Microsoft's acquisition of Activison Blizzard

[riesgoyfortuna]

Xbox fan: Actually, they had significant releases like Pentiment (the best game released in 2022),

you got me XD

 

[Nhomnhom]

no? as much as itsa pretty decent game....no ...just no

also the whole "ms won 2021 publisher of the year" thing that xbots parrot every two post its a false truth and we all know how that happened

You need to play Pentiment, As Dusk Falls, Grounded and Elden Ring. 2022 was a really strong year for Xbox games thanks to Phil's pro-consumer vision.

 

[Johnic]

As Dusk Falls was a fun game for me. Then again, I like David cage's games. It's just that some of the story makes no sense and in some cases is rather creepy.

 

[Sircaw]

Why the fuck you have slow internet in England?

cos i live in a historic town.

 

[Cool hand luke]

More great news. The Chinese regulator is entertaining complaints from Netease and Google. News comes from the human dumpster and it's bad for the acquisition so you know it's real

 

[Loy310]

More great news. The Chinese regulator is entertaining complaints from Netease and Google. News comes from the human dumpster and it's bad for the acquisition so you know it's real

Good

 

[Dabaus]

More great news. The Chinese regulator is entertaining complaints from Netease and Google. News comes from the human dumpster and it's bad for the acquisition so you know it's real

“Stop the clock” feels like the nicest way possible to say delay without actually describing it as a delay.

Like a neutral sentence would say: “Chinas regulators delay decision to hear netease and googles complaints about deal.”

 

[FatKaz]

Unrelated to the ABK acquistion but concerns regarding cloud services market raised by the UKs communications regulator Ofcom.

AWS and Microsoft in UK crosshairs as Ofcom mulls cloud market investigation | TechCrunch

The U.K.'s Ofcom has indicated that it's preparing to refer the local cloud infrastructure services market for an in-depth investigation.

techcrunch.com

They mention MS marketshare and revenue as well as google and amazon

The crux of the problem, according to Ofcom, is that Amazon, Microsoft and Google collectively account for more than 80% of cloud revenues in the U.K., and they may enforce policies, fees and other restrictions that make it difficult for other smaller providers to gain traction

From 2018 to 2021, the “others” category in the U.K. cloud market fell from 30% to 19%, while in tandem the so-called big-three “hyperscalers” gained significant market share, or remained around the same. Microsoft has actually seen the biggest growth, rising from 17% to 25% over the four-year period

Cloud being a fast growing market that needs scrutiny

Fergal Farragher, Ofcom’s director responsible for the market study, said in a press release. “High barriers to switching are already harming competition in what is a fast-growing market. We think more in-depth scrutiny is needed, to make sure it’s working well for people and businesses who rely on these services

About it being tough for competing providers

Ofcom also points to issues around interoperability, whereby the big cloud firms create their products so that they don’t play nicely with competing providers — this can put a considerable resource-drain on companies looking to adopt a hybrid cloud approach. Related to this, Ofcom also says that the big cloud vendors often offer “committed spend discounts,” which while reducing the customers’ costs, also encourages them to stick with a single vendor even if better alternatives may exist

Ofcom are proposing to refer to the CMA for investigation

But Ofcom said that it has “provisionally identified” practices that make it more difficult for businesses to switch between cloud providers, or even use multiple providers, which is why it is “proposing” to refer the U.K. cloud services market to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) for a formal investigation

 

[Ludwig]

What other remedies could MS offer? Are they talking current deals or maybe MS offered a 15 year deal instead of 10.

 

[Cool hand luke]

What other remedies could MS offer? Are they talking current deals or maybe MS offered a 15 year deal instead of 10.

Maybe they offered a 10 year deal to Shamawata Cloud, a top Belarusian I mean Ukrainian cloud provider helping fight tyranny.

 

[Cool hand luke]

Wow. Sony calling out errors in the LTV model the CMA used to determine MS would not foreclose on PlayStation in their PF addendum. Microsoft math is getting fucked here.

Lots more on the site including Microsoft's response.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/642e9aee7de82b0012313735/SIE_response.pdf

 

[FatKaz]

Wow. Sony calling out errors in the LTV model the CMA used to determine MS would not foreclose on PlayStation in their PF addendum. Microsoft math is getting fucked here.

Lots more on the site including Microsoft's response.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/642e9aee7de82b0012313735/SIE_response.pdf

Oooh get the popcorn ready.

Sony will fight this tooth and nail, that's why I found some comments about sony folding early strange.

 

[Cool hand luke]

And just last week, two days before the Addendum was published, on March 22, the video game trade publication IGN published fresh evidence in the form of an interview with Redfall’s creative director, Harvey Smith, that provides additional insight into Microsoft’s strategy.19 Like Call of Duty, Redfall is a first-person shooter game that features both single player and cooperative multiplayer modes. In his interview with IGN, Mr. Smith explained that Redfall was originally planned to be released on all platforms, including PlayStation, but once Microsoft acquired Bethesda, there was a “huge sea change … [Microsoft] said, ‘No PlayStation 5. Now we’re gonna [sic] do Game Pass, Xbox, and PC.’”20 He also explained that ZeniMax “was working on a PlayStation 5 version of the game” until Microsoft bought ZeniMax. After the acquisition, Microsoft “then canned the [PlayStation 5] port.”21 Even though the studio had already put in the work to make a PlayStation version of the game, Microsoft decided to terminate this work and make the game exclusive to Xbox.

Harvey Smith's receipts getting dragged into this. Love Arkane.

 

[laynelane]

Wow. Sony calling out errors in the LTV model the CMA used to determine MS would not foreclose on PlayStation in their PF addendum. Microsoft math is getting fucked here.

Lots more on the site including Microsoft's response.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/642e9aee7de82b0012313735/SIE_response.pdf

18. By contrast, Microsoft’s conduct following the ZeniMax acquisition is highly
probative of Microsoft’s post-Transaction incentives with respect of Call of Duty.
The Addendum suggests that Microsoft acquired many of the studios whose games it
then made exclusive in order to acquire the talent in those studios “with the specific
purpose of making exclusive games for its platform” (Addendum, para. 4.20). The
acquisition of Activision has a similar objective – to acquire talent.16

19. The Addendum acknowledges that Microsoft’s acquisition of ZeniMax involved a major
studio that, like Activision, publishes “regular releases of popular gaming franchises
available on different platforms” (Addendum, para. 4.20). As the CMA is aware, since
Microsoft acquired ZeniMax, Microsoft announced that future ZeniMax titles – including
Starfield, Elder Scrolls VI, and Redfall – will be Xbox exclusives. In so doing, Microsoft
reversed assurances made prior to the ZeniMax acquisition that Microsoft “would not
have the incentive to cease or limit making ZeniMax games available for purchase on
rival consoles”17 and statements that it “highly encourage cross-platform play
[because] if it’s good for the gaming ecosystem, it’s good for us... What we’ll do in the
long run is we don’t have intentions of just pulling all of Bethesda content out of Sony.”1

This has been the sticking point for me too and why I hope the CMA revisits this issue. The idea that MS wouldn't pull CoD from PS because they would lose too much money is laughable. They could and they would and their past behavior shows this.

 

[Darth Vader]

Holy fuck that document is absolutely ruthless. Finally, they show some teeth.

 

[On Demand]

Never understood the CMA going against its original decision when there’s a ton of proof MS is sneaky as fuck and will make games exclusives from whatever publisher and studio they buy.

Sony’s response is masterclass.

 

[VillaiN]

This has been the sticking point for me too and why I hope the CMA revisits this issue. The idea that MS wouldn't pull CoD from PS because they would lose too much money is laughable. They could and they would and their past behavior shows this.

Notion that company who make 70 billion profit per year would care about 800M to 1BN from ps platforms s laughable. I cant believe thats their reasoning. I think this was MS political influence, so they found some stupid reason.

 

[Dabaus]

Sonys always made good arguments but most of the time half of it’s redacted so it’s hard to tell what they say. I hate to say it I don’t think these arguments will make a difference. Cma already made an Unprecedented turn and I doubt they’d change their mind again.

 

[Gediminas]

They even called out CMA for U-turn fucking corrupt sell outs.

 

[AshHunter216]

I appreciate the effort from Sony, but I find it hard to believe that the CMA will make 2 U-turns in a row with regards to the console market. The deal is probably going to go through and Sony need to work on a plan B and consolidate some of their closest partners like Square.

I think Sony's only (unlikely) hope of seeing the deal stopped involves the cloud market and the cma refusing to make another U-turn with regards to their remedy stance.