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."

Comments

I don't like this trend

[Billly Gates]

What will stop Microsoft from buying all or investing in the game companies to kill competition?

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.

Re:I don't like this trend

[tobes]

Nintendo is not going away as long as they sell Gameboy and Pokemon related merchandise.

Re:I don't like this trend

[tshak]

What will stop Microsoft from buying all or investing in the game companies to kill competition?


Sony, Nintendo, etc. Not all game companies want to be bought, and Sony and Nintendo have done their fair share of game company buying as well.

They sell each unit at a $150 loss

First, it is not proven that MS loses that much (esp. now that prices on certain parts have dropped). I would assume that they lose a significant chunk, but this is offset by the XBox's larger than usual "attach" rate, which means it has the potential to profit a lot quicker then other consoles.

and are actually paying developers not to release games for the competition.

You mean like Nintendo does for the FF series, or like Sony does for the GTA series?
Sega is gone and nintendo might be next.

No, Sega is doing just fine. The purposely decided that they wanted to focus on software, not hardware. This was well before the XBox came out.

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.


This is a very poor interpretation of the law - it's a waste of time to even comment further.
Sony is a megacorporation that has Billions to invest in it's gaming division too. It's a very fair playing field.

What really sucks is the drm signed code that is required to run a game. This makes ms the gatekeeper.

I don't really understand what you're saying. A console's gatekeeper is it's company. In some way shape or form, all PS2 and GC games do not allow anyone to write games for them. Consoles are proprietary, closed systems that require special license to develop for. What does DRM add to change this fact?

Re:I don't like this trend

[Jace of Fuse!]

Sega is gone and nintendo might be next.

How do you figure?

Nintendo is doing quite well. The Gamecube is profitable, albeit not as much as they would like. Their playign card business is pure profit. The Gameboy is pure profit. They generate revenue from franchise related merchandise they do not directly sell. The Pokemon franchise alone (love it or hate it) is worth more than the Grand Theft Auto franchise, and that's saying some amazing things.

Nintendo is big. Nintendo is HUGE. Nintendo doesn't file "Bad Years". They don't file "losses". They file years where "we didn't make as much as we hoped."

Anybody who thinks Nintendo is going somewhere apparently has no idea what is going on in the gaming industry.

Oh, and the Gamecube is ahead of the XBox in sales worldwide, even if it is only closely "tied" or a bit behind in the US. Globally, Nintendo is kicking Microsoft square in the jimmy.

I'm not knocking the XBox, because I like the platform just fine. But Microsoft fanboys that think the XBox is going to dominate need to give up waiting for the exodus to happen. It isn't going to.

As for Microsoft buying companies, I don't care as long as they make good games. There certain is a lack of innovation in the game market lately, and Microsoft's subsidaries have a better track record of releasing non-shitty-shit than, say, either Electronic Arts or Acclaim.

If Microsoft turns into another Shit-Game-Spewing company like Electronic Arts, then I just won't buy their shit. (And for the purpose of Shit-Games, Windows-Pack-Ins hardly count).

the $40 billion dollar spending spree begins

[havaloc]

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=the new Netscape...

[pcx]

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.

Ye shall all know the pain of the Mac Bungie Fan

[cryptochrome]

No Warcraft for you, heretic!

Re:Microsoft not a monopoly?

[zod1025]

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.

Re:In case of Slashdotting

[AKnightCowboy]

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?

Re:Oh crap..

[KDan]

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

I'm not worried at all

[Y-Crate]

*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.

Re:I'm not worried at all

[jonabbey]

The scary thing about Microsoft is that $40 billion in cash they've got burning a hole in their balance sheet. That's probably enough scratch to buy all gaming developers other than Sony and Nintendo themselves, and they've apparently tried to pick up Nintendo.

The industry is better off so long as there is strong competition.. as Microsoft is currently in third place with X-Box, it probably won't hurt things too much to have them pick up Vivendi Interactive. If they were to pick up Vivendi, Sega, and Konami, say, and to still look hungry, then I'd be pretty worried.

I'll still be pissed if I can't get StarCraft: Ghost on my new PS2, tho.

They can buy who they want,

[PotatoHead]

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...

Vivendi - Blizzard - SDL - Sam Latinga

[SurfsUp]

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.