Microsoft buys Activision

[Battlelyon]

 

[Battlelyon]

 

[DHoey]

They're buying it for $95 per share, Activision is currently trading at $82 per share right now. The buyout will happen is 6 months so might be a good spot to park some money right now.......as long as shit doesn't fall through.

 

[Clayton]

The entire gaming industry was trying to get their CEO cancelled. It doesn't work like that. Dude is going to make $200-$400 million off of this I'd imagine.

My main takeaway here is that there probably won't be a PS6. Nintendo owns Japan. Now Microsoft will eventually own America in 2-5 years. Sony is having its Nintendo Gamecube moment where its arguably their best system and they are acing it when it comes to exclusive games and art direction but they're last place in features and First Person Shooters and they'll likely end up in last place at some point. Sony does seem invested in Fortnite so I suspect that is sticking around for awhile. My guess is that the next Sony systems will all be VR and their games will likely continue to push the envelope visually and their story games will end up on PC once the PS5 lifecycle ends.

On that note, Im taking a social media break.

 

[Battlelyon]

 

[Clayton]

I will say that Microsoft owns properties right now that are too big to fail. Call of Duty and Minecraft in particular are both IPs that Microsoft probably has no interest in making exclusive. Maybe Overwatch 2 in that mix as well. There is a chilling effect to owning those, though, and Microsoft could in theory just make the Xbox ones have cooler dlc, microtransactions, and NFTs. I know last gen Sony had exclusive content on Destiny and I could see Microsoft doing the same.

Its just that Microsoft doesn't have to. They basically sat out last gen and probably even studied everything Sony and Nintendo were doing. But they're 10x bigger than both competitors so its not really about competition. Its about growing the industry that they'll inevitably control one way or the other. Them or Tencent.

There really isnt anything to suggest that these big budget games coming out like God of War Ragnarok and Wolverine are going to continue long-term. Sony, and other companies, make their money on microtransactions and games like Call of Duty and Fortnite. The gamepass model doesn't really encourage long story-driven games. It encourages indie developers, tbh. Instead of games like Horizon, I suspect future big story titles will be much more like Rockstar's new model of making just 1 every generation and then making money on its online multiplayer side. Halo Infinite seems to embrace the new model.

Microsoft needs to be careful, imo, because gaming's crazy level of competition is what keeps its greed in check.

 

[Battlelyon]

 

[Clayton]

The entire gaming industry was trying to get their CEO cancelled. It doesn't work like that. Dude is going to make $200-$400 million off of this I'd imagine.

Apparently I lowballed this. Its actually coming in around $670 million.