Xbox Can't Really Talk About Activision Blizzard Until The Deal Is Done

I guess it will a good while until we reap the benefits of this purchase.
At the moment far more excited about.
Starfield, fable, hell blade 2, next gears, Halo campaign dlc, avowed etc.
These are the games they need to get out to us.

I just hope in the mean time they figure out a way of putting CoD games on GamePass. I think they did that with Bethesda and put many games on GP before the legal things were done.

@Carck is Avowed Obsidian? Definitely one to keep an eye on.

Activision do very little of interest to me, I’d be happy with Diablo 4 on Gamepass though. Interested to see what Ms do with some of Activisions IP’s going forward.

As MS's primary platform is Game Pass and that needs new BIG games EVERY month to encourage people to 'sign up' and stay subscribed month after month. Therefore, I expect this Activision/Blizzard deal to be like all the other deals thus far, a deal to get more studio's working on games they WANT to make, Games that give each of those studio's their 'identity' and a platform for them to 'thrive' on with NO pressure to be 'Commercially' successful, just 'great' games that people want to play.

It's the reason they have bought all those studio's so far. They bought Ninja Theory who had pimped out the majority of their studio just so a small team got funded to make Hellblade - a Passion project of Ninja Theory. Now under MS, they are making the experiences they want - Hellblade 2/Project Mara are 'Ninja Theory' games. Bought Compulsion, Undead Labs, Double Fine etc to carry on making their own games in their own 'style'. Playground wanted to expand and make an open world RPG and grabbed the chance to make it 'Fable' rather than be yet another RPG from a 'Racing' game studio that doesn't get the attention.

Even buying Zenimax, that was a buy where 'every' studio practically makes their own 'unique' style of games. You know a Bethesda game from an Arcane from an ID or Machine game. Each studio already made their 'own' games in their 'own' style so a perfect fit.

Therefore it stands to reason that EVERY studio at A/B will be allowed to make their OWN games - as long as the 'old' library is maintained. This is why I can see a Studio (like Raven) being given CoD - or a Studio formed from IW, Treyarch etc to become the 'CoD' online studio (like 343 with Halo, Coalition and Gears) that maintains, updates and runs 'CoD'. Any 'new' Online modes, experiences etc from these may release on PS but will be assessed on a game by game basis.

However, EVERY Studio will be in charge of their own ideas, projects etc- make what they as a team make - whether that's a completely new idea for a new IP or a new game for a MS owned IP. If Sledgehammer have always had an idea for a new 'Jet Force Gemini' game, they could make it. If Infinity Ward never want to make a CoD game again, they don't have to. Treyarch would be positively encouraged to make a 'new' Zombies game that's not tied into CoD and WW2 Nazi's for Game Pass. Point is, they want every studio working on their own projects to increase their first party new Game Pass Day1 content...

Everything MS has said (We Deeply value INDIVIDUAL studio's and Culture) and done - certainly in their 'new' Phil Spencer gaming and Game Pass focussed era - is about Individual Studio's making the Games they want to for Game Pass - giving them Creative Freedom and Support to realise their ambition without having to say 'No' to projects because 'commercially', they may be too risky. Its no risk to put them on Game Pass and 'boost' their GP value with more 'new' games coming Day 1.

@BrilliantBill potentially - all they need is to do a deal to get Acti games on Gamepass; the revenue they will see back when the acquisition goes through. Kind of like paying themselves. Unless they just want revenue from actual sales until then.

GamePass will have a silly amount of games on it! Well, it already has but it’s going to grow and grow. It’s frightening to even think where GamePass will be in say, five years time.
I still believe that most games will remain multi platform because at the end of the day that will make MS even more money!

Microsoft might not be able to talk about them, but that doesn't mean they can't do business with Activision. Like start putting the games on Game Pass. I expect moves like that in 2022 before the "ink dries."

@Carck tell me about it.

Gamepass already has to many games...I'm missing out on numerous games because I just haven't got the time lol

I think out of the gate we should just expect to see a ton of Activision/Blizzard games being added to Game Pass.

Even that might take a while because Battle.net launcher integration on PC likely means it won’t be simply a switch flip.

Once the deal closes, there will still likely be a couple years left on the Sony marketing deal for CoD, so we won’t see any change either way on that IP for quite a while (just as we will not be seeing Ghostwire Tokio on XBox for quite a while.)

It won’t be until those contractual obligations are met that they might be able to slow down the pace on CoD releases and start work on other IPs that will in turn take years to develop. So this is going to be a sloooooow change, as far as exclusive content goes.

By that point, we will likely be seeing a slim/cheaper XSX model and a price cut on XSS, making the impact of exclusives even stronger as it will be cheaper to jump into the Xbox ecosystem.

As soon as I heard about the Activision Blizzard acquisition, I knew there were going to be a lot of questions. However, just like the Bethesda deal, I knew Microsoft couldn’t talk much about it till it’s finalized.

Till the deal is done, there’s going to be a lot of talk within the gaming community how PlayStation is still going to get “this” and get “that.” Even now, after the Bethesda deal is totally done, I still read posts online how PlayStation is getting Starfield or the next Elder Scrolls. Truth is, on this Activision deal, we all have to wait and see what Microsoft’s plans are in terms of multi platform. My guess is, just like the other acquisitions, not much will go outside of the Xbox ecosystem.

As for what we will see in the future from this deal? MS already answered that, they want more variety of games and will bring back some of the old Activision IP and more than likely, some new ones too.

I wonder if we'll see ActiveLizzard games on GP before the deal is done. IIRC, I think we started to see Bethesda games on the service long before that deal was done.
I know this situation is a bit different, but maybe they could hammer out a GP deal in the meantime.

@Rural-Bandit
Probably my favourite Xbox franchise
Gears 6 can’t come soon enough, I want it big, bold and brash as it can possibly be.
It’s will be 3 years this September since Gears 5, though we did get Hive Busters as well, a game so under advertised.

I agree w someone above. A few ppl actually. No activision property excites me but I’m happy it could bring ppl to Xbox. I also feel like gamepass already has too damn much to play I can’t fit it in and don’t want to miss some before they leave