Microsoft's Massive acquisition now official

Great question, pickypants. I'm putting it in a new post.

I've never evaluated the Hotmail investment.

I'd like to see you address the comparison between Skype and Massive. Both had similar revenues in the year before their acquisition, but Skype was purchased for $2.6 billion. Why?

VC: thanks for explaining the star rating. Maybe I did deserve that one, but that little sentence on it's own, is taken out of context of the entire post, a post by yourself RANTING about the XBOX not being edible (good thing you do not hold yourself to the star rating system..huh).

But I digress, as your star rating does not retain any real value.

Thryon, the reason you have 2 negative stars isn't because you have voiced negative opinions about the Xbox 360, it's because you were an ass while you did it (which is typical for people talking about a company they disdain).

boots-- pick a friggin' name already!

I presonally welcome in-game advertising. Not to offset costs, but to make the gaming experience more real. Obviously I wouldn't expect to see a Taco Bell sign in Oblivion, but I sure as hell wouldn't mind seeing a Subway being burned down in GTA, though.

Yo VC, does that mean I get a star?

I needs some cred, kid.

Yup! Thanks for reminder, PickyP.

Benjamin,

"You talk about how disruptive you see the ads becoming in your game but what's the precedent?"

I concede that, right now, I haven't encountered any in game ad that I would consider disruptive. However, I think a healthy dose of fear is in order for the future.

"Would you still buy the game?"

That's a good question. At some point in the future we'll be able to see what the tipping point is. I imagine that gamers will put up with an awful lot before they abandon a game that they find otherwise fun.

If MS was an ethical company who cared for their customers, they would make xbox live free and make their money from the ads. Same goes for games. We get TV and radio for free with ads, why shouldn't that be the same across other mediums?

jon again: well put. And I agree with you. There are way too many passive consumers who'd allow ads to proliferate to infuriating levels before they'd do anything about it.

All we can do is talk about the issue and become informed consumers. Then take that a step further and refuse to spend our hard-earned money on games that go too far.

If advertisers and developers won't listen to us with regards to what they put in their games, they'll be forced to listen if sales start to decline.

vc,

In general, you can't justify a mistake by referencing another mistake.

This being said, to answer your question, valuations are often arbitrary and based on factors that cannot be measured or quantified.
Some business leaders sheepishly listen to analysts, others listen to consultants, yet others follow their guts.

I still remember Yahoo! buying Broadcast.com for $5.7 billion! Another smart move, eh?

I don't think $2.6 billion was a good deal for eBay. But it's all in the eyes of the beholder.

However, it's very different from Massive. Skype's potential has been proven repeatedly across Europe during the past 5 years. It's logical to conclude what took Europe by storm will succeed in the US sooner or later.

I enjoyed the debate.

Incase someone actually reads this comment, I was only joking about it's power costs I estimate at an hour a day for 6c an hour, That's how much a PC costs to run an hour it would actually cos $1.80 a month. plus broadband, you need to fork out $60 a month in NZ for just 10gb bandwidth braodband which is horrible and yes i think it was $60 a year for Xboxlive in NZ and games here cost $120 new last time I checked our dollar has been dropping madly recently so it's probably NZ$150 by now. Now I was obviously joking about the power costs. I think that advertising in games only works sometimes. it sucks in Counterstrike have you ever been to an aztec temple with ads sprawled across the walls, cause I aint and I've been to 3, it would only work on a billboard in a street or an ad on a tv or having real life products in games. I hope companies stop with these crazy advertisements before we start to see guns with a pizza hut tag on them or people wearing Macdonalds brand all purpose armor.