Posted on 01/18/2022 7:51:30 AM PST by Houserino
Microsoft is buying Activision Blizzard, the publisher and associated developer of many titles including the Call of Duty franchise.
Announced today on an Xbox Wire post, Microsoft has agreed to acquire Activision Blizzard, which includes the development teams at Activision Publishing, Blizzard Entertainment, Beenox, Demonware, Digital Legends, High Moon Studios, Infinity Ward, King, Major League Gaming, Radical Entertainment, Raven Software, Sledgehammer Games, Toys for Bob, and Treyarch. Microsoft's purchase is set to cost $68.7 billion.
Microsoft has stated that Activision Blizzard will operate independently until the deal is complete, but Phil Spencer does note that once the deal is complete the business will report to him. In an email sent to Activision Blizzard staff (via CharlieIntel), current CEO Bobby Kotick - who is set to remain at the head of the company until the deal is finalised - said that "transactions like these can take a long time to complete," and the process is expected to end in Microsoft's 2023 financial year, which ends on June 30, 2023.
(Excerpt) Read more at gamesradar.com ...
They’ve also done poorly with Bethesda and they nearly killed Skype. Those were more Ballmer times I suppose though.
The problem with a traditional industry like natural gas is that the margins are low. We are seeing that now as NG hits a certain level all of a sudden coal is competitive again.
Own an exclusive video game franchise and the profit margins are enormous. Candy Crush may have taken a few hundred thousand to build, but a few years later the company could be sold for $6 billion.
It’s the same reason diamonds are expensive and water is cheap even if we need the latter to live and never need the former.
That’s the gorilla in the room that few ever think about. The mobile game market is still a rising industry, and Activision is/was putting major cash into development of those games to the ire of some of their hardcore console gamers.
There were some heated words and dismay in the Blizzard world after Blizzcon a few years back when they announced a move toward more mobile titles, but nobody ever said their business model was not sound.
https://www.androidauthority.com/activision-blizzard-mobile-games-1174109/
The headline to the above link from November 2020 is: Activision Blizzard is planning mobile games for all of its franchises.
And I believe you about going after Zuck. It’s a smart move.
Good perspective
The play here is to be the Netflix of gaming. Netflix is currently worth $270 billion.
The video game industry is larger than film and television combined, so even at the rates MS is paying for developers the long term plan makes sense.
Sounds like a motto you would carve into a sword.
No it doesn’t.
The last video game that I played was Pong & Super Mario Brothers.
The last computer game I played was “Myst.” Not the reboot...the very original.
all of a sudden coal is competitive again.
http://oldschoolrules.com/2012/01/06/how-to-heat-with-coal/
Energy isn’t that great an industry. Subject to so much chaos and regulations. Gaming just keeps making money. Doesn’t even get messed up by lockdowns.
Blizzard made World of Warcraft, StarCraft, and Diablo, if that helps.
I’m in this business. This is a shift to shore up Microsoft’s production Studio network against Sony and more particularly China’s Tencent (who has been pouring money into the US buying Studios left and right).
Will Diablo IV die on the vine?
Diablo IV was already starting to look like vaporware before this. Looked like a lot of the dev team bailed last year.
Gaming is much, much bigger than Hollywood now. Still not bigger than porn.
Millions are still battling in Azeroth is very moment!
“Myst” had great graphics, but I could only get so far in the game and no farther.
Looking around today, all I see is a giant worldwide game od Lemmings
Microsoft will ruin the games.
Victor Davis Hanson raises this question all the time. He is a champion of people who MAKE the real things we use every day. He questions the intrinsic value of anything that Silicon Valley produces. We can all live without the Internet, smart phones, and flat panel TVs.
It would be a lot harder to live without food, without houses, without roads, without health are, without cars and gasoline.
Yet the values of both companies and people both are out of whack. Blue collar people who make things are undervalued. Companies like EQT who deliver the gas we use to heat our homes and cook are undervalues. All high-tech firms are grossly overvalued.
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