Activision Acquired. Blizzard Bought. King Conquered. Microsoft Buys All for 68,700,000,000! Hopefully, they have enough money left over to pick up Will and Matt’s breakfast tab. Because this week we talk about all that, say goodbye to an irritating icon, and pose the question, what does this mean for how we buy and play our games now and in the future? Order up!
On The Menu:
0:00 – Are you going back to Blizzard?
0:26 – Historical Channel Milestones!
8:13 – The PS5 Slims Down.
11:45 – Minecraft Live and the Mob Vote.
19:15 – Voice Actor Info! New Mario and FF7 Actors Revealed.
22:04 – GTA Online’s Spooookie Ghost Hunt
26:29 – The Activision, Blizzard, King Microsoft Merger & Bobby Kotick’s Exit.
1:05:32 – Inkbound Removes All In-Game Monetization!
1:09:19 – Answering Your Questions From Last Week.
1:16:10 – Goodbyeeeee toooo youuuuuu….
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Host: Will Kunkel – @WhatWillIPlay I Host: Matthew Krol – @EmperorMSK
#ExtraBreakfast #Gaming #podcast
LastofAvari
30.10.20234:00 Did it taste like chicken?
StalePasta
30.10.2023I don't think anything can repair my trust in Blizzard games. It being owned by Microsoft doesn't mean the quality is going to improve, because Microsoft pushes out unfinished games too.
In general I only play indie games, the occasional Nintendo title, and Fromsoft games.
Archello The Wolf
28.10.2023IDK if this is the thing that gets me back into Blizz games but I'm deffinitly watching them. Even with Microsoft behind the wheel it's gonna take a lot to get my trust back. If they remove their stranglehold on the Warcraft 3 player created content to allow it to thrive, or even just bring back RTS games in general (seriously, an Overwatch RTS would be awesome), It'd go a long way towards doing that. But I'm deffinitly keeping my eye on them and seeing where they go before I continue to write off Blizz games as a whole.
Wendall Holmes
28.10.2023I might give Blizzard games another try when they're not ALL always online. My internet is weak and not totally reliable for gaming online.
Neon Scorpion
28.10.2023Blizzard hasn't been an acceptable developer in a LONG time (technically ever, if we'd actually known how bad it was over there). But these days, all they make are services with recurrent monetization. If they had a Diablo game out, I'd consider it (I loved Diablo III, for example), but right now they have a service game with a Diablo themed wrapper on it. Everything is just a vehicle to make money, not a fun and engaging gaming experience (even if you could look past all the human cost of making these games). Triple A games as a general rule are a rough proposition for me, and ABK on the whole has been the worst of the worst for a LONG time, hard to ever look past that.
Skirakzalus
28.10.2023I left Hearthstone behind back when the whole BlitzChung thing happened. It was partially because of that, but also because I've grown tired of that game. Honestly I miss that game sometimes, but I don't miss how I had to play it to make any progress. Don't see myself returning to that in any capacity.
Although, maybe if Hearthstone was added to Steam, then I might log in and see how it goes. However I don't see myself downloading Battlenet again. Bit of a weird line in the sand, but that game, even with the money I spent in it, is not worth the inconvenience of another launcher anymore.
Almost Watchable
28.10.2023Microsoft has been on a very consumer-first path in the last 5 years, I'd expect them to do great things for Activision/Blizzard/King fans for the next 5 years. After that though they'll have way too much temptation to do really evil things and I don't expect Microsoft to be strong enough to ignore the urges.
Brage Nordang
28.10.2023I would return to Blizzard games if the workers unionise without any pushback from the management and the general narrative we get to hear from the workers there is a change for the better.
Grant T
28.10.2023The fact that Bobby Kotick was not fired is still insane to me. I stopped giving both Activision and Blizard attention when all of these aligations came up. I'm sure I'm less than 1% of the COD and OW playerbase that stopped, but I'm glad something (very minimally sonething) is finally getting him out
Les Oubliés
28.10.2023Boddy Kotick is a fucking symptom of why the society is fucking hitting the wall. Short term gain and destroy the futur
Post Apocalyptic News Radio
28.10.2023PANR has tuned in.
Jack Linde
28.10.2023Bobby Cocktick is the embodiment of every negative stereotype we Jews suffer from. It's because of people like him reinforcing all this bad things that makes fighting anti-Semitism that much harder. I swear we're a loving, generous people and none of what he does is something my religion advocates. It's the anthesis of what we're about. We're taught to be generous, even to the point many Jewish households have Tzedaka (spelling) boxes for charities in our homes in the same way one might give a child a piggy bank. We're taught to take care of those who work for us, with specific language about not withholding a person's wages and making sure they're paid what they're owed. But the racists get to point to Bobby-boy and use him as an example of their hateful points.
Starting From Level One
25.10.2023Not marketing the ps5 slim by showing it side by side with the original is such a marketing mess up it’s insane.
Jack Linde
25.10.2023The Microsoft ABK deal finally closing is a bittersweet pill. Yes, we're given some of the things we desperately wanted, but in the same time a titan in the industry grows that much larger and controls that much more of the pie.
Mark Guyton
25.10.2023The mob vote is a joke and honestly makes them look lazy compared to the modders, thankfully they are also making some other things that affect gameplay greatly and not just aesthetics.
I'm more concerned about Microsoft becoming a monopoly over the garbage CEO… it also proves that Microsoft doesn't have a single creative bone left in its body… so it must consume.
MedusaSkirt
25.10.2023Taylor Swift Extra History… call it "Extra Swiftstory" 😛
Jon-Paul Filkins
25.10.2023Microsoft and and game companies… Rare, ID Software, Lionhead, FASA… What happened to those alone do not give me hope of a bright future. They have no idea what to do with the IP, keep interfering with game development rather than let the people who know what they are doing get on with it, and quite quickly, any star talent the studio had, is gone!
Phreezer
25.10.2023I don't want to be the one to burst the bubble… but when they say 2023 they mean fiscal year 2023. Which means Kotick will be with us months into 2024.
Dracas42
25.10.2023If Blizzard wants me to start consuming their products again, it'll take some MASSIVE, obvious shifts in direction. Also, for them to stop overwriting my classic games with new, worse versions they expect me to pay a second time for.
IceLuxray
25.10.2023My ideal gaming landscape is every library having as many game consoles as possible for in house play or rent and as many games for them as possible if not historically relevant ones. Also unions.
Trevin Beattie
25.10.2023I don’t care much about the politics in Blizzard/Activision. I started with them when I got hooked on Diablo, because it was a great game; in later years I got hooked on World of Warcraft because I’m a completionist and it had quests. I stopped playing WoW when I found I was spending way too much time grinding to keep up with level caps that went up with every expansion, then I recently upgraded my PC and couldn’t install the version of Windows I have and refuse to buy a newer version because I don’t trust Microsoft, and since Blizzard games don’t run on Linux I had to abandon them entirely. So if anything would entice me back to Blizzard games, it would have to be an offline game that doesn’t force me to upgrade to when I don’t want to and has to run on Linux.
Tac Blueberry
25.10.2023The trend of Overwatch from my view is the game devs constantly caving to their communities habits making the community worse which feeds back into the game being worse. I want to hold out hope that getting rid of Bobby (that boy ain't right) can break the cycle and revive the franchise into some semblance of what was enjoyable about it. A coop based shooter
David Marsh
25.10.2023I use Extra History for my modern World History class (high school) and I have used the Admiral Yi series alone yearly since 2017. So I think I account for around 30 views of Admiral Yi alone.
Never mind the other series I used for my classes.
My students love the series so keep up the good work.
rmsgrey
25.10.2023While I agree that the triple-A (and even double-A) industry is consolidating, the impression I get from my limited outsider view of noticing individual games as they appear on my radar is that the indie space has continued to expand.
Also, when it comes to my buying another Blizzard game in future, I have a very simple standard: it has to be a good game. That probably means it can't have microtransactions, always online DRM, predatory lootboxes, etc, though I'm willing to be seduced if a game is sufficiently playable without engaging in the monetisation.
Copperbeard Archives
25.10.20233:40 That is a level of "Commit to the Bit" that I have to respect3:4
David
25.10.2023Sad to see the lack of econ literacy. People really don't understand why "fiduciary duty" is actually a good thing and why it is 1000 times worse if/when people don't have it.
Also what a "shareholder" is, why they exist and what purpose they serve, and how private companies are not suddenly better. The owners of private non-traded companies still want to make money but they can both do whatever they want with no one to tell them no, they also do not have to share any financial information publicly.
Let's see if you think any of the following "non-shareholder" companies are better. Cargill, Koch Industries, Mars, Pilot Company (Gas Stations), Reyes Holdings (Food, Drink, and Tabaco).
Valve is the largest privately owned video game company and there are a lot of complaints about how they are run internally and how while they pay very well, it's impossible to know how much the owners are raking in vs sharing the the employees.
Just because a company is publicly traded doesn't make it evil, Costco is publicly traded and has shareholders and people love to talk about how much they pay their employees and how great it is. Last year Cargill had to pay a 85.5 million dollar fine because they "violated antitrust law by improperly communicating about worker wages and benefits".
A privately owned non-publicly traded Blizzard still could have had Bobby Kotick as CEO and let him do 100% of the same stuff.
HeySulfuric
25.10.2023"… the husk was left, the corpses of these IPs were left dancing on rotting strings" when is Matt releasing his metal album?
The Plane Shifter
25.10.2023If management problems were actually the thing that made me move away from Blizzard. But in actuality I am just very disappointed with everything they are making nowadays. Heck, I didn't bother buying Legacy of The Void nor anything after that. Heck, if Blizzard wants me back they will have to reboot StarCraft II in such a way that it actually becomes a sequel to Brood War. Unlikely.
Mattie
25.10.2023OMG, the coordination between the shirt and hair is incredible! ❤❤
benedict
25.10.2023Automatically charting a song happened. On the psp.
Trifler
25.10.2023Strive for Fairer Use
Xankill3r
25.10.2023I think the merger is terrible news for absolutely everyone (except the suits) – not just gamers. What it signals to other corporations in other markets is that they can pull off absolutely absurd anti-competitive mergers and thanks to a combination of a compliant legal system and incompetent regulatory bodies they'll be allowed to do so. The significant consolidation in the radio industry led to the modern era of derivative and honestly quite crap pop music and I fear we'll be seeing similar changes in all spaces. And unlike music and games where indies can exist with some degree of success many industries will be ruined beyond repair.
DFTGamer
20.10.2023Glad to hear the Bobby's getting the boot, probably not going to buy any current ABK games but am more likely to consider them in the future, worried about the long term consequences of the mega merger but happy that Microsoft seems to have a better corporate culture than ABK…or at the very least less terrible than it was.
RAS Music
20.10.2023Would need HotS to be put back into active development, and finally get characters from Rock 'n Roll Racing added.
Zwaluw Z.
20.10.2023Just adding my own gaming utopia, which I think is all games being accessible for folks with disabilities.
Mel
20.10.2023KEEP the mob vote !!!!
The moding community flourishes on mob votes, so much content is created around the mob vote.
Younger audiences get to have their vote. Just because we have moved on doesn't mean it should be stopped
Mel
20.10.2023What are Mojang putting in the update for members of the community?
Builders – We get some new blocks
Redstoners – We get 1 game changing block
Fighters – We get procedurally generated arenas with new mob to fight
Explorers – erm… We get an armadillo for our dog to eat 🙁
XD
DarkBloodbane
20.10.2023Matt, did you miss Blackthorne? I heard Lost Vikings and Lost Vikings 2 from Blizzard games though, thanks.
As for Bobby leaving, I'm still waiting for new CEO to replace him.
Zoggoth
20.10.2023If they fired Kotick for PR reasons, at least they might continue to address problems in ABK for PR reasons
But hearing that New York threatened to block the merger because Kotick was involved gave me a horrible sinking feeling
Because if they fired him to appease regulators, that job's done now
Jimmy
20.10.2023Microsoft are cowards, they should buy Sony and Nintendo too!
excellensea
20.10.2023Always about absolute alliteration and adroitly advocate about adventure
TruePerception
20.10.2023I hate the bisecting line on the Slim…
oopsy444
19.10.2023Now we gotta find out Wiiwhu bought that one wiiu??
oopsy444
19.10.2023While I'm wary of one company owning too much of any industry Microsoft so far has been relatively good with their purchases or exclusives going to over consoles/platforms.
For example ms encouraged super lucky tales devs to port their game to the switch (ms is the publisher i think). Ms has also been great putting games like mincecraft on every platform in existence (probably is also somehow running in/deployed to doom in a secret room in game too knowing them).
For all I know those latest taxes owed by ms that were published by news organizations mean theyre potentially gonna get worse or just hiding their true ugliness like many companies do.
They also don't do enough with their purchases like rare so I hope blizz and activ games will be coming out more often and create new ips instead of letting these companies rot or fade into our memories.
So while I'm wary of them changing in the future so far it'll be ok gaming wise for now.
That all said I look forward to see what they do with this juggernaut purchase regardless since we'll probably get more memes about it.
TruePerception
19.10.2023Activison Blizzard just doesn't make the games I'm interested in.
M
19.10.2023Minecraft is trying to do the Mountain Dew thing. Here’s 3 flavors, vote on which one you like and the other 2 are banished to the shadow realm. RIP to my favorite flavors…
TruePerception
19.10.2023Hades Challenge?
Aidan Or
19.10.2023There were only 7000000000 people more than a decade ago, there are a lot more people now.
Sientir
19.10.2023I remember seeing a quote of Phil Spencer getting really excited about all of the ABK IPs. My hope is that they'll do something with them. Give us some non-RTS games set in the StarCraft universe! But also, I have so many fond memories of Heretic and Hexen; I'd love to see more done with that IP.
I share the concerns about the monopoly, though.
Mythical Xeon
19.10.2023microsoft have been refered to as "the borg" for decades, i think i first ran acros it when i used to read /. back a couple of decades ago