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XBox (Games) Microsoft Games

Xbox CEO Phil Spencer On Reviving Old Activision Games (washingtonpost.com) 73

Posted by BeauHD from the new-gaming-giant dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Washington Post: With its $68.7 billion acquisition of mammoth embattled video game publisher Activision Blizzard, Microsoft will be taking on a lot. It will be absorbing a company criticized by its employees for its workplace culture, one that is embroiled in lawsuits alleging gender-based discrimination and sexual harassment. Microsoft will also be taking on game development studios that have inched closer to unionization over the past several months. But it will also be adding an element that newly minted CEO of Microsoft Gaming Phil Spencer sees as core to Microsoft's strategy for consumer acquisition: a slew of video games and long-abandoned franchises.

The games created by Activision Blizzard's developers provide the centerpiece of Microsoft's strategic thinking around the acquisition. The titles are some of the most popular in the world. And those Activision Blizzard properties extend well beyond Call of Duty, World of Warcraft and Candy Crush. In discussing some of the intellectual properties owned by Activision Blizzard, Spencer's excitement may have mirrored the enthusiasm of a "StarCraft" player noticing the long-dormant franchise's logo in Microsoft's acquisition announcement. "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.' " "HeXen," indeed an Activision Blizzard property, is a cult hit first-person game about using magic spells.

Microsoft's pending acquisition of Activision Blizzard also means owning the rights to many creations from gaming's past, including Crash Bandicoot, the original Sony PlayStation mascot. There's also the influential and popular Tony Hawk skateboard series and beloved characters like Spyro the Dragon. Toys for Bob, one of the studios working under the Activision Blizzard banner, successfully launched games like "Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time," but was later folded into supporting Call of Duty games. Spencer said the Xbox team will talk with developers about working on a variety of franchises from the Activision Blizzard vaults. "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. "I'm looking forward to these conversations. I really think it's about adding resources and increasing capability." Spencer said he's concerned about tech companies unfamiliar with the gaming industry barging in to the space, as opposed to the current, experienced competition against Nintendo and Sony. "They have a long history in video games," he said. "Nintendo's not going to do anything that damages gaming in the long run because that's the business they're in. Sony is the same and I trust them. [...] Valve's the same way. When we look at the other big tech competitors for Microsoft: Google has search and Chrome, Amazon has shopping, Facebook has social, all these large-scale consumer businesses. [...] The discussion we've had internally, where those things are important to those other tech companies for how many consumers they reach, gaming can be that for us."

He added: "I think we do have a unique point of view, which is not about how everything has to run on a single device or platform. That's been the real turning point for us looking at gaming as a consumer opportunity that could have similar impact on Microsoft that some of those other scale consumer businesses do for other big tech competitors. And it's been great to see the support we've had from the company and the board."
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Xbox CEO Phil Spencer On Reviving Old Activision Games More

Xbox CEO Phil Spencer On Reviving Old Activision Games

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  • Seriously, I will never buy a game with NFTs in it

    • I will never buy a game I can't play with an Atari 2600 joystick.

    • Seriously, I will never buy a game with NFTs in it

      This is because like most people on Slashdot, you don't understand crypto and you don't understand NFT's.
      NFT's are *good* for players.

      So you spent 500 hours playing Skyrim? Or Call of Duty? or World of Warcraft? And when you finish the game or you are tired from it, what do you have to show for it? You uninstall the game you were invested it for months, sometimes even years, and you were entertained, that is it. And other than wasting countless hours you are left empty handed.

      Now let's say the items or othe

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by noodler ( 724788 )

        So you spent 500 hours playing Skyrim? Or Call of Duty? or World of Warcraft? And when you finish the game or you are tired from it, what do you have to show for it? You uninstall the game you were invested it for months, sometimes even years, and you were entertained, that is it. And other than wasting countless hours you are left empty handed.

        Holy fuck, you're dumb as a rock.
        If you've played 500 hours of skyrim then you had 500 hours of entertainment. It's like $0.1 an hour. That's a superb entertainment per time ratio.
        And why do you feel the need to brag about it? Do you also collect achievements for going to movie theaters? Like the little sheep you are?
        Seriously, you can have your NFTs. It will be shoved up your ass in the coming times so better lube up.

        You finish Skyrim and even after you're done with the game, you still own that rare magic sword, or that sweet set of magical plate armor.

        You mean like every other fucking skyrim player? What was the ascii for facepalm again?

        Get some digital value from all that gaming time.

        Bec

        • Why are you so angry bro? Do you start every argument with expletives and insults? Having a bad day and using the Internet to vent your life's frustrations again?

          Tale as old as time: who needs digital property when you can have real, physical things, right? Who needs Bitcoin as a store of value when you can buy gold? Who needs email when you can write real letters to people? Who needs Wikipedia when you can just by the Encyclopedia Britannica? Who needs news websites and online weather app when you can just

          • Re: (Score:1)

            by noodler ( 724788 )

            Why are you so angry bro?

            The proposition that skyrim would be improved by NFC is so intensely stupid that it led to a crisis of my belief in humanity.

            Tale as old as time: who needs digital property when you can have real, physical things, right?

            That is not the argument. It is not a question of a 'digital replacement' or even an enhancement.

            Who needs Bitcoin as a store of value when you can buy gold? Who needs email when you can write real letters to people? Who needs Wikipedia when you can just by the Encyclopedia Britannica? Who needs news websites and online weather app when you can just buy a newspaper magazine, right?

            Look, none of these stupid examples are anywhere near forming an argument for why you'd want NFTs in games. This is not about being anti tech or something like that. For one, i own bitcoin, use email and wikipedia and consume my news online. Haven't watched POTV for over 2 decades. So my a

            • I agree that NFT's can be abused - by aggressively marketing them towards gamers, making them purely a point about further monetization and making them a centerpiece of gameplay and progression. But guess what? That is already happening anyhow without NFT's. Just look at every lootbox powered shitty mobile game out there.
              At least with NFT's you will own the shit that you buy and there's the potential of profit or at least making your money back.

              Also, I trust that gamers will gravitate away from such bullshi

              • Re: (Score:3)

                by noodler ( 724788 )

                At least with NFT's you will own the shit that you buy

                You don't own the shit.
                NFTs are not tested as a proof of ownership.

                or at least making your money back.

                But if the game is fun you don't need to make the money back.
                Even worse, if the game is not fun then the developer/publisher can add NFTs to draw in a crowd.

                Truly owning your in-game items

                Again, there is no real legal concept of ownership in NFTs. You don't own anything.
                Also, the dev/publishers can already make you 'own' an item. They don't need NFTs for that.
                Another also, the particular blockchain for a game is going to be centrality run by that same company. If they pul

                • Well, this just confirms where we started. You have no idea about crypto and how NFT's really work. And you're an asshole... So you're a clueless asshole. That dice rolls you made when you got into this life didn't work out for you, did they?

          • The advantage of gold is you can still use it for circuitry even if it's nominal "price" drops below copper or silver, whereas an NFT or bitcoin has no intrinsic value.

            Here endeth the lesson

      • (looks at n00b unaware of what I did in the old days or how many of our stats PhDs have left for crypto)

        I see.

        Really /s

  • Pitfall! (Score:4)

    by crow ( 16139 ) on Thursday January 20, 2022 @07:10PM (#62193259) Homepage Journal

    I know I'm dating myself, but when I hear "Activision," I think "Pitfall!"

    Activision is one of the oldest gaming companies, so their library goes way back.

  • good way to kill the union or time to rush the vote to make firing people very hard

  • Microsoft now owns Doom, Heretic and Hexen. They are only missing Strife and Chex Quest.

  • Well, not really, but his focus on reviving IP is good to hear. I still play point and click games and King's Quest was a classic. If they're looking to revive some old IP for modern audiences and ports, I'm all in.

    It also reinforces an article I read the other day; it's quickly becoming about content and not about the console any more. That's wildly apparent in the so-called streaming wars, but games ultimately compete for eyeball time just like streaming does, and you need good content to keep peop

    • Yeah I'm sure Microsoft would be more than happy to sell a Game Pass subscription to a PS5 owner.

      Netflix led the way on cord cutting. Microsoft is leading the way on console dumping. Just need the equivalent of 100mbps fiber. Cable is still a little too slow for most games but we're really close.

      TVs were at about 15ms last year and about 10ms this year. If TVs can get down to 5ms and you're on fiber with 5ms and Nvidia and AMD similarly get encode times down from about 13-14 ms to 5 ms as well we could be

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by godrik ( 1287354 )

        Some basic quality of life update on starcraft brood war remastered would be nice.

        The ladder is garbage. The match making is awful. and there are ton of disconnection hacks that stops you from losing MMR when you are losing the game. also, smurfing is completely out of control.

        And that's even before we talk about balance patches...

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Saffaya ( 702234 )

          I still play Brood War from time to time, just solo or with a friend.
          What is smurfing?

          As for balance patches, why would you want any?
          This game is still competitively played in Korea by professionals, and the last balance patch was like (IIRC) 20 years ago.
          All three races are used by the champions, with a variety of units chosen depending on the maps and opponents.
          If the game is good and set for professionals, why wouldn't it be for you?

          What unbalance do you see in pro matches that requires fixing?

          • What is smurfing?

            I had to look that one up. Apparently, making another account to hide your identity, reset your standings, or to bash on newbs.

      • >Cable is still a little too slow for most games but we're really close.

        I don't know what planet you are living on, but cable is usually more than capable of hitting 100mbps just like your fiber example. And Game streams already run at least 4K_60FPS streaming from Stadia / NVidia. That's good enough for non-competitive FPS play. And 99.9% of gamers aren't going to be in a competition.

    • Re:StarCraft 3 confirmed! (Score:5, Insightful)

      by DrSpock11 ( 993950 ) on Thursday January 20, 2022 @10:22PM (#62193643)

      They've owned Rare for decades and revived exactly zero of their classic IPs, so I would take any of his spit-balling on what they might do with a huge grain of salt.

      • <quote><p>They've owned Rare for decades and revived exactly zero of their classic IPs, so I would take any of his spit-balling on what they might do with a huge grain of salt.</p></quote>

        Do these not count?

        Banjo-Kazooie Nuts & Bolts (Xbox 360)
        Perfect Dark Zero (Xbox 360)
        Killer Instinct (Xbox One)
        Battletoads (Xbox One)

    • It also reinforces an article I read the other day; it's quickly becoming about content and not about the console any more.

      Of course it is, the console is just the means by which you get access to the content. It makes sense too: Why would Microsoft care about whether you play their games on a PC, a PS5 or an XBox? The Windows PC and XBox make tie-ins with their other services easier but Microsoft makes next to nothing from licensing Windows to PC gamers and they make a loss on selling XBox consoles so it's only natural to focus on the content which is the thing that actually makes them money.

      Digital distribution has made media

  • In other words (Score:4, Insightful)

    by sikiriki ( 6723224 ) on Thursday January 20, 2022 @07:37PM (#62193343)

    More reboots, prequels, sequels, counting on nostalgia, fan service.

    New stuff doesn't count anymore, it doesn't bring money as rehashing and recycling does.
    A lot of that old stuff was long discontinued and should be in public domain, if laws weren't favoring corporations.

    • There's tons of new games with brand new IPs coming out in the next year or two. Elden Ring, Starfield, Nightingale, Stray, The Callisto Protocol, Skull and Bones, Everwild... plus a game I'm working on that hasn't yet been announced, and lots more I can't remember offhand. And that's not even counting the indie gems that have yet to make their names known.

      That being said, if you have a successful IP, it would be idiotic to not use it, leaving money on the table, so there are plenty of titles with numbers

    • I went through Activision's list of games recently to see if there was anything I actually liked, or even played.
      The vast majority of titles are they shovelware/movie-tie-ins and/or sequels in the higher numbers.
      It is almost impossible to find anything original on that list. And when you do, it's probably not something owned by Activision.

    • From a company the size of activision, I'd rather play reboots of old games (without online requirements and DRM though) compared to see what pretty-looking excrement they come up with. Old stuff should be in public domain though, it's sad that this reboot party going on will only harm the likes of abandonware, ROMs and GOG

    • Better that Microsoft resurrects some of the old franchises than have Activision stick to Call of Duty and that's it.

  • He’s trying to make the deal look as good as possible to preempt regulatory antitrust objections. If the deal manages to get approval, will Microsoft really do all of these feel-good things?

  • I'll take a reboot of "River Raid".

  • Which company? (Score:3)

    by phantomfive ( 622387 ) on Thursday January 20, 2022 @10:45PM (#62193671) Journal

    "It will be absorbing a company criticized by its employees for its workplace culture, one that is embroiled in lawsuits alleging gender-based discrimination and sexual harassment."

    Which company are we talking about here? It could be either one.

    • It's the one company, Activision Blizzard or Blizzard Activision or WTFever they called themselves, which itself was already made up of two companies well-known for sexual harassment and abuse, and which is now going to be owned by a third company which has been hit with allegations of impropriety [slashdot.org] against the primary founder, who used to hang out with Epstein [rollingstone.com].

      • It's the one company, Activision Blizzard or Blizzard Activision or WTFever they called themselves, which itself was already made up of two companies well-known for sexual harassment and abuse, and which is now going to be owned by a third company which has been hit with allegations of impropriety [slashdot.org] against the primary founder, who used to hang out with Epstein [rollingstone.com].

        We should just set the whole thing to whip or chop.

  • Microsoft released a compilation of old Rare games under the title "Rare Replay". If the Activision deal goes through, a similar thing featuring the best titles from Activision over the years seems like a great way to make money.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

      Microsoft released a compilation of old Rare games under the title "Rare Replay". If the Activision deal goes through, a similar thing featuring the best titles from Activision over the years seems like a great way to make money.

      Or take a page from Nintendo and put up all those old Activision classic games as a Game Pass exclusive thing - while you're subscribed to Game Pass, you get access to this huge deep catalogue of Activision games.

      PC users wont' be left out, because Activision has a fair number of PC

    • There have been multiple activision classics compilations [wikipedia.org] for older platforms already, so all they'd have to do is an Xbox port of what are in some cases already windows games.

    • As back catalog items for GamePass the older stuff makes a lot of sense to acquire since even if it needs wrapped in an emulator it should be small and run on lightweight hardware compared to modern AAA stuff.

  • I rage quit console gaming when M$ blocked the original Xbox from Xbox Live, but I recently purchased a Game Pass edition of the Series S because I have kids. I've been pleasantly surprised by just how many games are available on Game Pass. Because M$ puts all of its owned titles on Game Pass, this is really going to be a huge boon to Game Pass subscribers. It's the gaming equivalent of Disney+ adding all of its Touchstone films or Netflix suddenly having decades of film noir. I love to rip on some of the b

  • Sure, Microsoft will revive all of these series.

    As a microtransaction filled mess
  • For me, old games are something of a classic. I tried to play modern games and various novelties, but I still like games like cs go more. In addition, if earlier I liked just playing cs go, now I'm also attracted by the opportunity to trade and exchange skins on this site [dmarket.com]. It won't cause any difficulties for the player, while this is a good opportunity to earn money.
  • It makes you wonder if there will be a new version of ZORK.

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