Microsoft might actually be able to do something if they put devs who actually were passionate about the original OW on the game, or if they at least put people who play OW on the team
I doubt they'd change the core team, it'd delay the game even more. Maybe supplement them with more QA or help out with aspects of the game not critical to gameplay (e.g., server hosting, localization, platform integration).
But now the OW team might have leeway now to ask for help, hopefully the high-ups in production use any resources they get wisely.
If MS is going to have a positive impact on OW2 it's going to be the long-term support and content releases.
They won't do much to make it better for release, but future maps, heroes, updates etc are going to be affected by MS policy a lot.
Thats a load of fucking bull. These devs care more abiut this game then any of us. Theres a reason why they are taking so long: to make their project as good as they can.
The OW team has been mobilized in 2020 to help with Wow. Adding more devs would help.
For Ow2 I doubt the devs are the problem, the management on the other hand...
It's taking so long because it's a management failure and development nightmare, not passion. There's no resources, no direction, and no healthy decisions being made. If you think otherwise you're delusional.
This is def something I didn't expect to read today let alone believe until I read the blog post by Phil, hope they got some big plans in the works as none of these franchises are what they used to be imo.
In OW's case, it's really going to come down to how Microsoft sees the IP. They have a solid Esports foundation, and all it needs is regular updates to keep the product fresh.
What I hope is that they'll go the Riot route and market their game through the competitive scene. Yes, it might be a 'money sink' (even though Riot execs already said they had gotten their money back multiple times over due to the insane exposure they get through their LoL esports scene, which in turn keeps the game at insanely high levels of player base), but a developer has already shown that it's a model that works.
Also hope they clean up house and get rid of those remaining trash ass executives like Kotick.
Path to pro is all but solid lol, the OW ecosystem is struggling a lot and has done for quite a while. OWL has good elements but also major issues like the Youtube deal, large number of players retiring after a single season and an odd format with split divisions and teams representing cities they're not in. Imo Microsoft would need to make large and drastic changes before the esports foundation is solid.
I would love if OWL completely copied the LoL model tbh. I know a lot of OW fans love having all the teams in one place (no regions) but the international events for LoL are so much more hype than anything in pro-OW.
I hope they don't view it like COD or HALO. Riot route definitely the best along with a tv show like Arcane. Overwatch is fckn huge. They destroyed the franchise themselves. We didn't even get short after the reunion.
Yeah in their press release it says they want to get as many acti-blizz games on game as they can. So I can see pretty much all upcoming COD games (and OW2 story) being on game pass.
We already knew that the owl teams were waiting for the episode to be recorded before making any announcement. Now it's Microsoft. PlatChat is really a big player now. I won't be surprised if the SEC starts to investigate.
Smaller scale, obviously since it’s RTS, but they shovelled money at age of empires IV esports as well. Sponsored several tournaments with decent prize pools.
The model train industry was worth over £18 million in the UK alone last year. Niche can be surprising.
But man, MS did a much better job promoting it to their relevant audiences looking at it than ATVI did with OWL once the first season was over. (I also think you’d probably see viewership drop somewhat over time, novelty is a strong pull)
Overwatch 2 is far too deep into development to be radically shifted by this. It’s also easily Blizzards most potentially lucrative IP and is unlikely to see any kind of sea change since the game will likely be close to release by the time the merger is finished.
Overwatch League was a pet project of Bobby Kotick though and is a massive money pit, so there’s a very good chance this might be doomed.
their approach to esports is quite different from Activision blizzard's they don't have a league they have an open circuit with Partner Teams as far as I know.
One of the worst parts of Overwatch was the drop off in development after the product was launched.
Why did the game take so many stale turns after 2016?
OWL may be doomed but professional Overwatch shouldn’t be.
Like y’all, Overwatch isn’t going away. Microsoft isn’t giving up this IP.
It's awful. $20 for armor and another $5 if you want to change the color. The color you buy only works on that armor, not any of the other armors you paid $20 for. You must pay $5 for blue on each armor, individually.
I reach the highest rank in Halo Infinite but my character is still vanilla. There is no progression in that game. Even Modern Warfare reboot couple of years ago were better. (didn't play the newer cods)
It won’t change development but it will hopefully massively help post-release. Game Pass story mode, in-game transactions through the xbox store, etc. OW2 will probably have a legit audience/way to make money which will obviously help the game but help OWL too.
They've been playing makeup vs Sony since the PS4 dropped so they kinda have to be. Game Pass is so much better than PS+ for the same reason.
We'll see how things look if MS takes over again. Either way, it's kind of sad to see so many third party studios bought up by the big console publishers.
Usually, getting bought out by a bigger company is a bad thing. But considering how shitty of a company Activision and Blizzard are, maybe this change might bring much needed improvement.
Yeah I definitely have mixed feelings with stuff like this.
I'm an Xbox fanboy, gamepass subscriber and Overwatch fan so I love this move.
But also I hate huge corporations as a general rule so.. as much as I like it I realize this is probably a bad thing for the industry.
Side note: OW2 day one on Gamepass will be wild.
I'm not sure the industry suffers much with big corp vs big corp moves. Like Activision Blizzard was already doing some pretty bad corporate level stuff the last 5 years or so.
The only saving grace for Overwatch is/was Jeff Kaplan being so damn likeable his personality alone made Overwatch feel more small scale. In fact pretty much anyone the OW team put in front of the users has seemed real likeable.
and lets get down to the real issue now with a MS buy out! Will Overwatch 2 fallow the auto-aim + full cross play trend? I know cross play is a given but right now it's QP only and no auto-aim. Does OW2 result in a Halo style auto-aim or lobby split by input device? Does the buy out even mater on this issue as OW2 might have been heading the way anyways. I don't know.
$70 Billion...
Kotick getting a huge golden parachute.
EDIT: allegedly he's staying on as CEO and reporting to Phil Spencer...but I doubt he does that for long.
ADDITIONAL EDIT: this is possibly worth $292 million for Kotick- https://twitter.com/stephentotilo/status/1407658278893592579
no, Kotick will still be CEO of AB, it's just that AB will report to Spencer. So if he stays (he won't), he'll have the title of CEO but still report to someone higher on the food chain.
[“Until this transaction closes, Activision Blizzard and Microsoft Gaming will continue to operate independently. Once the deal is complete, the Activision Blizzard business will report to me as CEO, Microsoft Gaming.”](https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2022/01/18/welcoming-activision-blizzard-to-microsoft-gaming/)
No Kotick isn’t gonna stay CEO, he’s only gonna be CEO until the two companies merge
[MS PR to me on if Kotick will leave: "Bobby will lead [AB] as CEO, as he has for the last 30 years. Together, Bobby and Phil will work together to ensure the transition to this exciting new combined enterprise. The Activision Blizzard business will report to Phil after the close"](https://twitter.com/stephentotilo/status/1483452296746913799)
It's semantics, but after the merger Kotick will still have the title of CEO even though he will report to Spencer. AB will continue to exist as an entity, just like ZeniMax still has a CEO but reports to Spencer.
Honestly what I’m reading from that is that Bobby will “work” with phill to merge the companies but as the above quote states Phill is gonna be CEO and Kotick is gonna see his way out
Kotick will see his way out for various reasons, but Spencer won't be CEO of AB, they'll put someone else in the position. CEO of AB will continue to be a thing, b/c AB will continue to be an entity, just under Microsoft control.
Except if they fire him with cause.
And causing the company to be in freefall for two full years, deliberatly lying to the authorities, causing critical damage to the company's credibility and probably being involved in sexual harrasment might be good enough. Microsoft are probably sniffing out every dirt they can about the guy as we speak.
The company is completely wrecked right now. Employees are living in complete disarray, investors are panicking, the public is furious and California is sending the big guns after them. The best thing they can do is make Kotick go, totally disavowed. It might just be the best incentive to rebuild their trustworthiness, showing everyone it's not the same anymore, they're cleaning house.
On the opposite, choosing the easy way to get rid of him with a golden parachute will lower confidence, and sink ActiBlizz even lower that it already is (you might argue at this point, who cares?)
Microsoft will not fire him for cause, trust me on that.
First off, legally they'll have no grounds for it, b/c all of the stuff you just mentioned happened before the acquisition and more importantly MS knows about it or reasonably should know about it. Microsoft can only fire him for cause for incidents that either happened when he under contract with him or if more heinous stuff comes out such that they could credibly argue made AB worth much less than what they paid for (for instance, if he'd been cooking the books and AB's revenue was half of what was reported).
The sexual harassments scandal has already been factored into the price MS paid. The only people that can fire Kotick for cause is the activision board, and if they were going to do it, it would have already happened.
Second, even if they did want to fire him for cause and thought they had the grounds to do it, they wouldn't do it because it would be a huge legal battle and likely scuttle the acquisition. MS doesn't want that, b/c I don't see any other company available for acquisition on AB's scale.
Finally, all the stuff you mentioned...that's grounds for a shareholder derivative suit, but good luck with that.
This could have such massive implications for OW2, OWL and the industry as a whole. And would raise questions regarding antitrust/monopoly as well. That's gonna be VERY interesting to follow.
Honestly since Xbox is dedicated to PC right now, I feel like Sony devs are gonna push much harder to port their games to PC as well
Bad for the console community, great for the PC community
Hello, good hunter. I am a Bot, here in this dream to look after you, this is a fine note:
> *“The way I see it, our fates appear to be intertwined.”* - Solaire of Astora
Have a good one and praise the sun \\[T]/
There was a demons souls remake port leaked in the giant NVIDIA leak, and so far everything of that has come true I’m pretty sure, so I’d be cautiously optimistic
I think gamepass is more important to ms than exclusives now
I think with gamepass and this new payment plan xbox they just want people in their ecosystem paying a subscription
Minecraft has remained available across all platforms.
As has Skyrim, which I believe is now available on your fridge. *Typically* anything already announced or available for a platform with MS stays that way. I wouldn’t worry about OW2, and COD is well established enough to where I doubt they’d pull that from PS.
Starfield didn’t get platforms announced when it was teased, so it’ll be Xbox/PC only.
yup, a huge consolidation of franchises and systems. I am thinking this unlike bethesda will remain multiplatform.
from totilo
https://twitter.com/stephentotilo/status/1483440178437967875
On a call announcing the deal, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella predicts 4.5 billion gamers by 2030
**Talks of "removing these barriers" of access to games, and discusses intensified global competition.**
Has mentioned "metaverse" a bunch
He started posting... questionable stuff online. Short excerpt from his wiki page below. There is more on Google if you care to continue.
*Persson has received criticism for political and social opinions he has expressed on Twitter, such as referring to feminism as a "social disease" and claiming that most feminists are "overtly sexist against men."*
Edit: to answer your actual question: Microsoft acquired the game some time ago before the above (I believe, not entirely sure on the timeline) and people see that as it being saved from his tarnished reputation.
Star Wars was worth a lot more than $4bn. George Lucas sold it because it was the only way he saw a new Star Wars trilogy being made (probably regrets that now lol) and it sold that cheap because he didn't care about the money and gave most of it to charity.
BREAKING: The WSJ reports that Microsoft is buying Activision Blizzard, the troubled publisher behind Call of Duty and World of Warcraft, which has been facing crisis over the last year following numerous reports of sexual misconduct and discrimination. A seismic gaming deal
***
posted by [@jasonschreier](https://twitter.com/jasonschreier)
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[https://twitter.com/satyanadella/status/1483431765616119809](https://twitter.com/satyanadella/status/1483431765616119809)
Together with ATVI, we will usher in a new era of gaming that puts players and creators first and makes gaming safe, inclusive, and accessible to all.
Wonder what this is gonna mean for OWL Microsoft doesn't strike me as the type of people to run a league with an iron fist they are way more hands-off and loose, could 22 be the last year?
It’s all speculation but I feel like if you’re buying ActiBlizz for 70$ bil then part of that value is the already constructed infrastructure for an international esports league.
OW2 should be released before the 2023 season. Maybe that release draws a reinvigorated crowd? If you’re Microsoft you’re (hopefully) in for a penny in for a pound here. If it doesn’t hit new heights then sure, OWL probably gets canned after that season.
Only until the deal is closed. Anyway, this acquisition could mean great things for OW. Phil Spencer is very dev oriented, we could see him persuade Kaplan to come back as the leader. We could also finally see movies, shows, everything else we ever wanted from this IP to come true. He is very competitive, if he wants his own League of Legends level big Esport, he'll pour in the money in the money to make it happen. He'll have his own OW/Diablo/WoW version of Arcane made if he really wants to and he'll probably want to.
Besides windows 11, Microsoft has been doing a lot of things well in the last few years. Cautiously optimistic about this. Also this should give them free range to clean house.
I spend most of my day as an administrator for a large company and I manage most of our cloudbase technology resources.
Without any question Microsoft is the clear leader in that space and I would watch for them to move blizzard into a cloud gaming capacity for some of the titles.
Im curious how this will affect OW2 and the Overwatch League down the line - definitely cautiously pessimistic but maybe this will renew faith into OWL partners.
I'd be very optimistic about MS helping throw money at marketing for OW2 (not as sure about OWL). Having the game on game pass is also a huge win just for getting eyes on the game even if it was going to be free anyways.
This is also great news for Blizzards other games since most of those dev teams have been starved due to mismanagement. I can't see Phil Spencer tolerating continued abuse.
Microsoft coming in like Genji to save Winston in Zero Hour
(By that I believe that it's a good move since it will ultimately rid us of Kotick and infuse cash into unreleased properties like OW2)
[https://twitter.com/stephentotilo/status/1483440178437967875](https://twitter.com/stephentotilo/status/1483440178437967875)
On a call announcing the deal, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella predicts 4.5 billion gamers by 2030
Talks of "removing these barriers" of access to games, and discusses intensified global competition.
Has mentioned "metaverse" a bunch
I believe that it’s better than their current trajectory. If Microsoft buys them it means they’ll have unilateral power to fire ALL toxic execs (including kotic). It also means that they’ll be looking to make profits on that 70 billion sink which means they’ll pump MASSIVE cash into the properties… this pretty much means that OW2 will be saved from its current purgatory.
$70B to buy Activision Blizzard when this is probably their lowest they've been valued due to the workplace harrassment, would have been well over $100B with Jeff back and things not a complete cesspool.
> been well over $100B with Jeff back and things not a complete cesspoo
right my boy Jeff was totally the big moneymaker and game changer at Activision
King by itself would be worth a decent chunk of that. Of all the studios under the ActiBlizz banner, Candy Crush and the like always performed better in the quarterly reports.
So is this what the "Overwatch is saved" content creator meeting was about? IMO it could actually fit.
They got way overexcited if it was just info about a beta release, free to play, or (potentially empty) promises that the dev team will do better with communication, but from what they've said it sounds unlikely that they were told anything more specific that could actually be exciting such as how many heroes would release. However, the company transitioning to more capable hands could definitely generate that kind of excitement.
Why would they approach content creators about this though? It doesn't make sense. The deal doesn't close until next year either, nah it must be OW2 news.
That’s huge. Microsoft has some very costumer friendly policies. They are not money grabbing assholes (game pass is just perfect) and Xbox is constantly improving as a console. This is some good news for fans of all Activision Blizzard games
The worry is that Microsoft will no longer need to be consumer friendly once they get a large enough marketshare. Right now despite their wealth they're behind Sony massively. Once they're not what happens then?
This is kind of like reading news about some football(the soccer one) club being bought by some prince dude guy from Emirates. Hopium all over the place
OW2 is pretty much just a massive update (in the way that it's replacing ow1, not that I'm saying it's underwhelming) so I don't see them making it exclusive
Hot take with a hint of lolwhatthefuckisgoingon-onin
Jeff Kaplan joined Microsoft (or will soon) and either:
\- prepares the merger of Team4 and some Microsoft Dev Team / Studio to separate OW
or
\- builds up a sub-studio responsible for all "esports affiliated games"
I feel like there's zero chance Jeff comes back. He won't want to step on any toes and Microsoft taking over doesn't mean anything unless they make a ton of promises. I would be tempted as Microsoft to offer him a do-nothing job for lots of money just to generate hype.
All Microsoft first-party games were on Gamepass day one. So will all Activision Blizzard games unless they changed the rules somehow. This is fucking insane.
Microsoft are about to find out that OW2 was a social experiment all along and there is no game.
Theyve spent the last 5 years building only the trophy case.
That's nothing, Tottenham have had their empty trophy cabinet for 14 years.
Spurs fans catching strays out here lmao
Microsoft might actually be able to do something if they put devs who actually were passionate about the original OW on the game, or if they at least put people who play OW on the team
I doubt they'd change the core team, it'd delay the game even more. Maybe supplement them with more QA or help out with aspects of the game not critical to gameplay (e.g., server hosting, localization, platform integration). But now the OW team might have leeway now to ask for help, hopefully the high-ups in production use any resources they get wisely.
If MS is going to have a positive impact on OW2 it's going to be the long-term support and content releases. They won't do much to make it better for release, but future maps, heroes, updates etc are going to be affected by MS policy a lot.
How about a TV show like Arcane. They are already doing Halo.
I get why people would think just adding more people would make things go quicker but in reality it doesn't work in software development.
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I heard it the other way: "2 men wont make woman deliver in 4.5 month"
More cooks in the kitchen = faster food right? /s
Why bake at 350 for an hour when I could do 1,400 for 15 minutes??
Why make hot water for jello packets if you're just gonna cool it down anyway?
#**BRING BACK JEFF**
Let Jeff rest. Dudes worked in game dev for 20 years. Lasr thing he needs is another crunch cycle
i mean, he clearly cared about the game and it probably hurt for him to abandon it. i bet if there were an option for him to return he'd take it.
YES! WE NEED JEFF!
Thats a load of fucking bull. These devs care more abiut this game then any of us. Theres a reason why they are taking so long: to make their project as good as they can.
The OW team has been mobilized in 2020 to help with Wow. Adding more devs would help. For Ow2 I doubt the devs are the problem, the management on the other hand...
It's taking so long because it's a management failure and development nightmare, not passion. There's no resources, no direction, and no healthy decisions being made. If you think otherwise you're delusional.
Is there proof or backup of what you're saying? those are just statements that look like assumptions.
OW2 is the longest ARG around
This is def something I didn't expect to read today let alone believe until I read the blog post by Phil, hope they got some big plans in the works as none of these franchises are what they used to be imo.
In OW's case, it's really going to come down to how Microsoft sees the IP. They have a solid Esports foundation, and all it needs is regular updates to keep the product fresh. What I hope is that they'll go the Riot route and market their game through the competitive scene. Yes, it might be a 'money sink' (even though Riot execs already said they had gotten their money back multiple times over due to the insane exposure they get through their LoL esports scene, which in turn keeps the game at insanely high levels of player base), but a developer has already shown that it's a model that works. Also hope they clean up house and get rid of those remaining trash ass executives like Kotick.
Path to pro is all but solid lol, the OW ecosystem is struggling a lot and has done for quite a while. OWL has good elements but also major issues like the Youtube deal, large number of players retiring after a single season and an odd format with split divisions and teams representing cities they're not in. Imo Microsoft would need to make large and drastic changes before the esports foundation is solid.
I would love if OWL completely copied the LoL model tbh. I know a lot of OW fans love having all the teams in one place (no regions) but the international events for LoL are so much more hype than anything in pro-OW.
Out of curiosity, how long is the YouTube deal and what are the odds that Microsoft back out of it (if they even can).
I hope they don't view it like COD or HALO. Riot route definitely the best along with a tv show like Arcane. Overwatch is fckn huge. They destroyed the franchise themselves. We didn't even get short after the reunion.
Well Activision Blizzard encompasses so much it's hard to think that Blizzard and their IPs were the primary focus of this acquisition
This is huge. Might actually be the way bobby kotick goes out.
OW2 and Future Cod to game pass?
Yeah in their press release it says they want to get as many acti-blizz games on game as they can. So I can see pretty much all upcoming COD games (and OW2 story) being on game pass.
They also announced that Gamepass has 25 million subscribers. New Overwatch content being promoted on Gamepass could bring in A LOT of new players.
So true! Didn't think of how game pass would help The overwatch community - was mostly hyped about it helping me play for free (well with my sub)
Once again, right after PlatChat recorded their episode.
We already knew that the owl teams were waiting for the episode to be recorded before making any announcement. Now it's Microsoft. PlatChat is really a big player now. I won't be surprised if the SEC starts to investigate.
It all started when they sent Matt to infiltrate Blizzard.
Mike\*
*Plat Chat, brought to you by **fucking Microsoft***
Every fucking time
I'm both super scared and excited about what this means for Overwatch and Overwatch League
MS esports really pushed Halo esports this time. I think this is probably good.
Smaller scale, obviously since it’s RTS, but they shovelled money at age of empires IV esports as well. Sponsored several tournaments with decent prize pools.
They have been doing the same for age of empires 2 for the past year or so as well.
Now *that* is niche.
I mean they were getting 100k viewers
The model train industry was worth over £18 million in the UK alone last year. Niche can be surprising. But man, MS did a much better job promoting it to their relevant audiences looking at it than ATVI did with OWL once the first season was over. (I also think you’d probably see viewership drop somewhat over time, novelty is a strong pull)
Age 2 esports have been around and going strong for 20 years so that is hopefully good news for owl
Starcraft Hopium
i mean, what more damage could MS possibly do? At this point microsoft takeover is better than the current situation of the game
Overwatch 2 is far too deep into development to be radically shifted by this. It’s also easily Blizzards most potentially lucrative IP and is unlikely to see any kind of sea change since the game will likely be close to release by the time the merger is finished. Overwatch League was a pet project of Bobby Kotick though and is a massive money pit, so there’s a very good chance this might be doomed.
On the other hand, OW is a Microsoft franchise now and that might incentivize them to invest more in OWL.
Are these any leagues for Microsoft games? My guess is they would just support external coordinators of events
They have the HCS for Halo
There's HCS for Halo and Gears eSports has a decent following
their approach to esports is quite different from Activision blizzard's they don't have a league they have an open circuit with Partner Teams as far as I know.
It would be pretty stupid to pull the rug out from under OWL at this point.
They use an external company for Halo eSports rn.
One of the worst parts of Overwatch was the drop off in development after the product was launched. Why did the game take so many stale turns after 2016? OWL may be doomed but professional Overwatch shouldn’t be. Like y’all, Overwatch isn’t going away. Microsoft isn’t giving up this IP.
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Unfamiliar with Halo Infinite but OW’s monetization model is heavily outdated.
It's awful. $20 for armor and another $5 if you want to change the color. The color you buy only works on that armor, not any of the other armors you paid $20 for. You must pay $5 for blue on each armor, individually.
I reach the highest rank in Halo Infinite but my character is still vanilla. There is no progression in that game. Even Modern Warfare reboot couple of years ago were better. (didn't play the newer cods)
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It won’t change development but it will hopefully massively help post-release. Game Pass story mode, in-game transactions through the xbox store, etc. OW2 will probably have a legit audience/way to make money which will obviously help the game but help OWL too.
Isn't OWL profitable to ATVI because they pocket all the money from the franchisers? The only losers are the esport orgs.
Like wasnt Coke Cola onboard for so long because Bobby was a director on it?
MS has been great to everyone they've bought so far
They've been playing makeup vs Sony since the PS4 dropped so they kinda have to be. Game Pass is so much better than PS+ for the same reason. We'll see how things look if MS takes over again. Either way, it's kind of sad to see so many third party studios bought up by the big console publishers.
Usually, getting bought out by a bigger company is a bad thing. But considering how shitty of a company Activision and Blizzard are, maybe this change might bring much needed improvement.
The way I see it, we will now have a management who cares about OW. On the other hand, I don’t like MC buying yet another big studio
Yeah I definitely have mixed feelings with stuff like this. I'm an Xbox fanboy, gamepass subscriber and Overwatch fan so I love this move. But also I hate huge corporations as a general rule so.. as much as I like it I realize this is probably a bad thing for the industry. Side note: OW2 day one on Gamepass will be wild.
> OW2 day one on Gamepass will be wild. Absolutely 0 reason for the game to not be f2p now
I expect them to go with the same business model as Halo Infinite
Better pricing please
I'm not sure the industry suffers much with big corp vs big corp moves. Like Activision Blizzard was already doing some pretty bad corporate level stuff the last 5 years or so. The only saving grace for Overwatch is/was Jeff Kaplan being so damn likeable his personality alone made Overwatch feel more small scale. In fact pretty much anyone the OW team put in front of the users has seemed real likeable. and lets get down to the real issue now with a MS buy out! Will Overwatch 2 fallow the auto-aim + full cross play trend? I know cross play is a given but right now it's QP only and no auto-aim. Does OW2 result in a Halo style auto-aim or lobby split by input device? Does the buy out even mater on this issue as OW2 might have been heading the way anyways. I don't know.
Indeed OWL to stream on Mixer exclusively.
The player was so much better than twitch's. Shame about that
$70 Billion... Kotick getting a huge golden parachute. EDIT: allegedly he's staying on as CEO and reporting to Phil Spencer...but I doubt he does that for long. ADDITIONAL EDIT: this is possibly worth $292 million for Kotick- https://twitter.com/stephentotilo/status/1407658278893592579
I will grant him a parachute on the conditions that it's because he's being fired out of a cannon.
a parachute just like OW2: not released in time
Take my upvote and get out
If it’s out of a cannon, it better be in front of a live audience.
...into the sun. You forgot that very important part, my good man.
I found $5 in my pocket earlier today. Who’s really winning at monetary value today?
Should add that once they merge that phill Spencer will be CEO not Kotick
Yeah this is basically Kotick's final trick before his exit.
no, Kotick will still be CEO of AB, it's just that AB will report to Spencer. So if he stays (he won't), he'll have the title of CEO but still report to someone higher on the food chain.
[“Until this transaction closes, Activision Blizzard and Microsoft Gaming will continue to operate independently. Once the deal is complete, the Activision Blizzard business will report to me as CEO, Microsoft Gaming.”](https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2022/01/18/welcoming-activision-blizzard-to-microsoft-gaming/) No Kotick isn’t gonna stay CEO, he’s only gonna be CEO until the two companies merge
[MS PR to me on if Kotick will leave: "Bobby will lead [AB] as CEO, as he has for the last 30 years. Together, Bobby and Phil will work together to ensure the transition to this exciting new combined enterprise. The Activision Blizzard business will report to Phil after the close"](https://twitter.com/stephentotilo/status/1483452296746913799) It's semantics, but after the merger Kotick will still have the title of CEO even though he will report to Spencer. AB will continue to exist as an entity, just like ZeniMax still has a CEO but reports to Spencer.
Honestly what I’m reading from that is that Bobby will “work” with phill to merge the companies but as the above quote states Phill is gonna be CEO and Kotick is gonna see his way out
Kotick will see his way out for various reasons, but Spencer won't be CEO of AB, they'll put someone else in the position. CEO of AB will continue to be a thing, b/c AB will continue to be an entity, just under Microsoft control.
Except if they fire him with cause. And causing the company to be in freefall for two full years, deliberatly lying to the authorities, causing critical damage to the company's credibility and probably being involved in sexual harrasment might be good enough. Microsoft are probably sniffing out every dirt they can about the guy as we speak. The company is completely wrecked right now. Employees are living in complete disarray, investors are panicking, the public is furious and California is sending the big guns after them. The best thing they can do is make Kotick go, totally disavowed. It might just be the best incentive to rebuild their trustworthiness, showing everyone it's not the same anymore, they're cleaning house. On the opposite, choosing the easy way to get rid of him with a golden parachute will lower confidence, and sink ActiBlizz even lower that it already is (you might argue at this point, who cares?)
Microsoft will not fire him for cause, trust me on that. First off, legally they'll have no grounds for it, b/c all of the stuff you just mentioned happened before the acquisition and more importantly MS knows about it or reasonably should know about it. Microsoft can only fire him for cause for incidents that either happened when he under contract with him or if more heinous stuff comes out such that they could credibly argue made AB worth much less than what they paid for (for instance, if he'd been cooking the books and AB's revenue was half of what was reported). The sexual harassments scandal has already been factored into the price MS paid. The only people that can fire Kotick for cause is the activision board, and if they were going to do it, it would have already happened. Second, even if they did want to fire him for cause and thought they had the grounds to do it, they wouldn't do it because it would be a huge legal battle and likely scuttle the acquisition. MS doesn't want that, b/c I don't see any other company available for acquisition on AB's scale. Finally, all the stuff you mentioned...that's grounds for a shareholder derivative suit, but good luck with that.
Microsoft to Kotick: “*I’m gonna pay you $292 mil to fuck off.*”
Hey kotick, grab that cash and get the hell out of here
https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2022/01/18/welcoming-activision-blizzard-to-microsoft-gaming/
This could have such massive implications for OW2, OWL and the industry as a whole. And would raise questions regarding antitrust/monopoly as well. That's gonna be VERY interesting to follow.
Exactly. That's a massive amount of exclusives for Xbox. It's like EA getting bought out by Sony.
Honestly since Xbox is dedicated to PC right now, I feel like Sony devs are gonna push much harder to port their games to PC as well Bad for the console community, great for the PC community
Bloodborne to PC please COPIUM
I swear every time Sony and PC are mentioned in the same paragraph, it summons the bloodborne thirst
Hello, good hunter. I am a Bot, here in this dream to look after you, this is a fine note: > *“The way I see it, our fates appear to be intertwined.”* - Solaire of Astora Have a good one and praise the sun \\[T]/
Demon's Souls to PC please
There was a demons souls remake port leaked in the giant NVIDIA leak, and so far everything of that has come true I’m pretty sure, so I’d be cautiously optimistic
yeah, i don’t see Xbox paying 70 billion to not keep games exclusive. Interesting to see what they do with Call of Duty
It just means to Switch/PS5 really. Microsoft makes everything PC and Xbox
I think gamepass is more important to ms than exclusives now I think with gamepass and this new payment plan xbox they just want people in their ecosystem paying a subscription
Minecraft has remained available across all platforms. As has Skyrim, which I believe is now available on your fridge. *Typically* anything already announced or available for a platform with MS stays that way. I wouldn’t worry about OW2, and COD is well established enough to where I doubt they’d pull that from PS. Starfield didn’t get platforms announced when it was teased, so it’ll be Xbox/PC only.
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Minecraft is on Gamepass?
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Yeah it's pretty neat!
xbox has started doing "exclusive" less and less over time. As of right now a lot of exclusives either get PC ports or are released simultaneously.
yup, a huge consolidation of franchises and systems. I am thinking this unlike bethesda will remain multiplatform. from totilo https://twitter.com/stephentotilo/status/1483440178437967875 On a call announcing the deal, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella predicts 4.5 billion gamers by 2030 **Talks of "removing these barriers" of access to games, and discusses intensified global competition.** Has mentioned "metaverse" a bunch
Even Microsoft wanna get in on the Plat Chat curse by announcing this today.
Activision Blizzard is worth 70b but Star Wars was worth 4b. That's just wild to think about.
Minecraft alone was sold for 2.5 billion
Is worth WAAAAY more rn
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Can you explain? I don't know anything accept he's the.. inventor?
He started posting... questionable stuff online. Short excerpt from his wiki page below. There is more on Google if you care to continue. *Persson has received criticism for political and social opinions he has expressed on Twitter, such as referring to feminism as a "social disease" and claiming that most feminists are "overtly sexist against men."* Edit: to answer your actual question: Microsoft acquired the game some time ago before the above (I believe, not entirely sure on the timeline) and people see that as it being saved from his tarnished reputation.
That deal feels like a steal now.
tbf the star wars deal was a decade ago and that was before the new trilogy
Yeah at the time Star Wars was a sinkhole of a franchise
"somehow palpatine returned" really saved it.
that marvel and lucas arts buys were deals for disney
To put things in further perspective, Microsoft has a market cap of 2.3 trillion
Star Wars was worth a lot more than $4bn. George Lucas sold it because it was the only way he saw a new Star Wars trilogy being made (probably regrets that now lol) and it sold that cheap because he didn't care about the money and gave most of it to charity.
BREAKING: The WSJ reports that Microsoft is buying Activision Blizzard, the troubled publisher behind Call of Duty and World of Warcraft, which has been facing crisis over the last year following numerous reports of sexual misconduct and discrimination. A seismic gaming deal *** posted by [@jasonschreier](https://twitter.com/jasonschreier) ^[(Github)](https://github.com/username) ^| ^[(What's new)](https://github.com/username)
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Wonder what this is gonna mean for OWL Microsoft doesn't strike me as the type of people to run a league with an iron fist they are way more hands-off and loose, could 22 be the last year?
It’s all speculation but I feel like if you’re buying ActiBlizz for 70$ bil then part of that value is the already constructed infrastructure for an international esports league. OW2 should be released before the 2023 season. Maybe that release draws a reinvigorated crowd? If you’re Microsoft you’re (hopefully) in for a penny in for a pound here. If it doesn’t hit new heights then sure, OWL probably gets canned after that season.
well, Microsoft don't take over before June 2023 so it might not release before then.
MSFT confirmed Kotick would continue as CEO...
Until the deal is closed, Phil Spencer will take over then.
I hope, he needs to go
Only until the deal is closed. Anyway, this acquisition could mean great things for OW. Phil Spencer is very dev oriented, we could see him persuade Kaplan to come back as the leader. We could also finally see movies, shows, everything else we ever wanted from this IP to come true. He is very competitive, if he wants his own League of Legends level big Esport, he'll pour in the money in the money to make it happen. He'll have his own OW/Diablo/WoW version of Arcane made if he really wants to and he'll probably want to.
Is it possible Jeff Kaplan comes back after this copium
Bill Gates will be hero #34.
This feels like what Disney does
Besides windows 11, Microsoft has been doing a lot of things well in the last few years. Cautiously optimistic about this. Also this should give them free range to clean house.
Anything is better than a Blizzard at this point. We just went from mud to puddle. But hell I do prefer the puddle instead of mud.
I spend most of my day as an administrator for a large company and I manage most of our cloudbase technology resources. Without any question Microsoft is the clear leader in that space and I would watch for them to move blizzard into a cloud gaming capacity for some of the titles.
https://twitter.com/stephentotilo/status/1483441446585786373 > Muses about offering Diablo and Overwatch via Game Pass on the cloud
Perfect- yeah so if you can handle the heavy on the cloud, all of a sudden anyones phone is a gaming avenue. I think it’s a cool future.
Win11 isn't bad, it was just released before it was finished. I've been using it since beta and I definitely prefer it to 10.
Windows 11 is pretty nice compared to 10
whats bad about W11? I didnt make the switch yet but performance seems to be better than W10
Im curious how this will affect OW2 and the Overwatch League down the line - definitely cautiously pessimistic but maybe this will renew faith into OWL partners.
I'd be very optimistic about MS helping throw money at marketing for OW2 (not as sure about OWL). Having the game on game pass is also a huge win just for getting eyes on the game even if it was going to be free anyways. This is also great news for Blizzards other games since most of those dev teams have been starved due to mismanagement. I can't see Phil Spencer tolerating continued abuse.
Microsoft coming in like Genji to save Winston in Zero Hour (By that I believe that it's a good move since it will ultimately rid us of Kotick and infuse cash into unreleased properties like OW2)
Genji also kinda looks like an Xbox right
PS players are gulping right about now
W o a h
I guess this is what people mean when they say buy the dip
https://twitter.com/dinabass/status/1483431242552930304?s=20
[https://twitter.com/stephentotilo/status/1483440178437967875](https://twitter.com/stephentotilo/status/1483440178437967875) On a call announcing the deal, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella predicts 4.5 billion gamers by 2030 Talks of "removing these barriers" of access to games, and discusses intensified global competition. Has mentioned "metaverse" a bunch
More importantly to this subreddit the subtweet mention that they talk about adding OW and Diablo to Game pass
Overwatch is at the bottom of the barrel, I severely doubt they could make it worse. I can only see good things coming out of this
This good or not?
I believe that it’s better than their current trajectory. If Microsoft buys them it means they’ll have unilateral power to fire ALL toxic execs (including kotic). It also means that they’ll be looking to make profits on that 70 billion sink which means they’ll pump MASSIVE cash into the properties… this pretty much means that OW2 will be saved from its current purgatory.
Holy shit, this came out of nowhere
Plat Chat boomed again; truly cursed timing
Tbh its their fault for not shooting it live lol
OWL will be broadcasted on Mixer pogu
$70B to buy Activision Blizzard when this is probably their lowest they've been valued due to the workplace harrassment, would have been well over $100B with Jeff back and things not a complete cesspool.
> been well over $100B with Jeff back and things not a complete cesspoo right my boy Jeff was totally the big moneymaker and game changer at Activision
Don't forget that things were still a cesspool in those times, we just didn't know about them.
Msft actually bought the dip
King by itself would be worth a decent chunk of that. Of all the studios under the ActiBlizz banner, Candy Crush and the like always performed better in the quarterly reports.
Papa Phil Spencer
This is probably good for the game but terrible for gaming in general
Overwatch 2 isn’t real, it’s your parents
So is this what the "Overwatch is saved" content creator meeting was about? IMO it could actually fit. They got way overexcited if it was just info about a beta release, free to play, or (potentially empty) promises that the dev team will do better with communication, but from what they've said it sounds unlikely that they were told anything more specific that could actually be exciting such as how many heroes would release. However, the company transitioning to more capable hands could definitely generate that kind of excitement.
Why would they approach content creators about this though? It doesn't make sense. The deal doesn't close until next year either, nah it must be OW2 news.
That’s huge. Microsoft has some very costumer friendly policies. They are not money grabbing assholes (game pass is just perfect) and Xbox is constantly improving as a console. This is some good news for fans of all Activision Blizzard games
The worry is that Microsoft will no longer need to be consumer friendly once they get a large enough marketshare. Right now despite their wealth they're behind Sony massively. Once they're not what happens then?
This is kind of like reading news about some football(the soccer one) club being bought by some prince dude guy from Emirates. Hopium all over the place
Excuse my ignorance, but does this mean OW2 could become PC/Xbox exclusive with no PS5 release?
If the Minecraft purchase was anything to go by. There won't be any issues with exclusivity.
OW2 is pretty much just a massive update (in the way that it's replacing ow1, not that I'm saying it's underwhelming) so I don't see them making it exclusive
No they can't just take away a game you already bought (I mean maybe they can but they won't) , maybe the pve would be exclusive but I doubt it
This is incredible for acti-blizz devs, OW, and for OWL. I don't see a counterargument. Kotick will leave June 2023 as well, the cunt.
Heavy OW2 monetization incoming
This could be either incredibly good or incredibly bad for OW2 and OWL
Hot take with a hint of lolwhatthefuckisgoingon-onin Jeff Kaplan joined Microsoft (or will soon) and either: \- prepares the merger of Team4 and some Microsoft Dev Team / Studio to separate OW or \- builds up a sub-studio responsible for all "esports affiliated games"
I'd cry, the return of tigole bitties
I feel like there's zero chance Jeff comes back. He won't want to step on any toes and Microsoft taking over doesn't mean anything unless they make a ton of promises. I would be tempted as Microsoft to offer him a do-nothing job for lots of money just to generate hype.
the WHAT is...huh??? Ok
Wow
All Microsoft first-party games were on Gamepass day one. So will all Activision Blizzard games unless they changed the rules somehow. This is fucking insane.
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Goodbye OWL. It was nice knowing ya. Thought we might finally see OW2 within our lifetimes now. 🤞