Microsoft's acquisition of Activison Blizzard

[On Demand]

Seems like it.

Unfortunately looks like MS are going to get this. I just hate the precedent it sets. MS will be able to use its vast wealth to permanently starve Playstation of content and they don't intend to stop with ABK and Zenimax. At this point Sony need to lock down as many partners as they can so their games library isn't crippled in the future.

At least the zealots got trolled one last time over the sales numbers gap.

Xbox market share ain’t changing with Activision. The brand is too damaged at this point. They gain nothing new. Activision games are already on Xbox. All games on gamepass....yay.

Green rats thought Bethesda would “turn the tide” and it didn’t. Xbox is too far gone. They will continue to get made fun of after this mini “celebration.”

But yes fuck MS for using their wealth to buy up the industry. I still have some hope the deal somehow gets blocked or they’re forced to break up Activision.

MS is so bad at making games that Activision might be broken up regardless because of MS’s incompetence.

 

[riesgoyfortuna]

That has a lot more details than what Idas is implying. Interesting

Idas its pretty biased to be honest

 

[Cool hand luke]

I'm not reading the GReeeeen rat forum, but it should be noted that divestiture and prohibition constitute remedies, so the tweet around a momentous outcome around remedies signifies nothing new. However, lawyers commenting on this case have been wrong countless times (see: Hogg's law for one), and while the paywalled article allegedly has them suggesting behavioural remedies are a go, it would be absolutely unprecedented and fair game to assume foul play. Reading the headline on that article, I imagined the appeal the CMA were trying to prevent by delaying the decision as much as possible was Microsoft's when the acquisition is blocked. Most appellants in these cases are the parties involved. To head off Sony would be another shock move given that the CMA's role isn't to protect them or level the playing field (i.e. they shouldn't care about Sony), but to protect competition and the UK consumer, who would suffer as a result of this acquisition.

 

[AshHunter216]

It does seem odd that the CMA would allegedly be so focused on preventing Sony from being able to appeal just to help MS, given that they aren't meant to play favorites with these companies.

 

[FatKaz]

Other then the equity report which is a lawyers take on things, i can't believe we haven't got any PR from MS or ABK.

You'd think they'd be twisting the knife by now.

But yeah the bit about CMA making moves to prevent a sony appeal is bizzarre, i mean CMA are the ones who asked for more evidence after the removal of the console SLC, not like sony just emailed them a PDF and said here you go out of the blue. They literally asked third parties to provide evidence to the contrary.

Maybe it can be argued that CMA asked for evidence so third parties can't complain they couldn't respond, but even then that would make the CMA look like they aren't really interested in protecting the market, considering how easily the folded with the console market concerns maybe isn't that farfetched to think that.

 

[Gediminas]

CMA

 

[FatKaz]

Guide on how to start a successfull cloud gaming business

Step 1. Register aws account and run free tier amazon ec2 instance
Step 2. Register cloud gaming business, hint: use home address as registered office address
Step 3. Sign 10 year deal with MS to run games on your free ec2 instance

Bonus: You get a thumbs up from the CMA and EC as helping the market and being a competitor

 

[AshHunter216]

One thing I wonder about the paywalled article, are the lawyers mentioned in the article involved with the case or are they just legal experts giving their opinion on how they think things will likely go?

 

[Cool hand luke]

One thing I wonder about the paywalled article, are the lawyers mentioned in the article involved with the case or are they just legal experts giving their opinion on how they think things will likely go?

It'll be the latter.

 

[AshHunter216]

For what it's worth, even Hoeg law admits in a podcast with Colin Moriarty that what MS and their pet senators are trying to do in Japan against Playstation and their relationship with Square isn't likely to amount to much.

 

[Impulse]

Because the only thing left is to go 3rd party and leave the hardware and platforms up to others.

That's exactly their play imo.

You look at this console gen, and it genuinely feels like the series consoles are their way of making a console with the cheapest R&D ever, they even hedged their bets revenue-wise with PC day 1 and PC game pass, it's cannibalizing their console business, which is ordinarily their most profitable one, but they seemingly don't care because they plan on exiting that biz anyways if things go south (things are now going very, very south).

What else explains the rumors of reduced marketing spend for Xbox division while the company pledges ~%66 of its then-on-hand cash on buying ActiBlizz? They're leaving the majority of the hardware business in favor of going full services and software in the gaming business. All this is just jostling for the best possible terms with Sony and Nintendo.

 

[Deleted member 223]

Folks still obsessing with legalese nonsense. First mistake was buying into it in the first place. I guess if you came in and analyzed this matter with an idealistic view of how things "should work" aka mostly ignorant you are more than likely to get hooked to the theater and circus acts. In a sense I can't expect better, I was there once, long ago. What matters is that you take the experience, digest it well and draw the correct conclusions so that you don't disrespect yourself in the future by allowing grifters, politicians, public servans, corporate suits or otherwise to take you for a free ride on the BS express.

Can't have a repeat of not seeing the forest for the trees.

 

[Zzero]

For what it's worth, even Hoeg law admits in a podcast with Colin Moriarty that what MS and their pet senators are trying to do in Japan against Playstation and their relationship with Square isn't likely to amount to much.

"Even Hoeg"? Anyone with a legal background would tell you that.

 

[Gediminas]

"Even Hoeg"? Anyone with a legal background would tell you that.

Anyone without legal background can tell you that.

 

[AshHunter216]

"Even Hoeg"? Anyone with a legal background would tell you that.

I say "even Hoeg" because of his bias. I don't believe anything was ever going to come of it.

 

[nongkris]

I'm just going to wait on the final verdict to save my sanity. No publication predicted CMAs 180 so i'll take everything they say with a grain of salt.

 

[FatKaz]

Saw that tweet about momentous outcome for this deal. I guess it could be looked at 2 ways.

CMA still asking them to divest activision could be seen as a momentous outcome, as it's asking microsoft to split off a huge part of a company. Heck the bigger news would be ms agreeing to divestiture.

Behavioural remedies could also could fall into that aswell. CMA as far as we know from the pf and historically are against this type of remedy, so going with behavioural remedies could be momentous.

You can tell I'm reaching based on a few words from a tweet, give us something to work with CMA

 

[AshHunter216]

Saw that tweet about momentous outcome for this deal. I guess it could be looked at 2 ways.

CMA still asking them to divest activision could be seen as a momentous outcome, as it's asking microsoft to split off a huge part of a company. Heck the bigger news would be ms agreeing to divestiture.

Behavioural remedies could also could fall into that aswell. CMA as far as we know from the pf and historically are against this type of remedy, so going with behavioural remedies could be momentous.

You can tell I'm reaching based on a few words from a tweet, give us something to work with CMA

Who made the tweet?

 

[FatKaz]

Who made the tweet?

The capitol forum

 

[AshHunter216]

The capitol forum

Momentous just means of great significance with implications for the future. That would be true regardless of which way they decide.