Digital Foundry Direct Special: Microsoft Buys Activision/Blizzard - Initial Reaction & Speculation

Digital Foundry : Huge news shaking the core of the games industry today as Microsoft seemingly out of nowhere announced their acquisition of Activision/Blizzard/King, hot on the heels of them already adding Bethesda to their Xbox family. Audi Sorlie, Alex Battaglia and John Linneman enter the war room to discuss what this could potentially mean for Microsoft and the video game industry itself.

[Magog]

If Microsoft has their way and every game is streamed from their cloud servers DF isn't going to have much to evaluate.

[TheExecutioner]

you meant soon DF will be jobless ??

[Obscure_Observer]

"If Microsoft has their way and every game is streamed from their cloud servers DF isn't going to have much to evaluate."

PC and console gaming aren´t going anywhere as far MS is concerned.

[Tacoboto]

Except DF just made a video comparing GeForce Now 3080 to the other streaming services and a local Series X.

The Series X wasn't always the most responsive either, surprise surprise

[darkrider]

Well, df will soon be out of a job.... Nothing to compare that anyone cares...

[Christopher]

I don't get this logic. They analyze games. Do people think they won't have games to analyze anymore?

[darkrider]

Don't you? they will compare the s version and the X version. Done. And they will copy paste the analysis. the s version is great for such cheap console and the X is setting standard against well noyhing else...

[Christopher]

@darkrider: they already analyze exclusive games as it is.

See https://www.eurogamer.net/a...

And rarely are the analysis of a game the same from one to the next. Different games prioritize different things.

[blackblades]

👀 lol

[gamingtext2020]

Audi explained it perfectly, it’s going to be damn near impossible or incredibly hard for all of these studios to flourish under one platform.

[Father__Merrin]

Most people don't even realise non of this will mean anything untill 2023

[Killer73nova]

Earliest would be June 2022

[curtain_swoosh]

we're in 2022
what are you even talking about.

[onisama]

What i don't understand in this comments section... Is why they support PS when they rubbed from us xbox gamers lot of 3rd party games.... Like ffvii remKe demon souls deathloop and lot lot of 3rd party Japanese games... Then cry when xbox started buying hole companies that make games... I just can't understand... I wont care if they were made from ps studios or funded by them but they did the same now they pay

[Deathdeliverer]

Are you really comparing timed exclusivity deals to buying companies? On top of that Sony MADE Demon Souls. You are wayyy out of the loop.
A lot of people don’t realize square was going under when Sony bought almost half the companies shares to save them. Then once square got back on its feet Sony sold the shares back to them.

[onisama]

What about ffvii remake and end walker and persona i bought a ps4 for that game.... And many jrpgs deals and yes timed exclusives isn't fine too!!... Sony just do whatever they can on their budget to steal games and xbox doing the same is fair enough

[sinspirit]

Demons Souls has been owned by Sony for over 10 years. It was never a 3rd party title. It was developed by a 3rd party(From Software) with assistance from Sony Japan studios.

Thing is, timed exclusivity is one thing, it does suck. Third party exclusives generally sucks, but I will say when it's a great collaboration rather than just blocking it from another platform that I will be excited about it(like Insomniac with Spiderman pre-acquisition).

It's wierd how to people that think that it's the same when one is a much grander scale than the other. It's not a simple yes or no. There is an in between to analyze each situation, each bought studio or paid for exclusive. Do they have a real and long standing relationship with the studio or did they just buy a developer who happened to release games on their platform? Was a paid for third party exclusive chosen for a reason other than keeping content off of other platforms? Because, in the case of both the Bethesda and Activision/Blizzard buy outs. It is 100% about obtaining all these properties and resources for themselves and nothing to do with being exciting partners with great relationships aside from making money together. Sony and Naughty Dog, Insomniac, Media Molecule, Housemarque, and pretty much all their devs had friendships with Sony and not simply just business agreements. Like, if Nintendo bought Rare, we all saw it coming but it didn't happen. That kind of long-standing relationship where they just worked so well together. Whereas MS and these companies? What's the real point?

[TheRealTedCruz]

Because it's N4G.

Many of the same people currently yelling in the comments, saying this isn't fair and will break the games industry would be cheering if Sony had done it and it would have been a great move for gamers because now the games can flourish and whatnot.

It's just how things go around here.

[onisama]

True i noticed long ago... Even the website color is blue fit how ps fanboys are in control in This site

[Crows90]

You guys said the same when they bought their first line of studios. You said the same thing when they bough zenimax and youre still saying the same thing now that they bought activision blizzard.

You can hypothesize all you want but youre dead wrong.

What has sony done recently that is even remotely similar? Have they purchased a single predominantly 3rd party developer recently? Ever? No.

If sony goes and buys capcom or from software I would still be saying the same. Bad for gamers. Consolidation is bad for this industry. I thought the same thing way back when activision bought blizzard.

But yeah we do know that games flourish under sony...and historically die and wither under microsoft but that may change...still waiting for those new successful IP.

[TheRealTedCruz]

@crows

Do you know how many times I've seen people on this site say they want Sony to buy Konami? Kojima Productions? Square Enix? Capcom? Let alone smaller entities?

It's just a bunch of hypocrisy had on this site. People would be crying tears of joy here were it a Sony acquisition.

Sony might not want it, but Playstation consumers do. The same ones demonizing MS for actually doing it.

[RauLeCreuset]

"Do you know how many times I've seen people on this site say they want Sony to buy Konami? Kojima Productions? Square Enix? Capcom?"

That's your reasoning? You wouldn't troll, so I'm sure you'll follow up with evidence linking "many of the same people currently yelling in the comments, saying this isn't fair and will break the games industry" to past comments of the type described by the above quote? We'll even give you a pass on including those Kojima Production comments, despite that studio's history of working with PS, including the one IP they made since departing Konami.

[TheRealTedCruz]

@Raul

There's always a reason to be had for the situation being "different" when trying to justify hypocrisy.

[Crows90]

Okay now you're making no sense.

You claim Sony fans keep wanting Sony to buy devs. I haven't seen that at all. I've seen specualtion due to recent Microsoft trends that Sony may buy those studios but never that we want them to.

Also what does it matter if there's some isolated individuals who want that. The question is whether Sony wants it. And that's my problem with all this. Sony may act on buying studios simply because MS is on a Purchasing spree of to multiplatform IP.

Besides if you act on something a certain way simply because another group are hypocrites then that means you have weak character easily influenced by the stupidity of some.

However...the groups of people that seem to support this and are happy about it on the Xbox side is very very numerous. And that's concerning coming from the group of gamers claiming everyone should have access to all games.

I'd personally be like wtf if Sony had this acquisition...wouldn't see the point at all and it would subtract from gamers who would otherwise have access. However if Sony were to buy from software...at the very least it was Sony who spearheaded their venture in the souls genre...doesn't make it goo though since Sony should only pay them to make an exclusive game similar to Bloodborne. Gamers lose overall if they bought the studio.

But I see you like to claim hypocrisy and use that as your excuse to attack those that don't like these acquisitions. And yet the real hypocrite would be you since I've definitely seen you say games should be accessible to all.

[RauLeCreuset]

@Ted

"There's always a reason to be had for the situation being 'different' when trying to justify hypocrisy."

I told you we'll include the Kojima Productions comments. All you had to do was produce evidence to establish your claim that "many of the same people currently yelling in the comments, saying this isn't fair and will break the games industry" said "they want Sony to buy Konami? Kojima Productions? Square Enix? Capcom?."

You alleged across two separate posts that "many of the same people currently yelling in the comments" and "the same ones demonizing MS for actually doing it" are the ones who wanted Sony to do that. Your answer when called out for hypothesizing was, "Do you know how many times I've seen people on this site say they want Sony to buy Konami?" Your failure to follow up with evidence linking the comments you said were made to the people you're accusing is what would be expected from someone who is lying to cover up their trolling.

[Crows90]

Sony made demons souls. The rest are timed exclusives and you can thank Tomb Raider devs for that one. It used to be only timed dlc in modern times until mcirosoft bought 1 year game exclusivity which didnt pay off at all. The opened the can of worms and playstation responded in kind. Not saying I like it...cuz i dont.

[onisama]

Timed? So where is my ffvii amd persona 5? Or all the jrpgs they where buying??? Well i guess microsoft respoundedfor those questions too

[ApocalypseShadow]

Ridiculous.

[P_Bomb]

Xbox had third party deals too. From Splinter Cell Conviction and Dead Rising 3 to individual character DLC in Marvel Ultimate Alliance.

“Even the website color is blue fit how ps fanboys are in control in This site”

I really don’t know why ppl act like they’re forced to be here.

[stonecold3]

your not getting ff 7 remake on xbox because square havent metoined of a xbox port and im glad t isnt coming same go for ff16 forspoken

[onisama]

I played it on pc don't worry without paying for it... Because they don't deserve my money with how they do business

[RauLeCreuset]

"I wont care if they were made from ps studios or funded by them but they did the same now they pay"

Is that your super villain origin story? You have an interesting recollection of history. You conveniently omitted Xbox doing a lot of rubbing of its own.

SE did a timed exclusive deal with Xbox for Tomb Raider before it did one for FF7R with PS. Capcom did an exclusive deal with Xbox for Dead Rising 3 before it did a deal with PS for SFV.

[Pancit_Canton]

I think Sony should celebrate by buying more independent studio. I've seen more people play indie games than AAA now a days. I think COD is a dying franchise. Fortnite is more popular than COD now a days. People are exaggerating.

[TheRealTedCruz]

Did you really just try to compare numbers to the world's most popular free to play to make a claim that the world's most bought paid title is dying lol?

Interesting take, but we'll roll with it.
CoD has supposedly been dying for almost a decade. I'm sure it's any day now.

[onisama]

Sony lost 20b$ in stocks which is after MS acquisition insane did they saw thro this too? Or it just happened