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Microsoft already owns a large number of successful studios and IP, such as Halo, Minecraft, and Bethesda, developers of The Elder Scrolls Series (Skyrim) and t

by Kapura 3y ago

Microsoft already owns a large number of successful studios and IP, such as Halo, Minecraft, and Bethesda, developers of The Elder Scrolls Series (Skyrim) and the upcoming Starfield. They don't need a helping hand from the government to prevent them being squished out. Starfield was confirmed to have been going on Playstation until they were acquired by Microsoft; now the only way to play it will be on Xbox or Windows. If Microsoft buys Activision/Blizzard, it's safe to assume that future A/B games will go the same way, and only be available on Xbox or Windows. This is problematic because Activision's IP portfolio is massive (including huge console annuals like Call of Duty), and Blizzard games are still extremely popular. If a normal game studio acquisition is like a comet colliding and adding its mass to the Earth, this would be like the moon crashing into the Earth.

indigodaddy 3y ago
Sony has way more exclusives than MS— why would it be catastrophic to even that particular playing field? This just sounds like Sony fans pissed that a few games are going to get taken away.
- Kapura 3y ago
  Sony isn't trying to buy activision ? The issue isn't sony, it's the size of Activision/Blizzard in the gaming market.
  - bllguo 3y ago
    exactly, a nice concise answer it shocks me every time how few people here seem to understand that scale changes things. is this not a forum frequented by SV techies?
    - ayemel 3y ago
      No one is having issues understanding the scale of the acquisition—a $70 billion dollar price tag kinda makes that obvious to everyone. The question that myself and others in the thread have been asking without getting a clear answer is how could this acquisition make Microsoft a monopoly in the gaming space? Even with the scale there doesn’t seem to be any legitimate path to Microsoft becoming a monopoly: video games is a $200b a year industry. Activision Blizzard’s 2022 revenue was $7.5b and combining that with Xbox’s $15b revenue still doesn’t even surpass PlayStation’s $24b. Is that a monopoly? I don’t see it.
- c4ptnjack 3y ago
  I mostly agree. However, I think it has more to do with the market power MS has across multiple domains.

by Kapura 3y ago

indigodaddy 3y ago

Sony has way more exclusives than MS— why would it be catastrophic to even that particular playing field? This just sounds like Sony fans pissed that a few games are going to get taken away.

Kapura 3y ago
Sony isn't trying to buy activision ? The issue isn't sony, it's the size of Activision/Blizzard in the gaming market.
- bllguo 3y ago
  exactly, a nice concise answer it shocks me every time how few people here seem to understand that scale changes things. is this not a forum frequented by SV techies?
  - ayemel 3y ago
    No one is having issues understanding the scale of the acquisition—a $70 billion dollar price tag kinda makes that obvious to everyone. The question that myself and others in the thread have been asking without getting a clear answer is how could this acquisition make Microsoft a monopoly in the gaming space? Even with the scale there doesn’t seem to be any legitimate path to Microsoft becoming a monopoly: video games is a $200b a year industry. Activision Blizzard’s 2022 revenue was $7.5b and combining that with Xbox’s $15b revenue still doesn’t even surpass PlayStation’s $24b. Is that a monopoly? I don’t see it.
c4ptnjack 3y ago
I mostly agree. However, I think it has more to do with the market power MS has across multiple domains.