Microsoft to buy Activision Blizzard for 69 billion $

[Alby_da_Wolf]

Imaginedvl said:

Alby_da_Wolf said:

As a PC gamer I'm worried, maybe more than console gamers. Google and Apple should worry too, not just Sony. Sony will be hit, but it's not MS' main target: Spencer and Nadella finally show they understood (they understood it immediately, but they didn't show it until they were ready) what Ballmer and Mattrick didn't, that the true important target is the mobile market (gaming is important, and potentially very lucrative, but mobile, including its gaming part, brings money and a LOT of power) and that MS' most dangerous competitor isn't Sony, Google and Apple are.

As PC gamer you should be happy it.

Why worried and why are you saying that console gamer are worried too. Can you ellaborate on that?

I'm a PC and console gamer and I'm anything but worried (well, obviously if you are only playing on Sony's console, yah, those are worried and for good reason, no debate there, but you said you are PC gamer, so I assume that's not the case).

GamePass is probably the best thing that happen to PC Gamers since a while. Diablo, Starcraft, COD, Overwatch are all going to be day one on GamePass and in the same ecosystem than other games. As a console gamer I also have more hope to finally have a true "play anywhere" for games like Diablo 4 or Overwatch 2.

I get that some people are worried for different reason, but you are talking like this is a general consensus. I do not think so :) And looking at the reaction on Reddit and other places (even Blizzard specific ones, people are happy about this in general). Microsoft is a way better place to be for those games/franchises/studios than the current standalone Activision/Blizzard. 

Heck, I also hope Microsoft will split Blizzard from Activision and bring it right under the Xbox Studios at the same level than Bethesda and the other studios instead of being a subsidiary of Activision.

So why are you worried?

PC main advantages are wide freedom of HW, SW and services choice, OS only is ruled  by a near-monopoly (Office is the strongest office suite, but many users can replace it with alternatives), but MS always tried to extend its power on the platform and to push users from periodic licence purchases, typically together with new HW or major upgrades, to a lifetime rent.
That the owner of the only monopoly on PC tries to expand its power too much in other parts of PC market isn't good for competition, even less that it tries to turn Game Pass into a de facto mandatory service. Yes, Activision acquisition can be very good for Game Pass users, it isn't for everybody else. Neither it will be for GP users, if MS will raise the fee.

It isn't for 3rd parties willing to be on GP either, unless MS grants that their share of the fees won't be touched by the overwhelming increase of 1st party games weight Bethesda and Activision brought.