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Microsoft Set To Acquire Activision Blizzard For $68.7 Billion | MMORPG.com

SystemSystem Member UncommonPosts: 12,599
edited January 2022 in News & Features Discussion

imageMicrosoft Set To Acquire Activision Blizzard For $68.7 Billion | MMORPG.com

Announced this morning, Microsoft is set to acquire gaming giant Activision Blizzard for $68.7 Billion, bringing the Call of Duty and World of Warcraft publisher under their gaming umbrella. This move would make Microsoft the third largest game company by revenue behind Sony and Tencent.

Read the full story here


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Comments

  • RungarRungar Member RarePosts: 1,132
    Time is running short! They have to acquire Activision so they can make DIABLO 666: the final chapter.
    ConstantineMerusKyleran
    .05 of a second to midnight
  • GinazGinaz Member RarePosts: 2,558
    I hope they get rid of Bobby Kotick sooner rather than later. Otherwise, it's like buying a used toilet that hasn't been flushed.
    maskedweaselzeep12IceAgeLePetitSoldatJeroKaneIselinRoinTacticalZombehSamhaelSabbyth

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  • proph001proph001 Newbie CommonPosts: 2
    This is a big F for World of Warcraft imo.

    Just another homogenization by the tech giants.
    IceAgeViper482sakerashiru_1978McSleazTuor7Lydon
  • AeanderAeander Member LegendaryPosts: 8,028
    So, let's play acquisition bingo. Who do you want to see play business speed dating with who?
    sakeroriya9
  • maskedweaselmaskedweasel Member LegendaryPosts: 12,195
    Ginaz said:
    I hope they get rid of Bobby Kotick sooner rather than later. Otherwise, it's like buying a used toilet that hasn't been flushed.
    I can't believe they kept him. Just crazy.



  • ScotScot Member LegendaryPosts: 24,273
    edited January 2022
    Looks like two articles leading to the same heading and comments on the main page?

    P.S Seems sorted now.
  • GinazGinaz Member RarePosts: 2,558



    Ginaz said:

    I hope they get rid of Bobby Kotick sooner rather than later. Otherwise, it's like buying a used toilet that hasn't been flushed.


    I can't believe they kept him. Just crazy.



    I think they'll keep him until after the merger is complete. Then he'll get a big fat check to leave. The guy is almost 60 and has a net worth of hundreds of millions if not a billion dollars. If I were him, I'd just shut'er down and buy my own private island and enjoy the rest of my life.
    McSleaz

    Is a man not entitled to the herp of his derp?

    Remember, I live in a world where juggalos and yugioh players are real things.

  • GroqstrongGroqstrong Member RarePosts: 825
    You can't be shocked to see this coming.  End of not one but two dynastys.
    McSleaz
  • Slapshot1188Slapshot1188 Member LegendaryPosts: 17,585
    Gamepass was an amazing deal for me... it just got better. At least in the medium term.
    Renfailsschruppdragonlee66KrumkoGinazoriya9KimoLydon

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  • IceAgeIceAge Member EpicPosts: 3,200
    Well, the enormous amount of this deal, shows just how much impact had ( has ) the current lawsuits which are happening at Activision-Blizzard. Close to zero that is.

    But anyway, this is insane. $68 billion is .. almost the same amount when Disney purchased 21st Century Fox for $71 billion.

    All in all, I am very happy with the purchase. Blizzard for the past 4 years has been below decent to say at most. I'm sure things can't go any worst under Microsoft and maybe they will split Activision and Blizzard divisions. I'm not saying that Blizzard will instantly become the.."Good Old Blizzard", but .. they will be on track under Microsoft.

    Kotick will remain until the deal is done and then he will leave, which is the second most amazing News today. No, they will not keep him, I'm sure.




    You can't be shocked to see this coming.  End of not one but two dynastys.



    End? Based on what you are making such claims? I see both Activision titles and Blizzard titles to become better games in the future.

    Yes, time will tell, but I'm positive! :)
    dragonlee66sakerMcSleazTacticalZombehSamhaelLydon

    Reporter: What's behind Blizzard success, and how do you make your gamers happy?
    Blizzard Boss: Making gamers happy is not my concern, making money.. yes!

  • TillerTiller Member LegendaryPosts: 11,449
    This is great, all Blizzard games will be on game pass eventually. xD
    RandomCasualtydragonlee66
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  • bcbullybcbully Member EpicPosts: 11,843
    Tiller said:
    This is great, all Blizzard games will be on game pass eventually. xD
    With NFTs super excited!
    [Deleted User]Kickaxe[Deleted User]KyleranDrius75IselinsakerMcSleazklash2def
  • proph001proph001 Newbie CommonPosts: 2

    bcbully said:


    Tiller said:

    This is great, all Blizzard games will be on game pass eventually. xD


    With NFTs super excited!



    lol
    bcbully
  • ScotScot Member LegendaryPosts: 24,273
    proph001 said:
    This is a big F for World of Warcraft imo.

    Just another homogenization by the tech giants.
    Welcome to the forums! :)
  • KickaxeKickaxe Member UncommonPosts: 177
    It will be interesting to see how WoW fits into this scenario. Will it drop its subscription to enter the gamepass space.

    Does this major acquisition by Microsoft begin to reach a threshold where payment models are going to shift to subscription and buy-to-play models, and away from free-to-play ones?
  • AngrakhanAngrakhan Member EpicPosts: 1,750
    Obviously I'm no industry expert, but I was a part of a fortune 200 company that got acquired by another fortune 200 company. I am a software developer (business not games) and was a part of the IT shop, obviously, and we had a 200 person team. Let me tell you during the acquisition all the press read just like this. It was all friendship, teamwork, and how important people are, and acquisitions are about people. Yeah 2 years later of those 200 only 3 were left and the former CEO of our old company had long taken his golden parachute.

    I expect a "reorg" within 6 months of this deal finalizing and it won't surprise me if Kotic gets a nice package and encouraged to retire early.
    KyleranTuor7
  • faithvoidfaithvoid Member UncommonPosts: 22
    Pretty unprecedented, but I'd have been more surprised if the walls hadn't been closing in on Activision/Blizz on all sides as of late.

    This leaves way more questions to be answered than Vivendi did.  You have King mobile apps in there, too - so Candy Crush, etc..  Crazy.  This could land Microsoft in a hugely advantageous place in a lot of new areas.  Owning what are probably the two of the largest Western-developed MMOs in the space has to have some impact, good or bad, right?  This could also be like the time Warner Media acquired AOL, too.

    At least it's exciting, I guess!
  • theGnadetheGnade Member UncommonPosts: 147
    Expectation:"WoW will become good again!"
    Reality:"Nothing changes"

    RoinTuor7McSleazfearuHJ-Navarre
  • KickaxeKickaxe Member UncommonPosts: 177
    theGnade said:
    Expectation:"WoW will become good again!"
    Reality:"Nothing changes"

    Reality is that those are opinions (or at least embedded in opinion), and not saying I disagree.

    I think this bet is safer:

    Expectation: WoW will change in some way.
    Reality: Gamers will enjoy or not enjoy WoW for reasons.
    [Deleted User]Roin
  • KyleranKyleran Member LegendaryPosts: 43,975
    Angrakhan said:
    Obviously I'm no industry expert, but I was a part of a fortune 200 company that got acquired by another fortune 200 company. I am a software developer (business not games) and was a part of the IT shop, obviously, and we had a 200 person team. Let me tell you during the acquisition all the press read just like this. It was all friendship, teamwork, and how important people are, and acquisitions are about people. Yeah 2 years later of those 200 only 3 were left and the former CEO of our old company had long taken his golden parachute.

    I expect a "reorg" within 6 months of this deal finalizing and it won't surprise me if Kotic gets a nice package and encouraged to retire early.
    Been through several corporate mergers myself and there's always a serious bloodletting, usually more on the side of the acquired firms resources.

    Redundancies are the first to go, (personnel, Finance etc) but they get around to Tech and eliminate or merge duplicate systems and teams as well.

    Perhaps they'll be more hands off as others have suggested, as long as the money rolls in at an acceptable rate, and the lawsuits abate...


    [Deleted User][Deleted User]obii

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  • SandmanjwSandmanjw Member RarePosts: 531
    I wonder how far off playing WOW is on mobile? 

    WOW has mostly been one of the easiest games to run on old systems, and phones keep getting more and more powerful.

    Either way, Microsoft has picked up both PC and mobile games that make billions each year. 

    Have to wait and see how much they try to put into the windows store:) If they do this right could be good for MS and gamers as well.
    [Deleted User]
  • laseritlaserit Member LegendaryPosts: 7,591
    Torval said:
    Ginaz said:
    I hope they get rid of Bobby Kotick sooner rather than later. Otherwise, it's like buying a used toilet that hasn't been flushed.
    I can't believe they kept him. Just crazy.

    Like I mentioned in the other thread Microsoft is very hands off with its subsidiaries. Mojang kept its Minecraft Java version. Zenimax and Bethesda are still running their online games as they always have (for better or worse).

    Kotick will no longer have a board to manipulate and an obnoxious salary once his current contract ends. He will have pressure to actually perform and be accountable to the parent for PR shenanigans. I think Microsoft is giving him an easy way out or he will have a line to toe.

    Despite the popular alt-right q-conspiracy media talking point that Microsoft is leftist "big tech", they support conservative libertarian candidates with political contributions. They aren't likely to go social justice with a Kotick lynching. They're more likely going to give him a framework to live in with less pay or allow him to move on if he doesn't like it.
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  • 2TonGamer2TonGamer Member UncommonPosts: 54
    People that are complaining that this is some sort of end for any of the brands really isn't seeing this thing in the proper light. It's not the end for anything. When the Blizzard/Activision merger happened that was much worse than this as most of those franchises on both sides languished and became worse over the years. M$ at least has a track record since their earlier missteps with allowing the companies they buy out to maintain some sort of autonomy and just infused them with a better foundation so they can improve. Minecraft has done nothing but improve under them and Bethesda is looking good so far and I think this new expansion they will be announcing is just the first of further improvements. Time will tell, but I think M$ has a better understanding of what gamers want and I would rather Phil be making decisions over the clowns at Act/Blizz.
    [Deleted User]laserit[Deleted User]finefluffIceAgeTuor7TacticalZombeh
  • 2TonGamer2TonGamer Member UncommonPosts: 54

    Torval said:


    Angrakhan said:

    Obviously I'm no industry expert, but I was a part of a fortune 200 company that got acquired by another fortune 200 company. I am a software developer (business not games) and was a part of the IT shop, obviously, and we had a 200 person team. Let me tell you during the acquisition all the press read just like this. It was all friendship, teamwork, and how important people are, and acquisitions are about people. Yeah 2 years later of those 200 only 3 were left and the former CEO of our old company had long taken his golden parachute.



    I expect a "reorg" within 6 months of this deal finalizing and it won't surprise me if Kotic gets a nice package and encouraged to retire early.



    I've been part of an acquisition too, just like you described there was a lot of internal shuffling. However, there is a lot of evidence this sort of thing has been minimal with their game studio/publisher acquisitions going all the way back to Mojang and going forward.



    I think one key difference here will be with trying to right the ship, especially with the Blizzard side of things. Will that stay with just personnel and diversity or will it also carry over into getting new fresh thinking and creativity to try and turn some of the stagnant gameplay back into something that flows well with gamers. They have 2 ships to try and right whereas the other studios they bought were already running well so how much tinkering we see might be different with this acquisition as it should be. The true test will be who they put over those entities and how they turn things around.
  • 2TonGamer2TonGamer Member UncommonPosts: 54

    proph001 said:

    This is a big F for World of Warcraft imo.



    Just another homogenization by the tech giants.



    Agree to disagree.
    [Deleted User]
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