Microsoft buying Activision/Blizzard

[Galant]

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/18/micr...ctivision.html

"Microsoft announced Tuesday it will buy video game giant Activision Blizzard in a $68.7 billion deal.

Shares of Activision soared about 37% in pre-market trading before being halted after the Wall Street Journal first reported the deal.

Microsoft shares fell more than 2% following the announcement."

More in the article.

Microsoft really pushing the gaming angle.

[kalniel]

They could sure do with some leadership so it's probably a good change in that respect. I agree MS are collecting quite a few studios now, and they seem to be turning out good games still too. Not great for Sony however...

[Spud1]

Wow....not sure if this is good or bad!

Hopefully good in that it may let me recoup my recent losses on their shares, thanks to all the "internal issues" they have had (not just the culture accusations, but their recent handling of QA staff etc)...although clearly not yet given trading is halted ;/ They are offering $95 a share so that should work out OK I think....Note they were trading at $65 a share, so its a decent premium even after costs etc. This also implies they firmly believe the cultural issues are a short term thing and its something they can handle....maybe the ownership change and generally much more positive culture at Microsoft really will help there. Lets see.

Bad in that this further reduces the diversity of ownership of the big videogame companies. Their monopoly grows....

At least it wasn't Epic involved in this deal. That's something

[cheesemp]

While I can understand all your concerns as someone with a long subscription to game pass I can definitely see the positives. In my opinion Microsoft are really beginning to out manoeuvre Sony this generation. And to be fair its not all bad for Sony. Microsoft have indicated they are happy to continue selling some of Bethesda games on PS5 so they might do the same here (I just won't have to buy them on my series X )

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

So more and more stuff coming to consoles,meaning less and less PC exclusives. Plus MS is investing more and more into Cloud gaming. That means for many who are getting whacked by the AMD/Nvidia GPU cartel they increasingly need to worry less about actually have a decent PC. It makes you wonder whether this is the actual longterm play for mainstream gamers.

[cheesemp]

So more and more stuff coming to consoles,meaning less and less PC exclusives. Plus MS is investing more and more into Cloud gaming. That means for many who are getting whacked by the AMD/Nvidia GPU cartel they increasingly need to worry less about actually have a decent PC. It makes you wonder whether this is the actual longterm play for mainstream gamers.

All first party xbox games this gen have come to PC (through the Microsoft store and even some via steam - see Forza Horizon 5). Microsoft have been happy to ship games wherever people can buy them. Sony also seem to be releasing most titles on PC so I don't agree with you here. The lack of GPUs is the threat. Its why I have a series X and my old rx480 in my new PC. I can't justify a GPU for way more than the cost of a console.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

All first party xbox games this gen have come to PC (through the Microsoft store and even some via steam - see Forza Horizon 5). Microsoft have been happy to ship games wherever people can buy them. Sony also seem to be releasing most titles on PC so I don't agree with you here. The lack of GPUs is the threat. Its why I have a series X and my old rx480 in my new PC. I can't justify a GPU for way more than the cost of a console.

Except the fact you don't NEED a PC to play them. The PC is secondary market to mop up any extra sales,because the consoles are based on PC parts.Almost all of the major studios are releasing PC only franchises on consoles. All the major studios are moving towards making games for smartphones. Consoles and smartphones massively out number PCs and most PCs don't have fast dGPUs. This is reflected in worldwide gaming revenues,and potential userbase. Billions of smartphones and tablets alone. One of the biggest gaming companies in the world in terms of assets is Tencent.





All the PC fans hating on Blizzard for developing for smartphones can see why they made the pivot.

That is my point.MS is moving towards making every device gaming capable,which negates the need for a gaming PC and the idiotic pricing of having to buy your own hardware. If you think its bad here - imagine how much it must be in many countries where an extra few £100 for a dGPU could be a one to two months pay. Or if suddenly that £180 class CPU becomes £100 more expensive.

Most gamers are casual and unlikely to spend 1000s of hours a year playing(especially with realworld life and work getting in the way) so game streaming will be a better bet for them.

So with the AMD/Nvidia/Intel price fixing cartel in full swing,people can use a console or game streaming to play newer games. I am already seeing this happen. So the reality is AMD/Nvidia who are on purpose using their price fixing cartel to jack up prices,will end up causing themselves problems longer term.

MS,Sony,etc are not going to pay AMD/Nvidia/Intel top money for console contracts or even the dGPUs and CPUs which they supply for their streaming servers. Plus companies like MS are huge enough to even start developing their own systems in a few years(millions of dGPUs needed for the systems is an incentive) or even buy up other companies to help them(just see what Apple did and have the most powerful IGP in a consumer device). Even the Chinese are now entering the dGPU market,because when companies take advantage of a situation to jack up pricing for all their customers,then eventually it leads to an opening for new customers.

Why do you think Intel is entering the market - they realised they have an opening which was never possible even a few years ago.

Bit by bit it will be death by a 1000 cuts. It might 5~10 years but I see it happening. Probably why Nvidia is desperate to buy ARM and AMD spent loads on Xilinx.

[cheesemp]

I still don't see PC gaming disappearing any time soon. Its always been the secondary market for AAA games and has always been expensive. Lets face it, its mobile causing the problem here as you show with the graph (which I find annoying as even with game pass streaming I cannot get into phone based gaming). I stick to my point that this isn't about making console exclusives unavailable on PC. This is just Microsoft pushing more consumers onto game pass - its not even about competition with Sony.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I still don't see PC gaming disappearing any time soon. Its always been the secondary market for AAA games and has always been expensive. Lets face it, its mobile causing the problem here as you show with the graph (which I find annoying as even with game pass streaming I cannot get into phone based gaming). I stick to my point that this isn't about making console exclusives unavailable on PC. This is just Microsoft pushing more consumers onto game pass - its not even about competition with Sony.

Its not about it going away,its about it slowly being less and less important in the scheme of total gaming revenue and installed userbase. If AMD/Intel/Nvidia want to price fix the market upwards it only leads to alternatives appearing. Remember,if people in a wealthy country are getting priced out,think about PC gamers elsewhere. If paying £300 for a £150 class dGPU is something we find unpalatable think how much that extra is in a place where the pay is half that of the UK,ie,it feels like £300 extra. Its something the Lowspecgamer repeatedly pointed out. These price increases are catastrophic for so many PC gamers in less well off countries.


Now if most people then find a console is going to better than any PC they can possibly afford,or game streaming does the same,then that pushes emphasis of development towards the wider install base longer term. This is what you are seeing with so many PC games now having console controls,less options in the menus,etc.


Take the phone market as an example - Apple and Samsung had most of it to themselves. But then they essentially formed a cartel,jacking up prices,limiting innovation. I told many on here the Chinese companies would be given an opening.....saw what has happened in terms of how much of the market they have taken in a few years,primarily based on cost.

Same with European/US car makers who did the same....now see how much of the market Japan/South Korea has.

The fact is cost has always been a factor in mainstream adoption. If PC gaming goes up and up in price it only means it becomes more niche and less people have a decentish PC. Indeed for many younger people their smartphone or tablet is their personal computer,and it a sunk cost.

The reality most of us older enthusiasts,and are in that niche of people who do these things. Most of the gamers on other platforms are less likely to talk about the hardware anyway.

If the prices do get back to normal by the end of the year it might be OK. However,if we are literally going to see the sub £400 market stagnate for next few years I don't really see how this helps PC gaming. It also jacks up the price of secondhand parts too.

Remember,this is closing onto two years now. First we had the shortages over the first 9 months of 2020,when dGPUs were hard to find and secondary prices shot up. Now in the last 15 months its insanity.

Now miners are even trying to find profitable coins to mine on an RX6500XT. This is why we are seeing leaked pricing of close to 300 Euro.

Both Nvidia/AMD and their partners have apparently diverted dGPUs towards mining,so are complicit in all of this. Now Nvidia is attempting to remove RRPs so they can charge what they want from day one. AMD did the same for the UK by not bothering to release reference models to a UK partner,and their EU partner won't ship here.

Unless mining falls apart(or Intel decides to be very aggressive) before the RTX4000/RX7000 series arrive I can see these priced for miners and whales in any easily available way.

[Iota]

While I can understand all your concerns as someone with a long subscription to game pass I can definitely see the positives. In my opinion Microsoft are really beginning to out manoeuvre Sony this generation. And to be fair its not all bad for Sony. Microsoft have indicated they are happy to continue selling some of Bethesda games on PS5 so they might do the same here (I just won't have to buy them on my series X )

Microsoft is definitely playing the Game Pass side of things, they've had time to establish this side of things alongside the hardware aspect. Something Sony lacks is any real answer to it, sure they have the hardware and they're slowly starting to co-develop games for PC, but they literally have nothing in terms of a Game Pass equivalent. Microsoft have stolen a march on them and this will only help to bolster and improve their offering across more than one platform.

[Super_Ace]

My original plan was to build and PC and then when I get a chance to buy a PS5 when they become more available. That way since all Xbox games were coming to Game Pass day one, I'd have the best of both worlds with the PS5 for Sony exclusives. However, with games like Horizon zero dawn and God of War coming to PC, I rather save my money and just buy the games on Steam. I've read some rumours about Sony Project Spartacus, will have to wait and see how that develops.