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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."
So much for linux releases of Counter-Strike server, or Mac versions of Diablo/Starcraft/Warcraft.
Well this makes the quote that Bill Gates said they couldn't be a monopoly because they weren't in the game console market as well, even more funny...
Rumors of buyouts have been swarming the gaming world recently. Nintendo will buy Sega. Microsoft will buy Sega. Nintendo will buy Capcom. EA will buy Capcom. Nintendo will buy Sega AND Capcom. Microsoft will buy Nintendo. Sony will buy General Electric (ok, so I just made that last one up). You get the idea.
Please. Until you read about this from Microsoft, Vivendi, or on legit gaming sites, assume that somebody made this crap up and are just looking for web traffic.
Vivendi CEO Jean-René Fourtou has told shareholders that the company will undergo restructuring and that some parts of it will be sold off, but he has no intention of selling Vivendi's game divisions.
Vivendi is in financial debt and company executives had previously stated that they were considering selling off their profitable gaming divisions, which include Blizzard and Valve.
What you say is true, but Sierra does have the first refusal rights to publish a Half-Life sequel, per the original publishing contract. And there will, without a doubt, be a Half Life 2, there's just no way the companies involved could resist such a surefire hit. It might not be out this year, but it will be released.
This could be the spark of some real creativity as a slew of ideas gets to be tried.
A game franchise is only a franchise for so long. We need new franchises. There is 50Mu PS2's out there vs 8.3Mu for Xbox.
This means that new idea can make money with a low penetration PS2, something that is not possible for Xbox. Say, 1% equates to half a million titles sold for the Sony camp or 80K for MS. Where would you put your bet?
Help fight continental drift.
That's right. MS doesn't want to kill the competion, at least not completely. They are very happy with only 97% of any market they take over, the other companies can fight over the remaining 3%. If not, where would inovations come from?
"Pinky, you've left the lens cap of your mind on again." - P&TB
"I can see my house from here!" - ST:
Considering Vivendi (being the owner of Blizzard) is suing the bnetd.org folks releasing their own open source reversed engineered replacement for battle.net (Blizzard's) servers, I think Vivendi and Microsoft ought to see eye to eye on most issues! I've been boycotting Blizzard for over a year now.
If this is true then only a few people know about it. I work at Microsoft Game Studios and I haven't heard a thing. We just recently did some staffing changes in managment in order to manage Rare. We would have to do another huge re-org in order to absorb Vivendi. I've heard nothing along those lines. If we bought Vivendi then my team would have to double in size and haven't been told to do that.
Well, given the amount of time I've spent playing TFC and CS, I count Valve as a brilliant game company :-)
Daniel
Carpe Diem
Aw man. That sucks. I'm not playing Diablo on an Xbox.
Actually, I've already played Diablo on the XBox. It was called "Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance," and it was fabulous. I highly recommend it.
The whole point-[move]-click-point-click-[fight] drill made much more sense, and was even more intuitive (if that's possible) with a controller than ever with a mouse/keyboard.
Others have corrected the original poster with respect to the comment that "Sega is gone." They exited the hardware market to develop software for other platforms. That said, it's been rumored that Microsoft has also been eyeing Sega for acquisition.
I share the poster's concern though. It certainly seems like they're prepared to buy their way out of their situation, and it might well work in the long run. Technical specs ultimately don't mean that much - it's the software that sells a system. If they can lock down enough exclusives, they may eventually be able to take a bite out of Sony's position and drive Nintendo under in the bargain. I'm hopeful that Sony is a big enough gorilla to survive such an attack.
A more reliable rumor now circulating among game mags and their informers is that Half Life 2 is actually coming quite soon. The nature of the project has changed a bit, though.....
Apparently the President of Valve has spent A LOT of time in Redmond.
*coughXboxExclusiveTitle*cough*
If the intent of "Xbox Exclusive" remains "It will come out somewhere else later on, almost always the PC" I will have no problem with this. The PC community is needed for modding. The Xbox can be where people go to play the game, and its mods with a performance guarantee.
"Let me put it this way: If MS were really capable of that, Linux would be unheard of. The real reason you're afraid of MS is because you listen to too many stories and 'what if' scenarios."
:P
I don't fear MS, I just don't like their vision and I don't like the way they choose to do business, so I vote with my feet. You know it works the same for me no matter what industry is involved. There are banks I will not do business with, and people I will not buy food from also.
"I'm not trying to be insulting, but I am being honest. I don't think your fears are rational or justified. Lots of things about MS have been blown out of proportion to ridiculous levels, and you're willing to risk damaging the gaming industry because of it."
Thanks for being honest. In that post, I did blow things out of proportion. Guilty as charged.
I am not sure how not buying an X box will harm the gaming industry however. The gaming industry is healthy right now because people have choices. For me an X box is not one of those because I do not want to support a vision that does not align well with what I would like to see happen.
Man, the Robocop thing was low...
Your assumption that people are not stupid is noble and one that I share. However, many people are uninformed and that is a problem. Kind of hard to make good choices when you do not understand the nature and potential impact of your options.
If people were actually aware of the issues in computing today, we would *never* have the DMCA and other painful laws. Same goes for the current settlement agreement in force with MS right now. Maybe we would have these things, but they would have a lot better balance than they do right now.
So, what does that have to do with Xbox?
I get to make my views known through these basic means:
1. Indirectly through common vote. I get to help choose people who I believe might act, in my behalf in my best interests.
2. I get to let those elected know how their decisions affect me.
3. With my feet! Why provide economic support to those that are not acting in your best interests? This one comes down to choices. Sometimes they are not worth making.
Example: I do purchase DVD media because I like movies. I don't purchase subscription programming because I am not given the choice to purchase on a per channel basis. For now, I enjoy the theatre, but when they start with the commercials, I will likely not go because I pay enough that ads should not be part of the experience. (I will make a point of letting them know why however.)
4. Through speech. I can let others know why I do what I do. They may not know what I know, they might know something I don't. Either way the conversation will bring both of us closer to understanding what our best choices are. This type of discussion is not happening enough when it comes to technology issues these days. (BTW my parent post did not help #4 very well at all...)
Letting companies understand why you do not choose to be part of the business plan is an important part of the process. We need marketing to understand that they have made contact, but are not getting anywhere because the model does not fit, not because they have not made enough offers, or bought enough business.
It comes down to being informed and making those everyday choices. My ranting aside, how can doing these things harm an industry? Doing these things with good intent should actually help industries smart enough to respond accordingly.
If said industry continues to maintain a state of decline because people are doing those things I mentioned above, doesn't it deserve it?
Blogging because I can...
Seriously... why post as anonymous?
If someone takes the time and makes the effort to post the full text before it gets slashdotted, I appreciate it. This is especially true if they are quoting from a page that is membership required.
Why shouldn't such a person get a little bit of karma for doing something that helps everyone?
-Michael
Threshold RPG