Microsoft/Blizzard merger is bad for Overwatch and will lose

General Discussion
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You may be aware that Microsoft has appealed to the CAT on the CMA block of their Activation-Blizzard merger.

The CMA will square up against Microsoft in the coming trial and the FTC trial is currently ongoing.

I initially opposed the deal due to my concerns about the cloud game streaming space.

I later reversed my position when it came to my attention that a 10-year deal was made with NVIDIA to bring all Activision games including Overwatch to GFN and later a similar deal for Boosteroid.

However there has been new light shed upon the matter that is once again a cause for concern.

Microsoft has tabled the argument that cloud gaming isn’t a distinct market.

Why should cloud game streaming be considered a distinct market?

Device agnosticism.

In other words the fact that cloud game streaming frees the player from having to use a specific device.

This in turn opens up gaming to a much wider audience who otherwise may not have invested in a gaming specific system or gaming capable hardware.

The problem with the “cloud gaming is not a distinct market” argument is that it considers gamers as a singular definable entity with a defined preference as to gaming habits.

It assumes that every gamer already owns hardware capable of playing all of the games he wants to play and that he will always choose to play on that hardware.

It assumes that he has the ability and luxury to swap freely between native and cloud game streaming at will.

It fails to consider that there are multiple breeds of gamers who make vastly different choices based on what options they might have available to them.

It fails to consider that many would-be gamers don’t have access to gaming equipment that is capable of playing the games they may want to play.

Indeed even Microsoft’s own internal emails acknowledge that low-powered PC/Chromebook owners would be the main driving force and early adopters of cloud and expressed a clear intent to sabotage competitors by withholding Microsoft games from competing cloud services.

What does the Overwatch community think about all of this?

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Looking forward to the likely new ActiBliz Corporate CEO to replace Kotick.

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I dont see the future of the company to be bright and promising like anyone thinks.

I have the opinion that the company should be split off in two directions.

Microsoft takes control of "activision’ and anything fantasy based from the Original Blizzard studios should be turned over the employees and sold for a buy-in price as a whole-company, where they appoint someone from the core team. So Greedy Bobby still gets his money, and the company can go back to its roots. Everything was FINE until Activision bought in and destroyed World of Warcraft and went about their non-blizzard ways that many of the fans were use to.

Today, we are disconnected from the company. Employees dont get to step in and take a direct dive at customer support and visit directly with players anymore and it is not a “community” like it was in the early 2000s.

I am also against cloud gaming. Because they cannot get it right when it comes to Cross-play even. Hitscanns whiff their shots all the time now, because the servers cannot even sync Crossplayers with PC players.

Minecraft is also again, what I stand on. That it shows microsoft is unable to be passed the torch and hold the company in a positive manner, let alone in a respective design standpoint.

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A lot of people are pinning their hopes on MS being some almighty savior, and bringing Overwatch to new heights. Unfortunately they are ignoring MS history when it comes to takeovers like this. Nothing changes, or it gets worse for the consumers.

And I still think Bobby K won’t be going anywhere, unless he’s planning to retire. He’ll be kept on as a consultant or some other fancy corporate title, like Senior Executive VP of Beach Drinks. And will still be in charge of everything he is now.

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This zombie corpse of a company is only good for its ip’s that they all butchered after the merge. The good talent left years ago.

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Im certain nothing much will change. it’s still going to be the same, just with a new name.

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Hell, isn’t this the same company that brought Microtransactions to Minecraft?

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Companies getting too big is always bad for the consumer. There is no reality where this is a good thing.

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Microsoft doesnt care about OW, their eyes are on CoD and Diablo. Ow is a stagnant IP, will probably not go higher but also wont sink to “dead game” status.

Phil Spencer even mentioned Hexen and Heretic, I would be way more trilled about a new title from those IPs than Ow.

OW is “functional”. Its a live service that can go on, it wont reach top of the world stats but it will continue to linger on. Microsoft might not be that interested in messing around with it.

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If the devs get a better budget and more autonomy there is no way it’s not a win.
I wanna see Aaron smile, not cringe in pain giving corporate speeches and apologies.
I hope the team talks to the community more if things do improve.
Right now a lot of what Bobby has done has the devs wanting to close the door and ignore the community outcry about pve until the storm has passed. I don’t think the devs hate us. They just don’t want to be hounded over managment decisions and might be semi-burnt out after all that mess.
But if things improve they could open the door and feel more welcomed as they release content. There is a level of trust they have to reestablish and I think they want to feel good about the content they produce.
I don’t know much about Microsoft but what I’ve heard about Xbox is that MS dumped money as an investment into them and Xbox popped off. I hope the same is done with Blizzard as Overwatch is a unique genre that can still pull tons of people in.
I mean if I got some return on a BP I’d probably pay for them regularly. Add gold coins to the premium BP if any devs see this lol. Even “pay for 2 seasons get 1 free” is better than nothing. :man_shrugging:

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I do feel its part of bobby greddiness that took Ow down, mostly him chasing down the E-sport bubble which btw, is about to pop.

If Ow continued to be focused on being a wacky fun casual fps game as it felt like it in 2016-17, maybe blizzard would still be drowning in millions and millons of players all buying their cosmetics.

Instead bobby wanted Ow to be an esports and it failed miserably, it also constrained the devs severely as everything needed to take hero “watchability” into account.

If the new direction for the ow devs on microsoft’s umbrella is “you know what guys? Go crazy! Make it wacky and fun and caotic again!” Then maybe ow can be back to its former glory… but with some many shiny new toys for microsoft to play with (cod and diablo) and dusty old but interesting stuff (hexen and heretic) i dont think they will change much about ow’s current direction.

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Ironic given how dull 5v5 is to watch. Maybe they gave up on esports being successful the moment they planned 5v5.

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Sounds like the FTC and Sony are getting smashed to pieces in the court case.

Only was Microsoft lose it now is out of spite.

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What makes you think Overwatch is currently winning?

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Hey i never said they were sucessful hehe.

Ow is a mess to watch. Even streamers
… i just cant do it. And on esports matches with the camera perspectives changing all the time, ugh, it gives me a migraine.

5v5 was a way to solve queue times and a way or owl teams to pay less salaries. Due to its particle heavy nature OW will never be a watchable e sport.

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Microsoft isn’t really known for heavy-handed micromanagement, so I imagine how OW2 fares depends on whose fault you think the current game is. I don’t hold to the idea that it’s secretly Activision corporate who’re making all the mistakes, but if you do then you should probably be optimistic (insofar as OW2 is concerned).

After learning that Kotick basically blackmailed Xbox into giving him a better deal by threatening PS exclusivity, there’s no way in hell he’s going to stick around. I genuinely believe that corporations aren’t petty and will reconcile quickly in the name of business interests, but I seriously doubt that kind of relationship damage will be overlooked.

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Yeah all about money with ActiBlizzard. Poor tank mains relying on that career.

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They are a shareholder owned business… You say this like it’s a bad thing/surprise lo l

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Not really, just stating the obvious, rip the esport tank mains

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Yup.

FTC’s argument requires that Microsoft would find Call of Duty so ridiculously valuable that they would break an exclusivity contract and suffer the consequences.

The Havard data guy the FTC are basing their argument on, did not include breaking an exclusivity contract in his model, which only mildly profitable to make CoD be exclusive on Xbox.

Without that key detail, the entire FTC legal case falls apart.