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Destin Legarie: Xbox Buying Activision Was Pointless

Mibu no ookami

Demoted Member® Pro™
I was so confident that when the CMA gave them the out they would pull out of the deal. The writing was already on the wall, but it seemed like Microsoft had too much invested in taking over ABK.

The biggest problem they face is that ABK was in decline already. If CoD ever loses its place, it's game over for Microsoft in gaming.
 

Pedro Motta

Gold Member
Xbox hardware, at least for now, is irrelevant. Now what they do going forward (because more hardware is certainly in the way) is another matter.

But, I agree that the overall move was not pointless.
Sure, but if it wasn't for this move, hardware AND software would be irrelevant. With this deal, Xbox as a brand can move on for a while longer.
 

Mattyp

Not the YouTuber
Seems like the final cost was closer to 75B... hard disagree on doing it at the right time, they made the offer right during the gaming / covid bubble. And it's not about the revenue, it's about yearly profits. Sure, Microsoft can stand to lose a lot of money, but they are definitely taking a bath on this one.

Btw, Sony also took a big bath on the Bungie price... they were also not worth the money invested.
It was $69 billion, they received $6.37 billion back in cash assets they still had to ‘purchase’ on exchange. Stupid but that’s how it works.

Revenue doesn't equal profit, but it's fun to see some people never fucking learn the difference. Probably same people that think you should earn less, since making more will put you in a higher tax bracket. #lifehakz

Where did I ever say it did? A company this size gets valued on revenue more so than profit, otherwise all those companies turning over $0 in profit in tech are worthless right…?

What’s Netflix worth?
 
It was to transition MS to the biggest 3rd party publisher and kill off Xbox. Exactly what MS wanted Phil to do. Which is why he keeps getting promoted. Don’t be naive.
 
just because that's the plan, doesn't mean it will work or add value.

Moving away from hardware is the priority. The rest, we’ll see. I could see them holding onto the studios even at a loss until they turn things around. I could also see them cut and run like they did with Mixer, even after investing a lot into it.
 
pointless for whom?

Gears of War, Halo, Forza, Project Dark, and Fable are PlayStation games now.

"When everybody plays we all win"

and with this acquisition, Xbox has become the biggest publisher on planet earth, taking over the PlayStation storefront too.

It was a great success. a great success in all key metrics for sure.
Not in all key metrics. We have their quarterly reports and revenue was down. They spent 70 billion dollars and a year later their overall revenue is down. I don't know that any company would call that a great success.
 

Atrus

Gold Member
My frustration is reading the same comment repeatedly on here every single day about how Microsoft has somehow lost $69b in money and that needs to be generated in the next 3 years.

Except you are taking your frustration out on people who didn’t make that point and it is heightened by your own lack of understanding causing you to jump the gun.
 

diffusionx

Gold Member
I understand that point entirely, my point is they paid significantly less than what they would have just 12 months prior due to ‘news’ and the stock dumping.

Do we really believe a company generating $8billion in revenue isn’t worth the $69b asking? Microsoft to me purchased at the right time, it helps being one of the only companies in a position even able to make that offer there is no huge premium here.

The fact of it is if none of this ever gets reported bobby never looks for a way out and the company never hits the market to begin with. Right time right place for once. The same as steam isn’t going to sell tomorrow even if Microsoft turn up with $69b at the doors.

My frustration is reading the same comment repeatedly on here every single day about how Microsoft has somehow lost $69b in money and that needs to be generated in the next 3 years.
MS spent $70B or whatever. That is a minus in terms of cash and whatever they used to buy it. They got the value of the assets they spent $70B onto their balance sheet. That is a plus. So it "cancels" out on the BS. On the income statement they are down the $70B because they spent it. But the income increases because it generates cash flow. Yes they generate $8B a year in revenue or whatever but that is used to calculate the $70B valuation. When they buy it it's all a zero, they spent $70B to get $70B of assets - obviously not strictly true because of the timing and taxes and such, but as a general principle.

The question really is does the value of those assets grow or shrink. MS is famous for buying companies at huge prices then writing it down - saying it's no longer worth what they spent on it. As of right now, I don't see how it's helping MS grow the business. Like COD generates revenue, it generated revenue before, Activision was basically a COD company when MS bought it, they spent money on COD, it doesn't mean anything. What matters is if COD grows and helps MS grow as a result of that. And MS has proven to be very spotty at this.
 
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Sinfulgore

Member
Xbox buying Activison did exactly what it was suppose to do, it added more value to Gamepass. I'm not sure what Destin means when he says limited promotion, Microsoft made it pretty known that Diablo 4, the latest Call of Duty, and the upcoming Tony hawk game were coming to Gamepass.

His other suggestions are ridiculous. Wow is a 21 year old game, porting it to consoles would be a huge waste of time. Who would the audience be for this? And Microsoft knows there is very little value in dumping a bunch of old 360 games on gamepass. The audience for this is also very small but if its not too difficult I could see this happening sometime in the future. A better idea would be to give popular old Activison games the Ninja Gaiden II/Tony Hawk treatment.
 
Xbox buying Activison did exactly what it was suppose to do, it added more value to Gamepass. I'm not sure what Destin means when he says limited promotion, Microsoft made it pretty known that Diablo 4, the latest Call of Duty, and the upcoming Tony hawk game were coming to Gamepass.

His other suggestions are ridiculous. Wow is a 21 year old game, porting it to consoles would be a huge waste of time. Who would the audience be for this? And Microsoft knows there is very little value in dumping a bunch of old 360 games on gamepass. The audience for this is also very small but if its not too difficult I could see this happening sometime in the future. A better idea would be to give popular old Activison games the Ninja Gaiden II/Tony Hawk treatment.

Wow is still one of the top MMOs in the world. Porting it would not be a waste of time. I do think the whole game needs a graphics overhaul but other then that I still think it would do really well. More importantly it would bring in more than it cost to port I can guarantee that.
 
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Sinfulgore

Member
Wow is still one of the top MMOs in the world. Porting it would not be a waste of time. I do think the whole game needs a graphics overhaul but other then that I still think it would do really well. More importantly it would bring in more than it cost to port I can guarantee that.
It would do well with who? Who do you think the market would be for WoW on consoles? I personally have never played WoW before but I feel like jumping into an MMO 20 years after it released would be an awful experience. With that being said they did bring FF XIV to Xbox which is also one of the top MMOs but that didn't do well. These games are just so old that there isn't much interest from new players and the games are old enough that any modern PC can run them.
 
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