Microsoft Buying Vivendi (Blizzard)?!?!?!

[Mortaneus]

If the news is to be believed, apparently Microsoft is working on buying Vivendi Universal. (see www.slashdot.org)

That means, you might see the next Diablo, Warcraft, and Starcraft on the X-Box ONLY.

Ugh....I hate micro$oft....

If Blizzard gets eaten by the beast, I guess I'll have to look for my RTS addiction elsewhere. I refuse to support a monopoly, and thus won't buy Micro$oft products.

 

[Sammael99]

If the news is to be believed, apparently Microsoft is working on buying Vivendi Universal. (see www.slashdot.org)

That means, you might see the next Diablo, Warcraft, and Starcraft on the X-Box ONLY.

Ugh....I hate micro$oft....

If Blizzard gets eaten by the beast, I guess I'll have to look for my RTS addiction elsewhere. I refuse to support a monopoly, and thus won't buy Micro$oft products.

For clarity's sake it's just Vivendi Universal Games.

However, I'd be susprised if they did popular game lines on PC X-Box only. That would sound like a very bad move IMO...

 

[techno]

As a satisfied X-box owner, this is great news--if it is true.

 

[kengar]

As an X-box owner, this is great news if it is true.

As a mac owner who is STILL waiting for NWN (when Bioware was promising simultaneous release for Mac/Win/Linux in the same box), but who got my Diablo2 within a month of the PC version and my Warcraft3 the same day that it came out for PC; this is bad news.

Blizzard has been the one game software company that has really stepped up to the plate and delivered for cross-platform support. I'd hate to see that disappear.

 

[Breakdaddy]

I own an XBox and PS2. This is indeed bad news. I would rather play Blizzard games on my good ole' PC, but if Blizzard is taken in, then Warcraft, Starcraft, and Diablo might go the way of Mechassault (which I shall never see on a PC, thanks Microsoft)

 

[Mortaneus]

Great. It got moved to software. Now this thread will proceed to die, as practically nobody ever reads this forum.

It's annoying that's it's become impossible to discuss very pertinent gaming topics on ENWorld when they have to do with software and computers because they always get moved here, and proceed to croak.

 

[Tyr]

I own an XBox and PS2. This is indeed bad news. I would rather play Blizzard games on my good ole' PC, but if Blizzard is taken in, then Warcraft, Starcraft, and Diablo might go the way of Mechassault (which I shall never see on a PC, thanks Microsoft)

I think that Mechassult on the PC would be a waste of hard drive space. I mean when you can have a much better version of that type of game with MechWarrior or even MechCommander.


But that’s just my opinion I may be wrong

 

[Zappo]

In any case, if this is true and Microsoft actually decides to axe PC development of Blizzard titles, then it will be a nasty blow to the PC gaming industry.

 

[kenjib]

However Microsoft may benefit, I think it's inarguable that this is bad for consumers. Fewer choices, fewer games. X-Box has lower market penetration than both the Gamecube and the PS2.

I'm getting sick and tired of M$ steamrolling over everyone at the expense of consumers time and time again. How do they do it? By dodging federal taxes and illegally hiking prices via monopoly in order to build up a huge cash reserve. All of it comes out of the pockets of people who do pay taxes - people like us.

thx M$

EDIT: Clarification - XBox is #2 in N. America and Europe, but Gamecube is still #2 globally

 

[Henry]

Great. It got moved to software. Now this thread will proceed to die, as practically nobody ever reads this forum.

Interesting - I've always found the OPPOSITE to be the case. For instance, one thread I moved here from General a few weeks ago about best console game systems got TRIPLE the responses that it got over in general.

But I will say that for the most part, a thread is more likely to be read by people who are genuinely concerned about a certain topic if it's in its proper forum.

As for my take, It doesn't make too much difference to me, since Microsoft will still port its most popular products to PC, which is my format of choice (see Mechwarrior 3 & 4, and Dungeon Seige.)