Phil Spencer: Activision deal isn't mean to pull communities away from Playstation

https://www.gamesradar.com/microsoft-activision-deal-isnt-meant-to-pull-communities-away-from-playstation-phil-spencer-says/

Microsoft won't try to "pull communities away" from PlayStation as it brings Activision Blizzard and its slate of games aboard.

The news of the Microsoft Activision purchase broke earlier today, with Microsoft revealing the nearly $70 billion deal that is set to make it the third largest gaming company in the world (behind Tencent and Sony). Xbox boss Phil Spencer mentioned as part of the initial announcement that Activision's games will still be "enjoyed on a variety of platforms". A new interview with Bloomberg adds a little more detail to Microsoft's planned approach to Activision games.

“I’ll just say to players out there who are playing Activision Blizzard games on Sony’s platform: It’s not our intent to pull communities away from that platform and we remain committed to that," Spencer said.

It seems that, at least at first, Activision games will continue to release on Playstaion. This would make the most sense for games as large as COD. MS would be dumb to lock out millions of players in hopes to get people over to gamepass. They could keep selling on PS while also enticing people to join GP through Day 1 deals and feature parity.

Uh-huh.

I suggest waiting until June next year.

Sure, Phil.

Didn't Phil Spencer say the same thing about Bethesda? 😂

He sure did and we as gamers ain't buying it into his PR stunt😏

Isn't that what they kind of said about Bethesda? And then they got really evasive about it? And then they finally said "yeah, actually making them exclusive makes the most sense so we're doing that"

This deal hasn’t been approved and finalized so what do you expect him to say?

The truth.

@davillain:

Nah, it's not so much a PR stunt as something he kind of have to do until the deal goes through. He can't be seen trying to influence Activision's decisions until they are actually under his fold.

Again, we'll know the real future of ActiBlizz games after June next year.

I don't think CoD will ever be exclusive.

And it will mean the same thing with Activision as it does with Bethesda. Games that are already in the platform, older games or games that are contractually obligated to release on the PS platform, will. While future games in these series’ by these studios will be exclusive to Xbox.

Phil isn’t gonna come steal the COD games you already bought on PS. You’ll get to keep those. But the 193728th WW2 COD that comes out in 2023 will be exclusive to the Xbox platform.

Who’s to say that that isn’t the truth though. It’s a pretty vague and ambiguous statement.

We all know it's not the truth, and he didn't even need to actually comment in the first place. He could have just said "We're still evaluating the situation blah blah blah". CoD (and everything else Acti/Blizz) is done on PS in 2023. They didn't spend 68 billion to keep putting games on the competition.

That's what he has to say.

Same thing happened with Bethesda deal and really most corporate acquisitions.

So many things could go wrong if they said otherwise. The most dangerous to them is upset gamers filing class action lawsuits to stop the deal.

Solution? Walk the like and allow people to develop false hope long enough until the deal closes or window to appeal or voice opposition closes.

There are 68.7 billion reasons why those games are exclusive to Xbox, PC and mobile

I'm pretty sure their intent is to convince Sony to put Game Pass on the Playstation, so technically he's not lying and he wasn't lying about Bethesda games on Playstation, either.

@fedor: How isn’t it the truth though? If they don’t suddenly remove games that are already on other platforms then what he said is true. Also you can’t call something a lie if it hasn’t even happened yet. We’re simply going to have to wait and see what exactly happens after this deal is done. However this statement isn’t at all specific enough anyway.

@Archangel3371: It's pretty clear what's going to happen here, the precedent has already been set. Phil is being disingenuous at best.

Yeah, I don't believe that for a second.

This is the same guy that said paying for timed exclusives we're bad yet drops $80B on gatekeeping some of the biggest IP in the industry.

I think cod will stay on playstation it's a legacy title the plus for ms is day one on gamepass. If you want it on ps5 it will cost you 70.

If they spent 70 billion to publish all those games on every platform I don't know what to say

He legally can not say anything else. Until the deal is signed he legally has to act like it will be business as usual.

I personally don’t see it as disingenuous myself. The statement comes off as pretty standard stuff to me. I don’t see them suddenly removing games that are already on the different platforms but I don’t necessarily see them putting new games that come out after the deal is done on all those different platforms unless of course they end up working out any different deals.

Oh Lord haha. Just be honest about it. It is entirely for that reason.

Minecraft says hi.

It will be just like the Zenimax deal. All games already on the Playstation will stay there and/or any game that already had a contract before the deal. Games like Outer Worlds, Hell blade, Elder Scrolls, ect were on the Playstation but all the future games will not be.

@SolidGame_basic:

The more time goes by, the more I'm convinced Mojang was an impulse buy. It doesn't fit into any of Microsoft's current strategy; it's not enough of a draw to be a Game Pass subs driver, nor is it small enough to be filler, and it's not monetizable enough to be a mobile money spinner. The existence of Minecraft Dungeons kinda gives away that Microsoft really don't have any idea what to do with the property.

I think they're just resigned to letting Mojang do whatever they want at this stage, without really trying to integrate them into their larger strategy.

Thanks for the info Phil.... Looking forward to seeing the first exclusive cod game in 2024..

Exactly. TC is suffering from Sony fanny denial.

Mojang was brought aboard because minecraft will literally never fall out of favor. They don't need to make another game.... Mojang can work minecraft forever if they wanted.... Or dissolved. That acquisition payed off heavily because they bought a perfect game like tetris that has global appeal beyond anything else. Brilliant purchase. And for only 2.5b

@TheEroica:

Oh sure, I'm not saying Microsoft isn't happy with their purchase or that the impulse buy didn't have rational motivation. I'm just saying that Minecraft isn't something you can really do much else with, and Microsoft has certainly tried.

I don't work for Microsoft or anything, but I gotta imagine the minecraft metric that matters is new and concurrent players.... Kids get to age 5 and then have a 10 year window where minecraft is their entire life. The game is so expertly designed that as long as there is internet and kids turning 5 years old, theyref gonna have new customers.

Its not unlike Windows to Microsoft when you think about it....

Cows...Phil is going to fight like hell to keep these games on PlayStation.

....as long as it's through gamepass 😉

^ this..

Whenever any company acquires another company, they always say that nothing will change with the acquired company because that is what they have to say. But they always eventually change.

What I think will happen once the acquisition is completed is that any Activision game that has already released for PlayStation platforms will continue to be supported for as long as the community around the game remains large enough for it to make sense to continue to support it. But new Activision games going forward will be exclusive to Xbox, PC, and GamePass.

PlayStation platforms will no longer receive the new Activision games UNLESS Sony agrees to allow GamePass on PlayStation in which case PlayStation owners could subscribe to GamePass to play the games. Either way, Microsoft wins because if this does put enough pressure on Sony to allow GamePass on PlayStation that would greatly benefit Microsoft's long-term business strategy.

@Archangel3371: "This deal hasn’t been approved and finalized so what do you expect him to say?"

True, it hasn't gone through government approval in case there is an antitrust blockage but given Microsoft's share of the console market I don't imagine there's much risk of that happening.

@Archangel3371: so they spent 70 billion just to keep it off one console what a waste of money

That is just one of the pluses.

@Pedro: one of the pluses? Its a waste

Of money. I can see if call of duty was a Sony exclusive or not available on Xbox. But all there games are on Xbox

Taking away your competitions best selling IP is a waste?

Xbox could just leave Xbox studios warzone free to play on PS with Xbox studios C.O.D' console exclusive

@fedor: yup 70 billion. There is no reason to take that from sony to win. How about take say even 10 billion and open like 10 first party studios. Doesn't take a billion to open a studio. So more new ips plus call of duty = better choice for all gamers and gamers would flock more to that.

So I guess for Xbox to come close to win they have to spend 70 billion plus how much did they spend on Bethesda?

That looks dirty does it not?

Heck I don't even want Sony to spend millions for final fantasy time exclusive. Forget billions.

They dont all have to be exclusive. Put enough great Games in Gamepass and gamers will switch instead of paying for games.

They just toppled their competition and put themselves solely in the driver seat of the industries future and you think it's a waste. LOL

@fedor: yup because most Xbox owners are call of duty players. I know so many that only buy Xbox because of there online service to play call of duty. So yes I think it's a waste.

That money could of been used for something else to get them beyond the competition. Just saying

And now all CoD players will have to own Xbox's or a Windows PC. Those 10-15 million people who play CoD on PS will now do so on MS platforms.

Yep, absolutely. You don’t simply spend that kind of money to keep the status quo.

if you think having exclusive ownership over what is consistently the most popular and best selling FPS franchise in all of gaming is a "waste of money", there is no point in even talking to you on this subject.. this is not even to mention the other IP and studios they acquired in the deal..

for example, if someone was to ask you, "what one game would need to be in Game Pass on Day One in order to get casual gamers to pay attention to the service?", what game would you name besides Call of Duty?.. (keep in mind that Madden and FIFA are already associated with Game Pass due to EA Play)..

the added eyes on Game Pass by the mass market is the entire point.. that is not a waste of money if they are trying to grow their service..

Phil, since you bought the studio that hired, did you pick up "how to lie" tips from him? The only worse liars than him are Randy Pitchford or Tatsuya Nomura.