Xbox has launched a new website that aims to educate people on why Microsoft’s planned acquisition of Activision-Blizzard is a good thing. The site lists a number of benefits for players, gaming creators, and the gaming industry, including more games on more devices, more choice, and greater competition. Visitors will also find links to relevant material, including the most recent acquisition update.
Benefits for players
- More games on more devices including Xbox, PlayStation, phones and online
- Choice in how and where people buy games with subscription and one-off purchase options
- For the 95% of gamers who play on phones, alternatives to gaming offerings from the dominant mobile platforms
Benefits for game creators
- More ways to get games in front of more players through support, investment and better access to gamers
- Better revenue and fair marketplace rules through our app store principles
- Greater flexibility in payment systems and the experience they provide their fans
Benefits for the gaming industry
- More competition in mobile, where a couple of big players dominate
- Greater competition in traditional gaming, where Sony and Nintendo will remain the biggest
- Emphasis on positive workplace culture and increased local investment from Microsoft in studios and creative ecosystems around the world
“Giving players choice in how they play their games makes gaming more accessible and leads to larger, more vibrant communities of players,” said Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer. “Choice is equally important to developers. Developers benefit from having a diversity of distribution and business models for their games. Choice unlocks opportunities for innovation and enables the industry to grow.”
“Too much friction exists today between creators and gamers; app store policies and practices on mobile devices restrict what and how creators can offer games and what and how gamers can play them,” said Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith. “Our large investment to acquire Activision-Blizzard further strengthens our resolve to remove this friction on behalf of creators and gamers alike. We want to enable world-class content to reach every gamer more easily across every platform.”
From Microsoft:
Players and developers are at the center of Xbox. We want to enable people to play games anywhere, anytime and on any device. And developers deserve more options to build, distribute and monetize their groundbreaking games. When we do this, we all win. That’s why we’re sharing more on the industry and how our acquisition of Activision-Blizzard fits into our gaming strategy.
Spencer shared a post on September 1 that confirmed Microsoft was committed to making Call of Duty available on PlayStation on the same day the game launches elsewhere. He also mentioned that Microsoft respected and welcomed the hard questions that are being asked.
Discussion (7 replies)
Join Discussion →FTFY
I couldn't possibly care less about this marketing BS, I just want them to hurry the fuck up and complete the deal so D4 can be finished and D2 Resurrection will be available on Games Pass so I can play the same game on my PC and console.
I just want games that were once exclusive to Battle.Net to appear on Steam. I would also say GOG but Microsoft never puts anything on GOG, so not holding my breath for that. There were games I was perfectly willing to buy, but as soon as I saw they could only be had on Battle.Net I had to resort to community demos instead.
Even if they appear on steam you would likely need battle.net to run them
there is already a start https://www.gog.com/en/games?query=blizzard&order=desc:score
Yeah but those were on there before Microsoft bought Activision-Blizzard.
Isn't the Battle.Net launcher being discontinued? I don't see Microsoft continuing to use that. They already have games on Steam and their own Microsoft Store. I doubt you will even be able to purchase games through Battle.Net after the acquisition is complete.
I don't know, I hope they keep it, I rarely use any of the MS stuff on PC and from most of the comments about their stores and apps seems those are pretty terrible. I also don't know if the xbox pc stuff if flexible enough for the constant updates blizzard pushes to their games.
[URL unfurl="true"]https://www.destructoid.com/crash-bandicoot-pizza-box-wumpa-speculation-tease-news/[/URL]
"A promotional pizza box sent to influencer Canadian Guy Eh had the release date for the upcoming Steam release of Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time on it. It’s labelled out with the October 18 release date."
THANK YOU GOD!!!!!
I already played through the game using a community demo, but I would have bought this game if it had come out on Steam to begin with. This is exactly one of the games I was hoping would come to Steam as soon as I heard Microsoft was buying Activision-Blizzard.