I can’t make up my mind. It was the first thing to rot, after all. I need things explained to me nice and simple, like I’m five years old.
All I know is that this is big news. But should I throw a party or weep uncontrollably?
It would be really helpful if you could just tell me, in simple terms.
Party, weep, or shrug?
Neither.
It’s Corporation A swallowing Corporation B because it sees a potential to make money.
Meaningless. This is how billionaires trade baseball cards.
Its big news because they’re big brands and $69 billion in cash is an ungodly amount of money.
I’m asking about the impact on the end user.
Yes yes, it’s cool to observe that corporations swallow other corporations all the time, but there is usually a demonstrable impact on the people who buy those products.
EA has shuttered smaller studios completely in the past. I know Microsoft doesn’t have that reputation, but it’s hard to imagine the support given to Blizz IP will remain exactly as it has in the past.
It depends on your perspective on Microsoft. Lately they’ve been garnering a lot of support in the game industry, but they are still Microsoft. I’m unsure how their influence has affected Bethesda lately.
I’ll just sit back and watch the fire.
We’ll have to wait for them to release a game that isn’t Skyrim.
Again.
No one knows.
Direct impact on wow likely won’t be measured until after next expac releases.
Exactly.
Although I am enjoying reading all these predictions from the pro and con people. Like they all work for Microsoft and know what the long term strategies are.
So far, being purchased by MS has had no appreciable impact on Bethesda games, although they haven’t released anything (I think) since the purchase.
I recall some MS talking head saying that they aren’t interested in micromanaging the studios they acquire. That seems good, but the real question is if the acquisition brings more resources to WoW, and therefor increases the rapidity and quality of future releases.
Could be good for us. MS has A LOT more money than both activison and Blizzard combined. Maybe now they will get rid of current devs and bring in people to make WOW like it use to be, fun for players, unlike this business model Ion been shoving down our throats.
Good if WoW goes on game pass.
Game pass already has decent games, including day 1 releases for 14.99 a month, which is on par with current subscription costs. In other words, if WoW goes on game pass (which I doubt) you are getting more value for your buck.
But that’s the dream.
I guess I’m worried about the worst case scenario; there are plenty of publishers that “have a lot of money” and use that money to buy up IP, kill the devs, and then sit on the IPs for years without ever doing anything meaningful with them.
EA and Konami have both done this.
Its a good thing.
More money more budget, More games for us, More players, More oversight so there is less Harassment BS.
Thats just the start.
Hard to say how it will directly affect WoW. Right now I’m of mixed feelings because I just can’t get excited/happy about Enormous Corporation A eating Slightly Smaller But Still Massive Corporation B.
I do hope Bobby goes, though.
I guess it s a matter of perspective isn’t it?
One person may feel the current state of the game is lackluster and figure that it couldn’t get any worse really.
While another person may see WoW as the best it’s ever been and see this as a bad thing because it may change they game a lot.
That won’t happen with WOW, Diablo overwatch etc, too much money to let it rot.
I think is overall good news, because Microsoft have a generally consumer forward attitude in their games division. Some recent examples of Microsoft vs Activision:
Minecraft has a cash shop, but they didn’t use that as an excuse to kill the modding community. Players have the option to play their curated version or the community developed version with official developer support for both. Activision joyfully murdered its WC3 modding community with a sledge hammer.
Halo fans were annoyed the Infinite season pass was too grindy, Microsoft issued a public apology within days and nerfed the grind into the ground. Halo fans didn’t have to wait a year for “seasonal integrity” for a little fix. Be lucky to see any fixes for Call of Duty ever under Activision watch.
Look closely at the state of Blizzard RTS series versus Microsoft RTS series, especially at work done on either in the last 5 years. One is in a considerably better state than the other. Similar franchises from similar eras, two VERY different outcomes in current year lol
Not saying Minecraft or Halo or Age of Empires are perfect franchises with perfect product lineups, but compared to the dumpster fires Blizzard set over the last decade I really don’t feel we’re going to go downhill from here.
Eh… depends.
EA, for instance, buys studios like an impulse buyer off their meds, and more often than not completely screws things up, often to the point of destroying said studio.
How much Microsoft will opt to meddle is TBD. Could go either way, but as I see it, the question is, would it be harder to make things worse from where they stand, or make them better?