Microsoft is Buying Activision Blizzard $68.7B ***Update: Acquisition Finalized***

[method115]

For console gaming it is.

I'm not so sure it is. They already released a report saying that sub services in general are stagnating. People are just tired of paying monthly for everything and never owning anything. Not to mention Phil himself said the growth has stalled on consoles and they are looking to PC. On top of all that Xbox Series X/S is now behind the Xbox one in sales. So if the future is on console they really need to get those hardware sales up.

 

[mixmastermo]

But Phil is the gamer bro they all told me! He’s the one who cares about this industry they told me! We need to stop pretending Phil is the good guy. It’s clear that his number one priority is acquisitions and not creating something of their own. Really pathetic and it’s why I no longer support them.

After my 4th Xbox 360 got the RROD and the TV TV TV Xbox One debacle I haven't messed with Xbox for a long time and have not looked back ever since

 

[My Spot]

I'm not so sure it is. They already released a report saying that sub services in general are stagnating. People are just tired of paying monthly for everything and never owning anything. Not to mention Phil himself said the growth has stalled on consoles and they are looking to PC. On top of all that Xbox Series X/S is now behind the Xbox one in sales. So if the future is on console they really need to get those hardware sales up.

I don't understand why they have every single XB game on PC since Windows has been legally free for eight years now.

 

[avenue94]

I don't understand why they have every single XB game on PC since Windows has been legally free for eight years now.

Manufactures have to pay for Windows. It's still money in Microsoft's pocket, same with their cut of the game purchase.

 

[GtehMVP]

After my 4th Xbox 360 got the RROD and the TV TV TV Xbox One debacle I haven't messed with Xbox for a long time and have not looked back ever since

I'm pretty sure I went through 5 RROD's. I could never get into a groove with games because my system broke down so often. It was coffin central. I never finished Bioshock, Fable, Lost Odyssey, DAO, and a bunch of other titles until I got a lot of them on Steam later. I mainly just played COD, Madden and NHL with my buddies. The only good thing was you could put your HD in another system.

The icing for me with M$, outside my HD having every save file corrupted, was that big hack that happened in the early 2010's. I had a few hundred $$ stolen off my credit card, all Xbox online purchases. I got it sorted with my CC company, but M$ suspended my account. After getting the suspension lifted, they wouldn't let me make purchases with my new card. I'm sure their customer support was stretched thin with all the RROD's, but that was the last straw for me, and they gave no fucks to me.

 

[KaNesDeath]

How does Microsoft not only make it profitable, but profitable enough to offset losing money on hardware sales and cannibalizing traditional game purchases?

I'm not so sure it is.

End goal is stream based gaming off of processing power in modern TV's. Technological infrastructure for that is a few decades away. Until then Game Pass will be held in a holding pattern like Blockbuster was prior to Netflix. Today is the closing moments of the game studio acquisition phase.

 

[mixmastermo]

I'm pretty sure I went through 5 RROD's. I could never get into a groove with games because my system broke down so often. It was coffin central. I never finished Bioshock, Fable, Lost Odyssey, DAO, and a bunch of other titles until I got a lot of them on Steam later. I mainly just played COD, Madden and NHL with my buddies. The only good thing was you could put your HD in another system.

The icing for me with M$, outside my HD having every save file corrupted, was that big hack that happened in the early 2010's. I had a few hundred $$ stolen off my credit card, all Xbox online purchases. I got it sorted with my CC company, but M$ suspended my account. After getting the suspension lifted, they wouldn't let me make purchases with my new card. I'm sure their customer support was stretched thin with all the RROD's, but that was the last straw for me, and they gave no fucks to me.

That's crazy that happened to you.

The brand definitely has some anti consumer practices, and they would have gone even further if they thought they could get away with it. Remember that they didn't even want people to have the ability to lend other people their games, and the consoles always had to be online, etc. It wasn't until Sony came and said fuck all that, you can have a more powerful system without those restrictions for less money that xbox had to change their tune.

Plus they do not have a great selection of exclusives.. and the ones they do have come out on PC anyway so basically MS put themselves in this position where people like you and me literally are not missing anything by not being part of their ecosystem.

 

[method115]

End goal is stream based gaming off of processing power in modern TV's. Technological infrastructure for that is a few decades away. Until then Game Pass will be held in a holding pattern like Blockbuster was prior to Netflix. Today is the closing moments of the game studio acquisition phase.

According to Phil they don't have decades to wait.

Great article on some of the stuff leaked from the FTC. The glaring issue here is Game pass isn't hitting it's projected numbers right now. They are supposed to be at 40 mil. On top of that subs are stagnating across all industries. MS could be in real trouble here. They projected 100 mil by 2030 and there is no way they hit that number.


https://wccftech.com/microsoft-may-...ers-off-console-dont-increase-enough-by-2027/



Spencer said in no uncertain terms that Microsoft could exit the gaming business if this projection became reality. Microsoft needs the light green and blue segments (PC and cloud) to get much larger and much faster by fiscal year 2027, or it could opt out of the business altogether.

I do not believe that that is what the future Xbox business would look like. This is a presentation from our devices organization to the gaming leadership team, so this is the view from the team that is chartered with building our hardware on what the future business would look like.

 

[Dizzy]

According to Phil they don't have decades to wait.

Great article on some of the stuff leaked from the FTC. The glaring issue here is Game pass isn't hitting it's projected numbers right now. They are supposed to be at 40 mil. On top of that subs are stagnating across all industries. MS could be in real trouble here. They projected 100 mil by 2030 and there is no way they hit that number.


https://wccftech.com/microsoft-may-...ers-off-console-dont-increase-enough-by-2027/



Spencer said in no uncertain terms that Microsoft could exit the gaming business if this projection became reality. Microsoft needs the light green and blue segments (PC and cloud) to get much larger and much faster by fiscal year 2027, or it could opt out of the business altogether.

I do not believe that that is what the future Xbox business would look like. This is a presentation from our devices organization to the gaming leadership team, so this is the view from the team that is chartered with building our hardware on what the future business would look like.

Maybe Nintendo should look into acquiring Microsoft’s game portfolio. Seem to be struggling.

 

[GtehMVP]

That's crazy that happened to you.

The brand definitely has some anti consumer practices, and they would have gone even further if they thought they could get away with it. Remember that they didn't even want people to have the ability to lend other people their games, and the consoles always had to be online, etc. It wasn't until Sony came and said fuck all that, you can have a more powerful system without those restrictions for less money that xbox had to change their tune.

Plus they do not have a great selection of exclusives.. and the ones they do have come out on PC anyway so basically MS put themselves in this position where people like you and me literally are not missing anything by not being part of their ecosystem.

It was such a bizarre ride with that console, big love hate hate thing lol.

I got the RROD day one, literally a few minutes into booting up Perfect Dark. I had long prebought it because Oblivion was supposed to come out at launch. Thankfully EB games replaced it, but I RROD'd only a few hours into Oblivion when that finally released. I remember just getting out of the sewer ready for my adventure. I think EB replaced that as well quickly, but it was coffin city after that.

I'm so glad they are supporting Steam, otherwise I wouldn't bother with anything they put out. It was such a rotten experience, left a bad taste in my mouth. I had also been an Xbox live subscriber since it first released with MechAssault and Unreal something, yet they treated me like dirt lol.

 

[method115]

It was such a bizarre ride with that console, big love hate hate thing lol.

I got the RROD day one, literally a few minutes into booting up Perfect Dark. I had long prebought it because Oblivion was supposed to come out at launch. Thankfully EB games replaced it, but I RROD'd only a few hours into Oblivion when that finally released. I remember just getting out of the sewer ready for my adventure. I think EB replaced that as well quickly, but it was coffin city after that.

I'm so glad they are supporting Steam, otherwise I wouldn't bother with anything they put out. It was such a rotten experience, left a bad taste in my mouth. I had also been an Xbox live subscriber since it first released with MechAssault and Unreal something, yet they treated me like dirt lol.

I didn't buy an xbox 360 because of the RROD. Unfortunately the PS3 was so bad at the time I bought it I returned it and picked up a 360. Luckily I never had any issues with it.

 

[Law Talkin’ Guy]

I lucked out with my 360 as it never got a RROD but I assume it’s because I was a relatively late adopter of the console. I got it from my wife for Christmas in 2009 so by that point I think they were on a later iteration of the machine. It wasn’t the “slim” I think (which iirc came out a few months later, sometime in 2010) but it was the “elite” model or something I think, it was charcoal or black in colour, not white, but still the same shape as the basic models that they’d been shipping since 2005. Either way, no RROD for me, but unfortunately I did start experiencing problems with the disc reader probably by around 2013-2014 I’d say.

 

[HereticBD]

How does Microsoft not only make it profitable, but profitable enough to offset losing money on hardware sales and cannibalizing traditional game purchases?

They're worth a billion trillion dollars. That's how they offset losses. I don't think the Xbox brand has ever been all that profitable for them.

 

[method115]

I lucked out with my 360 as it never got a RROD but I assume it’s because I was a relatively late adopter of the console. I got it from my wife for Christmas in 2009 so by that point I think they were on a later iteration of the machine. It wasn’t the “slim” I think (which iirc came out a few months later, sometime in 2010) but it was the “elite” model or something I think, it was charcoal or black in colour, not white, but still the same shape as the basic models that they’d been shipping since 2005. Either way, no RROD for me, but unfortunately I did start experiencing problems with the disc reader probably by around 2013-2014 I’d say.

Yea I also purchased mine well into the generation. I was a PC gamer before but my PC blew up and I decided to get a console instead of rebuilding.

They're worth a billion trillion dollars. That's how they offset losses. I don't think the Xbox brand has ever been all that profitable for them.

That's the problem though and why they wanted to leave the market in 2014. Phil convinced them to stay. Now during the FTC trial Phil revealed that if they don't hit their projections for Gamepass by 2027 they could see themselves exit the market. For the record they haven't even hit their projections for this year and next year they wanted to be at 50 million. They want 100 million by 2030 and that's a pipe dream at best.

 

[HereticBD]

That's the problem though and why they wanted to leave the market in 2014. Phil convinced them to stay. Now during the FTC trial Phil revealed that if they don't hit their projections for Gamepass by 2027 they could see themselves exit the market. For the record they haven't even hit their projections for this year and next year they wanted to be at 50 million. They want 100 million by 2030 and that's a pipe dream at best.

I wouldn't take anything he said at that trial seriously. He was on the defense trying to make MS not look too powerful. He said he didn't even know if "The Elder Scrolls 6" was in production. They didn't just spend damn near 100 billion on studios(one deal still pending of course), to just tap out in a few years. That's a long term investment.

 

[Zazen]

Yea I also purchased mine well into the generation. I was a PC gamer before but my PC blew up and I decided to get a console instead of rebuilding.





That's the problem though and why they wanted to leave the market in 2014. Phil convinced them to stay. Now during the FTC trial Phil revealed that if they don't hit their projections for Gamepass by 2027 they could see themselves exit the market. For the record they haven't even hit their projections for this year and next year they wanted to be at 50 million. They want 100 million by 2030 and that's a pipe dream at best.

What are they at? 25 million? You think it changes when they get the big hitters out consistently? I find it hard to believe anything will change because games take so long to complete and most gamers are in their 30s now. Take Lies of P for example, if you average 5 hours a week on it it would take 2 months to beat and if you wanted to to a new run even longer and that’s not even considered to br a long game. Something like starfield could take a whole year to play. Both wo long and lies of p released on game pass but I just bought both of them. They were the only things I was interested in all year on game pass and that still saved me 60 dollars and on top of that I own them forever

 

[avenue94]

End goal is stream based gaming off of processing power in modern TV's. Technological infrastructure for that is a few decades away. Until then Game Pass will be held in a holding pattern like Blockbuster was prior to Netflix. Today is the closing moments of the game studio acquisition phase.

It may be, but that's a long time away, at least one or two more traditional generations. It also requires publishers and game devs signing on to a less profitable business model. And it's not clear they would. The entire reason Activision hasn't put their game on streaming until recently is because they would make less money doing so.

I'm also not sure that even Microsoft would be willing to bleed money on Game Pass for 20 or 30 years

They're worth a billion trillion dollars. That's how they offset losses. I don't think the Xbox brand has ever been all that profitable for them.

I'm speaking about Xbox as Microsoft's gaming division. It usually makes up the money on software and hardware, and it's not clear Game Pass can do that anytime soon. Xbox isn't going to run it's gaming division at a loss forever.

 

[method115]

I wouldn't take anything he said at that trial seriously. He was on the defense trying to make MS not look too powerful. He said he didn't even know if "The Elder Scrolls 6" was in production. They didn't just spend damn near 100 billion on studios(one deal still pending of course), to just tap out in a few years. That's a long term investment.

These weren't things he just said these were also slides and projections that were pulled from internal emails. So even if they don't plan on leaving anytime soon they are 100% not hitting their own projections. What they do with that I don't know for certain. There were also emails released where they had serious conversations about removing Day 1 games on GP. This was between high level execs in the company. So they are clearly hurting from this and looking for ways to slow the bleeding.

What are they at? 25 million? You think it changes when they get the big hitters out consistently? I find it hard to believe anything will change because games take so long to complete and most gamers are in their 30s now. Take Lies of P for example, if you average 5 hours a week on it it would take 2 months to beat and if you wanted to to a new run even longer and that’s not even considered to br a long game. Something like starfield could take a whole year to play. Both wo long and lies of p released on game pass but I just bought both of them. They were the only things I was interested in all year on game pass and that still saved me 60 dollars and on top of that I own them forever

Last official number was 25 mil. A MS exec on Linked posted 30 mil but it was quickly removed after. So who knows what that means but even 30 mil is 10 mil off their projections and by next year they need another 10 mil.

I don't think it changes much. Phil said under oath that they had virtually no growth in 2022. Console IMO has stalled out and their console sales are dropping YOY now consistently. Their console sales have dropped behind Xbox one now. They are relying on PC and mobile to increase their subs. I have no hope in mobile being any help for their sub model. PC will help but their biggest issue there is Steam. IMO if MS was smart they would make a deal with Valve and bring GP there. Gabe has expressed interest in having it on their platform.

 

[My Spot]

I doubt MS loses money on hardware sold like they did with the 360 and OG XB (which were impressive for their time).

 

[avenue94]

I doubt MS loses money on hardware sold like they did with the 360 and OG XB (which were impressive for their time).

They do. One of the documents in the leak mentions that Microsoft is putting a $1.5 billion subsidy behind these generation of launches, which is the biggest subsidy they've ever done. I work in the PC industry, and you don't get modern console specs at that price point and make a profit. That's before even mentioning dev costs.