What’s your take on this buy out?

You may be right, but at least at first glance, I see it more as an instant legacy gaming presence to match with Xbox and VR hardware and Windows Store apps.

Could have been good 10, 20 years ago. I just see it flatlining now.

That reminded me of IBM. I used to work on their mainframes. Apparently IBM has been able to continuously re-invent its mainframes. (it relies on the idiot IT managers of the 70’s-90’s (long gone) that wrote stuff for mainframes that can’t realistically be migrated off.) I don’t see MS being able to do that with the games. I don’t see any money in trying to lock them to XBox. And how many spinnoffs of Candy Crush will now appear from other mfrs.?

State-of-the-art esports facility coming to Albright College   Possibly they see the future with this generation  more into gaming  and rather then  big swimming pools and gyms, colleges and universities  will be doing more of this to attract students and Microsoft will be there  to get a piece of the action.

Microsoft takes a humongous step closer to the future release of the game “Monopoly”? 😉

Some commentators do seem worried:

https://www.engadget.com/microsoft-xbox-activision-blizzard-consolidation-exclusives-222028443.html

https://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/microsoft-activison-blizzard-monopoly/

Like most oversized companies, they just have too much money burning a hole in their pockets.

How about they spend in on bringing  out a good windows version, and wait until its fully formed, not 1/2 baked .

My take on it? Deranged. As are too many Big Business Big Decisions these days.

Also a reason I don’t rely on any MS product anymore, except for Office, that I need to use now and then and has no right substitute for me.

Re-introduction of a dedicated QA department may have benefitted more for all, for a fraction of that cost.

Not sure this move will be approved by regulators around the world.

Fast Company’s “How Microsoft’s Satya Nadella Became A Netflix Insider” may explain why MSFT is doing this.

In the same way that IBM survives because of folks who wrote stuff back in the 70’s to 90’s that require the use of their mainframes, MS survives because of the multitude of folks and businesses that have jobs that can seemingly only run under windows and would (probably) cost a fortune to convert to something else. Stupidity tends to be self perpetuating. Once you throw an anchor overboard, it’s hell to pull it back in and move on. Intel and IBM simply make smaller and faster processors to make up for the problems, and IT managers don’t see a viable path to convert.

Yes, I am mostly running linux at the moment. I have tried many many times to shift to linux and failed for one reason or another. This time I have been on it for quite a while – a year? I truly forget. But if I fail, I will keep looking for ways to solve that problem and try again. I do not see a future with windows, though I know it will be around forever.

So MS has a bunch of money and is looking for ways to invest it. Investing it into windows would not yield much, if anything in the way of returns. Games? I guess we’ll see if it’s like windows phones, or ?

Remember, most people use windows and silently put up with it. It is a very small percentage of windows users who follow sites like this and try to vent their frustration. (largely to no avail!)

Bottom line? choose a path where you have fun! – no real future in self abuse.

The assumption that “Windows will be around forever” I think is not quite right, because:

(a) Nothing is forever. Not even the most impressive mountains, that ever so slowly are ground into sand by the weather. And much less a single human undertaking, however good, necessary and perhaps inevitable it once might have seem.

(b) Nothing that is badly managed and guided by the visions of false prophets or by the fancies of false leaders, is likely to last very long: not a company, not an OS, not even a country. But it is now and then the case that, although it might take a while, with much time being wasted in unresolute soul-searching by those afflicted, in the end people will muddle through out of the bog somebody has led them into, or has thrown them in.

In my lifetime, I have used and then outlived already seven or eight OS of various origins. And, as far as I know, no one really misses them and neither do I — except, perhaps, for Sun Microsystems “Solaris” Unix (now known as Oracle Solaris) and Win 7.

RE: What’s your take on this buy out?

“Cocaine is God’s way of telling you you are making too much money.”
–Robin Williams

Used to be what passed for a “gamer” several years ago and as far as I can tell Activision has been spending about the last 20 years buying their continued existence through acquisitions of game developers and mergers and throwing on the market a seemingly never-ending sequence of “Call of Duty” games (still surprises me how players seem not to get bored at always playing the same souped up game whenever a new title in the series is released).

The merger of Activision with Vivendi back in 2008, to acquire Blizzard which was owned by Vivendi, was largely regarded as Activision’s way to buy their way into the massively multiplayer online market through Blizzard’s “World of Warcraft”, in a move to get their own cut from the practices of subscription models and microtransactions (which I largely see as poisonous practices, but that’s just my personal view).

What’s my take on this buy out? Well, given the above I find it somewhat ironical to see a company who has been spending years buying other companies to stay afloat has now “suffered” the same fate. What I find interesting is that MS already has its fair share of money from subscription models and microtransactions thanks to the Xbox business, so I don’t think that’s what they were looking for by buying Activision. And I didn’t think Activision has a strong presence in the mobile world to warrant its acquisition to buy a way into that world, but I could be entirely wrong on this, seeing I have zero interest in the mobile (gaming) world and thus Activision could well be a big player there and I simply missed that bit.

Bottom line, I kind of feel sorry for gamers, who are probably going to see just more of the same stuff: more subscription models, more microtransactions, more Call of Duty. Maybe that’s what gamers want, but as far as I care that’s just boring.

Microfix wrote:

Re-introduction of a dedicated QA department may have benefitted more for all, for a fraction of that cost.

While entirely true for end-users and admins, Microsoft knows they’ve already got our money, even with their lousy QA.  To that end, they’re investing in new things they think people will still buy even when they’ve slashed their  QA departments, thereby increasing their own profit margin.

Satisfaction? We don’t need that. We only need purchases.

I don’t know why we expect big companies to repeat, forever, the innovation that gave them a start and the clever business strategies that made them big.  Large businesses typically go through a life cycle that includes a phase where their existing products are throwing off more cash than they know what to do with–meaning, in other words, that they have run out of ideas.  These companies buy others in an (usually misguided) attempt to import innovation, then often smother it.

The exceptions to this experience–the companies that can keep the innovation coming–are rare and prized by buy-and-hold stockholders.  Those short-termers who put more value on cash-rich behemoths will bid up their stock prices, too, until acquisitions and other forays have exhausted it.

Economic theory says that excess cash should be returned to shareholders through share buybacks or other means.  But it’s a rare management that can resist the temptation to build an empire, and many too easily believe their own press releases.  If management claims that they have turned innovation into a process that can be applied anywhere–that they possess the expertise to take over and grow any kind of business–run for the hills.  Remember General Electric?

Companies currently are sitting on a lot of cash partly because of the 30% increase in the money supply since the end of 2019, coupled with continued negative real interest rates.

If the merger is approved, I think this will be Nokia 2.0. Other than a couple of games, A/B is a very toxic property and would have likely ended in bankruptcy or dismemberment as it collapsed. The scandal A/B is embroiled in is nasty. MS and others could have gone after the few worthwhile assets and let the rest wither away. As it is, MS probably could have driven a much harder bargain for the couple of worthwhile assets.

As others have pointed, MS could spent some this money on fixing chronic issues users have been complaining about for years – like a real QA department.

Sony Expects Microsoft to Keep Activision Games Multiplatform

Activision supplies some of the most popular games for Sony’s PlayStation game console, including the Call of Duty series

Sony Group Corp. said Thursday that it expected Microsoft Corp. to ensure that games from Activision Blizzard Inc. are available on non-Microsoft videogame platforms if Microsoft completes its proposed acquisition of Activision.

“We expect that Microsoft will abide by contractual agreements and continue to ensure Activision games are multiplatform,”..

anonymous wrote:

Like most oversized companies, they just have too much money burning a hole in their pockets.

How about they spend in on bringing  out a good windows version, and wait until its fully formed, not 1/2 baked .

I agree with that…

MS has become the place that brings end to good things.

MS bought Nokia….now Nokia is flatline.

MS bought Skype….now Skype is trash. MS team is horrible trash (Something went wrong…try again.

Blizzard will be a goner in a few years.

Just look at what mess was release with Windows 11…MS has lost its Edge after Bill Gates left. Bill made mistakes but most were good decisions.

On the fence as to whether I should get rid of my Microsoft stock.  I’ll be calling my financial advisor/broker next week to get his advice.  The Windows fiasco is one thing, now this.

My take: $68.7 billion is a LOT of money.

Did Microsoft have that much cash available, or did they work some other kind of deal that was worth $68.7 billion? (e.g. stock swap)

Future prediction:

1. More consolidating in the gaming business.  More online gaming client approach.
2. Streaming services (i.e., Netflix) becoming    more like the traditional cable model.

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20220119/12255248317/are-we-entering-period-video-game-industry-hyper-consolidation.shtml

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20220117/07153648301/netflix-hits-users-with-another-round-price-hikes.shtml

Thought I’d comment on some recent comments…

berserker “Used to be what passed for a “gamer” ” and COD…

I think gaming has passed its apex. Teens, of whatever age, have and will move on to other things that are more of a challenge and, more importantly, more “in”. Humans, as a group, tend to go bananas over something for a while, and then move on, strongly influenced by those around them.

wdburt “The landscape is littered with the carcasses of conglomerates like GE”

Hadn’t thought about that recently (occasionally I bus past a big GE plant north of here and reflect on it), but that’s mostly true. MS has windows to anchor it a bit, unlike GE, so it will be a bit more stable in the future, but, yes, sell (MS) stocks and sit for a bit looking at others as the market is still very volatile and downsizing a lot from pre election. IMHO! Things that “should be strong”, are just slowly drifting back down to previous levels. View a stock over a couple years to better understand it. again, IMHO!

Alex “Sony Expects Microsoft to Keep Activision Games Multiplatform”

-said by Sony while crying and with tears in its eyes and pleading against all hope… Things like that make the stock market an often fickle place! 🙂

Oscar “So “Sony vs. Microsoft” is coming to a courthouse maybe not very close to you?”

Yeah probably though I doubt it will do Sony any good.

anon “MS has lost its Edge after Bill Gates left. Bill made mistakes but most were good decisions.”

in 20/20 hind sight which is always much more clear 🙂  … I think Bill, though sometimes he wasn’t too sharp, saw the light at the end of the tunnel, realized it was a train, and left. Good timing.

Mike “More consolidating in the gaming business.”

yes, because, again, it ain’t what it used to be. Gaming got its start on tiny computers that just grew and grew. People were enthralled with their ability to make this thing (a mini computer) DO things. I think that is long past starting to get old.  Okay, they’ve grown. Period. Now on to something else. Again, IMHO!!! (but I notice that though I went to great effort to make sure all my games would run on my platforms, I no longer play them.

Onward, but to something different. Cosmic law – all things change. Always!.

The potential problems re. computer games, and indirectly to those who play them, is a serious one. On the other hand, that 68.7 billion US$ is more than the Gross Domestic Product (total amount sold in goods and services in a given year) of 119 countries and nearly three times NASA’s budget is only a curious fact of passing interest here.

Understood. Thank you.

A belief system…

In my opinion the only real motivator in this world is greed. Buddhists and others sometimes try to encourage us to live simply by being nice to ourselves and others, but virtually no one, in this “world”, in this “dimension”, in this “time”, does it. Folks excuse any aberrant behaviour by saying they are “human”.

Spiritually, the point would be to balance the self while living in a “chaos”. The soul, which follows you along, carries the baggage where you have not, and slows you down. A Buddhist might say look within for peace, not without.

You can try to change the perceived chaos into something that you perceive would be less threatening to you, but that is not likely to have lasting effect on your soul, your baggage, your anchor.

Besides greed, “down” here, we have pain, both physical and perceived. That will first drive the individual toward a perceived selfish behaviour as it tried to reduce that pain. This might well manifest as greed.

So while we can, and often do, criticize others for their behaviours and the actions they take, like buying huge game companies, and suggest that they could have done it in a different way, which they feel would make them feel better/ safer, we might do well to step back and consider what part we played in their decision. We bought windows. We bought that game, and played it!!! 🙂

No, I’m not a Buddhist, or member of any recognized belief system of this world. Just posing a thought…  Bill and others all play a part in this! And I rather like Bill.

Not good, same when they bought Bethesda, same when Disney was allowed to buy Fox. We lose, if not immediately then in the future. AAA games oligopoly I guess. To bad all the politicians and regulators are mostly captured.

So, with the cost of PC hardware for gaming high. I think we will see gaming morph into a better delivery platform. Not sure it will be streaming services but certainly having locked into the library of controlling the games themselves. Much like content creators in movies and TV are now coming out with exclusive content streaming services that keep people tied to that service. If Microsoft controls the games, it can dictate how they are distributed. I think this is more to do with X box vs PlayStation then PC gaming VS consoles. But nevertheless, Microsoft will be a big player in gaming content now which is a big deal.

Recent Starcraft 2 update has broken the game. Several of my friends are having the same issues. Is this the sign that MS has taken over the company and are already breaking things like they do with Windows and other MS products?

Seems my games will not be broken just like my Windows OS is half the time. Will need to spend time searching for fixes for the fixes.

anonymous wrote:

Is this the sign that MS has taken over the company and are already

Microsoft has bought Activision Blizzard and the chance of regulators approval is slim.

First a little diversion before I get to the issue this thread is all about.

Krism wrote here #2420008  :

“In my opinion the only real motivator in this world is greed.”

This is a common sentiment, but not quite correct: There are several great motivators and their mix varies with the times.

Right these days we can see national governments and private concerns, meaning in the first place politicians and top executives with the power to make such decisions, taking measures to punish and, one would hope, deter Russia from pursuing to the end its all-out attack on another country with the full intention of either making it a subordinate state, a compliant satellite, or make it part of its own territory.

Those punitive measures taken by the West are definitively bad for business and for the pocketbook of citizens, as we are already beginning to experience. Yet no opposing roars of money-hungry people can be heard.

Millions, displaced by this attack are flooding Europe and being received with demonstrations of kindness.

Throughout the world, people are rising to defend democracy, to reject dictators, at peril of imprisonment or worse. Members of such organizations as Doctors Without Borders are working to improve things, often at considerable personal costs: in this example helping the sick, injured and mistreated in places where it is dangerous to be. In Russia itself, many have expressed opposition to the atrocities being perpetrated by their own government, many have been demonstrating against them through the Federation, and have been, and are still, imprisoned by the thousands.

Greed alone is not the only great motivator: courage, generosity, love of freedom and fairness are too. In peacetime they might not get much space in the news, until great crises such as the one the world is in now happen, and then they do get to be heard about.

As to the topic of this thread is directly concerned with:

The purchase of  a company that makes computer games for an amount larger than the individual GDPs of 119 nations, even if gaming may be big business these days, this is not chiefly an act of greed: It is the result of the loss of perspective and the consequent delusion that they can do everything and that’s OK, because they are always right, of powerful people in charge of big businesses and of those investors that cheer them along.

Is there greed here at work? Yes, but the driver is lunacy. And that is the other great motivator of human affairs.

Looks like the proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft Corp for $68.7 billion has encountered a sticky patch, as the UK’s antitrust watchdog, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has rejected the deal citing potential negative impacts on competition within the cloud gaming market.

Ref: https://www.theverge.com/2023/4/26/23689252/microsoft-activision-blizzard-acquisition-blocked-uk-cma

The gaming industry’s largest-ever acquisition, may not yet happen.
Wonder how the EU will respond after this response by the CMA?