice but to make contingency plans in case of worst case scenario. No doubt they're talking about buyouts, mergers, reviving Killzone into an mtx festival, last minute changes to the rumored Project Sparticus, considering taking GP head-on with day 1 releases, running numbers, etc in an emergency strategy session as we speak.

@Tharsman Good point. I don't even remember that being the case it was so long ago.

@Banjo- I just hope they don't get too powerful, reverse the PS4 era, and end up with a New Matrick era. I don't think Phil will become Matrick, but he won't be in that chair forever.

@NEStalgia At best, Microsoft will be slightly ahead of Sony like in the seventh generation but this time it will be much more complicated to assess because Xbox is no longer just consoles. On the other hand, PS is crawling across PC and Cloud territory. A fascinating generation.

After taking time to let this sink in I think our good friend @NEStalgia said it best:

‘Honestly, I kind of have to step back and agree with a lot of the PS community...this is kind of too big, and makes it uncomfortable a little bit for many reasons.’

I feel the same way. Bethesda are small fry compared to this acquisition and that acquisition kinda made sense, MS and Bethesda had always had a good relationship even going back to the 360 days, it felt like a natural fit. This is a whole other level and does make me feel uncomfortable, I do not like the idea of any big tech giant consolidating gaming companies like this under one umbrella.

Will I stop playing on Xbox? No that’s stupid, but I am starting to wonder who’s next and it’s now apparent anyone is up for grabs. The other thing to consider is that you also have Tencent, Epic, Apple, Amazon and Google all making moves into the gaming space with unlimited wallets, in that sense I see MS as the lesser evil, but it really isn’t a direction I’m enjoying seeing my beloved hobby move in.

@Fenbops The mobile business is really evil. I prefer Microsoft doing this than any of the other giants you mentioned as Microsoft include consoles and traditional gaming in their business vision. I don't see Sony much further behind buying the studios that they can afford and buying timed exclusivity for those that they can't afford.

Hopefully they fix modern warfare when they own them & remove the need to have warzone installed to play it , add the multiplayer to mw2 remastered & port cod mobile to Nintendo switch

@Banjo- bears are scary to puppies, but Banjos is not haha

@UltimateOtaku91 Microsoft is far from a Monopoly. Heck half the people commenting at Push Square and some here are talking about how insignificant it is to them. There are many companies still producing games. EA, Square-Enix, Epic Games, Rockstar, CD Project Red, Capcom, Konami, Bandai-Namco just to name a few. Sounds from some of the comments this is sorta a win-win as Activision has had problems recently. You specifically have stated you want to play Overwatch 2 when just a few months back it was delayed indefinitely. This may have been what was needed to breathe life into finishing the game. With this new acquisition it may be best to let the dust settle, wait and see what changes are made.

I'm mainly a PlayStation gamer, as I prefer their catalog of exclusive games. But I do own an Xbox Series X, and on top of that, I bought a Game Pass Ultimate subscription through May 2024...so, I am covered. That said, this doesn't feel like such a great thing for the industry — this feel likes Big bank buys little bank, monopoly at play here ...

There are more articles about this on PS than on PX 😂.

@Banjo- It depends on how exclusivity goes. If CoD really goes Xbox exclusive, you have to look at just how big CoD is on PlayStation. It's consistently, year after year, #1. This past year, Vanguard was rocky. It was #2. It's one of the 5 biggest reasons the majority of PS owners buy a PS. To play CoD, and because that's where their friends play CoD. Forget the fan sites and GoW this and HzD that, CoD, FIFA, NBA2k, and Fortnite are why the majority of hardware sales happened. MLB The Show is Sony's biggest first party game, but you'd never know it reading the fansites.

This is one platform literally buying the top selling, or this year #2 selling game on their competitor's entire platform, year after year, part of their entire business strategy, out from under them. There's two ways that plays out. CoD goes exclusive and after the next CoD (which is pre buyout and on all platforms) you see a sudden and sharp transition of many PS owners to Xbox and GP. Or they keep CoD like Minecraft still on PS, and the one of the top revenue games on Playstation just directly funds their main competitor who can use that war chest to keep undercutting them on price and/or other exclusive content, which will lead to a slower but steady decline of sales by attrition.

MS wins no matter what, and Sony loses no matter what. I think this is bigger than "MS end up slightly ahead of Sony." I think it's either an upcoming sledgehammer to a painful chunk of the PS install base, or it's going to be a slow transfer over time depending on how the exclusivity goes. But either way, Sony is going to feel tremendous pain from this, and it's up to them how they're going to try to counteract that effect. They absolutely have the ability to do that. They have the brand cache to pull it off. They're not at the PS3/WiiU/X1 point yet. But I said back in 2020 at the launches that Jim Ryan is the kind of leader that works when they're at the top and business is good and the kind of leader that's a disaster the moment things start going downward. Today is that moment. I don't think he's the guy that can prevent it from becoming a vortex. They need a strategy guy, and Jim's a revenue guy.

@NEStalgia I know, most people bought PS4 to play Call of Duty, FIFA, GTA or Fortnite so then yes, if Call of Duty becomes an Xbox exclusive which I 100% assume, this will be a huge loss for Sony as you say. I believe that the best thing that Sony can do is to reach a wider audience via PC and PS Pass, something that they're doing already. As years pass by, they might consider leaving the hardware business and focus on software like Sega.

@Grumblevolcano I told you! Who's more reliable, IGN or The Wall Street Journal? 😂

One question, if the acquisition will take a year and a half because of legal regulations, then when will games join Game Pass? Anyone remembers how long did it take after the Zenimax deal was announced?

@Banjo- I think this might force them to do a better job with "PS Pass" than they intended. That could be a big outcome. And I would hope they'd refocus on putting out a lot more AA tier games than focusing everything on AAA blockbusters like they used to. That was their best stuff. That's Nintendo's best stuff. Frankly that's Microsoft's best stuff (Psychonauts.) They're going to need more releases more regularly to appear as active, and that's not going to happen if everything is a $200M ND showcase.

Hardware is part of Sony's DNA. They're a hardware company first and foremost. I don't see them leaving hardware and going software-only at any point. Even if it kills them, I can't see them leaving the hardware component behind. It's a core aspect of their company. Ironically I see MS more likely to leave the hardware behind, even if at the top of the industry, seeing as so much of their effort is on developing cloud tech, they'd be the first to see hardware as no longer relevant at some point. Not under Phil, but after.

IIRC a few games joined Game Pass prior to the deal closing but the barrage of them didn't arrive until the deal closed.

@NEStalgia I don't know, maybe something they might consider in the future. They want to make cars now so who knows. I'm curious about what their plans for PS Pass are and how they approach PC. PS Pass on PC?

@Banjo- Typical disjointed Sony. Who in their right mind would get into the automotive business now? What can they do that that their fellow Japanese companies that dominate the market and that have been doing it since the 70's haven't done? Such silly squandering of resources.

I suspect, or at least hope, that whatever their plans for PS Pass were at 5:00PM yesterday are very different from what they are after Noon today. I think we have a reasonable window into their PC plans already, but PS Pass is still under wraps. And assuming they have anyone with a clue in the management team (TBD) they've spent today redesigning the entire strategy for it.

I'd love to believe the unthinkable can still happen and they can actually find a way to do a true GP competitor with all first party content within a reasonable time frame that doesn't cost a fortune. If they did it wisely, it could revolutionaize how gamers play games across the whole major market, and still not harm their business revenue. It could also incentivize them to get back into more experimental games and smaller budget games, more frequently, without relying on absolute sure fire blockbuster sales smash hits. You know. The cool PS that used to exist...

@NEStalgia I was going to make a joke about Sony having hardware in their DNA and PS4 consoles making loud noises and melting but... Do you think that PS Pass will be outside PS5? Okay, that means more PC ports because there aren't many or perhaps streaming?

The cool PS? You mean PS, PS2 and PSP, right? 😁

Awesome news

@Banjo-

PS3 and PS4 as well. Sony has always been cool and always will be cool.

I think every console maker makes a good console. And each have games worth playing. I’m a Sony fan first and foremost, but I also own a Switch and I’ve owned an Xbox and a 360. Planning on getting a Series S or if I can swing the money building a PC and picking up GamePass.

And like I said to one of my comrades over on Push Square, look at this acquisition this way. I would rather have Microsoft, who still believe in offering a traditional console and traditional methods of acquiring games, have this big purchase than a James Bond villain like Google or Tencent who will lock the games behind streaming. That would be awful for us rural gamers because I doubt we will ever have the bandwidth needed for streaming to really work for us.

I see this not so much as a plan to screw Sony, but more of a way to gear up for the real fight against the Gods of Tech. Google, Apple, Amazon, and Tencent. When Microsoft talked about Sony “not being their real competitor anymore” I believe that the intrusion of the mobile holder tech giants into traditional gaming was what they meant by that.

@TheRedComet "I would rather have Microsoft, who still believe in offering a traditional console, have this big purchase than a James Bond villain like Google or Tencent".

That's exactly one of the things I said!

@eagletrippin

Better Microsoft than some two bit villain like Google.

@Banjo-

Sony fans will have to realize that Sony was going to get screwed either way the winds went. If Microsoft didn’t start buying up these publishers, then Tencent or Google or one of the other Gods would have.

At least with Microsoft I’ve got an option besides streaming and the God awful input lag that comes with it.

@TheRedComet "Better Microsoft than some two bit villain like Google"
Wow. Microsoft has you eating right out of their hands...and you love it Slave.

@TheRedComet Yeah, great, we have options NOW...but once one company controls most of the output, that won't be the case.

All the fanboys are going to be like "Yeah, we won the console wars!" But if in 10 years, all we have is Microsoft and Nintendo issuing consoles & games, and Sony is forced to become like Nintendo and make only in-house "boutique" style games while MS owns all of the more mainstream, mass appealing games, then say goodbye to 'choice' because we're all screwed.

@TheRedComet Right, we traditional gamers can choose Series S, Series X or PC (the latter with fewer games). Other people will be fine with streaming and even playing on their phones with touch controls.

@eagletrippin

Microsoft is a mega corp. they’ve done a lot of shady crap. I’m not some blind fan.

But I’ll take Microsoft over a company like Google anyway. Because Google would have locked their new studio behind Stadia, a product that I and millions of other people can’t even use and won’t be able to use for a decade or more until rural bandwidth catches up with what urbanites have enjoyed for five years now.

It’s called picking your poison. One of them will make you a little sick, the other makes you die. Easy choice.

I can't help but wonder whether this may at some point lead to the Halo franchise being handed back over to Bungie (who's owned by Activision). Although 343 chucking the wannabe Fortnite skins as a priority and finally getting local splitscreen multiplayer/co-op and The Forge into Halo Infinite would be a start for now where I'm personally concerned.

@AtlanteanMan "I can't help but wonder whether this may at some point lead to the Halo franchise being handed back over to Bungie (who's owned by Activision)".

Is Bungie owned by Activision? I didn't know that 🤔.

@AtlanteanMan Bungie isn't owned by anyone anymore

Beautiful. I have no words, this is awesome.

@UltimateOtaku91 My bad; I thought they had been purchased by Activision awhile back, but it was actually more of a partnership regarding Destiny. And yes, as you said, that ended in 2019. Sorry for being mistaken.

@abe_hikura buy them out….keep Kotick in place until all the t’s are crossed and I’s are dotted…..then toss him out on his tookus, and then he fades into obivuon.

Just my first line of thoughts. I haven’t thought much deeper on this. I don’t even know if it’s realistic.

Gonna be a feast for all the video game content creators

Too everyone questioning the price of $70 Billion. Do you understand how much some of AB games make per year?

Candy Crush generates over a billion
Call of Duty multiple billions
World of Warcraft has in the past generated insane numbers.

Within 5 years Microsoft will easily make back what they spent. Just look at what they did with Minecraft. Took super superstar statues to juggernaut super star statues.

@StylesT can't see them making CoD exclusive at least in the immediate future. Too much of a cash cow on MTX. Maybe down the line they will by having all of the exclusive content etc.

I find the whole idea that people are saying this is a monopoly and shouldn't be allowed quite laughable. It's not like a electric or gas company buying all of the other companies and putting the cost of their bills up. It's a toy company buying a toy company. Playing call of duty or tony hawk on a playstation isnt by any means essential. If you dont want to buy a xbox to play them then dont. If you dont want to pay for gamepass then dont. This is exactly the reason why this will not be blocked. It actually doesnt have any meaningful impact on peoples day to day lives.

Playstation will get activision games for sure. But after the next call of duty I can guarantee it will be xbox exclusive as it's far too big a coup for it not to be. I doubt microsoft will lament losing the playstation sales for cod. They will be happy to lose the sales in order get more gamepass subscribers.

If they manage to sign up 1/2 of active monthly blizzard logins to gamepass thats worth 3.3 billion a year.

Still love ps5 though

@themightyant

Overwatch 2 - Stuck in development hell. #1 losing players
Diablo - "Do you not have phones?"
COD - Main game on the wane. Mobile and Warzone still huge.
WoW - losing players hand over fist
Candy Crush - not the giant it once was
Starcraft - Don't know much about it TBH but not as big as it was.

The IPs are amazing. Activision sucked. Now that MS will give them the freedom and budget to deploy their ideas and talents things will be different

@themightyant I doubt anti competitive will come into it. It is after all still a game

@themightyant also it isnt like microsoft by owning a fps franchise is stopping anyone from developing fps. Yes it's a brand but coca cola is just a fizzy drink and McDonald's is still just a burger.

@Banjo- I just can’t see how this was a ‘good deal’… I see how candy crush, wow, cod, make money. I also see how cods numbers have been dropping year on year. How theres a lot of dead ip there…and even if they bring more kid friendly games back like Spyro it’s never going to sell huge numbers. And lastly how there’s a lot of negativity around activision right now…with a lot of talent leaving or left.

So yeah, this will make money for ms…but 68 billion back? Those share holders were eager to sell at that price for a reason.

68 billion could have bought WB games…with Batman licence, Lego licence. AND take two with GTA…

@Bleachedsmiles They're not stupid, they will get it back in a few years with Candy Crush and Call of Duty alone. They have checked what those IPs make.

@themightyant It's not anti-competitive nor anti-trust, there are bigger holdings.

@themightyant In many of your comments you are suggesting so.

@themightyant OK then.

@Banjo- if those IPs are making 68billion in as little as a few years why would any shareholder sell? Now that would be stupid

@Bleachedsmiles Because Activision Blizzard is in a crisis. Studios not making the games they're good at (like Beenox helping with Call of Duty), accusations, controversial CEO, people leaving, stockholders worried...

@Banjo- definitely sounds like their values 68billion when you put it that way huh

@Bleachedsmiles Just the opposite! The best time to get in, replace the CEO and put all those excellent talents to work on many games apart from Call of Duty. It's not a talent crisis but a leadership crisis.

@UltimateOtaku91 learn what a monopoly is lmao

Holy crap! This just changed everything.

@themightyant yeah it should have ben 0.75 for 3 years, damn Micorsoft increased their prices

@NEStalgia no objection there. I jus think that any way local authorities look at the acquisition there's no reason to object as in any given market (console, pc, console+pc, mobile, all of them) their market share won't be monopolic

@UltimateOtaku91 Now, with more context, I think they saved Activison Blizzard from being gobbled up by Amazon or Tencent.

It’s their narrative, but it’s an interesting way to think about it: Microsoft “protecting” IP and design from the F2P / P2E grinder of “outside” forces.

I’m not big into Minecraft, but have they been a bad steward of the mega-franchise? It doesn’t seem like it. Maybe it’s possible that this is closer to that than the Bethesda move?

The deal's done.....thank Christ.