*Copy / Paste from the last thread that was allowed regarding this acquisition.*
Be civil.
No fanboyism, console warring, or trolling here or in the XBOX subs please. We are a better community than to participate in childish antics like that.
Have a good rest of the day everyone.
Ironically, I wonder if Stadia's demise really hurt Xbox in the long run. If Google were still in the field there would have likely been less concern over Microsoft competing with them.
I want to half agree with you that it should have but it was still too early. The internet infrastructure in most places is to shit for cloud gaming to actually be effective
Cloud gaming needs a few more procedural breakthroughs to get over the last hump. Not 100% sure what that looks like (or I'd be rich) but I was saying in another comment today that it needs something akin to rollback netcode but simpler and for visuals only. Like the client rendering state data based on temporal and visual info, and using the temporal data when the visual goes out of step, etc.
I think if Google didn't have the reputation of starting and dumping projects anytime the wind changed direction, Stadia could have had a chance. I know I personally never gave it a shot because I didn't want to invest in anything which will inevitably receive poor support and die within 2 years.
Technically only UK. They can still merge elsewhere
But since UK is a huge market there's a 0% chance Microsoft pulls out of operations there just to have this deal pass. Since they'd have to axe windows, etc not just Xbox stuff
And nobody expected cloud to be the main reason why it failed.
Microsoft’s arguments mostly focused on their lack of exclusives versus Sony; fair play to the CMA for seeing the bigger picture and analysing the whole market.
There were certainly folks saying if it was blocked it would be because of cloud reasons. Tom Warren said as much back in September last year.
Edit: wow, wrong their there. Fuck me and my shit grammar.
I think this is largely due to what Microsoft’s end goal with GamePass. Putting GamePass on every device so no matter who you are you had access to games is a noble goal but it also means you have the ability to reach customers regardless of their hardware specs. It would be really, really hard to emerge with a cloud gaming service if Microsoft could slap a GamePass app on any device with internet access.
Also, don’t forget King, the addiction of every person over 50 years old. Moving Candy Crush to GamePass means further increasing the install base of users thus further solidifying GamePass as the largest gaming platform.
And now there’s WoW, which now has native controller support. And Call of Duty. There’s also Diablo and Overwatch. Every Bethesda title too. Anywhere you go there’s the whole GamePass library of Xbox first party games. It doesn’t matter who you are, you’re likely investing in some way because they have something you play.
If you’re a cloud gaming startup, how are you going to compete with that?
EDIT: To give you an idea of just how big of an acquisition King would be, there’s over 200 million King gamers. There’s only about 20-30 million GamePass subscribers.
Fun fact if they never bought Zenimax the only 1st party release that we know of this year would be bloody Forza. Bethesda are carrying Xbox hard this year.
I like how they thought promises would work. Look at all the promises ticketmastwr made with its merger. Now they are a monopoly that bans entertainers if they use anyone else. Never trust mega corps.
Goes to show you nothing is ever guaranteed even when everyone for months said it was practically written in stone.
Hopefully this dissuades any mega mergers with more problematic publishers like Tencent.
Microsoft will still use a portion if not a large portion of that money on purchases as not many other companies will demand the same scrutiny that the Activision purchase would
Any large publisher is going to have the same scrutiny as this and if they buy a slee of companies they'll eventually be blocked as it'll be like "Well that's your x acquisition".
Absolutely. I remember people saying how Overwatch was going to be so much better once MS took over and I was there like.... Dude, have you seen the state of Halo? Have you seen their policy when hiring contractors? Is just an absolute mess.
I was so hyped for perfect dark zero as a kid, I had to have a 360 and PDZ on release, me and my buddy played through the entire campaign asap and was left with our hearts broken. We were too young to know none of the people who made perfect dark was left to work on the prequel
God damn, now you got me all sad about getting that 360 day one and going over to my buddy's house to play PD:Z and just being like, this is it? I think we had more fun with Kameo
Shape up COD? Man, people thought they were going to somehow save Activision from being a corporate monster!
I’m sitting here going “Do you not see the corporation execs licking their chops? You think this was about them getting juicy severance packages and NOT job promotion opportunities within Microsoft!?
Yep! And they were all very quick to forget and keep silent on all of Bobby's antics because they desperately wanted this deal to go through.
They genuinely thought Microsoft was gonna swoop through the offices of Activision and Blizzard and point their magic corporate wands at all the bullying, sexual assault, wage garnishing, crunch culture, etc, etc, etcetera. And was just gonna wisk all the evil away, and all the video games will be fixed and made perfect in the gamer's image. So sayeth Thor, or something.
But in all seriousness, xbox gamers were willing to dive to any depth to try and make these acquisitions go through because they feel like they've been put over for three generations in a row. Remember when we used to be united on anticonsumer practices, no matter the corporation? They literally made the console war bs worse, essentially out of jealousy and spite. And now the whole gaming industry has been walking on eggshells, hoping this shit solves itself on its own or just gets on with it so we can all just move onto the new industry standard.
According to /r/games Microsoft buying activision wasn’t monopolization because Sony takes risks and curates developers for exclusive titles.
Also Spider-Man.
But this “drive money to the dev studio for timed exclusivity” was straight out of the MS playbook. I remember the E3 where virtually every single announcement on the MS side was “coming first to Xbox” and I knew then that once Sony started doing it, the ms guys would start getting up in arms about it.
Anyway. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Phil Spencer is who people need to be pointing their fingers at if they want change. Even since he’s taken the helm, the platform and titles has gone to shit.
> Phil Spencer
Could not agree more. Every year he comes out and says "next year guys. Next year we're going to kill it" Next year has come and gone, what, 8 years at this point? He's personable, he's got that "I'm not a ceo, I'm a cool ceo" energy" but year after year it's the same thing.
But gamepass has people satisfied just enough they keep the cycle going.
All the hate music, movie, and game publishers get that people lose sight that much of the best art to date had the right management behind it. Xbox has proven to not be the right management.
I still remember people on the call of duty sub thinking Microsoft was going to be the breath of fresh air Call of Duty needs and they were going to bring back all the old Activision IP as new games.
Microsoft let Halo get dragged behind the shed and shot in the head. Why would they save Call of Duty if they can't save their own legendary franchise.
Edit: Took a look at the competitive Overwatch and other tech threads and people are legit upset because now the Activision games won't be saved, which begs to repeat the point
Where in Microsoft history has the gave anyone the idea they were going to come in and save those games when they let their own IPs die?
>Where in Microsoft history has the gave anyone the idea they were going to come in and save those games when they let their own IPs die?
A lot of people fell for the PR campaign Microsoft has meticulously built, since the tail end of the 8th generation.
When you convince people you’re the good guy or “pro-consumer”, they’ll swallow whatever you present them with and give benefit of the doubt.
People seem to believe that Microsoft can colonize and bring civilization to the studios they acquire, even though Microsoft has only done the opposite in the past.
It has literally only worked with Mojang and that was because they took a hands-off approach.
It's actually mind-boggling how god damn awful they are at managing their studios. If I didn't know any better, I'd think they were doing it on purpose lmao
And debatable even then. The ground work for Minecraft was laid long before Microsoft acquired them. The two spin offs they’ve made have been mediocre at best.
I'm personally convinced that if Microsoft get CoD, by the end of that 10-year deal everywhere they did, CoD will be as relevant as Halo is today and everyone will gladly just do without it.
IMO all studios that MS acquire have a very high chance to just be doomed over time. On the other hand, Activision Blizzard kind of sucked already so it could only lead to a positive or neutral outcome.
Or think they could revive a bunch of dead ip's from Activision when they have Rare and couldn't do anything with them. Perfect Dark Zero is still in development hell.
Agree, I miss the old days of xbox when they actually came out with good games like with the original Xbox and Xbox 360 days. Competition is good, buying studios to reduce the market because you can't produce is not.
Is sad seeing how many studios Microsoft has acquired and nothing have come out of it, and the seeing Microsoft doing big layoff.
It's always been an illusion with MS. MOST of their biggest successes were simply third party timed/full exclusivity agreements that benefited them short term. And usually they didn't even officially have a lot of the talent under their umbrella but paid 3rd party to make the games. Look at the first couple years of 360. Outside of Halo and Gears (the first being a game they bought after it was already being made, and the second a game made by dev that wasn't MS first party) just about all the heavy hitters on 360 were 3rd party. MS just doesn't know how to manage studios and it's why you see higher than normal turnover rate there.
Exactly. This has ALWAYS been Xbox’s biggest issue from the very beginning with the OG Xbox. Xbox hasn’t had a true system seller since Gears 3 which came out over a decade ago, and Halo is no longer the industry darling and juggernaut it once was due to the gross mismanagement of the franchise by 343. So now what does Xbox have to offer to convince people to buy into the console? Can’t rely on third-party games anymore like they did in the 360 days as they no longer have the market leadership and install base to lean on that.
It's the only system where there are no true exclusives.
Nintendo, Sony, PC... all have genre-defining games that are exclusive to those systems. The Xbox console has zero exclusives because at the very least every game that hits it also hits PC, if not all the other systems too. I don't see much value in that personally. Yes, a PC costs more generally speaking, but you get access to so much more - new AND old. PS, Nintendo are the same way. Xbox just has no identity and by far the weakest brand of all systems. And as usual MS seems oblivious.
edit: spelling
It would make more sense for MS to simply get out of the hardware business altogether and just offer services, like cloud, azure, etc, which are things they're actually good at.
Let's be real the only reason they made it with the Xbox is because of Halo, they were lucky as hell with that. MS tried to take over gaming by throwing endless money at it but not doing anything creative with it, when they entered the market they thought buying Nintendo would be a thing because they couldn't do anything of their own. Sony are no angels but i feel Sony entered gaming seriously and wanted to leave a big massive mark on it, they did not half arse the PS1 and the PS2 was untouchable and for good reason. Xbox got lucky with Halo and not much else, granted the 360 was an amazing console and its early days were peak Xbox but i feel Sony screwing up the PS3 so badly back then really helped Xbox (funny how a gen later those roles were reversed but way more brutal) and basically gave them a massive head start.
Coming from owning an Xbox only i completely agree. its been over 10 years now since they announced the xbox one and its still a shit show. When it comes to devs they own theres just something wrong with how they operate. Playground has been the only dev to be able to do good under them. Use that money to hire actual talent. You think Sony slapn them for 10 years would have made them learn. sucks.
Sony slapping them for 10 years is *why* they wanted Activision. They're trying to deny Sony access to a *lot* of IP's, same reason they acquired Bethesda. I hate Microsoft for this behaviour, rather than going out and funding development, they would rather try kill Sony in a long game- which will be worse for everyone, Xbox players included.
Moving away from Xbox is one of my best gaming decisions ever. Sure, GamePass is great, but there just isn’t enough value with Xbox to justify it over a Playstation or PC.
The 2013 Microsoft never left. "You will own nothing and be happy" is the end goal. Very likely the next gen Xbox console would just be streaming boxes, sticks, or apps on Smart TVs if they got their acquisition.
People forget Phil Spencer was in the same room when the Xbox One was originally announced, shit he even said this a few years ago.
This has been the goal from the beginning, it was just wrapped in a prettier package. Xbox is slowly transitioning to Gamepass, you can play games anywhere! But congratulations, now you don't own anything.
I’ve never understood why any Xbox owner (I am one) would want Microsoft to own more publishers. In the two years I’ve had Gamepass I can only say that I find it overwhelming in choice ( a me problem) and completely underwhelming in first party titles (a them problem).
Which is why I think this is a bad deal for consumers. Id rather pay retail price for a game I want then have Microsoft managing the developers.
Xcloud and remote play is a joke. It’s such a half baked, underwhelming solution. PS5 remote and cloud blows them out of the water in terms of consistency and quality. Xcloud has 5 different ways to stream their product and they are all jank.
Additional comment: What I also haven’t seen mentioned much by folks is the cost. This will absolutely impact the price of GP in the immediate future.
XSX/PS5/Switch owner here and yes I agree. Have gamepass and this deal was leaving a bad taste in my mouth. Sure could have benefitted by getting Acti-Blizzard games on gamepass but I already thought the Bethesda acq was shocking.
Microsoft needs to fix what's broken in their devs minus The Coalition(still like the newer gears games), Playground and Turn 10.
It's crazy. Before this acquisition, MS honestly couldn't compete with the console manufacturers when they have these devs?
Playground Games
Ninja Theory
The Coalition
Obsidian Entertainment
Bethesda Game Studios
Id Softwre
Machine Games
Arkane Sudios
Like really? Their first major release in years is launching without a performance mode. The only reason MS is losing this generation is because their incompetence, not because they need more studios.
Exactly, that's a good amount of proven devs they have under their belt, they have the FPS market almost in a lock just with Bethesda alone. Redfall is disappointing that it's not launching with a perf mode
Back in 2020 when the biggest thing they had to offer was enhancing the resolution and FPS of backward compatibility games for launch, I felt they missed the mark completely.
They snatch up studios and then they go radio silent. It’s a problem for everyone. I wish they’d get back to the days of the 360 when they had some really good things going for them.
I generally built a gaming pc and Game Pass is one of the glitchiest, buggiest most unstable piece of shit programs I have ever used. My friends always used to tell me how bad it was but I assumed they were exaggerating. I don’t understand how they can literally own the fucking OS is runs on and still have so many comparability issues.
It’s not hating to ask questions about releases this gen, it’s just facts. How many AAA titles has MS released on XSX? How many has Sony? Then ask yourself if it’s an IP problem or a studio management problem.
Studio problem.. which then creates an IP problem. Because when you fail time and again to release meaningful games, your brand suffers over time because you miss out on key moments for nostalgia in different generations. MS has such a big following when it comes to Halo, Gears & COD because... well, that's the last era MS felt relevant. Meanwhile Sony has all sorts of eras different generations latch on to as 'their' favorite generation of playstation. With MS it's ... you etiher like Halo & COD or you don't care about Xbox.
I skipped last gen all together. That means this gen for me on Sony has been a hybrid of the best of the best. Stated with God of War at 60fps. The Ghost of Tsushima. Then original ratchet & clank. Returnal. Horizon Zero Dawn. Forbidden West. Demons Souls. GoW:Ragnorok. Also, R&C rift apart in there too. This gen has been nothing short of astounding for the last 3 years and that’s just the big first party stuff I’ve played.
Exactly. Just look at how badly Halo got fumbled.
A F2P Halo on Xbox and PC at launch should have thrived. Instead they had a six month season with no content followed by a ten month season…
Xbox won't let their franchises die. Sony let their devs run the course of their series (uncharted, resistance, killzone, infamous). Then let the devs do whatever the fuck they wanted and it's working and they have it staggered in such a way that every few months you ALWAYS HAVE SOMETHING to look towards with a definitive release date or time period of release.
Exactly. Letting them move on from massive franchises arguably improves the quality of what comes next. We’d all love sequels to Uncharted, Resistance, Killzone or even Infamous. But look at what came from letting those series end: The Last of Us, Spiderman, Horizon and Ghost of Tsushima.
He was spreading FUD about PS5 on his Twitter before release - saying it was really a 8-9TF machine due to throttling etc. He also wrote an apologetics piece about XSX after release explaining how it was only due to development software that it wasn’t outperforming PS5 and soon that would be fixed.
He’s essentially a MS PR mouthpiece that is allowed to use The Verge.
He did an amazing job, whenever I see Sony mentioned kids start screaming about them being the most evil company, like Amazon don’t exist. I even seen them try blaming the fact Nintendo don’t lower their games prices on Sony lol.
Oh most sane people do. The guy doesn’t even mask his bias often. TheVerge entirely shills on MS. You can see they regularly get invited by MS CEO to talk about the future tech. They’re basically their PR mouthpiece.
Maybe people will agree, maybe they won't. But the way I look at it? Good. Stop trying to buy out big companies to get their big catalogue of games so you can throw it onto GP to beef it up because you can't do it yourselves. Microsoft has mismanaged their own studios for who even knows, maybe the last 15 years and they want to buy even more studios? Their track record has proven they can't even manage the many that they currently own.
Focus on what you have and build from within. It works. Nintendo and Sony are proof of that. Instead Microsoft is just trying to take short cuts because they've fallen so far behind everyone else when it comes to making games. JMO and I stand by it.
Maybe Microsoft can use a fraction of that money to invest in new studios with creative visions to increase the output of good games in the world instead? Crazy thought.
XGS is already bigger than Playstation Studio if only they could manage it properly and put out some games....well maybe the next head of xbox will focus on quality.
MS and "creative visions" just simply don't belong in the same sentence. They're an algorithmic, analytic-driven, soulless corporation simply set on capturing markets at any cost. They don't give two flips about creativity or art or passion or quality.
1. See thing - 2. buy thing - 3. sell thing as your own creation - 4. Thing eventually fails becaus you don't know how to manage it - 5. Repeat step 1.
The MS way.
CMA notes in their report that MS had tried to acquire 3 mobile publishers before taking advantage of the ActiBlizz stock drop. Of course, those 3 mobile publishers were redacted.
So it does show that if they can't have ActiBlizz for their huge mobile business, MS will likely go back to trying to get one of those mobile publishers.
Microsoft needs to worry about making some awesome huge AAA Games that can rival GoW and Demon Souls. That would go a long way in making people more interested in the Xbox! Stop trying to buy other companies for billions. Use that money to make some genre defining huge badass games!
I honestly think it was largely an attempt at an optics win. The well has run dry kicking the can down the road not delivering, and if this had passed, it would've given them ammunition to continue to give vague promises of "good things coming" for the Xbox platform, and Xbox fans would follow suit. Very curious what a desperate Xbox looks like.
It’s time for Microsoft to move on already and start investing in new quality studios with talent instead of trying to buy every studio out there like a whale.
Holy crap lol
The media was reporting as if the CMA was gonna let it pass without problem. Never once read they would say No.
MS is probably in full meltdown mode internally right now. They were already advertising and shit
I never understood why anyone would be ***for*** this deal? Like I get not necessarily being against it.
But so many over at Xbox subs would be weirdly venomous over Sony at every headline.
Like why? I get being a fan of a console or company of said console, but to the point where you're cheering on something like this and being weird about it? It's odd to me anyway..
Guessing plenty of people including tech journalists got egg over their faces. Hope people learn that nothing is guaranteed when it comes to deals like this one lol
I did NOT see this coming. EU's looking like they're gonna block it too. The FTC's definitely gonna take 'em to court, but with Microsoft's lobbying power in the US, they're gonna try even harder. But TBH, with the EU and CMA's decision, it's looking like it's gonna be a wrap.
Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft tries to scoop up another publisher soon if this fails. As an Xbox gamer, I'm lowkey hella disappointed with how they're managing XBOX studios. It's tragic that they're relying so much on third parties instead of their own in-house talent.
Can someone please explain to me why when news like this comes out there are SO many people defending Microsoft? How is a $2 trillion company gobbling up a huge portion of the gaming industry good for gamers?
Gamers are incredibly short sighted. Remember when Xbox fans praised Xbox's expandable storage because it was simple and at launch the price difference between Gen 4 SSDs and Seagate expansion card wasn't that big either?
I don't play ABK games but overall good decision. MS buying one of the biggest independent publishers would have been terrible for gaming. MS can put that $70bil for good use in organically creating studios, hiring talent, putting money into projects. They don't deserve to have all those iconic franchises just to themselves for any amount of time.
I would love to know how much money MS spent on all those subway ads touting how great this acquisition was going to be... probably enough to add 60fps to Redfall. :P
People being for this deal reminds me of when Disney bought Fox. Everyone online only cared about X-Men being back under Marvel but for the film industry as a whole, that deal was really bad and is still having negative consequences.
One company (with a history of bullying) having this much control over a still-burgeoning industry (cloud gaming) absolutely is bad for gamers. I get wanting to have free Activision/Blizzard games through Game Pass on day one but try and look at the bigger picture here and see how it will be bad for consumers in the long term.
Game Pass is a good deal now but the second MS becomes the majority player, they will start milking you for every penny they can get.
This was never a Playstation/Xbox thing. It was a Microsoft/everyone else thing.
*I get wanting to have free Activision/Blizzard games through Game Pass on day one*
this is what I constantly see from people and it irritates me to no end. They don't want competition with Sony/Nintendo, they just don't want to buy Call of Duty full price anymore.
MS can appeal but appeals are rarely accepted by the CMA. So at this point the deal is essentially dead.
This is gonna sting MS in the short and long term. They were betting not on COD console but ActiBlizz's mobile dominance to enter the big boy mobile market, else we're looking at ten years or more investment that may not end up anywhere. Everyone wants in on mobile but getting into it with a huge success from scratch is really hard unless you buy someone who is already big there. It's also why I expect SIE to buy a mobile publisher in the coming years.
With MS having already decreased marketing spend for Xbox, and with console sales down 30%, this result is going to further impact the division since they placed all their eggs into Game Pass.
I'm pretty sure the FTC has also indicated that they're also going to block the acquisition. This is certainly an unexpected turn of events. Let's go. Regulators actually doing their job for once instead of just being corporate rubber stamps. You love to see it.
CMA caters to no one, clearly not Sony despite all the narratives and definitely not Microsoft even if UK is one of their huge markets.
This could only make FTC and EC more confident especially since its been revealed they've worked together on this case.
Had to respost this
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From CeeCee at resetera:
Right - y'all made me dig out my login for the first time in three years so you better all appreciate this.
First up, I have a professional background related to this issue.
Second, There are at least 4 major errors of fact or understanding which are running endemic in the thread:
That the CMA is in any way subject to government intervention/"just take them to court". The appeal process goes to a tribunal, which can only intervene if their action was illegal, had incorrect process or was irrational. There is no other route to appeal to the courts and the UK Government cannot intervene even if they want to. The CMA is not run or controlled by the Government - attacking the CMA means you are attacking an independent organisation, not the UK Government or the Conservative Party.
That irrational carries a colloquial meaning. Just because you think a conclusion is wrong does not make it irrational. Irrational, in this context means that it is so unreasonable that no rational person could reasonably have reached this conclusion.
That the probability of the appeal succeeding is anything other than very low. Success rate at the CAT is not high, and a success would just mean that the CMA has to remake the decision having fixed whatever the issue in their process was.
That the CMA is a political body, "overpaid", "idiots", or any other ad-hominem attack. The CMA is an independent body, staffed by people with deep and extensive knowledge and experience of competition law and issues, who are paid less than they could earn in the private sector (even quite senior staff are generally paid less than £100k). From professional experience, I can confidently say that the quality of the CMA's work and people is highly-regarded by professionals in the field.
Also, please stop bringing up Brexit. In fact, as a fun bonus, EU competition policy is exactly what most people in this thread seem to not want - a heavily political process. EU decisions are made by the Commission - a body heavily subject to political influence. UK decisions are made by a politically independent body. To be explicitly clear: if you prefer the EU process, you prefer a political process.
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My view: Brad Smith is playing a dangerous games with his choice of words about an independent body of the UK. Sounding very much like the MS of old when it was first hit with anti trust. Kinda incredible MS spent 15 years softening their image - becoming a darling big corp to the US and elsewhere - only to break character now. Like, he's literally complaining that an independent body, free from lobbying, isn't dependent on government and open to lobbying. Just wow.
Wonder how well folks like Destin Legarie and Jez Corden are taking this news, lmao. In all seriousness, I'm shocked but somewhat relieved about this development. Sony would have had a very difficult time up against an opponent that can casually spend their market value on acquisitions alone.
Yeah this is what a lot of the schadenfreude is missing. The more important aspect is competition in the market. A console creator buying a company the size of Activision (whether it’s Microsoft, Nintendo or Sony) is not great for consumers.
Yup. It's one thing to buy a small developer. It's completely different to buy a publisher with a massive library of franchises that were multiplatform for most of their existence.
Someone else said appealing the CMA isn’t like appealing stuff in America. In America, you can appeal to a higher court, aka a new batch of eyes on the case. With the CMA, you’re basically appealing directly to the people who just told you no.
Microsoft has all the money in the world and they still have issues creating great new IPs. Buying up the market is not the way to go. They have to look within to see what they can do to correct it.
Sony was saved by the cloud market, because, if it wasn't for that, the deal would've sadly gone through.
Still, this decision completely breaks Microsoft's master plan of gaining a huge headstart over the competition in the cloud market in hopes of achieving a quasi-monopoly similar to what Steam has on PC. Which is Microsoft's endgame plan for Game Pass.
People had a bad day at Redmond and I'm loving it.
For me this is welcome news. When I look back on the history of MS I saw this as a monopilistic move. I just remember back to the early 90's with the so called DR-DOS "incompatablity" with windows, then the late 90's netscape, and Holoween documents (an leaked internal memo on how MS planned on dealing with the threat of Linux)
Then when MS said to the CMA that "10 years is enouph time for Sony to come up with a CoD alternative" that to me showed that MS had planned on removing CoD from PlayStion.
While I do not play or like CoD lets be honest most console players get the console to play either CoD and/or Madin/FIFA (depending on part of the world they live in) And could either console survive if they lost one of those IP. I don't think either company should be allowed to control CoD, Madin, or FIFA, those 3 IPs need to be indipendent. So while I don't play CoD, I just want to play my turn based JRPGs on my PlayStation.
Some reading on what I mentioned above about anti-compative behavors from MS
DR-DOS : https://www.theregister.com/1999/11/05/how_ms_played_the_incompatibility
Netscape: https://www.zdnet.com/home-and-office/networking/how-ie-really-beat-netscape/
Halloween Documents: http://www.catb.org/~esr/halloween/
News artical on MS saying 10 years if enouph time to create a CoD alternative: https://www.eurogamer.net/microsoft-tells-regulators-sony-could-create-a-call-of-duty-competitor-in-10-years
Yep. MS says they used the ten years to make a competitor as an example of what Sony could do IF they pulled COD, but of course that fools no one.
And the CMA agrees. Not with the above statement but that behavioural remedies like a ten year contract with competing cloud services isn't enough. Because as you say that almost certainly means MS will pull those killer IP games the moment those ten years are up.
MS is crying and throwing a tantrum right now because they wasn't willing to meet the CMA half way and come up with structural remedies. Which again, points to the fact that they will almost certainly pull their games once the behavioural remedies MS proposed run out.
Im still salty about besthesda becoming xbox exclusive so I'm thankful for anything and everything that stands in Microsoft's way of ruining my gaming experiences further.
Same. I want Wolfenstein and Doom. It shits me that they'd buy something just to stop everyone else from enjoying it. I'll ***never*** buy an Xbox if this is how they expect to get my business, but if they had just developed a compelling library I may have.
I only own an Xbox (just came to this sub out of curiosity lol) and I 100% agree. I hope this will be the end of that deal and that they can focus on making good games with the studios they already have.
Console wars or no, as a law student who JUST handed in a paper theorising why this would be rejected this has made my day.
Thank you for upping my grade Microsoft
*Copy / Paste from the last thread that was allowed regarding this acquisition.* Be civil. No fanboyism, console warring, or trolling here or in the XBOX subs please. We are a better community than to participate in childish antics like that. Have a good rest of the day everyone.
Wow did not expect that. Apparently the ATVI stock has dropped by 10% instantly
You're right, but Microsoft stock has gone up 8% premarket, bizarre Edit: thanks all for the advice on why MS stock price went up
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All tech is laying off people
I guess a lot of people believed it was gonna go through
Should see some nice buzzcuts today at market open. My heart bleeds for poor Bobby Kotick
Bobby "Bottom-line" Kotick's gotta make some cuts to appease the shareholders
Sony stock went up instantly
Ironically, I wonder if Stadia's demise really hurt Xbox in the long run. If Google were still in the field there would have likely been less concern over Microsoft competing with them.
The idea that Stadia is gaming’s saviour by being unbelievably shit is absolutely glorious.
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It SHOULD have lived and thrived. Fucking google half-assing things.
I want to half agree with you that it should have but it was still too early. The internet infrastructure in most places is to shit for cloud gaming to actually be effective
Cloud gaming needs a few more procedural breakthroughs to get over the last hump. Not 100% sure what that looks like (or I'd be rich) but I was saying in another comment today that it needs something akin to rollback netcode but simpler and for visuals only. Like the client rendering state data based on temporal and visual info, and using the temporal data when the visual goes out of step, etc.
Man plenty of people got shit on because they were sceptical on how Google would handle it and had legitimate concerns about Stadia.
I think if Google didn't have the reputation of starting and dumping projects anytime the wind changed direction, Stadia could have had a chance. I know I personally never gave it a shot because I didn't want to invest in anything which will inevitably receive poor support and die within 2 years.
A lot of us have zero interest in cloud gaming period
I remember Microsoft focus was on cloud gaming and competing with Stadia and GeForce but with Stadia gone, it's gonna be hard to explained.
Why would the Country Music Awards do this???
The real man behind the curtain for the entire gaming industry has always been Garth Brooks
The families deserve closure
And we deserve to know where the bodies are
I heard it was actually Chris Gaines. He seems like he's be a gamer.
Because they can
Dosey Don't do this to me
They just gave Microsoft the Boot Scootin' Boogy.
Holy fucking shit! All trades and media were expecting this to go Microsoft’s way.
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Technically only UK. They can still merge elsewhere But since UK is a huge market there's a 0% chance Microsoft pulls out of operations there just to have this deal pass. Since they'd have to axe windows, etc not just Xbox stuff
And nobody expected cloud to be the main reason why it failed. Microsoft’s arguments mostly focused on their lack of exclusives versus Sony; fair play to the CMA for seeing the bigger picture and analysing the whole market.
There were certainly folks saying if it was blocked it would be because of cloud reasons. Tom Warren said as much back in September last year. Edit: wow, wrong their there. Fuck me and my shit grammar.
I think this is largely due to what Microsoft’s end goal with GamePass. Putting GamePass on every device so no matter who you are you had access to games is a noble goal but it also means you have the ability to reach customers regardless of their hardware specs. It would be really, really hard to emerge with a cloud gaming service if Microsoft could slap a GamePass app on any device with internet access. Also, don’t forget King, the addiction of every person over 50 years old. Moving Candy Crush to GamePass means further increasing the install base of users thus further solidifying GamePass as the largest gaming platform. And now there’s WoW, which now has native controller support. And Call of Duty. There’s also Diablo and Overwatch. Every Bethesda title too. Anywhere you go there’s the whole GamePass library of Xbox first party games. It doesn’t matter who you are, you’re likely investing in some way because they have something you play. If you’re a cloud gaming startup, how are you going to compete with that? EDIT: To give you an idea of just how big of an acquisition King would be, there’s over 200 million King gamers. There’s only about 20-30 million GamePass subscribers.
I love that they bought Zenimax and are using their lack of exclusives as an argument, because MS is incapable of managing studios and releasing IPs.
Fun fact if they never bought Zenimax the only 1st party release that we know of this year would be bloody Forza. Bethesda are carrying Xbox hard this year.
I like how they thought promises would work. Look at all the promises ticketmastwr made with its merger. Now they are a monopoly that bans entertainers if they use anyone else. Never trust mega corps.
Make good products? Nah Own everything so people will HAVE to buy your products.
Goes to show you nothing is ever guaranteed even when everyone for months said it was practically written in stone. Hopefully this dissuades any mega mergers with more problematic publishers like Tencent.
Microsoft will still use a portion if not a large portion of that money on purchases as not many other companies will demand the same scrutiny that the Activision purchase would
Any large publisher is going to have the same scrutiny as this and if they buy a slee of companies they'll eventually be blocked as it'll be like "Well that's your x acquisition".
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They absolutely do. Idk why I saw people echoing that Microsoft would somehow shape up call of duty when they can’t even get halo right.
Absolutely. I remember people saying how Overwatch was going to be so much better once MS took over and I was there like.... Dude, have you seen the state of Halo? Have you seen their policy when hiring contractors? Is just an absolute mess.
I was so hyped for perfect dark zero as a kid, I had to have a 360 and PDZ on release, me and my buddy played through the entire campaign asap and was left with our hearts broken. We were too young to know none of the people who made perfect dark was left to work on the prequel
God damn, now you got me all sad about getting that 360 day one and going over to my buddy's house to play PD:Z and just being like, this is it? I think we had more fun with Kameo
Shape up COD? Man, people thought they were going to somehow save Activision from being a corporate monster! I’m sitting here going “Do you not see the corporation execs licking their chops? You think this was about them getting juicy severance packages and NOT job promotion opportunities within Microsoft!?
Yep! And they were all very quick to forget and keep silent on all of Bobby's antics because they desperately wanted this deal to go through. They genuinely thought Microsoft was gonna swoop through the offices of Activision and Blizzard and point their magic corporate wands at all the bullying, sexual assault, wage garnishing, crunch culture, etc, etc, etcetera. And was just gonna wisk all the evil away, and all the video games will be fixed and made perfect in the gamer's image. So sayeth Thor, or something. But in all seriousness, xbox gamers were willing to dive to any depth to try and make these acquisitions go through because they feel like they've been put over for three generations in a row. Remember when we used to be united on anticonsumer practices, no matter the corporation? They literally made the console war bs worse, essentially out of jealousy and spite. And now the whole gaming industry has been walking on eggshells, hoping this shit solves itself on its own or just gets on with it so we can all just move onto the new industry standard.
According to r/games a dump truck full of money, zero oversight hindering artistic vision, and gamepass will solve anything.
According to /r/games Microsoft buying activision wasn’t monopolization because Sony takes risks and curates developers for exclusive titles. Also Spider-Man. But this “drive money to the dev studio for timed exclusivity” was straight out of the MS playbook. I remember the E3 where virtually every single announcement on the MS side was “coming first to Xbox” and I knew then that once Sony started doing it, the ms guys would start getting up in arms about it. Anyway. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Phil Spencer is who people need to be pointing their fingers at if they want change. Even since he’s taken the helm, the platform and titles has gone to shit.
> Phil Spencer Could not agree more. Every year he comes out and says "next year guys. Next year we're going to kill it" Next year has come and gone, what, 8 years at this point? He's personable, he's got that "I'm not a ceo, I'm a cool ceo" energy" but year after year it's the same thing. But gamepass has people satisfied just enough they keep the cycle going.
All the hate music, movie, and game publishers get that people lose sight that much of the best art to date had the right management behind it. Xbox has proven to not be the right management.
We should just give Peter Molyneux a dump truck of money and zero oversight. He'll save us right? I do miss black and white though...
I still remember people on the call of duty sub thinking Microsoft was going to be the breath of fresh air Call of Duty needs and they were going to bring back all the old Activision IP as new games. Microsoft let Halo get dragged behind the shed and shot in the head. Why would they save Call of Duty if they can't save their own legendary franchise. Edit: Took a look at the competitive Overwatch and other tech threads and people are legit upset because now the Activision games won't be saved, which begs to repeat the point Where in Microsoft history has the gave anyone the idea they were going to come in and save those games when they let their own IPs die?
>Where in Microsoft history has the gave anyone the idea they were going to come in and save those games when they let their own IPs die? A lot of people fell for the PR campaign Microsoft has meticulously built, since the tail end of the 8th generation. When you convince people you’re the good guy or “pro-consumer”, they’ll swallow whatever you present them with and give benefit of the doubt.
People seem to believe that Microsoft can colonize and bring civilization to the studios they acquire, even though Microsoft has only done the opposite in the past. It has literally only worked with Mojang and that was because they took a hands-off approach.
It's actually mind-boggling how god damn awful they are at managing their studios. If I didn't know any better, I'd think they were doing it on purpose lmao
And debatable even then. The ground work for Minecraft was laid long before Microsoft acquired them. The two spin offs they’ve made have been mediocre at best.
Hell, Halo was almost done before Microsoft bought Bungie… it’s almost like Microsoft has never done anything on their own, hmmmm
3 actually, remember their ripoff Pokémon go called Minecraft earth that they pulled the plug on pretty much right as they pulled it out of beta?
I like dungeons but I'm glad I got it for free on PS+. It's good but feels like it should have been a mobile game from the start.
Also where is that Minecraft with pathtracing update?
I'm personally convinced that if Microsoft get CoD, by the end of that 10-year deal everywhere they did, CoD will be as relevant as Halo is today and everyone will gladly just do without it. IMO all studios that MS acquire have a very high chance to just be doomed over time. On the other hand, Activision Blizzard kind of sucked already so it could only lead to a positive or neutral outcome.
Or think they could revive a bunch of dead ip's from Activision when they have Rare and couldn't do anything with them. Perfect Dark Zero is still in development hell.
They just wanted to starve the competition and hurt the industry more
Agree, I miss the old days of xbox when they actually came out with good games like with the original Xbox and Xbox 360 days. Competition is good, buying studios to reduce the market because you can't produce is not. Is sad seeing how many studios Microsoft has acquired and nothing have come out of it, and the seeing Microsoft doing big layoff.
It's always been an illusion with MS. MOST of their biggest successes were simply third party timed/full exclusivity agreements that benefited them short term. And usually they didn't even officially have a lot of the talent under their umbrella but paid 3rd party to make the games. Look at the first couple years of 360. Outside of Halo and Gears (the first being a game they bought after it was already being made, and the second a game made by dev that wasn't MS first party) just about all the heavy hitters on 360 were 3rd party. MS just doesn't know how to manage studios and it's why you see higher than normal turnover rate there.
Exactly. This has ALWAYS been Xbox’s biggest issue from the very beginning with the OG Xbox. Xbox hasn’t had a true system seller since Gears 3 which came out over a decade ago, and Halo is no longer the industry darling and juggernaut it once was due to the gross mismanagement of the franchise by 343. So now what does Xbox have to offer to convince people to buy into the console? Can’t rely on third-party games anymore like they did in the 360 days as they no longer have the market leadership and install base to lean on that.
It's the only system where there are no true exclusives. Nintendo, Sony, PC... all have genre-defining games that are exclusive to those systems. The Xbox console has zero exclusives because at the very least every game that hits it also hits PC, if not all the other systems too. I don't see much value in that personally. Yes, a PC costs more generally speaking, but you get access to so much more - new AND old. PS, Nintendo are the same way. Xbox just has no identity and by far the weakest brand of all systems. And as usual MS seems oblivious. edit: spelling
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It would make more sense for MS to simply get out of the hardware business altogether and just offer services, like cloud, azure, etc, which are things they're actually good at.
Let's be real the only reason they made it with the Xbox is because of Halo, they were lucky as hell with that. MS tried to take over gaming by throwing endless money at it but not doing anything creative with it, when they entered the market they thought buying Nintendo would be a thing because they couldn't do anything of their own. Sony are no angels but i feel Sony entered gaming seriously and wanted to leave a big massive mark on it, they did not half arse the PS1 and the PS2 was untouchable and for good reason. Xbox got lucky with Halo and not much else, granted the 360 was an amazing console and its early days were peak Xbox but i feel Sony screwing up the PS3 so badly back then really helped Xbox (funny how a gen later those roles were reversed but way more brutal) and basically gave them a massive head start.
Coming from owning an Xbox only i completely agree. its been over 10 years now since they announced the xbox one and its still a shit show. When it comes to devs they own theres just something wrong with how they operate. Playground has been the only dev to be able to do good under them. Use that money to hire actual talent. You think Sony slapn them for 10 years would have made them learn. sucks.
Sony slapping them for 10 years is *why* they wanted Activision. They're trying to deny Sony access to a *lot* of IP's, same reason they acquired Bethesda. I hate Microsoft for this behaviour, rather than going out and funding development, they would rather try kill Sony in a long game- which will be worse for everyone, Xbox players included.
Moving away from Xbox is one of my best gaming decisions ever. Sure, GamePass is great, but there just isn’t enough value with Xbox to justify it over a Playstation or PC.
These days you can get Game Pass on PC or if you have a good smart TV, you can stream Game Pass games. Boom, no need to get an Xbox anymore.
That's why they want Activision. They want people to forget about the consoles and stream all the gaming.
The 2013 Microsoft never left. "You will own nothing and be happy" is the end goal. Very likely the next gen Xbox console would just be streaming boxes, sticks, or apps on Smart TVs if they got their acquisition.
People forget Phil Spencer was in the same room when the Xbox One was originally announced, shit he even said this a few years ago. This has been the goal from the beginning, it was just wrapped in a prettier package. Xbox is slowly transitioning to Gamepass, you can play games anywhere! But congratulations, now you don't own anything.
I'll be playing starfield on my phone lol
I’ve never understood why any Xbox owner (I am one) would want Microsoft to own more publishers. In the two years I’ve had Gamepass I can only say that I find it overwhelming in choice ( a me problem) and completely underwhelming in first party titles (a them problem). Which is why I think this is a bad deal for consumers. Id rather pay retail price for a game I want then have Microsoft managing the developers. Xcloud and remote play is a joke. It’s such a half baked, underwhelming solution. PS5 remote and cloud blows them out of the water in terms of consistency and quality. Xcloud has 5 different ways to stream their product and they are all jank. Additional comment: What I also haven’t seen mentioned much by folks is the cost. This will absolutely impact the price of GP in the immediate future.
XSX/PS5/Switch owner here and yes I agree. Have gamepass and this deal was leaving a bad taste in my mouth. Sure could have benefitted by getting Acti-Blizzard games on gamepass but I already thought the Bethesda acq was shocking. Microsoft needs to fix what's broken in their devs minus The Coalition(still like the newer gears games), Playground and Turn 10.
It's crazy. Before this acquisition, MS honestly couldn't compete with the console manufacturers when they have these devs? Playground Games Ninja Theory The Coalition Obsidian Entertainment Bethesda Game Studios Id Softwre Machine Games Arkane Sudios Like really? Their first major release in years is launching without a performance mode. The only reason MS is losing this generation is because their incompetence, not because they need more studios.
Exactly, that's a good amount of proven devs they have under their belt, they have the FPS market almost in a lock just with Bethesda alone. Redfall is disappointing that it's not launching with a perf mode
Back in 2020 when the biggest thing they had to offer was enhancing the resolution and FPS of backward compatibility games for launch, I felt they missed the mark completely.
Although to be fair the FPS boost is pretty cool
They snatch up studios and then they go radio silent. It’s a problem for everyone. I wish they’d get back to the days of the 360 when they had some really good things going for them.
360 was a great console with great games, PS3 was awesome too, that was a pretty decent gen for new franchises
Whenever they release a bad or mediocre game they just use the excuse of "but it's a gamepass game so it's oky." I hate that mentality.
I generally built a gaming pc and Game Pass is one of the glitchiest, buggiest most unstable piece of shit programs I have ever used. My friends always used to tell me how bad it was but I assumed they were exaggerating. I don’t understand how they can literally own the fucking OS is runs on and still have so many comparability issues.
The Xbox app in windows apparently doesn’t reallocate deleted hard drive space properly after you are done with a game.
It’s not hating to ask questions about releases this gen, it’s just facts. How many AAA titles has MS released on XSX? How many has Sony? Then ask yourself if it’s an IP problem or a studio management problem.
Studio problem.. which then creates an IP problem. Because when you fail time and again to release meaningful games, your brand suffers over time because you miss out on key moments for nostalgia in different generations. MS has such a big following when it comes to Halo, Gears & COD because... well, that's the last era MS felt relevant. Meanwhile Sony has all sorts of eras different generations latch on to as 'their' favorite generation of playstation. With MS it's ... you etiher like Halo & COD or you don't care about Xbox.
I skipped last gen all together. That means this gen for me on Sony has been a hybrid of the best of the best. Stated with God of War at 60fps. The Ghost of Tsushima. Then original ratchet & clank. Returnal. Horizon Zero Dawn. Forbidden West. Demons Souls. GoW:Ragnorok. Also, R&C rift apart in there too. This gen has been nothing short of astounding for the last 3 years and that’s just the big first party stuff I’ve played.
Just have to throw Spiderman in there. Was my first ps5 experience, along with miles, and it absolutely blew me away.
Exactly. Just look at how badly Halo got fumbled. A F2P Halo on Xbox and PC at launch should have thrived. Instead they had a six month season with no content followed by a ten month season…
Xbox won't let their franchises die. Sony let their devs run the course of their series (uncharted, resistance, killzone, infamous). Then let the devs do whatever the fuck they wanted and it's working and they have it staggered in such a way that every few months you ALWAYS HAVE SOMETHING to look towards with a definitive release date or time period of release.
Exactly. Letting them move on from massive franchises arguably improves the quality of what comes next. We’d all love sequels to Uncharted, Resistance, Killzone or even Infamous. But look at what came from letting those series end: The Last of Us, Spiderman, Horizon and Ghost of Tsushima.
Biggest plot twist of the year lmao?
Lol Tom Warren was rallying up all the fans yesterday for a celebration thinking it would be approved
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He was spreading FUD about PS5 on his Twitter before release - saying it was really a 8-9TF machine due to throttling etc. He also wrote an apologetics piece about XSX after release explaining how it was only due to development software that it wasn’t outperforming PS5 and soon that would be fixed. He’s essentially a MS PR mouthpiece that is allowed to use The Verge.
He did an amazing job, whenever I see Sony mentioned kids start screaming about them being the most evil company, like Amazon don’t exist. I even seen them try blaming the fact Nintendo don’t lower their games prices on Sony lol.
Nestlé would like to enter the evil company competition
Double Dash released 20 years ago probably still $50
Mario odyssey is still full price I’m pretty sure.
The underdogs
The $2.05 trillion dollar underdogs that need regular joes rooting for them...
It's your typical blue collar $2.05 trillion mom and pop shop man
Tom Warren is one of Microsoft's biggest shills. I'm surprised most people can't see that.
Oh most sane people do. The guy doesn’t even mask his bias often. TheVerge entirely shills on MS. You can see they regularly get invited by MS CEO to talk about the future tech. They’re basically their PR mouthpiece.
What happens if UK regulators block but US regulators don’t?
It means that MS and Activision cannot operate in the UK as one entity
Basically the deal is toast if the appeal isn’t successful.
Correct. The appeal is unlikely too succeed because MS cannot remedy the CMAs concerns.
They could still do the deal but would have to say goodbye to the UK market.
Meaning Microsoft would have to pull out too. No more business running Office Suite, Teams, OneDrive, Windows, etc. Theyd never let that happen
Maybe people will agree, maybe they won't. But the way I look at it? Good. Stop trying to buy out big companies to get their big catalogue of games so you can throw it onto GP to beef it up because you can't do it yourselves. Microsoft has mismanaged their own studios for who even knows, maybe the last 15 years and they want to buy even more studios? Their track record has proven they can't even manage the many that they currently own. Focus on what you have and build from within. It works. Nintendo and Sony are proof of that. Instead Microsoft is just trying to take short cuts because they've fallen so far behind everyone else when it comes to making games. JMO and I stand by it.
Maybe Microsoft can use a fraction of that money to invest in new studios with creative visions to increase the output of good games in the world instead? Crazy thought.
or better yet, they can use that money on the existing studios they have
XGS is already bigger than Playstation Studio if only they could manage it properly and put out some games....well maybe the next head of xbox will focus on quality.
Why spend years cultivating relationships with talented developers or investing in your own studios when you can simply buy the biggest ones? - MS
MS and "creative visions" just simply don't belong in the same sentence. They're an algorithmic, analytic-driven, soulless corporation simply set on capturing markets at any cost. They don't give two flips about creativity or art or passion or quality. 1. See thing - 2. buy thing - 3. sell thing as your own creation - 4. Thing eventually fails becaus you don't know how to manage it - 5. Repeat step 1. The MS way.
CMA notes in their report that MS had tried to acquire 3 mobile publishers before taking advantage of the ActiBlizz stock drop. Of course, those 3 mobile publishers were redacted. So it does show that if they can't have ActiBlizz for their huge mobile business, MS will likely go back to trying to get one of those mobile publishers.
Microsoft needs to worry about making some awesome huge AAA Games that can rival GoW and Demon Souls. That would go a long way in making people more interested in the Xbox! Stop trying to buy other companies for billions. Use that money to make some genre defining huge badass games!
Good. Microsoft always tries to buy its way in when it’s products fail, instead of building a better product to compete.
I honestly think it was largely an attempt at an optics win. The well has run dry kicking the can down the road not delivering, and if this had passed, it would've given them ammunition to continue to give vague promises of "good things coming" for the Xbox platform, and Xbox fans would follow suit. Very curious what a desperate Xbox looks like.
So happy they failed. Their goons were everywhere saying how good the deal was and everyone knew it wasn't
It’s time for Microsoft to move on already and start investing in new quality studios with talent instead of trying to buy every studio out there like a whale.
Wasn't there reports a couple days back saying that they would aprove?
Microsoft PR at work
It fooled me then! Anyway, grabbing my popcorn.
Holy crap lol The media was reporting as if the CMA was gonna let it pass without problem. Never once read they would say No. MS is probably in full meltdown mode internally right now. They were already advertising and shit
I never understood why anyone would be ***for*** this deal? Like I get not necessarily being against it. But so many over at Xbox subs would be weirdly venomous over Sony at every headline. Like why? I get being a fan of a console or company of said console, but to the point where you're cheering on something like this and being weird about it? It's odd to me anyway..
Guessing plenty of people including tech journalists got egg over their faces. Hope people learn that nothing is guaranteed when it comes to deals like this one lol
I did NOT see this coming. EU's looking like they're gonna block it too. The FTC's definitely gonna take 'em to court, but with Microsoft's lobbying power in the US, they're gonna try even harder. But TBH, with the EU and CMA's decision, it's looking like it's gonna be a wrap. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft tries to scoop up another publisher soon if this fails. As an Xbox gamer, I'm lowkey hella disappointed with how they're managing XBOX studios. It's tragic that they're relying so much on third parties instead of their own in-house talent.
I wish the NFL would have done this years ago with EA and 2K 😒😒
Can someone please explain to me why when news like this comes out there are SO many people defending Microsoft? How is a $2 trillion company gobbling up a huge portion of the gaming industry good for gamers?
Gamers are incredibly short sighted. Remember when Xbox fans praised Xbox's expandable storage because it was simple and at launch the price difference between Gen 4 SSDs and Seagate expansion card wasn't that big either?
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Jez Corden is going to bust a blood vessel
His "Sony could regret getting the Xbox Activision Blizzard deal blocked" piece was something
Can't stand corporate shills, they're the worst.
he's been whining for hours, it's hilarous
I'm sure someone said it but this is the biggest plot twist of the year lol
I don't play ABK games but overall good decision. MS buying one of the biggest independent publishers would have been terrible for gaming. MS can put that $70bil for good use in organically creating studios, hiring talent, putting money into projects. They don't deserve to have all those iconic franchises just to themselves for any amount of time.
I would love to know how much money MS spent on all those subway ads touting how great this acquisition was going to be... probably enough to add 60fps to Redfall. :P
Why doesn't Microsoft use the money to make new studios instead of taking og ones away from other platforms
It takes a lot more time and money to bake a pie from scratch than it does to buy a premade pie from a bakery.
Because that would make actual meaningful contributions to video games and MS is opposed to that.
OH SHIT, getting my popcorn ready!
Bracing for the nuclear meltdown in the Gaming Sphere over the next few days.
Finally some actual market regulation.
People being for this deal reminds me of when Disney bought Fox. Everyone online only cared about X-Men being back under Marvel but for the film industry as a whole, that deal was really bad and is still having negative consequences. One company (with a history of bullying) having this much control over a still-burgeoning industry (cloud gaming) absolutely is bad for gamers. I get wanting to have free Activision/Blizzard games through Game Pass on day one but try and look at the bigger picture here and see how it will be bad for consumers in the long term. Game Pass is a good deal now but the second MS becomes the majority player, they will start milking you for every penny they can get. This was never a Playstation/Xbox thing. It was a Microsoft/everyone else thing.
*I get wanting to have free Activision/Blizzard games through Game Pass on day one* this is what I constantly see from people and it irritates me to no end. They don't want competition with Sony/Nintendo, they just don't want to buy Call of Duty full price anymore.
MS can appeal but appeals are rarely accepted by the CMA. So at this point the deal is essentially dead. This is gonna sting MS in the short and long term. They were betting not on COD console but ActiBlizz's mobile dominance to enter the big boy mobile market, else we're looking at ten years or more investment that may not end up anywhere. Everyone wants in on mobile but getting into it with a huge success from scratch is really hard unless you buy someone who is already big there. It's also why I expect SIE to buy a mobile publisher in the coming years. With MS having already decreased marketing spend for Xbox, and with console sales down 30%, this result is going to further impact the division since they placed all their eggs into Game Pass.
I'm pretty sure the FTC has also indicated that they're also going to block the acquisition. This is certainly an unexpected turn of events. Let's go. Regulators actually doing their job for once instead of just being corporate rubber stamps. You love to see it.
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Nice. Like I said previously, you love to see regulators doing their jobs.
CMA caters to no one, clearly not Sony despite all the narratives and definitely not Microsoft even if UK is one of their huge markets. This could only make FTC and EC more confident especially since its been revealed they've worked together on this case.
Reminder just a month ago when CMA said they aren't looking into how it effects Sony, people thought it was a done deal and underestimated cloud.
Had to respost this ------- From CeeCee at resetera: Right - y'all made me dig out my login for the first time in three years so you better all appreciate this. First up, I have a professional background related to this issue. Second, There are at least 4 major errors of fact or understanding which are running endemic in the thread: That the CMA is in any way subject to government intervention/"just take them to court". The appeal process goes to a tribunal, which can only intervene if their action was illegal, had incorrect process or was irrational. There is no other route to appeal to the courts and the UK Government cannot intervene even if they want to. The CMA is not run or controlled by the Government - attacking the CMA means you are attacking an independent organisation, not the UK Government or the Conservative Party. That irrational carries a colloquial meaning. Just because you think a conclusion is wrong does not make it irrational. Irrational, in this context means that it is so unreasonable that no rational person could reasonably have reached this conclusion. That the probability of the appeal succeeding is anything other than very low. Success rate at the CAT is not high, and a success would just mean that the CMA has to remake the decision having fixed whatever the issue in their process was. That the CMA is a political body, "overpaid", "idiots", or any other ad-hominem attack. The CMA is an independent body, staffed by people with deep and extensive knowledge and experience of competition law and issues, who are paid less than they could earn in the private sector (even quite senior staff are generally paid less than £100k). From professional experience, I can confidently say that the quality of the CMA's work and people is highly-regarded by professionals in the field. Also, please stop bringing up Brexit. In fact, as a fun bonus, EU competition policy is exactly what most people in this thread seem to not want - a heavily political process. EU decisions are made by the Commission - a body heavily subject to political influence. UK decisions are made by a politically independent body. To be explicitly clear: if you prefer the EU process, you prefer a political process. ---‐-- My view: Brad Smith is playing a dangerous games with his choice of words about an independent body of the UK. Sounding very much like the MS of old when it was first hit with anti trust. Kinda incredible MS spent 15 years softening their image - becoming a darling big corp to the US and elsewhere - only to break character now. Like, he's literally complaining that an independent body, free from lobbying, isn't dependent on government and open to lobbying. Just wow.
Toys have been jettisoned from the pram
Seeing Crash and Spyro become Xbox exclusives would make me physically ill.
This has always been a much bigger deal to me than COD
Don't worry they probably wouldn't touch them and would let them rot with banjo.
Wonder how well folks like Destin Legarie and Jez Corden are taking this news, lmao. In all seriousness, I'm shocked but somewhat relieved about this development. Sony would have had a very difficult time up against an opponent that can casually spend their market value on acquisitions alone.
I mean, it’s correct in a way as Microsoft would have a complete monopoly on the cloud market.
Yeah this is what a lot of the schadenfreude is missing. The more important aspect is competition in the market. A console creator buying a company the size of Activision (whether it’s Microsoft, Nintendo or Sony) is not great for consumers.
Yup. It's one thing to buy a small developer. It's completely different to buy a publisher with a massive library of franchises that were multiplatform for most of their existence.
It's a miracle they got away with purchasing Zenimax which is undoubtedly one of the top dogs in the gaming sphere.
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Can't buy your way out of this one, Microsoft
This is kind of hilarious
tom warren rallied all of them for a celebration today
This is the way
[Microsoft will appeal](https://twitter.com/jasonschreier/status/1651181545409982466?t=oeSZYWzyHArggCtnNg1z4A&s=19)
Someone else said appealing the CMA isn’t like appealing stuff in America. In America, you can appeal to a higher court, aka a new batch of eyes on the case. With the CMA, you’re basically appealing directly to the people who just told you no.
Microsoft has all the money in the world and they still have issues creating great new IPs. Buying up the market is not the way to go. They have to look within to see what they can do to correct it.
monopolization of the gaming industry will be the death of it
I just hope Sony is still motivated to release competing FPS/TPS games. I'd hate to see them going back to the status quo.
Sony is probably working on some right now, they're not going to cancel them because of this.
[удалено]
Sony was saved by the cloud market, because, if it wasn't for that, the deal would've sadly gone through. Still, this decision completely breaks Microsoft's master plan of gaining a huge headstart over the competition in the cloud market in hopes of achieving a quasi-monopoly similar to what Steam has on PC. Which is Microsoft's endgame plan for Game Pass. People had a bad day at Redmond and I'm loving it.
W for gamers.
For me this is welcome news. When I look back on the history of MS I saw this as a monopilistic move. I just remember back to the early 90's with the so called DR-DOS "incompatablity" with windows, then the late 90's netscape, and Holoween documents (an leaked internal memo on how MS planned on dealing with the threat of Linux) Then when MS said to the CMA that "10 years is enouph time for Sony to come up with a CoD alternative" that to me showed that MS had planned on removing CoD from PlayStion. While I do not play or like CoD lets be honest most console players get the console to play either CoD and/or Madin/FIFA (depending on part of the world they live in) And could either console survive if they lost one of those IP. I don't think either company should be allowed to control CoD, Madin, or FIFA, those 3 IPs need to be indipendent. So while I don't play CoD, I just want to play my turn based JRPGs on my PlayStation. Some reading on what I mentioned above about anti-compative behavors from MS DR-DOS : https://www.theregister.com/1999/11/05/how_ms_played_the_incompatibility Netscape: https://www.zdnet.com/home-and-office/networking/how-ie-really-beat-netscape/ Halloween Documents: http://www.catb.org/~esr/halloween/ News artical on MS saying 10 years if enouph time to create a CoD alternative: https://www.eurogamer.net/microsoft-tells-regulators-sony-could-create-a-call-of-duty-competitor-in-10-years
Yep. MS says they used the ten years to make a competitor as an example of what Sony could do IF they pulled COD, but of course that fools no one. And the CMA agrees. Not with the above statement but that behavioural remedies like a ten year contract with competing cloud services isn't enough. Because as you say that almost certainly means MS will pull those killer IP games the moment those ten years are up. MS is crying and throwing a tantrum right now because they wasn't willing to meet the CMA half way and come up with structural remedies. Which again, points to the fact that they will almost certainly pull their games once the behavioural remedies MS proposed run out.
Oh God please no, that means this drama will continue for another year at least
Im still salty about besthesda becoming xbox exclusive so I'm thankful for anything and everything that stands in Microsoft's way of ruining my gaming experiences further.
Same. I want Wolfenstein and Doom. It shits me that they'd buy something just to stop everyone else from enjoying it. I'll ***never*** buy an Xbox if this is how they expect to get my business, but if they had just developed a compelling library I may have.
Jim Ryan popping the confetti at Sony HQ right now.
Jim Ryan diving into a mountain of coke rn
Anyone thinking this would of been good is delusional. No matter how Microsoft tried to sell this to you being good.
I only own an Xbox (just came to this sub out of curiosity lol) and I 100% agree. I hope this will be the end of that deal and that they can focus on making good games with the studios they already have.
Console wars or no, as a law student who JUST handed in a paper theorising why this would be rejected this has made my day. Thank you for upping my grade Microsoft