I guess it shows that they felt like Microsoft was guaranteed to win and wanted to get on their good side or felt like Playstation getting screwed over would help them out.
Microsoft's acquisition of Activison Blizzard
- Thread starter Darth Vader
- Start date
Yeah, the CAT wouldn't grant an appeal based on whether they thought the conclusion was too harsh based on my understanding. I also don't think the EU decision helps MS as much as some think it does. They agree that the cloud market is a concern, and MS will probably try to argue that owning ABK wouldn't give them an advantage in the cloud market, a point that even the EU disagrees with.
I guess MS could try to convince the CAT that blocking the deal is too harsh.
This is the part in these discussions that does genuinely piss me off, because people trying to blame Sony for Sega are just completely brainless and ignorant about Sega's own history in the console market, and the mistakes they made which led to their own demise as a platform holder. And I say this as a Sega fan. Off the top of my head:
-Packing in Sonic 1 with Genesis. Massively boosted Genesis sales, BUT Kalinski also cut the price of the Genesis while doing so. Sega probably lost a lot in revenue on this strategy even if it boosted their install base
-Focusing on FMV for Sega CD in the West instead of meaningful translations of games from the Japanese Mega CD library. Only companies like Working Design really focused on this, and they didn't have the resources to do it at the scale Sega could've. This hurt Sega's reputation with customers over the course of Sega CD's commercial run in the West
-Being reactionary and making the 32X whatsoever. If Sega of Japan weren't so secretive with the Saturn, Sega of America would have probably withheld on the 32X and gone with enhanced SVP carts instead. 32X strained their chip capacity line for Saturn (both systems used dual-SH2s) and diluted development (hardware, software, SDK) resources that could've gone towards Saturn instead. Complete waste of time and money, badly hurt Sega's reputation with gamers, devs and pubs
-Surprise May '95 Saturn launch in America. Complete disaster. Sony didn't force them to do this; Sega of Japan did, out of greed. Sega alienated many American retailers, some of whom refused to carry the system even when it was officially available (KB Toys). Almost zero marketing between May and September, both by Sega and magazines, giving PlayStation carte blanche on magazine coverage by default. Barely any games between May-September (6 launch games, TWO additional releases in the months up to September). Buggy Daytona and Virtua Fighter (btw they had VF Remix ready by the time of the surprise May release; they just wanted to double-dip with the bugged release and then VF Remix after around the official launch date). This surprise launch, of Sega's own doing, pretty much killed most of Saturn's potential in the West
-Horrid SDK environment for early Saturn development which turned off MANY developers, including Squaresoft (who considered going with Saturn at one point before calling it an engineering nightmare) and Namco. Saturn did not adopt a SDK with C language built in mind; Sony did. By the time AM2 made SGL 1.0 widely available, many 3P devs were already deep into first-generation PlayStation development and acclimated with that architecture. If Sega didn't split their focus with the 32X, maybe they would've had a more robust SDK for Saturn before the Japanese launch
-Publishing 155 GAMES in 1995!!! (across Genesis, Sega CD, 32X, Pico, Nomad, Game Gear, Arcade, and PC. EIGHT platforms!!!)
-Hiring Bernie Stolar; there's a reason Sony fired him
-Bernie Stolar's "5 Star Policy" for Saturn which cut out most 2D games (shmups, JRPGs, etc.) from ever getting English translations; this pissed off Working Designs' Victor Ireland and they dropped support for Saturn in late 1997 to focus on PlayStation instead (doesn't sound like a moneyhat to me 
)
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-Sega failing to acquire Core Design leading up to Saturn; they knew Core were working on Tomb Raider, and Core focused a LOT of their console games from 1993 - 1995 period on the Mega CD. If STI was falling apart, and you still needed a strong Western dev, why not pick up Core Design before Tomb Raider blew up (on PlayStation)? Core Design even wanted to make Tomb Raider exclusive to Saturn but Eidos, the publisher, eventually mandated a PS1 version
-Sega of Japan shutting down Saturn versions of MULTIPLE SoA games (Streets of Rage, Eternal Champions, Vectorman etc.)
-Sega of Japan prioritizing NiGHTS over a proper Saturn Sonic game
-Sega doing bare-bones home ports of their arcade games to Saturn (i.e very little or no extra content over the arcade versions)
-Sega intentionally limiting production of Saturn units in order to fudge fiscal reports and reduce operating costs on the hardware
-Bernie Stolar publicly saying Saturn was "not their future" at E3 '97. Led to mass exodus of 3P support for Saturn in the West, MANY games planned were cancelled
-Sega putting money towards Gameworks that could have probably been better put towards Saturn software and marketing (the Gameworks investments only seemed like a misfire in retrospect, plus Sega did co-invest into it with Dreamworks so I assume they maybe split the costs on venue developments)
-Sega having a public spat with 3Dfx over Dreamcast, dropping them. This upset EA who had shares in 3Dfx. EA wanted exclusivity to sports games on Dreamcast; Sega said no. EA decided not to support Dreamcast with software. This badly hurt Dreamcast adoption in the West (no Madden, no FIFA etc.)
-Sega of Japan rushing the Japanese launch of Dreamcast amid NEC PowerVR 2 chip shortages, and cutting into Saturn's market presence there when the system's audience weren't really ready to jump to a new system that soon. That plus Dreamcast not having a software presence as strong or Sony's or Nintendo's, lacking DVD playback, etc. hurt adoption in Japan. PS2 nearing release just finished the job Sega of Japan themselves started
-Bernie Stolar reducing the cost of the Dreamcast in America to $199 (SoJ wanted $249; Bernie basically forced them to lose an extra $50 per unit); this is probably what led to him being fired from Sega of America
-Sega sinking too much cost into Shenmue when the game did not have global appeal ($70 million was just too much for a game of that style at that time)
There's probably more I could get into WRT Sega's poor business decisions at the time over the course of the mid '90s to early '00s that show how much they were responsible for their own eventual downfall as a platform holder, but some of that info isn't hard to come by. And I'm an actual Sega fan, NOT a fanboy. Meaning, as much as I love quite a lot of their stuff from that era (particularly the Saturn and their 3D arcade games), I can acknowledge their faults and that most of their problems had nothing to do with Sony and PlayStation.
If Sega made smarter business choices back then, they would have fared much better, at least as well as Nintendo if not more so. But hubris and infighting got the better of them; Sony (and Nintendo) just stuck around to benefit from Sega's own mistakes.
I think the ones spinning that narrative are either old former Sega fanboys that can't admit that their favorite screwed up, or newer Xbox fanboys that just look for ways to blame Playstation for everything.This is the part in these discussions that does genuinely piss me off, because people trying to blame Sony for Sega are just completely brainless and ignorant about Sega's own history in the console market, and the mistakes they made which led to their own demise as a platform holder. And I say this as a Sega fan. Off the top of my head:
-Packing in Sonic 1 with Genesis. Massively boosted Genesis sales, BUT Kalinski also cut the price of the Genesis while doing so. Sega probably lost a lot in revenue on this strategy even if it boosted their install base-Focusing on FMV for Sega CD in the West instead of meaningful translations of games from the Japanese Mega CD library. Only companies like Working Design really focused on this, and they didn't have the resources to do it at the scale Sega could've. This hurt Sega's reputation with customers over the course of Sega CD's commercial run in the West-Being reactionary and making the 32X whatsoever. If Sega of Japan weren't so secretive with the Saturn, Sega of America would have probably withheld on the 32X and gone with enhanced SVP carts instead. 32X strained their chip capacity line for Saturn (both systems used dual-SH2s) and diluted development (hardware, software, SDK) resources that could've gone towards Saturn instead. Complete waste of time and money, badly hurt Sega's reputation with gamers, devs and pubs-Surprise May '95 Saturn launch in America. Complete disaster. Sony didn't force them to do this; Sega of Japan did, out of greed. Sega alienated many American retailers, some of whom refused to carry the system even when it was officially available (KB Toys). Almost zero marketing between May and September, both by Sega and magazines, giving PlayStation carte blanche on magazine coverage by default. Barely any games between May-September (6 launch games, TWO additional releases in the months up to September). Buggy Daytona and Virtua Fighter (btw they had VF Remix ready by the time of the surprise May release; they just wanted to double-dip with the bugged release and then VF Remix after around the official launch date). This surprise launch, of Sega's own doing, pretty much killed most of Saturn's potential in the West-Horrid SDK environment for early Saturn development which turned off MANY developers, including Squaresoft (who considered going with Saturn at one point before calling it an engineering nightmare) and Namco. Saturn did not adopt a SDK with C language built in mind; Sony did. By the time AM2 made SGL 1.0 widely available, many 3P devs were already deep into first-generation PlayStation development and acclimated with that architecture. If Sega didn't split their focus with the 32X, maybe they would've had a more robust SDK for Saturn before the Japanese launch-Publishing 155 GAMES in 1995!!! (across Genesis, Sega CD, 32X, Pico, Nomad, Game Gear, Arcade, and PC. EIGHT platforms!!!)-Hiring Bernie Stolar; there's a reason Sony fired him-Bernie Stolar's "5 Star Policy" for Saturn which cut out most 2D games (shmups, JRPGs, etc.) from ever getting English translations; this pissed off Working Designs' Victor Ireland and they dropped support for Saturn in late 1997 to focus on PlayStation instead (doesn't sound like a moneyhat to me-Sega failing to acquire Core Design leading up to Saturn; they knew Core were working on Tomb Raider, and Core focused a LOT of their console games from 1993 - 1995 period on the Mega CD. If STI was falling apart, and you still needed a strong Western dev, why not pick up Core Design before Tomb Raider blew up (on PlayStation)? Core Design even wanted to make Tomb Raider exclusive to Saturn but Eidos, the publisher, eventually mandated a PS1 version-Sega of Japan shutting down Saturn versions of MULTIPLE SoA games (Streets of Rage, Eternal Champions, Vectorman etc.)-Sega of Japan prioritizing NiGHTS over a proper Saturn Sonic game-Sega doing bare-bones home ports of their arcade games to Saturn (i.e very little or no extra content over the arcade versions)-Sega intentionally limiting production of Saturn units in order to fudge fiscal reports and reduce operating costs on the hardware-Bernie Stolar publicly saying Saturn was "not their future" at E3 '97. Led to mass exodus of 3P support for Saturn in the West, MANY games planned were cancelled-Sega putting money towards Gameworks that could have probably been better put towards Saturn software and marketing (the Gameworks investments only seemed like a misfire in retrospect, plus Sega did co-invest into it with Dreamworks so I assume they maybe split the costs on venue developments)-Sega having a public spat with 3Dfx over Dreamcast, dropping them. This upset EA who had shares in 3Dfx. EA wanted exclusivity to sports games on Dreamcast; Sega said no. EA decided not to support Dreamcast with software. This badly hurt Dreamcast adoption in the West (no Madden, no FIFA etc.)-Sega of Japan rushing the Japanese launch of Dreamcast amid NEC PowerVR 2 chip shortages, and cutting into Saturn's market presence there when the system's audience weren't really ready to jump to a new system that soon. That plus Dreamcast not having a software presence as strong or Sony's or Nintendo's, lacking DVD playback, etc. hurt adoption in Japan. PS2 nearing release just finished the job Sega of Japan themselves started-Bernie Stolar reducing the cost of the Dreamcast in America to $199 (SoJ wanted $249; Bernie basically forced them to lose an extra $50 per unit); this is probably what led to him being fired from Sega of America-Sega sinking too much cost into Shenmue when the game did not have global appeal ($70 million was just too much for a game of that style at that time)
There's probably more I could get into WRT Sega's poor business decisions at the time over the course of the mid '90s to early '00s that show how much they were responsible for their own eventual downfall as a platform holder, but some of that info isn't hard to come by. And I'm an actual Sega fan, NOT a fanboy. Meaning, as much as I love quite a lot of their stuff from that era (particularly the Saturn and their 3D arcade games), I can acknowledge their faults and that most of their problems had nothing to do with Sony and PlayStation.
If Sega made smarter business choices back then, they would have fared much better, at least as well as Nintendo if not more so. But hubris and infighting got the better of them; Sony (and Nintendo) just stuck around to benefit from Sega's own mistakes.
Pretty much. I have no idea where that argument comes from. The only difference is that the EU bought into MS' bad PR or were "pushed" into agreeing with it.
Wouldn't be surprised if there is a bit of spite that came into the decision, especially with everything surrounding brexit.
So much bad blood has been festering from things like fishing boundaries to northern ireland protocol.
Even CMA are making them feel like a bunch of spineless clowns they are.
The cowards won't even release their final findings in full on the ABK deal, while CMA has always been public every step of the way.
Congratulations EU you convinced me brexit was good for something.
And the clowns seem to be protected more on other sites but I post all over with gaf being the best of the popular ones and reset being the most pathetic.
EU official is quoted in an article that I'm sure many pro-deal people will be sharing soon. They argue that the CMA overexaggerated MS share in the cloud market and that it isn't a separate market, but the EU official statement doesn't seem to agree with that. They said that MS would hurt competition in the cloud market without remedies and seemed to consider it a separate market. Otherwise, why ask for remedies at all, weak though they may be?
wccftech.com
EU Official Says CMA Overstated Microsoft's Share in Cloud Gaming Market
An EU official went on record to say that the UK's CMA has overstated Microsoft's supposed cloud gaming market share (60-70%).
wccftech.com
LOL. Don't say any bad word about Florian
They have been sharing this but it doesn't matter. The CMA isn't forced to agree with the EC.EU official is quoted in an article that I'm sure many pro-deal people will be sharing soon. They argue that the CMA overexaggerated MS share in the cloud market and that it isn't a separate market, but the EU official statement doesn't seem to agree with that. They said that MS would hurt competition in the cloud market without remedies and seemed to consider it a separate market. Otherwise, why ask for remedies at all, weak though they may be?
EU Official Says CMA Overstated Microsoft's Share in Cloud Gaming Market
An EU official went on record to say that the UK's CMA has overstated Microsoft's supposed cloud gaming market share (60-70%).
Great find man; re-tweeted the tweet out maybe others will see it. There's a lot of insight here and very surprising coming from an ex-Xbox executive of the French unit. They really dig into how the acquisition can negatively impact brick-and-mortar retail, and those in the marketing industry as well as in the games review side of the industry too. It makes all of these positions potentially redundant and unnecessary; more money in the pockets of MS due to cost savings, but also means a lot of people potentially displaced in the market and forced to either adapt to new positions or leave the industry altogether.
The fact that various devs, retail outlets, marketing firms and types might in fact be more active in vocalizing opposition to an acquisition the scale of ABK by MS, but are afraid of being reprimanded for doing so, is quite telling. Like the person themselves said, "don't bite the hand that feeds you". There's a lot to chew on here and I think regulatory bodies like the CMA and FTC can (and likely have already) consider these points as issues of concern in their own challenges to the acquisition, since this can also disrupt competition in the market among various areas (for example, the distribution chain, as MS acquiring ABK and integrating all that content Day 1 into Game Pass creates a disadvantage for brick-and-mortar retailers like Gamestop and Best Buy, that they cannot effectively compete against).
Would say it's likely a mix of both. And in both cases, they are absolutely wrong and misplace their anger as a result.
It has me slightly concerned about disagreements over that cloud marketshare number being something that could help an appeal, but analysts seem to think that even that may not be enough.
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"Do you know for sure that this guy that is clearly paid by MS is actually paid by MS? Do you have actual proof?"
Unusual response from Tom. Thought he would say that Satya is very serious
Tom is getting banned for shutting down their hopes and dreams.
I think he even admits on his website that he is.
So the CEO is on TV making empty threats to the UK. He knows the deal isnt happening if hes on tv making empty bluster. IMO
If/when this deal fails I wonder if his job is on the line? Surely Phil spencer's is?
Shareholders don't give a shit about Xbox, if put to a vote they would shut Xbox down and get out of the gaming business. At this point is pretty much Nadella alone backing that division up.