Sad times for everyone that still believed in antitrust.
Honestly I'm okay with this one, but it's mostly because Activision Blizzard has great IP with some seriously awful management ... and Microsoft actually has been doing much better in that department for games.
Yeah… In practice, every time a company gets anything that even slightly resembles a captured market, they stop investing in quality and starting shafting consumers.
Make no mistake, that is Microsoft’s end game. And that’s why they’re buying Blizzard.
Unapproved language detected, account locked. Drink verification can!
You still believed?
Meh. A competitive monopoly has a better outcome than the near monopoly PS4 got when it came to exclusives. Yeah a lot of existing IP will be for one or the other. But for third party studios, they will be much less likely to make exclusive games if the console market is more balanced between the two. Nintendo is kind of in a world of its own. And with the steam deck helping push PC into a base level standard, I think we might see some opening up of high quality third party stuff.
Trust = one or more independent organizations making secret agreements to mutual benefit.
Mergers: not a trust.
Monopoly = a single organization that controls an overwhelming amount of the market.
Microsoft buying a publisher that put out 2 games in 2023: not a monopoly.
Activision Blizzard has become such a huge pile of disgusting shit that people are quite tempted to see what would happen if the devil Microsoft buys it.
What a time to be alive
Now: "Don't worry! Call of Duty will remain on the Playstation! We have a 10-year agreement!"
Next week: "leaked: internal memo, Microsoft renaming to Call of Doods, to be Xbox exclusive"
Anyone who still cares about CoD to the point where this is a concern is probably not an adult.
Anyone dismissing CoD because "I'm an adult and too cool for Call of Duty" should really question how mature they actually are.
Coming soon to a Microshaft GameBox™ near you!
Call of Dookie: Modern Shartfare™
There goes the competition.
Can someone recommend a good indie game? Better spent money than feeding these vampires.
Factorio, Satisfacfory, Baldur's Gate 3, Noita, Cities:Skylines, Prison Architect, Rimworld, Overload (Descent clone), Mindustry...
If you like Diablo-likes, there's...
Grim Dawn absolutely smokes Diablo 3/4. The true successor to Diablo 2.
The competition! lol! Activision is going to put out 2 games this year. Whatever will we play now that these 2 games are owned by a platform holder?
You are correct though that there are a million cool ass games you can play right now and put your money in the pockets of people who make THINGS instead of people who make value for shareholders.
Better spent money than feeding these vampires.
Just realizing corporations aren't your friends? Anyways, if you like hard, unique puzzle games, Baba Is You is the best there is, fullstop.
I mean, if we're gonna namedrop completely unique indie darling difficult puzzles, then Return of the Obra Dinn also deserves a mention.
Baldur's Gate 3 is amazing
If you're into metroidvanias (platformers where you gain abilities over the course of the game, expanding gameplay and allowing you to access new areas in earlier zones) there are lots of really good indie titles. Hollow Knight is the reference, both Ori games are awesome. Dead Cells is also worth a try if you're into fast-paced action games, though it's more of a platformer rogue-lite.
One good thing to come of this (hopefully) is the chance to clear the C Suite people from AKB. I hope all of the AKB employees get what they deserve, which is a new set of higher ups that aren't sexist dickbags.
That's true, tolerating sexual assault is one of the few things dangerous to them.
Why do you assume the higher-ups will be gone? Bethesda's C level seems unchanged
Bethesda's C level doesn't threaten to seriously damage Microsoft's image. ActiBlizz's C level tolerated and encouraged sexual assault.
I was done with Activision BEFORE Microsoft came along.
Not with a 100 foot pole. Get fukt Activision
Please I'm begging you just fire everyone who works at blizzard
The decisions made do not reflect what the developers want. Honestly, they've done a good job. Blizzard has just made them make shitty things. Technically they are good games, just not as an experience.
Warcraft reforged barely even functions compared to the original game that they ruined. The whole company is trash from the top to the bottom.
This is classic ignorant take of the average user that don't know how corporate gaming industry works.
The "developers", the actual engineers, don't decide shit, some manager that only care for what the higher ups are telling them. And what the higher ups are telling is the same in all corporates: Increase the cash flow.
I know this isn't a popular opinion but I'm actually pretty optimistic about this. Blizzard has been shit for a while and this will at least change things, even if it might be for the worse. Also give me their entire catalogue on gamepass pls.
I really do hope they get rid of Bobby.
Will it then be MicrosoftActivisionBlizzatd?
Welcome to the largest gaming community on Lemmy! Discussion for all kinds of games. Video games, tabletop games, card games etc.
Submissions have to be related to games
No bigotry or harassment, be civil
No excessive self-promotion
Stay on-topic; no memes, funny videos, giveaways, reposts, or low-effort posts
Mark Spoilers and NSFW
No linking to piracy
More information about the community rules can be found here.