Sony WOULDN'T return his calls, they'd only go through lawyers, as ACTI is involved in the FTC lawsuit and Sony talking to them would open doors to some big trouble.
Microsoft's acquisition of Activison Blizzard
- Thread starter Satoru
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It wouldn't be the first time; they were kind of notorious for stuff like this back in the Wintel days. If you had Windows '95 (or some other Windows of that era) and tried to uninstall Internet Explorer, the OS would end up borked. But that's because Microsoft programmed it that way; when they got taken to court they were forced to admit that it was out of a choice and could program it so that the OS ran perfectly fine without Internet Explorer.
They also withheld APIs from Netscape during the early IE/Netscape browser wars. I mean this stuff is distant now to some extent, and it was more of the Wild West in terms of home computer tech markets (at least for that era following the microcomputer boom), but it's still a part of Microsoft's history and they made gains there they benefit from to this day. You could almost call it 'corporate privilege'.
Yeah, with the way some people keep trying to say gaming will be cloud-only in the future, it could create a situation where Sony & Nintendo are forced to turn to Microsoft for cloud infrastructure (MS & Sony already signed an MOU in 2020 for Azure, but I don't think anything is ever going to come of that, especially after this). It'd be one thing if Microsoft were not hosting their own competing cloud platform too but, that isn't the case. To be fair, the same concerns would exist if Sony & Nintendo were forced to turn to Apple (Apple Arcade) or Google (Google Play), too. Maybe Amazon as well, since they have Luna. Whether offering content through direct digital sales, subscription, or a mix of both, a cloud future would leave companies like Sony and Nintendo beholden to one of the big tech, and we're talking about a potential scenario where the company is Microsoft who also own all of ABK.
It's kind of like a web hosting company providing server space for other websites, but they also run their own competing websites. How does that work without the host eventually making things materially worst for companies paying for hosting, in order to push its own websites as priority, especially if they want to increase market share of those websites? I don't think it does work, that's the point. Some things probably just have to be separated in that regard, or at least up to a point where only limited vertical integration should be allowed. Kind of like with the movie studios and movie theaters; I know the idea's been floating around to retract on that particular decision, in light of shrinking market of movie theater chains, but it's not a good enough parallel with gaming. The gaming market's been growing, not shrinking. Publishers by and large are doing just fine; there are no supply chain or economic factors stifling production of digital or physical game content, or providing it through a direct sales model.
So I don't think MS lawyers can even turn to those types of arguments to make a persuasive case, when it comes to the cloud side of this stuff.
Bobby Kotick needs this deal to go through. He has sexually harassed almost all the staff in ABK and if he isn't allowed access to Microsoft soon, he will have to start sexually assaulting the same staff again.
My heart bleeds for him.
Allegedly
My heart bleeds for him.
Allegedly
No joke, but the merger process is the only thing that has kept him from being fired, as the merger process freezes executives in their jobs until it is completed. The HR investigation hadn't started yet when the merger was announced, so it is on hold until this ends. Then he's in for trouble.
He can go fuck himself. Best case scenario for everyone is he getting what he deserves.
My financial advisor told me to put everything into canned food and shotguns.
Only for self-relief when the deal dies officially.
I said what I said and have no ragrets.
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It was always an uphill battle but this thing about CMA now asking MS for remedy solutions is exactly what all of us knew was gonna happen months ago.
I'm actually surprised at how strongly a lot of people are reacting to this completely expected news.
Funny how that goes DIRECTLY against what you had been saying for half a year now...
I guess you got the new talking points delivered in Mumbai, then?
She’s desperate as usual. And now she’s tame because the deal is severely threatened.
I am bummed that they have only put the first on 4K so far. I used to have 2 on LaserDisc, and it was open matte, as all Warner Brothers LDs were, and the stock footage they used for a lot of exterior shots was actually a different aspect ratio. It also had the Hulk Hogan scene instead of the John Wayne scene that was on the VHS.I watched them again over the Xmas holidays
I kinda find it hard to trust the word of anyone who would directly financially benefit from this deal going through, especially someone from Activision. Found an article today that compared the situation to when Nvidia tried to buy ARM. They also claimed everything was fine all the way up until talks fell through. I've also read that CMA rarely changes their mind on cases like this. It's very possible the deal goes through, but it looks very unlikely that there won't be major concessions at the VERY least.
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