7 ms·

Microsoft Acquires Smash.gg

34 points by flankstaek 6y ago

dyeje 6y ago
Kind of timely with that Oomba piece. I'm a bit surprised though, this seems like a site MS could build in under a year and Smash.gg doesn't have much traction in the major esports AFAIK. Also, I assumed Mixer shutting down was MS stepping away from esports.
- DoctorOW 6y ago
  Agreed, my first thought was "but they just sold Mixer". Doesn't make much sense to me.
  - merb 6y ago
    and shutting down mixer was a mistake. also they should've just grown mixer slowly and made it more accessible, it could've been a good twitch alternative..
    - croes 6y ago
      MS is like Google. If they don't have instant success they give up.
    - theklr 6y ago
      Granted, 3 months in the pandemic and you get less than 1% growth after a big budget launch? Yeah, I’d kill it too.
- kaashmonee 6y ago
  Huh, this is pretty interesting. I'm not really familiar with Smash.gg, but if what people in this thread are saying is true, that it's a fairly straightforward platform that could be easily reproduced by Microsoft, then it seems like this acquisition was almost altruistically motivated. It feels like it's easy for a lot of big companies to make better competing products and drive the little guy into extinction, but this acqusition move feels like the company encourages startups and isn't entirely motivated by greed. But I may be biased; I already do like Microsoft, Nadella, and what the company does and how far it has come since the Ballmer days.
  - croes 6y ago
    Buying platforms has nothing to do with the software. It's always about the user data. And MS didn't get better since Ballmer. Killing platforms and snooping on their users. Just look at the productivity score in O365.
eecks 6y ago
Unless there's some hidden complexity to this site.. it looks fairly straight forward. Why have MS bought it?
- arleny 6y ago
  I'd say since smash.gg is already the established method of organizing esports events across a variety of game communities, despite being straight forward.
- nwsm 6y ago
  Same reason behind most tech acquisitions: the users
  - marc__1 6y ago
    or the team here is the series A announcement from 2017, with some interesting VCs participating https://blog.smash.gg/growing-our-team-at-smash-gg-912f1caaa1f7 https://blog.smash.gg/growing-our-team-at-smash-gg-912f1caaa...
nwsm 6y ago
Imagine if Nintendo did something for competitive Smash
- oehtXRwMkIs 6y ago
  Thanks to Disney Nintendo will have a chokehold on it longer than our lifespans.

34 points by flankstaek 6y ago

Kind of timely with that Oomba piece. I'm a bit surprised though, this seems like a site MS could build in under a year and Smash.gg doesn't have much traction in the major esports AFAIK. Also, I assumed Mixer shutting down was MS stepping away from esports.

DoctorOW 6y ago
Agreed, my first thought was "but they just sold Mixer". Doesn't make much sense to me.
- merb 6y ago
  and shutting down mixer was a mistake. also they should've just grown mixer slowly and made it more accessible, it could've been a good twitch alternative..
  - croes 6y ago
    MS is like Google. If they don't have instant success they give up.
  - theklr 6y ago
    Granted, 3 months in the pandemic and you get less than 1% growth after a big budget launch? Yeah, I’d kill it too.
kaashmonee 6y ago
Huh, this is pretty interesting. I'm not really familiar with Smash.gg, but if what people in this thread are saying is true, that it's a fairly straightforward platform that could be easily reproduced by Microsoft, then it seems like this acquisition was almost altruistically motivated. It feels like it's easy for a lot of big companies to make better competing products and drive the little guy into extinction, but this acqusition move feels like the company encourages startups and isn't entirely motivated by greed. But I may be biased; I already do like Microsoft, Nadella, and what the company does and how far it has come since the Ballmer days.
- croes 6y ago
  Buying platforms has nothing to do with the software. It's always about the user data. And MS didn't get better since Ballmer. Killing platforms and snooping on their users. Just look at the productivity score in O365.

eecks 6y ago

Unless there's some hidden complexity to this site.. it looks fairly straight forward. Why have MS bought it?

arleny 6y ago
I'd say since smash.gg is already the established method of organizing esports events across a variety of game communities, despite being straight forward.
nwsm 6y ago
Same reason behind most tech acquisitions: the users
- marc__1 6y ago
  or the team here is the series A announcement from 2017, with some interesting VCs participating https://blog.smash.gg/growing-our-team-at-smash-gg-912f1caaa1f7 https://blog.smash.gg/growing-our-team-at-smash-gg-912f1caaa...

nwsm 6y ago

Imagine if Nintendo did something for competitive Smash

oehtXRwMkIs 6y ago
Thanks to Disney Nintendo will have a chokehold on it longer than our lifespans.