GHG
Member
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Microsoft / Activision Deal Approval Watch |OT| (MS/ABK close)
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IFireflyl
Gold Member
The CMA wouldn't even offer that because forcing a divestiture of hardware would severely and irreparably harm the gaming industry. You're welcome to your opinion, but there is a zero percent chance of this outcome occurring. The CMA has to consider industry impacts both with acquisitions as well as with their own rulings and concessions that are offered in regards to acquisitions.
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RickMasters
Member
Are you seriously blaming xbox gamers (or xbots as you guys distastefully love to call them ) for the choices a trillion dollar company makes? this thread is kind of insane but I dont know what to make of these kinds of statements other than see them as.... misdirected anger? xbox owners have no say in what kotik gets paid to leave ABK, and if this deal dont go through he may even be obliged to stick around... due to changes in circumstances... Maybe a failed acquisition puts a lot of people out of jobs over there.... who will you blame for that?
Heisenberg007
Gold Journalism
Not sure about the previous comments, but ... for this one, it'll be on Microsoft and ABK for even considering a $70 billion merger when their competitor had a market cap of around $85 billion. Don't you think?
IFireflyl
Gold Member
I think his points is that some of the arguments from supporters of this acquisition have revolved around Bobby Kotick, and
GHG
is pointing out that that acquisition didn't need to happen in order for Kotick to be ousted, and that so far Microsoft has said that Kotick will remain post-acquisition. This effectively would negate those specific arguments from certain pro-acquisition folk.
GHG
Member
There's so much here that's wrong so I'm just going to summarise with the following:
No. Learn to read.
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ToadMan
Member
2 Bethesda games which are now available on MS platforms…
Content rights deals are common across many industries whether its books, movies, music or videogames. They are an established part of the competitive landscape in content production industries and those deals don’t last forever.
Acquisitions leading to existing content becoming walled off in perpetuity are not in the interest of consumers or the businesses that have invested in the market for decades. Such acquisitions have an unpredictable effect on those markets going forward.
So reduced consumer choice and risk to market health - both things the FTC has expressed concerns over.
For better or worse exclusivity deals are a part of the industry but no industry player except MS, has the means to buy a monopoly or manipulate the market through simple exclusivity deals.
And MS is trying to save money and gain permanent exclusivity through acquisition of existing cross platform content.
If exclusivity deals are “wrong” in your opinion, then MS should not be able to complete this purchase in the way they’re attempting to do it. Regardless, the risk to health of the videogame market isn’t, in my opinion, worth whatever potential benefits MS claim come through this.
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ToTTenTranz
Banned
Hero of Spielberg
Member
I think it's because most scrutiny / media attraction has been around COD itself.
Poltz
Member
Would the same scrutiny be put on Fortnite, FIFA, Madden, GTA, NBA2K, Apex Legends etc?
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demigod
Member
What an embarrassing take considering Sony has already said Bungie won’t go exclusive. I hope that twitter person isn’t a gaffer.
PaintTinJr
Member
They just repeat the informed substantiated options at places like gaff - hence why big companies like Microsoft have been caught trying to discord control the narrative at places like gaf.
Twitter/Tik Toks don't have the mega-next-gen threads that start those fires with a spark, they merely spread the message, and is why publisher/platform holders making mistakes only truly fix those mistakes when they come and kiss the ring with better offerings/policies at gaf type places. The 3DS turnaround starts in places like gaf for sure, because the actual changes were so subtle for most casuals that all that really changed was public opinion of it being undesirable to desirable.
GHG
Member
Banjo64
cumsessed
My life is so much better for reading this twice.
The above reads like a complaint to me.
MasterCornholio
Member
Awe, you anddrganon should ease up.
adamsapple took his ban. Give him another chance. Sure he's got a major boner for Microsoft, but as long as he's not console warring there is no reason to antagonize him just because he disagrees with your stance on the acquisition. I actually like some of his posts when it's not a Microsoft vs. Sony discussion.
I was talking in general. Seems to me that many are taking this very badly and the victim in this whole thing. Its been a recent trend and its obvious that the mods are trying to stop it. Don't want anyone else to get permed because it's a really dumb thing to get banned over. It's not worth it IMO.
Goalus
Member
Looks like I was right.
Hero of Spielberg
Member
Fortnite and FIFA perhaps. All to do with current mindshare I’d say. It’s like how WoW is just nothing now with regards to this deal.
Edit: GTA too
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azertydu91
Hard to Kill
You do know that there is a curse floating above your head....Anybody you argue with will end up banned ....Be careful with that burden for the gods have given you a double edge sword.
Handel
Member
The only "consumers" that might be impacted negatively by the ABK purchase are Sony only gamers. MS releases all of their games day and date with PC, the same can't be said for Sony with their limited and years after original release PC offerings. The only walled garden between MS and Sony belongs to Sony.
drganon
Member
That's assuming it's real money and not fun bucks.Activision will be fine, butSenjutsuSage will still lose a ton of money.
X-Wing
Member
Workers not being able to unionise is the opposite of freedom. But this will derail in major offtopic.
So they can target you with ads.
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Ozzy Onya A2Z
Member
The idiocy continues. Did you know Gamepass is in its second year of net profit? Did you know Xbox recently recorded its largest gross revenue ever? Same goes for Ninty and Sony.
The level of misinformation and wilful ignorance should no longer surprise me anymore but here we are.
Edmund
Member
Whoops! Didn't know that word is banned. Will be more careful in the future. Thanks for the heads up!
Ozzy Onya A2Z
Member
Laughable. MS spent approx 4% of the entire $2 Trillion gaming industry over the next decade, not even accounting for growth or inflation. Your market cap comparison is silly.
Ass of Can Whooping
Member
Just stick to green rat. They're dumber than bots anyway
Banjo64
cumsessed
That word isn’t banned.
Ozzy Onya A2Z
Member
This is a shit take and factually wrong.
Apple, Google, Tencent, Amazon, Meta. Want more? Any of them could drop 50-100 billion and not even blink.
Enough of these dumb ass takes not based in reality.
MasterCornholio
Member
Yeah I know I'm not immune to moderation here. I'll try and not fall on my own sword. All I'll say is that I cant control what others say only myself.
Heisenberg007
Gold Journalism
It is based on facts. Nintendo has a market cap of $50B. Sony has a market cap of $114B.
If MS attempts to buy ABK for $70B, of course there is a possibility that it will get blocked. Any subsequent damage to Xbox or ABK is on MS then.
ToadMan
Member
You’re right. Except those companies aren’t proposing to buy ABK today.
Seems like you’re the one disconnected from reality.
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Ozzy Onya A2Z
Member
Nope. Regulators look at sustained competition and ability for competitors to enter a market. All clear there.
Coulomb_Barrier
Member
He's not wrong.
MS has the leading cloud infrastructure, the leading gaming subscription model and the outright monopoly of Windows for the PC gaming operating system of choice. They are uniquely positioned to absolutely dominate the gaming market if there were no obstruction to their buying sprees and anti-competitive practices.
What's more, you do realize that MS is richer than all of those companies you listed, bar Apple? And in the recent past, they've even superseded Apple for the highest market cap in the world. They just posted profits of $70bn on an 'off year' ffs. Only Apple makes more.
Ozzy Onya A2Z
Member
Actually AWS is the leading cloud provider.
Sony is the leading subs player, Gamepass has faster growth in recent years.
Azure is also an open platform that supports far more than windows/ms servers/ms sql. Sony contracted Azure for cloud infrastructure too, weird.
The idoicy continues.
EDIT: sky falling too chicken little?
Sony is the leading subs player, Gamepass has faster growth in recent years.
Azure is also an open platform that supports far more than windows/ms servers/ms sql. Sony contracted Azure for cloud infrastructure too, weird.
The idoicy continues.
EDIT: sky falling too chicken little?
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Coulomb_Barrier
Member
So you conveniently ignore the point about Windows, and MS being bigger than those companies you listed.
There's having the means to splash $70bn, and then there's the desire to do it. Again, MS is uniquely positioned to dominate.
Come again?
Ozzy Onya A2Z
Member
Are you seriously trying to defend flawed statements still? Fuck me.
Windows and server market share isn't a monopoly like it used to be in the 90s, due to -
- Rise of web servers not running windows e.g. LAMP tech by Google/Amazon or educational sectors etc
- Popularity of consumers using tablets and phones e.g. Android, iOS
- Apple macbooks are sort of a big deal
- Browsers are 85% Chromium based
Also your company size comparison is silly, all of those companies are in the Trillions. Capital fucking T for trillions.
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azertydu91
Hard to Kill
Don't worry man you don't seems particularly inclined to console warring, but please do not argue with your friends here , you might throw them under the ban hammer.
Coulomb_Barrier
Member
What idiocy am I reading.
I am not talking about mobile. What OS does nearly every PC gamer on the planet use?
Let me spell it out for you in capitals:
W-I-N-D-O-W-S.
And again, the size comparison isn't silly. MS has more money to spend than all of those companies bar Apple.
MasterCornholio
Member
I'm really not the one that makes that decision but I understand what you mean. I certainly don't try to bait them into a ban. That usually happens by itself without any influence from me.
DarkMage619
$MSFT
MS has released games on other consoles previously. Have those titles been cloud only? MS has never released a cloud only title before and there is no evidence they would start now. Cloud is a feature.
With regard to Game pass on other platforms that could happen today as long as said platform had a functional web browser. As I've said earlier there is no proof that Xbox cloud gaming can even generate real profits seeing how it isn't independent, it's a feature of Ultimate.
Cloud gaming on Xbox is not a real market because it does not exist without a direct reliance on a current service. You cannot use Xbox cloud gaming without Game pass and Game pass is just an alternative to traditional retail purchases. Every game on Game pass can be purchased traditionally.
If these things were truly separate detractors wouldn't argue that Game pass is hurting retail. It couldn't hurt something if it was totally separate market. All of these things are linked together so to try and invent separate markets shows why the cases against this deal are so flimsy.
It just as bad as arguing that Nintendo exists outside of the gaming market and isn't in competition with every other console. The market definitions have been clear for years its only now during this deal that we have Nintendo not counting (yet Xbox still being third!) and Cloud and Game pass being new markets when they are all connected to the same thing: game access.
azertydu91
Hard to Kill
Yeah from what I remember you were just arguing with people that were making blatant lies and that were on the brink of getting a perm, it is just a coincidence.But yeah you are not baiting or anything those people inflicted this to themselves.
YeulEmeralda
Member
MS would make games exclusive to Gamepass if they could- it's pretty clear they want that model of distribution to become the future of the industry.
Ozzy Onya A2Z
Member
Mac and Chrome books aren't mobile/cell phones, they have large market shares beyond windows.
Linux, Nginx and Apache have about 33% of the web server market.
Phones and tablets have largely replaced consumer PCs for day to day things like browsing, banking, basic office shit. The default Apple and Goggle laptops and phones don't have windows or office. Apps have risen.
Does Switch or PS5 run windows? PC ain't the focus of regulators or this thread.
Enough, you don't know shit and you're off topic.
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MasterCornholio
Member
Yes I'm definitely not trying to exterminate people like
adamsapple
from these forums. He does good things like those Digital Foundry summaries. But then he makes silly mistakes by constantly jabbing one side while always praising the other. It's these types of things that gets him in trouble but I'm pretty open when it comes to my preferences and I don't try to hide them.
adamsapple
Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
It spits out tweets relevant to your searches/cookies, so you might not be following that person, but you're searching/reading for tweets related to it.
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POKEYCLYDE
Member
Just as regulators have to see what possible lessening of competition comes from acquisitions, they also have to see what possible lessening of competition would come from their required remedies.
Losing access to Call of Duty may lessen competition, requiring Xbox to be divested kills competition. Even if you think Microsoft would merrily divest Xbox to get ABK because it would be more profitable, there is no way a regulator in their right mind would suggest that as a remedy.
In the "high performance console market", such a remedy would give Sony a monopoly. If the CMA wants divestiture, it will be focused around Call of Duty, the only IP in this acquisition that would have a material impact on Sony in the event of an exclusivity strategy.
My guess is, rather than set a precedent with behavioral remedies, they'll pass it without remedies (while piggybacking off of what the EC gets in terms of remedies), they'll use the overwhelming positive public emails, the positive market participant letter and the smaller regulators reasonings as justification for doing so.
Heisenberg007
Gold Journalism
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Yoboman
Member
Oh you mean they release it on their other platform? How generous of them
Heisenberg007
Gold Journalism
Please stop making people fool.
The alternative of MS acquiring ABK is NOT Sony acquiring ABK. The alternative is that ABK remains independent and continues to publish its games across all platforms (PC/Xbox/PS/Switch) as they have been doing for decades now.
Acquiring ABK is only going to decrease the number of players ABK games are available to.
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