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Sigh, Microsoft is a type of guy who demands really expensive stuff.
Currently. He has to answer to Phil Spencer and he has to stay there until Activision is fully owned by Microsoft. What happens to him afterwards, and considering he's not in the good books of anybody including Microsoft...well, we'll have to wait and see.Whether you're concerned about a video game monopoly or ActiBlizz controversy, this is bad news either way.
Bobby Kotick will remain as Activision Blizzard CEO after Microsoft announcement | VGC
The Xbox company confirms that the controversial exec will keep his current role…www.videogameschronicle.com
Well, if they are doing it in secret, they are not doing a very good job.
I'd honestly say that's already been broken with both Sephiroth and Sora being in FP2. I know that Sora's legally a Disney character, but Square-Enix has a hand in everything that's done with the character and Kingdom Hearts has so much of Square's iconography baked into it that it feels much more like a Square project than a Disney one. I think if Sakurai was really concerned about spreading the love among multiple third parties, we wouldn't have gotten both Sora and Sephiroth in FP2.
Microsoft acquires another massive gaming company, the monopoly continues to grow as Sony scrambles to make their next power play, the console war is at an all time climax
— Colin (@IntroSpecktive) January 18, 2022
Meanwhile, at Nintendo: pic.twitter.com/adJlrMQZLY
Banjo and Steve wouldn't have to compete, they're veterans already and easily the biggest namesakes for Nintendo.
Banjo-Kazooie, Steve, Master Chief, Doomguy and Crash all having to compete with each other for a spot in Smash 6
Don’t forget Fulgore, Battletoads, Arthas, Diablo, and Kerrigan. RARE and Blizzard alone have enough awesome characters for a full game before even looking at the rest of Microsoft. That’s one reason I’m open to the idea of a Nintendo Microsoft crossover Smash game.
Banjo-Kazooie, Steve, Master Chief, Doomguy and Crash all having to compete with each other for a spot in Smash 6
To be fair, Nintendo has a different marketing strategy compared to the other two. Like in the Wii era, their products are usually the most casual, family friendly and affordable of the big companies.
Effectively , Sony and Microsoft won't die out, but their gaming branche might just some day. I feel they're way too dependant on 3rd party developers and their hardware. If say, EA or Activision decided to make game consoles for themselves that would be a huge blow to Sony.
Don't forget Zagreus, Kris, Professor Layton, Pac-Man, Lloyd Irving, and Stringo (the main character of the beloved 2027 Game of the Year Gopher Story)
Banjo-Kazooie, Steve, Master Chief, Doomguy and Crash all having to compete with each other for a spot in Smash 6
And Sans, Castle Crasher, FNF Boyfriend, Impostor, Henry Stickmin and Shovel Knight.
Gandalf the Grey and Gandalf the White
You joke, but I wouldn't be surprised if Boyfriend became a big request in the future. The full game isn't even out yet, and it's already solidified itself as a big name indie.
All came out of nowhere lightning fast
Yup, that's a joke, plus FNF is a very popular game.
Sora might be a special case due to Disney's involvement and being a last minute addition to FP2. Might. Like I can't imagine them pre-planning catering to both Crash fans and Doomguy fans with fighters within the same same dev cycle now.
Yeah, WarCraft and StarCraft have a ton of visually interesting nonhuman characters that would really stand out. I love Blizzard’s character design and I’m excited about the possibility that Microsoft can turn the company around and get rid of all the problematic employees.You know the odd thing about Microsoft getting Activision-Blizzard? Microsoft can practically make a crossover with a good amount of mascot/cartoony characters without any realistic-looking characters. Banjo-Kazooie, Conker, Crash Bandicoot, Spyro, Skylanders, Cuphead, Ori, Psychonauts, Battletoads, Viva Pinata, the Vault Boy from Fallout, Murky the Murloc from Warcraft. Pachimari from Overwatch, Commander Keen, Clippy. Just imagine with the more realistic-looking characters.
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Phil Spencer: "We can't do a Microsoft crossover like Smash Bros as we hardly have any interesting 1st party characters compared to Nintendo."
Microsoft: buys companies with notable 1st parties and now has Crash Bandicoot, Call of Duty, Elder Scrolls, Doom, Fallout, Spyro, Guitar Hero, Skylanders, Sekiro, Warcraft, Starcraft, Overwatch, Diablo, King's Quest, Wolfenstein, Quake, Destiny, The Evil Within, Pitfall, and even the rights for the Tony Hawk games
Phil:
Neither of them are, but Sony's Playstation brand was and is always very dependent on their 3rd party developers, whereas Nintendo produces A+ gaming franchises on their own.
I was just thinking that myself. I would absolutely love to see Illidan, Diablo, and Sarah Kerrigan in Killer Instinct. Blizzard and RARE have always been my two favorite western developers (before the controversy) so it would be a dream come true to see them cross over in KI.
Just give me a Nintendo/Capcom merger! Sooooo many characters for Smash 6!
I still wonder what we could've gotten had that Nintendo/Namco merge happened. Like...that was apparently the one that the Japanese government got involved in because of the fear of a monopoly, right?
NB and KT have, a few. Capcom has, like, 30!
Yeah, if Nintendo ever decides to enter the buyout race (not likely, but certainly possible), those three are big ones to keep an eye on. Plus maybe Ubisoft, or at least the Mario + Rabbids team.
Candy Crush before Chief
Or WoW rep before Chief.
I honestly think people are sleeping on WarCraft. WoW has had a huge impact on gaming and WarCraft has been very successful in many genres with RTS, MMO, and an Online TCG. If it wasn’t for WarCraft 3, I don’t think the MOBA genre would exist at all which has given us huge series like League of Legends. I’d honestly put it right up there with Halo in terms of gaming history. It also helps that I think their characters are a bit more suited for a game like Smash than Master Chief or Doomslayer who would be harder to translate to a platform fighter.
With Starcraft, now you have more sci-fi armored shootymen to deal with. From a different genre entirely.
While I would vastly prefer StarCraft to Halo, I still don’t think they are really competing. Like I mentioned earlier, just because both are now owned by Microsoft, I don’t think it means they are limited to just one. Microsoft is a huge company that owns many developers with their own histories. I don’t think it’s fair to group them all together as “Microsoft reps”.
Pretty much this. While there are some exceptions (Terry is very clearly an "SNK rep"), I don't think Smash is too focused on having a particularly company get represented through third-party characters. They only go for what's popular and in-demand, as evident from the fact that we got three different Square Enix characters through Ultimate's DLC alone (though one is also a Disney character).
Plus, and this may just be wishful thinking on my part, Japanese companies might be VERY wary of the fact that Sony really hasn't been the most popular in their home country ever since they packed up and moved to California. Hell, most of them are already difficult to work with in regards to America-based Microsoft (let alone be willing to ever merge with them). In fact, I'm willing to bet the only reason Microsoft managed to nab Rare in the first place was due to it being one of Nintendo's overseas subsidiaries.Japanese companies seem to be less likely to merge historically with Bandai and Namco being the only merger that cost more than a billion. Square and Enix merged then aquired Eidos, but failed to rope in Tecmo... But just looking at the list of mergers it's clear US companies dominate in this regard.
List of largest video game mergers and acquisitions - Wikipedia
en.m.wikipedia.org
Honestly, I wouldn't mind if Nintendo just had a complete monopoly on console gaming. Yeah, they were pretty arrogant prior to the Playstation, but I doubt they'd get to be too out of control now that PC gaming is legitimate competition nowadays. Hell, a lot of Playstation and Xbox's most prominent titles are already on PC anyway (especially Xbox's), so it's not like "consoles vs. PC" becoming "Nintendo vs. PC" would change all that much, so far as I'm aware.
I guess for me, it would be Rare and Interplay (ironically, I'm not among the people demanding for Earthworm Jim in Smash), with maybe a bit of Midway (for the first three Mortal Kombats and a bit of Rampage) and Atari (I wasn't around for most of their console days, but playing a little of their consoles retroactively, as well as Primal Rage, made them somewhat relevant for me growing up). I did dabble a tiny bit in strategy Warcraft, but yeah, I was mostly about Japanese gaming (and still am).
I wouldn't say that many, especially when the most notable picks for Capcom overshadow the rest, which are a Resident Evil character in general(whether it be Chris, Leon, Jill or Claire), the Monster Hunter, Dante, Chun-Li, Zero and Phoenix Wright. Others, like Amaterasu and Arthur, do get alot of mentions, but don't get picked nearly as often as those six.
I thought Activision didn't own Candy Crush.
The Activision Blizzard conglomerate owns King, the Candy Crush dev team.
