Xbox |OT|

[Ryuu96]

Machiavellian said:

I am waiting for Jim Ryan to make some statements. I know he is smiling from ear to ear.

Doubt he says anything, he'd look like a tool after calling CMA irrational recently, Lol.

Plus the deal being blocked has nothing to do with him.

I'll say again, I'll laugh when Luna shuts down...xCloud is only surviving because of Game Pass, Lol.

Spade said:

Ryuu96 said:

Hope Microsoft just says fuck it and acquires some smaller studios in the meantime, CMA has made their position clear, a few less than ~200m studios aren't changing that. They need to get some of their support studios like Certain Affinity under their belt and Asobo if possible. Bulk up their support network with other acquisitions to get games out quicker.

As I said before, Xbox didn't own Activision before and still don't own them now, they have a very strong line-up of AAAs in the near future but they need to get them out consistently now, can't afford to wait around for Activision-Blizzard for another year either, they can still appeal the process but let the lawyers handle that shit, Xbox business has to continue to grow.

Thankfully it does continue to grow, some big exclusives coming in the near future as well, but they may have to start thinking about their plans without Activision-Blizzard, I'm assuming it will just be reverting back to their plans post-Zenimax acquisition but those titles are taking a bit to release, obviously they can't go for another publisher in the meanwhile but they can go harder on marketing, content and studio acquisition.

They will still be "all in" on Gaming with Zenimax but probably without their Mobile aspirations and having to adjust some growth forecasts.

This is what worries me the most. I would like to think that they would not be able to afford another 2022, but that's very well what they might do. Another year of cruise control. 

Literally impossible with Starfield in 2023, and Redfall, even despite the bumps, the business continues to grow.

ABK would have added to an already packed future pipeline, it wasn't essential to make it packed, as ABK is fairly slow.

What it was for is massively expanding the Gaming business in a quick way, it was an opportunity that fell into their lap, Microsoft had no intention of acquiring Activision-Blizzard or accounted for it in their plans until Activision-Blizzard put themselves on the market in late 2021.

So whatever held previously should still remain true, if Starfield is Holiday, it will remain Holiday, if Hellblade is Holiday, it will remain Holiday, if Avowed is early 2023, it will remain early 2023, etc. They aren't going to delay those titles for the benefit of the acquisition.

What I think is being delayed is other potential acquisitions to further increase their pipeline, their marketing is muted but then again they didn't have any major AAAs to market, I also think they're delaying some Game Pass specific stuff such as Family Plan and the ability to play all your owned titles on xCloud.

The former should be dumped, they should start acquiring smaller independent studios again, all the xCloud boosting stuff can be delayed for all I care.