Something people AREN'T talking about with the Microsoft acquisition

[rogoth]

most media and many general opinion providers are only reporting on the 'shock factor' headlines, such as the value of the transaction, or what games could become xbox exclusives etc, but there's some stuff i have not seen anybody talk about regarding this ground breaking acquisition that i think could have far reaching implications for the likes of Nintendo/Sony:

in the official press release while not much page space was dedicated to it, phil spencer said: 'this acquisition will help accelerate our push into cloud gaming', Microsoft haven't just bought some of the best known, most played franchises in gaming history, they have also bought the oldest and most successful server/networking interface in gaming history, with the battle.net system, as well as all the engineering behind it, which when coupled with their own backend systems for the 'xcloud' service, this gives Microsoft not only the 'desktop launcher' presence they have been sorely missing (either being forced to release games on steam or offering some kind of sub par inhouse system for PC clients), assuming the tech is there and the engineering can make it work, Microsoft could quite literally have an entire 'game library' ecosystem, the likes of which GOG was trying to make happen, except you can swap between games seamlessly with just a single click/press of a button, this is a monumental game changer for the entire gaming market, Microsoft were already head and shoulders above the 'competition' (i use that word lightly because lets be real, Sony and Nintendo are not really competing with Microsoft), in regards to cloud gaming and the general idea of a single library ecosystem, i don't think it's an understatement to say this is much bigger than just the face value shock factor of it.

[Advent]

I just have three words for you man. Formatting and punctuation.

[Unlimited Power]

I'd love it if they put WoW on cloud gaming again. Used to play WoW during downtime at work using the Nvidia Geforce Now service, but Blizzard had it removed when the service launched as a paid subscription.

Has to work with addons or it's entirely pointless though. Wonder how they'd do that without official addon support. Maybe Microsoft can help establish an official addon manager for WoW and other games. The one advantage of having WoW on a platform like Steam would be support for addons through the workshop tool, but that's an unlikely scenario in any case.

[PACOX]

Microsoft already has a solid cloud platform. Both Windows and Xboc/Game Pass use it. Only thing they haven't been able to get right is a good social hub that people use across all games. One that people actually want to use and not just use Discord instead.

[Afrospinach]

One that people actually want to use and not just use Discord instead.

Well we know what microsoft will buy next

[Segus1992]

Well we know what microsoft will buy next

Pretty sure they've tried but Discord declined? Maybe they just haven't been offered enough yet.

[Koriani]

Pretty sure they've tried but Discord declined? Maybe they just haven't been offered enough yet.

Yea they did offer - and Discord declined.

But "everyone has a price" - so remains to be seen if MS offers again, at any point in the future. But I doubt Discord's refusal was to do with it being Microsoft and more it just 'wasn't enough' to get them to sell it (yet).

[Segus1992]

Yea they did offer - and Discord declined.

But "everyone has a price" - so remains to be seen if MS offers again, at any point in the future. But I doubt Discord's refusal was to do with it being Microsoft and more it just 'wasn't enough' to get them to sell it (yet).

IIRC it did have to do with who it was, since Discord only grew mainly because Skype became trash, which was also bought by Microsoft.

[Toybox]

Cloud gaming is the end-game for these companies, so acquiring the biggest names in the industry puts them at a huge advantage over anyone else looking to compete. If Amazon/Google really want to compete with Luna/Stadia, I can imagine them buying out EA/Take Two or similar in retaliation.

Woo, mega-corps owning everything

[kaminaris]

IIRC it did have to do with who it was, since Discord only grew mainly because Skype became trash, which was also bought by Microsoft.

MS also has teams now, which is also trash. If there is one thing MS can't do properly its the voice communicator, everything they produced so far (including text only chats) is liquid shit that died one way or another.

Also people dont talk about rental hardware is because its irrelevant how much they "push it", limit is people internet quality.
But i did test geeforce now and it was decent for average joe (assuming he has fiber with low latency)

[Gaidax]

OP bruh... Microsoft already has desktop launcher - it's called Microsoft Store.

They don't need battle.net launcher and while at it - you can bet M$ server infrastructure and backend shits on anything Blizzard does, because they own Azure and compared to that battle.net is a rental kiddie pool.

They did not buy Actiblizz because of their server tech or shit like that - they bought it to prop up their gaming empire.

[Onikaroshi]

OP bruh... Microsoft already has desktop launcher - it's called Microsoft Store.

They don't need battle.net launcher and while at it - you can bet M$ server infrastructure and backend shits on anything Blizzard does, because they own Azure and compared to that battle.net is a rental kiddie pool.

They did not buy Actiblizz because of their server tech or shit like that - they bought it to prop up their gaming empire.

actually their "launcher" would be the xbox desktop application

[Easo]

Mmm, yeah, OP, as Gaidax said - Microsoft Store, for better or worse, is a thing and, well, AZURE, ffs.
Sure, I can give you a point if we are talking about specific know-how regarding video game networking tech, but generally for someone who owns the second largest cloud system figuring it out would not be the biggest issue.

[Zenfoldor]

Cloud gaming, casuals, and candy crush were made for each other.

Maybe you can even play it on your refrigerator or something, but I'll never know.

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OP bruh... Microsoft already has desktop launcher - it's called Microsoft Store.

They don't need battle.net launcher and while at it - you can bet M$ server infrastructure and backend shits on anything Blizzard does, because they own Azure and compared to that battle.net is a rental kiddie pool.

They did not buy Actiblizz because of their server tech or shit like that - they bought it to prop up their gaming empire.

Yep, they will try to tout gamepass when they improve, but we all know the real reason is because games and exclusives matter, and they went out and bought a bunch. Gamepass, yeah right. I'm sure a rental service trying to appeal to my desire to save money on gaming(lol) will be the entire reason MS turns it around, and not Call of Duty and Elder Scrolls.