The Business: Pessimism About the MS-ActiBliz Deal Is Warranted

The Supreme Dark Lord posted today about the Microsoft consumption of Acitivion-Blizzard. I will quote the same article that he did:

So. Question: You’re in a company filled to the brim with nerds. You have some big, impressive looking skybridges that are empty and not being used for anything in particular?

What do you do?

You fill them with classic arcade video games. Obviously. Or at least you line the sides with arcades (so there’s still plenty of room to use them as hallways).

Microsoft Main Campus. The arcade skybridges were in the buildings circled in blue.
That’s exactly what folks did.

We’re talking… maybe two dozen arcade games were in these hallways at any given time. All set to free-play, naturally.

Each game was brought in by employees who had their own personal collections. Often times because they spent more time at work (Microsoft was famous for 80 hour work weeks back then)… so bringing in some arcade games helped boost morale. Made the place feel that much more like a nerdy home.

It was this way… for years and years. The arcades graced the hallways of these buildings (and others on Microsoft Main Campus) long before my time.

This is not a picture of the arcades at Microsoft HQ. I don’t have any of those, unfortunately. Source: Wikipedia

To be sure, these skybridges weren’t the only places that arcades could be found around Microsoft Main Campus. Many other buildings were known to have little clusters of arcades here and there. In this corner or that. But the skybridges filled with arcades were visually interesting. Simply… super cool.

Most of the arcades were in good working order. Some were project machines that needed a little TLC (and often got tinkered on, after hours, by some of the fellow nerds).

It was, honestly, pretty awesome. Very nerdy. A great morale booster.

Then, one day, Microsoft decided it was fed up with arcade games. An email was sent out to every building that was known to have them… that if they were not removed from Microsoft Main Campus promptly… they would be tossed out. Into the garbage….

Why do I bring this up?

Well. Microsoft just bought Activision. And, with it, Microsoft now owns some of the most important classic games in human history. Zork. Kings Quest. Space Quest. Pitfall! And so many others.

Games that are important not just to the history of gaming in general… but to those of us who were there as the video game industry grew up.

And… based on personal experience, when it comes to the preservation of classic video games… I don’t trust Microsoft as far as I can throw ‘em.

Maybe Microsoft has changed since those days. I sure hope so. But, honestly, there’s no reason to believe they have.

Vox Day, when he was active in GameDev, didn't trust Microsoft (this was the early XBox days) even as SEGA was doing Dreamcast dirty. He's kept up since those days with how things are going down, which is why he remains as skeptical about this acquisition as he is. I agree with that skepticism, as I don't trust Phil Spector further than I can throw him.

What remains to be seen is if this acquisition can pass regulatory approval, especially with Brussels; Microsoft remains on less-than-good terms with the European Union and EU technocrats are no less petty than their American counterparts. Microsoft also remains weak in the East, despite the incompetence of Sony, due to its weakness in the mobile space (which acquiring King--owner of Candy Crush--via acquiring Activision-Blizzard will not properly remedy) and mobile dominates the East (much to Nintendo's benefit).

There is also stockholder approval, but that I find to be more of a formality since those otherwise unlikely to approve can be mollified or bought off. This is AAA Gaming, where money matters more than anything else, and stockholders that are serious players are too often in thrall to Mammon so this is likely to work- legal analysis nothwithstanding.

Hold no hope here, for no matter who wins we gamers shall lose. There is naught in Western AAA Gaming to be had anymore; go indie, go East, or go home.