3 ms·

Honestly, I'm not sure if Activision's IP catalog would attract and retain high-value talent in the same way that Disney's does. Yes, the catalogue is deep, bu

Honestly, I'm not sure if Activision's IP catalog would attract and retain high-value talent in the same way that Disney's does. Yes, the catalogue is deep, but much of it consists of dead horses that have been beaten for years or once-great icons that were mismanaged into relative irrelevance. Budget constraints didn't seem to be what was holding them back before, and I can't see Microsoft suddenly managing the IP any better than Activision were (if anything, I can see it going downhill faster).

fomine3 5y ago
Disney is a really outlier. Their IP is extremely important so they can extend copyright length.
Godel_unicode 5y ago
I'm honestly really excited about Microsoft using their proven history of remastering games (Halo, AoE) and applying it to that exact list of once-great icons. At this point all they need to do to gain a ton of goodwill is roll WoW into gamepass so it's not yet another subscription and fix the Warcraft remaster. Those along with not clogging up the candy crush money printer will get them plenty of runway to really dig in and fix the culture.
- mrgordon 5y ago
  I’d be surprised if they touch the WoW cash cow and make it free with Game Pass. It would be a bold move
  - skocznymroczny 5y ago
    Perhaps they could roll something like WoW Classic into game pass, but leave retail unchecked.
trinovantes 5y ago
Given how well they treated the Age of Empires community, I'm optimistic they'll do something for Warcraft/Starcraft in the coming years Not to mention these are lore-rich well-known universes and could result in multimedia franchises
015a 5y ago
The bigger issue is simply that video games aren't made like movies/television. They're very different. Video games are very distributed. Its the work of a system of people, from high level concept artists building a shared mindspace for how the game should feel, to writers, to gameplay programmers, low level engine developers making the previously impossible possible, and at the bleeding edge sometimes even hardware engineers. All integral to the process. Very, very rarely a "10x leader" will emerge from the industry. Someone like Chris Metzen of Blizzard, or Martin O'Donnell of Bungie, or John Carmack, Tim Sweeny, Peter Molyneux (for all his flaws lol) or Todd Howard, Miyamoto, or Kojima. But its nowhere near the level of impact on the final product that a talented director or writer of a movie can bring to the table. Even as recently as the Bobba Fett series, and Tik Tok blowing up about the two episodes Bryce Dallas Howard directed being significantly better than the rest of the series. That just doesn't happen in games. Games don't "bring in" "guest directors" to... produce... one installment? One segment of the overall game? Its just nonsense. Moreover, every great leader I listed above, eventually, produces something kinda shit. Even the stuff they're known for, oftentimes they'd say that they received far more credit than they deserve; that the team deserves far more than they get. The broader conclusion being: it takes some literal magic to produce great games. Ask anyone in the industry and they'll all agree: its a miracle games ever ship, let alone that some stand among the highest tier of art humanity has ever made. You can't just buy cool IP, like a sugar trap to attract talent like they're flies. On the contrary, the one model which does seem to work, is the literal antithesis of the Disney model: teams which work together for abnormally long periods of time (5+ years) trend toward producing fantastic stuff, eventually. Though to be clear: there's something about that "Disney of Games" idea that I find fascinating as an explanation for Microsoft's behavior. And while I disagree with the assertion that it will work, I can't disagree with the guess that its a model Xbox has used, internally, to talk about their growing portfolio.
ayngg 5y ago
Yeah I think people overstate the IP of Actiblizz. I get it though, their old games were absolutely amazing and I basically spent my childhood playing those games to death, but modern gaming is so much bigger that the people who look at those old ips fondly are a small minority now, so there isn't really any nostalgia to cash in on. I remember on the news when they did a story on the merger, they called Actiblizz the studio that made Candy Crush. Candy Crush is their most salient IP. Similarly Gen z growing up on games like Fortnite, Roblox or Minecraft, even Actiblizz's Call of Duty, this demographic isn't going to go crazy for the next Starcraft or Warcraft, probably not even Diablo. It is sort of like if Valve actually made Half Life 3 now, most gamers don't even know what Half Life is, let alone why Half Life 3 would be such a big deal outside of being a meme.
- verve_rat 5y ago
  But it is not just about having the new hotness, the scale of these IP libraries is about having something for everyone. Through that lense ActiBlizz is a great buy. Candy Crush and COD and Warcraft. You don't need the top seller if your goal is to keep customers above the subscription cancellation threshold.

fomine3 5y ago

Disney is a really outlier. Their IP is extremely important so they can extend copyright length.

Godel_unicode 5y ago

I'm honestly really excited about Microsoft using their proven history of remastering games (Halo, AoE) and applying it to that exact list of once-great icons. At this point all they need to do to gain a ton of goodwill is roll WoW into gamepass so it's not yet another subscription and fix the Warcraft remaster. Those along with not clogging up the candy crush money printer will get them plenty of runway to really dig in and fix the culture.

mrgordon 5y ago
I’d be surprised if they touch the WoW cash cow and make it free with Game Pass. It would be a bold move
- skocznymroczny 5y ago
  Perhaps they could roll something like WoW Classic into game pass, but leave retail unchecked.

trinovantes 5y ago

Given how well they treated the Age of Empires community, I'm optimistic they'll do something for Warcraft/Starcraft in the coming years Not to mention these are lore-rich well-known universes and could result in multimedia franchises

015a 5y ago

The bigger issue is simply that video games aren't made like movies/television. They're very different. Video games are very distributed. Its the work of a system of people, from high level concept artists building a shared mindspace for how the game should feel, to writers, to gameplay programmers, low level engine developers making the previously impossible possible, and at the bleeding edge sometimes even hardware engineers. All integral to the process. Very, very rarely a "10x leader" will emerge from the industry. Someone like Chris Metzen of Blizzard, or Martin O'Donnell of Bungie, or John Carmack, Tim Sweeny, Peter Molyneux (for all his flaws lol) or Todd Howard, Miyamoto, or Kojima. But its nowhere near the level of impact on the final product that a talented director or writer of a movie can bring to the table. Even as recently as the Bobba Fett series, and Tik Tok blowing up about the two episodes Bryce Dallas Howard directed being significantly better than the rest of the series. That just doesn't happen in games. Games don't "bring in" "guest directors" to... produce... one installment? One segment of the overall game? Its just nonsense. Moreover, every great leader I listed above, eventually, produces something kinda shit. Even the stuff they're known for, oftentimes they'd say that they received far more credit than they deserve; that the team deserves far more than they get. The broader conclusion being: it takes some literal magic to produce great games. Ask anyone in the industry and they'll all agree: its a miracle games ever ship, let alone that some stand among the highest tier of art humanity has ever made. You can't just buy cool IP, like a sugar trap to attract talent like they're flies. On the contrary, the one model which does seem to work, is the literal antithesis of the Disney model: teams which work together for abnormally long periods of time (5+ years) trend toward producing fantastic stuff, eventually. Though to be clear: there's something about that "Disney of Games" idea that I find fascinating as an explanation for Microsoft's behavior. And while I disagree with the assertion that it will work, I can't disagree with the guess that its a model Xbox has used, internally, to talk about their growing portfolio.

ayngg 5y ago

Yeah I think people overstate the IP of Actiblizz. I get it though, their old games were absolutely amazing and I basically spent my childhood playing those games to death, but modern gaming is so much bigger that the people who look at those old ips fondly are a small minority now, so there isn't really any nostalgia to cash in on. I remember on the news when they did a story on the merger, they called Actiblizz the studio that made Candy Crush. Candy Crush is their most salient IP. Similarly Gen z growing up on games like Fortnite, Roblox or Minecraft, even Actiblizz's Call of Duty, this demographic isn't going to go crazy for the next Starcraft or Warcraft, probably not even Diablo. It is sort of like if Valve actually made Half Life 3 now, most gamers don't even know what Half Life is, let alone why Half Life 3 would be such a big deal outside of being a meme.

verve_rat 5y ago
But it is not just about having the new hotness, the scale of these IP libraries is about having something for everyone. Through that lense ActiBlizz is a great buy. Candy Crush and COD and Warcraft. You don't need the top seller if your goal is to keep customers above the subscription cancellation threshold.