Phil Spencer wants to bring back dormant Activision IP, plans to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation

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Phil Spencer recently sat down with The Washington Post for an interview following Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard a few days ago. He discussed his plans for the studios acquired under the Activision Blizzard banner, and plans to revive dormant IPs. “I was looking at the IP list, I mean, let’s go!” Spencer said. “ ‘King’s Quest,’ ‘Guitar Hero,’ … I should know this but I think they got ‘HeXen.’ ” (Activision Blizzard does own Hexen.) Some other notable IP now owned by Microsoft include Crash Bandicoot, Spyro the Dragon, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, and Geometry Wars.

"We're hoping that we'll be able to work with them when the deal closes to make sure we have resources to work on franchises that I love from my childhood, and that the teams really want to get," Spencer said on the topic of developer Toys for Bob, who made the well-received Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time before being reassigned to work as a support studio on Call of Duty: Warzone last April. "I'm looking forward to these conversations. I really think it's about adding resources and increasing capability."

Meanwhile, Spencer has also addressed the subject of whether or not Activision Blizzard titles would continue to appear on PlayStation. "Had good calls this week with leaders at Sony," began a recent Tweet from him. "I confirmed our intent to honor all existing agreements upon acquisition of Activision Blizzard and our desire to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation. Sony is an important part of our industry, and we value our relationship."

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YoureALoser

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Coolio, so Microsoft acquired activision/blizzard. Let's hope that microsoft weeds out the bad stuff from activision/blizzard, (toxic work enviorment, anti consumer tactics etc).

As for COD I would also like them to reign in the series so that way it's not always a yearly release, I like the COD series don't get me wrong but having one year to make a new game might make some rushes and compromises, letting the series take a break and releasing it with bigger gaps (ie every 2-5 years or so) so that way the developers have time to work on the quality for the gameplay as better as they could.
That is why you are not a game developer nor a game publisher, you're clueless. Releasing 1-2 Call of Duty games per year is how profits are maximized. It does not take 1 year to make a Call of Duty game. There's a cycle for Call of Duty game development. Each Call of Duty game spends 3 years in development.
 

Dr_Faustus

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Is it the US Justice System or the California Justice system (though I suppose California are not far behind New York in being circuits/states to pay attention to)? Granted there was the insider trading thing which might mean US but the "workplace culture" stuff most seem concerned with was a fairly weak effort (seriously the document we all saw would probably get a first year lawyer fired if something bulletproof was asked for, more impressive tarting up of a weak case though) from California state level actors. Even a "we did it, we robbed the whole bank, was all us, were giggling all the while" admission (never going to happen unless some monster deal is made) is going to amount to not a great deal for AB as it stood, never mind MS that can gut the remains and build up something new from the wheat while losing the chaff.

As far as workplace culture being better (maybe up there with MS in general which is fairly legendary) then I would be stunned. The games industry is in the enviable position of being sexy so you have an endless supply of young 20 somethings that will work 27 hours a day (insert rest of four yorkshiremen) for a pittance compared to IT at large (creatives always work for nothing which leaves manglement that apparently they can draw from the pittance crowd for) with all the energy and nothing going on in personal life to need funding. I don't even know that it would necessarily improve things as far as quality of output/income (not profits) from games to keep all the people with longer term experience on.
I was referring to the fact that during the California probe that took place to uncover the workplace harassment claims Bobby/The Execs did not report this to their shareholders during the span of time it was going on (which reports say was 2 years). Not reporting this to your shareholders is straight up illegal as you have an obligation to have your shareholders know of any of the good and bad things going on inside your company. Being actively complicit in not informing them of this probe is straight up Securities Fraud for him and the company. His shareholders are already stringing up his arse on this and the SEC is already on it along with a class action lawsuit from said shareholders.

As much as I hate to say it while the workplace harassment is a bad thing and Bobby/Execs should be held accountable in every way possible, chances are if they have no substantial evidence other than word of mouth it may not be enough for a ruling against him/them. Theres a good chance he will get away with it which is why he is still sitting pretty at the CEO seat. That said securities fraud is a whole other ballgame that you really do not want to fuck around with in this country and unless you have ties within the US government to pull your arse out of it chances are you are going to be in for some rough shit. Hell, Enron lasted as long as it did partly because of the US government helping them along the way. But once news broke out about all of the shit going down even they could not survive the law much longer after that.

Bobby is simply in an unwinnable situation, he only has very few cards left to play and the MS purchase is probably part of his means to escape whats coming to him.
 

pedro702

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Is this like the time they funded apple for a spell to avoid antitrust?
they funded apple becuase if apple went bankrupt and they were very close of doing so, microsoft would have to split in two, in exchange they got a big chunk of shres from apple and nowadays those shares are worth a lot of money lol, so not only did they not have to split in two, they got their moneys worth 100 times by now due to apple profits up to this day xD.

Chances are we will not hear anything about it unless court documents of it become open to the public. Its no secret that MS did this during this time because they knew it was the only way it could save/acquire Activision at its current state and the execs there will have a chance to bounce from the company with a nice paycheck. Whether or not that's enough money to evade the law of course is a matter for the courts to decide.


Honestly speaking I do not see how people are so upset with MS buying them out, as it was probably the most merciful thing that could happen for the company since any other option right now would only make situations worse for image, their employees that still are being treated like shit and not getting what they want, and incompetent exectutives at the top that cannot take a hint even when the US justice system is on their collective arses. Any other outcome would have probably resulted in the company falling apart and IP's being scattered to the wind never to be utilized.
for everything activision has done recently they are a company with alot of videogame history, they were making games for atari 2600 as an independent studio, they were funded in 1979 they have more than 40 years of game development under their banner and now seeing a major independent studio just get gobbled up by a big tech titan is always sad no matter how you look at it.
 
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FAST6191

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Yes!
I'm ready for a new generation of Guitar Hero...
Has the memory of it being driven into the ground passed yet? I figure we are probably 6-7 years at least away from any kind of real nostalgia for them to mine. Custom work is nowhere near the sorts of things we were seeing with dance mat games, if we can ignore rocksmith (and it is quite different when all is said and done) there are no real pretenders to the throne all that active (Rock Band is similarly nowhere, Wii music I mention to get some groans/giggles, nobody really has much on a phone/handheld either), price for controllers is still about as rock bottom as they were following the crash, ditto games (though most of that is DLC I suppose so not quite slow burn classic that we see with the Skate games).

Hopefully they can put out polished games now...
If polish falls under the "10% of the project takes 90% of the effort" and people are willing to pay for the 90% basically beta software (if not worse) then good luck with that one, and that is before we consider the complexity of code most people seem to be going in for these days.
 
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lordofcombo

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Hhh,people believing Spencer will give more than 2 calls of duty to PS.
He has 2 options: if Xbox equals ps sales ,they might get 2 to 3 COD.if ps double or triple Xbox sales they will not even get a playable demo or a trailer .
Microsoft for the dweebs here did not spend 70 billion to share with Sony the ips,antitrust and antagonising the players are the only fear Microsoft has.
Once the deal is set in stones,you'll see...
Btw who remember what Phil Spencer last words on the E3 just before the announce of the new gens?
"We learned our mistakes"
Meaning we neglected the exclusives,right after they bought 4 studios,then bethesda owner (forgot the name),and now Activision blizzard,do you think Microsoft do business on a whim or a hunch,they have been focusing on buying studios left and right,people might say Rare was terminated once bought,Rare was bought but most of senior devs have left it to join or create other studios,was an overrated studio anyway.
I'm surprised of lack of sight of some of you,Activision is one of the most important vide game company way more than Rockstar,it is a very big blow to Sony no matter what Phil Spencer says to reassure naysayers.
The only unfazed company is Nintendo because Microsoft is not afraid of them and are more violent against Sony.
 

lordofcombo

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Hhh,people believing Spencer will give more than 2 calls of duty to PS.
He has 2 options: if Xbox equals ps sales ,they might get 2 to 3 COD.if ps double or triple Xbox sales they will not even get a playable demo or a trailer .
Microsoft for the dweebs here did not spend 70 billion to share with Sony the ips,antitrust and antagonising the players are the only fear Microsoft has.
Once the deal is set in stones,you'll see...
Btw who remember what Phil Spencer last words on the E3 just before the announce of the new gens?
"We learned our mistakes"
Meaning we neglected the exclusives,right after they bought 4 studios,then bethesda owner (forgot the name),and now Activision blizzard,do you think Microsoft do business on a whim or a hunch,they have been focusing on buying studios left and right,people might say Rare was terminated once bought,Rare was bought but most of senior devs have left it to join or create other studios,was an overrated studio anyway.
I'm surprised of lack of sight of some of you,Activision is one of the most important vide game company way more than Rockstar,it is a very big blow to Sony no matter what Phil Spencer says to reassure naysayers.
The only unfazed company is Nintendo because Microsoft is not afraid of them and are more violent against Sony.
 

playstays_shun

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I would love day 1 CoD releases on GamePass, but an option for PS5 people too of course.

I think I would stop buying CoD for PS5 and just play on my Series S in that case. I never pay full MSRP for one, I wait until $30 generally but for Vanguard I splurged at $40 just cause
 

Dr_Faustus

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Fire that assclown Kotick, then I'll believe you.
https://www.businessinsider.com/act...er-microsoft-acquisition-closes-report-2022-1

Posted this once already in the other thread but have at it again. Note that if you think MS has the immediate authority to kick people out as soon as they announce acquisition then you have no idea how business acquisitions work or how long it takes for a business to be taken into by another. It takes months, if not longer for that process to happen and that is if it does not get held up with other factors either.
 

Kwyjor

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Anyone remember The Silver Lining, the enthusiastic fan-based attempt to make a King's Quest IX? And they've been trying to finish the fifth and final episode for ten years!?

Sure would be nice if they could toss some of that $70 billion towards putting that thing out of development hell.
 

lordofcombo

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I just hope Phil revive Tenchu if these idiots from software can't do it.Or at least buys it from them,Activision was their publisher at some point.
 

the_randomizer

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https://www.businessinsider.com/act...er-microsoft-acquisition-closes-report-2022-1

Posted this once already in the other thread but have at it again. Note that if you think MS has the immediate authority to kick people out as soon as they announce acquisition then you have no idea how business acquisitions work or how long it takes for a business to be taken into by another. It takes months, if not longer for that process to happen and that is if it does not get held up with other factors either.
So it's still gonna be shit. Yeah not buying their games.
 

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