Do You Think Microsoft Will Buy Up Blizzard?

[Taem]

If you do think that microsoft is going to purchase vividi, what changes do you think they might make to the way blizzard operates? (Diablo 3 on XBox anyone?)

EDIT: I wasn't going to write anything but I felt this would be a nice little follow up question, so pardon the -NT- in my post title.

[The Luminaire]

Well, its kinda like option 4 :P.

I dont think MS will get the Vivendi Games division, but I do think that a buyout is in the near future. That said, the only other big games developer with the kind of money it would take to buy them is EA. Now there's a scary though, WC3 and C&C:Generals under the same roof, so to speak. ;-)

Its more likely that Blizzard would forge out on its own, or at the least, on board with a differant publisher/funding group. Thats also the idealist way, but we'll see how things pan out. One can always hope.

[Roland]

It's Vivendi, not Vividi.

As for the poll... I don't know. I'd say either Vivendi keeps Blizzard, or Blizzard forms its own seperate company.

[WarBlade]

If you do think that microsoft is going to purchase vividi

The purchase date is set for the first of April.

[The Luminaire]

Bah! :huh:

I hadnt heard that the deal was finallized, and I cant find any reliable news source to confirm it.

Any bite to back up your bark Warblade? :)

[WarBlade]

:lol:

"the first of April" = April Fool's Day

Apparently something that happens every day of the year to some of the kids who post on various popular D2 forums.

Microsoft purchasing Blizzard or Vivendi? Jeez, talk about a runaway train! :lol:

I hadnt heard that the deal was finallized, and I cant find any reliable news source to confirm it.

Did you find any reliable news source claim the original rumours had any substance at all? :lol:

[--Pete]

Hi,

Vivendi has been trying to dump its game devisions for some time now. That has been in the financial news a few times. That there are talks between Microsquish and Vivendi is a fact. See
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/29/technolo...todaysheadlines for what details there are. Beyond that, I haven't seen anything.

EDIT:/New news, just like the old news: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/16/business...ml?pagewanted=2
Just has a one liner that repeats that Microsquish and Vivendi are talking, but nothing further.

--Pete

[WarBlade]

Fair enough. It stands to reason the rumour mill on this particular issue was sparked from a grain of truth. Unfortunately many forumgoers (and sites) have jumped on the story with a massive overabundance of energy and now the hoaxs are so prolific (and convincing in some cases) that the truth is all but lost.

[Guest]

The real potential treasure here is WoW. And a strong entrence into the Korean market.

Microsoft recently released Asherons Call 2, which has been roundly rejected by the mmorp community. So chances are Blizzard looks much better to microsoft now than it did a month and a half ago.

Also WoW(and D3 potentially) could add some real life to the X-box line in the long run.

[The Luminaire]

Heh, I guess I missed that little tidbit :P

And Pete's right, Vivendi has been trying to get rid of the games for a while now, just nobody's biting. Publicly biting anyway, more of what I was hitting at.

[Artega]

/ANGRYRANT:
If Microsuck buys up Blizzard, I think I'm going to have to go kill some Microsuck execs. They took Bungie away from us, and Halo's rightful first-release platform with it. True, Gearbox is "porting" Halo to the PC, but that doesn't negate what Microsuck did. And now, on top of this, they bought up Rareware, Inc. from Nintendo. Thankfully, Starfox Adventures is a great game (I pre-ordered it, being the Star Fox fiend that I am). Of course, that still doesn't get rid of the fact how much I want to see Microsuck die a slow, horrible death. I've heard that the Xbox is rapidly losing money, and the rumor mill has said that Microsuck intends on abandoning it. I hope that those rumors are true. Okay, so maybe Microsoft as a whole shouldn't die a slow, horrible death - just the games section. I'm sure such great developers like Ensemble Studios and Gas Powered Games would do just fine on their own, even if poor Chris Taylor has to sell the clothes on his back to make another game ^_^
/ENDANGRYRANT

Now that I'm done chest-beating for now, I think I'll try to add in a couple of coherent thoughts. I have heard that Vivendi is trying to sell off its gaming properties, among other assets. Vivendi is French; go figure. Judging from replies already posted, I'm rather certain that will not change. I recall that Vivendi got nailed for tax evasion and such things, hence, they've pulled an Enron, though it seems to be on a smaller scale.

Is it likely that Microsoft will buy up Blizzard and the other gaming properties? Probably. They've certainly got the money (money that Vivendi needs to further their Enron strategy), though I haven't a clue as to if they have the motive. After all, Microsoft has big-name developers like Gas Powered Games (Dungeon Siege), Bungie (Xbox-version of Halo), Ensemble Studios (Age of Empires Series, Age of Mythology, and many other strategy games), and most recently, Rareware Inc. (Starfox Adventures, GoldenEye 007, Perfect Dark, Donkey Kong Country series.) Of course, that stable would only get more powerful with bullet-proof developer like Blizzard under their wing. I hope MS doesn't buy Blizzard <_<

[ShadowSeer]

[FONT=Optima] i just hope that if they do buy them .. that THEY LEAVE LET THEM OPERATE as a independent company... but if they do buy them WOW would be free and better servers exsamples: eso not manny people but they do have good servers now than the msn zone servers.. they copied bnet or wc3 servers actions.... so i think they would be very good for us but i think i miss the saying there going to put out something and then they dont for ages... unlike eso they have put out patchs on time and actually listen to there people.... maybe they would stop here and actually adress the problems

[NiteFox]

Even if MS had bought Rare prior to the production of SF:A, then the game would have still wound up on the Gamecube, possibly either developed wholly by Nintendo, or passed on to another developer.

Simple fact is this: While Rare might have been producing games, Nintendo owns the characters. When Microsoft bough Rare, they were forced to leave all the liscences for Nintendo characters behind. By that, I mean the SF cast and Donkey Kong. What characters Rare managed to keep are, at best, supporting characters - Diddy Kong, the rest of the Kongs, Banjo, Kazooie, Conker, etc. Nintendo simply leased their characters to Rare and gave them free reign to create any supporting characters they wanted. Regarding the extended cast of the SF series... I don't know who gets to keep them, but I have a feeling that it will be Nintendo.

Bungie? They were bitches to the almighty Mac™ before Microsoft bought them out. All these people griping about how Halo would not be making it to a PC format have conveniently forgot that if it was financially possible, Bungie would have made Halo a Mac-exclusive game. Microsoft were (and I am in no way defending them by the way) pretty shrewd in buying them out, as it at least guaranteed that Halo would be making it to more than one format.

Honestly though, I pray that Microsoft doesn't buy Vivendi's game division, but if they do then so what? Microsoft is a business and it doesn't make good business to make potential multi-million dollar games Xbox exclusive. There isn't a person in the company dumb enough to make, say, Half-Life 2 or SC2 an Xbox-exclusive, despite common public opinion (Buy netizens who are hardly the prime example of intelligence). Possibly the biggest change such a buy-out would bring is the elimination of the Mac market for Blizz games.

[Caesar]

If Microsoft does buy them it'll be interesting to see what they do with them. Blizzard, as far as I know, operates relatively autonomously from Vivendi Games (or at least they're very good about hiding their meddling). Would Microsoft be able to resist playing with their new toy, or would they micro-manage Blizzard to death? We'll see, I suppose...

[Taeme]

Microsoft has been, usually, pretty good with their gaming department and giving them leeway as well as firm funding.

Personally it wouldm't matter to me at all, the worst thing that might happen would be integrating Battle.net with the Zone (assuming they even still have that) and Blizzard products having some tie in with MSN messenger.

I wouldn't lose any sleep. But then, I wouldn't call Blizzard a "treasure" either.

[--Pete]

Hi,

Sign up for the NY Times, set the options to what you are interested in and get a daily dose of fairly reliable news in your e-mail. Plus you can do searches of their articles on topics you are interested in. Not a bad deal for free ;)

Of course, the NY Times is slanted. But name me a news source that isn't. At least they have some credibility -- the lies they tell are mostly small ;)

--Pete

[TaMeOlta]

Thats silly , everybody knows SirTech will by Blizzard ;)

Is this because of that scene in the movie "Antitrust" where Tim Robbins (I think thats his name ?) plays the evil 'Bill Gates' guy , and he's playing Diablo ? :P Nah , thats too much of a stretch ......