Microsoft Acquires Havoc

[danielrdp]

theprof00 said:

GribbleGrunger said:

Imaginedvl said:

Oh dear, I could not help thinking you are using this opportunity to stealthly bash on MS :)

There is nothing in what you are saying that makes any sense... Microsoft is acquiring an engine studio (like DirectX), release a lot of nice bundles for the end of year time and acquire one of the most successully game in the past few years and this really makes you think that they could be done with it? 

Really guys, sometime your hopes......

It was just something that crossed my mind, not something I would fully invest in as a probablity. It's just one of many ramifications that I'm currently considering, including the obvious of it just being a straight forward acquisition to help with development. I don't tend to hold onto one idea when I'm unsure, I tend to let my thought processes free and see where they take me. After I've visited several places and considered them dead ends or groundless, I'll hone in on what I think it possible until I receive further information. Speculation is amorphous and should never be viewed in a two dimentional way. That leads to conflict and not the desired free thinking which interest me far more than the more concrete facts that will inevitably follow. Dreams is a perfect example of what I mean by this. I find the journey of speculation as interesting (or even moreso) than the actually destination because it engages my creativity and imagination rather than just stacking data.

So, no, I'm not taking the opportunity to bash MS.

Well said.

Speculation is fun, which is such a sad sight on here nowadays. Everyone is concerned only about facts when speculation is the most fun part of interaction. If you were to look at the current offering from MS, obviously, they are not abandoning games. But there is a question as to where they are going from here.

We know they are working on PC to device streaming. We know they are integrating xbox with PC through windows 10. We know they are setting up a platform similar to STEAM. We know they are working on cloud. We know now, that they are buying engines.

When you look at this, you could say, microsoft seems to be working a lot on the infrastructure of video game production. They are building a platform, a distribution network, frameworks for game development. We know they wanted to use azure in every gamestop as their new OS. We know they want to have syndicated television shows and networks. There were rumors about talking to cable providers, and the xb1 even has a passthrough for hdmi.

I mean, sure, if you look at the games only, you'd be inclined to think they aren't going anywhere. But when you look at the big picture, with the release of some devs and a studio, and the consolidation of black tusk into only making gears (which they previously annoucned BT would be like the santa monica of MS - big name features and involvement with every other studio's games). It really starts to look like MS is gearing up into become a full content manager rather than content creator. Sure, I bet Coalition and 343 and other studios will still make their headliner games. But the question is really, 'what direction are they headed in'. Certainly, there has been nothing lately pointing to MS making MORE games. Almost all the news has been infrastructure related, or platform development (their glasses thing).

When you put it that way, It looks like Microsoft is preparing for a future without gaming consoles. I'm pretty sure that Nintendo and Sony are also making their plans for the next 10 , 20 years. But that doesn't mean that Microsoft will stop creating content as well. It's just not their top priority for the moment, I suppose.