"Vivendi may yet sell Blizzard, Sierra" /Me crosses his fingers...

[Cronic]

Originally posted by Darth Cronic
Major news sources are again reporting that financially troubled Vivendi Universal is in talks to sell its games division to Microsoft or other publishers.

Starting with a Reuters story late last week, several news services have recently reported that Vivendi Universal is in talks with Microsoft over the possible sale of its games division, which includes Blizzard, Sierra, and Universal Interactive. The reports quote anonymous sources said to be close to the negotiations, and while most of the news focuses on Microsoft as a potential buyer, other publishers are also said to be in the running. Microsoft has declined to comment on the rumors.
Vivendi Universal is looking to bring in between $1 and $2 billion in the deal, which would go toward the company's large outstanding debt. Although Vivendi denied last fall that it had any plans to sell its games unit, the company has sold off its book publishing business and, according to The Financial Times, is trying to get out of legal agreements preventing it from selling off Universal Studios and USA Networks.



For anyone wondering I've worked for Vivendo/Universal and am hoping they end up all but bankrupt so My hoing they go to M$ aside I still wish them hardship.

[KingArthur]

yeah, but think of it this way, if Blizzard is sold to Microsoft, what then? warcraft 4, only availible on XBOX, now who wants that? huh? thats right, no one, leave the "Craft" series on the PC where it belongs (except for Ghost, but thats diffrnt)

[Warlock]

Dude, if you enjoy playing RTS games on consoles, be my guest and wish them luck. Every single RTS on a console has sucked ass. It's the reason Blizzard has finally stopped porting their games over.

[Mak-X]

I think I remember hearing Blizzard say something about games like Warcraft 3 wouldn't be on a console because its the wrong platform for it, while something like Starcraft: Ghost is made for a console.

[Warlock]

Originally posted by Mak-X
I think I remember hearing Blizzard say something about games like Warcraft 3 wouldn't be on a console because its the wrong platform for it, while something like Starcraft: Ghost is made for a console.

Exactly.. but what if Microsoft starts dictating where they put their games? Like, look at Halo. Supposed to come out on PC.. but nope, now it's for Xbox. In fact, I heard they had to cut a ton of crap back that they wanted to do because the Xbox couldn't handle it as well.

But anyways, I think Blizzard would find some way out of it before they let a company specifically dictate what they do.

[El Oso Verde]

Originally posted by Warlock
But anyways, I think Blizzard would find some way out of it before they let a company specifically dictate what they do.


I sure hope so, since Blizzard seems to be one of the few companies out there actually producing good PC games these days.

[AlexMax]

Blizzard has the leverage to say 'Fuck You' to Microsoft if they got in their way of producing games. They are that powerful.

Now if Microsoft was going to get REALLY dirty, they could perhaps introduce bugs that 'accidently' cause Blizzard programs to fail. (Similar to the way that Outlook Express started sending e-cards from their compedators to the spam folder while allowing their own through) But assuming something like this would happen (unlikely) Blizzard has the good reputation, and people would blame Microsoft instead of Blizzard.

[vegeta1215]

Didn't someone already post about this a few weeks ago?

[Thunderbird]

AlexMax posted it as a rumor only. This is a little more concrete.

[MottZilla]

Not worried. If Blizzard fucks up I wouldn't hesitate to never buy any of their products and and see them go under, and so should the rest of you. They are here to make games we like, and we buy them. If they don't do what we like then no money for them, and well, thats it for them. ;p

Although I'm pretty sure that MS wouldn't try that "Xclusive" to xbox with WC or SC (RTS).

The only thing is if MS does own them, you can wave bye bye to and potential linux ports of their future games. They'll probably even axe their Mac support then.

[Warlock]

Linux ports? Blizzard hasn't done ANY Linux ports at all ;) Although they have done Mac ports.

[Mr. 207]

See something you guys dont seem to grasp. If Microsoft owns Blizzard you can wave bye bye to a free battle.net in their future games. I guarentee you that Microsoft will want to pull that shit, to bleed MORE money out of us.

[stormwatcheagle]

Originally posted by KingArthur
yeah, but think of it this way, if Blizzard is sold to Microsoft, what then? warcraft 4, only availible on XBOX, now who wants that? huh? thats right, no one, leave the "Craft" series on the PC where it belongs (except for Ghost, but thats diffrnt)

They wouldn't be stupid enough to make Warcraft 4 or Starcraft 2 X-Box exclusives. Too big of a cash cow.

[I-Man]

Well I wouldn't say they would make you pay for battlenet, Age of Mythology was made by microsoft and it has a service similar to battlenet that's free. Then again, they know people will really want to use battlenet, so I wouldnt be surprised...

[Ian]

If MS started making people pay for B.net, half the peopel who use it will give them the big "Fuck you" and stop using it. I love B.net, but if I ever have to pay for it, then screw it. i can spend my time and money on something better to do. But this is IF blizzard get handed over to MS

[MottZilla]

Actually IF microsoft did make battle.net PAY TO PLAY, EVERYONE would switch over to BNETD servers! muwhahaha! It's what we did during the WC3Beta test, and we can always do it again.

[Grasshopper]

What about Half-Life 2? They'll end up migrating that to the XBOX too. I want my PC games dang it.