DasnapMicrosoft expected to finally buy Activision Blizzard next week
KitWill we finally see WoW on consoles?
It would be a dream but I doubt it. Too many macros required that only a keyboard can handle. Controller wouldn’t be able to do all that.
I mean, FFXIV has just as much and manages it.
Going back even further, FFXI (which came out before WoW) has perfect controller support. It’s not that difficult to make an MMO work on a controller.
There is KB/M support on Xbox so it could be possible
bob_lemonSad times for everyone that still believed in antitrust.
Meh. A competitive monopoly has a better outcome than the near monopoly PS4 got when it came to exclusives. Yeah a lot of existing IP will be for one or the other. But for third party studios, they will be much less likely to make exclusive games if the console market is more balanced between the two. Nintendo is kind of in a world of its own. And with the steam deck helping push PC into a base level standard, I think we might see some opening up of high quality third party stuff.
You still believed?
Dark ArcHonestly I’m okay with this one, but it’s mostly because Activision Blizzard has great IP with some seriously awful management … and Microsoft actually has been doing much better in that department for games.
Yeah… In practice, every time a company gets anything that even slightly resembles a captured market, they stop investing in quality and starting shafting consumers.
Make no mistake, that is Microsoft’s end game. And that’s why they’re buying Blizzard.
Luckily, Activision Blizzard already stopped investing in quality and started shafting customers quite a while back, so worst case scenario (in this particular case, your criticism is still valid for most others) nothing changes, best case scenario Microsoft actually cleans house and the market becomes slightly less anti-consumer with one of the worst offenders gone…
Yupp…
Microsoft even with Activision Blizzard would not have a captured market. Valve, Crytek, Sony (which now holds Bungie), Epic, Electronic Arts, CD Projekt Red, Take-Two, and Ubisoft are all still quite potent AAA capable studio just in the PC space … along with tons of independent studios (e.g., Ghost Ship Games, Shiro Games, Hello Games, Re-Logic).
The Microsoft internal doc leak said they’re mostly after King Games (mobile games) anyways. I’d wager at worst Microsoft will let the traditionally Activision & Blizzard studios do their things… at best they’ll clean up the executive teams and let the devs “play” a bit more with the IPs.
Mojang has flourished under Microsoft.
343 sucked under MS. Bethesda’s been underwhelming. Rare, meh. Lionhead, meh. Obsidian, meh.
Playground has been good, same with Doublefine. Ninja had Senua, which was good.
Pretty much a coin flip I’d say, but helped by the fact Blizzard has stunk out loud in recent years…change might be good.
Tlaloc_TemporalThe enshitification of Mojang has begun. Ridiculous privacy policies and bans in singleplayer. And the biggest introduction under MS was the engine rewrite, which was already underway when they were acquired.
You want to give them to a company that keeps fumbling its own IPs?
I mean, it’s had plenty of success with its own IP… Heard of Starfield? Minecraft … and it’s nth successful Spinoff? Forza Horizon 5? Sea of Thieves? Flight Simulator 40th Anniversary Edition? Age of Empires IV? Age of Empires XYZ DE? Fallout 76?
The only major “flop” I can think of that wasn’t corrected (at least so far) is Halo Infinite and … that largely seems to be a 343 issue. There’s also Redfall, but that was a new IP in an over saturated space … it’s not like they’ve stopped developing IPs, fixing games, and trying new things.
With its own IPs? Half the games you’ve listed are games they bought and were already available or basically completed before they did, putting Microsoft’s contribution at almost zero. So starfield’s success, for example, is no more Microsoft’s than the failure of Redfall. They just happened to buy them. The rest of the games you mentioned have had mixed receptions at best. Fallout 76, are you serious? Starfield is better than that, despite being a significant disappointment (I’m 30 hours in, fuck you Todd), and both of them were acquired through Microsoft’s purchase of Bethesda.
What new things have MS tried?
Go look at Fallout 76’s reviews, it was unpopular at launch (IIRC) but it’s doing very well now … and that’s the point, they kept the lights on until the majority of players were happy.
Minecraft has had several games derived from it, that were entirely different games set in the Minecraft universe.
Microsoft bought Bethesda 3 years ago. To say that they had no ability to influence and/or didn’t take a risk on Starfield is … lazy at best.
And yes, they own Redfall as well, time will tell if they fix that one or it’s just a straight up failure.
Unapproved language detected, account locked. Drink verification can!
Trust = one or more independent organizations making secret agreements to mutual benefit.
Mergers: not a trust.
Monopoly = a single organization that controls an overwhelming amount of the market.
Microsoft buying a publisher that put out 2 games in 2023: not a monopoly.
How many times do they have to buy that 2 game publisher before they reach a monopoly?
How many of the last 10 games you bought were from Microsoft?
How many games game out this year? Thousands. There is absolutely zero possibility that MS or anyone else is anywhere near holding monopoly status on the production of entertainment software. Even if they bought EVERYTHING new creators would enter the space the very next day.
spiderkleThe logical question here is: will COD be in gamepass? otherwise what’s the point of this takeover.
Starcraft 3 is the point
Those devs already left. At best it would be a hollow shell of a game like aoe 4.
There are some games made by SC devs or SC players, we’ll see how it turns out. I would like to see SC3 with full financial support of a AAA studio.
Aoe 4 wasn’t great and that was AAA support. The people that made SC great are gone, most are at frostgiant, Dreamhaven, Warchief, and more.
Yeah okay, let me want what I want instead of trying to convince me not to
Ffs buddy, learn to let it go. I mentioned the two games in my previous comments already. Then I mentioned I would like an actual Starcraft 3 from Blizzard. You don’t need to point me at anything, just accept someone else wishing for something and move on.
Nah nah, StarCraft: Ghost is coming back. It’s just a matter of using the Gears of War engine & adding in StarCraft textures & models & SFX.
I’d rather it look and feel like Halo
I’m sure black ops 1-4 will definitely be a part of it!
Candy Crash instead of blue screens.
KushanYou can bet your sweet ass CoD will be part of it. Possibly not MW3 but the next game will be a big day 1 game pass launch, guaranteed.
FireTowerMaybe they’ll make warzone no longer free to play but instead included in game pass as a means of recruiting more members.
I was done with Activision BEFORE Microsoft came along.
Not with a 100 foot pole. Get fukt Activision
GiganUgh, I hate these giant corporations gobbling each other up.
One good thing to come of this (hopefully) is the chance to clear the C Suite people from AKB. I hope all of the AKB employees get what they deserve, which is a new set of higher ups that aren’t sexist dickbags.
Why do you assume the higher-ups will be gone? Bethesda’s C level seems unchanged
Bethesda's C level doesn't threaten to seriously damage Microsoft's image. ActiBlizz's C level tolerated and encouraged sexual assault.
Did they really encourage it? Genuinely curious as I never heard that before, but that’s wild if true.
Encouraged may not be the right word, but they allegedly knew and not only didn’t not care, but tried to hide issues from the board of directors. Plus the CEO literally threatened to kill his assistant.
I would say willfully and deliberately turning a blind eye and making sure there are no negative consequences, letting him get what he wants from it is encouragement
That’s true, tolerating sexual assault is one of the few things dangerous to them.
Exactly what I’m hoping for.
That’s literally the only reason I’m supportive of this. Super mega corporate mergers are usually bad for consumers, but those fuckwits are so much worse.
AKB
What’s that K for?
King, who makes candy crush and other mobile games
I thought King was a subsidiary, rather than part of the parent company’s name. Has that changed?
Those c suite folks are about to make mega bank. This liquidity event will let them cash out all their stock options. I have experienced it.
I really do hope they get rid of Bobby.
ExcursionInversionWonder if more blizzard games will end up on steam now?
VoytrekkWith Diablo IV arriving soon, I wouldn’t be surprised to see most, if not all of their games on Steam over the next few years.
There goes the competition.
Can someone recommend a good indie game? Better spent money than feeding these vampires.
I’ve been loving BattleBit Remastered lately. It’s cheap, fun as hell, and the very small dev team has been very active and responsive. I bought 3 more copies to give to friends so we could squad up.
ramBetter spent money than feeding these vampires.
Just realizing corporations aren’t your friends? Anyways, if you like hard, unique puzzle games, Baba Is You is the best there is, fullstop.
Baba Is You General Discussions :: Steam Community
Baba Is You - Baba Is You is an award-winning puzzle game where you can change the rules by which you play. In every level, the rules themselves are present as blocks you can interact with; by manipulating them, you can change how the level works and cause surprising, unexpected interactions! With some simple block-pushing you can turn yourself into a rock, turn patches of grass into dangerously hot obstacles, and even change the goal you need to reach to something entirely different.The game has over 200 levels that experiment with the game's mechanics in a multitude of ways, requiring the player to understand and manipulate the rules of the game and figure out devious ways to make the objects in the game world interact.The game was originally created for and won the Nordic Game Jam 2017. Baba Is You also won the Excellence in Design and Best Student Game awards in the Independent Games Festival 2018, and was nominated a finalist in 2 other categories, including the Seumas McNally Grand Prize. The game was made using Multimedia Fusion 2 by Clickteam.