Maybe not kill but make it part of their own system and let people pay for it. That would be worse than the status quo.
that's not how Gamepass works you can buy games in MS Store just as on Steam/Origin/Battle.net etc.
ActiBlizz games will (most likely) be integrated into MS Store - f2p will stay f2p, for things you paid and own will have their license moved to MS Store and you won't have to pay again new players will however get option to try games via gamepass without straigh up buying it
Exactly, AOE4 and Halo Infinite are both on Steam too. Seems possible that Activision and even Blizzard games could end up back on there instead of only on the Battle.net app.
Game Pass isn't like the old Xbox Live Gold thing you needed to buy to get basic online features. I think a lot of people are assuming that's still a thing.
My fear is that MS will move the shit out of bnet and will enforce Windows10+. In my case, being on Win7, would that mean to stop being able to play SC2. (and I am not moving over, I rather curse this game and stop watching even the little I follow)
Maybe not kill but make it part of their own system and let people pay for it. That would be worse than the status quo.
that's not how Gamepass works you can buy games in MS Store just as on Steam/Origin/Battle.net etc.
ActiBlizz games will (most likely) be integrated into MS Store - f2p will stay f2p, for things you paid and own will have their license moved to MS Store and you won't have to pay again new players will however get option to try games via gamepass without straigh up buying it
Exactly, AOE4 and Halo Infinite are both on Steam too. Seems possible that Activision and even Blizzard games could end up back on there instead of only on the Battle.net app.
Game Pass isn't like the old Xbox Live Gold thing you needed to buy to get basic online features. I think a lot of people are assuming that's still a thing.
Maybe not kill but make it part of their own system and let people pay for it. That would be worse than the status quo.
that's not how Gamepass works you can buy games in MS Store just as on Steam/Origin/Battle.net etc.
ActiBlizz games will (most likely) be integrated into MS Store - f2p will stay f2p, for things you paid and own will have their license moved to MS Store and you won't have to pay again new players will however get option to try games via gamepass without straigh up buying it
Exactly, AOE4 and Halo Infinite are both on Steam too. Seems possible that Activision and even Blizzard games could end up back on there instead of only on the Battle.net app.
Game Pass isn't like the old Xbox Live Gold thing you needed to buy to get basic online features. I think a lot of people are assuming that's still a thing.
Isnt there a monthly fee to use gamepass?
There is, but you can still buy any of these games individually yourself from all the usual places, and they have all the same features you would expect, without Game Pass.
Game Pass is a subscription service that lets you download and play any game on Game Pass for a monthly fee, but you don't need to buy it to play any of these games. Not buying it doesn't negatively effect your gaming experience.
If all you do is play a handful of games it doesn't make sense, but if you are going to try to power through all 5 Gears of War campaigns in a month or something, it's a good deal.
It's like signing up for a streaming service to watch many different movies/shows vs. buying an individual movie/show yourself.
RE: the competition concerns, there is zero chance that this deal will be even investigated in-depth. Pulling some figures from random articles says gaming industry is around 150 billion USD, actiblizz revenue is around 8 billion or so (one here + Show Spoiler +
). That's roughly 5% share of the market which is very fragmented and CAs defining the markets at anything more restrictive than maybe PC/Mobile/Console is very very unlikely. Arguing some horizontal dominance would be struck down in courts very easily.
The interesting stuff would be the vertical aspect, but I doubt some competition authority pursuing foreclosure type of arguments would do any better. I find the distributor - developer/publisher integration problematic definitely, but again there is zero chance this type of deal is big enough to lead into some intervention when much bigger acquisitions by FB/Google/Apple/Amazon have gone through even in recent years.
I don't think there's any point in Starcraft 3 now. Nobody plays hard games anymore, everything is as dumbed down and noob friendly as possible to attract the masses. It's probably going to be an even simpler version of SC2 and end up something like AOE 4. Maybe they'll throw in MOBA/BR gameplay into it as well.
On January 19 2022 05:39 deacon.frost wrote: My fear is that MS will move the shit out of bnet and will enforce Windows10+. In my case, being on Win7, would that mean to stop being able to play SC2. (and I am not moving over, I rather curse this game and stop watching even the little I follow)
10 to 11 I guess is understandable (I'm still on 10 and have no plans to move unless I get a 12th gen CPU), but staying on an 13 year old OS with no more security updates in 2022...
On January 19 2022 05:39 deacon.frost wrote: My fear is that MS will move the shit out of bnet and will enforce Windows10+. In my case, being on Win7, would that mean to stop being able to play SC2. (and I am not moving over, I rather curse this game and stop watching even the little I follow)
On January 19 2022 05:39 deacon.frost wrote: My fear is that MS will move the shit out of bnet and will enforce Windows10+. In my case, being on Win7, would that mean to stop being able to play SC2. (and I am not moving over, I rather curse this game and stop watching even the little I follow)
d2 remastered already requires win10
I don't care about other Blizzard games, I don't like them. D2R is a new game(kinda), so I can understand new Dx and higher requirements. The rest of Blizzard IPs never got my attention. Never understood what people liked so much about Diablo, Warcraft, WoW, Overwatch, Heroes, that card game. Hey, it's fine if you like it, but I certainly don't I really care only about Starcraft.
But SC2 is an old engine and I doubt anyone will update it to facilitate the advantages of Dx12+ (like better multicore handling)
On January 19 2022 05:39 deacon.frost wrote: My fear is that MS will move the shit out of bnet and will enforce Windows10+. In my case, being on Win7, would that mean to stop being able to play SC2. (and I am not moving over, I rather curse this game and stop watching even the little I follow)
10 to 11 I guess is understandable (I'm still on 10 and have no plans to move unless I get a 12th gen CPU), but staying on an 13 year old OS with no more security updates in 2022...
SC2 is a 10-year old engine, so it's fine, isn't it? Forcing new Windows just for the sake of forcing it on an old engine is IMO bad. oh noez, no security updates from a company which requires me to provide them my mail. Fuck them.
We can go into why I hate win10+ but I wouldn't go there. (and FYI I use W10 at my workstation so I know what W10 is about)
On January 19 2022 05:39 deacon.frost wrote: My fear is that MS will move the shit out of bnet and will enforce Windows10+. In my case, being on Win7, would that mean to stop being able to play SC2. (and I am not moving over, I rather curse this game and stop watching even the little I follow)
d2 remastered already requires win10
I don't care about other Blizzard games, I don't like them. D2R is a new game(kinda), so I can understand new Dx and higher requirements. The rest of Blizzard IPs never got my attention. Never understood what people liked so much about Diablo, Warcraft, WoW, Overwatch, Heroes, that card game. Hey, it's fine if you like it, but I certainly don't I really care only about Starcraft.
But SC2 is an old engine and I doubt anyone will update it to facilitate the advantages of Dx12+ (like better multicore handling)
On January 19 2022 05:39 deacon.frost wrote: My fear is that MS will move the shit out of bnet and will enforce Windows10+. In my case, being on Win7, would that mean to stop being able to play SC2. (and I am not moving over, I rather curse this game and stop watching even the little I follow)
10 to 11 I guess is understandable (I'm still on 10 and have no plans to move unless I get a 12th gen CPU), but staying on an 13 year old OS with no more security updates in 2022...
SC2 is a 10-year old engine, so it's fine, isn't it? Forcing new Windows just for the sake of forcing it on an old engine is IMO bad. oh noez, no security updates from a company which requires me to provide them my mail. Fuck them.
We can go into why I hate win10+ but I wouldn't go there. (and FYI I use W10 at my workstation so I know what W10 is about)
MS hasn't done a single thing to their other acquired old games so I don't even know where the FUD is even about. If you want to expose your PC online I guess be my guest? On Windows 10 you can just use an offline account and don't touch any of their telemetry shit which can also be turned off nowadays.
On January 19 2022 12:22 alypse wrote: google tells me that Bob Kotick has about 0.56% of ATVI shares. Does that mean he'll get 0.56% of those 68.7 billions?
Plus the Golden parachute he'll get so they can kick him out of management.
Sadly, we dont live in a world where an incompetent scumbag like him would get what he deserves (once he reached the top), the best we can hope for is that he causes no more harm, and happily retires to a private island or some such
On January 19 2022 12:22 alypse wrote: google tells me that Bob Kotick has about 0.56% of ATVI shares. Does that mean he'll get 0.56% of those 68.7 billions?
Plus the Golden parachute he'll get so they can kick him out of management.
Sadly, we dont live in a world where an incompetent scumbag like him would get what he deserves (once he reached the top), the best we can hope for is that he causes no more harm, and happily retires to a private island or some such
His golden parachute is going to be a little under 300 million dollars too. If he was fired with cause, like he fucking deserves, he'd "only" get like 300,000 dollars.
EPT
I really care only about Starcraft.
