All These Activision Blizzard Studios Will Likely Cease PlayStation Development

To be honest all these studios are now Call Of Duty support studios anyway and I bet most of the talented developers have long since moved on.

CoD games + Blizzard. K, cool.

Wouldn't swap a single one of them for insomniac, naughty dog, sucker punch etc etc

Hopefully they let Toys For Bob or Vicarious Visions have a crack at Banjo Kazooie or Conker.

Yeah, I would argue that the output of these studios doesn’t even come close to “dwarfing” the first party output of Sony’s studios. Quantity over quality, nothing more.

Vicarious, Beenox and Toys For Bob are all great, as for the cod devs I have no idea

They gutted studios like Vicarious Visions anyway. The more I think about it, the less of a loss it is. Perhaps something good might come out of all this and MS will sort out the mess of COD support studios.

Next article: "these are the people who work for the studios that will likely stop making games for playstation". 😂😂🤣🤣

thought toys for bob who made spyro and crash had already been got rid of and now make call of duty

Just get a pc all game come to it now and multiplayer is free

Why are you listing these studios when Spencer even said yesterday that they wouldn't be taking games away from other communities. Yes certain new IP's will probably be exclusive, but there is no way in hell games like Cod and Overwatch won't come to the massive PS userbase.

Almost all of these teams are simply COD developers, whatever their history, and blizzards fall from grace is legendary.
I'm not suggesting this is good new for PS fans, but I'd agree with DF that they have bought almost zero tech with this acquisition.

It might be galling to see an old PS IP made now that MS has the rights, but there's no way they are going to pull these teams away from COD and risk under delivering the real money spinner in COD.

@MatthewJP add Atlus, CDPR, from soft to that list.

I’d still like Vicarious Visions to reform and make Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3+4. This still needs to happen.

Square enix games, playstation exclusives and JRPG's are my main focus so all good for me, but tbh there's not a lot there besides call of duty devs and pc devs

Like other peeps said, pretty much every dev here outside of Blizzard work on CoD now, so it really isn't a loss. It's how the IPs will be utilized is the big question on my mind.
Will Microsoft look to keep the momentum that Crash and Spyro garnered from their revitalization? Or will they be added to the pile with Banjo and Conker?

The only games I would really miss the most on PS is new Crash and Spryo games. Assuming they make more, they may or may not end up good. But I already got what I wanted anyway and thats having the original trilogy. So having those is the important thing.

I don't play any of the Activision games. I did buy Tony Hawk, but I haven't left the warehouse. Bethesda had a much bigger impact on me. Activision I could care less about.

I don't play it but surely Call of Duty will still come to PS consoles. It's one of the biggest selling titles every year. If not we know Xbox really wants to stick it to Sony.

"Sony’s slate of PlayStation Studios was once regarded as the strongest in the industry,"
Huh?

Sonys 1st party studios are lightyears ahead of everyone else in the industry.

Didn’t Vicarious Visions fully merge into Blizzard?

I like to play the CoD campaigns so I'm sad if they are off the table. Sledgehammer are a good studio, they were founded by the guys who did Dead Space (both eventually left later). I don't subscribe to this 'big mainstream game = bad' mentality.

The list of devs no longer supporting Playstation just gets longer and longer. Smh

In my biggest nightmare I'll be forced to rebuild my 18 years old PC just to play Diablo 4. The worst thing of this is that PC version doesn't have coop, because it is only game I play with my wife. But I still hope SONY won't let things go too far, unplug it's head from own ass and react in some way. They slept too long and their radiosilence has backlashed to them...

So beat me with sticks, but for me the biggest loss is Blizzard. Even if Blizzard cut it's own legs by pacting with Activision...

Who dis,what do they make never heard of most of them,so erm.....arsed

@Kopite I would be on board with this. Even if it’s just remaking the older N64 games tbh.

Starcraft and Warcraft are my two favorite IPs ever, behind only Warhammer 40K. I've always played them on PC and the Microsoft acquisition is likely to improve that aspect despite being overall bad for the industry (Blizzard games might release on Steam again, for example).

Megacorporations spending near-limitless cash to squeeze out competitors doesn't sit right with me.

most of those studios are a shadow of their former selves, particularly blizzard. anyone who thinks blizzard can capture the magic of its former glory has not paid attention to all of the key staff members that have jumped ship over the past several years. it has quite literally been a brain drain over there and for good reason. microsoft essentially spent $70b for call of duty. there are a couple of semi-talented studios included, such as toys for bob, infinity ward and treyarch, but that's about it. there may yet be value in blizzard IP, but that is ONLY if microsoft can scorch the studio to the ground and rebuild anew with top industry talent. sorry, but that isn't going to happen as key members from the golden era prefer to be independent now in most cases. sony has not lost as much as some may think. if you are not a dedicated COD player, you are just fine. this deal may be big in terms of generated revenue and spreadsheets, but since when did mainstream gamers pay attention to any of that nonsense?

even after spending $100b in studio acqusitions, microsoft still has no answer for sony's 1st party lineup. that says it all, really.

@Royalblues Sony need to cooperate and negotiate with Microsoft,? and ask them for games??? Put the crack pipe down.

In the same way Xbox gamers had to wait an entire year for two first party games to be released in 2021, they'll be doing the same again this year while they wait until December for Starfield. In that time PlayStation gamers will be getting Gran Turismo, Horizon Forbidden West, GOW 2, and third party console exclusives Sifu and Forspoken, as well as a brand new VR headset in PSVR 2. Yes they lost a major cash cow in Call of Duty, but to try and proclaim they need help, or that there is no reason to buy a PS5, is beyond ridiculous.

@get2sammyb Ok. I see were you're going with this.

I understand the situation and what sells, and I know we're in a pandemic, but weren't you the one that wrote about not liking Sony games being $70 dollars?

We just don't want to be treated like numbers. I visit this site daily. I'm not even that turned off by the clickbait titles, but how you manage opposing thoughts.

I'll watch your gow, hfw, gt7, elden ring, dying light 2 reviews.

I guess I should just throw my PS5 in the trash. I'm joking of course. It's a huge move by Microsoft no doubt but there are still a ton of great games coming to PlayStation.

Well then micro$oft aka microshaft can go F themself!!! I have more then enough ps1-ps5 games to play.

@Intr1n5ic Call of Duty is big, but sony has 20 million sold exclusives (call of duty is on 3 platforms). If cod was only on playstation, would sell more than spider-man, uncharted, tlou or god of war in the long run?

They're fine. Fortnite, Sports games (which they wouldn't be converted to exclusives anyways), Battle royales are still on ps5.

I bet they weren't saying that during the last generation. It's like celebrating that a gambling kid lost all of his money and asked daddy for more money. Xbox didn't do the good thing here. Microsoft did.

We just need to wait and see. PlayStation fans haven’t got much to cheer right now which is not in doubt but the PS5 is still selling well and once widely available will increase sales rapidly.
Some of these pieces are starting to come across as scaremongering when actually what we all need to do is stop the hysteria and wait for the dust to settle. PlayStation may lose some games but the biggest franchises will remain multi platform - that will make MS even more money so change that would be madness and also MS will not want to alienate such a large proportion of the gaming world because it would make it less competitive. Gaming right now has excelled with so much variety and choice. Those trying to set off non existent console wars need to stop, take stock and focus on the here and now which is a great time to be a gamer, no matter where and how you play.

Well there isn’t much more to say about the article but I find fascinating the rumour that ‘Bobby Kotick considered buying game sites Kotaku and PC Gamer in an attempt to change reporting around the company.’ I know a lot of people think I’m paranoid about media narrative but there you go.
The mere fact that the rumour is reported on many sites shows the idea (of alternate narrative in the press) isn’t completely crazy.

As it stands, they all have been pushed into making and ensuring the annual cycle of CoD so if you don't 'play' CoD, then the loss is likely to be 'negligible'.

I expect CoD MP to go Free to Play and 'seasons' to keep things 'fresh'. However, that's not going to occupy all those Staff from all those Studio's so I expect those Studio's to be able to make the games they want to make. Whether that's 'new IP's' or new games from any of the IP's owned by MS. It's when these come out that the 'loss' may well be felt. We could see just how great those Studio's really are without having to crunch CoD out every year...

Treyarch made the best Spider-Man game before Insomniac's, High Moon made the excellent Transformers Cybertron games, Darkwatch and Deadpool games so there is potential, but as Activision has forced them into CoD, we haven't really got any recent 'reference' to go by.

Come on, guys! They're only video games. Let's get back to when the comments section was fun. Where are the colourful characters like @playstation1995? Hey, word up son?

"News": "likely"

Is it me or does this sound wrong?

@get2sammyb @kyleforrester87 Golf is always going to be a hard sell to be fair

So yesterday I was in shock when I read the news. Today I’ve digested it looked at said studios and the games that I as a PlayStation owner ‘may’ miss out on… I think I’m ok with this.
I think Sony has done enough and will continue to do so to keep a dedicated audience that isn’t enamoured by the Netflix model of gaming.

And really most of the games produced by these studios I don’t even touch. Sekiro after all wasn’t developed by activision just published by them. I’m feeling better today for sure hahahah

I just need to pickup D2 on sale and then D5 at launch...

Honestly, I feel like Bethesda and Activision had peaked anyway.

COD is like 60% of what Activision shipped over the recent years (I never bought one).

The IP's I really care about from them is spyro & crash & they were made by insomniac & naughty dog what a shame they sold them

I honestly highly doubt they will cease Playstation development with these ones.
I know, I know "they have to make up for that 70 billion"
But making CoD Xbox exclusive isn't going to make them money, it is going to cost them money.

Only thing i will miss is Diablo 4 and honestly i'm struggling to play more Diablo 2 after finishing hardcore run.

Every PlayStation fanboy and their dog have been stressing about MS financial troubles and how gamepass can possibly survive…How they must surely need to release starfield fall out elder scrolls on PlayStation to make their money back ect… why are lessons still not being learned?

1) MS don’t need to release any games on PlayStation out of concern of losing sales. Let’s all relax and accept that. How many times do they need to flex for people to see money isn’t an issue for them?
2) MS DONT see PlayStation as competition. Nor do they want the death of PlayStation. How are people still not getting that the ‘war’ is in their heads. That Microsoft’s end game is to have gamepass on PlayStation! They want gamepass on everything!

So all those here that constantly hate on gamepass would it really be the worse thing in the world if it was on PlayStation? Would the narrative suddenly change if you had access to everything? Seriously, Sony should just allow gamepass on and gamers reep the rewards. As at some point the aim is for MS to make them have very little choice…EA next

@Royalblues "As I see it, there is no reason to get a PlayStation and there will be even less reason in the near future when their games go day and date to PC."
LOL. C'mon, man. That's a bit much.😂

I'd quite like to see High Moon get out from under under CoD's shadow, even if it's exclusively for Xbox. It's a damn shame what happened to them and their Cybertron games.

@Bleachedsmiles 100% this. MS want gamepass on playstation. They've already been trying to get it on switch. This probably isn't the last purchase they make either. They're going to try to make it where Sony and Nintendo have no choice but to offer it on their platforms.

I couldn’t care less about anything on this list.
There is no way COD games are going exclusive, that’s just ridiculous. But at least that would limit the obnoxious dude-bros on PS if it were true.

I think it's a huge assumption the devs or even Microsoft will cut off development for PlayStation. I'd say even unlikely. PlayStation is the number one gaming console, outselling Xbox consoles since the PS4 was released. The number of CoD players on PS would be a huge cash loss for titles like CoD. For what? To drag players over to Xbox? It's likely not worth it. My own assumption is it's worth it to Microsoft to keep the titles on PS but offer different incentives to the Xbox players, like skins, DLCs, etc. This is all likely irrelevant to Sony anyway. Sony's devs have outsold and outperformed every title these Activision devs have ever created. The only exception may be CoD.

Give an honest opinion and it gets deleted because their feelings were hurt. So criticism is not allowed apparently to those who run this site, even when it's justified. Just have to agree and go along with the narrative. Sounds a lot like G4TV censoring. I'm done with the bs here. You can delete this too, cause I could give two ***** after I hit "reply."

Outside of Blizzard and King, all the other studios just make COD.
If they could make anything else worth a damn Bobby would have have them done so.

@get2sammyb
Good morning man.
Hope you don’t mind my comment too much as I know your busy. Just to say I don’t mind the article too much really but I’m sure your aware push readers appreciate interacting and being able to express their thought genuinely so please remember there are real human being behind each comment so let’s all be civilised. Simply removing comments that aren’t strictly following what the site advise seems disproportionate and not taking into account a normal human being subtlety. It’s like the opposite of a genuine discussion with the readers.
Thank you
🤷🏼‍♂️

@Arnna
Yeah I honestly think COD exclusive would just die on PC after a few years. I maybe be wrong but that’s what I think.
Now Ms can make weird decisions too so there is that haha

It's not even a question of the studios (none of them hold a candle to Naughty Dog or Insomniac) but it's the IPs that they control that's the problem.

A studio like Bend could probably put out a shooter that's better then CoD but without the name, likely it'd sink without trace.

@LilianaQuinn83 I hope they do bette than they've done with Rare so far

@trev666 I was buy myself new PC for a lot of money and still I'm can't play every game on 120fps at 2K resolution with ULTRA settings. Don't waste money on new GPU because they don't deserve such a mount of money!!!

@Bleachedsmiles It will be amazing to have GamePass on PS5, but I think that Microsoft will never approve that, either SONY will never accept GamePass on their platforms!!! Too bad!!!

@LoopBak127 I really wouldn't be surprised because all these corporations are run by a few people who decide everything... Unfortunately, that's the way it is in capitalism, despite the huge losses!!!

Any PlayStation owner that has the Hots for Xbox games only needs to spend $680 to play them on a series X and game pass ultimate.Like i have said I will miss Diablo, Hellblade, and Wolfenstein! Will I drop $680 to play them No! It's Microsofts loss when they lose the sales to the PlayStation community.

We don't even know how this will effect the pricing of game pass or if Activision/Blizzard will be a new subscription you have to pay for! No one said they will add it FREE yet.

All that and I just picked up a Nintendo Switch OLED after Christmas They have more games I want to play over a new Xbox

@mucc you need to read Phil's words carefully. He's being purposely ambiguous like he was with Bethesda, I know there's some copium for COD and Over watch, but don't get your hopes up for COD after this coming year.

Warzone is the most likely to stay.

Ugh... I used to be a xbox loyalist. Og xbox. Xbox 360. I became a ps loyalist for ps4 since Microsofts head was up their ass beginning last gen. I invested much into my Sony library, and won't be returning to Xbox no matter how hard they try. I will remain loyal to ps until they cease to exist. Even then I'd probably quit gaming before supporting Ms ever again.

@AngryChainsaw_ MS has already said they’d like it on both Sony and Nintendo platforms. This is also why they keep using certain wording suggesting it’s not their intent to split communities or deny playstation players. That games will be available on all platforms that have gamepass. Sony fanboys just scream “lie” without understanding what’s actually going on. Typical Sony fanboys tbh.

Trust, MS want gamepass on PlayStation

No big loss really, Activision hasn't been a good games publisher for a while now.

I don't care. Activision/Blizzard makes some great games, but only 1-2 PS5 games I care about. There are tons of upcoming PS5 games I'm excited about that. And honestly, even if Playstation does bite the dust, not that I see that happening, but if it does, I will just move on.

@Bleachedsmiles Yeah, I know that, but I also know if GamePass didn't come to the SONY, tgey will be not more Activision Games on SONY, except if SONY do something with Square Enix, Konami, Sega etc... We will see tgat. Personally I would like to have GamePass on PS5... But I have gaming PC, but there's a more people who can't play next game on PC and buy PS console, also CoD franchise is most selling at PS platforms. We will see what's going happens...