Support NeoGAF

[iHaunter]

There is nothing Sony can do to combat this. They can't get into an arms race with MS.

Sony's path here is inevitable. They either get bought up by Google, Apple, whoever or they eventually let Game Pass on PlayStation and their first party output goes multiplatform.

This purchase today is literally industry changing, the board has been reset.

All the games they bought are pretty shit though. Activision and Blizzard have been a dump for the last 5 years.

 

[O-N-E]

Not anymore.

WOW is subscription based
King makes a ton of money in Microtransations
Call of Duty Warzone Microtransactions
Call of Duty Microtransactions
Overwatch Microtransactions
Diablo

Give me a break, they just opened a floodgate of money.

Doesn’t matter. This acquisition instantly raises the value of Microsoft.

Activision-Blizzard's operating income for 2021 was at absolute max 3.3B......

Proly less.

 

[Kokoloko85]

Sony did it in the begining

You cant compare buying Wipeout and lemmings the same to Buying Rare, Bethesda, Minecraft, Activision lol

 

[ZywyPL]

MS won't make this money back. But that's not also the goal. Trust, they ARE NOT going to profit off of this $70 billion deal.

Candy Crush alone makes like a billion each year, so in 70 years they'll break even ;D

 

[RoyalLaFlame]

Then why has Nintendo been fine? Sony is fine. They have the games that have 20 Million views on. They make Billions from their films now. The biggest blow will be call of duty by far. But modern warfare 2 is still on track for PS5. Nothing about those titles currently changes until this deal is complete. So next couple COD releases and Blizzard releases will be on Sony.

After the deal is complete though, I hope Sony concentrates for on their own games. As I think thats the way they are heading.

Nintendo is Nintendo. As much as people want Playstation to be like Nintendo, it won't be. Nintendo has franchises older than me, franchises known and loved by a lot of people. People buy Nintendo consoles to play those franchises they know and love. What does Sony have? Franchises that rotate every few years? Tlou? God Of War? Most people I know that own a Playstation bought it for Fifa and well, they saw this game called TLOU and God Of War and gave it a try. I wouldn't compare them.

They do need to concentrate on their own games, but they need to expand, create studios, create new games, cover all genres.

 

[DenchDeckard]

I genuinely think they won’t keep cod and war zone etc from PlayStation But they will be on gamepass for day one with dlc etc exclusive like Sony was paying for.

Mike Ybarra deffo sent into activision as a mole, and rob Ferguson for Diablo. It was all part of the plan.

 

[dem]

They could have bought EA for that kinda money...
and it would have won them the whole damn war.

 

[hullostranger]

Megaton. Spencer keeping that checkbook open. I thought Bethesda was a massive get but this is on another level.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

Ultimately this will be seen as a poor move as bold as it may sound.

Activision is tumbling in value, losing nearly half of its stock price in the last year (which made the move more affordable to Microsoft in the first place).

Now, much of Activision's value comes from being multiplatform, and not being multiplatform will shift to a significant decrease in returns, even if many people jump on board for hardware.

The thing here is that now Sony will put a new emphasis on creating their own Call of Duty competitor even with a smaller purchase of a company like Bungie. If Sony's Call of Duty competitor can sell even half of what CoD does, the return on their investment will be far greater than Microsoft's.

Microsoft obviously has deeper pockets than Sony, but these moves just aren't smarter moves. Insomniac for example for 229 million dollars... Think about that. That is the equivalent of buying Insomniac 305 times over...

 

[BadBurger]

70 billion? With a b?

Does the math work out? This can't be about consoles, right? Not when there's this much money flying about.

avin

Companies do not purchase others on this level with the intention of making their money back within a planned timeframe. It adds more value to their holdings, it brings in new investors, and it instantly (at least in the short term) increases their own revenues without adding a terrible burden in regards to operating expenses (or in some cases any burden at all).

It's like when Disney purchased Lucas Arts for $4bn and a bunch of clueless fanboys went wild. What they didn't realize was Lucas Arts's holdings were worth more than $4bn in itself. They could now use all of these new properties to add to their licensing lines. It bolstered Disney's ability to attract audiences to their theme parks and cruise ships. They were now able to use Lucas Arts's facilities and animation and special effects talents. Etc. Etc. It turned out to be an absolute steal. The fanboys focused on little-minded things like how much it costs to make and market a movie and how many such movies Disney would have to make to earn back their $4bn investment. "Oh it will take them nine $1bn movies to earn back $4bn!". Etc. When those idiots didn't even realize that through a variety of new revenue streams and investor attractions Disney probably earned that $4bn back within a year or so.

It's kind of the same thing here. Microsoft isn't looking to earn money from this over X amount of years. Merely buying them increases their value and will insure new revenue. New revenue further increases their value. Etc.

 

[ksdixon]

They got spyro and crash in this deal.

Jim Ryan asleep at the wheel.

Holy shit...

 

[PendekarRajawali]

At this $$ level wouldn’t it make more sense to buy Nintendo.

You clearly don't understand the Japanese people, do you? MS already tried it but Nintendo said "Fuck off, we don't need your money."
Nintendo is real Samurai. They'd better die than surrender.

 

[On Demand]

It’s ok.

Putting games on PC will save PlayStation. They don’t need Call Of Duty.

 

[SenjutsuSage]

Candy Crush has 273 million users a month. And is the first mobile

Candy Crush Revenue and Usage Statistics (2024)

Candy Crush Saga led the way for a new generation of mobile games, as one of the first freemium apps to generate over $1 billion revenue. King, which was already the second largest Facebook gaming publisher in 2012, saw mobile as the next step for freemium games and launched Candy Crush, which...

www.businessofapps.com

And it's one of the first apps of its kind to generate over $1 billion revenue.

Candy Crush profit​

Year	Profit
2012	$7.8 million
2013	$111 million
2014	$574 million
2015	$516 million
2016	$537 million
2017	$700 million
2018	$750 million
2019	$740 million
2020	$857 million

Year	Users
2013	287 million
2014	322 million
2015	327 million
2016	303 million
2017	293 million
2018	283 million
2019	272 million
2020	273 million

 

[Kokoloko85]

All the games they bought are pretty shit though. Activision and Blizzard have been a dump for the last 5 years.

Sekiro was amazing
and Call of Duty will bring in the commercial market more than any MS or Bethesda game

 

[kyussman]

People signalling the end of PlayStation are being a bit premature I think.......that only happens when GTA becomes Xbox exclusive.....the Take-Two aquisition is next month,lol.

 

[NewYork214]

Wow, gaming industry is gonna be shit in like a decade if this shit keeps happening. This is kind of getting gross if Microsoft just buys everyone out. Don't know how how people can see this as a good thing.

 

[Loope]

I like how every generation since Xbox/PS1, either side seems to be winning

Status Quo is shit

All my favourite franchises are still Sony side (Starfield is the only M$ exclusive making me think twice)

 

[MrTentakel]

They could have bought EA for that kinda money...
and it would have won them the whole damn war.

Ori does more for me than Fifa

 

[Interfectum]

All the games they bought are pretty shit though. Activision and Blizzard have been a dump for the last 5 years.

 

[nightmare-slain]

lol i'm still trying to process this.

 

[clarky]

HaHaHa theres chumps over on the other place claiming that they are cancelling game pass and selling their xboxes because they cant support this kind of acquisition

Today will be a great day to be on the internet.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

It's their only chance to not get absolutely crushed by Sony.

WTF?

 

[Punished Miku]

Wow, gaming industry is gonna be shit in like a decade if this shit keeps happening. This is kind of getting gross if Microsoft just buys everyone out. Don't know how how people can see this as a good thing.

This is the modern landscape. Same thing happening in film / streaming. Same thing happening in gaming with Embracer group and Tencent. The war is now. MS stopping isn't going to change that.

 

[Neofire]

MS is doing exactly what their only option is.....and that is to buy up everything in order to compete. The question is when will the FTC say something about this potential monopolizing that MS is clearly trying to do lol.

 

[Hendrick's]

What.The.Fuck?

That is huge. As a gamer who plays on Xbox first, this is great news! However, I do begin to question if these deals will only be good for the short term. Like if you are only buying for the IPs, as the studio talent can change, it is only a good deal for as long as the IP is popular. Every IP is one or two bad releases away from being no longer wanted.

However, DAMN. MS is not playing around.

It's MS or China at this point. Be glad MS is making these kinds of moves.

 

[CobraAB]

MS has not beaten Sony in 21 years. Maybe the moment is now finally!

 

[GHG]

Sony isn't Nintendo though, their IP doesn't have the evergreen power nor the age range.

They only have themselves to blame for that.

 

[ShaikhCroft]

OMG great news for team green. Great to see so many things coming to GamePass. This is the true next-gen.

 

[rapid32.5]

They could have remaked every franchise for that amount of money. Bring back Silent Hill Phil.

 

[RoadHazard]

They can probably buy EA and Take2 etc and still not have any issues with anti trust Because there are more publishers out there

Which ones? The only big one left after those is pretty much Ubisoft? Maybe Square Enix too.

 

[Airbus Jr]

If xbox are taking away third party publishers from nintendo and playstation then the only answer for those two are to built more first party studio

If cod gone from ps then i really want to see killzone or resistance back

Sony gona need to bring their fps game for the shooter crowd

 

[oldergamer]

Console wars are old and over.

The streaming war is the current war and MS got a lot of content to stream.

MS has a good relation ship with Nintendo. I could see they still release the big titles on switch.

Right now Xbox + Switch is a pretty good combo imo

 

[Coolwhhip]

Thousands of soy faces with beards and open mouths are making Youtube videos as we speak.

 

[Loope]

This is the company some people stan for? Wake up sheep.

 

[cyberheater]

MS has not beaten Sony in 21 years. Maybe the moment is now finally!

I hope so.

 

[ComputerBlue]

Holy Cow XBOX is KILLING IT!

Literally, they are killing gaming one acquisition at a time. I don’t know why this would make anybody happy because it’s not going to stop. The US took MS to court in the 90s over trying to monopolize. If people think this is a good thing for gaming, nope.

 

[Halo is Back]

Wow, this is just insane. No way they make COD exclusive the backlash will be insane.

 

[NickFire]

Wow, gaming industry is gonna be shit in like a decade if this shit keeps happening. This is kind of getting gross if Microsoft just buys everyone out. Don't know how how people can see this as a good thing.

Tribalism. Pure tribalism with some willful blindness thrown in as to what happens when people with deep pockets find a way to corner a market.

 

[tusharngf]

WOW is subscription based
King makes a ton of money in Microtransations
Call of Duty Warzone Microtransactions
Call of Duty Microtransactions
Overwatch Microtransactions
Diablo

Give me a break, they just opened a floodgate of money.

King makes 1 billion dollars from candy crush alone every year.

 

[Zeroing]

There’s a line between competition and monopoly! And it’s been crossed! If you think this is good for the gaming industry… you are putting a lot of faith on a single corporation.

I would say the same thing if it was Sony or Nintendo.

this is bad, people can spin it as much as they want.

 

[nightmare-slain]

They could have bought EA for that kinda money...
and it would have won them the whole damn war.

the war is over and ms won it. sony can't really compete with this kind of spending. realistically they can probably only buy square/capcom. MS might not even be done yet they could be eyeing up EA, T2, Ubisoft next.

 

[RoadHazard]

WTF?

Yes? They got absolutely crushed last gen, and so far they are this gen too. What's your problem with that statement?

 

[aliadiere25]

They better start soon.

One company is spending billions and billions on companies and the other isn't. There is a reason for that.

I get that COD and Blizzard are big companies, but 70 billion is madness. It's the same as when they bought Bethesda for over 7 billion. They won't see a profit on those companies for a very long time. They may never see a profit from those companies.

 

[Papacheeks]

Nintendo is Nintendo. As much as people want Playstation to be like Nintendo, it won't be. Nintendo has franchises older than me, franchises known and loved by a lot of people. People buy Nintendo consoles to play those franchises they know and love. What does Sony have? Franchises that rotate every few years? Tlou? God Of War? Most people I know that own a Playstation bought it for Fifa and well, they saw this game called TLOU and God Of War and gave it a try. I wouldn't compare them.

They do need to concentrate on their own games, but they need to expand, create studios, create new games, cover all genres.

It's what they have been doing? ANd their games now sell in 10-20 Million. Like God of war, Spiderman, soon wolverine. They have the best studios in the industry. Horizon is a new ip that is about to sell a boatload.

So I dont understand your point.

 

[Black_Stride]

Are they even worth 70 billion? this price seems odd to me. Also a pretty odd buy out target.

COD, WoW, Overwatch and Candy Crush alone are worth 70 billions.
Add all the talent at studios and they will be making this money back in no time.

 

[ozz ex machina]

Well played MS. This is a big balls fucking move. It's time like this you realise MS are playing chess while sony and nintendo are playing checkers. They really aren't in competition anymore and it's been clear for a while MS are focusing on Amazon & Google as competitors instead.

I can see cod staying multiplat.

 

[SenjutsuSage]

Activision is the publisher of From Software's most successful game ever btw... Sekiro!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And, no, not a fan of their games still, but Sekiro at least was the one that most caught my eye. Still didn't buy it, though.

 

[Honey Bunny]

I'm probably super naive, but if this will somehow lead to MS cleaning that cesspool and fix Activision's reputation, then more power to them.

Think more than 6 months into the future

 

[Jaybe]

“Gaming is the most dynamic and exciting category in entertainment across all platforms today and will play a key role in the development of metaverse platforms,” said Satya Nadella

Microsoft to buy Call of Duty maker Activision Blizzard for nearly $70bn

Tech giant acquires publisher of games including World of Warcraft and Candy Crush

www.theguardian.com

Ugh MS chasing the metaverse too.