Microsoft Games - Will buy Activision Blizzard

Originally Posted by JFarrell71
Can you please stick to Youtube with this sort of thing? It's pointless spam. If you have something to contribute and you're the first one to do it, great. Otherwise, keep it to yourself.

41st!

I loathe corporates and the way they run business and I dont believe any corporate buyout can lead to improvement on field of innovation and creativity. If such things happen in corporate structure, its only exception that proves the rule.

Originally Posted by Andrew23
I loathe corporates and the way they run business and I dont believe any corporate buyout can lead to improvement on field of innovation and creativity. If such things happen in corporate structure, its only exception that proves the rule.

It's quite the opposite, imho, because corporations always buy out the new ideas (read : small companies) and put their inventions intoi the drawer, to protect the corporations' busioness in a most conservative ( literally ! ) way.

Originally Posted by SveNitoR
If he laughs all the way to the bank and the company gets better as well, that's win-win

It's not easy changing a companies working attitude or conditions. Not saying it's not impossible but most of the time it's just PR nonsense and lip-service to the public.

As for me I just want more SP games without battle.net from Blizzard.

Edit: Oh yeah and a remake or sequel of Arcanum as it's an IP of Activision Blizzard. Just make sure Obsidian or inXile get the job. Probably won't happen though.

Originally Posted by Couchpotato
Edit: Oh yeah and a remake or sequel of Arcanum as it's an IP of Activision Blizzard. Just make sure Obsidian or inXile get the job. Probably won't happen though.

I'd laugh if it got hyped and big-budgeted and then released really buggy and clunky. Would make for entertaining reading for sure.

Indeed, being able to play some of the classic games without that ugly battle net would be a huge boon for consumers. I'm also forced to agree with Andrew23, these types of acquisitions rarely if ever work out to the benefit of the poor consumers, so we'll have to watch and see how this all shakes out.

Originally Posted by Couchpotato
As for me I just want more SP games without battle.net from Blizzard.

Edit: Oh yeah and a remake or sequel of Arcanum as it's an IP of Activision Blizzard. Just make sure Obsidian or inXile get the job. Probably won't happen though.

I might sound crazy for saying this but I want to see SP RPG with WoW graphics

Hey, I didn't know Blizzard owned Arcanum IP.

Originally Posted by purpleblob1
I might sound crazy for saying this but I want to see SP RPG with WoW graphics

Hey, I didn't know Blizzard owned Arcanum IP.

Activision owns the Arcanum IP and they merged with Blizzard years back and now Microsoft. It would be a nice IP to resurrect given Microsoft's interest in RPG's.

Originally Posted by lackblogger
I'd laugh if it got hyped and big-budgeted and then released really buggy and clunky. Would make for entertaining reading for sure.

I have no doubt it wouldn't be a buggy mess, but that's just normal nowadays. Look at the latest Pathfinder CRPGs they are the buggiest RPGs made and this forum loves them.

Originally Posted by Couchpotato
Activision owns the Arcanum IP and they merged with Blizzard years back and now Microsoft. It would be a nice IP to resurrect given Microsoft's interest in RPG's.
I have no doubt it wouldn't be a buggy mess, but that's just normal nowadays. Look at the latest Pathfinder CRPGs they are the buggiest RPGs made and this forum loves them.

Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky would no doubt be interested. I can imagine Obsidian working on that in future.

Originally Posted by Silver
Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky would no doubt be interested. I can imagine Obsidian working on that in future.

Whats weird is inXile is rumored to have a steampunk RPG in development. Maybe it's a spiritual sequel to Arcanum as Microsoft knew the deal would go through eventually.

It's clear they are making gaming netflix… Poor play station…

Xbox CEO Phil Spencer talking about reviving old Activision games.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/video…-phil-spencer/

He actually mentions King's Quest and Hexen among others, but I'm not sure how serious he is. I don't see Microsoft greenlighting what would probably amount to being niche games at this point.

Those are two great franchises to at least mention, for sure. They might be considered niche yet I suspect plenty would pony up a few bucks to play both these days, new releases I mean.

Originally Posted by JDR13
Xbox CEO Phil Spencer talking about reviving old Activision games.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/video…-phil-spencer/

He actually mentions King's Quest and Hexen among others, but I'm not sure how serious he is. I don't see Microsoft greenlighting what would probably amount to being niche games at this point.

With gamepass those franchises don't have to be mega sellers which makes it much more likely we'll see something.

Originally Posted by MAHak
My exact thought.
I hope they don't give it the Awoved treatment though, not at least until they have published an isometric or two!

What am I missing here? Does Activision own the rights? I know Troika developed…

Now would be a good time to revive the franchise with BG3 and relative success of other throwback iso RPG's under their fold, such as PoE and the Wastelands.

Edit: NM, I see someone answered that above!

Originally Posted by rossrjensen
What am I missing here? Does Activision own the rights? I know Troika developed…

Yes. They were initially owned by Vivendi Games, the parent company of Sierra, but Vivendi merged with Activision maybe around 2014?

Originally Posted by Silver
With gamepass those franchises don't have to be mega sellers which makes it much more likely we'll see something.

Are you sure? I mean with GaaS of course they need to count sales, but still there still will be some evaluation which games make sense (in regards to revenue) to develop and which not.

Originally Posted by Morrandir
Are you sure? I mean with GaaS of course they need to count sales, but still there still will be some evaluation which games make sense (in regards to revenue) to develop and which not.

Phil Spencer has said in the past that niche titles are much more likely to have a future with gamepass. I'm not sure what IP is still relevant or interesting to modern audiences, although that sounds like corporate speak to me, but with the right developer I'm sure a good game could be made.

Originally Posted by Silver
Phil Spencer has said in the past that niche titles are much more likely to have a future with gamepass.

I gave this statement a few minutes of thought, but I couldn't come up with a justification.
I mean yes, they can use gamepass to evaluate which types of niche games are played and which are not and then derive which niche games attract how many new custiomers to cover development cost.
But a big enough company can do this without gamepass (or similar) by just selling the product and looking at sales numbers.
Also they could find out that it doesn't make sense at all to develop niche games which would result in these games not having a future.

Oh well, perhaps I'm missing something.

Originally Posted by Morrandir
I gave this statement a few minutes of thought, but I couldn't come up with a justification.
I mean yes, they can use gamepass to evaluate which types of niche games are played and which are not and then derive which niche games attract how many new custiomers to cover development cost.
But a big enough company can do this without gamepass (or similar) by just selling the product and looking at sales numbers.
Also they could find out that it doesn't make sense at all to develop niche games which would result in these games not having a future.

Oh well, perhaps I'm missing something.

Phil is keen on having a variety of offerings so that gamepass has broad appeal. Thats the logic he cited.