Microsoft CEO: Xbox Remains 'Confident' About Activision Blizzard Acquisition

I still think Sega or even Ubisoft would have been a better fit for Xbox and for well under a third of what they're paying ABK...I'm just not the biggest fan of Diablo or COD.

@Sol4ris Ubisoft or Sega don’t have King which will give MS candy crush. That allows them to get into mobile with the biggest game. Plus as MS shows great interest in PC, Blizzard is a juggernaut there as well. Throw in the revenue from COD and this is the better package for hitting all 3 areas of business Xbox wants to be in.

@Sol4ris Sega would have been great. Ubisoft has vastly too much bloat and fat that need to be trimmed after the purchase. What would they do with the crew when they already have Horizon?

@Sol4ris I totally disagree with you.

ABK has bigger, better, quality IP’s that really bring in money. Plus there IP’s are better suited for Gamepass.

@HonestHick, @Total_Weirdo, @Deshalu, @AverageGamer

You are right it does make sense for Microsoft..- I guess I'm just being selfish here since I'm much more of a fan of Sega/Ubisoft games than ABK's.🙂

@Sol4ris well there is a video of a hedgehog walking around a MS office on twitter and some are thinking MS and Sega are taking. So who’s to say MS don’t end up with Sega at some point. That would be a great addition for GP.

@HonestHick i think minecraft mobile is one of the biggest games ever on mobile why poeple keep ignoring this? and doom guy seem to do great king is to straighten their presence even further along COD mobile

After all this media attention I still don't really understand what this will mean for Xbox gamers. I assume Call of Duty will go straight to GP on release day? Is there anything in it for gamers like me that aren't big on war games?

@Darude84 well, that depends. ABK is much more than CoD after all. they have IPs in many other fields as well. xbox funding could give other IPs a chance to exist/shine again.

I'm really looking forward to this deal getting done! I'm not too concerned about COD or Diablo but I'm eager to see what happens to other IP that Activision has put on the back burner. I'd love to see Tony Hawk's underground remastered or remade or just a reboot of the series entirely, I'd also love to see something done with guitar hero games, Activision ran them into the ground but they were fun and I'd like to see at least one on Xbox series consoles and the same goes for Skylanders which at one point was making billions until Activision ran it into the ground. I'm so damn excited to see what Microsoft does with Activision going forward ✌️

@Darude84 Short term, this deal will likely not make too much difference to 'you' as ABK won't suddenly become 'prolific' and drop new games exclusively for Xbox or even have new games coming to Game Pass even if they 'release' on PS too. Its likely to be a year or so before CoD comes to GP day and date anyway as Sony still has an active deal with ABK.

Short term then, the biggest 'bonus' would likely be the entire ABK games that they have released on Xbox, at least their 'own' IP's (not 3rd Party Licensed games like Spider-Man, Transformers etc) to be available on Game Pass thanks to Backwards Compatibility - Diablo, Prototype, Crash Bandicoot, Spyro etc from the past 20yrs or so...

Long term, its difficult to predict exactly, but I'd bet that CoD won't be made by 8-9 Studios just to pump it out annually. Then its a case of seeing how they reorganise and set-up under MS. I'd imagine they'd either form a 'dedicated' CoD studio from those Studio's to ensure its continuation or give it to an existing Studio so that the other Studio's can be freed up to make their 'own' games - whether 'new' IP's or ANY of the IP's now owned by MS - Toys for Bob working on a Banjo Kazooie game or maybe a MS Kart Racer/brawler with characters like Spyro, Crash, Banjo, Conker, Master Chief, Doom Slayer, Joanna Dark etc etc for example...

Short term, its likely to be more about ABK's history on Xbox but long term, its more about the Potential of all those Studio's, developers etc....

@HonestHick

Hit the nail on all 3 heads.

ABK makes sense for dominating Mobile, PC and console with COD.

@BAMozzy Thanks so much, this is the clearest piece I've read so far!

A big part of me still thinks MS wants to back out of this deal. With the earning report yesterday showing absolute dismal numbers for the gaming division they'd be better off selling the division completely and using those human resources to make so much more money at the spaces MS dominates in.. I know Satya knows this.

People here will argue this all day - but gaming is a huge drag on this company I can only see it's value as a foil to Tencent and to a lesser degree Sony - nothing else.

@Cashews except the Xbox division brings in a lot of money for Microsoft. That is the complete opposite of a huge drag.

And what makes you think they actually want to back out of this deal despite everything suggesting otherwise?

@Lightning720 For the investment input - both time and acquisitions - the fact it is barely beating LinkedIn is not good.

I believe this statement - is either to assuage investors or give Satya the opportunity to back out. Why mention the deal at all?
Who is questioning that it will go through or not now? Apparently Satya is.

Imo, It is a terrible deal. 70B for ABK is still so much more than the company was ever worth. To this day ABK is still fleecing, making customers irate on the daily.

I feel it is a big mistake. But smart people work for MS so...
But I do think they could still back out and save billions and billions in the process.

@Cashews Xbox and Microsoft will have some of the best in the business, whether that is in the gaming industry, the pure business side, or the legal side. I trust them a lot more than random people like you to know what is a good deal or not.

Gaming division is going to be a massive money maker for MS next year.

@TakeItEasy for sure it is, now with all those MS has said they want to launch a store front on IOS and Play store. Hope they do, that would be a huge revenue stream for them.

@Netret0120 for sure and most importantly they were for sale. Some of the other companies we would like to see MS get may not be for sale and ABK was .

@Somebody The gaming division is going to be a massive money loser next year unless the gaming division suddenly makes 100B dollars.

They spent 70B on Activision. The gaming division will not make 70B next year. After spending 70B that doesn't mean poof that money doesn't count any longer.

@Lightning720 same goes for you, pal.

@Moonglow and the earnings report - which isn't based on emotion - shows that their vision is failing. Failing mightily. Will they be any closer to Sony and Nintendo after the deal? After promising non-exclusivity to those companies. I do not think it will noticeably move the needle.

Fingers crossed they get the backwards compatibility program going again due to all the games Activision have locked away deep in the cellar.

The first one that springs to mind is Crash Twinsanity.

@Cashews that would be on this year's accounting (assuming it goes through in august.) Plus it's money on hand not future revenue. It's not like it forces the gaming division in the red for years to come. Xbox revenue will get a huge boost from this.

@Moonglow I'm not talking about Zenimax. ABK cost 10x the amount that Zenimax did.

You are talking about becoming bigger overnight? It has been 22 years. That is multiple human generations when we are talking tech. They can't even maintain share. The xbox has been losing market share since the 360.

So when do you throw in the towel? Never? How many checks to awful indies can you write?

These are questions that MS will hopefully have to answer when the big investors ask.

@Somebody no it doesn't balance sheet wise. But logically it does. You spend 70B on a specific division you expect ROI on that. You either expect ROI or you are simply collecting companies or you are trying to block a competitor.

If I was a C level manager at Vanguard or Blackrock I would demand answers to these questions.

@Cashews long term they will get that return on investment in spades.

@Somebody Maybe. Purexbox is avoiding the recent stories on Blizzard pissing off everyone who bought Diablo once again. These jokers either can't, or don't want to just make products people enjoy playing. ABK seems broken at it's core. Is MS capable of fixing that culture?

I once worked for MS. They have a great working environment and treat employees with respect and good benefits/pay. But can they fix this trashy company? I do not know.

I do not believe it should cost 70B to find out.

Is this really the evolution of the anti merger argument? Is it going from governments won't allow this, it's a monopoly to MS won't make any money from this deal?

thought this deal was done now.

@Moonglow Xbox may have been an independent division operationally but it has always been owned and funded by Microsoft to my knowledge. Source?

Same old. Thread mentioning the acquisition an argument breaks out almost immediately. Be glad when its done.

@Moonglow I dont disagree with the context Xbox wasnt at the top of their agenda for a while. But it was certainly funded by them from day one. Bill Gates wouldnt bring The Rock out to show off a product he wasnt funding.

Say bye bye to your favorite actibliz games, POS Fanboys. Maybe y'all should have been nicer to the xbox crowd over the years. If you had, then this wouldn't be considered Karma.

Breaking: Company feels “confident” about Company’s preferred option.

It was always a matter of when not if. The CMA and FTC seem to think because MS as a whole is larger than Sony that it suddenly would give them massive market share. The facts clearly indicate otherwise.

MS is making all the right moves to compete with Sony and gain back user trust. (xOne release) And having MS and Sony constantly battling it out is good for gamers in the long run. MS can also do alot to repair ABs image considering it's many recent scandals. (People seem to have forgotten that storyline).

My only wish is MS had also bought out Bungie.

Will Microsoft bring back Royal Games, Royal Games is the main portal to King.com and it’s linked to King.com also.
King.com closed shut the games off on Royal Games last year, when this deal goes through will Microsoft bring back Royal Games and the games King.com removed as well as adding the old games Royal Games used to have?.

@Moonglow I am trying to understand on what is happening with this deal when it goes through as I am anxious about Royal Games the main portal to King.com which is also linked to King.com.
You mention Microsoft are dealing with IP’s does this mean Royal Games is coming back, the players at Royal Games were told the games were going to be taken off last year and they’ve been off since then and even now, also got told that the games site was closing but yet Royal Games is still up showing all the profiles.
Will Microsoft save Royal Games from closing?.

@Moonglow We are certainly smelling what the Xbox is cooking now.

@Moonglow I really hope that Microsoft does bring back Royal Games, been playing on Royal Games since I was 17, now I’m 32 kind of grown up with Royal Games which was originally King.com.
I even did a petition to save Royal Games and to show how much the players really miss and love the site, I’m more of a PlayStation and computer gaming kind of person so I am not too bothered with the Xbox stuff l, Royal Games supported their games with HTML5 before they closed them off and Microsoft supports HTML5 which would be really good for Royal Games.
I just sure hope that you’re right that Microsoft will save Royal Games, there is not a another gaming site like Royal Games.

@Moonglow Thank you Moonglow Strangely the games and site were to go on the 7th December 2021, when all players got the news on the site closing it was like having an arm chopped off, they disabled the messages so we can’t message anyone on there but yet the site is still there so now players have moved to other gaming sites to continue and they all say that the new gaming site they are on doesn’t compete with Royal Games, Royal Games may have had there ups and downs but what gaming site doesn’t have those, Royal Games is an amazing gaming site to play, I play for free as a silver player, you are more than welcome to join Royal Games if Microsoft can help out and do their bit, not being able to play on Royal Games has been torture but when a gaming site has been there 18 years and then to be told it’s closing it hits hard, back in 2019 all of Royal Games were promised was news games, new avatar items as well as other new things but that never happened they then decided to remove some of the games as the gaming software they were using Flash was out of date so then they went HTML5 and then a little minor thing happened with some players not getting their money, hopefully now all players should have all their withdrawals.
However, the King’s clown did put at the end “If anyone knew of a gaming Kingdom that needed a clown” that put shivers down my spine.
I have cried a lot, stressed and been worried on not knowing on what to was happening with Royal Games.
A lot of players thanked me for doing the petition to save Royal Games because it seemed as though King.com didn’t seem to care of the players on King.com’s main portal aka Royal Games.
I just sure hope Phil Spencer can do as much as he can with saving Royal Games.

@Moonglow Thank you for understanding from how us game players have been feeling on the closure of the games, some players have even closed their accounts but I kept mine up because I never believed the site was going after when they promised us new games, which never happened, I thought why would I believe the site is closing when King.com fibbed the last time.
I left King.com for a while, I didn’t know they had a change in 2016 and didn’t know they changed the site name to Royal Games, I preferred King.com as the original site name but then a new change came along with a guy called Riccardo, he then left Royal Games in 2018/2019.
Players from Royal Games have said the site was going down hill with games playing up, I didn’t really have a problem other then I would just get kicked out of the game.
I seriously do hope that all the old games come back, the only thing I don’t like about Royal Games is the profiles the original profiles had falling jewels on the profiles, there was no building a castle or decorating the profile but for some reason they changed the profiles which I wasn’t happy about.
We can all just keep our fingers crossed and hope Microsoft will do their bit in keeping Royal Games alive, they might even change the title of Royal Games but not knowing of what is going to happen or not is frustrating so I just keep being positive.
I will let you know if anything happens but right now it’s just a waiting game.