Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft to Buy Vivendi Games Division?
Unknown Relic writes "While far from confirmed, it is reported that Microsoft is seriously looking into buying, or
may have already bought, Vivendi's Games Division. For those who aren't aware, Vivendi owns several prominent gaming companies, including Valve and Blizzard! While no official announcements have been made, one is apparently expected soon. While this would doubtlessly be a great boon to Xbox's library, it could be a shock to other consoles as titles which were originally planned for a diverse release become Xbox exclusives."
That's the current trend in Microsoft. They don't have any innovations of their own. They don't have to. They are so rich they can buy any innovation and sell it under the name of Microsoft.
Great. Now more PC games like Halo can be hijacked in a desperate to promote the X-Box.
"Mind, as manifested by the capacity to make choices, is to some extent present in every electron." -Freeman Dyson
I know they are desperate and only a year ago their was a total of 7 games for the xbox and that was it. They sell each unit at a $150 loss and are actually paying developers not to release games for the competition. Does anyone see a future monopoly here?
Sega is gone and nintendo might be next. Sony will take a long time to kill but its possible ms can majorily harm it.
Again it relates to Microsoft using money obtained from one monopoly and using it to crush competition in another which is illegal under the sherman anti trust act.
What really sucks is the drm signed code that is required to run a game. This makes ms the gatekeeper. If they were smart they would make it free for anyone to write games for it and then use the signed code feature on the xbox-2.
http://saveie6.com/
If this is true, this could indicate that Microsoft is ready to go on another spending spree and part with some of that $40 billion dollars. I suspect that they'll start buying companies up again, now that they've won/lost the anti-trust case. They waited a while for things to cool down, and now they are going to heat things up again as it were.
Sony should terrify MS. The playstation is rapidly starting to evolve into the long awaited "computing appliance" and it doesn't run windows (tho it can run linux).
You're darn right MS will lose billions on xbox and will use it's multi-billion dollar slush fund to line up as many key players on its court as possible because when game consoles start doing word processing and browsing the internet, guess who wants to the OS you use to do it?
Buying vivindi and getting Blizzard (!!!!) and Valve and every fantasy MMORPG (present and near future including World of Warcraft, Eve, and MIDDLE EARTH ONLINE) that ISN'T everquest is just a perfect match from Microsoft's perspective.
No Warcraft for you, heretic!
---If you can't trust a nerd, who can you trust?
How is Valve one of the best game companies? They made one game and then proceeded to rerelease it in about 5 different forms. Bah.
Q.
Hotmail still exists and is still free. Microsoft's own gaming site, the Zone is free too.
This information makes me think that in fact Microsoft would keep battle net free.
This seems like a premature move on Microsoft's part. Sure, they have more money than Ft. Knox, and can buy whatever they want, but this is obviously to shore up the Xbox.
What's more interesting is that this is a wildcard for Microsoft--they can buy these companies as a ploy to make people think they are shoring up the next generation of Xbox games, and then put out tons of (high quality) PC games, dominating a market that no one thought they wanted.
Is Sony going to start buying up development now too? Has the rush on game developers begun?
--My other sig is a ferrari.
"I bet, just like Hotmail. "
/. anti-MS idiot. Speaking before knowing.
If this statement is sarcastic and he/she thinks Hotmail is NOT free... I don't pay for my Hotmail account so I know the sarcasm is another
However:
This could be a pro-MS statement (God forbid it is, and I would apologize), then it is simply pointing out that since Hotmail is still free, so will Battle.Net.
Granted, you CAN pay for Hotmail if you want all the bells and whistles, but damned if I have ever paid. Realistically, it will probably stay free.
Exactly... the first thing I thought when I read this article was "here's yet more proof that microsoft is an abusive monopoly". What does Microsoft have to do to get stopped, buy up all the Starbucks?
Worst case scenario, they buy up all the game devrs, Xbox sales start picking up while the other consoles drop, and Microsoft can go "we didn't force them out, we innovated! The people have chosen!"
Whatever... it'll just be more incentive to get Xbox emulation working smoothly.
-ZOD-
Talk about deja vu. I was just watching a documentary on trust-busting Teddy Roosevelt last night. Imagine my suprise when just around 100 years later we're coming back around to the same type of corporations that dominated the late 19th century. Huge trusts that are beyond the reach of the government whose CEOs are much more powerful than the President of the United States. They're huge monster behemoths who devour everything around them. Where is our modern day Teddy Roosevelt when you need him?
Tip to break off the diablo2 addiction (I wasted most of two summers on it):
Repeat after me:
1) roaming episode5 and episode3 endlessly looking for eq is not fun
2) there is no ultimate point to this game. Once you've figured out how to survive you need to figure out how to make big levels. Once you've figured out that to make big levels you need great eq, the whole game becomes a mechanical combing for quality eq. There's no fun in that.
3) there are 100's of more worthwhile things to do with your time than killing mephisto again and again in hope that he'll pop some nice eq.
4) When you finally realise the above 3 truths, you will be ashamed of having wasted so much of your precious time on this earth on such a worthless occupation. The amount of shame or anger you will feel is directly proportional to the time you will have wasted... so stop now!
Daniel
Carpe Diem
See subject.
Viewsonic said, "Why would this be bad? Vivendi make **PC** games.Not console games! Both mediums are entirely different. Trying to mix the two together would be a horrible mistake. I know Microsoft needs games, but come on, who the heck wants to play games that were designed for PCs?"
Mircosoft has done a really good job ignoring consumers and doing what they feel will be the best for their market share. While no one wants to play computer games for PCs, if Microsoft felt they could increase XBOX sales by releasing exlusives (which they probably could) do you honestly think they wouldn't do it?
What's to stop them from releasing a "XBOX Commander" (like their failed PC RTS controller) and releasing Starcraft II as an XBOX exclusive? If they buy the company that makes the game, then nothing. They could even release a RTS game for the XBOX and just have crippled controls using the XBOX controller.
"They're treating it like all games PC games are couch potato games, which they most certainly are NOT."
That's the whole point. Personaly, I think console first person shooters are a crime against nature. Sniping with a controller? HA! Give me a mouse and a keyboard any day. (I know Microsoft is not the only one releasing FPS games on consoles.) The point is companies are ignorring the difference in the advantages of keyboard/mouse vs. controller, and the ability to 'fun-ly' play Diablo II on computer compared to Legend of Zelda on a console.
Personally, I don't want to see the two cross over. I hope to Jebus this buyout won't happen, partially because I hate to see anything that gives Microsoft an advantage, but more because I think it will result in poor games. When you try to make a PC game for a console or a console game for a PC, the gamer usually ends up with the short end of the stick.
-Trillian
Yes, the point is that there will suddenly be no more releases of them, patches won't be supported, basically all Mac and Linux development in those directions will die off.
That's gotta fit into your schema somewhere
for confining ANY game to just one platform. I'd love to play Metroid Prime but I am NOT buying a gamecube for it, I would PAY $$'s for a PC version, but alas they do not want my money. Halo is another that I won't be spending money on, any number of racing titles, what happened to cross platform standards ? Any game publisher MORONIC enough to limit the audience for their product to one platform deserves just what they get.. Let's face it, I am an avid gamer with a budget of about 200$ monthly, and I CAN'T FIND A GAME WORTH BUYING.
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
*Sony or Nintendo buy game developer, make all its products exclusive to their respective console*
Slashdot Crowd: "Oh, bummer. Anyway....."
*Microsoft buys game developer. Makes all of its content exclusive to the Xbox*
Slashdot Crowd: "OMG! Evil conspiracy! Even though Sony and Nintendo have bought out multitudes of companies and made countless games exclusive (which is what makes a console survive in the first place) the very fabric of morality must be dissolving as we speak!"
Microsoft is only following the example set by their predecessors. Bitching at them more than you would bitch about another company doing the same thing is hypocritical and it severely weakens your argument.
It really, really sucks when a game you desperately want to play is only coming to a console you do not have. That is, however, the very nature of the business and exlcusive content is what makes or breaks a console.
I don't like business monoplies, I don't like to think that one company is attempting to control everything, but in this case I'm not worried.
Why?
There are two, very well-established and very skilled competitors who are trying to do the same thing. (though, Nintendo isn't so fierce). They are both using the same tactics, and they are both surviviing. I feel the pressure has made the industry better. There is now so much being put into getting the best hardware and the best games out there that the quality of the hardware/software lineup we are seeing now and will see in the future will be based on the struggle to not be left behind. A strong aversion to resting on one's laurels will pervade the console gaming industry.
So, when people talk about Microsoft being a big, bad guy in the console gaming world, I just chuckle, knowing that the next Sony and Nintendo consoles will be that much better than they would be otherwise. The two companies have no choice.
I for one, am glad the Xbox is here.
PS2 and GameCube fans should be, too.
Except when that game you wanted is picked up by a competing console. Even then, just grin and bear it. Your day will come....and then it will come again, and again and again.
Things in the console world are better than they've ever been.
You just have to open your eyes.
I wouldn't plan on seeing a Half Life 2 XBox exclusive. Since Vivendi only owns the publisher, I doubt that they can make the requirement that it goes XBox only. Second Valve should know that mods sold a huge number of the around 3 million cds that were purchased. That won't happen for a console. Lastly going XBox exclusive will mean they have to use XBox Live for online support. Now head to Valve and read about Steam. My guess is that Valve is looking to become their own publisher and possibly for others. Don't get me wrong, I love my PC, PS2 and XBox.
but I am still not going to buy an Xbox. For that matter I won't get a CE Pda, cell phone either.
Sure, it's childish, but I really don't care. It is not about how good the machine is, it is about principle.
Anyone that lets *one* company be the source for a large number of things in their life is a fool plain and simple.
Why do you think business likes more than one source? It's so that source does not screw them over when things get tough. That is what happens to us when we are stupid enough to limit our choices.
This applies to everyone, like it or not.
Someday in the future, you might use your MS PC to send e-mail through your MS ISP that contains a picture encoded with your MS codec to your friend who better be using a MS capable machine in order to see anything you wrote or produced.
Later that day you are interested in their thoughts, so you call on your MS phone on your way to work, where you use more MS products and services. You wind down at the end of the day with a game or two, maybe some pay per view media with your MS entertainment console.
Your bank is intergrated with your MS computer so the fat MS bill comes out at just the right time each month.
Now lets say most of us do this. Who is in control of our lives and choices? What incentive would MS have to act in our best interests?
Exactly none.
That's why I will not ever buy an X-box...
Blogging because I can...
The Vivendi gamed divison includes Universal Interactive, Sierra, and Dynamix, and Blizzard. MS NEEDS to buy these divisions to show more support for its XB console. Rockstar slipped through MS's fingers, and this should NOT be allowed to happen again. Purchasing these companies would not only improve MS's PC content, but would provide great new, EXCLUSIVE content for the XB console. Crash Bandicoot could become an XB exclusive. Tribes for the PS2 could be cancelled and ported over for XB Live. Sierra's SWAT series could be put on XB as an alternative to the Red Storm games based on Tom Clancy materials. It would also be a major boon to have Warcraft and Diablo exclusive to PC and XB, and to have the World of Warcraft for XB Live. This is a chance to own some of the world's top studios and licenses, and should not be passed up. MS needs to take this opportunity, along with others that may arise, to put the hurt on Sony and Nintendo. Imagine if Sony purchased the Vivendi games division instead...would you really want the PS2 or PS3 to have an exclusive on World of Warcraft, regain their exclusive on Crash Bandicoot, and own the worlds of Diablo, Warcraft, Starcraft, Tribes, SWAT, and all the other titles of these companies? Perhaps even Blizzard and Sierra would be diverted primarily to console development, further hurting MS's power in the home PC arena. Buying Vivendi's games division is in the best interests of MS and XB owners around the world, to say nothing of PC gamers. Do it, MS...it's the smart move to make.
MS bought Bungie software. A mac game shop for a long time. Heck HALO was even demoed by Steve Jobs. The MS buys it and Bungie says, oh yeah, we'll still release Halo for the PC and Mac. MS put a stop that real quick.
I guess when you have billions in the bank and can't develop your own titles you buy the talent..
sigh....
Read The Wealth of Nations and get a bit better understanding of capitalism. In this particular instance, Microsoft isn't being any more evil than most other large corporations. So get to the back of the bus and sit down!
I hate liberals. If you are a liberal, do not reply.
SDL is the cross-platform answer to DirectX, and its only serious competition. Blizzard employs Sam Latinga, who originally developed SDL and whose fulltime job is to continue to develop it. I find it hard to believe that Microsoft will allow Blizzard to continue to develop SDL by employing Sam, unless they are subjected to a serious amount of scrutiny about it. It is obviously in Blizzard's interest as a game company to support SDL, but that will certainly change if Microsoft controls them, and given that Microsoft has understandably not shown the slightest fear of trustbusters lately, I expect them to act fairly promptly to rid themselves of this little thorn.
Life's a bitch but somebody's gotta do it.
It's fun to begin with, but then it catches you in this cycle of trying to get a better character than everyone else, and by the time it's not fun anymore you're too obnubilated by the idea of getting a really good unique poleaxe on your level 75 barb. In the back of your mind you realise it's a bit pointless but you play on, zombified a bit... the reasoning is kind of "well, it's not that harmful anyway, is it? It's just a game. And I've spent all this time playing it already, it won't make much difference if I play a little more".
However when this reasoning gets you from a month spent playing D2 to six months spent playing D2, you suddenly realise there's something wrong with your logic. And then, if you have the backbone, you take a step back and realise how pointless the game is, that you weren't having that much fun anyway after the first couple of months (how much fun is it to keep killing the exact same monsters over and over and over and over and over... all in hope of getting a nice unique item), and that you've wasted a tremendous amount of time on it. Time being the most precious resource we have on this world, it's quite a shock when you count up and you realise you've wasted thousands of hours.
I mean, imagine all the stuff you can learn, do, etc, in just one thousand hours. At 10 hours a day (a rate easily beaten when you're on holiday) that's only 3 months of playing. I feel really sorry for people who get caught in D2 for much longer periods, and even more sorry for those who are snatched up in EQ for years... Imagine waking up tomorrow and finding out you've been shifted into the future (with aging of course), you've just lost X years of your life and you have nothing to show for it except for some vague memories of a virtual, imaginary world manufactured by a games company to make money.
Daniel
Carpe Diem