The bit I wanted to hear: "The acquisition also bolsters Microsoft’s Game Pass portfolio with plans to launch Activision Blizzard games into Game Pass, which has reached a new milestone of over 25 million subscribers." Keeping Kotick on is going to be controversial, tho'.
As much as i'd love to see Kotick launched into the sun, it's probably cheaper to keep him on than pay whatever over-inflated severance he'd need to be paid. Still, being rid of that malignant limpet would be worth it.
Though candy drush stands out there, it is exactly the free-to-play versions of CoD (mobile and BR) and King's games that are the growth area for Actiblizz. In terms of "core gaming" - the sort of >£30 AA/AAA game that Microsoft make for game pass - are there any of Actiblizz's games that are not already over the hill? Perhaps Overwatch?
Sounds like code for 'Bobby has an ironclad contract we are going to wait out,' much the same reason why Todd Howard's still in Bethesda. What astounds me is that Activision's apparently increased it's value five fold since they split from Vivendi in 2013. I'd call that explosive growth, but cancerous seems like a more appropriate term. What depresses me is that it's likely the end of Activision/Blizzard products on Playstation, just like Bethesda products seem to be fading away form the platform, that's spectacularly bad for consumers.
It's about time WoW was put out to grass. The Shadowlands expansion is so wondrously good, I haven't played WoW since last March when I got thoroughly bored with it. The Cataclysm was so much better... Unless the next expansion is very much better, I am done with it, after 14 years next month.
They can't fire him before company is merged into Microsoft. And for example WSJ reports he will leave once deal is finished: Tweet— Twitter API (@user) date
They absolutely can. "Hey, shareholders, we want to buy your company at a 40 per cent premium, but you gotta get shot of Bob first." I mean, Kotick'll vote against it, obviously, but he holds a single-digit percentage of the shares. If Microsoft demanded his head as part of the deal, they'd get it.
Leave it to a techbro cryptowanker to have the worst possible take on this buyout Tweet— Twitter API (@user) date Tweet— Twitter API (@user) date
Isn't there an overpriced Dune book or some fugly monkey jpegs for him to waste his attention and Dunning-Kreugerrands on?
I may be wrong but if keyboard and mouse are supported on XBox then putting WoW on game pass & microtransactions may negate the need for a subscription plus the extra player base that wouldn't normally PC game might be enough to keep it ftp. You never know... Everquest is still running...
Kotick will leave with benefits as quietly as possible. Why else would he sell? Microsoft will say something comforting and distance themselves, while not actually holding him or anyone else to account. Hopefully things change for the better internally, but it will be done with the minimum of fanfare. As per the agreement. Life will gradually improve internally and the staff will be disinclined to comment on the hand-over. Please buy our games!
I wonder if WoW subs are going to be rolled into GamePass.. I doubt it, but boy would that net MS a lot more GP subscribers.
