Microsoft's acquisition of Activison Blizzard

Swolf712

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It has been rather disgusting, hasn't it? I've been against this deal from the start. If there was any evidence of creativity, standards, or love for gaming with MS - I have yet to see it over the time Phil has been in charge. I don't want a corporation like that consolidating the industry in order to "compete". I'm still catching up on the thread, but did you see the information on the contracts MS signed for access to ABK titles? Where they would keep all revenue from in-game purchases? This was in effect while they were ridiculing Sony for refusing to sign a 10 year deal. It says a lot, doesn't it?

I've said it before and I'll say it again - everything MS is doing is designed to remove consumer choice - to drag you into their ecosystem no matter what. They need to be shut down, full stop, from making any moves that impact the industry in order for it to remain healthy. I am beyond thankful for the CMA decision and for the FTC's stance. I only hope the EC will follow suit to really make it clear that the methods they've used to obtain near-monoplies in other sectors will not work in gaming.
Shoot, MS has outright accused Sony of trying to create a monopoly via a practice MS themselves regularly engage in, the Third Party Deal.

Even got some Congresspeople on their Dono list to start making noise about it and threatening to launch a full investigation and even punish Japan if they won't "stop" Sony... and apparently ONLY Sony.

It's kind of disgusting that they would actually drag the government into potentially regulating the game industry in order to get their way.

(I still remember Nintendo trying to do similar to Sega back in the days of the "violent video game" controversy though.)
 

Bryank75

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HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA GET FUCKED MICROSOFT


Not only that, the documents say that even a medium sized acquisition in gaming would be too much for Microsoft right now.

So that could potentially rule out anything except single developers and even the bigger single developers could be difficult if the IP is big.
 

laynelane

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14 Jul 2022
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Shoot, MS has outright accused Sony of trying to create a monopoly via a practice MS themselves regularly engage in, the Third Party Deal.

Even got some Congresspeople on their Dono list to start making noise about it and threatening to launch a full investigation and even punish Japan if they won't "stop" Sony... and apparently ONLY Sony.

It's kind of disgusting that they would actually drag the government into potentially regulating the game industry in order to get their way.

(I still remember Nintendo trying to do similar to Sega back in the days of the "violent video game" controversy though.)

I've been wondering how those politicians who backed MS against Sony feel now after MS' public threats to the UK. Hope the money was worth it to involve themselves in something they had no understanding of.
 

Aidendelaney95

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9 Jul 2022
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So how long till Microsoft/Acti or the Xbots start saying that the deal getting blocked is the "9/11" of gaming?
Reminds me of when Tyrone Magnus on YouTube said if TLOU2 wins Game of the Year (before it did), it would be the George Floyd of gaming.
 

Loy310

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14 Aug 2022
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They have a plant in the EC so there's a chance she'll push it through.
And they would look absolutely stupid for doing so after how the cma just dismantled the merger.
The cma investigation have shown that this merger will not benefit the industry, gamers and other gaming companies. All it will do is make ms impossible to dislodge when it comes to cloud gaming. If EU is ok with that then good luck to people and businesses in EU.
 
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Dick Jones

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5 Jul 2022
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I don't think it will matter though. UK is also too valuable to just drop.
It's part of the agreement that it must pass the UK. It shouldn't matter with ABK and MS reviewing whether to continue the deal in July. MS will need to stump up a few extra billion more if this three legged greyhound loses or ABK continues the charade for free. The only thing Bobby gives for free is sexual harassment.
 

Nitro

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Swolf712

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It's part of the agreement that it must pass the UK. It shouldn't matter with ABK and MS reviewing whether to continue the deal in July. MS will need to stump up a few extra billion more if this three legged greyhound loses or ABK continues the charade for free. The only thing Bobby gives for free is sexual harassment.
There's a supreme irony in all this that Bobby may well have been fired for tanking the company had MS not stepped in. On top of announcing he'd stay on long enough to snag himself a golden parachute, Acti's numbers are back up and this may well mean he retains his job even if the deal were to fall through.

I also recall Lulu basically telling their employees to wait to unionize and ask for bonuses til the deal is done, so I imagine she'll be quite popular amongst the workforce.