Dragon Age producer says Microsoft-Activision merger is probably bad in the long run

Dragon Age producer and ex-BioWare game developer Mark Darrah believes Microsoft buying Activision-Blizzard is 'probably a bad thing in the long run'

[porkChop]

"I can say that consolidation is probably a bad thing in the long run. Microsoft buying Activision-Blizzard hopefully is a good thing in the short term because it seems like culturally Activision-Blizzard needs someone to go in there with a leaf blower and clean out the dark corners of the thing,"

"But long-term consolidation is usually a bad thing because once you have sufficient control, you start wanting to control costs, and it means typically creativity goes down, risk-taking goes down."

So his concern is cutting corners with regard to production costs/budget, leading to creativity being impacted. We haven't really seen Xbox trying to cut costs. If anything they've been trying to give devs more time and bigger budgets to do whatever they want. But obviously anything can change in business.

[sparky77]

Xbox is likely the only gaming giant who will be able to survive the increase in costs since MS is a trillion dollar company, everyone else will start feeling the pain soon we are already seeing it with companies like SE thinking about asking for 3rd party funding for Final Fantasy, Sony looking to make multiple GaaS and EA cutting projects.

[Outside_ofthe_Box]

Huh?

Don't get why people keep thinking that MS is the only one that can save/survive gaming in some fictional future.

[SurgicalMenace]

Hey, without delusion they have absolutely nothing to do.

The world is on the brink of destruction with no hope for survival.
A radiant beam of light descends from the heavens revealing: MS "There can be only one" McCloud. With GP in hand, he offers his services to anyone who will give him the time a day. "For $1 a month, this can all be yours" is the battle cry heard throughout the lands.

Legend has it that Phil is the last standing descendant of the McCloud bloodline. Armed with empty promises and hair plugs he is the only one left to deliver gaming from the pits of the Dark Age.🤣

[Lore]

Didn’t they close a bunch of their studios around 2015?

[Mr_cheese]

I personally think that the push into GaaS by Sony is less about surviving and more about making sure they have a piece of the pie. It doesn't detract from their model of quality single player games and only serves to HELP keep fueling the business in their endeavors.

Survival is as much about evolving and we have already started to see the gaming landscape do that.

What Mark Darrah is saying rings true for me personally. Microsoft seem daring when it comes to services but less so when it comes to games. Lately they choose to purchase publishers rather than innovating themselves, see no signs that they'll be any different with Activision under their wing

[northpaws]

I am sure MS became a trillion dollar company because they don't like to lose money, not the other way around.

[dumahim]

So the company that has shown they're incapable of delivering good games on a consistent basis is the only one that will survive? Do you hear yourself?

[Orchard]

I don’t see PS going under - but they will get bought out someday by an Amazon or a Tencent - someone with lots of $$$ and who can compete in the big tech space.

The reality is, if the future direction of the industry is buying out companies at tens of billions of dollars - Sony simply cannot afford that.

Nintendo will keep being Nintendo though - they’re playing a different game from Sony and MS.

[FPS_D3TH]

@SurgicalMenace hold up how much you want for those movie rights lmao

[SurgicalMenace]

@Orchard

Your lips stay chaped, don't they?!?!🤣 Did you say Tencent will buy PS? You are aware that Sony is a larger company, right? The delusion can't get anymore entertaining.🤣

[nirwanda]

Lol @surgicalmenace living in the past tencent has a market cap that is three times larger than the whole of Sony's entire company.
It's the 23rd most valuable company in the world.

[Orchard]

@Surgical I said buying PlayStation - not Sony.

That being said - you are wrong. Tencent is valued at multiple of Sony.

[Kornholic]

Highly unlikely, as Xbox is barely profitable business as it is.

[SurgicalMenace]

Just sit this right here:

https://www.sportskeeda.com...

Suffice it to say, we were speaking on a level of gaming, otherwise Microsoft would be in a better position than 3rd if the Activision deal goes through.

[nirwanda]

https://companiesmarketcap....
This is a list of market value for every company in the world like I said tencent is more valuable than Facebook, Disney, coca cola, netflix and McDonald's.
And look no Sony in top 100 companies as the entire companys worth 1/3 of tencent
@surgicalmenace

[Outside_ofthe_Box]

"So his concern is cutting corners with regard to production costs/budget, leading to creativity being impacted."

That is not what he's saying at all. He's saying that once you have a certain level of grip in an industry that's when one has the urge to dictate stuff like pricing, costs, and profits and therefore creativity and risk-taking good down because you are more concerned with maximizing profits instead of trying to take a risk in creating the next big thing in hopes to outperform your competition.

[porkChop]

We're literally saying the same thing. I just didn't spell everything out. Keeping production costs down and limiting creativity reduces risk which maximizes mass market appeal which increases maximum potential profit. I shouldn't have to draw everything in crayon because I know most people are smart enough to understand.

[Crows90]

We actually haven't seen Microsoft do as you say at all. They've simply delayed games like halo ifninite to bad results. That's a game with infinite budget and still lackluster in both scope and creativity.

So the assumption is nice but the real facts before us tell a different story.

[porkChop]

Really, we haven't? So they aren't letting Turn 10 take triple the dev time to revamp all their tech and reboot the series? They haven't let Playground Games spend years and years building the Fable reboot? We haven't seen them let Ninja Theory do the same with Hellblade 2? Or Obsidian who's finally able to work on anything they want and release only when the games are ready? How about Double Fine who were able to delay Psychonauts 2, release on more platforms, and expand the scope of the game to include all the content they previously had to cut, cancel, or scale down?

You guys always point to Halo Infinite as the answer to everything. The fact is 343 had all the time and budget to do whatever they wanted. The problem wasn't the budget or dev time, it was 343's management not knowing wtf they were doing. One troubled game doesn't negate what Xbox has done with all their other teams and projects.

[amazinglover]

That's on the developer more then anything, yes they are owned by MS but do we play the publisher when the developer is lacking.

343 is the problem not MS.

[Crows90]

@porkchop
Turn10: first we haven't seen the game. Second we don't know what the projected dev time was in the first place.
Playground games: same as turn 10. No game. We have no clue if anything is being done right.
Obsidian: they've always worked on what they wanted. Didn't they just release a game on game pass? Or are about to? Their best work was Kotor 2, fallout new Vegas, and pillars 2. All outside of Microsoft.
Double fine: of course they're going to say they could do more. More money means potentially more....but that's a what if scenario. They were already making the game.

All Xbox games are troubled. Fable legends, theives, perfect dark, gears formula is stale. All their games are mediocre to decent.

@amazing
I'd normally agree that the dev is the issue. But how is it that ALL of Sony's dev teams do spectacular above expected work? It's unlikely 5o see such consistency. And just like games under EA get riddled with MTX and eventually drop in quality so do games under Sony excel. In that same way...devs under MS seem ...lost.

[Stanjara]

Rare?

[ooquis]

Imagine how many games MS could've made with that 70b! To put it in perspective, they could've made 60 God of war Ragnarok's or 60 Elden rings. But MS ain't about that life anymore, instead they invented 70b in microstansactions and that is literally a fact. If this hurts your feelings, i would just like to apologize to absolutely NOBODY.

[porkChop]

I don't understand what this has to do with my comment. Yes, obviously Xbox could have developed a ton of games with $70B. They also could have built a ton of new studios. I've never disputed that fact.

[SatanSki]

Activision blizzard and creativity...

[Godmars290]

Problem is by all counts MS is already cutting corners, limiting creativity and experience, by quietly making it mandatory that studios hire contract workers whenever possible. Meaning, wanting to save costs on supposedly excellent employee benefits, the bulk of their workforce will be rotating non employees constantly in need of training.

[Godmars290]

Not getting why so many are disagreeing with you when, by too many examples, MS have shown what their issues are.

[XiNatsuDragnel]

I am In the same mindset bud.

[LordoftheCritics]

It's all good tho.

As soon as MS takes over those properties, the IP's will go to shit.

Other studios will make better games following this.

[Tex4242]

Regardless of anyone's thoughts on this acquisition, if MS doesn't get them, someone will. ABK wants to be bought. They are the ones who went looking to sell originally.

[JackBNimble]

There is no one on the planet who is going to pay $70B other then MS.

[LucasRuinedChildhood]

I don't think so. Think about it.

- It's the biggest tech deal in history. It won't be particularly easy to find another buyer.
- MS will have to pay Activision $3b if this acquisition doesn't go forward - other companies would be afraid to try acquire a company if a previous buyout was blocked and the company attempting to purchase it lost that much money.

[shinoff2183]

Yall have said well if ms dont tencent or embracer will. Well good atleast theyd be multiplatforn still thats for sure

[Crows90]

Yup.

[porkChop]

Good? You'd rather ABK be owned by the Chinese government?

Embracer is tiny compared to ABK so they can't make that purchase. You guys really need to educate yourselves if you're going to talk about acquisitions.

[MWH]

I understand his concern and i agree fully, however, things in that that house are bad already so i hope MS take this note and make the best out of it. In my opinion the best recipe for sucess is to make good fun games skimmed from all the political bs, you know, like they used to be.

[darkrider]

I don't know any studio that Microsoft was able to make it better after they got hit. Much less with the size of activision or blizzard. Otherwise they would be able to launch goty quality games, something that I don't remember in the last two Gen's.

[CrimsonWing69]

“creativity goes down”

Says the guy who works for EA.

[Eonjay]

I think he is speaking from observation and experience.

[CrimsonWing69]

I think we all need to wait and see before making any claims like this.

If it’s true, then it won’t do Microsoft any favors.

[Orchard]

Also funny he thinks Activision are creative :p

Sure they’re successful and making bucketloads of money - but creative is the last word I’d use to describe an annual franchise like COD.

[Thundercat77]

I don't agree with Microsoft buying and making a monopoly with COD but if it happens, then it will open a new door for other developers to go beyond COD because right now, they can't compete but if COD is restricted only to the Xbox smaller user base, then it will give plenty of space for others to take advantage for example Battlefield and Destiny.

[MWH]

Good point.

[Orchard]

I don’t see them removing COD from PS - but if they did, people would simply keep playing it on PC or Xbox.

People aren’t going to jump to Destiny or Battlefield. Destiny isn’t even a patch on COD MP, and the battlefield franchise is all but dead after the last few entries flopping.

[Cockney]

If cod leaves playstation it will leave a gaping military shooter hole in their yearly line up worth millions if not billions, im sure that hole will be filled if not by 3rd party then by Sony themselves, its not like they're strangers to the genre, there were shooters before cod and there will be shooters long after its gone

[Orchard]

@Cockney Sony doesn't have a first party studio capable of making a COD-like game - they said so themselves.

The only way I can see someone realistically filling that gap (if COD were removed from PS - I don't believe it will be), would be if BF went back to its roots, got the old creative team back and made something closer to a BF2 (or a BF2 remake).

[ooquis]

Imagine how many games MS could've made with that 70b! To put it in perspective, they could've made 60 God of war Ragnarok's or 60 Elden rings. But MS ain't about that life anymore, instead they invented 70b in microstansactions and that is literally a fact.

[Orchard]

They could make 60 GOWs or Elden Rings - and none of them (standalone or combined) will even come close to what COD makes in a year, every year.

[anast]

It is bad in the long run. We are talking about a gaming company that refused to make quality games and instead of investing in quality experiences they went out and bought Candy Crush and CoD.

[46player]

We haven’t seen any new games after the acquisitions, so yes, looks like a huge waste of money. Where are the games?

[KillBill]

"But long-term consolidation is usually a bad thing because once you have sufficient control, you start wanting to control costs, and it means typically creativity goes down, risk-taking goes down." ~ point being he completely ignores the business principles Microsoft has given their developers where big developers are ran as a separate business. Bethesda and Mojang are examples of Microsoft giving the reigns to developers to make money as they always have. Mark simply ignores Microsoft business plans and applies trends of other deals to his premise.

[DivineHand125]

While I do understand his concern, I don't think it will come to that. Activision and Blizzard are already in that phase where they are cutting cost, limiting the variety of what game franchises they have in development and moving into the live service model with games like Diablo Immortal and Call of Duty Warzone.

When Phil Spenser recently acquired those studios, he publicly entertained the idea of reviving dormant franchises and this is something you will never see Jim Ryan do.

The biggest worry should be that if Xbox gets too big to the point where some studios have little oversight. This may cause them to relax and lower their productivity and by the time they get noticed, the conversation won't how to help them be more productive, it may just end with them being shut down.

[nibblo]

It would be horrible to see Activision a great company that has taken so many risks and been a leader in giving creative control to it's devs and supporting it's studios and employees again and again without fault over the years go in the exact opposite direction. Damn that Microsoft trying to put an end to all that wonderful culture that is so rare in this industry!!!

[giovonni]

Lol!!!

[DynDasE]

I felt fine with Microsoft acquiring IPs until I saw them let 343 released Halo Infinite in that state.

[S2Killinit]

Wow