Breaking: UK's CMA investigation has provisionally concluded that "Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of Activision could result in higher prices, fewer

[Bryank75]

mmm....

Sounds like CMA would be fine if Blizzard and King gets into MS while the Activision part (including CoD IP and their studios) gets divested to a separate company.

Or that they could improve their '10 years of CoD in non-MS platforms' commitment by making it permanent and expanding it to including CoD, WoW and maybe others to rival cloud gaming platforms like the Sony one.


According to Hermen and some Sony slides, they'll push harder on new IP, MP GaaS, PC ports and mobile but that won't be at the expense of sequels, console exclusives, traditional non-GaaS SP blockbusters.

They also plan to work on more sequels, console exclusives, traditional non-GaaS SP blockbusters than before. We also saw a data that shown Sony investing more in 2nd party games than ever before, and Jimbo also mentioned they were pushing 3rd party exclusives more than before. We also saw PSVR2 is getting like twice the games for launch window and the first/second year than PSVR1 got. And well, they are also investing more than ever before in movie/tv show adaptations.

So basically Sony is pushing in all areas, investing more than before in everything.

Great stuff as usual @Yurinka

Straight from the CMA or a third party?

 

[Bryank75]

Where are you reading this at?

I think it all was sourced from the same place as Yurinkas images / post

 

[AshHunter216]

Seems like the potential options the CMA are giving seem like things MS are unlikely to agree to. It could be that MS tries to convince the EU to accept their terms and then pressure the CMA to agree to lighter terms, which is a stretch.

Since it's been reported that the regulators communicate more than they have in the past, it's possible that the FTC and CMA advise the EU not to agree to remedies from Microsoft that are too weak.

 

[Yurinka]

Great stuff as usual @Yurinka

Straight from the CMA or a third party?

Thanks! Straight from CMA. It's from the PDFs linked in the 'Provisional findings' of this website:

Microsoft / Activision Blizzard merger inquiry

The CMA investigated the anticipated acquisition by Microsoft Corporation of Activision Blizzard, Inc.

www.gov.uk

Seems like the potential options the CMA are giving seem like things MS are unlikely to agree to. It could be that MS tries to convince the EU to accept their terms and then pressure the CMA to agree to lighter terms, which is a stretch.

MS can't 'pressure' regulators.

If MS doesn't do what regulators say or ask for, the regulators prohibite the acquisition and the acquisition is over.

Apparently they write that behavioral remedies would not be effective in this case and they are looking for divestiture of COD or Activision.... I'm still reading, so I'll update if I have to correct or add more.

Reading the full sentence of that bit, I think they meant that what MS offered wasn't enough because the CMA is worried about the competion in both consoles and cloud gaming, and that the behavioral remedies offered by MS didn't cover at all the cloud gaming (and maybe their concern regarding consoles too).

As I remember there was some separate bit where they mention behavioral remedies would be enough if they are convincing as a solution to solve their main concerns that the acquisition could cause, which in this case is to significantly lessen the competition in consoles and cloud gaming.

Edit, it's here:

...

...

but notice how they say "the circumstances in which the CMA might select a behavioural remedy as the primary source of remedial action are not present in this case" in the last paragraph and how they focus on cloud gaming.

Pretty likely meaning that if they don't branch out Activision/CoD to a separate company they'll block the acquisition, unless that behavioural remedy is too convincing like 'CoD, WoW and some other major ABK IPs to be available forever the same day and in the same conditions in all consoles and cloud gaming services' or something like that.

 

[MScarpa]

Don't care, just give me games to play.

 

[DForce]

About a year ago, people were saying who was going to stop MS from acquiring more big publishers in the future. lol

 

[Bryank75]

Don't care, just give me games to play.

I think PlayStation has you covered!

 

[Entropi]

Is that guy Jez up his ass in this because he’s set to make millions? Cause if not.. oh boy

 

[AshHunter216]

Thanks! Straight from CMA. It's from the PDFs linked in the 'Provisional findings' of this website:

Microsoft / Activision Blizzard merger inquiry

The CMA investigated the anticipated acquisition by Microsoft Corporation of Activision Blizzard, Inc.

www.gov.uk

MS can't 'pressure' regulators.

If MS doesn't do what regulators say or ask for, the regulators prohibite the acquisition and the acquisition is over.

I meant that the CMA may feel pressured to accept the deal if the EU comes to an agreement with MS. At least that's what one article thinks.

 

[Hezekiah]

Apparently they write that behavioral remedies would not be effective in this case and they are looking for divestiture of COD or Activision.... I'm still reading, so I'll update if I have to correct or add more.

Good, this ten year promise stuff is bullshit.

 

[AshHunter216]

Is that guy Jez up his ass in this because he’s set to make millions? Cause if not.. oh boy

He doesn't work for Microsoft, but I would be surprised if they aren't giving him some benefits for pushing their narratives so publicly using his platform.

 

[Entropi]

He doesn't work for Microsoft, but I would be surprised if they aren't giving him some benefits for pushing their narratives so publicly using his platform.

Shilling for scraps, if even that. It’s weird to watch this coming from a journo.

 

[Deleted member 417]

Good, this ten year promise stuff is bullshit.

What's stopping Microsoft from agreeing to put Call of Duty on multiple platforms, then purposely tanking the name of the game and releasing a competitor (made by CoD studios) called Duty Calls?

 

[Yurinka]

I meant that the CMA may feel pressured to accept the deal if the EU comes to an agreement with MS. At least that's what one article thinks.

Nah, they are different regulators and don't affect each other. In many cases they took different decisions.

About a year ago, people were saying who was going to stop MS from acquiring more big publishers in the future. lol

Before the Zenimax acquisition, MS was pretty distant after Sony and Nintendo. Now in some areas is above Nintendo. If the ABK acquisition gets completed, they'll be on a similar level than Sony, under them in some key areas but above them in others.

They can manage to get this deal approved, but if they do I think it's going to be hard for them to do another really big acquisition (as would be EA, Take 2 or Bandai Namco).

The main reason being not gaming as whole or the console market, but cloud gaming. Which is nonsensical in my opinion because it's a tiny portion of gaming and will continue being it in at least the next 10 years or so, but some regulators seem to care about it and think that the MS exclusives would behave there differently in cloud gaming than in console, PC or mobile.

 

[AshHunter216]

Have MS officially responded to this news yet?

 

[ethomaz]

Don't care, just give me games to play.

You can always buy a PlaySyation… it is safe.

 

[thelastword]

Don't care, just give me games to play.

Seems like most people just want to play good games. Yet if MS is in charge of COD, that means COD which is already at the 70 meta level with Vanguard will go down even further......I don't think Blizzard is lighting any fire as far as consoles are concerned with their games and games like Tony Hawk, Spyro/Crash etc... will just die out because these games did their best on PS, even when they became multiplat.

 

[yewles1]

 

[ethomaz]

They are saying MS lied to get pass the ZeniMax deal? Shocked

 

[KiryuRealty]

Shilling for scraps, if even that. It’s weird to watch this coming from a journo.

He's not a journalist, he's a PR flack disguised as a disgusting neckbeard gamer.

Who else is loving the whole "We would consider behavioural remedies, but you guys are too full of shit for us to even bother outlining what they'd be, because we KNOW you fuckers will not abide by them, and enforcement is more work than we want to bother with."?