Microsoft's acquisition of Activison Blizzard

[Gods&Monsters]

How much do we make of MS's previous comments that they weren't looking to finish window shopping after/without ABK?

If the ever looming threat of MS war chest isn't around, perhaps things can settle down to a buy exclusive IP/timed exclusivity instead of buy this publisher etc.

I hope third-parties are not dumb enough to lock their big games to a failed platform like Square did with multiple JRPGs in the 360 days + Tomb Raider. Ubisoft and Splinter Cell, EA and Titanfall, Capcom and Dead Rising.

All dead today because they were associated with Xbox and some were exclusive forever. They didn't learn their lesson?

 

[Cool hand luke]

How much do we make of MS's previous comments that they weren't looking to finish window shopping after/without ABK?

If the ever looming threat of MS war chest isn't around, perhaps things can settle down to a buy exclusive IP/timed exclusivity instead of buy this publisher etc.

Chest-beating hubris. Xbox is going to be wound down and will relaunch as a third party publisher shortly after.

 

[LED]

YES YEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS! Fuck Microsoft!

WE WON PEOPLE! Finally common sense has prevailed.

 

[Bryank75]

YES YEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS! Fuck Microsoft!

WE WON PEOPLE! Finally common sense has prevailed.

Yo! LED bro, good to see you!

We have been celebrating all day and our little site has grown a lot.... hope you spread the word on twitter.

Even saw Jaydub using us for screens and references.

It's wild dude, I've been filled with crazy positive energy all day and I think it will keep me going for a while.

All we need now is a showcase in the next while. How you been?

 

[LED]

Yo! LED bro, good to see you!

We have been celebrating all day and our little site has grown a lot.... hope you spread the word on twitter.

Even saw Jaydub using us for screens and references.

It's wild dude, I've been filled with crazy positive energy all day and I think it will keep me going for a while.

All we need now is a showcase in the next while. How you been?

Yo Bryan! I've been doing great, thanks for asking, but man the deal getting blocked shot my days to ecstasy lol, great to see the growth for this website, the deal is DEAD! Xbox fanboys are in shambles.

This is what Phil Spencer said a month ago https://www.videogameschronicle.com...-even-if-activision-blizzard-deal-is-blocked/

The fact that he is wording it this way could mean devastating implications for Xbox, this deal block literally sabotaged their decade-long "Game Pass & Cloud" dream future that they've been trying to do since 2013, it's a devastating blow to those plans, and I'm so happy to see it, MAKE GREAT GAMES, SELL MORE CONSOLES, NOT SERVICES.

Also with Sony's end-of-May/beginning-of-June coming, oh it's over, it's over man.

AND in September:

- Spider Man 2.
- PS5 Slim.
- PS5 potential price cut.

You will see the fastest selling console in the history of gaming, Sony will be unstoppable.

 

[Bryank75]

Yo Bryan! I've been doing great, thanks for asking, but man the deal getting blocked shot my days to ecstasy lol, great to see the growth for this website, the deal is DEAD! Xbox fanboys are in shambles.

This is what Phil Spencer said a month ago https://www.videogameschronicle.com...-even-if-activision-blizzard-deal-is-blocked/

The fact that he is wording it this way could mean devastating implications for Xbox, this deal block literally sabotaged their decade-long "Game Pass & Cloud" dream future that they've been trying to do since 2013, it's a devastating blow to those plans, and I'm so happy to see it, MAKE GREAT GAMES, SELL MORE CONSOLES, NOT SERVICES.

Also with Sony's end-of-May/beginning-of-June coming, oh it's over, it's over man.

AND in September:

- Spider Man 2.
- PS5 Slim.
- PS5 potential price cut.

You will see the fastest selling console in the history of gaming, Sony is unstoppable.

If Sony can have the home console market to themselves and hit 200 million sales, would be absolutely insane. I'll do my part.

So glad we made this place, I see people on other forums say the smallest thing about MSFT or Xbox and they get banned, here we can speak our mind and be frank and there's no threats to make us say something we don't want to.

They have no power here, no reach.

I really think as a community and as real gamers, we have taken back the power, showed Microsoft that they cannot buy out the industry.

I also owe Jim Ryan an apology and I underestimated the CMA. But I am willing to admit that stuff.

 

[LED]

If Sony can have the home console market to themselves and hit 200 million sales, would be absolutely insane. I'll do my part.

So glad we made this place, I see people on other forums say the smallest thing about MSFT or Xbox and they get banned, here we can speak our mind and be frank and there's no threats to make us say something we don't want to.

They have no power here, no reach.

I really think as a community and as real gamers, we have taken back the power, showed Microsoft that they cannot buy out the industry.

I also owe Jim Ryan an apology and I underestimated the CMA. But I am willing to admit that stuff.

I am so happy to see it, Jimbo must have done the best job ever in Sony's history, he'll be swimming in bitches, fast cars & billions of checks after this.

 

[riesgoyfortuna]

Just saw this hilarious meltdown at era:

Post in thread 'The Microsoft / Activision Blizzard acquisition |OT| Antitrust Simulator (Update: CMA blocks deal "to protect choice in cloud gaming")'
https://www.resetera.com/threads/th...-choice-in-cloud-gaming.633344/post-104773274



Guy posted his resume because he was called out lmfao
Microsoft had 20 years to get their grip together and just now they’re angry?
I don’t know if xbots will survive this.

That Redrum guy its pretty far right, also a xbot coincidence?

 

[Plextorage]

Yo Bryan! I've been doing great, thanks for asking, but man the deal getting blocked shot my days to ecstasy lol, great to see the growth for this website, the deal is DEAD! Xbox fanboys are in shambles.

This is what Phil Spencer said a month ago https://www.videogameschronicle.com...-even-if-activision-blizzard-deal-is-blocked/

The fact that he is wording it this way could mean devastating implications for Xbox, this deal block literally sabotaged their decade-long "Game Pass & Cloud" dream future that they've been trying to do since 2013, it's a devastating blow to those plans, and I'm so happy to see it, MAKE GREAT GAMES, SELL MORE CONSOLES, NOT SERVICES.

Also with Sony's end-of-May/beginning-of-June coming, oh it's over, it's over man.

AND in September:

- Spider Man 2.
- PS5 Slim.
- PS5 potential price cut.

You will see the fastest selling console in the history of gaming, Sony will be unstoppable.

Post some memes here if you have it.

ABK Blocked - Meme competition

Create or post the best memes you can find (first post of unoriginal meme gets credit) in relation to the ABK acquisition being blocked. Prizes to be decided, most will be free Extra subscriptions for the site but we may have other prizes to offer. This one is mainly for the laugh! Starting...

icon-era.com

 

[riesgoyfortuna]

This was the spanish "colteastwood" "tim dog" the day Microsoft announced the buy of Activision, guess what its doing he right now XD

Not gonna lie, im enjoying a lot of this

 

[arvfab]

So it's time for @Bernd Lauert to come back now, terms for his ban was the end of the ABK merger saga.

Welcome back!

 

[Shmunter]

Cyrribrae has to be PeterOvo's Reset account.

Completely stupid enough to think that pubs will accept MS money just because it's being offered, when they know a marketing deal or exclusivity on Xbox is going to suppress their B2P sales revenue because 3P software purchasing trends on Xbox have been falling sharply over the past five years and counting.

It's a business, they'll take the money if it makes sense. But for it to make sense it needs to be dump trucks of money to offset the revenue loss by going exclusive to the platform.

Dev - "We can sell 10x more copies on Sony", Phil "Ok, we will pay you 11x more to have your game"

Except the above makes no financial sense and results in money loss for MS and cannot be a standard practice - hence MS needing to invest outright to get good IP's exclusive.

Vs

Dev - "We can sell 1/10 (10%) extra copies on Xbox", Jim "Ok, we will pay you with some Ad's on our dashboard boosting your sales by 20%", Dev - "Done"

 

[Gediminas]

So it's time for @Bernd Lauert to come back now, terms for his ban was the end of the ABK merger saga.

Welcome back!

Don't count on it, M$ canning all shilling support.

 

[Shmunter]

Jesus, that guy is such a clown, not only was he wrong, he still has not educated himself on the UK process and what chance MSFT have to appeal and what that appeal is about...

He sounds so ignorant and so biased, it's really shocking such a guy can get so far.

I pity the full listening to the advice given by this dude - better odds playing craps

Michael Pachter | WallStreetZen

www.wallstreetzen.com

 

[Shmunter]

Oh man, the laughs don't stop when you google this fraud....

Bloomberg - Are you a robot?

This Netflix Analyst Has Cost Investors a 2,000% Return​

Wedbush Securities’ Michael Pachter has advised his clients to sell Netflix stock for the past decade.

 

[BloodMod]

So it's time for @Bernd Lauert to come back now, terms for his ban was the end of the ABK merger saga.

Welcome back!

His ban was originally intended to end once the deal was approved iirc.

So...

 

[Bryank75]

New report from MLex:

- Microsoft President Brad Smith took aim at the CMA for blocking the acquisition of Activision Blizzard, saying the decision would affect investment in the UK and was based on a "faulty" understanding of the gaming market.

- He said that UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak should "look hard at the role of the CMA," and he said the European Commission's approach was far better.

- Sarah Cardell, chief executive of the CMA, said: "This decision shows how important it is to support competition in the UK, and the UK is absolutely open for business."

- Investors and companies were "probably better off thinking harder about going to the European Union than to Britain," Smith said in an interview on BBC radio. "The impact of this decision is far broader than on Microsoft or this acquisition alone."

- Smith explained that the CMA had taken a narrow view of the gaming market, focused on a "potential concern" about how the "small" business might develop. "The process in Brussels worked far better than what we're now addressing in London."

- "This decision is probably the darkest day in our four decades in Britain. It does more to shake our confidence in the future of the opportunity to grow a technology business in Britain than we've ever confronted before," Smith said.

- Speaking on the same program, Cardell stressed the potential of the cloud gaming industry and that allowing Microsoft and Activision Blizzard to merge would "really harm the ability of other competing cloud platforms to compete effectively."

- Smith said the watchdog had gone silent on Microsoft two weeks ago, and then the prohibition decision arrived yesterday.

- "This is not the way regulators in Brussels work with companies. You have more of a conversation," he said, adding that Microsoft had made the same offer of concessions to the EU regulator as it did to its British counterpart.

- Cardell rejected the criticism of her office's procedures. "We conducted a lengthy in-depth investigation that took a full six months and Microsoft had ample opportunity to put their case to us."

- "We reached the decision on the basis of a huge amount of engagement. We looked at more than a million documents to reach our final decision," Cardell said.

- Smith said the "English Channel has never seemed wider" regarding the attractiveness of investments and the regulator process.

- Smith described Brussels as "a place where one can sit down and actually have a conversation with the regulators who are accountable to the elected leaders. And the difference we now confront in London, where we have regulators who are not only unelected but unaccountable, and now making decisions that just feel fundamentally unwise."

- According to Brad Smith, "I am optimistic that the European Commission will continue to go forward, as it has signaled in recent weeks and months, that it will regard the very promises that the CMA has rejected as far more appropriate."

 

[anonpuffs]

His ban was originally intended to end once the deal was approved iirc.

So...

pour one out lol

 

[anonpuffs]

New report from MLex:
...

- Smith described Brussels as "a place where one can sit down and actually have a conversation with the regulators who are accountable to the elected leaders. And the difference we now confront in London, where we have regulators who are not only unelected but unaccountable, and now making decisions that just feel fundamentally unwise."

WOW! They just said the quiet part out loud, that the EU regulators are able to be bribed/pressured by legislators. Can't believe they're throwing such a tantrum, but I guess that $3 billion hit on top of the deal getting blocked must sting a bit. EU regulators MUST block the deal now if they don't want the appearance of impropriety.

 

[Vertigo]

It’s even funnier now that xbots are quoting Michael pachter of all people.

Patcher and his 100% failed predictions over a 20 year career.