• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

SEC Filing: MS Will Honor Existing Activision Commitments (Sony, Google, Apple) Post-Close

TGO

Hype Train conductor. Works harder than it steams.
They will make it exclusive to Xbox, because it's massive on Playstation.
History has shown that doesn't work with MS
The IP just losses a big chunk Which is usually the majority of its userbase
Hopefully MS has learnt from it's mistakes.
clearly you wouldn't have.
 

recursive

Member
This is the same argument they used for Starfield... And Redfall... And Elder Scrolls VI...
Yea. Sound strategy to get past anti trust investigations by FTC. Only loss here will be COD on playstation. Great time for a competitor to swoop in. I would look to DICE with Battlefield but they fucked up 2042.
 

Edgelord79

Gold Member
Los Angeles Clippers GIF
 

Sanepar

Member
So cod will be exclusive only in 2024 and beyond?

Probably the year deviation game(ex cod devs) will come out.
 

TGO

Hype Train conductor. Works harder than it steams.
You don't spend $70 billion to help out your competition. Disney spent $70 billion on Fox, but those movies aren't going to Netflix.
It's not really helping out, it's a long term plan for MS.
pulling the userbase from a IP suddenly will just result in some nasty numbers shareholders won't be happy with.
especially after they've spent $70 billion.
 
Yea. Sound strategy to get past anti trust investigations by FTC. Only loss here will be COD on playstation. Great time for a competitor to swoop in. I would look to DICE with Battlefield but they fucked up 2042.

As for what games will be missed, I fully expect Activision's studios to start making a more diverse set of titles in addition to Call of Duty. There are over 60+ teams collectively now in all of Microsoft's First Party studios. Blizzard alone is 9 studios, but is considered as just one in this purchase.
 

octiny

Banned
So as expected. Same as Bethesda.

CoD will be exclusive to Xbox/PC. F2P Warzone will stay on Playstation.

The casuals who make up the majority of CoD will move to Xbox to play it. Microsoft gets 100% of the cut from the all the new Xbox Live Gold subs, Gamepass subs and/or purchase of full game. They will be now locked into the eco system leading to further casual purchases of other games and/or services.

No brainer move.
 

Holammer

Member
They will make it exclusive to Xbox, because it's massive on Playstation.
We're having the same bargaining phase that followed the Bethesda acquisition all over again. People don't realize MS ability to burn money.

Sony must've been aware of the deal being hammered out. Now they have 1-3 years (depending on how many COD games are already contracted) to come up with an alternative and try to sell it. Ubisoft are probably eager to deliver Tom Clancy's Corpse to fill the void.
 

ManaByte

Member
We're having the same bargaining phase that followed the Bethesda acquisition all over again. People don't realize MS ability to burn money.

Sony must've been aware of the deal being hammered out. Now they have 1-3 years (depending on how many COD games are already contracted) to come up with an alternative and try to sell it. Ubisoft are probably eager to deliver Tom Clancy's Corpse to fill the void.
tom-clancys-xdefiant-cover.jpg
 

TGO

Hype Train conductor. Works harder than it steams.
MS shareholders are not going to be wanting Spencer to sell PS5s.
Or lose millions
They need to convince the Playstation userbase to switch without taking it away.
Then they take it away.
ManaByte you're smarter then that
you know exactly what the end result will be, we've seen it time and time again
 

IntentionalPun

Ask me about my wife's perfect butthole
History has shown that doesn't work with MS
The IP just losses a big chunk Which is usually the majority of its userbase
Hopefully MS has learnt from it's mistakes.
clearly you wouldn't have.

Wait, what do I have to do with this? lol

But when has MS even done that yet? Honest question, I can't remember.

We are about to see it with Bethesda games... but I can't remember anything else.

But the expectation would be to lose some of the userbase for sure, the idea is to gain some for your platform.. not saying it's going to work, but if you don't think it's why MS is buying companies I don't know what to tell you.
 

BennyBlanco

aka IMurRIVAL69
Put yourself in MS shoes. You just spent 68 billion on Activision. Now do you…

A. Publish COD on PS. Make some nice profits. Get a cut of the huge micro transactions. Also put it on pc/ xbox/ streaming etc.

B. Don’t publish COD on PS. Putting your foot on the neck of your biggest competitor. Huge COD playerbase now has to buy an Xbox/ PC or get fucked. Most console buyers will sign up for gamepass because why wouldn’t you? Rake in gamepass subs + nobody else gets a cut of the micro transactions.

Now keep in mind you are Microsoft and have unlimited cash at your disposal and are already balls deep in loss leader mode.
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
Thats stupid. They need to rip apart every contract and pay the fine. Doubt it is in the billions.

You dont buy an $70 billion company and start publishing games on that platform just because of some deal. Fuck that deal. This year's CoD NEEDS to be exclusive to Xbox or they wouldve delayed the migration to xbox by a full year. This is the time to strike anyway. What happens if the shortage is over and sony ends up selling another 15 million consoles between january and november? they are already around 20 million. Why let them go up to 35 million in just two years when you have spent $70 billion to ensure they dont sell more consoles?

Turn off all Warzone servers asap. That shouldve been in the purchase contract tbh. The day you sign the deal, warzone becomes unavailable on consoles. Go and buy a series s thats in stores today if you want to continue playing warzone. Warzone is WAY bigger than yearly cod anyway. Way more players and it makes something crazy like $5 million a day. Thats $2 billion a year. You need to sell 30 million copies at $70 to get to that number.

The deal wont be finalized for another year and a half. The gen would be half gone by then. The first 3 years are the most important. Sony might already be at 50 million by the end of 2023 and have all the hardcore high paying customers in their eco system already. Even if they switch then, it's too late.
 
Last edited:

Kerotan

Member
He came to MS with the offer to sell! This wasn't a hostile takeover. Kotick offered the company to MS, not the other way around.
Didn't Phil say when he talked to Bobby about the issues at Acti he was told to make it clear they were interested in buying if they ever decided to sell?
 

Kerotan

Member
Yes. Like with Starfield and The Elder Scrolls 6, any Call of Duty released after 2023 will not be on PlayStation.
We'll see. The new cods are integrated heavily into warzone. Would be very messy having warzone on playstation and not the new cods.
 
i think they need to put cod back to every second year and let the warzone stuff just run in the background
let the studio that was going to be working on the next cod have a crack at something new
 

Kerotan

Member
Not messy at all. The PS4 Warzone menu just won't list the 2024 Call of Duty.
I mean in terms of the battle pass rewards, the guns you unlock for warzone and level up on multiplayer. There's more to it then just the menu.

Without the multiplayer they'll sell way less MTX on playstations wz.

Like I said we'll see but most playstation players will be satisfied with warzone or mw2 / CW2. So MS will throw away money and relevance for a petty reason.

It will just open the door up for another multiplayer shooter to take over.
 

Kerotan

Member
Retire Warzone, start a new one. They've done it before with Blackout.
That's not happening. There will be a ps5 version of warzone and likely a new map made by infinity ward in the next 12 to 15 months. And that's the title that will be played for a long time. Warzone isn't getting retired.
 

ChiefDada

Member
Thats stupid. They need to rip apart every contract and pay the fine. Doubt it is in the billions.

You dont buy an $80 company and start publishing games on that platform just because of some deal. Fuck that deal. This year's CoD NEEDS to be exclusive to Xbox or they wouldve delayed the migration to xbox by a full year. This is the time to strike anyway. What happens if the shortage is over and sony ends up selling another 15 million consoles between january and november? they are already around 20 million. Why let them go up to 35 million in just two years when you have spent $70 billion to ensure they dont sell more consoles?

Turn off all Warzone servers asap. That shouldve been in the purchase contract tbh. The day you sign the deal, warzone becomes unavailable on consoles. Go and buy a series s thats in stores today if you want to continue playing warzone. Warzone is WAY bigger than yearly cod anyway. Way more players and it makes something crazy like $5 million a day. Thats $2 billion a year. You need to sell 30 million copies at $70 to get to that number.

The deal wont be finalized for another year and a half. The gen would be half gone by then. The first 3 years are the most important. Sony might already be at 50 million by the end of 2023 and have all the hardcore high paying customers in their eco system already. Even if they switch then, it's too late.

I think it is already too late for that with nearly 20 million PS5s and counting, not to mention the 100m+ PS4s; assuming a 2022 COD comes out, it would most definitely be cross-gen. That is A LOT of money even for Microsoft to pass up.

"But but you don't spend $70 billion to not make COD exclusive". Sure, but you also don't spend $70b to lose over 70% of your COD revenue either. Both companies will need to negotiate and make concessions.

We all have to remember that this basically came out of the blue. Microsoft capitalized on the public turmoil at Activision and scooped them up. If they had any intentions of purchasing Activision prior to the misconduct reports they would have done so prior to the new console generation launch. Unfortunately for them, the timing makes it difficult in deciding how to deal with Sony and the PS base. You can't ask for PS4/PS5 players to purchase another console, especially during a shortage crisis. The best they can do is renegotiate licensing fees. I'm sure that will be an epic battle because, in terms of COD, both Sony and Microsoft equally depend on each other in the short-term.
 

ManaByte

Member
As with Minecraft?
So nothing will change then? Everything will be available on every platform? MS just wanted the CoD money?

No they mean on-going service games will remain. So Warzone will continue. But like Starfield and TESVI, new games will be exclusive to Xbox/PC.
 
Well, yeah, no shit Sherlock! Contractual obligations will be honoured, which is why Warzone will remain on the platform, with a possible COD 2023 to still be planned for it. From 2024 onwards, all Activision titles will be exclusive to Gamepass.
But even if MS were to be magnanimous and keep the next COD on the PS5, the casual market will not hesitate to choose the GP option to the 60 or 70 dollars ones...Out of the 25 millions that would migrate, Sony would get to keep a couple of millions, maybe. Insignificant.
 
Last edited:

clarky

Gold Member
You think if Sony had just bought Activision they'd still be releasing COD on xbox? Get the fuck outta here, all the PS fanboys around here would be rubbing that salt in.

Sooner ya'll realise MS aint giving you shit thats not in an existing contract the sooner we can all move on. MS really don't give a fuck about a few hundred million $$ in sales. They just spent $70 big ones they need a hell of a lot more than Playstation dollars for a decent ROI.
 

Sosokrates

Report me if I continue to console war
They will likely put COD on Gamepass but much like Minecraft I doubt Xbox pulls it from PS, too many buyers

Warzone yes, but new games? They might be xbox exclusive.
Its the same debate as Bethesda games, which is more profitable to them? The new gamepass subs, xbox game + hardware sales COD exclusivity will being or money they will make from PS sales?

The things is by making it xbox exclusive they will be increasing the xbox installbase, by putting it on ps5 increases the ps5 userbase.
So naking it xbox exclusive has larger positive knock on effects to xbox as a whole.

Cod is that big that it has a significant impact on a platforms success.
 

Fess

Member
No they mean on-going service games will remain. So Warzone will continue. But like Starfield and TESVI, new games will be exclusive to Xbox/PC.
I don’t read it like that. Minecraft is still everywhere. What says that Call of Duty won’t still be everywhere? Also, we actually don’t know if TESVI won’t be everywhere, all we know is that Starfield, an all new IP, won’t be everywhere.
 

octiny

Banned
As with Minecraft?
So nothing will change then? Everything will be available on every platform? MS just wanted the CoD money?

They will honor existing agreements, and as w/ Minecraft, they don't plan to remove AB content where it exists today. So think of the existing AB games on PS (cod, diablo, overwatch) etc

It's very careful wording since Minecraft itself doesn't get real sequels/entries etc. It gets updated. So unlike Minecraft, nearly all of AB's franchises receive entirely new games for purchase w/ new communities. So going forward they will be exclusive.

Warzone will stay on PS since like Fortnite, Apex or Minecraft, there will not be a Warzone 2. The original game simply gets updated.
 
Last edited:

Fess

Member
We’ll see, they always fail to be 100% clear for some reason. But for CoD, what was that thing Spencer tweeted after announcing the deal then?

”I’ll just say to players out there who are playing Activision Blizzard games on Sony’s platform: It’s not our intent to pull communities away from that platform and we remained committed to that.”

Either they’re doing everything multiplat or they fail miserably yet again to give a clear message.
 
Last edited:
Top Bottom