GoronmonFTC withdraws its in-house challenge to Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard deal
https://www.theverge.com/2023/7/20/23795591/ftc-microsoft-activision-administrative-challenge
332And as expected, the destructive consolidation of the industry moves forward again, cheered on by consumers celebrating the short term bump to the value of their subscription service.
OmegaI’m seeing a lot of consumers with mixed feelings about this, actually. With most of the positives being that the Activision Blizzard toxic leadership will be replaced.
The thinist of silver linings.
Considering how Bethesda under Microsoft has treated its trans workers, I don't think Activision will get any better
A tiny short term gain compared to the widespread decades long damage done by corporate consolidation.
To me Kotick seems like a scapegoat/hate figure, he’ll (probably) go because he’s already made his billions and this is a nice off-ramp. As much as some gamers will try to frame this as a win, he’s not losing, lots of people would love to ‘lose’ like Kotick has. Whenever he leaves (if he does), he’ll sail off into the sunset or with his track record of results find some other organization that’d love to have him running the show.
It’s also not like he’s been single-handedly running Activision for 30+ years, there will be tiers of leadership running the show and the structure of the organization. After having paid tens of billions to buy it, MS aren’t going to tear down the well oiled and profitable machine, especially if they have their “hands-off” approach, and it’s not as though MS themselves are saints when it comes to how they handle staff. If anything MS would want to retain leadership for a while through any transition to make sure things keep running well, and if they do get ejected/leave the games industry has a reputation for good leadership elsewhere that MS can head-hunt to replace them.
There’s a lot of people that really want to paint this as some great drama where ‘good’ will win out, I think they need to temper their expectations, a lot.
As much as some gamers will try to frame this as a win, he’s not losing...
There was no real outcome to this situation where Kotick loses. Either he stays, makes millions of dollars and continues to lead the company, or he leaves and makes millions of dollars during his exit. Those were always the two options.
I kinda understand this point of view but I don’t see how it punishes anyone at Act/Blizz. Bobby Kotick walks away with a literal fortune and I doubt Microsoft fires the management to hire all new people. I’d like to see Act/Blizz shareholders sue the board and Kotick for corporate malfeasance instead and get that money back.
Sabata11792I hate Microsoft and don't want to see them grow. But I also hate Blizzard. But I have also been hopelessly addicted to WoW since childhood and don't want it to die. But Bliz also shits on wow every other expansion. Its a complicated mess but MS seems like the lesser evil since it seems only a matter of time before WoW gets the Overwatch and Diablo treatment.
kingthrillgoreDon't worry, Microsoft will immediately defend and indemnity those who actually matter so nothing will change, really. Bobby will get a golden parachute, and nobody will care he was in Epstein's rolodex.
People will forget all of the potential negatives as soon as Overwatch, Diablo, and Sekiro are added to GamePass.
Everyone I know is angry about this but there’s not much we can do. We’re not the FTC
VlynKnowing the companies involved this is a positive change.
Activision Blizzard is a toxic dump. My hope is Microsoft throws out Activision management and cleans things up.
It literally can’t get worse than it is right now.
I think we can all agree that both companies have terrible management in different ways.
But this dream that MS will just clean house with Act/Blizz management is just that. If MS replaces all of senior management over the next year or two, the studios will grind to a halt. Someone has to make decisions about resource allocations. I’m dubious about the competence of senior management in general but someone has to decide the dev budget, the marketing budget, feature set, etc. And someone has to make decisions midstream when it becomes clear your battle royale game will get lost in a sea of Fortnite clones.
If MS starts firing these guys, they’ll see the writing on the wall and go elsewhere on their terms, leaving the company unable to make those decisions. I just can’t see MS firing anyone but the top guys.
The only people who need to be fired are the ones at the top making the key decisions
Oh it can definitely get worse lol