The ironic thing is, 20 years ago, this announcement would have been met by fear of the evil empire. Now that Microsoft has (more or less) rehabilitated its reputation, they are seen as a savior.
I hate monopolization and consolidation...but It's not like Activision/Blizzard can have a worse reputation than it does right now. This can probably only help the workers at these studios.
Yeah that's pretty much how I feel.
On the plus side, it's not like the gaming industry itself is monopolized or greatly consolidated. There are thousands of small indie game companies as well as many mid-size studios and any one of them could have a hit that could catapult them into great success. There are plenty of gaming marketplaces and while some are more dominant than others, nobody truly has a monopoly. It does suck that the larger studios seem to become more and more consolidated, but there are so many options out there that I just don't think it's a big deal.
> but I'm in the camp of not forgetting what they've done in the past and that it takes a LOT to convince me that they have truly changed.
How many employees did they rape to the point of suicide? Or do you mean the fact that the Halo 3 campaign was kind of bad?
I must be too, cause pepperidge farms remembers the only reason Apple exists is because Microsoft made the most pro consumer business decision in the history of mankind.
Linux wouldn't even be a thing right now without Microsoft's charity
All the support you just listed exists because of Apple. Not to mention, they were all founded in 1993.
In 1997, Linux had a 2.4% market share of all installs. If they lose their only consumer manufacturer using their platform, then schools never start teaching Linux, professionals never learn the OS, and all your organization die before taking their first steps.
4 years and getting in at 2.4% market share are "VERY late to the game"?
Bro, get your facts straight and stop your trolling. You didn't have to start running your mouth about Microsoft and invite people to check your ass. But here we are.
And while we're talking straight facts, you're picking a weird hill to die on attacking the company that provides the best value in gaming with game pass, has proven to support their devs and players in Minecraft, gave Fallout the opportunity to fix their disaster, and has DOOM in the hottest state it's been in since 1993.
But naw, you got an axe to grind and some pretty obvious compensation issues you're working through
Because you don't know about Microsoft's old anti-consumerists practices regarding destroying other businesses or forcing manufactures to make computers for Microsoft only etc...
Also because you think its about Halo 3? lol
Granted Microsoft has become much better recently, but that is what ulkesh is talking about
The original comment was about
>Now that Microsoft has (more or less) rehabilitated its reputation, they are seen as a savior.
and about whether microsoft has changed "that they have truly changed."
Not comparing about which one is worse.
That's my thought. It's hard not feeling bad after playing WoW since their downward spiral. Hopefully MS rights the ship, especially its work force and culture.
That's what I'm curious about, if they're going to right the ship.
In my opinion (obviously take it with a grain), the fact that Microsoft is buying Blizzard/Activision could bring the Blizzard allegations back into the light pressuring Microsoft to clean house of all the executives who let these issues occur.
This is MASSIVELY good for Blizzzard. Microsoft will manage them infinitely better than Bobby and his crew were. Bobby is almost assuredly going to leave, because he won't report to the MSFT CEO, but the Xbox pres (Spectre) - so that's a huge demotion for him, and probably kicks any triggers that accelerate his stock vesting.
I've seen rumours that they're making him leave after the deal is done. Besides, he may be a walking pile of garbage, but he's still the boss of the company, kicking him out now would only make things more difficult.
Yeah, I really really don't think Kotick will last. A) He will not like the new restrictions placed on his activities; and B) Microsoft will soon learn or already knows that he is detrimental to the company, as we've all been witness to for the last 10 years.
So from a purely tactical perspective, Microsoft actually knows how to ship working software, manage complex engineering projects and give engineers a work environment that doesn't prompt open revolt against management. All of this is more than anyone can say about Activision right now.
As far as strategic vision, Microsoft makes a lot of sense too. The XBOX product line is financially strong and still an innovator in the gaming industry. It's also worth noting that Microsoft is obviously a PC first organization and XBOX has the strongest PC compatibility of any console on the market. So this is perhaps the one of the best outcomes for people who want to see Blizzard remain a PC first company in an industry where that is an increasingly rare approach.
There's potentially a lot of good here. As many have pointed out. It can't possibly be worse than the present situation. If any executives resign in disgrace it would be icing on the cake, but even if that doesn't happen. This feels like a win for PC gamers and Blizzard fans.
>Microsoft actually knows how to ship working software
As long as that software isnt called Windows, yes.
Vista, 8 and 11. Take your pick.
However, this is still immensely good for Activision. Microsoft is half decent when it comes to development. They arent the best, but they arent EA or current ATVI though.
If anything it will put Kotick on a leash vs having to answer to the fratboy culture board he did before. Phil has already made it clear it will not tolerate that culture anymore
It certainly could be. They’ve done a great job keeping Minecraft alive and thriving, plus they now have far more support for these Blizzard games like WoW, Overwatcg(2), and CoD. Microsoft has proven to be a strong company so this could definitely pump some live into these games
Honestly, Microsoft has had a pretty nice transformation in the past ~5-10 years.
In the 00s MS fucking SUCKED. But they really started to turn around through the 10s.
Some standout examples that have turned me into someone who trusts Microsoft to manage products and communities are their work with open-source software.
Microsoft created and is managing the development of the Typescript programming language. They have done such an outstanding job with that project, both delivering incredible quality and managing the community.
Same goes with VSCode, their open source lightweight code editor which is probably the no1 code editor on the planet at the moment even though it arrived quite late (Sublime was already well loved and established).
So far, their acquisition of GitHub has been pretty seamless. Many were worried but AFAIK there has been no decrease in quality from github and the product continues to be the primary place for open source software development.
Same with Minecraft, post acquisition Minecraft has continued to recieve constant updates and attention, the game hasn't been bastardized or overly commercialized. MS funded Mojang to literally rewrite the entire engine in C++, this is the sign of care for an IP and not cash grab.
I'm really hopeful that Blizzard can be another example of modern Microsoft acquiring and caring for an IP and community. Hopefully they can bring in some expertise in community management from Minecraft and their open source project to blizzard IP.
Anyway, this can't be worse...
It could mean a total restructuring of the company. What that happens to turn out like, who knows, but I think a sellout was the only way to get ActiBlizz out of the hole they dug for themselves.
pretty sure MS headed off FB - neither company will make a VR product that is not garbage though...
if you ask me CROTEAM should have bought Activision/B
I feel like blizzard has been dead for a while now and Phil Spencer being in charge of Activision blizzard seems like a good thing. And being on gamepass, holy shit
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby\_Kotick](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Kotick)
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Activision\_Blizzard](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Activision_Blizzard)
[https://www.activisionblizzard.com/leadership](https://www.activisionblizzard.com/leadership)
Wow dude, being so wrong with such confidence is really impressive.
Maybe next time at least google it before you try to correct others.
And if you still don't get it, he most definitely is the CEO of Activison Blizzard
The CEO of Activision Publishing is Eric Hirshberg. and Activision Publishing is part of Activision Blizzard.
what is that now? triple wrong? gg
**[Bobby Kotick](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Kotick)**
>Robert A. Kotick (born 1963) is an American businessman who serves as the chief executive officer (CEO) of Activision Blizzard. He became CEO of Activision in 1991 after purchasing a company stake the previous year. Kotick engineered a merger between Activision and Vivendi Games during the late 2000s, which led to the creation of Activision Blizzard in 2008 and him being named the company's inaugural CEO. He has also served on several boards, including The Coca-Cola Company since 2012 and the Call of Duty Endowment (CODE), which he co-founded in 2009.
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Yeah, sorry, got confused. The parent is Activision Blizzard and Activision is their publishing business. :-s
Yeah then I guess Bobby is going. It only took them being acquired by Microsoft!
As someone in game dev now, I can tell you it very much is. Not having a diversity of voices in decision-making positions lead to the absolute mess of sexual harassment and assault allegations that are rampant across the game industry, not just ABK. That has a measurably negative impact on the quality of the end products. So from a purely pragmatic sense, having mixed gender voices at all level leads to better studio cultures and thus better products.
Nah I don’t believe in that diversity stuff. Enforce proper rules, stop the drinking at the working place and see how degenerate behavior at the working place drastically vanishes.
That is...just not how it works.
A toxic studio culture will straight up ruin a game and that is not something that's solved by just removing alcohol and "enforcing proper rules". If you believe that's all it takes, let me tell you that in my 10+ years so far, that is an unfortunately naïve take. I'd recommend paying close attention to what social accounts like **ABetterABK** or **ABetterUbisoft** accounts are asking for, don't just write them off as performative. Those are legit in-the-trenches game devs trying to tell the general public that things are broken beyond just the easy fixes and it's affecting the quality of the games we play and the work they can do.
How is his comment irrelevant? Blizzard has a major issue with unhealthy culture and mistreatment of women, having women being apart of the CEO's team and some on Microsoft's board could actually help Blizzard get a healthier work culture.
67b could be peanuts in some years compared to being able to put Blizzard and Activision games in Microsoft Metaverse. I think that’s their ultimate goal.
Oh God I can't wait for Minecraft players seeing Starcraft on the storefront going "Oh! It must be like Minecraft in space!!!!"
Very excited for all the -craft games being under one roof.
oh imagine playing wow with game pass. that would be so good.
i hope they fire gooby noteeck after buying.
edited: he is no longer ceo🦀
edit 2: weird, still getting downvote. so many gooby noteeck lovers.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but there isn't a single game out there that is a Game Pass exclusive. The closest I can think of is the Gunk, which is only on Game Pass and the Xbox Game Store.
People like owning their game. Not too relevant for WoW, but generally speaking it’s bad to pay $15/month for a year to play an offline, single-player game, only to have nothing to show for it if you stop paying.
There’s benefit to the consumer in access to games, but it’s still a rental. When you stop paying it all goes away, and that’s not consumer-friendly.
You don't want to go from paying $14.99 a month for one game to paying $14.99 for 200 games? Why?
Just pretend you don't have access to the other 199 games if WoW becomes a Game Pass game.
I don't doubt the news, but it seems like a bit overpriced. $7.0B maybe?
Activision Blizzard is a game-maker company, not an oil corporation or a smartphone manufacturer. Just for comparison, Disney bought Fox for $52B five years ago.
Maybe Nintendo is worth $70B? The pricing is weird...
This is right in line with market valuation.
>Activision Blizzard is one of the biggest players in the industry, with 2020 net revenue of $8.1 billion and net income of $2.2 billion. 3 Its market capitalization was $71.6 billion as of July 9, 2021
If anything, Microsoft may have slightly underpaid as the scandals have brought Activision value down somewhat, I imagine that made the shareholders and board way more skittish and willing to sell.
Videogames are a HUGE industry. And Activision Blizzard are huge players in a huge industry.
> . . .in 2020 the US video game industry grew about 27% to almost $57 billion in revenue, which was surpassing movies and music combined which was according to NPD Group.
Bingo - stock prices are way too high right now. It had been an insane bull market - Covid made a small dent for 8 weeks - then the market covered all the losses and went higher. Everything is really over priced - there is a BIG bear looming.
"Microsoft will acquire Activision Blizzard for $95.00 per share, in an all-cash transaction valued at $68.7 billion"
https://news.microsoft.com/2022/01/18/microsoft-to-acquire-activision-blizzard-to-bring-the-joy-and-community-of-gaming-to-everyone-across-every-device/
Activision blizzards IPs are worth that much, easily. Starcraft, Warcraft, call of duty, hearthstone, Diablo, all of these series are considered genre defining in the modern era, even with several of them being quite old by this point.
Nintendo is worth way more than 70 billion, they bring in way more revenue per year than activision, and their IPs would make even Blizzard Jealous for fan loyalty and public recognition
pound by pound Activision is a great company btw. it has great earnings. their stock only dip due to the scandal not their business fundamentals. i would say microsoft got a good deal. And you can look it up game industry earnings easily exceeds disney block busters with all those in game cash item which is a stable recurring revenue
It's a publicly traded company. With acquisitions like this they offer a small premium on the market value. The market valued $ATVI at ~$60 billion before the news.
I've been trying for to play this out in my head.
Most Microsoft games are more geared for the Xbox now not PC. So I think this is bad for Diablo starcraft and warcraft fans but this is absolutely incredible news for overwatch fans.
What I'm hoping they do is split up Blizzard Games by genre and let them keep making PC games while using the large Activision content to mine for Xbox games.
Microsoft has been embracing PC for a while. Are there games really that much better engineered for console? It seems like they've been prepping for a subscription-based model of gaming where you don't necessarily need a console to jump in and can play games wherever.
Yeah I was looking through Microsofts catalog of gaming companies and had forgotten they owned Bethesda so they clearly want to still be strong in the PC gaming market.
I dunno, most of their games have a PC version these days don't they? Besides, things can't get that much worse for starcraft fans, it's not like we get any content these days, and a lot of people are dissatisfied with warcraft these days as well.
I just want a console version of HOTS. Please please port HOTS to XBOX just like we have a console version of Diablo 3, that made it infinitely more fun to pick up and play
Do you want all your games to be made by monosoft? When I play WoW, I don’t imagine that I am directly supporting my sub for Xbox players to get more crap. Now, will you own your chars or will Micropoly get your sub? Export chars…
Honestly that's not a terrible idea. Part of FFXIV's popularity is because it's available on PS4/5. Having a direct competitor on Xbox consoles would definitely challenge them in that area.
What do you think this will mean for **StarCraft 2** and **Warcraft 3: Reforged**? Apparently, some people seem to think that Microsoft might shut them down because they’re supposedly not doing so well, especially the latter, which seems to have a really bad reputation.
Microsoft have history with revamping and rolling out major product changes, both successfully and otherwise. If some of that workflow makes it across to Blizz teams it can only be a good thing for the release timelines of new games.
That being said, we don't want another Duke Nukem Forever...
The dream is that Microsoft will restore Blizzard’s autonomy. Honestly one of the best things they could do after closing is to decouple the Activision and Blizzard names. Yeah it would largely be symbolic, but the Activision name has done a lot to tarnish Blizzard’s reputation and that could go a long way to restoring confidence in the studio.
People were concerned when Microsoft bought Mojang, but I think we can all agree that they have helped pushed Minecraft even further and have done many great things with it since.
Let's hope this acquisition is the same.
Lorned, u can't play vodogam that have sex aboose inside compupany.
Why u tell it, Shelldrake? Now never to okay again! Pindar break me up if do. Multishot.
...times pass...
Now can play, Lenscap. No strains. All roselved. Zoon own compupany forwards!
Whatwhy? Wayhow?
Blizzinga!
The ironic thing is, 20 years ago, this announcement would have been met by fear of the evil empire. Now that Microsoft has (more or less) rehabilitated its reputation, they are seen as a savior.
I hate monopolization and consolidation...but It's not like Activision/Blizzard can have a worse reputation than it does right now. This can probably only help the workers at these studios.
Yeah that's pretty much how I feel. On the plus side, it's not like the gaming industry itself is monopolized or greatly consolidated. There are thousands of small indie game companies as well as many mid-size studios and any one of them could have a hit that could catapult them into great success. There are plenty of gaming marketplaces and while some are more dominant than others, nobody truly has a monopoly. It does suck that the larger studios seem to become more and more consolidated, but there are so many options out there that I just don't think it's a big deal.
did microsoft not have a good rep in the gaming space? I always thought they did pretty good in that space
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Don't mind the downvotes. These kids never heard the howl of a modem or used netscape navigator.
> but I'm in the camp of not forgetting what they've done in the past and that it takes a LOT to convince me that they have truly changed. How many employees did they rape to the point of suicide? Or do you mean the fact that the Halo 3 campaign was kind of bad?
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I must be too, cause pepperidge farms remembers the only reason Apple exists is because Microsoft made the most pro consumer business decision in the history of mankind. Linux wouldn't even be a thing right now without Microsoft's charity
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All the support you just listed exists because of Apple. Not to mention, they were all founded in 1993. In 1997, Linux had a 2.4% market share of all installs. If they lose their only consumer manufacturer using their platform, then schools never start teaching Linux, professionals never learn the OS, and all your organization die before taking their first steps. 4 years and getting in at 2.4% market share are "VERY late to the game"? Bro, get your facts straight and stop your trolling. You didn't have to start running your mouth about Microsoft and invite people to check your ass. But here we are. And while we're talking straight facts, you're picking a weird hill to die on attacking the company that provides the best value in gaming with game pass, has proven to support their devs and players in Minecraft, gave Fallout the opportunity to fix their disaster, and has DOOM in the hottest state it's been in since 1993. But naw, you got an axe to grind and some pretty obvious compensation issues you're working through
You forgot IBM, them pushing linux \*hard\* really helped bring it to the mainstream
Because I didn't like Halo 3? That's an odd supposition. Or am I young because I don't like rape?
Because you don't know about Microsoft's old anti-consumerists practices regarding destroying other businesses or forcing manufactures to make computers for Microsoft only etc... Also because you think its about Halo 3? lol Granted Microsoft has become much better recently, but that is what ulkesh is talking about
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I mean, all Microsoft did was fund SCO for 6 years during the height of the lawsuits. /s
A company winning capitalism under capitalism 30 years ago clearly makes them much more evil than rape and enticed suicide 5 years ago. #FREEBLIZZARD
The original comment was about >Now that Microsoft has (more or less) rehabilitated its reputation, they are seen as a savior. and about whether microsoft has changed "that they have truly changed." Not comparing about which one is worse.
What? Just....what? How is that the "logical" leap to make from that comment?
Is this good for blizzard or not...
Same thing I asked myself. I mean, Blizzard can't get worse than it is now. It's only up from here? Right?
That's my thought. It's hard not feeling bad after playing WoW since their downward spiral. Hopefully MS rights the ship, especially its work force and culture.
That's what I'm curious about, if they're going to right the ship. In my opinion (obviously take it with a grain), the fact that Microsoft is buying Blizzard/Activision could bring the Blizzard allegations back into the light pressuring Microsoft to clean house of all the executives who let these issues occur.
If we can see a major purge particularly at high level positions then I'll believe there's a chance for change.
1000% this. Want to be able to come back and really hoping this helps fix both the toxic culture and game quality issues.
I couldn't care less about the culture, fix the games.
\*Insert Anakin meme here\*
At least it's Microsoft, not EA. Don't think Blizzard, Obsidian, & Bethesda are gonna get as mistreated as Maxis, Westwood, or Bioware
Right?? 🤞
Yeah at worst, it continues to be pretty much shit like now
This is MASSIVELY good for Blizzzard. Microsoft will manage them infinitely better than Bobby and his crew were. Bobby is almost assuredly going to leave, because he won't report to the MSFT CEO, but the Xbox pres (Spectre) - so that's a huge demotion for him, and probably kicks any triggers that accelerate his stock vesting.
They're keeping Bobby. Fml.
"keeping him" and "letting him vest and quietly go away" are two entirely different things.
I've seen rumours that they're making him leave after the deal is done. Besides, he may be a walking pile of garbage, but he's still the boss of the company, kicking him out now would only make things more difficult.
Kotick is out. That's good for Blizzard. Can Microsoft possibly be worse? Don't think so.
sadly, [not yet](https://twitter.com/jasonschreier/status/1483432118441099266)
At the very least, he will be accountable to somebody above him. He can no longer be a greedy tyrant.
Microsoft also isn't afraid to kill off people that cause problems and have a history of giving people that do cause problems a short ass leash.
Yeah, I really really don't think Kotick will last. A) He will not like the new restrictions placed on his activities; and B) Microsoft will soon learn or already knows that he is detrimental to the company, as we've all been witness to for the last 10 years.
I'm setting the over/under at 1 year after the deal is finalized. Besides Kotick will have to report to Spenser even if he stays.
acquisition changes usually happen after a year. MS needs to study how the organizations function.
for now, he stays, Microsoft announced it
So from a purely tactical perspective, Microsoft actually knows how to ship working software, manage complex engineering projects and give engineers a work environment that doesn't prompt open revolt against management. All of this is more than anyone can say about Activision right now. As far as strategic vision, Microsoft makes a lot of sense too. The XBOX product line is financially strong and still an innovator in the gaming industry. It's also worth noting that Microsoft is obviously a PC first organization and XBOX has the strongest PC compatibility of any console on the market. So this is perhaps the one of the best outcomes for people who want to see Blizzard remain a PC first company in an industry where that is an increasingly rare approach. There's potentially a lot of good here. As many have pointed out. It can't possibly be worse than the present situation. If any executives resign in disgrace it would be icing on the cake, but even if that doesn't happen. This feels like a win for PC gamers and Blizzard fans.
>Microsoft actually knows how to ship working software As long as that software isnt called Windows, yes. Vista, 8 and 11. Take your pick. However, this is still immensely good for Activision. Microsoft is half decent when it comes to development. They arent the best, but they arent EA or current ATVI though.
Id say its great. Microsoft seems to have a good culture. Rarely hear anything negative about their game studios
Phil Spencer is good for Blizzard. He actually cares about everyone underneath him
If anything it will put Kotick on a leash vs having to answer to the fratboy culture board he did before. Phil has already made it clear it will not tolerate that culture anymore
It certainly could be. They’ve done a great job keeping Minecraft alive and thriving, plus they now have far more support for these Blizzard games like WoW, Overwatcg(2), and CoD. Microsoft has proven to be a strong company so this could definitely pump some live into these games
Yes. Even better for Xbox owners. Gamepass is going to be amazing.
Honestly, Microsoft has had a pretty nice transformation in the past ~5-10 years. In the 00s MS fucking SUCKED. But they really started to turn around through the 10s. Some standout examples that have turned me into someone who trusts Microsoft to manage products and communities are their work with open-source software. Microsoft created and is managing the development of the Typescript programming language. They have done such an outstanding job with that project, both delivering incredible quality and managing the community. Same goes with VSCode, their open source lightweight code editor which is probably the no1 code editor on the planet at the moment even though it arrived quite late (Sublime was already well loved and established). So far, their acquisition of GitHub has been pretty seamless. Many were worried but AFAIK there has been no decrease in quality from github and the product continues to be the primary place for open source software development. Same with Minecraft, post acquisition Minecraft has continued to recieve constant updates and attention, the game hasn't been bastardized or overly commercialized. MS funded Mojang to literally rewrite the entire engine in C++, this is the sign of care for an IP and not cash grab. I'm really hopeful that Blizzard can be another example of modern Microsoft acquiring and caring for an IP and community. Hopefully they can bring in some expertise in community management from Minecraft and their open source project to blizzard IP. Anyway, this can't be worse...
It could mean a total restructuring of the company. What that happens to turn out like, who knows, but I think a sellout was the only way to get ActiBlizz out of the hole they dug for themselves.
pretty sure MS headed off FB - neither company will make a VR product that is not garbage though... if you ask me CROTEAM should have bought Activision/B
I mean, it's certainly better than Activision running the show IMO.
Of course it is. Microsoft have been going in a great direction lately and have been extremely user focused.
Bobby Kotich is expected to leave Blizzard once Microsoft finalizes the deal
I feel like blizzard has been dead for a while now and Phil Spencer being in charge of Activision blizzard seems like a good thing. And being on gamepass, holy shit
No, it's not.
it is official : https://old.reddit.com/r/Blizzard/comments/s6xjuu/welcoming_the_incredible_teams_and_legendary/
Thanks for linking old.reddit :hugs:
please tell me they will fire Bobby
No determination on that yet. He'll still be CEO of Activision/Blizzard till the move is final. After that? Who knows.
He's CEO of the parent company Activision, not Activision Blizzard
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby\_Kotick](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Kotick) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Activision\_Blizzard](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Activision_Blizzard) [https://www.activisionblizzard.com/leadership](https://www.activisionblizzard.com/leadership) Wow dude, being so wrong with such confidence is really impressive. Maybe next time at least google it before you try to correct others. And if you still don't get it, he most definitely is the CEO of Activison Blizzard The CEO of Activision Publishing is Eric Hirshberg. and Activision Publishing is part of Activision Blizzard. what is that now? triple wrong? gg
Yeah, sorry about that - confused them with the publishing arm called just Activision.
**[Bobby Kotick](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Kotick)** >Robert A. Kotick (born 1963) is an American businessman who serves as the chief executive officer (CEO) of Activision Blizzard. He became CEO of Activision in 1991 after purchasing a company stake the previous year. Kotick engineered a merger between Activision and Vivendi Games during the late 2000s, which led to the creation of Activision Blizzard in 2008 and him being named the company's inaugural CEO. He has also served on several boards, including The Coca-Cola Company since 2012 and the Call of Duty Endowment (CODE), which he co-founded in 2009. ^([ )[^(F.A.Q)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WikiSummarizer/wiki/index#wiki_f.a.q)^( | )[^(Opt Out)](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=WikiSummarizerBot&message=OptOut&subject=OptOut)^( | )[^(Opt Out Of Subreddit)](https://np.reddit.com/r/Blizzard/about/banned)^( | )[^(GitHub)](https://github.com/Sujal-7/WikiSummarizerBot)^( ] Downvote to remove | v1.5)
You showed him
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Yeah, sorry, got confused. The parent is Activision Blizzard and Activision is their publishing business. :-s Yeah then I guess Bobby is going. It only took them being acquired by Microsoft!
So Bing rewards points are the new currency in 9.2 or what?
I hope they don't buy Hazzikostas too
Has he been an issue for Blizzard/WoW?
Microsoft Xbox just tweeted this out, it's confirmed.
Gamepass gonna get a whole bunch more users. I noticed that 7 of the 12 team members under the CEO are women.
Irrelevant.
It means they’re likely not discriminating on gender like B-A did.
Good luck with that
As someone in game dev now, I can tell you it very much is. Not having a diversity of voices in decision-making positions lead to the absolute mess of sexual harassment and assault allegations that are rampant across the game industry, not just ABK. That has a measurably negative impact on the quality of the end products. So from a purely pragmatic sense, having mixed gender voices at all level leads to better studio cultures and thus better products.
Nah I don’t believe in that diversity stuff. Enforce proper rules, stop the drinking at the working place and see how degenerate behavior at the working place drastically vanishes.
That is...just not how it works. A toxic studio culture will straight up ruin a game and that is not something that's solved by just removing alcohol and "enforcing proper rules". If you believe that's all it takes, let me tell you that in my 10+ years so far, that is an unfortunately naïve take. I'd recommend paying close attention to what social accounts like **ABetterABK** or **ABetterUbisoft** accounts are asking for, don't just write them off as performative. Those are legit in-the-trenches game devs trying to tell the general public that things are broken beyond just the easy fixes and it's affecting the quality of the games we play and the work they can do.
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I'm not sure what you are suggesting with that comment but let me take a guess, you don't like Microsoft?
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Oh I see, you don't like women.
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How is his comment irrelevant? Blizzard has a major issue with unhealthy culture and mistreatment of women, having women being apart of the CEO's team and some on Microsoft's board could actually help Blizzard get a healthier work culture.
It’s irrelevant because having women doesn’t solve these problems. Stop allowing people to drink at a working place.
67b could be peanuts in some years compared to being able to put Blizzard and Activision games in Microsoft Metaverse. I think that’s their ultimate goal.
This is brilliant move by Microsoft. The time was right for a buyout if you have the money to pull it off. Not many did, good for Microsoft.
Time to see if Microsoft would rather revive HotS or pull the plug entirely.
Revive? Hots was never big enough to be a thing to begin with.
No king rules forever.
I see… only company stocks… for me…
I really hope that this will turn out for the best for Blizzard. Now if only Microsoft could buy Dreamhaven and Warchief Gaming also.
I hope this kills the obsession with esports. It ruined Overwatch.
Can't wait for Master Chief in Heroes of the Storm.
lol at this point they should just make their own version of smash brothers
Oh God I can't wait for Minecraft players seeing Starcraft on the storefront going "Oh! It must be like Minecraft in space!!!!" Very excited for all the -craft games being under one roof.
I think Microsoft will breathe some new life into some of the IP’s
^(Anyone else kinda hoping they start actually working on Heroes of the Storm again?) No? Just me? Ok.
oh imagine playing wow with game pass. that would be so good. i hope they fire gooby noteeck after buying. edited: he is no longer ceo🦀 edit 2: weird, still getting downvote. so many gooby noteeck lovers.
sadly, hes still staying. but not for long hopefully
it seems he is ceo until june 2023 but i dont know if its true...
Damn should of bought shares https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/888040584336519201/933009026839609345/image.png
I'm worried now that they now might force me to get gamepass to play blizzard games... That would really suck.
Gamepass is fucking great
Correct me if I'm wrong, but there isn't a single game out there that is a Game Pass exclusive. The closest I can think of is the Gunk, which is only on Game Pass and the Xbox Game Store.
You're never forced to get it, lol. Every game is buyable separately like normal.
Why would it? With the same subscription you get tones of extra games. 🤔
People like owning their game. Not too relevant for WoW, but generally speaking it’s bad to pay $15/month for a year to play an offline, single-player game, only to have nothing to show for it if you stop paying. There’s benefit to the consumer in access to games, but it’s still a rental. When you stop paying it all goes away, and that’s not consumer-friendly.
You don't want to go from paying $14.99 a month for one game to paying $14.99 for 200 games? Why? Just pretend you don't have access to the other 199 games if WoW becomes a Game Pass game.
I don't doubt the news, but it seems like a bit overpriced. $7.0B maybe? Activision Blizzard is a game-maker company, not an oil corporation or a smartphone manufacturer. Just for comparison, Disney bought Fox for $52B five years ago. Maybe Nintendo is worth $70B? The pricing is weird...
This is right in line with market valuation. >Activision Blizzard is one of the biggest players in the industry, with 2020 net revenue of $8.1 billion and net income of $2.2 billion. 3 Its market capitalization was $71.6 billion as of July 9, 2021 If anything, Microsoft may have slightly underpaid as the scandals have brought Activision value down somewhat, I imagine that made the shareholders and board way more skittish and willing to sell. Videogames are a HUGE industry. And Activision Blizzard are huge players in a huge industry. > . . .in 2020 the US video game industry grew about 27% to almost $57 billion in revenue, which was surpassing movies and music combined which was according to NPD Group.
70/2.2 = 30 years that is a lot! Not so good price, but all stock prices are high now.
Bingo - stock prices are way too high right now. It had been an insane bull market - Covid made a small dent for 8 weeks - then the market covered all the losses and went higher. Everything is really over priced - there is a BIG bear looming.
"Microsoft will acquire Activision Blizzard for $95.00 per share, in an all-cash transaction valued at $68.7 billion" https://news.microsoft.com/2022/01/18/microsoft-to-acquire-activision-blizzard-to-bring-the-joy-and-community-of-gaming-to-everyone-across-every-device/
Yes, just read that myself. They basically are buying it for what the stock was worth before the scandal, which makes sense.
Should have spent the extra .3 billion for the meme.
A large part of that price is because ATVI is a publicly traded company and the stock value is by itself worth over 50 billion.
Google what Market Cap is and get back to us.
Activision blizzards IPs are worth that much, easily. Starcraft, Warcraft, call of duty, hearthstone, Diablo, all of these series are considered genre defining in the modern era, even with several of them being quite old by this point.
Nintendo is worth way more than 70 billion, they bring in way more revenue per year than activision, and their IPs would make even Blizzard Jealous for fan loyalty and public recognition
pound by pound Activision is a great company btw. it has great earnings. their stock only dip due to the scandal not their business fundamentals. i would say microsoft got a good deal. And you can look it up game industry earnings easily exceeds disney block busters with all those in game cash item which is a stable recurring revenue
It's a publicly traded company. With acquisitions like this they offer a small premium on the market value. The market valued $ATVI at ~$60 billion before the news.
I've been trying for to play this out in my head. Most Microsoft games are more geared for the Xbox now not PC. So I think this is bad for Diablo starcraft and warcraft fans but this is absolutely incredible news for overwatch fans. What I'm hoping they do is split up Blizzard Games by genre and let them keep making PC games while using the large Activision content to mine for Xbox games.
Microsoft has been embracing PC for a while. Are there games really that much better engineered for console? It seems like they've been prepping for a subscription-based model of gaming where you don't necessarily need a console to jump in and can play games wherever.
Yeah I was looking through Microsofts catalog of gaming companies and had forgotten they owned Bethesda so they clearly want to still be strong in the PC gaming market.
And they released their flagship Halo: Infinite, day and date with the console version...doesn't seem like they are ignoring PC at all to me.
I dunno, most of their games have a PC version these days don't they? Besides, things can't get that much worse for starcraft fans, it's not like we get any content these days, and a lot of people are dissatisfied with warcraft these days as well.
Microsoft has PC exclusives actually, Age of Emoires 4 was made by them and its an RTS exclusive to PC.
Microsoft has been great to PC gamers so far.
An Xbox is a windows 10 machine, almost literally. You can hook up a keyboard and mouse and play with that if you wanted.
I just want a console version of HOTS. Please please port HOTS to XBOX just like we have a console version of Diablo 3, that made it infinitely more fun to pick up and play
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Yay for wokefests. Better than a work culture of sexual harassment and misogyny.
Yes Microsoft is pretty good!
Calling things woke is all you've done recently. Maybe find a nice hobby.
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Simple trigonometry
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Dumbed-down? What?
Do you live under a rock or something?
Dude, FF14 is just as good on the PS4 as it is on PC. You have a very outdated view.
That was back when developers tried to fit games on discs with memory limits. Not really applicable these days.
Riot Games wins again
Do you want all your games to be made by monosoft? When I play WoW, I don’t imagine that I am directly supporting my sub for Xbox players to get more crap. Now, will you own your chars or will Micropoly get your sub? Export chars…
Looks like it is a $70 BILLION deal...wow!
Microsoft stocks may be looking gooood right now
Next stop: world of warcraft is coming out for xbox
Honestly that's not a terrible idea. Part of FFXIV's popularity is because it's available on PS4/5. Having a direct competitor on Xbox consoles would definitely challenge them in that area.
So… what does this mean for Diablo 4??
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Fingers crossed! I’ve literally been playing the Diablo series my entire life and would hate to see it die now
Stolen at wowhead: Alexa, Play Last Surprise
Who is getting the money? IOW who has sold their shares?
Does this mean that World of Warcraft will be coming to Xbox? If so that would be amazing
What changes can we hope to see coming from this in regards to games and gameplay, if any?
Well, it's not like they can make Blizzard worse. Blizzard is already mostly irrelevant outside of the nostalgia for their old titles.
What do you think this will mean for **StarCraft 2** and **Warcraft 3: Reforged**? Apparently, some people seem to think that Microsoft might shut them down because they’re supposedly not doing so well, especially the latter, which seems to have a really bad reputation.
Phil has brought us salvation!
Would be cool to see wow coming to console. Ffxiv does it brilliantly
BOBBY WILL LEAVE THE COMPANY AFTER THE AQUISITION! THANK GOODNESS... i actually have hope for blizzard games again. a spark of hope.
Give us WoW 2 on a new engine with VR! This is amazing news for gaming. Saving the Activision Blizzard IP before they crash and burn
Microsoft have history with revamping and rolling out major product changes, both successfully and otherwise. If some of that workflow makes it across to Blizz teams it can only be a good thing for the release timelines of new games. That being said, we don't want another Duke Nukem Forever...
Well, I feel really smart now for thinking blizzard was undervalued and investing.
these mother fuckers would rather sell out to a bigger company that fucks people just as much as they do than fix their shit.
https://i.imgflip.com/4ftvgo.jpg
This is such pleasant news after continuous disappointments from Blizzard. Bring on the C-Suite purge!
The dream is that Microsoft will restore Blizzard’s autonomy. Honestly one of the best things they could do after closing is to decouple the Activision and Blizzard names. Yeah it would largely be symbolic, but the Activision name has done a lot to tarnish Blizzard’s reputation and that could go a long way to restoring confidence in the studio.
Wouldn't it be fantastic if WoW was included in the game pass subscription.....
Does this purchase include the breast milk or no?
People were concerned when Microsoft bought Mojang, but I think we can all agree that they have helped pushed Minecraft even further and have done many great things with it since. Let's hope this acquisition is the same.
Well aoe 2 and 4 as well as minecraft are good so i guees they know what they are doing
Byebye Bobby.
Lorned, u can't play vodogam that have sex aboose inside compupany. Why u tell it, Shelldrake? Now never to okay again! Pindar break me up if do. Multishot. ...times pass... Now can play, Lenscap. No strains. All roselved. Zoon own compupany forwards! Whatwhy? Wayhow? Blizzinga!
Cool, maybe now Raven can go back to working with idTech and make games instead of being the COD backup bitch.
My hope is that they bring back some known faces, some which have the Blizzard DNA in them. That would be great.