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Sload Soap wrote:I would have thought Activison Blizzard would be seen as too toxic an asset to buy currently but that probably just forced the price down.

You might be on the right track if this Ars Technica article is correct.

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2022/01/ ... ctivision/

Not much. I do want pc steam version or gog for thps 1 n 2. Microsoft gets Sierra n activision catalog collection. I can’t believe WoW still exist with just multi expansion sets. I thought Microsoft was going to buyout Sega. Sega almost had deal to have backwards compatil dreamcast on xbox, deal fell off. Maybe Sony will buy out Sega / konami.

My PC is powerful than the latest Xbox console or ps5.

Gucci wrote:
Get off my lawn!

Your username combined with your comments here and where you were talking about your part-time job have me picturing you as Jared Leto's outrageous character in House of Gucci. At one point he says something like, "Imma no-ah spring-ah chicken!"

dsheinem wrote:

Raging Justice wrote: I'm more concerned (as a Playstation gamer) at the way Sony has really soured their relationship with many Japanese companies by being so censorship prone and...quite frankly, super "woke".

Can you offer a few examples of what you are referencing here? I ask because a lot of the discourse surrounding this acquisition focuses on the timing of the move relative to the recent revelations about Kotick, Blizzard, etc. While I am glad that this acquisition offers some hope of fixing the workplace and leadership culture at Activision/Blizzard, I've also seen more than a few comments across the web from gamers concerned that MS is somehow going to "woke-ify" beloved IPs like Diablo or COD. Since the word "woke" is pretty much an empty signifier these days, I am not sure what a lot of those folks are actually concerned about...is it connected to (and perhaps parallel to) your thoughts about Sony?

I think that the acquisition is (obviously) a big deal and will push the industry further towards the GamePass/"Netflix for Games" model of game distribution going forward (and I actually really like that model despite its implications for physical media). I also hope it means we get more new games tied to older IPs, new possibilities for cross-platform accessibility, and compelling new ideas/projects that come from the merging of a lot of talented studios.

That said, the general practice of giant mergers sucks, and this captures that well...

As marurun alluded to, "wokeness" is something of a touchy subject for some people. I'll just say that the term generally refers to the pushing of certain agendas, that are arguably politically motivated. Some people generally talk about being "woke" as pushing for social change regarding things like racism, LGBT issues, and sexism. To those people, it's a positive term. However, many people dislike how those agendas get pushed, such as movies that try to be feminist by doing everything in their power to make men look bad or what some see as reverse racism where people claim to want an end to racism against people of color, while openly supporting racism against white people. To people who hold those beliefs, the term "woke" is a derogatory term. You'll often hear these people talk about the double standards of wokeness. So basically the word can have two different meanings depending on what group of people are using it. In a way it perfectly represents how divided the US has become in recent years

What upsets some people too is that companies and people that try to be "woke" are often very hypocritical about it. For example, Sony has recently been censoring a lot of Japanese games for having sexual depictions of women, or just outright not allowing those companies to release their games here. Yet, The Last of Us 2 had a very explicit sex scene involving a certain character that seems to represent "woke" ideals, and Sony just gave the game a pass on it.

It seems that "wokeness" is getting pushed hard mostly by people with left leaning politics, which is why discussions of it tend to end up being discussions about politics. And a lot of other stuff that people have strong feelings about tend to get thrown into any discussion about "wokeness", like the varying opinions people in this country have about the vaccine, which is generally viewed as something being pushed mostly by lefties, while a lot of right wingers are against it...or so we are led to believe anyway. Somehow Trump always seems to get mixed up in these types of conversations too, a polarizing figure if ever there was one. A lot of people who proudly proclaim themselves to be "woke" hate the guy and a lot of pro-Trump people tend to hate "wokeness"

Interesting note about Sony, they starting doing all of these things after moving their HQ (the US one) to California, considered by many to be one of the "wokest" states in the country with a lot of left leaning politicians running things there. A lot of people pissed off at Sony these days feel like the change of location is to blame for this stuff

I'll probably just leave it at that, though the topic of "wokeness" goes even deeper, but these are topics that can trigger or offend people. Things have been super tense in the US these past 4 to 5 years and it's hard to discuss these things without people getting really angry and fighting with each other

I think drawing a line between BLM to Sony putting more clothes on a bunch of underdressed anime tit girls is tenuous at best.

I don't really see how "wokeness", whatever that means these days, relates in any way to Activison Blizzard who let's not forget are being investigated for being very not woke indeed.

This topic is certainly going in a direction lol

EDIT: My assumption is that PR is of the utmost importance to them now that there are movements showing the toxicity of the industry. My big turn off with this however is that they tend to ignore the other aspects of the toxicity ie Last of Us 2 winning best game development even though they are infamous for their use of crunch time.

Without going too in-depth into it, doesn't matter what one thinks of it, media movements are almost always temporary, so if you're against the "woke" culture it'll most likely leave the mainstream soon.

SECOND EDIT: Also, if Sony released Gal Gun 2, then I would call that whole censorship thing they do quite overblown lol

Rescuing the thread…

What sort of crossovers would you like to see after the merger? Banjo Kazooie in Overwatch? Master Chief in CoD? The Lost Vikings in Doom? Pitfall Harry in Microsoft Flight Simulator?

Yup, I think that's exactly where I was thinking this would go. So we're going to table that aspect of the discussion and stick to the merger and the immediate conditions around it.

I could definitely see a Halo/CoD multi-player content crossover. Call of Duty has been more futuristic in some of the titles lately. Wouldn't mind seeing some plasma rifles or something from Halo.

Don't forget that they own all the older Sierra games now. Gabriel Knight and King Graham is Overwatch?