Microsoft Activision Blizzard Deal Gets Preliminary Approval From UK's CMA

[Elegan91]

I recently bought a xbox controller ( my first time ever ) and tried to play WoW ( laptop + tv ). From the beggining it was maybe something diffrent to get on but after few hours it was very comfortable. Consoleport addon made it even simplier with 40+ bid options on one controller. For casual gaming ( some lower m+ / normal,hc raids and wq ) from the couch after work is very relaxing. There are few streamers on YouTube that even use gamepads regurerly.

[Pann]

What about the people who already have xboxs? Why do you not think bringing the game to them wouldnt be a good move? If microsoft brought a wow sub to gamepass that would mean ever xbox player with a game pass now has access to WoW which would introduce a new influx of players to the game.

Why do you assume that there are many X-Box gamers who want to play WoW? It would stand to reason that if the demand was there Blizzard would have made at least some effort, during the past 20 years, to fulfil it.

[Takkero]

Optimal! Now fire the entire blizzard management and retreat to WoW which now sucks. Now the cycle is: mega hype at the announcement and release of yet another "best expansion ever" expansion (it looks like an Apple announcement). after 4 months the user base is halved and the complaints begin (the best expansion ever becomes the most disgusting and people regret the previous expansion that they had criticized up to 4 months before). after 1 year a third of users play it. after 1 and a half years the heavy mode complaints begin.

[Itori]

Why do you assume that there are many X-Box gamers who want to play WoW? It would stand to reason that if the demand was there Blizzard would have made at least some effort, during the past 20 years, to fulfil it.

Blizzard stopped being innovative after Activision took over. Before Activision every new addition to the game was a success. After Activision everything was to maximize profits without spending too much.

Classic is the perfect example of this. Players begged for years for legacy servers because we were fed up with the direction of retail. We were told no every time until sub numbers dropped significantly.

Blizzard wont be under the umbrella of activision anymore and we can only hope for the best going forward because honestly if it hits another WoD era the game may shut down or go f2p

[Pann]

Blizzard stopped being innovative after Activision took over. Before Activision every new addition to the game was a success. After Activision everything was to maximize profits without spending too much.

Classic is the perfect example of this. Players begged for years for legacy servers because we were fed up with the direction of retail. We were told no every time until sub numbers dropped significantly.

Blizzard wont be under the umbrella of activision anymore and we can only hope for the best going forward because honestly if it hits another WoD era the game may shut down or go f2p

If Activision's influence was to force Blizzard to maximise profits then why didn't they attempt to maximise their profits by tapping into the console market?

You can't claim that there is an untapped market of players just waiting for WoW to come to their favourite console and then say that this market was ignored by Blizzard because their owners are focussed on profit.

[RobertMugabe]

I recently bought a xbox controller ( my first time ever ) and tried to play WoW ( laptop + tv ). From the beggining it was maybe something diffrent to get on but after few hours it was very comfortable. Consoleport addon made it even simplier with 40+ bid options on one controller. For casual gaming ( some lower m+ / normal,hc raids and wq ) from the couch after work is very relaxing. There are few streamers on YouTube that even use gamepads regurerly.

Yeah there are even people who are healing and tanking in raids and are even getting Gladiator by playing with a controller.

Dunno why there are still people in disbelief that this game cannot be played properly with a controller.

You can even make the gameplay experience even better by using an Elite Controller with more buttons and with one of those keyboard attachments. That would be the equivalent then of a pro player using a gaming keyboard with an MMO mouse.

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Either way, there's no way that Blizzard after the purchase won't consider adding WoW one way or another to Game Pass (at the very least they can make it so that you can play all non-current expansions without an extra sub) and even add it to Xbox (which also supports keyboard and mouse gameplay anyways). Whatever will make their platform (both Xbox and Game Pass) stronger and make them more money, they will obviously do it.

From a business perspective, it's the obvious thing to do, not sure why anyone would think that they would NEVER do that, except that they are sour PlayStation fanboys and just want to be in disbelief.

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The market is already there. People are aware of World of Warcraft but the gatekeeper is its only available for PC at the moment, which to your average console player has them think they have to spend 2000$ on a gaming PC to play WoW. If Microsoft did invest in bringing the game to Xbox then it wouldn't be a simple port job. They'd have to design a system to support controllers. There are several MMO's on xbox but the great majority of them are just garbage. WoW would be a game changer for the xbox mmo community.

+ Adding to that, another issue with WoW currently is that you kinda do require a pretty decent and thus expensive gaming PC to play it well (good resolution, good fps in raids/pvp, Valdrakken not lagging etc.), which can easily cost around ~1000€. I have several friends who stopped playing WoW and some that didn't even want to bother with it, because they didn't have good enough PC's.

Meanwhile, even a Xbox Series S can play AAA game at full hd and the Series X at 4k, so that could open the door for many people who cannot or won't buy (I mean there's a reason why console gaming is so much bigger than PC gaming) a gaming PC just for WoW, but already own an Xbox or are willing to buy a console, which is A LOT of people.

[OokOok]

Blizzard stopped being innovative after Activision took over. Before Activision every new addition to the game was a success. After Activision everything was to maximize profits without spending too much.

Classic is the perfect example of this. Players begged for years for legacy servers because we were fed up with the direction of retail. We were told no every time until sub numbers dropped significantly.

Blizzard wont be under the umbrella of activision anymore and we can only hope for the best going forward because honestly if it hits another WoD era the game may shut down or go f2p

Are you one of those ignorant people who don't know Activision took over in 2007? They have been plenty innovative since then, you just don't like what they are making.

[Niwes]

Pretty much, in essence Ubisoft will be where the cloud games go, but the games will still be controlled by Microsoft, will still be able to go on gamepass etc. Just if there's a cloud version of the game, it'll be on Ubisoft's cloud service not MS.

the problem is: going on gamepass or not, cloud supprt abilities, etc. this is all the „global outer ring“ of technical embedding into their commercial concepts. it’s not much related to wow and its content itself.

in short: microsoft will decide: do we connect wow also to game pass or not. but setting the budget, control the game design, control the license, define the requirements, etc. does all Ubisoft. and that’s what is relevant for wow, the game.

this means: what wow looks like in 2025 is solely defined by Ubisoft.

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How do you even quote it and miss the bold?

? /10chars

[Pann]

this means: what wow looks like in 2025 is solely defined by Ubisoft.

No, it doesn't. Cloud gaming rights for ATVI titles have been sold to Ubisoft. Ubisoft control the rights to stream ATVI games for next 15 years, nothing more.

[Stickiler]

+ Adding to that, another issue with WoW currently is that you kinda do require a pretty decent and thus expensive gaming PC to play it well (good resolution, good fps in raids/pvp, Valdrakken not lagging etc.), which can easily cost around ~1000€. I have several friends who stopped playing WoW and some that didn't even want to bother with it, because they didn't have good enough PC's.

Meanwhile, even a Xbox Series S can play AAA game at full hd and the Series X at 4k, so that could open the door for many people who cannot or won't buy (I mean there's a reason why console gaming is so much bigger than PC gaming) a gaming PC just for WoW, but already own an Xbox or are willing to buy a console, which is A LOT of people.

The Series S is the equivalent of a 100$ graphics card(The RTX 1650 or RX 5500 XT), so there's absolutely no hope that it'll ever run at satisfactory levels(Where satisfactory is defined by you as "good resolution, good fps in raids/pvp, Valdrakken not lagging etc."). If Blizzard optimises the game for the Series S, we'll also get those improvements on PC, so you could just as easily get a junk second hand PC and throw a 5500 XT in it, and that'll be cheaper and a better experience than on the Series S.

[PenguinChan]

WoW has a potential market, now would it garner a market on console? Probably, especially if it was apart of gamepass. Also, are people really that disillusioned they think WoW needs a $1,000+ computer to run well? The extensive level of options (including the major performance hits) are all customizable to your preferences and capable hardware. This isn’t even speaking about FSR upscaling or DX11 vs 12. So silly.

[mst3kfan]

None of us giving a flying F*ck about any of this garbage. If it means they stop selling us shit and calling it a game great. Would be nice to get back to receiving a game actually worth playing over the trash they have been producing over the last decade. We would all be better off if they dumped garbage like Diablo Immortal, any and all Overwatch crap, and do some heavy overhauls of Diablo IV so it wasn't such a half-a$$ed POS.

[RobertMugabe]

The Series S is the equivalent of a 100$ graphics card(The RTX 1650 or RX 5500 XT), so there's absolutely no hope that it'll ever run at satisfactory levels(Where satisfactory is defined by you as "good resolution, good fps in raids/pvp, Valdrakken not lagging etc."). If Blizzard optimises the game for the Series S, we'll also get those improvements on PC, so you could just as easily get a junk second hand PC and throw a 5500 XT in it, and that'll be cheaper and a better experience than on the Series S.

No it won't. please stop talking out of your ass and making stupid comparisons which just don't make any sense. A second hand Xbox Series S will still be cheaper than that second hand PC that most definitely won't run as well as that Xbox Series S.

First of all a new rtx 1650 or rx 5500 xt costs 160-200$ currently in my region, while an Xbox Series S can be bought for 280$ with the controller (worth 60$) + game (like Starfield) included. Second of all, while we're doing unfair comparisons, the Xbox Series S goes on sale every couple of months for just about 200$ (a second hand series s can be bought for less than 150$ even). And third, the Xbox Series S will run better than any "junk second hand PC" you can throw together with these graphics cards, especially if you want to compete with that price (since those gpu's perform worse than the Xbox' one anyways + the Xbox is obviously not just a graphics card, but it actually has other, modern hardware in it as well like a very good CPU, motherboard RAM that is used by the GPU itself etc etc).

[ParanoiD84]

Well i dont really care but if the quality will go up then fine because all of blizzards latest releases have been huge disappointments.

Diablo 4 has to be the most boring arpg i have played and i have played a ton, really bad itemization, build diversity and no endgame.

Overwatch 2, yeah we all know what happened

WC 3 reforged was a joke

Dragonflight is alright nothing special but before that we had 2 expansions that sucked.

So if this deal will up the quality then im all for it but i really doubt it, its common knowledge that Microsoft just want the call of duty ip and King.

[Mysterymask]

So many people thinking the quality of games is going to go up

Like I don't think Bethesda has gotten any better since being bought by Microsoft (though arguments of them getting worse)
Rare absolutely got worse outside of like Killer Instinct and Sea of Thieves...oh and I guess Viva Piñata was pretty good
Mojang is...debatable I don't play Minecraft can't really say if it got better or worse since Microsoft
Obsidian has barely budged, Double Fine hasn't released anything yet and a few of the more wibbly wobbly devs they bought are still both wibbly and wobbly

[Algorath]

/who 70
34 people online
Yikezorz

[Orby]

People thinking this merger is a good thing are probably naïve. the only people benefiting this merger are exec and shareholders and every other rich white dude there. And I am sure Kotick will get a sweet bonus too, whether he leaves or not after this who knows.

Fuck all the people that are gonna get laid oiff soon, 'aS LOnG aS oUz ViD dooo GaMEs aRE goOd..'

fucking hate gamers

So many people thinking the quality of games is going to go up

Like I don't think Bethesda has gotten any better since being bought by Microsoft (though arguments of them getting worse)
Rare absolutely got worse outside of like Killer Instinct and Sea of Thieves...oh and I guess Viva Piñata was pretty good
Mojang is...debatable I don't play Minecraft can't really say if it got better or worse since Microsoft
Obsidian has barely budged, Double Fine hasn't released anything yet and a few of the more wibbly wobbly devs they bought are still both wibbly and wobbly

I will never forgive Microsoft after the death of so many good Rare IP's after the merger, and everyone involved in those IP's are long gone :*(

[richardhuntr]

All these people saying gamepass means wow will have to work on a controller, I think they forget gamepass works on your pc too...

[Relapses]

People thinking this merger is a good thing are probably naïve. the only people benefiting this merger are exec and shareholders and every other rich white dude there. And I am sure Kotick will get a sweet bonus too, whether he leaves or not after this who knows.

The deal has taken a lot longer to go through than initially anticipated but Kotick was slated to leave the company once the MS deal was completed. He's on contract through 2024 so we'll have to see how it goes.

It is without question that he is going to receive quite a handsome golden parachute regardless.

Fuck all the people that are gonna get laid oiff soon, 'aS LOnG aS oUz ViD dooo GaMEs aRE goOd..'

WoW is Blizzard's golden goose, I doubt we'll see many layoffs in this sector. In fact, depending on MS's long-term goals, we may actually see an increase in staffing for the game.

fucking hate gamers

Same.

I will never forgive Microsoft after the death of so many good Rare IP's after the merger, and everyone involved in those IP's are long gone :*(

There's no guarantee that these studios wouldn't have died anyway. Consolidation is rarely in the interest of consumers but it's a bit myopic to say that MS acquired these studios with the specific intention of shuttering them.

[Unholyground]

They aren't going to lean into WoW hard at all. They are just going to let Blizzard do their thing with it the same way they let Zenimax do their thing with ESO.

The WoW fan base is truly delusional to the state of the gaming industry if they think this purchase was in any way shape or form about WoW or blizzard when it was 1) about CoD and distant 2) about King. Blizzard by themselves probably isn't even worth $10 billion let alone $70 billion and that would include OW and Diablo not just WoW so now factor in how irrelevant WoW actually is in the grand scheme of this deal.

They are going to lean into CoD hard, you will hardly even know WoW is now owned by MS unless you read the news.

I'm not delusional at all and I'm actually a game developer, the acquisition was about the user base once this goes through they will have the largest online anything in the world as far as user bases are concerned, you don't think they're going to leverage that and merge Battlenet into game pass? They definitely will so hold on to your goddamn pants because shit's going to change real quick, if you think there's not going to be any direction from Microsoft you are sadly mistaken.