[megumax]

I don't really understand these acquisitions made by Microsoft, first Mojang, then Bethesda and now Activision. Is Microsoft trying to revive these companies or it's just trying to leech of the market? At this moment, Activision is living out of in-game purchases, not making good games. Bethesda was almost dead when they bought it.

>Legendary games, immersive interactive entertainment and publishing expertise accelerate growth in Microsoft’s Gaming business across mobile, PC, console and cloud.

I wonder what this "cloud" means. Is Microsoft planing an alternative to Google Stadia?

[fullstop]

>I wonder what this "cloud" means. Is Microsoft planing an alternative to Google Stadia?

This already exists [1]. I sometimes play Sea of Thieves with my kids on a Linux laptop through a browser. The only thing missing is haptic feedback / controller vibration, which makes both steering the ship and fishing difficult.

1. https://www.xbox.com/en-US/xbox-game-pass/cloud-gaming

[aaronsimpson]

Mojang owned Minecraft, one of the best-selling video games of all time, even when it was in a "downtrend" because of Fortnite.

Microsoft didn't just acquire Bethesda. They acquired the entirety of ZeniMax, so Elder Scrolls Online, Fallout Shelter, Doom, Wolfenstein, Prey, Dishonored. Clearly not dead by any stretch of the imagination.

Activision Blizzard, despite the sexual harassment allegations, has Overwatch, World of Warcraft (still a profitable title), Diablo 4 and Overwatch 2 launching Soon™. From a business standpoint, I'd say they've made the acquisitions of a lifetime.

[activitypea]

They're building the Netflix of games with the catalogue to match. Seems like short and mid term, they're focused on owning as many brands/IP as possible, and predictably, efficiently releasing solid games that don't rock the boat too much. See Gears Of War, Forza and Halo. With Bethesda and ActiBlizz, they have enough IP under them to release 3-4 okay games every year, which will make Game Pass a good value proposition when third party support eventually dies out.

[jasondigitized]

This. It’s similar to Netflix realizing they need to own as much content as possible to retain and attract subscribers and keep fat margins. GamePass is where the money is. Once they have your credit card the friction to up sell you is dramatically lowered.

[sofixa]

> I wonder what this "cloud" means. Is Microsoft planing an alternative to Google Stadia?

They already have it, Xbox Cloud Gaming. It's mostly a steaming pile of crap that can't handle billing or multi-language users without cryptic useless errors. Quality and latency are pretty bad too, and the games are meh and console versions only ( so it's poor for strategy games for instance).

[gfd]

Mojang turned out to be a brilliant acquisition compared to what roblox is valued at nowadays.

[taubek]

If they don't buy it, someone else will. This way they probably get a bunch of games in their catalogue, they get brand names, people, players, etc. I would say that they don't want to be left out and over run by other players.

[redisman]

Revive? Bethesda will have two best selling games out in the next two years in the fairly empty AAA RPG landscape. Minecraft is a evergreen with kids with over a 100M monthly players

[ThalesX]

If the hype for the metaverse is a fraction true, and their distribution channels hold, these acquisitions will have been peanuts compared to the value they'll produce.