Microsoft To Buy Activision Blizzard for $68.7 Billion

[Communism]

This is easily an improvement and good news.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

basically the lore where it's the same as in Warcraft 3, no retcons of any form

Mind as well bring Metzen back, but he seems to have moved on with his life, saying that he wants to take it easy and he wants to sell his own TRPG supplements now.

[The Stormbringer]

God fucking dammit. The best shot to get rid of Kotick out the fucking window. Of COURSE they're going to keep on that disgusting sleezebag.

EDIT: Apparently it's temporary, phew.

[zhorteye]

Didi you purposely ignore WoW? because it is absolutely false to say Hearthstone is the only game making money.

The deal could be rushed through depending on the willingness from the different legal teams involved.
Not likely though..

Problem is, a year in the future is a new wow expansion due to launch.. and that is for many the last chance for wow.. with the current leadership having control its likely to fail... So the sooner the deal can be finished, the better.

[PsychoSe7eN]

The fact that all you got from that post is 'emerged Sony fanboy' tells me that the only fanboy in that scenario is yourself, dude.

There are very valid antitrust/anticompetitive concerns. But you'll not understand any of that.

Lol, what an imbecile. If you know anything about Microsoft, they are the exact opposite of what your concerns are. I'd be more worried if Sony bought them instead. Microsoft is not the issue.

[Mendzia]

Bobby will survive Alien attack, supervolcano eruption, WWIII and Covid-23.
He is immune for everything.

[Akta]

So, you're saying the nearly 20-year-old MMO that is now known as the nexus of scandals is far better than two of the most profitable video games ever made?

did i say they spent 70b just for wow? or you think they bought bethesda just for elder scroll?

[regardoz]

Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

is bobby a problem or he will be controlled ?

[LordVargK]

They're valued because of Activision and Hearthstone. Diablo 2 was a blip but it does not have microtransaction legs like CoD and Hearthstone do. Nothing else in Blizzard's portfolio raked in enough money to be noted in their latest financial report.

From your source:

World of Warcraft is on track to deliver its strongest engagement and net bookings outside of a Modern expansion year in a decade

You're implying owning WoW isn't printing money. WoW is purely profit. Easily a Billion a year pure profit.

[Raven]

So do this mean its time to blame microsoft for every issue.

[Ielenia]

Well, Bobby Kotick ain't going anywhere. That's a damn shame.

But, since this was a buyout and not a merge, that means now Kotick has to answer to someone higher than him, I'm assuming. That's a silver lining, at least?

[Lora]

this is not what i expected. even more so, i did not expect it to sell for that much with its current climate. thats insane.

[|Dexter|]

Rareware got destroyed with this same deal!

[regardoz]

So do this mean its time to blame microsoft for every issue.

wow is a gurantee 1 billion a year and thats only subscription . imagine with transfer of character + expansion money + faction change etc etc etc.

or imagine game getting fixed and team working again for more patches . this is really awesome news

[roboscorcher]

68.7 billion dollars

I bet MS offered a nice 69 billion, but Kotick had to ruin it again by taking 300 mill as a parachute package.

[Rhlor]

Bought for 17.5x the amount Disney paid Lucas to buy Star Wars, holy crap

I wonder what Microsoft's aim is at here. Blizzard's productivity has dropped off the face of the earth over the last decade. Hearthstone is Blizzard's only game that is still making them money. All of their other projects are either stuck in development hell (D4, OW2, Diablo Immortal, whatever the incubation unit is working on) or is in actual maintenance mode (D3, Starcraft 2, HotS, OW1). Blizzard as a game studio has completely broken down and I doubt Microsoft will fix that. I'm guessing Microsoft is either after what Activision has, and/or the Blizzard IPs so they can license the IPs to competent studios.

Activision blizzard ips are so important wow diablo cod

[Polygons]

I bet it's illegal for them to buyout Activision just to fire Kotick, plus his severance package is like $295 million. I bet they'll get rid of him later on for some other reason.

[Enter Name Here]

68.7 billion dollars

I bet MS offered a nice 69 billion, but Kotick had to ruin it again by taking 300 mill as a parachute package.

or they went a bit lower not to get any more fire for a childish 69 joke after all the lawsuits

[Drusin]

So do this mean its time to blame microsoft for every issue.

Maybe, we blame the person in charge without thinking right?

[Yadryonych]

Ah finally the answer. Now we know who was behind the insane smearing campaign