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
Yeah, never thought I’d live the day to see it but here we are. Blizzard use to be the darling of all gamers, only one who did things right and released games when they were actually done. Then money hungry shitheads took over.
I’m just happy to potentially see Bobby Kotick, Ion Hazzikostas, Mike Ybarra, etc ousted.
Don’t get me wrong. Fifteen years ago I would have flipped if Microsoft put in a bid to buy Vivendi and get their paws on Blizzard, after seeing how badly they ruined Rare. Activision tanked the brand so bad that I’m actually rooting for Microsoft.
I don’t think Kotick is at all certain to be kicked out. As easily as I can see MS letting him go with an enormous golden parachute, I can just as easily imagine them keeping him onboard because all they care about is Activision’s ability to make money.
In all likelihood Blizzard isn’t going to be managed any differently. Microsoft’s modus operandi with gaming acquisitions is to leave the leadership in place and let the dev/publisher run itself. Why is everyone expecting different here? The most likely outcome is MS does nothing to Blizzard and Blizzard continues on more or less the same trajectory as before.
Absolutely nothing.
Ugh, I hate these giant corporations gobbling each other up.
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.
children are people, too.
Barely
Are they though? Children have very little autonomy and human rights. They’re essentially property of their parents.
Anyone dismissing CoD because “I’m an adult and too cool for Call of Duty” should really question how mature they actually are.
The sad thing was that CoD Mobile was the last decent game in the series. Just think about that for a moment: a freaking cell phone game is better than any CoD title to come out on actual gaming systems in practically a decade.
Compare the power of your average phone today to the 360
CoD is mostly an adult game because it was popular with kids back 10-15 years ago
It’s Minecraft and Fortnite that kids play
Minecraft first released 15 years ago, call of duty modern warfare was 17 years ago.
The “games that kids play” very rapidly becomes “games that adults play”
I agree that it’s probably mostly children / teens that play those games, but I’m sure a non-insignificant portion of their player base is the type of person who is A-OK with listening to nothing but pop music.
Nothing inherently wrong with that, but they are either afraid of trying something new or they aren’t interested in discovering what they may end up enjoying more than the same derivative time-wasters.
Coming soon to a Microshaft GameBox™ near you!
Call of Dookie: Modern Shartfare™
Yep.
There goes the competition.
Can someone recommend a good indie game? Better spent money than feeding these vampires.
Haven’t touched factorio but played Rimworld. If you value your time don’t buy rimworld, it is the most addictive game I’ve ever played. It’s a great game don’t get me wrong but I don’t think I’ve ever sat down and played it for less than 3 hrs. You just get sucked in like a void.
Well let’s just say Factorio is known as “cracktorio” for a reason.
Factorio, Satisfacfory, Baldur’s Gate 3, Noita, Cities:Skylines, Prison Architect, Rimworld, Overload (Descent clone), Mindustry…
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.
Not to detract from your argument (I agree completely), but indie game devs not only make actual games, but they tend to pour passion into them rather than a formula.
If you like Diablo-likes, there’s…
- Grim Dawn (new expansion just announced)
- Last Epoch
- Warhammer 40k Inquisitor
- Chronicon (simple graphics but solid gameplay)
- PoE of course but I don’t need a second job
Grim Dawn absolutely smokes Diablo 3/4. The true successor to Diablo 2.
I enjoy Diablo 3 for the “arcadey” aspect, but Grim Dawn is my top ARPG. I was so excited when they announced another expansion.
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.
I’ve been loving BattleBit Remastered lately. It’s cheap, fun as hell, and the very small dev team has been very active and responsive. I bought 3 more copies to give to friends so we could squad up.
Terraria is pretty fun
Just your luck: Dome Keeper is on sale right now
Lies of P
If you like city building/survival style games I’ve been having an absolute blast with Timberborn
I’m really enjoying Valheim lately. It’s similar to Minecraft in a lot of ways, but leans a little more into RPG elements with leveled skills. There’s a bit more of a story, heavier focus on combat, and NPCs to interact with (though I haven’t reached that point myself).
I just finished playing Cocoon. It was short-but-sweet - it took me two evenings to finish, so probably in the 5-7 hours range - but it was one of the most interesting and engaging puzzle games I’ve played in a long time. What’s especially fascinating to me is that its controls are so simple - everything is done with one analogue stick / WASD and a single interact button - and it’s a very linear game, yet it still feels so engaging to play. It’s from the lead designer of Limbo and Inside, so it has pedigree.
I played it via Game Pass (ha…) so it’s hard for me to say what the value proposition is like. It certainly isn’t going to give you the most time for your money, and it doesn’t really have much in the way of narrative or themes, at least beyond abstract ones. But it has a gorgeous aesthetic and some fantastic puzzles.
I’ve been playing a really fun indie spy deception game called Deceive Inc.
Sea of Stars is a pretty fun, especially if you’re a fan of old school turn based jrpgs. Pretty decent story too.
Dotage just released, it’s a relaxing boardgame / city builder made by a single guy over the span of 9 years. It’s very addicting in that “one more turn” way, if you’re into these types of resource management games.
Lies of p if youre into fromsoft like games
Keep in mind that they added Denuvo to the game, apparently post-launch.
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.
Overwatch 2 is great so it’s not all bad.
Please bring back Overwatch 1 the very next day.
Halo Watch
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.
Blizzard’s only game worth playing is HOTS and it’s a prime candidate for being trimmed out
But I don’t expect this to improve the rest of Blizzard
Diablo 4’s foundation is pretty good in my opinion.
Will it then be MicrosoftActivisionBlizzatd?
Nah, it’s an acquisition, not a merger
So they’ll just call it Microsoft. Got it.
I really do hope they get rid of Bobby.
Cool, can WoW be part of my Gamepass sub now? Thanks.
You think they’re spending billions to give away money??
No, I think they’re going to continue adding massive value to the Gamepass system to keep it afloat and competitive. Maybe a WoW sub is a bit of a stretch, but basically all other games will thrive on the platform. StarCraft 2 is still the benchmark RTS for competitive play. Overwatch and Diablo are not my cups of tea but they would also make great offerings on the platform. Most of Blizzard’s core franchises outside of WoW itself are heavily MTX’d out the ass, battle passes, cosmetics, whatever - even if it’s included in the gamepass sub, the theoretical higher volume of players will likely compensate for unit sales through the aforementioned MTX.
They are going to play classic Microsoft and destroy their competition in this way, then they will do what they want when they have a stranglehold on the market.
I don’t think Sony is going to give up that easily, nor is Nintendo or Valve.
Microsoft has tried, with sheer force of capital to buy out these players and couldn’t understand when they were denied. In tech you can do big mergers and acquisitions with sheer capital but Nintendo is a pride and joy crown jewel of Japanese industry, and no amount of money would allow MS to buy them.
MS’ big push for accessibility and cloud gaming makes them ultimately platform agnostic over time, because they are leveraging the cloud technology to deploy their catalogue on any machine with an internet connection and a screen.
“Classic” Microsoft, the EEE (envelop, extend, extinguish) strategy that made them assholes through the 90s and early aughts hasn’t been nearly as prevalent in the current Nadella era. More often than not MS has been forking open source projects or simply contributing to them in their own ways rather than building proprietary systems.
That’s the only take from Xbox players about this merger that I can get behind.
This would be dope for all the WoWheads being adopted by MS (I’m one). If I’m bored with everything I just revert to WoW. If my subscription included Gamepass, I may be more inclined to check out titles I wouldn’t otherwise play.
It’s funny that I lead with this because I had a minute to think about it and honestly I kind of just don’t care. Dragonflight did not renew my hopes for retail, although it had some neat mechanic changes. Classic will be over for me probably by the end of January, unless they announce basically Classic+ based around the WOTLK talents. I am going to get my Shadowmourne, kill Arthas on heroic, and then go play FFXIV.
I only care if MS makes blizz bring back OW1
Getting rid of Bobby Kotic would be priority number one if you ask me.
The problem is, even if they get rid of bobby kotick, he still wins. He is going to walk a way with millions of dollars in a separation agreement.
Let me dream of some clause in this contract which he breached and no one dared point it out. Ruined reputation or something.
Why do you want OW1 back?
Because I paid for it
I paid for Overwatch too but tbh I’d rather have Overwatch 2. There’s no loot box bullcrap and the playerbase now is actually pretty sizeable now compared to OW1 near the end.
I do miss the free rewards but they’re just cosmetics. A bigger playerbase is more beneficial to the game than more free skins.
Wonder if more blizzard games will end up on steam now?
With Diablo IV arriving soon, I wouldn’t be surprised to see most, if not all of their games on Steam over the next few years.
Just remember that with game pass growth, more attention will be put on the xbox ecosystem overall, including the xbox launcher & marketplace app. So I’m not sure games are more likely to go to Steam than before.
The logical question here is: will COD be in gamepass? otherwise what’s the point of this takeover.
Starcraft 3 is the point
Those devs already left. At best it would be a hollow shell of a game like aoe 4.
There are some games made by SC devs or SC players, we’ll see how it turns out. I would like to see SC3 with full financial support of a AAA studio.
Aoe 4 wasn’t great and that was AAA support. The people that made SC great are gone, most are at frostgiant, Dreamhaven, Warchief, and more.
Yeah okay, let me want what I want instead of trying to convince me not to
Ffs buddy, learn to let it go. I mentioned the two games in my previous comments already. Then I mentioned I would like an actual Starcraft 3 from Blizzard. You don’t need to point me at anything, just accept someone else wishing for something and move on.
Nah nah, StarCraft: Ghost is coming back. It’s just a matter of using the Gears of War engine & adding in StarCraft textures & models & SFX.
I’d rather it look and feel like Halo
Candy Crash instead of blue screens.
I’m sure black ops 1-4 will definitely be a part of it!
You can bet your sweet ass CoD will be part of it. Possibly not MW3 but the next game will be a big day 1 game pass launch, guaranteed.
Maybe they’ll make warzone no longer free to play but instead included in game pass as a means of recruiting more members.
The smallest of companies
