"Vivendi might be getting more serious about offloading Activision-Blizzard.
"Reuters reports the French conglomerate has been in talks with a number of video game (and mass media) companies about a potential sale of the industry's top seller.
"That makes for a good headline – and I have no doubt about Reuters' report, but as the industry works itself into a frenzy trying to guess whether Microsoft, Time Warner, or Tencent will be the new home of Call of Duty and Diablo, too many people are failing to scratch the surface," writes Chris Morris of Gamasutra.
As part of its plans to cut 1,900 jobs, Microsoft has reportedly shut down operations at Bethesda France, letting go roughly 15 people
Bethesda France was made up of roughly 15 people... they couldn't of being doing much
Bethesda France mainly did publishing and marketing within the region
Bethesda France focused on publishing and marketing in the region. And 15 people lost their jobs as part of the closure.
I wonder if this is part of Microsoft's strategy to abandoned physical media or possibly gamepass advertising makes their roles redundant you don't need to market a game as hard when the majority of players get the game as part of a sub which already promoted upcoming games
Tbh Microsoft I think Bethesda being 3rd party same with Activision would probably more competitive than thus scenario imo
The recently purchased Activision French offices might take over all the licensing and marketing for Microsoft in France from now on.
Microsoft has 'let Blizzard be Blizzard' following the acquisition of the veteran developer according to World of Warcraft's executive producer.
Diablo 4 storefront being a cash grabbing shitshow does unironically attest to that, kudos.
Okay i will be interested if they become old Blizzard but might as well be dead.
Shame most of the people that made Blizzard what they were, have already left a while ago.
Were you expecting Microsoft to hire everyone that had left Blizzard long before they purchased the company...
Microsoft has let the Blizzard company they purchased continue to be the Blizzard company they purchased.
Former Blizzard president Mike Ybarra recently suggested an interesting concept that has sparked a debate among gamers - the idea of being able to tip developers after completing a game.
If I had a 100% way to be sure that this money would go to a fund or a reserve dedicated only to the guys who develop the games, be them designers, artists, programmers and so on, I could think about it.
But we all know that this 'tip' would only end up in a publisher's CEO pocket to buy a new yacht, so, no, I ain't tipping anyone anytime soon on this industry
So they eventually don't pay their workers and depend on our tips to pay them like the case with waiters!
Is this a joke? How about the big wigs giving up some of their pay for their hard working developers.
very good read. i am wondering who will spent the money. i will be shocked if no one spends the money...
yea if ms buys this they will have a good start next gen
I can't think of any company in a great position to buy these guys.
The ONLY worthwhile IP that activision has is call of duty, but it's on the way down--hence the sell off. prototype, blur, singularity, guitar hero, tony hawk are all underperforming and worthless. Spiderman, Transformers, James Bond, Nascar, and Disney titles are licensed from other owners and would never be exclusive to microsoft if they bought activision. WoW is going downhill too in terms of subscribers but that is in another division.
I don't think any of the big 3 should purchase Activision basically because of this
"Activision's profitability would plummet as a Microsoft division, since there's no real chance the company would make games for the PlayStation or Nintendo platforms. "
it's just too much to control