Sfdebris.net

For just under $69 Billion...

https://news.microsoft.com/2022/01/18/m ... ry-device/

Sorry, I have to issue a warning. It has to be spelt Micro$oft when Microsoft is going on a buying frenzy.

Microsoft and Activision Blizzard should both be broken up rather than being allowed to merge.

Just a reminder that Micro$oft also owns Zenimax Studios which own Bethesda. They are in a good place to kill PlayStation if they decide to make every game franchise they own exclusive. Supposedly Sony are down $20 billion in stock already.

Draco Dracul wrote: ↑Fri Jan 21, 2022 2:50 am Microsoft and Activision Blizzard should both be broken up rather than being allowed to merge.

The question is whether we tinfoil hat secret cyberpunk agents getting all the dirt on Blizzard to make it easier for Microsoft to buy.

In an ideal world, Microsoft completes the merger, clears out the entire C-suite at ABK, then they get destroyed in an anti-trust and all the constituent studios are coughed back out at independent companies.

Honestly my main hope is that the unionization movement the ABK workers started manages to roll in some of the folks at MS and not lose any momentum. And also that MS clears out the entire c-suite at ABK, although reading between the lines Kotick is out as soon as the deal is finalized so I imagine a lot of house cleaning will be done (albeit probably not enough).

My regards to the employees at the middle of it.

Really they just have to not run CoD into the ground, and things should get back to normal. Really CoD fans being consolidated to Xbox could have an interesting effect.

Spencer has been talking about revitalizing some of the IPs that ABK acquired and then just sat on and let die. King's Quest and Hexen are the names he dropped. I'm skeptical but hey, it worked for Doom.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-ga ... l-spencer/

hammerofglass wrote: ↑Fri Jan 21, 2022 10:36 pm Spencer has been talking about revitalizing some of the IPs that ABK acquired and then just sat on and let die. King's Quest and Hexen are the names he dropped. I'm skeptical but hey, it worked for Doom.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-ga ... l-spencer/

If he was willing to give Double Fine a blank check to finish Psychonauts 2...

Honestly Spencer seems like he genuinely enjoys being the head of a games developer and a patt the games they make, as opposed to genuinely enjoying money and the money it moneys. One site compared him to Satoru Iwata (late President of Nintendo Japan and Gaming Programmer) and I'm starting to see it.

clearspira wrote: ↑Fri Jan 21, 2022 7:58 am Just a reminder that Micro$oft also owns Zenimax Studios which own Bethesda. They are in a good place to kill PlayStation if they decide to make every game franchise they own exclusive. Supposedly Sony are down $20 billion in stock already.

Which is one of those situations where I'd be glad to see someone finally take down Sony, but the resulting monopoly would be too high a price.

hammerofglass wrote: ↑Fri Jan 21, 2022 10:36 pm Spencer has been talking about revitalizing some of the IPs that ABK acquired and then just sat on and let die. King's Quest and Hexen are the names he dropped. I'm skeptical but hey, it worked for Doom.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-ga ... l-spencer/

I really wish he'd mentioned anything other than King's Quest in the Sierra catalog. It's the Mario of PC gaming, so not much notable in him recognizing it, it's already had a modern "reboot" unlike the rest of their games, and it's also the franchise least interesting/worthy of getting some contemporary attention. Ah well. I'll just assume he mentioned it because he thinks that poorly of his audience that they wouldn't recognize the better properties.