Microsoft: ActiBlizz Acquisition Gives Xbox A Chance To Be A "Good Publisher" On All Platforms

Feel like maybe they should put some games on XBOX first...

Mixing things up from being a bad publisher on a single platform! boom roasted

@LikelySatan Yeah with near enough no exclusives that aren't on PC or other consoles it's no wonder Xbox isn't doing great and apparently "dead in Europe" outside UK: https://metro.co.uk/2023/12/14/xbox-dead-europe-sales-drop-27-ps5-rises-376-19975579/

The money is in software sales. It makes sense to go multiplat with their set up. You don't spend a couple of billion on huge franchises only to hamstring the customer base. I do feel they need to fully commit rather than cherry pick. I get they want to grow Xbox / Gamepass whilst selling as many games as possible but their messaging (like their nomenclature for their consoles) is far from clear. In fact it smacks of trying to play everyone.

@GrailUK What's the point of them even having a console then if players can get everything on PS5 or PC? They may as well just do a SEGA and go third party in future.

Xbox Series X isn't cheap and I do feel their strategy pisses on their flagging userbase a bit. That's partly why I sold mine for PS5 and am very happy with my decision. A great pairing with Switch!

Xbox has a better chance of being a "good publisher" for all platforms

Microsoft gave regulators a better chance of standing on their hind legs for once and being good policy-makers, but regulatory capture has gone too far now, it seems. I guess this latest failure by governments to stop blatantly monopolist behaviour just means we'll have to do it for them.

Given how MS and ActiBlizz have both excelled at sucking the soul out of most franchises and studios they've absorbed, though, I just have to smile. The ROI for MS' many buyouts versus the development costs for Nintendo or Sony franchises is comically poor. Unsurprisingly, monopolists make bad capitalists...

@Clyde_Radcliffe Gamepass. Duh! It's never going to be on Sony and Nintendo consoles. They need 'Netflix Originals' for that ecosystem and because games take a while to line up, then it's either unfeasable or in the long term. Depends on their goal. They know how much money Call of Duty makes. So in that case, I think only a fool would murder sales to grow a third / forth place console brand. I do get what they are trying to do. Like I said, it's just doesn't feel well communicated.

@Clyde_Radcliffe I think this is the first generation since the seventh that I just don't really care about having more than one console...I think. I do have a PS5, but the kids play it for the most part. I don't really go for the Sony walk and talk, third-person action, Ubergame. The Switch has most of what I am looking for. I want XBOX to bounce back, but I don't know if I care all that much. Because sure, they bounce back, and then what? More Forza, Halo, Gears? They bought up a bunch of studios, then those studios made Redfall and Starfield. If id's next game is similarly trash, I guess that's it for me.

The last cod was a sign of a good publisher

Time and time again Microsoft keeps saying all their acquisitions are for the benefit of the studios and the players. Nope. Uhh yeah whatever you say bud. "We love gaming" — pfft lol because you make money from it.

Based on all the leaked info and emails, they just care about their bottom line. With all that money buying out the competition is a cake walk. Consolidation is just monopolization in disguise. I love my Xbox but in reality the brand is just a money making pillar for Microsoft. No more, no less.

>Developer acquisition
>Good publisher

Pick one.

@Clyde_Radcliffe and the PS5 is any better? lol.

I have both XBOX series X and PS5 and use the XBOX Series X more than the PS5.

Unless one has been living under a rock, it's quite a mess within Sony at the moment too, now the whole focus on live service games have failed internally, with managers either quiting or being fired, the PS boss quiting, etc. There is currently no new release road map for PS5!
Spiderman 2 was the last major release and the upcoming FFVII part 2 is pretty much the last major announcement.

Both XBOX and PS have been sorely lacking this generation. The PS5 is doing only better due to hype and overall better exclusives. Bottomline is that this console generation has been the worst when it comes to new releases.

I like Xbox. I own every gen of Xbox and multiple versions of a a few. 100s of digital games and well over 300 physical games.

The do half talk a lot of nonsense though. They have a cult like following now, that won’t have a bad word said about them.

Their exclusives haven’t been good enough for a while (the odd exception of course) even Forza MS they ruined. (An open goal).

Gamepass is not the charity gift to gamers many make out.

I understand why many like Gamepass. But for many it is overpriced and not suitable. Yet people are hammered and called “not real gamers” if they don’t like it.

I’d like Xbox to focus and make a few exclusives that were not live service games in disguise.

I'm happy sticking with Playstation and Nintendo going forward, I won't pay a penny towards Microsoft until the day they leave the console market and become a publisher only. But until then I'm happy missing out on any exclusives they have as tbh they don't appeal to me like PlayStation and Nintendo games do and to me Xbox games just aren't at an high enough quality to be rivalling the competition yet either. If not for gamepass their console division would of been dead already.

@LikelySatan
todays showcase in about 9-10 hours

Unfortunately Microsofts end game seems to be industry takeover. If those leaked documents from September last year are anything to go by, luckily it seems many organisations are holding firm, Microsoft have actively been trying to purchase a lot a ton of other studios and unfortunately with the behemoth that Microsoft is, i have a terrible feeling that it's really only a matter of time before Microsoft buys everything in the industry.

Whatever. Just give me a remaster of Black Ops 2 on Switch with all the DLC that the Wii U version didn't get.

Anything Microsoft dose I don't want to know!!!

Haven’t they overtaken Apple recently to become the most valuable company in the world? Worth multiple trillions (a mind-boggling number that is so huge it’s incomprehensible to most people), and their gaming division is but a tiny fraction of their business. They can pretty much do what they want with that kind of money.

Idk I always wanted to try Kameo Elements of Power - if they want to throw that on the switch!

Blah, blah, blah…

Just let me know when Xbox starts being so much of a burden on Microsoft they sell it so I can put in my bid to get the rights to H.E.R.O.

Gaming is going to be accepted more Digital in near future. Game pass and cloud service is the future of Microsoft. New generation are starting buying digital and subscription’s services is an option now. Xbox going third party is a reality in this moment.

@Reztobi I hope that does not happen. If it does, then they better not abandon every single video game studio after buying them...

@Reztobi They’re trying to position themselves in the best way possible for when digital only becomes the standard and streaming games is feasible for as many people as possible. They want to be the Netflix of games. Less about industry takeover in the sense of buying everybody up but more about having enough exclusive content to be the dominant players in the game subscription space and be at a point where other publishers don’t have much choice but to offer their content through Game Pass when that future arrives. Playing the long game basically

I guess it'll be a bonus if we get any games, so I'm happy.

Suuuuuuuuuuure.

I will belive it when i see it.

Aye, I suppose so.
Let's not forget MS already publishes one of the consistent bestseller across all platforms.

@UltimateOtaku91 Well owning both PS4/XBox One X and since release XBOX Series X and PS5.

Microsoft makes better consoles at the moment. Both PS4 and PS5 are terrible designed and noisy. Either loud fan noise under load (especially PS4) and loud coil wine (especially PS5).
All the while my XBOX One X and now XBOX series X are super quiet, even under load.
Especially the XBOX Series X is much better designed than the PS5.
Only thing I hate about the XBOX Series X that I had to buy proprietary add-on storage module, while with PS5 you could add any (although also very expensive) secondary m.2 SSD.

As long as they don't snub Nintendo users, I'm in.

Keeping Microsoft afloat is Office 365 subscriptions that are needed worldwide just to conduct business. Xbox has been a black hole for Microsoft finances, but because 84% of all computers on Earth use Windows, and many home and business users don’t use LibreOffice as an Office 365 alternative, Microsoft wins.

This is how it is at the video game studio I am with right now. We have 90% Macs for design, programming, and audio/video/art work, but final coding and all management use Windows.

And Microsoft wants “Gaming” 365 and an expansion of Xbox branding beyond Xbox systems and computers.

Don't worry guys, they aren't just doing COD!

They've got Crash Bandicoo - oh wait, all they're doing with it is a PvP game so mediocre that even the patron saint of Bandicoots, Caddicarus, won't comment on it.

uhhhhhh, Spyro - oh wait, they've done nothing at all with it since those remasters 5 years ago (IT'S BEEN THAT LONG ALREADY, JEEZ)

ok ok ok ok ummmm. hmmmmmm. Tony Hawk - oh wait, the studio who worked on those remasters got gobbled up by Blizzard, never to return

Y'know what, ActiBliz sucks.

So have they released CoD on Switch yet? Do we have a release date for CoD on Switch yet? MS talks a lot but I feel fairly confident about that “10 years” never happening. Maybe MS has to pay a fine but it’s too late to undo the merger.🤷🏻‍♂️

That's a funny quote that makes no sense. Hahahahahaha.... Get ready for more IP in the vault and endlessly in production. Just like Perfect Dark, Banjo, and everything else they bought

@Bolt_Strike

Option 3:
Game console that looks like a mini fridge.

@Jeronan Xbox literally has no games worth playing ps5 and switch have all the great fun games . You say that your xsx is better but i mean what games are you playing that are better then god of war and horizon . PlayStation also has ghost of Tsushima and last of us 1 and 2 and now god of war trilogy is getting remastered for ps5 . And Nintendo had a landmark year with wonder , rpg, tears of the kingdom oh and Metroid prime remastered. Let’s not forget all the priceless games on Nintendo Switch online they are throwing at us.xbox literally has nothing to play if someone gave me one for free id literally only play a handful of Xbox (2001) and 360 games namely timesplitters 2 and 3 and mortal kombat 2011and mk vs dc universe and get bored and go back to ps5 .

@goldeneye700 You only talk about a handful of exclusives and yes that is why I bought the PS5.
For just those exclusives.

The vast majority of games are multi-platform and run better on XBox series X.

People shouldn't be so narrow minded and look beyond exclusives. Thank god the vast majority of games are still multi-platform and gives you the choice what platform to play them on.

I hate platform exclusives with a passion and Sony is the worst offender, but is the loudest to complain when their comperitor starts doing it too. Bunch of hypocrites.

We hope but with old men at the helm nothing really changes.

@Jeronan if they didn’t have console exclusivity then there would be generic consoles worth 100 dollars emulating everything and the industry would be a mess. Since the dawn of video game consoles there has been exclusivity on Atari and commodore and nes . It’s always been there and drives competition. Lastly Xbox wants to and has tried buying every game company since 1999 trying to make everything Xbox exclusive so your debate on exclusivity makes no sense if Microsoft had its way they’d buy Nintendo and Sony and shelf every thing and only put out halo and cod . Do you pay attention to current affairs Xbox just bought 100 games from activision

@goldeneye700 XBOX has the PC platform, so you only partly right.
Microsoft has always been multi-platform focused.

Yes back in the day before everyone had a PC (and gaming on PC wasn't a big thing yet), Nintendo, Atari and Sega were the big console platforms with exclusive games on them, but there were still 3rd party developers trying to launch on both SEGA and Nintendo, though it was quite expensive.

Since the race of multi-platform game engines, like Unreal Engine and Unity, it's easier than ever to release on all platforms. Except on Nintendo consoles due to the large power gap.
Nintendo is also a bit different, since next to their consoles, they actually build all those IP's like Mario, Zelda, etc themselves in-house and created those games in-house!

Sony is the one that started the exclusivity race against XBOX in the 2000's with buying up a lot of gaming studios, to start making exclusive games for PS only.
At that time Microsoft only had 343 Studios making Halo and EPIC games making Gears of War as launch title for XBOX360.
For everything else, Microsoft depended on 3rd party studios delivering games for the platform, next to playstation and PC.

But, like it or not, it was SONY that started this exclusivity mess between XBOX and PS, by buying up large game studios and go aggressively into timed exclusive contracts with other studios.

So what you expected Microsoft to do? Just give up and let Sony have it's way?

But today.... Microsoft is actually much more focused on GamePass and Cloud gaming, pushing gaming as a subscription service, no matter the platform you using. Be it their XBOX console, PC, iPad, iPhone, Android Tablet, Android phone, etc.
Hell, there even rumors that Microsoft tries to go into partnership with Nintendo and try to get GamePass on the Nintendo platform in the future (perhaps rumored Switch 2).

Microsoft's cloud gaming is actually pretty good already at the moment, so it would bring a lot more options to Nintendo Switch and gaming on the GO.
It's much nicer lying in bed or sitting in a hotel with a Switch console playing games, than using a Tablet and separate controller.

Also, gaming consoles in general will not go away any time soon. Gaming PC's with comparable GFX power as current XBOX Series X and PS5 cost more than two/three times as much to buy or build.
So for the vast majority of people it's still easier and cheaper to just buy a console. Not to mention the smaller form factor and optimized for couch gaming in front of a TV.
Or simply people living in small spaces where space is a premium, not having the space for a dedicated game PC setup.
This is especially true in major cities in Japan like Tokyo (gaming on PC is just not a thing in Japan), but also becoming an increasing trend in other major cities world wide, where apartments become more and more expensive and new build apartments become smaller and smaller.

Embrace, Extend, Extinguish. Microsoft will never change.