Microsoft Buys Call of Duty Publisher Activision Blizzard

Though I don't play any of their games, this is absolutely bonkers!!

Speechless. I genuinely don't know what to say.

I’m shocked. Although I shouldn’t be.
Is there no end to Microsoft’s acquisitions?

F*ck me. What money-hatting hypocrites.

Bit early for April Fools is it not?

Really didn't see this coming...

I'm glad I bought both next gen consoles this year, that's all I'm gonna say.

Ah bum. That's that all over then

Can't say I really care. But its one thing buying independent companies. But this is actually stupid. But hey. No more CoD on Playstation? Im cool with that. Lol

Bye bye Crash

The only upside is that Acti-Blizz games will now have to go on Steam.

On a serious note, I think there'll be tons of antitrust lawsuits coming in...

Failing this, Sony has no other choice but to buy something big on its own now. Either Square Enix or Ubi-Soft will be needed at the minimum.

Microsoft is trying to be like Disney of turning things into a monopoly in the gaming industry and needs to be stopped

@DonJorginho
Glad I own a PC

Wow. This is really shocking. Ms is trying to take over the game market. Sony needs to actively start taking over. I can't believe this.

Only game I care about from them is overwatch 2

Getting sick of Microsoft bullying the gaming industry with their money now, just because they flopped last gen doesn't mean they can buy all the big third party publishes left right and centre, if this is true they would have crash, overwatch, diablo and call of duty series as exclusives, to me they are ruining gaming for everyone else

@Milt

Yup. This is literally what its turning into at this point. Its a horrible road we're going down.

We get it you have all the money but buying already established multiplat publishers just to keep their games off PS is such a prick move. Then again my last CoD was MW2 so don't really care. It's the Bethesda acquisition that worries a bit. To be fair I'll say it again, it was also such a ridiculous move when PS was making timed exclusive access and content deals with multiplat games. Btw $70B for this and $12B for Zynga, feels like Bethesda have been shortchanged.

A Microsoft quote on the acquisition:

"As a team, we are on a mission to extend the joy and community of gaming to everyone on the planet."

What a load of horse S**t!

There's no possible way this shifts enough Xboxes and sells enough Game Pass subs to be viable.

Right then, come on Sony. Time to speak up about what’s going on with Discord, PS Plus/Now and games post-GOW please.

You know i bought a series S for gamepass but the more Microsoft becomes a monopoly and the more and more Bulls**t comes out of Phil Spencer mouth, the more I want or sell the series S and leave Microsoft behind.

I won't pay to support a MONOPOLY

Holy S**t that's a Biggie! Now games wise I'm ok with the losses here but the potential loss of revenue for playstation here could hit hard.

This is awful news for the industry and anti-monopoly laws need to start looking very closely at Microsoft. This shouldn't be allowed to go through.

Spencer and microsoft are massive hypocrites quite honestly.

I thought this was an April Fools, in January. This is mad.

Whatever happened to Phil saying they are "Re-evaluating" their partnership with Activision Blizzard?

Anyway, not the biggest fan of anything Activision-Blizzard made so this acquisition is not a big deal for me. Good luck to Phil Spencer managing this messed of a company tho, I guess.

@Jmck87 25 million Game Pass subscribers, over 170 million PS4/5 users, I'd say CoD is missing out!

At what point do antitrust laws kick in?

@Daleaf there is no way. The next COD will likely be the last assuming the deal takes a year to complete like the Bethesda deal.

Wow, they really are trying to monopolise gaming.

Who are pro-consumer now? Who next? EA?!

Seriously, this is what I have been afraid of. MS buying all the major third-party developers until you have no choice but to invest into their ecosystem.

Scary times, Xbots will love it until one day Xbox is the only game in town and GP costs over £30 per month.

This is business 101 man, if you can’t beat them buy up every market segment they sell in and wait until they rot.

Hate to say it but COD alone is going to cause an extreme shift in hardware sales by this time next year. This could be a day we’re talking about with serious disdain in 10 years time.

This doesn’t make sense. Sony gives to pc their best exclusive games, Microsoft buys bethesda (which means no more new games for ps4, ps5 ), then buys activision, so that means no more cod. In a time when everyone just want to keep their exclusive games, it’s strange how sony choose to do business. If more companies like activision choose to get away from sony, what’s the point in buying a ps5?

The sad thing is, this deal likely pays for itself through Candy Crush alone

This is the opposite of a just market! Absolutely disgusting I hope this doesn’t get green lit

What the actual f...
Not that it matters to me personally (not a fan of CoD and others) but this is a huge shift in the entire industry.

This is funny, I don’t care.

Sony cannot keep up! Said this yesterday. Shame

@Ashina They have re-evaluated; they are no longer partners, but the boss. But yeah, companies love playing easy PR rather than doing anything meaningful.

It seems Microsoft can buy anything they want and no one can stop them then??? Hmm, ok. Luckily I don't play any of those games(apart from Crash Bandicoot but oh well you can't have everything)

MS to buy EA and FIFA next and then we can all book flights to Alpha Centauri to see what gaming is like on their planets. I hope it's like circa 1989 Earth 😊

Remember when Phil said he wasn’t trying to take games away from people?

Yeah, biggest hypocrite in the industry. F*** Phil Spencer.

Whether or not you like Activision or Call of Duty, this is definitely NOT good for PlayStation.

This is actually very concerning.

I'm genuinely speechless.

American companies love a monopoly and Americans love them to.

Sony can't compete when this sort of cash is thrown around, they just can't.

If Sony end up getting out of the gaming busines, I'll have to get into Nintendo. No way I'm giving the bloodsuckers any of my money.

Don't panic. Gamepass offers streaming so you will be able to enjoy their games without an XBOX or gaming PC. As long as you have a wired internet connection.

Microsoft are doing whatever they can to force gamers to buy an Xbox. I mean, I buckled and bought a Series S at Christmas, my first Xbox since the heady 360 days. Don’t get me wrong, my PS5 is still my primary console, but Game Pass just makes too much sense not to!

Mark my words, Microsoft will kill the industry as we know it. Phil Spencer trying to goad sony yesterday too by saying they should be dropping exclusives to Spartacus on day 1 too. The quality of games will only drop in the long run and the entire business model will change.

Clearly Microsoft capitalised on the shareprice dropping because of recent scandals at activision

I dont know how Sony can respond to this really. The loss of income that COD brings to the platform is huge. Crisis talks at Sony right now i guess.

Oof. I'll miss Crash and Spyro on Sony's platforms. Bit of a shame.

To be honest I'm more surprised that Activision Blizzard went for it.

And I'll miss Crash and Spyro a thousand times more than I'll miss CoD. But imagine if you were a massive CoD head who'd just shelled out for a PS5. That's who I feel sorry for.

I just thought "what a slow news day", clicked in to Push Square during my last hour at work and saw this?!

My lord ... lost for words. And also this after all the negative press surrounding Acti, wow!

Well if this is true. I guess I’m buying all future games that are not PS exclusive on Xbox or Pc. Activision for that amount of money is insane but I play a few of their games each year.

If Microsoft buy Ubisoft next or something like that PS is going to be relegated to just an exclusives machine which is sad.

Nothing is safe anymore. How long until EA and Ubisoft are gobbled up? This is straight up insane.

What does this mean for overwatch 2?as its already way into development and already confirmed for playstation, that's the only game I care for from Activision

They really are just snapping up the entire Western AAA industry at this point, aren't they?

To all the people who kept saying "competition is good for us consumers", all I have to say is I freaking told you so a thousand times.

Now, feel free to enjoy the competition you've been cheering for.

*****, we've potentially lost Spyro AND Crash now. Wowzers.

Game Pass is gonna be £30/month soon at this bloody rate.

@get2sammyb
Its not the cash Sony has enough cash and a lot of comanies besides playstation elecrtonics an music and movies. I think with the money they earnt from the New Spidey movie alone they could buy a big one but you don't want that. I really hope there are comanies Who wil stop this nonens. It becomes too big a monopoly and that can never be good for the gaming industry. I hope there is a watchdog that will stop this takeover. Not that I play call of duty but still.

@naruball so competition is bad?

@MS7000 Yeah, exactly why I don't trust any words spoken by these execs, be it on MS or Sony's side. You hear Phil saying that exclusivity hurts the gaming industry and the next day, you see them acquiring studios to boost their exclusive libraries.

Anyway, so long as they keep their hands off on Fromsoftware, Square Enix, Capcom and any Japanese devs then it's all good. I'd rather that these companies be free of whatever console they want to work with.

Let the history books forever show that both this and the Bethesda acquisitions occurred while Jim Ryan was at the helm. Sony needs a Take-Two or EA to even compete on this level, which will never happen.

After Zenimax purchase, which included Bethesda, and other acquisitions, now this. As a PS console owner, I am starting to get concerned about my future PS5 games. Microsoft is purchasing everything in sight

I'm okay with this as long as Microsoft treats than the employees way better than Activision did.

You cannot fire hundreds of people whilst making record profit. That doesn't seem right to me.

@Ashina Well, I would guess that Bobby Kotick is toast, at least. But probably not without a substantial golden parachute, unfortunately.

@UltimateOtaku91 have to assume existing contracts will be honoured to a point. But there isnt a release date for overwatch, so thry probably dont have to release on Playstation

@get2sammyb - reckon this will push the roll out for Project Spartacus to this month?

@Bismarck yes, it is when it leads to this. When Sony was on top (Ps2/ps4), they released excellent games. Same when they were struggling (ps3). They didn't need the competition to do well.

Quite happy to become a console wars person at this right. This monopolistic crap is beyond disgusting

I wonder if legally this will be approved? This pretty much a Monopoly game now from MS and is now harming the industry.

I don’t get it - even in its dying years WoW pulls in more than 70 billion alone. That price is a steal, activision should buy Microsoft.

@Ashina
Japanse comanies can, 't be bought by western comanies. There, s a special law fot that in Japan. Sony on the other hand can buy if they want. But what good can Come out of this.

Hope Nintendo stop their stupid cosying up with Microsoft now and recognise the danger for what it is.

Sony are going to have to play nice with their Japanese friends like capcom and Square and Sega now before Microsoft strike again. It feels like just a matter of time before Ubisoft or EA get integrated into xbox at this point

Sony do have an opportunity to differentiate themselves if they are clever, but its going to get a whole lot tougher for them from here on out

Also, they can keep their micro transaction filled yearly games.

Wow, the first time I saw this I immediately check on the date, I thought it's 1st april lol. Man gamepass is way more attractive now for the masses, getting cod is huge, especially if it's exclusive to xbox/pc.

I think exclusive is way more important now compared to before, microsoft is taking more games from sony, and yet sony is giving more of their 1st party games to pc.

lol i knew this was coming. i read an article YEARS ago, 20 years maybe, where MS said they wanted a type of set top box to rule the living room for movies, games, tv. they tried it with the xbox one in 2013 but got in huge doo doo for FORCING people to have the kinect camera always-on, including the microphone. also, no used games were to be allowed. this changed fast as players took to the internet to rightfully complain. MS lost 33% of their user base to PS4 at the time, including myself. i wont buy windows or xbox ever again since 2013. i use PS5, Switch and Linux now. i vote with my wallet and when a dev or company does this garbage? they get nary a dime from me EVER again.

MS buying devs and publishers doesnt surprise me, i was waiting on this to happen. im sick of CoD and the woke crap in it now, misrepresenting historic wars. battlefield? same thing. i quit'em both a few years back. blizzard is woke garbage now, too. M$ can have'em. dont care. MS obviously cant get any decent devs in-house 1st party to make games OTHER than halo, forza and gears of war. so this step was natural. the 100 yard dash runner was losing every race, so, he bought the stadium and is trying to shorten his lane he runs in to the finish line. that's how i see this move by MS.

i told friends a few years back MS was gonna try to buy up the industry and then force orwellian camera/mics on people again probably one day in order to play online, as they also pushed all-digital control of our games via gamepass. it all leads down a bad road. i wouldnt have condoned this move even if SONY did it, or nintendo.

this now opens a spot at the table for sony to play their cards any way they want. the PS5 is already getting better texture/framerate results in many games compared to Series X. sony can now simply start grabbin up-n-coming indie devs and super-tweak their upcoming 3-tier service they have coming similar to gamepass. ok, fine, MS has fallout and CoD. now, sony can hire devs to create NEW games or even similar, superior games. this isnt a door closing on playstation... its several windows, no pun intended, opening.

Sorry for the long reply, but i was waiting on this news for a while now. Not wanting it to happen, just waiting for it to be announced one day and here it is, if it's true. I recall ninendo in the late 80s being in trouble and being called a monopoly for their business practices... makes me wonder if that could be the case here, too.

@Rob_230 Of course they are, it's what many on here have been saying for ages. They don't want genuine competition, they want to OWN the industry and be the only game in town.

MS are a ***** disgrace and Uncle Phil is the biggest hypocrite and snake in all of gaming.

Doesn't matter if you play Activision games or not, these games generate huge revenues for Sony and something like Call of Duty being on GP only will be a massive loss.

This is all because they got their arses whipped last gen. Surely there are some sort of anti-monopoly laws within the gaming industry? An independent regulator must look into this and question it's merits.

Ah yes the age old "If you can't make any quality first party games just buy them all out" strategy. Microsoft using their FU money to bully the competition once more.

@Mega-Gazz Sweeps the sexual misconduct stuff under the carpet and gets rid of kotick

@nitram2k11 absolutely it will be missing out I suppose the last few haven't really been big hitters but warzone going strong. I just cannot see this working out well for games and gamers? At some point there will need to be a financial return on this ? Currently at least 77.5 billion dollars deep into this which at some point somewhere has to eventually turn a profit?

@Rob_230 well with Bethesda Deathloop still came and so is that ghostwire Tokyo game which hasn't got a release date yet.

Anyone with a decent PC or smartphone will be able to play these games via Game Pass without ever having to buy an Xbox. Whereas Sony exclusives remain tied to the PS4/PS5 for multiple years before moving to PC. Xbox exclusives are far more accessible to gamers than PlayStation exclusives.

@TommyNL Didn't know about this law but good to hear. Still, I'd rather that Sony stay away from acquiring Japanese devs as well (even Nintendo). Let these devs work on whatever console they feel like working with

@UltimateOtaku91 different situation. Deathloop and ghostwire tokyo were signed as timed exclusives by Sony. Overwatch 2 is in a different position

Cod will probs not be exclusive, too many players to justify. Crash etc defo will be

@WizzNL thankfully(?), that won't happen. Japan knows better than to allow this.

They should buy Playstation next :^)

@__jamiie Don't forget about streaming. As long as you have a wired connection you don't need overpriced hardware.

Yeah, this makes me want an Xbox even less. Last gen Xbox had nothing, so what do they do? Instead of investing in new studios, just buy the rights to the biggest franchises in the world so you are forced to buy their console if you don't want to play on PC. Acquisitions of this size are f-ing disgusting in all forms of business. It doesn't matter if it's Microsoft or Sony, it makes me sick. If this carries on I can see myself just stop playing games altogether. What a joke.

@Mega-Gazz It makes about £82 million a year. That is a lot less than 70 billion.

Absolutely solidifies Micro$oft aka microshaft is moving into a service based system and out of the console market in the next few years. Don’t fret you’ll still be playing Activision/Blizzard games on a PlayStation console!!! Long live King Sony and the global PlayStation empire!!!

MS are a scum company, can't handle genuine competition.

I don't know how any gamer with a modicum of sense can support this move.

@Jmck87 agreed Its a really S**tty deal

@Bentleyma Nintendo is just gonna laugh at them again for another hour or two.

Oh wow. Haha
I can already see the activision blizzard call of duty NEW fans happy over the moon.

Haha
Suit Ms well enough. Like I said not long ago. Cultivate the differences instead of trying to imitate. I’m quite happy if Xbox solidifies its focus on FPS whereas PlayStation is more about third person games.

Edit
And what was that virtue signalling Phil was going about the latest scandals? Yeah right haha

Activision was in bad shape so in some ways this is a good thing for their company. Hopefully MS can right the ship.

And to think, CoD players were just coming around to the idea of cross-play

Obviously a lot of people here will be hating on this. But look on the bright side (from a PS standpoint); this acquisition is huge so it stops Microsoft buying Sega/Square/Ubisoft etc.

Feel all the more fortunate I was able to get a Series X on Thanksgiving. What a wild generation this I turning out to be.

@Ashina this is what I'm thinking! What utter rubbish that came from the Xbox exec, as if when he said that, he had no idea what his company was about to do like a month later? Unless "re-evaluating" meant "oh! We'll buy you now! 🥰"

Biggest gaming news of the year tho. I wonder if PlayStation has anything up its sleeve to keep up, because this is colossal.

@AinsleyE @AinsleyE my thoughts as well.. many friends i know say the same. we'd quit gaming if they buy it all up. also, it's all going woke, and this will get worse and will NOT change. steam will follow suit. pc gaming is an all digital dungeon now anyway. i wont ever game on pc again, too toxic, too many cheaters. i'd probably just play retro games again and fiddle around with nintendo's weak platform until gaming finally collapses. because ONE company buying up everything is NOT good.. and people are leaving comments here joking about it.. they have no idea their hobby is in dire straits right now.

Wtf this is so weird. Phil Spencer was talking about they would be careful with their relationship in the future and now they buy Activision? Lol wtf
I don't know if this will be good for them at least in the short term with all the controversy...but I'm sure they will make their games even better in the future, cause right now they're all kinda trashy lol

But just imagine if Sony would buy Rockstar now lmao

This is their chance to fire Bobby and be the hero we need.

Wow, taken me a few minutes to take it all in. What a huge purchase. Glad I’ve got Gamepass.

To be a fly on the wall at PlayStation HQ right now.

This kind of practice have the opposite effect on me personally.
I will quit playing games before joining them.

Only square Enix, rockstar and Ubisoft left of the major players I’m interested in.If either of those go to Microsoft it’s all over for me on PS. I think I’ll be going back to pc gaming and using my ps5 for exclusives only. It’s the only safe haven I can think of now that bidding wars keep happening.

Microsoft the GATEKEEPING KING'S

Jeez. I'd bet money on Game Pass coming to PlayStation by next year, or at least getting announced.

@WallyWest exactly.. nintendo did this in the late 80s, for being a monopoly, went to court. buying up the gaming landscape isnt how you "win" - but sony could turn this around if they're smart about it. i wonder if the sony execs are in a boardroom right now, at a long table, with a huge whiteboard, discussing this as we speak.

Sony literally can not compete at this point.

@Spiders you =/= the entire gaming community

In all serious this sucks, it's bad enough Microsoft are the industry standard for everything outside of gaming, now they also want to be the only player in gaming. I'm a Linux user and hate Microsoft with every fiber of my being for how anti-competitive and cancerous they've become in the computer industry

Sony are going to be the next SEGA.

Software only and selling games on Xbox, PC and, if the games are basic enough, Nintendo.

They can't compete with MS.

PlayStation is done at less they big some big Japanese companies

@Pixelated the only way to respond in kind and stand a chance at remaining competitive would be to acquire EA.

Sony should at least try something with Konami IPS at this point.

I wish they would build their own studios up instead of doing this. I don’t play a lot of Activision games but gutted about Spyro - not that anyone really seems to care about that IP anyway. Sits gathering dust whoever owns it.

I’d rather stop gaming than buy anything from Microsoft. Plenty to play with my PS5 and Switch.

so COD I don't play anymore. Apart from Spyro and Crash (meh imo) have I missed anything else good that Playstation is going to potentially lose to Xbox exclusivity from this?

@DrClayman i heard a rumor about this - about gamepass coming to playstation and i dunno if it was a joke article i read or a serious one, but gamepass would ruin gaming. all digital means we wouldnt own our games any more. but sony is trying to create their own 3-tier service similar to gamepass right now, actually. so it looks like they're gonna duke it out in that arena.

@WizzNL I think this generation Sony will be fine, but I'm not sure about the next one.

@UltimateOtaku91
‘I spend zero energy on ‘how do I make other gaming platforms smaller so that Xbox gets bigger’,” Spencer said.
Haha

Thought I'd check out pushsquare after hearing this on the BBC news. Don't play much of Activision's games but wow.

@naruball Fair enough, but neither is Call of Duty, WoW, Diablo and Overwatch. Hardly a monopoly on gaming. Let them buy Take-Two, Nintendo, Epic Games and EA and we can talk about monopolies.

Gamepass and game streaming is the death of the gaming industry unfortunately. This step is just another nail in the coffin. Exactly the same like netflix's doing in movie industry. You'll get quantity over quality. Not good at all. My only hopes with Sony and Nintendo. Probably we'll have a few good years left

Activision/Blizzard needed new ownership and MS has the cash to invest in their Primary Platform that has MUCH greater reach potential than Playstation. Game Pass is available on Consoles, PC and Mobile and therefore has massive reach. I bet the majority here can access 'Game Pass' on a device they already have and can use their PS controller to play without requiring an Xbox.

I can see Game Pass on PS - maybe can't download and play Starfield etc because the game is NOT ported to that hardware, so the 'best' console to play will be Xbox, but you could still 'stream' games and use your DS5. It may not happen until Sony are in a Similar position with their service, but I can see them putting their 'PSNow/Spartacus' on Xbox and Xbox gamers could play Uncharted streamed to their platform.

@Col_McCafferty i dunno.. sales are dropping for CoD and Battlefield due to "woke" in their games now. lot of small time indie devs are cashing in as they bring new ideas and games to the table. just because M$ has a ton of money doesnt mean they can buy ALL of gaming up, and even if they did, it doesnt mean gaming would even stick around long at that point. lot of people would stop gaming or switch to other platforms, i.e. nintendo, pc, retro gaming, mobile gaming.

Gaming just died, third parties are all but extinct. I think I'm done following games news. I'll still play games but this is depressing.

I can see only 2 viable options for Sony.
Try and compete and buy a publisher also. But I don't think they can afford to do that
Or Gamepass to be on PlayStation.

@Col_McCafferty Doubt Sony will be the next Sega. The gaming industry is far different from back then and the PS brand of console is already popular enough to stand against MS and Nintendo

@MrSensical doubt Sony has anything that can compete with this acquisition. Best they can do is to iron out the games that they have with their owned IP.

What!?? NO! Tencentsoft wants to burn bridges with PlayStation's partners. First bethesda and now this? Do you understand how vital call of duty is for playstation's success when it's been a top seller year after year. Microsoft has now monopolized the fps genre apart from battlefield when it's at its lowest point now. The fact that sony is losing the japanese market doesn't help either they need a strong plan asap.

Sony needs to buy monster energy now, show the xbox gamers what's up.

So glad I bought a series X as well as ps5 now. Jesus H though, this news is incredible.

Call of Duty NOT being on PS is massive and is going to hit their pockets hard.

Crash being an Xbox exclusive is beyond insane.

AAA SP games are all I really care about but I suspect this will be the last PS console generation and SP games in the future will be utter *****.

Tbh when I read this the big reason I could see Microsoft buying them, besides the fact COD sells well on PS systems, would be to cut Diablo IV off from releasing on PS systems. As far as we know there is no new Crash or Spyro games coming from them so it seems like it’s to cut off Diablo IV and COD mostly. Not hurt if they keep COD for themselves in the future after the deal closes, but I’d be pretty cross if they keep Diablo IV from PS5(because let’s be honest I doubt it was ever going to release on PS4)

i think i already know how sony will try to couter these things.

there is a rumor that ff games this gen will be PS exclsuive,i guess that eventually sony will buy IP's instead of studios since it's cheaper and it will keep those IP's on PS in the event MS buys another studio.

it would suck yes but tbh this would be more of a "survival" move by sony to keep third party games on PS.

Sony has to allow Game Pass or Xcloud on their consoles now. this is the only way to have these games on their system

@Spiders of course it's not a monopoly on gaming, but I think most people here assume there would be a domino effect. If tens of millions buy an xbox over playstation, Sony won't be able to compete. Even people who don't play COD would buy xbox since (almost) all of their friends would have it.

@naruball Yeah, Microsoft love to play dirty. Looking at how they conquered the PC market back in the day, they're different from other competition. If they get spooked, they go ballistic. Only reason it took this long for them to be like this with the Xbox division is the wider corporation didn't take it as seriously. Now they know how big gaming can be, they're pulling their weight.

@Col_McCafferty
COD will be a PC gaming thing 100% in the near future.

Whilst the last activision game I bought was Crash Team Racing,(Actually,make that the Blizzard Arcade collection mostly for Lost Vikings),& not a COD fan, it continues a horrible trend of M$/XB aiming to monopolise the market.
Much like the "3rd party timed exclusives are anti gamer/gaming for everyone",nice guy "Gamer Phil" image he likes to project,he's demonstrated time & again being the ultimate hypocrite. As opposed to just buying individual devs,just like the Zenimax buyiout Gamer Phil is using Dad's credit card & ensuring 3rd party franchises are going to be XB/PC gamepass exclusive.
If Gamer Phil is so confident in all the "innovation" of Xbox studios,why the need to keep swallowing up 3rd party IP's & publishers to permanently keep them off competing platforms?🤔🙄
Guessing it'll give Bobby Kotick a nice golden parachute into quiet retirement.

It's a real shame that so much consolidation is going on in the gaming business. Ultimately it's us the consumer that will loose out in the long run and these huge US corps will just continue to get richer and richer.

@naruball lol acquire EA? EA doesnt even want EA! lol! if sony bought EA, they'd have to clean house big time within EA. i dont think sony has to respond by spending billions to acquire a few devs. sony can just bounce the ball slightly different and come out on top. look at the measures M$ is taking to control the whole of gaming.. and it still isnt working. i dont think i'd want sony using the same monopolistic tactics as M$.

Do Xbots really hate PS this much? Do they want to see them go out of business?

I'm not sure how anyone can gloat over this. It's not Xbox players interest for Sony to fail, once they do and there's only one game in town then MS can charge whatever they hell they want for GP.

Despite all the fanboy nonsense, this isn't a good move for any gamer.

Honestly I’m quite happy all things considered.
PlayStation will focus MORE on what I actually like.
Awesome news

Phill Spencer is the worst thing happen to gaming ever,been saying that for years. But THiS IS TO MONOPLISTIC TO PASS,i can see all games goin to gamepass dnd but i also think they'll allow all games to go to other platforms. But then again who knows...

@JJ2 u mean an arena of nothing but cheaters? ok! fine by me! i quit CoD a few years back any way lol.

Never trust a men with big smile and little thingie inbeetwen

I honestly think the long term plan is Game Pass to be available everywhere, PlayStation, Nintedo, toasters etc. I think that's them brute forcing their way in.

If that's the only way Sony is able to get COD on their platform, along with Diablo, Elder Scrolls etc at some point they'll give in. And they'll let them sell them individually as well, they'll give the platform holders cuts from subs, but the hard line will be "Game Pass needs to be there". Just my thoughts.

@Pixelated I don't think it's that simple. Also, EA may have serious problems, but they also have sports games that dominate charts (especially FIFA).

No offence but at least Sony invests in upcoming developers or hugely talented studios without any major tie-cutting purchases that could result to disconnecting an entire platform from major titles… it’s clearly an extra revenue for them and that’s all it is.

@DrClayman
Then they have to pay Sony for that i don't think that's happening.

@SoulChimera gamepass will ruin and control gaming and toss it in an all digital dungeon. u wont own games any more. the same way the nightly news is telling us soon we wont own cars, eat meat or be allowed to own property. i see this move as NOT good for gaming.

Will Microsoft leave the studios to function mostly independently as per Bethesda acquisition, or will they take charge and make sure the IPs outside COD are actually being remembered, developed, and executed well?

Would be nice for COD releases to be every two years and for teams like Vicarious Visions to be free from helping with COD development, maybe remastering more THPS games.

This is insane. Should this even be allowed by law? They're building a monopoly with two of the biggest companies in gaming... What's next? Square Enix? Ubisoft? EA Sports? Seriously, Microsoft, work on your own talents and stop keeping people from playing third-party games.

Btw, as far as Crash, Spyro and Tony Hawk goes, I fully expect the employees to pull a Rare move and leave the company to create their own in a few years.

@3Above this opens the doors for indie devs, is how i see it. im playing the PS5 monthly free game, Deep Rock Galactic, and i personally love it, its now on my GOTY list for 2022, no joke. it's an indie game basically and it takes such simple ideas and does them right. i'd like to see MORE indie games of this caliber. i've shifted my focus to single player, co op and indie games lately. im gettin away from AAA unfinished buggy rushed trash.

I can see some people justify ‘ it’s fair enough because Sony bought err. some exclusive games things. Err. It’s fair. Phil just buy Japan and Africa and maybe Oceania to counter that exclusives are counter to what err gaming is about ‘

😅

What I always said Microsoft is about to destroy the gaming industry. With game pass and with buying all the major game developers and publishers. They have almost limitless money. Sony can’t and shouldn’t try to compete.

@RenanKJ look up how nintendo got pulled into court in the 80s for also being accused of running a monopoly in gaming.

I really hope monopoly laws stop this sale from going through. MS is brute forcing its way into complete control of an industry using money gained from outside the industry. This is an absolute joke and gaming will suffer massively for it. Kotick is still going to be CEO for those of you that hope MS will treat the employees better.

I was more disappointed when they bought Zenimax as their IP is way more interesting to me, but this is massive, Spartacus had better be good and include day and date (which I don't see happening).

Puts more pressure on Sony to come up with a decent offering for 'Spartacus', and probably quickly.

Which is a good thing.

That’s some Game of Thrones style manoeuvring right there yo 🤣 Is Cersei Lannister working at Microsoft HQ now? “When you play the Game of Thrones, you win or you die.”

Monopolies are obviously bad for business. I suspect there will be competition law after this as others have said.

For those saying they don't play Activision games.. that's fine neither do I. But the overwhelming majority of gamers aren't people looking at PushSquare, they are causal players and COD is so, so massive.

Sony have got to make all their 1st Party games part of their new PS Plus/Now package. Not sure they can afford a behemoth like Square or Rockstar.

Sad day for low income gamers who can't afford more than one console. I'm all for exclusives but it shouldn't extend to a company as big as this (I felt the same for the Bethesda deal).

I recall everyone being up in arms over Spiderman being exclusive for Avengers or even comparing Bethesda's deal to Insomniac's — but then these sorts of deals are treated celebratory by most of the media.

I don't see how this isn't close to having a Monopoly on the gaming industry. I also don't see how Microsoft can be allowed to buy both Bethesda and Activision.

The only thing Sony could do to even compete against that would be to buy Square Enix and that's nowhere near as big but has good studios. I also wish Sony would somehow get Atlus.

In the end Microsoft talks about getting games to everyone but when you buy 2 companies of that size that's just shutting out millions of gamers. Even if they have money to burn by putting those games all on gamepass and not on Playstation. Doesn't seem like they should be able to do this.

Should we call Microsoft the king of monopoly of the video game industry

@WizzNL I think Nintendo have their own niche and wouldn't care one jot if Sony stopped selling consoles nor if they pulled out of gaming entirely.

This move puts Sony in an extremely difficult position and one I'm not sure they can recover from.

Bye Spyro Bye Crash you will be missed

Oh wow the salt in this forum is insane. I gaurentee none of you would be moaning if sony did this. Activision blizzard needed a new direction and ideally a new leadership. The shear scale of the gaming industry means this doesn't even come close to being a monopoly

@velio84 what do you mean by respond by making good games? They've been doing that for ages, not as a response.

@Claimedhealer2199 yep I agree ,as long as they get rid of the bad elements at Activision it's a gd thing it can grow without being a danger to the employees

This doesn't affect me personally as I generally don't buy Activision or Blizzard games but the antitrust lawsuits need to start piling on.

It's Microsoft being Microsoft though. They have no talent so they buy it up.

@get2sammyb Imagine this news being the first thing you wake up to in the morning. And it's basically Monday here after the 3 day holiday weekend - which is probably why it wasn't announced yesterday - and the entire week is off to a bad start. And I don't even really play any of those games but it's obviously a huge move. I'm going to the movies to watch Venom Let there be Carnage, think I'll see some corresponding relationships.

You can hate them if you want, but MS is putting a stranglehold on the gaming industry and it has its hands firmly around Sonys throat and is slowly going to squeeze the life out of them. Im honestly worried about the future of Playstation being on this side of the fence. Really scary times to be a Playstation fan. Smh

Microsoft buys this generation, still not buying an Xbox, no VR and have a gaming PC

@Sunzy98 Yeah, in a way, Sony's recent acquisition made more sense as they build relationship with them first and then acquire them once a stronger relationship has been established on both parties. At least at the time they acquire them, it wasn't when they were working on major multi-plat games

that’s a huge blow to Sony alright. No more COD on PS eventually.

All Xbox now

Serious question. Can you access Game Pass via the PS5 web browser?

I don't own one yet and have never thought to try it on my PS4.

@QBGaming12 "The only thing Sony could do to even compete against that would be to buy Square Enix and that's nowhere near as big but has good studios. I also wish Sony would somehow get Atlus"

You're right. It's nowhere near the same. EA would be close.

@Scarla88 It's funny because I have the opposite approach. I'm now buying all possible games on PS5 instead of Xbox. I can't stand the consolidation of this industry

@Pixelated Yeah personally I dont play many Activision games but still. This is as bad as Disney buying Fox.

We are living in cold war gaming times but sony has all the talent to make people forget about this when vr2 and new exclusives are announced.

@velio84
Yes you might be right. I only see my own point of view though. I don’t think I’m competent to assess the eco aspect and can’t be bothered about what the mass market wants tbh
Again I think this suits Ms and and they PC focus perfectly in the near future.
I hope Sony keeps a console focus even if they bring some stuff to PC.

@Claimedhealer2199 no... many people wouldnt approve if sony did this, either. i wouldnt approve. its not "salt" its genuine concern... ONE filthy rich company buying up gaming is NOT good and has sinister implications. but gamers are like "derrr i have gamepass, im ok!" and they dont realize that all digital will indeed ruin gaming eventually because u wont own your games any more. one company buying up everything is a bad sign... and yes, this is indeed monopolistic practice - they're buying up gigantic billion dollar devs. not tiny indies.. but large game-staple devs and publishers, even. it isnt 1 or 2 games, its swaths of games, published under 1 big corporation, that M$ is now buying, meaning they'll get the devs, the publisher, all of it.

xbox has been losing since E3 2013 and now they wanna buy the industry.

as an xbox player what a massive waste of money

I doubt MS will make these games exclusive.
Maybe timed exclusive but I'm sure they'll still come to PS.
That or MS seriously has some F U kind of money.

@Sunnyviji You don't need an XBOX if you have a PC. Also, VR on consoles is very limited.

Micro$oft is that 11 year old kid who isn't really good at the game but whose mommy and daddy are really rich... so he purchases a save data of a maxxed character to convince everyone else he is really good.

I wonder if the quality of these games will show considerable decline over time. We'll see.

@Claimedhealer2199 Sony couldn't AFFORD to do this.

You want to see MS as the only game in town? You want the to completely own the industry?!

Even if you're a MS fanboy, surely you can see how dangerous this is.

@Claimedhealer2199 "I gaurentee none of you would be moaning if sony did this."

And I can guarantee that Kim is, like, your favourite Kardashian. There you go. Equally well founded statement.

It's just videogames...

@Ashina this could be a boon for sony, as sony can get more 1st party devs to come onboard. thats the main draw to playstation - the 1st party games. xbox has the same 3 games: halo, gears, forza. they're trying to buy popularity at this point and its not good for gaming as a whole.

i do think sony has money to buy a third party studio.

they are just more carefull with it and would only use it when absolutly needed i think.

also sony can pull money from the movie and music branches if needed. they are not poor.

will they buy a third party studio now? no,but if this keeps up then they will simply need to in order to keep third party games and IP's on PS. and in those situations i think sony is willing to spend big.

@SweetSummerShunv Surely Square is a shoe-in at this point? Sony own about 15% of the company from shares they brough back in the 1990's after FFVII was released.

I keep wondering who is going to buy Sega.

i was wondering if Activison has the Sekiro ip which I think they do as I'm currently playing the game and there's a huge Activision banner on the screen.. So who has the Sekiro guys? Fromsofter or Activision(Microsoft)?

@RadioHedgeFund hopefully no one buys Sega

@munstre correct.. anti consumer... desperation move. they want control, have since i read an article stating so about 20 years back. gamers dont see, this is not good. even if sony did it. i've told friends for a few years now, get away from using windows, get away from xbox. most just shrug. now we're in the phase of "they're buying everything up!" i bet a lot of my friends get nervous and go straight to xbox and gamepass now. i bet they will.. they think being on the fake winning team is how u salvage your beloved hobby. no... it isnt.

@naruball But monopoly is anti-competition.

@Tatarimokke Activision just published the game. They are independent so far as I know.

Here is what I posted at Pure Xbox:

I have no dog in this fight at all. I have an Xbox and a Playstation and a Switch and a couple of other systems kicking around too.

I don't like Microsoft continuing to buy up huge developers. I think it is going to keep a lot of gamers from playing games they want to play, and I think continuing to carve out what is closer and closer to a monopoly is bad for creativity and the industry as a whole. I also don't like it that Bobby K is gong to get a huge payout from this sale.

Again: This will have no impact on me at all. I will still play the games I want to play. But some people won't be able to, and that is sad to me. I understand why it is good business for Microsoft, but I don't think it is good for gamers overall.

The next one is Take-Two it is just a matter of time. Maybe this year but I am sure at the latest next year. And then let’s wait at what time they gonna buy Ubisoft. I know for sure I will never again buy Xbox. I don’t like bullies.

hmm.. maybe a good response from sony could be..... since they invented "bluray" and xbox has a bluray drive, sony could raise the tech licensing fee to a point that M$ would be paying out the nose directly to sony hahaha. then sony could take that money and buy devs and publishers. im joking, but.. that'd be hilarious.

Frack!
Ill news indeed! Not a fan of Call of Duty, but I like Diablo 2 and was looking forward to Diablo 4... If MS releases D4 on PC, i'm good, but if they're gonna make it Xbox exclusive, even for 1 year... damn!
Sony would do better to move it's arse and acquire From Software at least! It's a must if they want to stay afloat.

I guess now we can't celebrate how many steam users playing god of war on PC...

I don't think they will make all of Activision-Blizzard exclusive. $70 Bn is hard to recoup.

@naruball EA would cost a fortune but your right. I think Sony could buy Square, Atlus is with Sega but buying Sega isn't really worth it. So Sony getting Atlus would be tricky.

@Rural-Bandit wow, the paid to keep FF7 off Xbox. Big bloody deal. It wouldn't have sold on there anyway, not on GP.

Sony are in a competition, MS are trying t creat a monopoly. There's a big ***** difference.

Sony attracted me to PS4 because of their games, MS are trying to give gamers zero bloody choice!

It's actually the death knell of the industry and Sony know it. I expect them to publicly make out they're fine but behind the scenes, a clock is ticking down to when they're software only.

@Westernwolf4 isnt this what communism is? its not "choices of many things" - it's ONE THING and only one thing, one choice. thats how i see M$'s behavior.

So Microsoft finds value in firms that promote sexual harassment. Sounds about right. I remember their Xbox One showing where the guy told the lady to relax and take it…it would be over soon.

How Xbox.

WHAT THE FUHHHHH?
I mean I don't play Activision Blizzard games but Sheeshus Freakin H Kristo!

The only Acti games I own are Diablo and Spyro, but you can't deny Call Of Duty. These games dominate most played games lists. Normally having multiple titles in the lists.

If MS want games that player keep coming back to constantly, Call Of Duty is definitely a strong franchise to have as exclusive to xbox and Game Pass.

(I mean, it's the franchise they've been trying to turn halo in to for over a decade at this point. Kind makes sense they'd just cut out the middle man)

@Pixelated This is 100% free market capitalism at work here.

Bring back Killzone and pump some money into it this time. I chose it over cod and halo everytime till the most recent one that must not be mentioned. timesplitters can be an overwatch killer if done right or do ms own that too?

@viktorcode you could say it technically isn't monopoly. And even you consider it monopoly, it is competition that led to this acquisition.

I do not know what to say. What a terrible day for gaming. Where does this end?

@velio84 new IPs don't help sell consoles (at least most of the time). Established IPs do.

@naruball but isnt a monopoly where ONE person/entity/corporation controls something, including publishing, creation, etc? yes, i count this as a monopoly at this point. buying billion dollar publishers that have multiple devs under-wing... i'd call that a huge monopoly!

@Rural-Bandit So I've actually been thinking for a while that Apple and Sony could probably come to some kind of mutually beneficial arrangement.

Come on sony.buy square enix and capcom.because this is getting ridiculous.hopefully we still have crash bandicoot coming to PlayStation.word up son

Xbox fans are celebrating but they clearly don't know how monopolies work.
1.Company introduces super awesome product at an extremely reasonable, almost detrimental price (Gamepass).
2. Company starts buying out/acquiring smaller companies to build themselves bigger than their true competition.
3. Company continues to offer and introduce services/products that the competition can't compete with at a price the competition can't compete with
4. Competition fails and/or is bought out by the company.
5. Company raises prices and/or yanks the extremely reasonable service.

And ladies, gents and nb's, we have a monopoly. We learned this in social studies people, come on. Microsoft is clearly at step 2.

@Rural-Bandit we won't know for sure for at least a few years. But I think there is a massive difference between ps and ninty gamers. Just looking at the attach ratios of Nintendo games, you can see how much stronger Ninty IPs are.

@clianvXAi because money talks studios walk onto Microsoft trap

If you can't beat 'em, buy 'em.

@Rural-Bandit pc is an all digital dungeon now. i wont touch it any more.

@naruball It is a process of monopolisation, where the end point (after many acquisitions) is a monopoly. That reduces competition.

And if you don't have competition then you already have a monopoly in this market, by definition.

@playstation1995 the avarage gamer doesn't care about Square Enix. They care about Capcom a bit more, but still nowhere near as much they do about COD.

Hopefully the government blocks this. Microsoft is turning into a monopoly.

@viktorcode You're talking about what might happen at some point in the future. Currently, there is no monopoly, at least technically.

Microsoft probably offer its game pass on playstation and Nintendo in future after buying them all outside playstation and Nintendo owned studios

Good thing I have a PC

@WanderingBullet surprised Microsoft hasn't tried buying playstation from sony 🤔 lmao there's better chance sony buying out ubisoft/ EA

@naruball. Yes they do.final fantasy and kingdom hearts is one of the best franchises and well known franchises worldwide.word up son

@Falkirk4life this is a rumor going around for a while now. M$ wont get a damn dime from me ever again. so, i'd quit gaming at that point, sadly.

@Rural-Bandit I agree. I'm not saying Sony is the "good guy" in this by any means, but it's clear to see what's going on here. They've been pressuring Sony with Gamepass for a while and now all the acquisitions. Sony will still have plenty of options, they have their exclusives after all, but in terms of consumers, most only have 1 console (maybe 2 because Nintendo IPs, and Nintendo consoles are cheaper). So when consumers start weighing which console they want down the line, most are going to want the console with the boatload of games.

@playstation1995 Quality is subjective. Sales are objective. Surely, you understand this.

@Rural-Bandit i dont think gamers get it, yet... gamepasses and all digital.. this WILL ruin gaming. it'll turn it into disposable hobby. like mobile gaming. try this game, dont like it, try another. micros inserted every where. ads maybe in the future? NFTs, etc. the woke agenda in gaming was the first hint that gamers have no control over gaming.

"So competition is bad" How is one massive company buying up loads and loads of 3rd party devs - competition - they sit on enough dormant IPs as it is and have very little innovation.

This is the opposite of competition...

I own a Switch, XSX and a PS5 and for me this is bad news just as the Bethesda one was... less games will be released and thats a fact. xbox wont have an Activision AAA come out at the same time as a Bethesda or a few weeks apart and then their own games on top...

its less games for all of us. Including Xbox fan boys.

@Americansamurai1 Doubtful. The government tends to overlook things that they perceive as... "childish" for lack of a better term. Part of the reason the internet was the Wild West for a decade was because the government allowed phone companies to buy up everything related to it, then refused to regulate anything because they perceived the internet as a passing fad. If you're looking for the government to stop monopolization of entertainment, look no further than Disney to understand why that won't happen.

@Brydontk i wont be on that boat lol because i refuse to play any more "woke" games or sit and smack controller buttons to get passed e-begging screens in games of "buy this season pass now and get stupid character clothing!" microtransaction trash. thats where gaming is heading... hollywood-ized microtransaction trash owned by ONE corporation - which, is the definition of communism. 1 choice. not several.

Wow... Microsoft flexing the deeeeeeeeep pockets.

Put it all on PC Game Pass, and I am happy.

@Pixelated Thaaaaaat's not what Communism is. That is by definition what late-stage Capitalism is. But I agree with most of the other stuff you said 👀

Time for Sony to buy EA and revive the Battlefield franchise and fix Madden.

Ha! Sony the evil corporation is being worked over by the good guys at MS who can’t beat’em so they buy’em. This is the Mister Burnsiest poop I’ve ever seen.

@Ashina yeah I don’t know I feel… turning into a monopoly for Industry giants, it’s gives me bad vibes for the direction it’s going in pushing a subscription based agenda, forcing companies to result to their services… think about the end result and how developers have to react to these changes does it push for less authenticity, lack of passion and heart into development if this continues then the old ways of gaming will come to an end and will have to eventually pay for what we get even if it’s garbage.

@Stocksy we only got here because of competition. If xbox had been as successful as Ouya or Sega or Stadia or... any other failed company/product, we wouldn't be in this situation.

This is getting to the point where I wonder if anti-trust legislation is appropriate. This must be one of the biggest acquisitions in world history.

That said, I haven't played an Activision game in over a generation!

Uh, how much? The world's gone mad.

@Rural-Bandit Sony can’t compete with MS like this. Soon Sony will be only a first party studio because MS owns everything else. Elder Scrolls, Overwatch, Diablo, and COD now all belong to MS. That’s insane!

@Rural-Bandit I dig the optimism, and if that's what happens, great for all of us. But again, if you look at what's been going on, Microsoft's moves have been weird. I remember a while back that they admitted they don't profit from the gaming side of things. So when they have a service like Game Pass, which almost certainly is a loss for them (People staying on the subscription rather than buying new games) it really does seem more like a long-term maneuver than a sound business practice. I want free games like the next guy, but I've always understood why Sony dragged their feet in matching Game Pass. It really does seem like since dropping the ball with the Xbox One, Microsoft has been content with losing money for long-term gain. Granted, Sony got greedy this gen and fell asleep at the wheel, but I'm not entirely sure how this will play out for us.

Sony should buy Square-enix or at least buy IP's like Final Fantasy, Metal gear etc. That's the best way to compete. As long as M$ doesn't own the Japanese gaming world then gaming is still saved

Personally, the only activision game ive bought in years is the diablo 2 remake, but yeah its big.
I really don't understand how microsoft plan to make a profit from this though. How many livelihoods do they think gamepass subscription money can support?

@Martijn87 I don't think that would be enough to compete in the West and in Japan Sony is struggling, as Ninty has taken almost completely over.

Given that the biggest stick Xbox got beaten with for the last few years was not having any games, I've no issue with this. Sony still has loads of amazing console exclusives. Now, so do Xbox. The good thing with Xbox is that you don't even need the console to play them, you can stream through xcloud or play on pc.

Truly a match made in hell lol. Sony, just keep giving me JRPGs and VR plus your first party games. Games like CoD, WoW…don’t go down that road.

@Martijn87 Yeah, I agree. I usually buy fighting games and jrpg's which are usually made by Jap devs.

Good for PC gamers who probably play a lot of these games. Great for Game Pass subscribers.

Xbox owners will be happy to have some sort of COD exclusivity, if not full exclusivity. My Candy Crush-loving aunt will remain unaffected by this acquisition.

As a Switch and PS5 owner with a family, I already have too much to play. February is in 13 days and those releases might keep me busy until the Megatron variant shows up, in 2026.

If gamepass subscriptions don't exceed 50 million now that it's going to have call of duty than nothing is going to move those numbers.

You're all aware that corporations- and especially the psychopaths who run them- don't care about any of us unless we're giving them even more money, right? It's not a case of Microsoft good, Sony bad or whatever, it's a case of people want your money for products. Nothing more.

If we get the occasional God of War or Bloodborne then good stuff, but you can bet that these grubby little horrors absolutely hate the fact that they can't graft some kind of FUT abomination onto them.

The whole industry has become a zero sum game. It was never in your favour.

@naruball but losing final fantasy and other square-enix titles it will destroy any chance in Japan. They have the developers to compete in the west.

@naruball right and one company buying up third party devs left right and centre isn’t the way to healthy competition

MS have always been Pay to Win, but they seem to want to go back to their old days of monopoly.

They haven't bought them. They've stated their intention to buy them and it won't close until 2023.

Microsoft’s recent acquisitions feel desperate. The amount of money spent on the Activision acquisition is mind boggling. 68.7 billion is 68,700 million. That amount of money for COD and WOW is stupid. WOW is in its twilight years. COD is just another online shooter among many. Gamepass is “neat” but not going to make $68 billion anytime soon. This really feels like Microsoft flailing wildly about in a desperate attempt to corner gaming. Joke is on them though as I don’t play any Activision games and a lot of gamers don’t. Even if you do there are other similar games. How much did they pay for Warcraft remastered? Absolute insanity.

I don't think I've ever bought a Activision game new in store (and never ever a Blizzard game in any way, shape, or form), so it's not like my choice of games as a Playstation owner is now becoming a lot slimmer.

But this is obviously a huge blow in the larger scheme of things. Sony cannot compete with Microsoft, and never will be able to. Economies of scale. Believe me on that, as someone who works in the Microsoft ecosystem. Keep doing your own thing, and rely on being who you are. Squenix or even SEGA are peanuts compared to Actiblizz, don't waste money on buying them in a blind panic.

Actually, maybe do buy SEGA because the Yakuza games going exclusive would actually bring me to tears.

Can we all at least agree to rename this site Push X so that no matter what happens, the site is covered? It's probably time...

I'm a big fan of Xbox, and how they've been treating games, distribution, digital services, and consumers in general. But this acquisition is a bit too big for me to be comfortable with. Bethesda wasn't the falling sky people liked to make it out to be. There were a lot of reasons for that. But this is a megapublisher buying a megapublisher that wasn't in trouble financially at all, with no writing on the wall, that was rolling in profits. It's very different from a Betheda with a close MS history who's founder/CEO/visionary was on his death bed and wasn't turning profits on the games they're known to make. This is freaking CoD, WOW, and Candy Crush.... For the first time I DO agree with the die-hard PS fanboys....this a bridge too far.

Even though, in reality, for me as a gamer, Activision was dead a long time ago. They refitted all their great studios and put them on the CoD factory line, and stopped making darned near anything but CoD and watered down Blizzard games. But though the publisher offered me nothing, there's no denying they were one of the biggest juggernauts in gaming, being bought out of nowhere.

It doesn't change my relationship to Xbox as they treat me well as a customer, much better than Sony and Nintendo have been of late, but it does put me on a caution stance.

Mostly I think what this does is MANDATES that Sony respond, the same way "always online" made them pivot and focus on gamers. Ryan's shtick so far as been "we're the #1 place to play the most popular casual online games, we have bottomless money, so eat it." Microsoft just ripped the rug out from under them. Even if CoD doesn't get ripped off PS entirely, it loses the cozy lucrative stance. CoD will be flying the green after this either way, and it's inclusion in Game Pass means a massive chunk of Ryan's "the casuals buy PS to play CoD on with their friends" now means those friends can get all that for a low subscription price and may easily jump ship. Ryan's big casual market doesn't have a "library of PS games" they're loyal to, they just want this year's big shooter/sports release.

Sony can't just go out and buy Square-Enix or 2K or Ubisoft, and I absolutely hope they don't. But, they can't keep messing around with paying off companies to keep games off other platforms and declare it done. They need a strategy for how to win people over loyally, not how to scrape a few more bucks off every sale. They need to start proposing value and start being a symbiotic instead of parasitic with their customers. They can't splash around this kind of money, but they CAN make customers feel good, and feel like they're getting a value, in buying their product rather than feeling exploited and dirty. XB is treating me well....and XB is getting bigger and bigger. What will Sony do to treat me well and feel inviting as well? I see Sony, typical Sony seeing these developments and doing what they always do, trying to go up-market, trying to become a prestige brand of expensive boutique gaming. I don't see that ending well. Nor has it ever ended well in any industry save photography for Sony. Ryan is definitely the wrong leader for PS right now, but I don't think the usual cadre of Sony execs would do better. They can't sit back and hope the market doesn't leave them. It'll be attrition over a generation, but then they have no hope of clawing it back. They have to be aggressive now. And I don't mean jacking up prices and counting the money bin.

Right now MS (and Tencent) are in this to amass market share at any cost. Ryan's position remains one of maximizing margin per sale. That's a failing strategy. If Sony weren't Sony (who never sells division) I would have bet that Ryan's strategy was to make PlayStation attractive for a buyout. That's what his strategy is usually used for. Wrong leader right now. We all kind of thought so before, but this new setup makes it glaring.

@RawnDawn

They do have FU kind of money. Microsoft has the funding to buy Sony Corp (not just PlayStation) dozens of times over.

Sony’s only real response to this is to start buying up eastern publishers. And I don’t know if they have the funds. I would say Square Enix, but that’s not quite enough.

Sega. Sony should purchase Sega. Sega is basically Japan’s largest publisher in terms of the number of games it publishes per year. It has exclusive contracts with both eastern developers and some western developers.

They could also try to buy Take 2 interactive.

That’s really their only option at this point.

For me, it looks like I may be upgrading my Series S future purchase to a Series X future purchase because of this. Or I’m gonna go all out and build the PC I want.

Because Microsoft isn’t finished. I thought Zenimax would be a one off thing. I was wrong. Way wrong. Im willing to bet Microsoft is already talking to Ubisoft or EA right now as we speak.

I can never support monopolies like these.

If there is a Microsoft game I want in the future, I will simply pirate it for PC.

As long as I'm still able to purchase games (ideally physically but digitally as a last resort) then I think the Game Pass model works great. I have tried plenty of games via Game Pass that I've gone on to buy and will continue to.

PS Now needs to change. By the time first party games arrive on PlayStation, I've usually bought them already after waiting for them to drop significantly in price.

@Jacko11

But, but, Phil Spencer is a nice guy, everybody likes him. 🙄

Much like Bethesda, I don't play any Actiblizz games so it doesn't affect me in the slightest, but still - wow. Heck of a power move from MS.

Finally, some news that makes me glad I bought a PS5 and not the latest Xbox.

This is awesome news, All new games and a shed load of older games coming to Gamepass. Its great having access to all systems. Gonna save me even more money.

People gave me s**t for complaining when Microsoft bought Bethesda. Now look what they're doing. You think they're done? Hardly!

It’s OK, if we presume Gamepass subscribers pay 100 a year (lol), and knowing they have 25 million subs, that’s 2.5 billion? So they’ll make this 70billion back in no time! Plus the Bethesda money and all the other games…

MS going with the “drive the competition out before ramping up the price” strategy it seems.

And gullible consumers thinking it’s good for gaming because they temporarily save money on games which are going to fast turn into Microtransaction riddled sh*t

I’m speechless, folks. Literally floored by this announcement.

@ChadR Don't forget Candy Crush. The games media keeps ignoring Candy Crush. King's annual revenue is roughly 10% of all of PlayStation's. With FAR lower operating expenses, meaning in sheer profit, King, alone, is probably almost as profitable as all PlayStation.

With 2K just splashing fortunes for Zynga, people forget King may really be the target of this buyout more than even CoD or WoW.

Anybody expecting the U.S. to incite antitrust or monopoly hasn't been paying attention. They stopped caring about that a long time ago.

@thefourfoldroot "MS going with the 'drive the competition out before ramping up the price' strategy it seems."

100%. This stuff is textbook. Like, literal social studies class textbook (I keep saying that because I'm shocked at how many people don't understand what's going on). And not just microtransaction-riddled, but watered down in quality because "Who cares? We've already got your money!"

This is exactly the same thing as Sony buying Insomniac for 0.4% that same cost!

This gamepass garbage is going to be the end of gaming. They could literally outright buy any publisher they want, and Nintendo and Sony can't do anything about it.
And the government stopping this saying it's a monopoly isn't happening. They did nothing with Att and WB, or Disney/Fox, or Microsoft and Bethesda. What a joke. Gaming is on a path straight to hell at this point.

Absolutely disgusting and unethical. Microsoft is destroying the gaming industry. That is why I have always hated Microsoft. They never play fair and always just outspend their competitors instead of offering quality products or services. What are Playstation gamers supposed to play if they buy all the major publishers and franchises??

The amount of money involved is just obscene. And the move itself is absolutely disgusting. But I'm sure Phil Spencer will twist this for the PR. Glad I'm not supporting their attempt at monopolizing the gaming world.

@KippDynamite
Yep, Xbox fanboys will be using the same excuse all over again. They don't care if Microsoft is monopolizing all the major games in the industry and being anticompetitive.

@edwardex dude u can literally play Xbox games on your phone, pc, or console. You have choices. If I want to play Sony games I have to buy a console or maybe in the future pc. Not disagreeing with you but just remember everyone saying they had a pc to play Xbox games when it was announced their games will be day one pc. now I'm seeing what about low income gamers? Just an interesting comment you made.

@Stocksy we can definitely agree on that.

@__jamiie Unfortunately, the physical xbox game discs are essentially DRM. It's a sign in/check in situation. And they have zero interest in reversing the CMOS battery on xbox consoles.
I know PS3 and PS4 remedied this with a console patch so your physical games are actually physical and don't require an online check in. PS5 hasn't been patched yet, but hopefully soon.

@Martijn87 you're right. They can't afford to lose SE, but buying them won't be enough to compete with MS in the West. They need something like Fifa/Madden or GTA.

Activision/ blizzard have become truly awful companies over the years, hopefully the deal with ms will help them become better

They say a video game crash would never happen again, but I'm predicting one with Microsoft purchasing everything. Truly sad because almost everything MS purchases turns to mold. I've also said if any company purchases Take 2... I will boycott their console. There are plenty of other thing to do in my life than play video games.

@Malmall20 Understood. I was never one to mention "just play on pc" or whatever. My point is — it's expensive to play on a good PC. A phone would definitely be cheaper but may not be the best place to play especially with ***** internet (usually for low income gamers). Buying an expensive PS5 is a choice/investment, even for low-income people.

Now, for specific people who only have a PS4/PS5, they'll have to figure out a way to shell out more $ somehow to play the games they thought they were going to be able to play when they made their investment.

Sony buying Crunchyroll took nearly a year just to get approved. That was very niche anime market where other companies like Netflix produce a lot of anime every year. Lets see how this goes. I am seeing the price of gamepass go up soon.

No, it's not April 1st.

WTF?

@NEStalgia
Dude youre talking like ms have infitine money trees. Are you for real? And buying Sony as a whole? They don't have THAT kind of money. And i say it again, there's a law that Japanse comanies can't be bought. So that's a no go. It long terms gamepass wil be waaaymore expensive per month. And Microsoft is lauging in there fists cause every idioot wil keep paying. Prices go up quality goes down. And they don't care cause they, ll get youre money anyway. This is a very very bad thing for gaming as a whole.

I don't play any of the CoD games, but this is going to have huge repercussions if this deal isn't blocked by the courts. CoD has almost always been one of the best-selling franchises on PS consoles. This could be a huge hit to Sony's pockets if Microsoft makes CoD and Xbox exclusive. I don't see why they wouldn't.

@naruball

I dunno if Sony could afford EA.

Take 2? That would give Sony exclusivity to the one basketball game that matters and Grand Theft Auto.

Sega isn’t a bad choice. They have a crap ton of studios under the Sega label.

I think Nintendo will be fine. They’ve carved out a niche with the Switch hybrid concept that alone will carry them further into more success. Plus the juggernaut IP they own, namely Mario, Zelda, and Animal Crossing.

Sony is who is getting hit hard by these acquisitions. Because Sony and Microsoft both offer what is essentially two different ecosystems for the same type of gamers. And while Sony’s IPs are strong, they aren’t Nintendo.

If and when Microsoft pick up EA or Ubisoft, it’s going to be difficult for Sony to justify why people should buy PlayStations.

Sony should buy EA. FIFA a ps exclusive would damage Xbox very hard.

I don't like any of their games so it doesn't affect me personally but...

LMAO HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH PACK IT UP GUYS.

The benefits of having a rich daddy (MS)

Microsoft swoops in when ActiBlizz reputation is at its lowest point. Now they get all these IPs, they can clean house (hopefully including Bobby Kotick), and reap the benefits. Pretty smart move. Wouldn't be surprised if the Activision Blizzard name is retired completely.

Most of you are looking at this as some smart move on Microsofts part to corner of the gaming industry. Everyone should research how much money Microsoft has on hand how much debt and then how much they just spent on this. This is an absolute ignorant purchase. Another poster mentioned the number of game pass subscription and how much money Microsoft supposedly is bringing in on those. What they failed to understand is that Microsoft has to pay for all the games on game pass not just the new acquisition. They still have to make back the 7 billion for Zenimax. Also the subscription numbers are smoke and mirrors. How many people are on a free or an inexpensive trial or have converted gold to game pass. Microsoft is not bringing in anywhere near what does numbers say they are. How many of you actually have game pass? For me it’s a ho-hum experience. Cool to demo some games I would never have bought. But I don’t pay a monthly subscription either I’m on a trial and will be canceling. I just wait for games to go on sale before I buy them. And there’s no comparison between the PS5 and Xbox. PS5 hands-down is the better console. You can talk about gigaflops and teraflops and whatever but the fact is PS5 is a better experience. An friend of mine got an Xbox Series S. He was letting me check it out and wanted to know if I wanted to play some games on it. Honestly all I wanted to do was put my Dualsense back in my hands. The Xbox controller felt cheap to me. Haptics are the real deal, I never was into rumble but after leaving it on for a while it definitely enhances the experience. The LEDs on the Dualsense and the PS5 are cool. Yes not anything that affects gameplay but it affects your experience. The touchpad and the gyro may not be used for anything but it sure is neat when you’re demoing it in Astrobot. PSVR2 is going to be super cool even though I won’t be buying into it. My point is that Sony created a next generation experience and Microsoft just created a PC with a controller again. I hope Sonydoesn’t get scared and flail about like Microsoft is. They just need to stick to what they’re doing and really work with the developers to utilize the next gen features on the console. Maybe buy some of the smaller but really good indie developers. For the amount of money Microsoft just spent they could’ve started 50 game studios. Microsoft should’ve spent that money on a better controller for the Xbox. My PC runs a unactivated version of windows 11. Another piece of crap software from Microsoft. No way will I be purchasing Windows. Anyways, no reason to get your panties in a bunch if your a Sony fan boy like I guess I sort of am. Microsoft can flush as much money as they want down the drain and see how much they get back on it. They probably should’ve just invested that money in the stock market.

@kyleforrester87
My chances keep going down. I’ve got too many games to play as it is, so I lose nothing by taking the moral high ground and refusing to support these business practices.

I don't think it's all doom and gloom like some people are suggesting. I have a Series X, and I'm seriously impressed with what MS are doing, but they were a long way behind PS4 last gen, and Sony aren't messing up to the point they are going to lose tons of customers. Stuff like this just 'evens things up'.

Damn. Way to sweep the leg microsoft. Hopefully this means better deals from sony.

Ouch ouch ouch

Can i be a minority and say that ps+ has a better game library than gamepass right now?

TI just turned it in a wall of text somehow. Maybe I need an editor lol!

I suppose a fairly straightforward way for Sony to cope is to allow GamePass on their systems and charge a 30% cut of the subscription.

I think this is bad for the industry and will create a lot of articles for websites like this one, but ultimately my gaming life will probably remain similar to how it is now. I'll still be playing Horizon: Forbidden West a month from now, and that's all I really care about with regard to gaming.

Imagine you never went to gaming websites. Would this news really affect you that much?

this is terrible freakin news

@TommyNL I think you might be mixing my post with another. Though People really don't understand the kind of money that the tech titans (Apple, Google, Microsoft, Facebook) have. I mean people REALLY don't understand. It goes back to the Rockefeller-Carnegie era robber barons, only cranked to 12.

I wasn't actually talking about MS buying Sony Corp, I think someone else in the comments above mentioned MS could buy Sony 10x. And they could. But what I meant was that Ryan's current strategy is one usually employed to make a company attractive for buyout offers, I wasn't referring specifically to MS being the targeted buyer (or Sony corp as a whole, just PS.), and I don't think Ryan actually is trying to attract buyers, because Sony traditional simply isn't a company that sells divisions, but his strategy is one suited for that, not one suited for digging into a competitive industry with the intent to stay and grow.

But make no mistake, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Facebook absolutely COULD buy all of Sony corp, several times, without significant impact. They could make the money back to cover the expense within a year. Apple could buy Disney and Walmart in the same day and not even have to explain the line item to shareholders at the AGM.

It's scary how little the public understand just how rich and powerful big tech is. People don't realize it, but the world really divided into "the big 4 tech" and "all other business" long ago. The only protection against them is hoping the leadership of those big 4 are benevolent dictators. Currently the MS leadership is, the former leadership was not. Google heck no. Facebook Fk no. Apple....Cook is a weasel but not Zuck level evil. But in 10 years, who will be leading MS? Probably someone nasty. I'm not worried about the current leadership, I think they're pretty symbiotic with consumers. But their era will be over sooner or later and the numbers guys always ruin a good thing, worse when handed too big a market.

@KippDynamite Yeah, I could See Sony having to cave and allow Game Pass streaming after all. I assume that's really MS's end game, to position themselves as a content provider more than a "competing console platform." More as a Disney of gaming than as a PS competitor.

Not being a fan of call of duty, I always felt like Activision belonged with Xbox anyway for some reason.

This is why I hate American business. MS can't make real quality games themselves so they start buying the competition...it's killing gaming...it's turning it into mass market ***** and for someone who has gamed since gamings birth, I am sick of it. Gaming is fast becoming stale, no fresh IPs, same old open world and franchise rubbish.... digital gaming future...

It's news like this that pulls me away from gaming and especially Microsoft. Similar to a degree to the English Premier League...have a wealthy owner and you can buy any player you want....it's a ***** policy and is turning a history and heritage into greed and American crap....

@theMEGAniggle i’d be inclined to agree with you , but saying things like that is being controversial , unconstructive , and trolling .

/s

@zebric21 Gamepass line up lacks the selection of PS Now too.

@Mezzer nothing but facts ! great comment 👍👍

@Mezzer
So true. MS is destructive, monopolizing, and evil.

Honestly, I think the easiest solution is:

1.) Make Spartacus as close to if not better than Game Pass as you can

2.) Work with Xbox to offer a trade for Spartacus and Game Pass.

Everyone keeps the incentive for their first party games (assuming that PS owners would get those just later than Xbox or PC subs) And no gamer gets left in the cold.

Probably won't happen though

@TheRedComet "Take 2? That would give Sony exclusivity to the one basketball game that matters and Grand Theft Auto."

Assuming the NBA is run by idiots that don't know to do what MLB did and insist the game remains multiplat. Otherwise "all" they'd get is GTA.

Even if Sony could just start gobbling up publishers, what a horrible future of gaming where pretty much all games come from 3 companies. Just like film, music, television....

"Free market" starts looking more and more like a command economy.

Gaming is just getting worse with every generation. MS really is one of the most anticonsumer companies in the world.

Wow, what an insane news to wake up too.

@Salt_AU
Same here. I will never support MS. I don't even use Windows or Office for that reason. MS is just evil and destructive. I knew it MS would ruin gaming one day when the entered the industry back in 2001.

Microsoft noticed I had picked up the series X

Phil Spencer 'f75k me Noisys back, buy Activision now the world's gone mad'

Great day for Xbox fanboys or anybody who hates PlayStation. Terrible day for any objective, rational gamer. And I'd be saying the same if it was Sony or Nintendo doing this crap.

And that's GG. Glad I own a PS5 and SX right now. Sony might want to start throwing some coins at EA's direction. I don't think any other news this year will top what we've seen today.

Remember when Phil said, repeatedly, that Sony and Microsoft are not their competition? And Sony fans ridiculed him for that? Do you get it yet?
Microsoft are competing against Netflix, Amazon, Apple, Meta, huge corporations with pockets as deep as there's. And they are moving to a subscription future that sells consoles too. But console sales aren't their main concern.
They are creating their future. COD day and date on Game Pass? £70 on PS5? That's huge.

But it has to pass through global competition commissions first.

@NEStalgia
True. Didn’t think about that.

GTA would be a huge win though. But it would only apply to GTA 6.

I’m think Sega is their best choice.

They have to compete in some kind of way.

Wow I never thought this day would come...

Sony is really focused on committing suicide!

It's main focus is just that. Ripping itself apart. Over the past months we have seen: its new console nowhere to be seen, little to no new projects, focusing on remaking its old titles, porting its titles to pc, losing original platforms to its main competitor and what are we left with?

A complete manure of a game like the Last of Us Part 2. Because no matter what wanna-be jouralists and game gurus say. That game was a hate letter to its fans having just one aim in mind: pointless agenda and very poor, conthrived story telling.

It's very clear what Sony's aim is: kill PlayStation.

@Rural-Bandit

Nintendo will be fine. They’re made of Teflon now thanks to the Switch hybrid concept. It cannot be understated how genius that move was for Nintendo. They’ve carved out a niche that they completely control and they also control an entire game market (Japan).

Sony’s fortunes are far less secure than Nintendo’s. Because they essentially offer a different ecosystem for the same customer as Microsoft. Nintendo offers something wholly unique that the competition doesn’t and they also positioned theirselves as the secondary console everyone has to own regardless of whether they game on Xbox or PlayStation as their primary system.

Booooo! Down with this sort of thing.

@DotM Well, Sony and Nintendo fans spent years constantly calling Microsoft out as not having any exclusives. So along comes Phil, turns around a sinking ship, and totally changed its business model and it now has umpteen exclusive games.
But look at Sony, they had a massive success last gen on the PS4, so why do they do? They close all their international offices, replace the board at Sony, move all of SCE to the US, ignore their home market, fire or push out the heads that made the PS4 such a success and then try to cancel the PS3 and Vita rather then embrace backwards compatibility.
I think if they left the PS model alone as it was with PS4, rather then rip it up and start again seemingly, they would be in a better position. But stock shortages aren't Sonys fault entirely.

The PS5 is a very capable machine, for me it's just the management that are questionable.

@Rural-Bandit

I agree with that.

That said, Xbox fans treated Sony fans like garbage during the early years of the PS3 disaster.

I’ve always been a multiplatform gamer, but Sony has always been my preferred platform of choice in the past. But I’m not locked down. I seriously considered a Series X over the PS5. What made me buy a PS5 first was primarily PlayStation Studios titles.

The way this impacts me primarily is my decision on whether to get a Series S, X, or just bite the bullet and build a PC no matter how stupid the graphics card market is now. Before this announcement, I was pretty much set on a Series S since it was going to be just a Gamepass machine and my third system of importance.

But with Microsoft’s moves of late, I’m considering going for the Series X instead and it could possibly dethrone the PS5 as my primary console of choice.

A seismic move that's further shifting the industry in a way that reminds me of Sega and Nintendo when I first started gaming. Nintendo had their classic line up and Sega had their coin op conversions like Outrun, Enduro Racer, Altered Beast alongside in house stuff like Phantasy Star.

I think it's important while in shock to retain perspective. Sony is still the market leader with a cracking portfolio of games, this just makes Microsoft for me start to look an attractive proposition/alternative for the first time in years.

They aren't some evil company, just a large one using their big pot at the poker table to start bullying. The other Tech giants (Google, Apple, Meta) have always looked shadier to me, I never got all the Microsoft hate?

If Microsoft additionally bought EA and the FIFA/Madden licenses to print money, then I'd start to be very concerned. I think Sony will be fine, and look forward to anything they do in response.

@DotM

Yes Sony's aim is to kill it's most profitable sector. Makes a lotta sense. Facepalm.

The Series X is still nowhere to be found either, both PS5 and it are selling like hotcakes.

Sonys focus on woke games is a serious issue for them though. Potentially driving away 50% of the market on those games even though their hardware is superior. I won’t be purchasing their lineup of games that push a political agenda. Best case scenario would be Microsoft deciding that we can play their new games on PS5. Honestly for me Arkane and Bethesda will be missed. But we will see if either of those studios can actually put out a quality game in the next couple of years.

That’s it. I hate MS. This is just bad for gaming. They aren’t contributing a dang thing and just making ridiculous buyouts. They bought MS and it wasn’t long until Skyrim was broken for most PC player with the anniversary update and mods.
Sony will have to respond with toxic buyouts at this point.

@RPE83

Of the big four Gods of Tech, Microsoft is the most open and the least shady. Apple would be the second most benevolent God. Meta and Google are literally James Bond villains.

@S1ayeR74
Umpteen exclusive games? Where? Most of those games are still multiplatform.

Also, it would be nice if Push Square called out this crap for what it is rather than to have no ethics. Heaven forbid you take a position.

This place has felt more pro Xbox than PlayStation for over a year now and it would be nice to feel some love for PlayStation on a PlayStation fan site.

This acquisition is objectively bad for our hobby and it should be okay to say so.

@ChadR
Woke games? Still hung up on Last of Us 2 I see.

@KippDynamite
You should checkout Pure Xbox. They're practically jacking off to this news and write a puff piece to praise Game Pass every other day

I don't tend to play any of their games so from that point of view, it's not gonna impact me at all.

Bigger picture though, not a great deal from an industry point of view

This is such a win for PlayStation in my opinion. That publisher has been trash for some time, and it's interesting that Microsoft chose the purchase even though they are under public scrutiny for being a disgusting employer. Especially since Spencer went on record denouncing them and that practice, yet two months laters is like "but..... we like money and we are buying them anyways...." LOL. Now if we can just get a takedown of Ubisoft, EA, and rockstar (take two), It would make PlayStation on the way to becoming a console for gamers again.

Of course, that would also require Sony to do a complete 180 on this new rerelease cash grab nonsense that they have/allow naughty dog and others to keep doing.

But hey it's a start

@TheRedComet
Even as someone who through their hat into the Google/android ring years ago purely to have a choice of phone manufacturers, that's roughly how I'd call it.

Where would you put Tesla and Amazon? Haha!

@HungryHungryHomer Be in denial if you want, your choice. You keep claiming Xbox has no games..

Everyone wondering how Microsoft was going to make $7B from buying Bethesda. It literally doesn't matter because they'll just buy Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, and Candy Crush and start printing money.

@HungryHungryHomer
When there are no games coming out they've got to praise something!

Do not care.

There is enough on Playstation to sate me this generation. I hate FPS games so will not miss COD.

Will never buy Game Pass and will give up on new games if that is the option.

@ChadR I do not think it is a political decision but a money one.

If they can keep the current audience but add the extra they get from a female lead and promoting it then they are quids in.

It is the same with the Hollywood studios. They only care about money not politics. They see diversity making them more money than the old model.

Cynical from them but sadly true.

@Rural-Bandit
Believe me I don't care much to deal with the hardcore PlayStation fanboy myself.

@Mega-Gazz MSFT is a trillion dollar company Acti-Blizz is not.

@john_c
Totally agree. It's why Disney bought Marvel and Star Wars, so they can hook ALL the kids! If they make Marvel and Star Wars more appealing to girls, even better (for their shareholders) .

@RPE83

Tesla: interesting products, treat their line workers like crap.

Amazon: Bond villain.

@S1ayeR74
I think you need to be reminded that Xbox started the whole PlayStation has no games taunt back in the 360 days.

And to the point, Activision games are still playable on other platforms (for now), and I seriously doubt they slaughter the cash cow that is Call of Duty to make it exclusive. This isn't bringing anything new to the table in terms of original games is what I'm getting at.

@velio84

Phil Spencer wants Game Pass on the Playstation so everyone can play the games they want. Blame Sony that it will not happen.

@nomither6

Don’t know if you agreeing or not but this is a race Sony cannot win on quantity. Their quality is being threatened as well by the calibre of studios Microsoft keep snapping up.

Obviously Sony WWS are world class but can it compete with everything Xbox have been doing? I don’t think so. Not the end of the world tho, these Xbox acquisitions have not tantalised me at all, my PS5 gets so much more time than my Xbox 🤷🏾‍♂️

I’m sure there’s many more people like that

The PC gods win, once again.

Just as a visual aid:

https://i.imgur.com/eG62edt.jpg

I hate the way MS are buying their way to the top.

@velio84 i said this many times... this is killing gaming we love so much. *** Microsoft and boycott this silly gamepass things! Money money money. This os All they have with no creativity. Look at halo infinite... a joke imo.

@theMEGAniggle i was agreeing .

/s = means sarcasm .

I don't play many of their games but yes, this is nuts. I guess people that only play Xbox are happy. On the way to a monopoly for consoles.

How long will it take Microsoft to buy the entire console industry? 5 years? Ubisoft, EA, Rockstar, etc. Then Sony and Nintendo will really only have their first party titles until they get bought too? Pretty disgusted but not sure what choice we'll have when that day comes, play Xbox, PC, or nothing.

@nomither6 oh my bad

People wanna use Nintendo as a reference but they do t compete in the same space. Be very interesting to see what the gaming landscape looks like soon

@Col_McCafferty You and others saying MS could start charging £30 a month for Game Pass. If MS ever did own the majority of third party studios and all the games were on GP day one, £30 a month would be well worth it. Plus they are not forcing you to subscribe, you can buy one game at a time at full price like you do with PlayStation exclusives and you don’t even need an Xbox console to play them, you can play them on a PC, tablet/phone and potentially your TV if there is ever a Game Pass app to stream the games from the TV.

I’m curious if you would be this negative if Sony had acquired Bethesda and Activision? Because if that had happened a lot more people would be restricted to playing the games on one system. At least MS is allowing options to play the games on other platforms other than just on an Xbox console.

Do you honestly believe Sony wouldn’t be making these huge acquisitions if they could afford to? It’s all business to these corporations at the end of the day and no one can simply compete with MS.

Personally I don’t care much for the games from Activision but if MS does make another huge acquisition, I really hope they buy Take Two Interactive.

Phil and his fans are hypocrites. They say exclusives are bad for the industry but pull this stunt. Phil can try to weasel his words to make this sound good for the industry all he wants but the only thing he does with these stunts is lock PlayStation out of games while everyone else gets them, that's all there is to it. Punishing PlayStation players for not buying an Xbox, it's disgusting and yet none of the fans will call him out on it.

Meanwhile Sony buys one timed exclusive and they are called evil among all the other names under the sun. How is this fair? There should be rules against a monopoly like this.

When KotOR comes as a 'Console Exclusive' I better not hear a single Xbox fan complain since they are cheering for this.

@MaccaMUFC
The problem is that they are taking games away from Playstation. They would have gotten those multiplat games on Xbox anyway so the only purpose buying out publishers serves is to block and hurt Playstation. It is anticompetitive and unethical because it curbs competition. In addition, they are taking away choice from gamers and forcing them to become MS customers by securing multiplat franchises. And Yes, it would have been wrong even if Sony bought those third party publishers.

@theMEGAniggle it’s going to look terrible . the only good M$ ever brought to gaming was party-chat , gamepass and achievements . anything but (good)games . bungie made halo - ms bought it . epic made gears of war - ms bought it . they’re parasitic and make america look like ***** .

@MickOnYourFace careful now.

How does gaming competitiveness die? With thunderous applause.

I really don't think Sony is in good shape here. 5-10 years I could see them being engulfed by MS.

@TheRedComet GTA6? What's that? You mean GTA5 Re-Remastered DLC, right?

IDK about Sega. Before this people thought MS buying Sega was a possible target, because they have a strong history, but Sony's a lot more aligned with Square-Enix (having formerly been a major stakeholder anyway.) Sega might be too big, and also comes with the baggage of having a gambling equipment & arcade equipment company to have to buy.

I don't want to see Square gobbled up, though. It's a good fit, but both Nintendo and Sony depend on them a great deal, and Sony controlling them would be a big blow to Nintendo which would further destabilize the industry. Same goes for Sega technically, but even moreso for Square. And IDK if Sony has disposable money to throw around to buy multi-billion dollar companies up that are like 25-30% their own size anyway.

I'd love for the consolidation of the entire gaming industry into 3 companies to just stop....but.....sadly we're beyond that now, I think.

@Daleaf Pretty sure it will be Gane Pass only, particularly given MS’ previous behavior.

@OneWingedAngel It’s no different when Sony took Spider-Man off Xbox when it was multi platform. Granted that’s one IP but it’s not Microsoft’s fault that Sony isn’t being as aggressive in making huge acquisitions. The ball is in Sony’s court to respond.

@john_c I always say this to my lefty buddy, I agree with him on most points but he's actually changed his opinion on it being a good thing, although it could potentially have good outcomes depending on if it is done with taste, care and actual equality in mind.

What a great time to buy a PC. all the playstation "exclusives" + game pass.

No surprises here, then. I guess this is what capitalists call "crony capitalism", where the free market isn't really a thing because the companies that have the money make the money and always with the goal in mind of... More money! What a useful numbers game, whilst we could use our man power to, say, replace the resources we have so wilfully taken without thought of consequence.

@MaccaMUFC
Sony in no way has the cash resources to match what MS is doing in acquisitions. And Sony didn't take Spider-Man off Xbox. They never had a SM game. Marvel came to Sony to create a new series and knew Sony had more talented studios.

@MaccaMUFC This old chestnut. Sony wouldn't be buying those publishers, in the case of Activision they couldn't afford to.

As things used to stand, all the games those publishers made would be available on ALL possible platforms. With a couple of big cheque books and now none of their titles are on PlayStation. They have removed games from players, not added them.

I guess the PS5 is my last Sony Console I yet to aquire. If I do continue to game. Ill be playing on a gaming laptop. Not A MS console, for sure

@Kohaku Game Pass on PS would kill Sony. Yes people would still be buying their 'exclusives' but third party games? No, not really unless these are timed exclusives but even that might trigger MS into doing something else to hurt Sony.

If the end goal is to put GP on PS and PS equivalent on Xbox and PC, the end of exclusives and the end of AAA SP games that take years to develope. They'll just put old any old tosh as quantity rules over quality, apparently for some gamers.

This move definitely hurts Sony, anyone thinking otherwise is delusional. Wanna guess what the best selling games were on PS4 in the last 4-5 years? COD, each time. Probably goes back even further than that. Xbox have the First Person market on lockdown

@Jayofmaya
Great isn't it? Over here in the U.S. so many trained to think that this is the way things should be and squashing competition is great. Hell, they cheer for it.

@Madvibes A gaming laptop? Unless you playing on Linux you may as well be playing on a MS console.

@Oscarjpc

If only graphics cards would come back down to earth.

We got Microsoft buying up gaming companies and we got Sony buying up anime companies. Both companies are doing the same thing.

EDIT: Square Enix is probably definitely on the purchasing block for Sony. They're a big gaming company and a big producer of Anime.

@MaccaMUFC
When did Sony take off Spiderman from the Xbox platform?? Are you talking about the Avengers' playable Spiderman character? There is a huge difference between an exclusivity deal for one character or even a game and buying a whole publisher for $68 billion made up of several studios. There is also a huge difference between a third-party game and a second-party game. The Spiderman games on Playstation were never multiplat and were funded by Sony. Bethesda and Activision games were always multiplat and came to all platforms. Those companies were free to choose where to release those games. By buying those companies they are depriving gamers of several multiplat titles which is unethical and monopolizing.

@Floki
Gaming companies cost a hell of a lot more than anime companies. Sony does not have the cash to purchase Square Enix.

@HungryHungryHomer
Actually, they do. Do some research. SE has a market capitalization of just $5.6 Billion and Sony had $44 Billion in cash as of 2021. Sony's market cap is also $145 billion so SE is tiny compared to it. They can easily buy it if both parties agree to it.
https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/SONY/sony/cash-on-hand
https://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/sqnxf

@OneWingedAngel
Interesting, I was assuming SE was way bigger than that. But regardless, Sony can't spend half its market cap on a company like Activision or a Take Two.

@HungryHungryHomer
That I can agree with. Activision is too big for Sony.

@nomither6 that is agreed. Parasitic beyond belief

They got tired trying compete so they monopolise instead.

@velio84 Phil Spencer reminds me of that episode of the Simpsons where Mr burns dresses up as Jimbo 😂

@TwomanybuttonS
I unfortunately did last year, debating if I want to keep it now.

@Would_you_kindly
I always see Vince Vaughn

@OneWingedAngel @HungryHungryHomer I’m talking about the old Spider-Man games that used to be on the OG Xbox and 360, with the last one being The Amazing Spider-Man 2 on Xbox One.

When you say MS are depriving gamers due to buying out both Bethesda and Activision, you mean just PlayStation and Nintendo gamers? They have their own exclusives that can’t be played on any other platform, sure the exclusives are from their own in-house studios but does it really matter if MS buyout third party studios? It’s not like your forced to get an Xbox, you can play them on several different platforms. It is what it is, everyone moaning about it will just have to suck it up.

Where's Teddy Roosevelt when you need him?

Today's U.S. government doesn't give a damn about monopolistic behavior. They allowed Disney, they'll allow this too.

@Col_McCafferty Was thinking the same thing. If Sony goes bust after this deal, looks like Nintendo it is for me, and I have a feeling their next console will be very powerful, at least keep up graphycaly, unlike the Switch.

@Sil_Am
Meh I hate Nintendo, they go out of their way to keep tech specs low so their games can be simple but can still charge big $$$ for them.

Not sure why you'd expect them to make an upscale console at this point. Handhelds forever is likely the future.

@HungryHungryHomer I meant because he's a business guy that tries to be 'down with the kids' & just says whatever it is he thinks people want to hear

@Would_you_kindly
Haha I understand.

The Evil Empire strikes again. Having never bought a windows PC, I at least did not contribute to this.

@HungryHungryHomer I only remember endless PlayStation fans and content creators and media constantly stating the Xbox has no games. So I don't recall Xbox starting it at all, even if they others took it to the next level agains Xbox.
As for COD I never said it won't be in other platforms. Although reading the press release that may not be true, but we shall see. And COD doesn't need to be different, it's more or less the top selling game every year, it doesn't need to change.

Microsoft should (and easily could) just buy sony at this rate. Sony's worth is like double the amount they're paying for this deal. Not to mention, it'll be hilarious to see everybody's reaction to that.

@reek
Oh yeah monopolies are always hilarious

@S1ayeR74
You may not be old enough but the original Xbox president was just a straight up d*ck and would openly talk trash. Think of a certain former US president.

@themightyant that’s kind of my thoughts. I don’t have any numbers in front of me but how many gamepass/ game sales do you have to make to recoup 70 billion.

@UltimateOtaku91 Sony fans bully MS to no end, this is just revenge.

@JGruns they now own Candy Crush, that makes 1bn a year alone.

@Faruko
Sony throws stones and MS drops a bomb on their house in retaliation. Totally rational response. Keep using that excuse.

And this lads and lasses is why I'm a multiplatform gamer, only way this effects me is it forces me to play them on my Xbox.

@HungryHungryHomer haha, I can imagine. But I do remember Sony execs throwing just as much mud back at Xbox during the PS3 / 360 days especially Kaz. I can recall Major Nelson etc. and the British guy who was running Xbox at the time.

as we have seen for 20 years now, xbox cannot compete in the gaming space on equal footing with its rivals. by that i mean, nurturing its own studios and developing a strong culture which results in top tier software that stands the test of time. outside of a few core franchises (of which have been very uneven in quality over the years), microsoft has failed to make its mark in the same way sony and nintendo have. not by a longshot. you can smell the desperation from phil and the xbox team with its recent behaviour and studio acqisitions.

as such, microsoft's only strategy is to gobble up as much of the gaming industry as it can and become competitive by way of throwing money at anything that moves and monopolizing the industry to its benefit. this may or may not involve coercing sony and nintendo to sign up for its gamespass program. if sony has any backbone, it will spit in the face of phil and carry on with its own strategy. if this strategy involves purchasing capcom, konami (IP only) bandai namco and/or s-e so be it. microsoft has set this precedent so whatever happens now is anyone's guess.

all that being said, what i really want to see is sony and nintendo team up. this would be the ultimate f**k you to microsoft and would set the company back 20 years to where it started. in last place. yes, you read that right. a sony and nintendo alliance would smash xbox to 1000 pieces and before you know it, phil will be crying all the way home with his tail between his legs. if he asks nice, maybe sony and nintendo will allow him into the club when the time comes

while i don't play many titles from activision or blizzard, this is a sad day for the gaming industry. like the old quote says: "money cannot buy you happiness" and xbox still doesn't have an answer to sony's (and nintendo's) 1st party titles. some things never change.

Blizzard is my favorite developer, despite their recent behavior. Heroes of the Storm, World of Warcraft, and Starcraft 2, are my three favorite games ever. Microsoft using those franchises to buy their way to the top really stings even though it functionally doesn't change anything as far as playing those games on PC goes. If anything, World of Warcraft might actually get cheaper if it goes on Game Pass in lieu of charging a subscription fee.

I have not bought a non-Blizzard Activision game since Spider-Man 2 when the PC version was so deceptive. It was not at all like the console game and was designed for kids. Same box and everything, but I bought the game and realized I was tricked. Of course, since the game was open at that point, I was stuck with it.

Maybe PS5 will rethink about 80€ priced AAA games

That's more than what Disney paid for Marvel, Star Wars, and 20th Century Fox combined. This deal will not turn a profit for at least a decade. I don't think this was very smart.

@JGruns it'll take a decade or longer. That's if they don't ruin the company and tank it before they can turn a profit.

@Saitama117 It may not turn a profit for a while... But it not like Microsoft is bleeding money. They'll make the $70 billion in other ways before the deal is final.

@Bismarck wow really thank the Gods I won't have to buy an XBOX ever, I'm not Limited to console VR (Quest2/PCVR), and PSVR2 should change the game somewhat compared to its older sibling,

There is a quote that sum up the last few purchases from Microsoft perfectly. What Sony did last gen was awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.

@Floki Nah, MS will f*** this up too and ruin more franchises. It's what they do best.