Google doesn’t exactly bring the ominous terror either. I guess we can all still laugh at the silly name when the googlebots attack mankind. Though still as not as silly as the AskJeeves-droids or the Yahoodrones would have been.
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Google falls under the Alphabet umbrella.
Holy crap what news to wake up to. This is totally Microsoft handing Acti-Blizz exec’s a shovel and saying “Here’s the way out of the hole”.
I hope this means a return to form for WoW. Eventually. Even if I don’t want a Gamepass sub.
WoW =/= ActiBlizz, they’re paying for more than just this game with the acquisition. Other IPs, infrastructure, goodwill, etc.
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when you realize Microsoft owns Halo
Halos competitor is CoD…which is now owned by Microsoft
im confident this means less yearly CoD games, and more improvements in WoW
the employees are probably gonna get their demands met now
Do I dare to…Hope?
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Tbh both franchises are wildly successful, I can’t see them shafting one over the other. If anything they might push both of them more to try and milk as much as they can.
I would maintain some healthy skepticism, since it’s not like Microsoft is a particular beacon of workers’ rights within the industry. Hope might be a little premature unless you have a pessimistic view such as myself, where you’re content to watch the dice roll because it’s playing with house money at this point.
The only thing I’m comfortable assuming is that Microsoft isn’t actively worse than what we’ve seen from ABK in recent years. That, and I don’t believe that Microsoft will fall into the same “we don’t have to do anything, WoW is automatically top dog no matter what” attitude of complacency.
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It’s kind of funny how it went from “We are re-evaluating our relationship with Actiblizz” to “LOL ok we’ll just buy you” so quickly.
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Maybe, but i dont get that feeling. and it wouldnt really be shafting if they slowed down the almost yearly release
Honestly, change in leadership was on my bingo card for hope,
but a complete buyout? i just feel good about this
Ho boy.
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Looking forward to seeing the outcomes of this acquisition. Hopefully they are for the better, but at this rate, I cannot see them at all doing worse with things as they stand currently. Hopefully they drain the corporate swamp at the top and instill new values into all the teams at Blizz, not just Warcrafts.
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Given that I’m under no illusion that the overall objective of the parent company (to milk the product for every dollar it’s worth) is going to change as a result of this, I could choose to hope for some of the equally important but less outstanding changes like the overall quality of working environment for the employees.
Even then, my expectations are cautiously optimistic at best, since even the best case scenarios and examples are far from ideal. I’d have to be charitable to begin with to expect that the results would fall within acceptable parameters.
I could choose then to hope that perhaps at least with better management or oversight, maybe the products they start pumping out finally achieve a level of quality and polish (without even addressing the ongoing attitudes that are unlikely to be affected, ie the absolute state of communication to and from Blizzard) that make them finally start looking disreable to play and experience. Of course I’m still firmly of the mind that most of what Blizzard’s still standing on is rooted in grossly outdated design if not out and out hostile legacy, so I’d only be looking to anything new first and it’d still have to come on the heels of other changes in the company.
Anyways in short; press X to doubt. When anything meaningful happens, then perhaps the Blizzard part of this whole merger will be worth looking back at.
See, now, are you implying that the companies that wrung their hands over the morality of Blizzard’s conduct were only doing it for show and happily put aside any and all qualms in order to benefit from the same tactics that benefit the people they were wringing their hands over?
Or am I implying that?
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Didn’t see this coming. Though I suppose that buying a company out is technically a potential outcome of a re-evaluation of the relationship with them.
This acquisition may result in positive changes, negative changes, or even no changes to WoW and the way Blizzard operates as an individual studio. But remember one thing. Corporatism will continue to be. Giant companies are never your friends. Never. They are never more concerned about you and your experiences or happiness over their bottom line. Whatever they do that happens to benefit you is also in service of that bottom line in some way.
So be hopeful. But keep those hopes realistically tempered.
Oh, and if MSFT changes the CoD release schedule, good. We don’t need a new reskin of the same exact thing every year even if it does sell like hotcakes to the masses that buy it despite how annoyed it makes them.
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Honestly I’m shocked at the amount of positive responses this new has garnered.
I mean I get that ActiBlizz was a hellscape - but Microsoft just dropped $69 (nice) BILLION (with a B) not even a year after dropped the much more “modest” sum of $7.5 Billion (again, with a B) to acquire Zenimax.
Small numbers of corporations are dropping fat stacks of cash to consolidate entire genres under their blanket. This isn’t something to celebrate. It’s something to be extremely concerned about.
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I’m concerned about this among all the other swirling feelings going through my mind. Monopolies are scary things, and I almost wonder if there will be any anti-trust movements against any of this. Though, if there are, it won’t be Microsoft’s first rodeo.
I guess they still don’t have a total stranglehold on the genres they’ve just taken in though. EA still has Battlefield (LMAO at 2042) along with a few others. Ubisoft still has Rainbow Six, The Division, Ghost Recon, etc. Then there’s Square with FF obviously. Sony, Riot, Epic with Fortnite, etc.
But yeah, this was a move. One hell of a move.
Your lack of Umbrella saddens and disappoints me.
Which one? There’s only like…fifteen different Umbrellas running around.
The bad one.
I’m worried the majority of the people online who cared and followed news about the lawsuits, who were really setting a fire under Blizzard’s feet, will become too dazzled by this change and optimism for the future and cut the company slack. Sort of like how Mike Ybarra was meant to herald a new golden age for Blizzard according to Reddit.
Customers need to stick to their guns and make sure Microsoft knows they still have to earn their goodwill back, not merely purchase the company.
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