Microsoft Is Buying Activision Blizzard and I Am SHOOK 

Arlo doesn’t need to be a Nintendo channel, just a video game news channel that happens to mostly focus on Nintendo. Honestly I’d listen to Arlo talk about basically anything.

The Acti-Blizz controversy is likely the reason this deal happened. This is likely Bobby's exit strategy (or the board kicking him out). The board sells the company at close to the max all time share value keeping shareholders happy while giving them an excuse to have him leave while saving face. Mircosoft gets the company at a significantly lower price than they would have to pay to if Acti-Blizz had good PR. I highly doubt Bobby or the board would have sold if he thought his position was maintainable.

the only issue I see with this is how out of hand it can get. I don't want a Disney-like situation to be in the gaming industry.

The current story is that Activision approached Microsoft about a buyout in November. Now if you're Microsoft, and the developer of Call of Duty, Crash Bandicoot, Overwatch, WOW etc offers you the chance to buy them...can I blame them for saying yes??? They weren't hunting for Activision, just like how they weren't hunting for Bethesda. Both companies wanting to sell and MS was willing to open their wallets And with EA and Ubisoft both struggling right now, it really wouldn't surprise me if both expressed a desire to sell, and Microsoft was first in line

I feel incredibly mixed on this. On one hand, there's a chance that things at Activision Blizzard could improve dramatically under Microsoft, which is obviously a good thing, but on the other hand I hope this doesn't lead to a future where all the major third parties are bought up and divided between the three consoles, meaning that you now have no choice but to buy consoles you might have not even wanted just because a series you like is locked to that console now.

Blizzard is such a bad company, that lego refused to keep working with them, and now Microsoft is buying them, I hope they can purge the bad from this company

Hey man, you're allowed to diversify your content; it doesn't have to be Nintendo focused. Hell, I'd love to see movie reviews from you.

Lets put it this way, from a consumer perspective it is probably a bad thing for Microsoft to be able to purchase such a large studio, but if Microsoft does what Blizzard could not and fires every one of the hacks in the WoW lore team I will praise them to the ends of the earth.

I'm in the boat that this is insane and I have no damn clue what happens now At the very least I hope the working conditions improve for people at Activision.

$70 billion dollars was so high that my brain could not process it. It automatically assumed the number was $70 *million* and thought "Wow, that's dirt cheap! The lawsuits and accusations must have really taken their toll on the company." Only later did I reread it as $70 *billion* which is simultaniously more believable and more unbelievable. Because I simply cannot fathom that Activision was worth 70 billion, I would have thought it was worth below 10 billion. I guess micro-transactions really are where the money's at.

The lesson we learn from this is: if the company is not doing well, it is in danger of getting eaten by the Microsoft monster.

Phil Spencer, as a CEO, has been instrumental for the Xbox brand. It’s amazing how quickly they’ve been able to restore their reputation in the short time since Don Mattrick razed it to the ground. The man was a phenomenal choice to head the gaming division.

I could see this going to ways: the way of Disney, or the way of Steam. Steam is a de facto monopoly of PC gaming, but they provide (in general) a very consumer friendly platform. I don't think this necessarily spells doom for the gaming industry like a lot of people are saying.

Interesting that they spent $70 billion considering that's how much I paid for a Series X on eBay.

It's so weird to me that Crash and Spyro, essentially MASCOTS for Sony's Playstation, are now going to owned by their competitor Microsoft. But generally I have to say I'm excited to see if this acquisition improves the situation surrounding ActiBlizzard's scandals, and if improvements to the games themselves will be made!

Microsoft now owns Crash, Spyro, Conker, and Banjo. Take that in for a second.

Phil Spencer: "Activision Blizzard sexual harassment bad. We'll have to reconsider our partnership with the company" Ends up buying the whole company 🤨

On the one hand, I hope this means that activision and blizzard get properly cleaned up and restored to a respectable name. I loved overwatch (hate it now) and I would love to actually have excitement for overwatch 2 and future blizzard projects, but after their most recent events I lost all faith in anything coming from the company. On the other hand, if microsoft does to spyro/crash what they did to all of rareware (especially banjo and conker), I'll never forgive them. Ive had so many issues with xbox that has prevented me from buying since the 360. Ruining 2 more video game legacies would guarantee that I'd never support them again period. For the first time in years, I have actual hope and interest in Microsoft, but they have to really prove themselves with everything first.

This is a lot bigger than just Microsoft and Activision-Blizzard. Exclusivity? That's not really Microsoft's style anymore, but they certainly will want people, especially people at Sony, to believe that this might happen. What they'll really want though is to spread their Game Pass to more systems (specifically the PlayStation line). A console is purchased only once per customer & costs money to make. A subscription service is a recurring charge and involves no hardware on their part. This is why printers are cheap, but printer ink is expensive. If they can force Sony to allow Microsoft's Game Pass onto their systems because of the threat of game exclusivity if they don't, then that's what they'll really want. Sony will have to make the choice to either deprive their system of half the new game releases that come out or to allow another company to make money with a recurring service on their system. Accepting that deal would certainly be more lucrative, as it means not worrying about exclusives on Microsoft's system anymore for the most part, so everybody can get everything with a Sony system, and selling systems is Sony's business model. If Sony DOES refuse, despite it being more lucrative to agree, then Microsoft will make things exclusive, but will also make sure the world knows Sony turned down this offer. This will mobilize Sony's own fan base onto Microsoft's side to pressure them into accepting the deal eventually... Just like what happened when Sony stopped wanting to share Spiderman with Disney. I wouldn't be surprised if that event inspired them directly. Remember what these companies are at their core. It tells you a lot about their business models. Nintendo is a toy company. Sony is a technology hardware company. Microsoft certainly makes hardware, sure, but what they've always been more primarily is an operating system and software company. Microsoft did a lot to try to push PCs over consoles since Game Pass became a thing, while still in the console market themselves. Microsoft's software dominating on Sony's hardware with Game Pass will mean that both companies can do what they do best and make more money for each company together than they could make apart... They're not going to merge exactly, but will come to an amicable arrangement that benefits them both. Is this a good thing for quality? A bad thing for prices? We'll find out eventually, I'm sure. No one else can get into the console game at this point to offer any new threat to them either. Everyone who's made an attempt has either used Android as a base, which people aren't generally going to buy a console for since they can just use their phones, or they haven't had the support needed to have the necessary good exclusives of popular games, in part because why would those AAA companies take that risk on a brand new console maker? (And no, as great as indies can be, they're still not enough to launch a brand new console line. Everyone who likes indies already has other games and knows that the indie games they want will reach the consoles they have eventually. They're not system sellers.) The result will ultimately be an increase in some prices, but Nintendo's continued existence & high quality means they can't simply double all of the prices immediately without losing enough customers for that not to be worth it... Not to say that Nintendo is perfect or anything, but we are the most critical of the things we love, aren't we? Also... Prior to purchase, Bethesda's reputation was at its lowest. (See the list of Fallout 76 controversies for about half of why.) Prior to purchase, Activision-Blizzard's reputation was at its lowest. That establishes the pattern. Going forward, I would expect to see Microsoft making offers to others in the game industry with low reputations. Will EA be next?

Good vid, Arlo! Would love to see more vids about Microsoft and the other companies from you! You always have an interesting insight in business and gaming!

Microsoft: We own you now, Crash. Crash: Wait, does this mean... _I actually have a good chance be in Smash?_ Microsoft: I don't know, can you wait like 5 to 8 years until the next one comes out? Crash: **Sad woahs**

While Microsoft is probably the most consumer friendly company at the moment, never forget they are the ones that started paid online services and how the botched the Xbox One's launch at the beginning of last gen. Stay skeptic people.

If Toys for Bob and Rare could collaborate on a new Banjo Kazooie game? That would be heaven. But obviously, the elephant in the room, Bobby Kotick needs to be gone yesterday.

I believe nintendo would benefit of doing something similar for the opposite reason. They have tons of IPs and not enough studios to cover them. It would benefit them because they could easily just buy smaller yet talented studios and develop tons and tons of games they just don't make because they are too focused on the bigger IPs Imagine a console cycle with their regular releases, but adding things like a new wave race, sin and punishment, ice climbers, golden sun, 1080º, excitebike, punch out, drilldozer, nintendogs and so on with a couple of spin off. Smaller games but a lot more of variety!! They own too many things and the only reason they don't use them is they focus on what will sell millions while they could invest smaller budgets on smaller exclusives

Regarding Nintendo and acquisitions, I only want them to buy those studios that are basically already theirs but technically aren't, like HAL or Intelligent Systems or Game Freak. They already did similar things with Monolith Soft, Retro Studios and more recently with Next Level Games. Managing everything under the same umbrella and avoid some other Rare incidents. Now if we go further that that, Platinum Games would be my choice, followed by Level 5 and Sega. But I'm fine with those I mentioned earlier.

Let's hope it's a good thing

Can someone buy EA and make them less of a shitty company? I'm all for that to happen. In regards to Microsoft and Activision Blizzard I could see part of their deal to allow the purchase to go through is that certain core Activision Blizzard franchises must remain multi-platform, but other series like Crash and such are fine to become exclusive to Xbox and PC.

Arlo, I don't blame you. This news is MASSIVE! I still can't believe it.

Love these kind of videos. You're clearly as passionate about the behind the scenes/financial side of the gaming industry as you are about the games and systems themselves, it's awesome hearing you so animated about news like this.

My fear revolves around monopolization but I hope all the Activision/Blizzard employees have a much better workplace.

I'm really not a big fan of this. Like, sure, it gives Microsoft a big competitive edge, but this dosen't seem like a good thing for the industry overall. The fact that so many people also stand behind things like these (both praising the decision or asking Sony to buy a studio to stay competitive) weirds me out too. I'm also not totally convinced that the studios that Xbox got better after their purchase. Still waiting on their upcoming games to come out to figure that out.

This kind of reminds me of the "Golden Age" of Nintendo where they had all the major 3rd part devs making games exclusively for the NES and SNES. Capcom, Squaresoft, Konami among many others. They were operating, for all intents and purposes, as a monopoly. What's funny is, Nintendo has a worth of just under 100 billion USD. It's interesting to speculate on what this means for gaming as a whole.

You gotta keep in mind, the only reason why Microsoft is seen as "the good guy" today is because they got whooped by Sony last gen after a series of horrible corporate decisions (centering around TV and not games, trying to kill the used game market by force, trying to force kinect on people). They had to course correct and under Phil Spencer they have been way more consumer friendly (brought backwards compatibility, GamePass and more focus on the PC) but I don't trust them not to flip the script again once they're back on top.

Personally, good riddance to Activision. What I want more than anything is to see Raven Software free at last from the CoD dungeons. It's been twelve years since Singularity released, and a legend dev like Raven has been making nothing but CoD games since. Would love to see them literally work on anything else that isn't CoD. Hell, let them take another crack at Soldier of Fortune for all I care. Look at their resume, Hexen, Heretic, X-Men, Star Trek, Star Wars, Wolfenstein, Singularity, etc. They're a quality dev with a history that spans over three decades. Time for them to get their time in the sun. Also, I don't think MS is gonna keep too many of these games exclusive. People thought they were crazy with Minecraft, but they've profited off the game since then, but Minecraft has also been releasing for every platform available. I don't see CoD being exclusive, but I do see it being available to play on gamepass day one.

I dread to imagine if they were bought out by EA.

After their PR nightmare I knew someone would buy them out. I didn't expect it to happen this fast however it was the perfect buy moment 100% thought tencent or bytedance would have been the buyer though

This is going to be an interesting year for gaming and I’m ready for it.

Xbox now owns both crash and Spyro, it just feels so strange

I was noticing not enough people were talking about bears on Arlo’s new joy con video, and that is unacceptable. Bears are adorable and funny, and I want to ride one, and have it eat my enemies. Watch out Dave…

You nailed it, Arlo. There will be both good and bad coming from this, and the gaming landscape will change forever.

my only issue re: Microsoft “cleaning up shop” is that companies will sometimes take short term gains at the expense of long-term sustainability or profitability, because that’s how the churning of primarily profit-seeking business practices can work. but it’ll be interesting to see how this plays out, and obv 70B is a long-term investment kind of figure.

Really hoping on a new proper Guitar Hero and more Tony Hawk games.

I’m pretty torn on this one. I’m really happy to see Act/Blizz get snatched up and put under management that won’t put up with their garbage abuse culture, but the consolidation of companies under a single umbrella isn’t a good thing. I actually do think M$ is going to do right by the IPs they’re getting and hopefully course correct the franchises that have languished for years, particularly the Blizzard stuff like proper Warcraft sequels and Starcraft. That said, I haven’t forgotten that M$ is the company that has the long term goal of destroying the idea of ownership in video games. I don’t think that goal has gone anywhere despite the good moves towards consumer-friendly practices they’ve made this console generation.

You seem like such a sincerely nice person, and you make awesome in-depth reviews, I'm glad to see you dipping your toes into new content

Arlo my man, thank you for randomly putting a Spyro song in the background. That took me out and made me smile :)

I appreciate more diverse content from you Arlo, all content you do is 👌

Arlo's take is way too positive. Corporations creating a monopoly is not a good thing, straight up.

My only thoughts behind Microsoft buying up companies like Bethesda and Activision-Blizzard is that the shift in management might be good for them in the long run. _Especially_ Act-Bliz. Like, Tod Howard saying stupid crap like the infamous "it just works" interview is one thing. The levels of pure "What the actual _hell_?" at Act-Bliz is completely different, and I hope it's dealt with swiftly and ruthlessly. A massive corp like Microsoft cannot afford to allow that to continue if they want to stay in the good graces of the consumers.

Microsoft has been sitting on Banjo for 20 years so I don’t have much hope for Crash and Spyro

The controversy probably gave Microsoft a discount.

Enjoy The Microsoft Deals While You Can It's Only A Matter Of Time Until The Bait And Switch Happens.

3:21 "Microsoft is not super duper greedy" Actually Lol'd

And I say unto you: "How will this change the future of gaming? Well Spyro and Crash won't be on any further Nintendo and Sony consoles."

Spyro music pairs really well with the vibe of your channel

Honestly, if this had to happen then I'm glad it was Xbox. Soooooooo many people that don't know anything about the gaming industry claim that this is Xbox becoming a monopoly but the truth is Tencent and Embracer Group currently have a massive footprint in the industry that's twice the size of Xbox and Nintendo combined. To give everyone an example of how big EG alone is they have around 50 studios and own multiple various companies that have nothing to do with video games (one of the most famous being thee Dark Horse Comics) just from their constant buying sprees.

4:26 Sony isn't Microsoft's competition anymore for a while now. Microsoft's competition is Google and Apple, they even said so. It really is not a good thing for gaming what's happening right now. Monopolization isn't good because what always follows are consumer unfriendly practices and lower quality. It's really nothing to be happy about. Netflix started as this no-brainer subscription that was nothing but positive. Similar to game pass. And what happened then? It changed the whole media consumption landscape. Content got fractured and we now have to pay several subs in order to have a "complete" viewing experience. They're raising prices regularly, and canceling subs isn't often an option if you're interested in tv shows and movies nowadays, because all the other options either became services as well or simply vanished. What also became a reality was the principle of "binge watching" which completely changed how we shows are planned. The Netflix Original once was a sign for quality, now it's shovel ware. But it's too late to go to the cinema, because more than half of those got closed down. "Cinema is dead. People want On Demand". What I'm trying to say is: we have precedents for this kind of monopolies in entertainment media. Disney is also a great (bad) example. This is what's going to happen with Microsoft, Xbox and Game Pass. Let's actually NOT be so positive about it. Let's be very, very wary and let's not blindly buy into it. If you value stuff like physical media, quality games, independent studios, multiplatformer, cross platt form multiplayer, console gaming yada yada yada... then you should be concerned about this and adjust your behavior as a consumer accordingly.

Can we please, please, please, please stop lionizing corporate consolidation? It won't end well for the consumer even if they are the most consumer-friendly right now.

I'm happy for the people in Activision Blizzard. Hopefully the working conditions will improve. At the same time, I think companies like Disney and Microsoft should be broken up.

I'm in a "wait and see" mode. Activision Blizzard was certainly not doing it's IPs any favors under their own management, and clearing the rubble at the top out of the way seems like a good thing, but it's anyone's guess if their new custodians will do any better with it. Hopefully Microsoft has learned from it's past mistakes with companies like Lionhead.

Love the Crash Bandicoot music in the background!

I feel like I'm the only guy who remembers when MS was sued under anti trust laws like back in the 90s. They "lost" but the government got real gun shy about breaking up trusts. I think in the short term for Blizzard this is good, but in the long term this will not benefit the industry or consumers as a whole.

I play Hearthstone for years now, sincerely this is the best news for Blizzard in a very long time, me and my friends are actually hopeful for once, some might see this as a problem or Disney like monopoly, but I just see this as Microsoft saw an opportunity to fix the unholy mess that whole company is in. Especially nowadays Microsoft and how they are really making good decisions, I'm hopeful good things will come out of this.

This is an interesting situation to be in to be sure. I think it's the best thing that could happen to any of the IPs that ActiBlizz has, the best thing that could happen to their individual employees, and the best thing for gamers in the short term. In the long term though, I do worry about Microsoft becoming the Disney of video games. But we'll see how it plays out.

Arlo I’d absolutely love more non-nintendo focused videos from you. Love your nintendo content but it’s always nice to see you branching off and doing other things. I’d love to see movie or tv reviews too if that was something that interests you. Always good seeing any type of new content from the best puppet on YT.

Arlo, I gotta say, I respect the heck out of you for telling it like it is. Most of us would be too high and mighty to admit it but you’re the one to be like “yeah I’d do the exact same thing they did if I had that power” bc we ALL know it’s true. Respect for telling it like it is, also I’d love to hear more from you about other non-Nintendo topics (Also I agreed with Nintendo doing the same thing ESPECIALLY with Pokémon)

I totally agree with that Microsoft is consumer friendly. I'm from Chile, and actually Microsoft has a very strong presence. They control prices so retailers don't charge whatever they want. I hope Nintendo is able to do the same thing, I mean if you want to buy here an Oled Switch, you must pay like 500usd, and Nintendo does nothing :(

I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand, as a lifelong Spyro fan, Activision sucks, and has sucked at least since they acquired the Spyro IP. I followed the Skylanders series and it was so obvious how money-hungry Activision was when it came to creative decisions vs monetization. That series was way too monetized. Reignited trilogy was the only good thing Activision did, but even that was rushed out the door half-polished and not even all on one disc/cartridge. On the other, I've discovered through my life that I just... don't play on consoles as much as I play on handhelds. Doesn't matter what publisher; the Wii got as much playtime as the PS3 (very little); the PSP got as much playtime as the DS(a ton). I was super happy with the Switch because it's console games on a handheld device. I was happy Spyro was third-party because it meant it was coming to Switch, even if it had a timed exclusive to the other two consoles and didn't look as good on Switch as on the others. If there are Spyro games in the future, I want to play them. And if they're Xbox exclusive... I don't even know. I guess I'll need an Xbox, which I'll hardly play other than to play Spyro. Or I'll see if my computer is powerful enough to play it, but I doubt it will be since it wasn't powerful enough for Spyro Reignited. But I am happy Spyro's under a much better umbrella than before. I just wish it wasn't one of the console makers.

Well, This could change the entire gamemarked considering their huge collection of IPS. I don’t think it will be due to COD tho because of its large player base.

Weird to think that Crash is now a Microsoft character

my concern is for Steam and gaming on Linux. it's scary to see if there will be any software or legal repercussions, or all of these games leaving steam forever.

Bobby Kotick: **rams company's franchises into ground for over a decade with such aggressiveness he somehow manages to kill GUITAR HERO, loses Bungie, discards successful remakes in exchange for Toys for Bob working on more Call of Duty, steadily strangles the world's biggest MMO to death until Final Fantasy 14 takes its place, fosters sexual abuse in the company for decades until it eventually boils over into a lawsuit that ruins the company's reputation so horribly, other companies begin excluding them from public events* Microsoft: "Here's 70 billion dollars to buy out your company" *_capitalism is a meritocracy, everyone!!!!!_*

Maybe Microsoft can clean house over at Blizzard.

I'd love to hear the plant's perspective on this whole ordeal.

why is no one talking about how this is moving closer and closer toward a monopoly? you have one company gobbling up all the games till there is only one or two companys remaining... this is what charter did with ISP's and now they own a vast majority of the ISP's across the US to a point that even if your ISP isn't charter, its likely own or controlled by charter. To me this is worry some...

Would love to see more content about stuff going on in the gaming industry and your views. Keep it going.

I love when Arlo isn’t strictly discussing Nintendo stuff!

Hopefully this means that Microsoft will make Activision-Blizzard into a better place to work

This could really cripple sony, the 2nd and 7th most sold games of 2021 were the last two CODs. Also the fact that sony really only makes money from the Playstation brand should worry sony.

Just gonna give a shout-out to the Spyro music at the end. Appreciate it

The ONLY good I see in this is cleaning house at Activision-Blizzard. Its just too much of a Disney-esque move for me to rejoice. I wanted Sony to be humbled but not like this...Competition is essential and if Microsoft owns half of gaming competition goes out of the window.

I honestly hate how monopolised the videogame industry already is, and its just going to get worse in the future. I wouldn't be surprised if companies like Facebook and Google started eating up what companies remain

This buyout will just pressure Sony to acquire a crummy game company of their own and treat it as a publishing arm for multiplatform titles. My bet's on Konami.

What I think will happen in the coming months is Microsoft swooping in and cleaning out all the staff that are being problematic. Bobby will put up a fight and won't leave without compensation, but I think even he will step down eventually.

Microvizzard is the name of the fusion in the thumbnail.

To put that 68.7 billion into perspective. The HIGHEST single bill in USD is worth $100,000. So, in order to have all that money in cash, it would require a MINIMUM of 687,000 bills in the same room. Think about that. How many suitcases it would require just to hold all that cash. An average suitcase or "attache case" can hold anywhere from 10,000 to 24,000 bills. Basically, you would 29 to 68 suitcases/briefcases/attaché cases. That's ALOT of luggage.

Microsoft better give the current CEO's of Blizzard "Golden Parachutes" and replace them with people who aren't pure evil. Though I'm not getting my hopes up.

Is there any point owning an Xbox if all games are on PC as well?

I’m still very mixed on this. It’s one thing for Rare to be at it’s best and then get bought by Microsoft and wither away, it’s another for Activision Blizzard to be at its worst and get bought by Microsoft and have a chance to redeem itself. If Microsoft does manage to clean up the company, I suppose it would be a net gain, but I’m still worried what will happen when they make back their $70 billion. Arlo mentioning how this is like Microsoft buying Nintendo is really scary because now it feels like something that could actually happen, and that would absolutely cement Microsoft becoming the Disney of gaming.

10:36 Microsoft already had: Banjo Kazooie, Minecraft, Age of Empires, Halo, Gears of War, Fable, Killer Instinct, Battletoads. I think they had enough to compete with Sony, but they were not managing them properly. When Microsoft bought Bethesda last year I wasn't sure they were going to manage them well (and I'm still not sure, I know Bethesda had some controversies, like the Creation Club or the broken Fallout 76, but they were doing a good job with Id Software, Arkane Studios and Zenimax Online). However with Activision, I think it's hard to make them worse, so, I think it's something good, probably they are going to cleanup that mess.

I just found you and i LOVE the fact you use a puppet!!!!!

Arlo, I love non Nintendo content lol please feel free to make as much as you’d like.

Damn lmao I found this right as I went to my sub box

I think you're off the mark on exclusives but as long as they put on the front of making blizzard/Activision less shitty and still make games, they'll make money. And I get where your overall positivity is but this will only be worse for the consumer in the long run as competition eats competition and we're best off just going after indie games if we want a diverse industry to continue. Edit: quick note Xbox doesn't need to get people into their ecosystem, as long as you have a pc with windows you're in it. They baked it into the software with ease of getting gamepass on there and make it cheap as shit to get into it.

Microsoft now owns oficially the RTS-genre. Not that it is worth much these days, but if they bring back SC/WC they can just rival themselves with the biggest RTS IPs. But besides this is a big acquisation, just cause I completely gave up on anything actiblizz related and now, exclusive or not, it might get interesting again. And in terms of IPs, this is a really big deal to get, if you arent able to buy a riot games or something like it.

I don’t see why everyone’s so surprised. We’re talking about the company that tried to buy Nintendo.

Here’s hoping they can actually improve the workplace at Activision-Blizzard. I see it as kind of a power move, like, “Oh, you guys want to mistreat people? Get bought! Now you HAVE to treat people well!” Love your videos, and I hope you’ve been feeling better lately. Take care. Also, please Microsoft, change it back to McCree. “Cole Cassidy” is a stupid name.

That's what I would do if I saw Activision going down the route they've set themselves on. Abusing employs, sexually harassing them. As Phil Spencer has said he is deeply concerned for these issues. Activision will be a better place now, and that's all I care about. I don't care for COD, Overwatch, I care for employee safety.

The Bethesda purchase was no different at all, except for price. its also taking away, as someone who solely bought Bethesda games on PS this is something I can't do any more, so your perception of what it means feels a little out of touch. That's what exclusivity does. and its rubbish. When Sony do it its bad, when MS does it, its also bad. Great for their business, but isn't great for the industry or the fans. But it'll not impact me too much as I own both a PS5 and XBOX Series X.

Blizzard "Do you guys not have phones?" Microsoft ".....you think different"

Not a big fan of this event, but was expecting something like this to happen. Activision was just letting itself die at this point and not even trying to cut out the bad parts of itself, and Microsoft saw a golden opportunity (i.e. heard people complain about the state of Activision-Blizzard and how they're handling everything) to acquire IPs that have a massive fanbase that absolutely were demanding news on games that have been left on the wayside for close to a decade or more. Ultimately, if Microsoft does this right, this is gonna turn into a huge payday for them that'll last for years.