Could be due to different administrations.

Disney also focused on acquiring Fox's franchises like X-men or Avatar and the Justice Department focused on the impact on sports programming which Disney was wiling to let go so they might have just negotiated better. Disney has good lawyers.

Yeah, I dont know why FTC is jumping in now as this acquisition would "enable Microsoft to suppress competitors to Xbox gaming consoles and Gamepass" when the exact same argument can be made by Disney with the Fox acquisition essentially "suppressing competition" in superhero movies.

So, Obsidian making a sequel to Arcanum headed by Tim and Leonard is out of the question now?

Probably, perhaps triggered by memories of the 90s stuff. Or just a surface level understanding of this market sector and thinking MS runs video games like they do desktops.

I'm just going to use what's (probably?) the original thread for the fact that the deed is done... And Ubisoft got something out of it...

Well, fusion is the way the current political system is moving. Not only Microsoft but countless of other companies as well. It is even supported by the mass in general, as there is usually only a few "poles" with by far the biggest support ever, so it seems to be a world wide customer demand.

I worry the important diversity and the very unequal distribution of power, which lies in the hands of just a few rulers. potentially harmful. Still, the masses seems to enjoy it, so you can approve it just by the sheer demand from the masses. Hard to say if it will turn out to be tasty in the long term, only the future will tell.

In general, the move is currently not critical because the competitors are equally powerful (Steam, Sony... even Nintendo and to some extend Epic Games) and Microsoft surely will "improve" in power, yet not beyond that.

The "trailer" they put out for this that talks about "all your friends in one place" and "what a great time to play" is so fucking cringe.

*Watches cringe-worthy "trailer" packed with 2 minutes of shameless corporate self-promotion*

Fine...whatever... Just give the public some Mechwarrior re-releases as compensation.

Two of the shiettiest software companies in the whole universe join together to do... what, exactly?


Yet another shitty streaming, cloud, AI-based service to sell microtransactions?

To be fair, Microsoft (post 2010) have been good owners for developers - as an owner, they might be able to actually get something half decent from Activision and Blizzard (who haven't released anything worth playing since Diablo 2 came out - I might let you have Warcraft III, but it was nowhere near as good as II).

Better Microsoft than EA or any of the other large publishers.

Actually, part of the deal to get the UK regulator to approve this was to hand Ubisoft "exclusive worldwide rights to stream the Activision Blizzard games, except for non-exclusive rights to cloud streaming versions in the European Economic Area, for all existing and current Activision Blizzard games as well as those to be released over the next 15 years. These rights will exist in perpetuity."

Starfield, the lack of further Mistwalker releases(not even finishing the slate being developed before canceling their work), the canceling of Scalebound, True Fantasy Live Online(which later became Fantasy Life), canceling Fast and the Furrrriest which looked like a spiritual sequel to Diddy Kong Racing, killing off Project Gotham Racing, that online only MP Shadowrun, not releasing Magatama, Phantom Dust or Every Party in the US and no remaster of "Quantum Redshift". Oh and no backwards compatibility for "Project Sylpheed" on the XBox One and beyond as well as lacking bc for the 360 Indie games. Oh yeah and no Kinect support for the Series X and S, just for the Kinect games, nothing else mind you.

I'm not so sure that they actually gained anything there. To me it basically sounds like Activision just unloaded the responsibility for the most risky and potentially unprofitable part of their business onto Ubisoft for 15 years. Even major players like Google, Amazon, Netflix, and others can't seem to make ubiquitous game streaming happen, and I don't see that trend changing anytime soon. (And that's a good thing, IMO.) So I just see that as a time/money sink that Ubisoft probably won't be able to handle.

I will be very interested to see what comes out of this. Over the past 2 years, I haven't noticed any decent games from Microsoft (and their internal studios) or from Activision-Blizzard. I expect a wave of layoffs and cancellation of other projects, that's what they are good at.

I wouldnt say Microsoft has been a good publisher. Hasnt exactly produced anything good of note and even bombed the Halo series which was their flagship. They might not be EA or Square bad of trying to make everything live service but they arnt a good publisher.

Activision does need some major cleanup. Had to pay $35 million and $18 million fund for victims of misconduct and harassment in the company is not a good look and now that they have been acquired, its Microsoft's problem. If the issue persists, it will also reflect badly on Microsoft for not doing anything so there will be some major layoffs and leadership changes.

They have already fired over 30 over the issue and since the CEO was also allegedly involved, I dont think Microsoft values him highly tbh.

I maintain they are good owners. They broadly take the approach of letting the studios and sub-brands keep doing what they're good at and maintaining individual identities. Just look at Zenimax, Obsidian, inXile etc. Contrast this with EA (the publisher where developers go to die - Bullfrog, Maxis...)

As for not having produced anything good, you're forgetting Flight Simulator 2020, the Forza and Forza Horizon series, Sea of Thieves, Age of Empires, Freelancer and Starlancer, Crimson Skies, Ghostwire: Tokyo, Starfield... And those are just on the PC.

Like I said, much worse owners/publishers out there.