8 ms·

The old Blizzard always seemed much closer to Apple than Microsoft in culture. An incredible attention to detail and the onboarding experience, clean, fun and f

The old Blizzard always seemed much closer to Apple than Microsoft in culture. An incredible attention to detail and the onboarding experience, clean, fun and friendly design and a slightly rebellious attitude expressed through their willingness to enter new markets. The "new" Microsoft though, really is different than the old and might actually do quite well in stewarding this supposedly sinking ship into fairer waters. But as a die hard Apple user with an active WoW subscription I can't help but feel slightly dismayed that the Apple x Blizzard deal never will (or probably could have) happen(ed).

sto11z 5y ago
Apple doesn't have a gaming division. Why would they be interested in acquiring Blizzard?
- cestith 5y ago
  To start a gaming division with widely known titles already onboard.
- pm90 5y ago
  Exactly. MS has Xbox and has been buying up a lot of Game studios as well. Blizzard makes sense for them to buy; Apple doesn’t seem to be contending…
- MrJagil 5y ago
  That’s why i included the paranthesis “(or probably could have) happen(ed)”. That said, they do have a gaming service: https://www.apple.com/apple-arcade/ https://www.apple.com/apple-arcade/
  - gurkendoktor 5y ago
    Apple Arcade is for casual games that have to work on all of Apple's form factors (minus the watch, thankfully). I've tried it out twice. It is, with very few exceptions, in a completely different category from PC gaming because most people access it through a touchscreen. It's like comparing a PS5 and a Switch, except that Apple Arcade is not nearly as polished as the Switch. My impression is also that Apple Arcade is already pushing the limits of how much Apple's management wants to touch gaming.
    - hajile 5y ago
      Apple has started to sink hundreds of millions into Apple Arcade the past couple years. Big AAA titles take several years to produce and I doubt Apple will allow half-baked games to launch. That means we won't be seeing those games start to launch until 2023-2024. Apple is definitely working on a VR headset. They've bought out 4-5 VR companies already. There were rumors of a 2022 launch, but 2023 matches up much better with their game studio launch dates. That subscription is a HUGE moneymaker (that's how WoW made Blizzard so much money). Most serious gamers play 1-2 games for a couple of years. Traditional studios charge $60 (less for sales) and then release one $20-30 DLC per year. That gives them $120 over two years at the very best (though most players won't bother with DLC). Apple gets $80 per year unconditionally. Moreover, this will get casual gamers in addition to hardcore ones. Now that Apple runs everything on M1 and even the slowest M1 chips have better GPUs than most Wintel systems, Apple can sell games to everyone. Because everything is using the same architecture (same CPU and same GPU across the board), their devs save a ton of time and money developing and optimizing which means their total time to deliver and cost to deliver is much lower. I suspect that MS sees this as an extremely serious threat. They need to do everything they can to leverage xbox pass and compete.
      - yoz-y 5y ago
        A year back or so there were articles claiming that apple has stopped all development of content rich games, aiming at quick addictive ones instead. They released studios making the former from contracts. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-06-30/apple-cancels-arcade-games-in-strategy-shift-to-keep-subscribers https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-06-30/apple-can...
      - gurkendoktor 5y ago
        No matter how much money you throw at the current Apple Arcade, most people will play the game on a 5" touch screen. If you want to target living room gamers with a gamepad, the same game has to work on an Apple TV that struggles to render 3D scenes at 4K (probably until an M2 version comes out?). I think it's just going to be a baseline of games for people/families who have Apple One, like how Solitaire and Minesweeper came with Windows. If Apple goes all-in on VR, the whole VR market will benefit from greater public acceptance. But at the very best I predict it'll be like the Nintendo Wii: a few games that are extremely popular, and then it gets old. Which is a shame because I agree that Apple is in a great position to enter the gaming market. Imagine what Nintendo could do with powerful hardware in so many hands! But by the same logic, Apple should have crushed Spotify long ago, given its mile-wide lead with the iTunes Store, and yet the nicest thing I have heard about Apple Music is that it works with other Apple stuff. I honestly don't think Apple's management understands entertainment.
- madeofpalk 5y ago
  You would be shocked to know Apple was days late to buying Bungie, creator of Halo.
  - edgyquant 5y ago
    They was a way different time and a different Apple.
- cmelbye 5y ago
  What else are people going to do with their $3,000 Apple Goggles?
raxxorrax 5y ago
Not sure if an image campaign is enough to convince me that they have changed. They had to embrace open source to some degree because developers were plainly fleeing their environments en masse. Today it is extremely hard to find an expert for hard technical problems. Perhaps everyone is hiding somewhere, but I haven't found them yet.
animanoir 5y ago
The Apple of gaming is Rockstar Games.
- cuham_1754 5y ago
  Ever heard of EA?
- criley2 5y ago
  The Apple of gaming is Valve/Steam. They make hardware and run a leading app distribution service while overall operating as a pricier minority of the industry.
  - f6v 5y ago
    They have any hardware that took off?
    - derac 5y ago
      The index. The have a few other pieces of hardware they have made over the years. Currently they are making the Steam Deck, time will tell how that does.
      - oneoff786 5y ago
        I have an index. I like it. It definitely hasn’t taken off.
        1_player 5y ago
        It's not the Index fault, just modern VR tech hasn't taken off. The Index is a great piece of hardware. And my prediction is that the Steam Deck will sell like hotcakes.
        kd913 5y ago
        It's a chicken and egg problem. VR tech isn't taking off cause there isn't enough market share to justify having great games for it. To get that level of market share a company basically needs to subsidize the initial hardware/consoles. I don't think Valve has ever learned that concept and as such they are still selling the hardware at full price. This in contrast to say FB/Microsoft/Sony who actively subsidize their offerings because they understand the benefit of getting people locked in their ecosystem. I predict a repeat of Steam Machines. (as a Linux user)
bogwog 5y ago
What a bizarre view of the world. It’s like teenagers gossiping about celebrity relationships, but with corporations instead. A Microsoft acquisition of this company is bad, and an Apple acquisition of this company would be bad. When mega corporations like this consolidate, consumers always lose. Microsoft couldn’t win customers through product and service quality, so they bought one of the largest game publishers in the world so that their competition can’t sell those games anymore.
- MrJagil 5y ago
  > It’s like teenagers gossiping about celebrity relationships, but with corporations instead. I think that’s accurate. Whether there’s room for and value in these kinds of playful conjectures is of course up to each of us to decide.
  - hogrider 5y ago
    It's totally accurate bc humans are a simple ape that should be living in bands of 50 to 150, but then we had several technological revolutions. Someday well be more like star trek vulcans, I'm sure.
- Kiro 5y ago
  Complaining about a bizarre world view and then dropping an equally bizarre and hyperbolic statement. I think this will be good, just as I think Microsoft's previous gaming acquisitions have been good.
  - Underphil 5y ago
    For those who like Bethesda Games and bought into the Sony ecosystem? Good for you, maybe.
    - JAlexoid 5y ago
      And you weren't aware of the potential risks of a closed ecosystem before? It's not like you bought into an open ecosystem, but now they closed it off.
snotrockets 5y ago
The rampant sexual harrasment is more in line with Microsoft's alleged culture.

sto11z 5y ago

Apple doesn't have a gaming division. Why would they be interested in acquiring Blizzard?

cestith 5y ago
To start a gaming division with widely known titles already onboard.
pm90 5y ago
Exactly. MS has Xbox and has been buying up a lot of Game studios as well. Blizzard makes sense for them to buy; Apple doesn’t seem to be contending…
MrJagil 5y ago
That’s why i included the paranthesis “(or probably could have) happen(ed)”. That said, they do have a gaming service: https://www.apple.com/apple-arcade/ https://www.apple.com/apple-arcade/
- gurkendoktor 5y ago
  Apple Arcade is for casual games that have to work on all of Apple's form factors (minus the watch, thankfully). I've tried it out twice. It is, with very few exceptions, in a completely different category from PC gaming because most people access it through a touchscreen. It's like comparing a PS5 and a Switch, except that Apple Arcade is not nearly as polished as the Switch. My impression is also that Apple Arcade is already pushing the limits of how much Apple's management wants to touch gaming.
  - hajile 5y ago
    Apple has started to sink hundreds of millions into Apple Arcade the past couple years. Big AAA titles take several years to produce and I doubt Apple will allow half-baked games to launch. That means we won't be seeing those games start to launch until 2023-2024. Apple is definitely working on a VR headset. They've bought out 4-5 VR companies already. There were rumors of a 2022 launch, but 2023 matches up much better with their game studio launch dates. That subscription is a HUGE moneymaker (that's how WoW made Blizzard so much money). Most serious gamers play 1-2 games for a couple of years. Traditional studios charge $60 (less for sales) and then release one $20-30 DLC per year. That gives them $120 over two years at the very best (though most players won't bother with DLC). Apple gets $80 per year unconditionally. Moreover, this will get casual gamers in addition to hardcore ones. Now that Apple runs everything on M1 and even the slowest M1 chips have better GPUs than most Wintel systems, Apple can sell games to everyone. Because everything is using the same architecture (same CPU and same GPU across the board), their devs save a ton of time and money developing and optimizing which means their total time to deliver and cost to deliver is much lower. I suspect that MS sees this as an extremely serious threat. They need to do everything they can to leverage xbox pass and compete.
    - yoz-y 5y ago
      A year back or so there were articles claiming that apple has stopped all development of content rich games, aiming at quick addictive ones instead. They released studios making the former from contracts. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-06-30/apple-cancels-arcade-games-in-strategy-shift-to-keep-subscribers https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-06-30/apple-can...
    - gurkendoktor 5y ago
      No matter how much money you throw at the current Apple Arcade, most people will play the game on a 5" touch screen. If you want to target living room gamers with a gamepad, the same game has to work on an Apple TV that struggles to render 3D scenes at 4K (probably until an M2 version comes out?). I think it's just going to be a baseline of games for people/families who have Apple One, like how Solitaire and Minesweeper came with Windows. If Apple goes all-in on VR, the whole VR market will benefit from greater public acceptance. But at the very best I predict it'll be like the Nintendo Wii: a few games that are extremely popular, and then it gets old. Which is a shame because I agree that Apple is in a great position to enter the gaming market. Imagine what Nintendo could do with powerful hardware in so many hands! But by the same logic, Apple should have crushed Spotify long ago, given its mile-wide lead with the iTunes Store, and yet the nicest thing I have heard about Apple Music is that it works with other Apple stuff. I honestly don't think Apple's management understands entertainment.
madeofpalk 5y ago
You would be shocked to know Apple was days late to buying Bungie, creator of Halo.
- edgyquant 5y ago
  They was a way different time and a different Apple.
cmelbye 5y ago
What else are people going to do with their $3,000 Apple Goggles?

raxxorrax 5y ago

Not sure if an image campaign is enough to convince me that they have changed. They had to embrace open source to some degree because developers were plainly fleeing their environments en masse. Today it is extremely hard to find an expert for hard technical problems. Perhaps everyone is hiding somewhere, but I haven't found them yet.

animanoir 5y ago

The Apple of gaming is Rockstar Games.

cuham_1754 5y ago
Ever heard of EA?
criley2 5y ago
The Apple of gaming is Valve/Steam. They make hardware and run a leading app distribution service while overall operating as a pricier minority of the industry.
- f6v 5y ago
  They have any hardware that took off?
  - derac 5y ago
    The index. The have a few other pieces of hardware they have made over the years. Currently they are making the Steam Deck, time will tell how that does.
    - oneoff786 5y ago
      I have an index. I like it. It definitely hasn’t taken off.
      - 1_player 5y ago
        It's not the Index fault, just modern VR tech hasn't taken off. The Index is a great piece of hardware. And my prediction is that the Steam Deck will sell like hotcakes.
        kd913 5y ago
        It's a chicken and egg problem. VR tech isn't taking off cause there isn't enough market share to justify having great games for it. To get that level of market share a company basically needs to subsidize the initial hardware/consoles. I don't think Valve has ever learned that concept and as such they are still selling the hardware at full price. This in contrast to say FB/Microsoft/Sony who actively subsidize their offerings because they understand the benefit of getting people locked in their ecosystem. I predict a repeat of Steam Machines. (as a Linux user)

bogwog 5y ago

What a bizarre view of the world. It’s like teenagers gossiping about celebrity relationships, but with corporations instead. A Microsoft acquisition of this company is bad, and an Apple acquisition of this company would be bad. When mega corporations like this consolidate, consumers always lose. Microsoft couldn’t win customers through product and service quality, so they bought one of the largest game publishers in the world so that their competition can’t sell those games anymore.

MrJagil 5y ago
> It’s like teenagers gossiping about celebrity relationships, but with corporations instead. I think that’s accurate. Whether there’s room for and value in these kinds of playful conjectures is of course up to each of us to decide.
- hogrider 5y ago
  It's totally accurate bc humans are a simple ape that should be living in bands of 50 to 150, but then we had several technological revolutions. Someday well be more like star trek vulcans, I'm sure.
Kiro 5y ago
Complaining about a bizarre world view and then dropping an equally bizarre and hyperbolic statement. I think this will be good, just as I think Microsoft's previous gaming acquisitions have been good.
- Underphil 5y ago
  For those who like Bethesda Games and bought into the Sony ecosystem? Good for you, maybe.
  - JAlexoid 5y ago
    And you weren't aware of the potential risks of a closed ecosystem before? It's not like you bought into an open ecosystem, but now they closed it off.

snotrockets 5y ago

The rampant sexual harrasment is more in line with Microsoft's alleged culture.