Microsoft's acquisition of Activison Blizzard

[Nhomnhom]

Lol. Is that from the judge who denied the PI?

If the FTC doesn't appeal on her idiotic takes they are morons.

The moment regulators started falling for the most stupid narratives like as the on that ABK was unable to release games on Nintendo or that games being added to subscription services is pro-consumer it was always going to end this way.

Gamepass and xCloud are as pro-consumer as Netflix is.

 

[Swolf712]

I don’t know.
I’m just glad I don’t like ABK games. Or Bethesda games.

I'm mostly sad because Insomniac can never be reunited with Spyro. That series is a large part of my childhood and a huge part of why they've been my favorite studio for decades.

And I KNOW Xbox isn't gonna just magically start treating him well for any reason outside of flaunting they own Sony's old mascot. Just like Greenberg did with Crash.

 

[AshHunter216]

Lmao I am a massive advocate for unionization and fucking over corporations for the sake of the working class and public.

That's the great thing about being smart and not some fanboy. I couldn't give a shit about Microsoft as a company and I hope we elect politicians that go for their insane profits and low taxes.

But keep everything to the console space because that's all you care about. Plastic boxes from your childhood.

Xbox is just one platform. I'd have many different platforms to main if they went out of business. You're acting like your life is over if Xbox get a little more market share.

Also, lmao, Xbox domination. I want Call of Duty on Nintendo and I've been saying Activision is dumb AF for years for not doing it.

Corporations are soulless entities. Workers are people that should be protected. They are in no way the same thing and that shows your priorities.

To your second part, that's why we need an expansion of unionization and legislation that outlaws profitable companies from mass layoffs.


So what about gaming today is currently destroyed since 2001 because of Microsoft? How is ABK going to change that.


So first off, the slippery slope of Microsoft buying everything is just incorrect. They couldn't buy Bungie, Square Enix, or Sega before Activision.

Two, tell me all the games PlayStation 5 owners will no longer be able to play because of this deal.

You know the fucking funny thing about that is? Activision has swallowed most of their internal studios to be a COD factory.

Spyro? Dead
Tony Hawk? Dead
Backlog IP? Dead

Blizzard take forever to release new games and so far all they do is Overwatch and Diablo and WOW. Warcraft 3 Reforged had a fucked up launch and StarCraft is dead.

AB is currently a shell of its former self to please the stock market and focus entirely on profits. Everyone works on COD at Activision, to the point where that new Crash game wasn't even marketed.

Maybe Activision and Blizzard can go back to more diverse releases thanks to Microsoft not needing them to be factories of a single IP. That's the plan, anyway. I want a StarCraft 3.

Sure any future game from ABK that isn't COD will likely not be on a Playstation ever again. Stop this obnoxious, condescending bullshit gloating.

 

[Swolf712]

Yeah they did mentioned sony, but to be fair the CMA did also.

And the reason is the consumer who will be effected most will be those on playstation.

But yeah they should have tried to mention consumers as much as possible in place of sony.

I get they were trying to argue that MS harming their top competitor like that, and being in a position to do so for the foreseeable future, was bad for consumers, but my GOD did they do a poor job of articulating it.

 

[Nhomnhom]

Why would they want to kill Xbox? They were trying to compete, not actually put a platform holder out of business. Now if that happens in the process of competition, so be it, but they'd never really sought to just put them out of business. Companies with that mindset tend to become toxic and monopolistic very quickly.

Then they get what they deserve. If even for a moment Sony believed MS wasn't in the console business to destroy PlayStation they are idiots.

 

[Airbus]

The saddest thing is that Xbox was so close to dying due to the terrible job they have done since half-way into the 360 gen and now it's only a matter of time until they become the biggest company in traditional gaming shaping the future of the industry.

The market rejected the Xbox One, rejected Gamepass, rejected xCloud, rejected the Series and yet due to MS size they still get to move things in the direction they want against the will of most consumers.

Sony had multiple chances to kill Xbox for good but they allowed Xbox to hang around until MS decided to back up that division with limitless funds.

I'll enjoy this gen on my PS5 and by nextgen I'll probably be Linux/Retro only gamer. The golden age of Sony internal games was probably 2009-2020.

Enough with the doom and gloom

Ps5 just outsold xbox 3 :1 in may and thats before ff16 came out

ABK itself are crumbling company and hanging on Call of Duty which in constant decline

Just bring back socom, killzone, resistance and theres still battlefield game from EA

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

Lmao I am a massive advocate for unionization and fucking over corporations for the sake of the working class and public.

That's the great thing about being smart and not some fanboy. I couldn't give a shit about Microsoft as a company and I hope we elect politicians that go for their insane profits and low taxes.

But keep everything to the console space because that's all you care about. Plastic boxes from your childhood.

Dude you try tracking sales of plastic boxes that keep dropping in sales so much even the company that makes them doesn't want to be transparent with the sales of those plastic boxes.

C'mon, you cannot try belittling others over "plastic boxes" when you are also obsessed with "plastic boxes"

 

[reziel]

Enough with the doom and gloom

Ps5 just outsold xbox 3 :1 in may and thats before ff16 came out

ABK itself are crumbling company and hanging on Call of Duty which in constant decline

I don't know about the decline part the amount of money COD generates alone says the opposite. Plus Diablo 4 was a massive success despite being online only too.

 

[Nhomnhom]

Enough with the doom and gloom

Ps5 just outsold xbox 3 :1 in may and thats before ff16 came out

ABK itself are crumbling company and hanging on Call of Duty which in constant decline

Just bring back socom, killzone, resistance and theres still battlefield game from EA

Nobody is questioning that PS5 is going to sell well. MS play is not for this gen.

MS game division is going to become bigger than Sony before they even release any successful products, what do you think happens when they inevitable show up? Sony has been competing for the last 15 years with an Xbox division that could not have done a worst job.

What do you think happens next gen when consoles start selling 1:1 instead of 2:1? That's when MS will pulls all their games from PlayStation (Minecraft, CoD, TES) and start buying huge exclusivities to kill PlayStation for good.

GaaS and PC ports are not going to bail Sony out.

 

[Swolf712]

Lmao I am a massive advocate for unionization and fucking over corporations for the sake of the working class and public.

Spoken while unironically cheerleading one of the biggest corporations in the world.

 

[Swolf712]

I don't know about the decline part the amount of money COD generates alone says the opposite. Plus Diablo 4 was a massive success despite being online only too.

The quality is in decline, but the whales and influencers alone keep the spending up.

 

[Airbus]

I don't know about the decline part the amount of money COD generates alone says the opposite. Plus Diablo 4 was a massive success despite being online only too.

COd havent been a behemoth ip since the original modern warfare 2-3 and original black ops back then

And diablo 4? Wheres the number

 

[reziel]

COd havent been a behemoth ip since the original modern warfare 2-3 and original black ops back then

And diablo 4? Wheres the number

I'm not going to do the googling for you you'll have to post it if you want.

 

[Johnic]

COd havent been a behemoth ip since the original modern warfare 2-3 and original black ops back then

And diablo 4? Wheres the number

COD earns Sony BILLIONS each year. That's coming from Sony themselves, via their court documents.

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

Enough with the doom and gloom

Ps5 just outsold xbox 3 :1 in may and thats before ff16 came out

ABK itself are crumbling company and hanging on Call of Duty which in constant decline

Just bring back socom, killzone, resistance and theres still battlefield game from EA

ABK stock has been increasing the past few weeks and they're more or less back to where they were pre-scandals.

Socom, Killzone, Resistance & Battlefield combined do not have the mindshare nor the revenue power of COD. And that's on top of the other big ABK IP that MS are getting in Diablo, Candy Crush, etc.

PS5's sales today relative to Xbox won't mean anything 3-5 years from now if Sony don't make some big acquisitions, investments & share purchases of 3P publishers & devs themselves. Because 3-5 years from now, PlayStation will become an irrelevant platform in the market. Satya Nadella's already said they are considering even more 3P acquisitions...guess what 3P they are targeting? All the ones Sony have strong partnerships with.

Sony can't just keep doing things as usual or think Socom & Killzone etc. alone will be enough to offset mass acquisitions by Microsoft and others.

 

[Airbus]

I'm not going to do the googling for you you'll have to post it if you want.

Its still made big number its on steady decline

With playstation version soon gone activision will only lose more money in the future

 

[Nitro]

This isn't the CMA caving. If Microsoft signalled their intent to reconsider the CMA's proposed remedies, the CMA would be extremely foolish to ignore that. My personal hope is that Microsoft remain arrogant and find the remedies unacceptable, and the CMA stand firm.

This is more a story about Microsoft acknowledging the CMA's unique muscle and power. They are no pushovers.

 

[Swolf712]

Just bring back socom, killzone, resistance and theres still battlefield game from EA

Ohhh, my friend, I think you miss the point.

It's not about having shooters to play, it's about the revenue and mindshare. It would take at LEAST a decade of high quality and heavy spending to get any of those First Party IP anywhere near the point they could SNIFF that off of CoD, that was Sony's entire rebuttal to the whole "ten years is long enough to make a CoD competitor" argument. And it was a completely valid point.

For illustrative purposes: it's like suggesting Sony just create a PC OS to compete with Windows. The sheer amount of time, money, advertising, third-party partnerships etc. that it would take to get that anywhere NEAR Windows would bankrupt almost anyone.

Spoiler

Not to mention that half the tactics Microsoft used to get Windows where it is now are technically illegal.

 

[Johnic]

This isn't the CMA caving. If Microsoft signalled their intent to reconsider the CMA's proposed remedies, the CMA would be extremely foolish to ignore that. My personal hope is that Microsoft remain arrogant and find the remedies unacceptable, and the CMA stand firm.

This is more a story about Microsoft acknowledging the CMA's unique muscle and power. They are no pushovers.

That's not it. The CMA is approving this with minimal remedies. If they were willing to block this, they could have just sat back and let the case go through the appeal process, costing MS more time.

They're ready to pass this through.

 

[Swolf712]

This isn't the CMA caving. If Microsoft signalled their intent to reconsider the CMA's proposed remedies, the CMA would be extremely foolish to ignore that. My personal hope is that Microsoft remain arrogant and find the remedies unacceptable, and the CMA stand firm.

This is more a story about Microsoft acknowledging the CMA's unique muscle and power. They are no pushovers.

True. They have to at least entertain their request to try to reconcile the deal or they come off looking needlessly hostile, which hurts their case more and validates Microsoft's claim of unfair treatment.