Microsoft's acquisition of Activison Blizzard

[On Demand]

CMA is in danger of securing pyrrhic victory in Call of Duty battle​

CMA is in danger of securing pyrrhic victory in Call of Duty battle | Nils Pratley

Regulating Microsoft’s takeover of Activision Blizzard could make UK games market international outlier

www.theguardian.com

This article sounds silly in hindsight of the CMA going back on their final report and now trying to help MS pass the deal.

Unless I’m reading it wrong.

 

[Nhomnhom]

This article sounds silly in hindsight of the CMA going back on their final report and now trying to help MS pass the deal.

Unless I’m reading it wrong.

The CMA was wrong to try to do it's job now it must correct that poor behavior by humiliating themselves to help MS.

 

[Fenton]

Sony had two offers.

1. All existing Activision IPs (not new IPs) including COD till the end of 2027.
2. Only COD till 2033

COD is the money maker. Most of the existing IPs will not even have a release in the next 3.5 years.

 

[Loy310]

CMA is in danger of securing pyrrhic victory in Call of Duty battle​

CMA is in danger of securing pyrrhic victory in Call of Duty battle | Nils Pratley

Regulating Microsoft’s takeover of Activision Blizzard could make UK games market international outlier

www.theguardian.com

Yup, the cma had this in the bag, and somehow they backtracked hard for seemingly no reason is mad suss.

 

[Johnic]

So they got the same deal as Nintendo but chose the other option. Makes more financial sense.

 

[On Demand]

Sounds like Beard and Gravener didn't anticipate the judge wouldn't just take their word for it that everything is peachy keen because they and the CMA agree. A few of their arguments were to this effect.



I'd watch the lawyers involved in this case on the CMA side closely. If they land high paying roles in corporate or private law firms soon we'll have an inkling of what's gone on.

When the CMA lawyer was pushing to have everything ready for tomorrow 5pm (12pm in USA) but the judge gave them until Thursday, the CMA lawyer look at the MS lawyer to make sure it was okay. They are obviously in cahoots.

We need a whistleblower at the CMA.

This is truly mind blowing. Corruption of the highest order. The sooner MS leaves the games industry the better.

It’s like I was saying yesterday about them not expecting the judge to ask for proof of the magical new deal. I knew it.

And fuck the CMA. Damn traders.

 

[Bryank75]

Mystic summarizes the entire saga of the acquisition and discusses what it all means to PlayStation and its future...

Worth a watch.

 

[kuzon]

Do you think some of the remedies to satisfy the CMA would to sell some smaller IPs?

 

[reziel]

Do you think some of the remedies to satisfy the CMA would to sell some smaller IPs?

I would hope not. Those aren't even the reason MS wanted this so bad.

 

[Nhomnhom]

Sony had two offers.

1. All existing Activision IPs (not new IPs) including COD till the end of 2027.
2. Only COD till 2033

COD is the money maker. Most of the existing IPs will not even have a release in the next 3.5 years.

There isn't even anything besides CoD scheduled to release before 2027 is there? 5 extra years of CoD is a lot better than whatever else ABK will have now that Diablo already released.

 

[On Demand]

Mystic summarizes the entire saga of the acquisition and discusses what it all means to PlayStation and its future...

Worth a watch.

All of Sony’s issues still stand. This is what they had to agree to with signing that deal. Page 4 is a special kind of disgusting

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/642e9aee7de82b0012313735/SIE_response.pdf

 

[Loy310]

Do you think some of the remedies to satisfy the CMA would to sell some smaller IPs?

Who knows, end of the day what i see happening is sony getting a pub if they seriously plan on staying in gaming.

Any pub should be able to get pass regulators despite sony’s market position, cause there is no way a reg or judge can look at ms with abk/zeni, then look at sony mostly 1st party studios and tell them they cant make an acquisition. No lawyer gonna be able to make an argument that Sony getting SE, Ubi, capcom or T2 will harm a ms that have 99% of abk and zenimax ip exclusive to their platform, especially if sony angle is mobile and cloud expansion, markets they have zero footprint in.

Up to Sony in japan(not Jim for the Jim haters) if they plan on letting Jim spend billions to maintain their 35% of all revenue business over at SIE.
If japan don't budge then i wont blame the top brass at SIE if they start leaving.

You know that comment Chris made, saying that ms was better off announcing an electric car? Makes me wonder if Jim was not too happy about Japan wasting money on an industry they have no stake in (something Sony have always done thru its history) vs spending that money on your obvious cash cow, a cash cow that have to contend with a trillion dollar company and what i consider the Disney of video games, ms and Nintendo.
Contention no other division at Sony have to deal with. Their music and movie divisions don’t have to deal with a ms and Nintendo level competition all at once.
No, instead of investing into SIE, they gonna invest into Honda…….

Lets see how Kenichiro and Hiroki follow up, its all on them now.

 

[Umar]

 

[Swift_Star]

Sony had two offers.

1. All existing Activision IPs (not new IPs) including COD till the end of 2027.
2. Only COD till 2033

COD is the money maker. Most of the existing IPs will not even have a release in the next 3.5 years.

Most of them won't have a release AT ALL. ABK and MS are not reviving dead IPs.
Crash and Spyro are dead as are lots of their IPs.

 

[Danja]

Who knows, end of the day what i see happening is sony getting a pub if they seriously plan on staying in gaming.

Any pub should be able to get pass regulators despite sony’s market position, cause there is no way a reg or judge can look at ms with abk/zeni, then look at sony mostly 1st party studios and tell them they cant make an acquisition. No lawyer gonna be able to make an argument that Sony getting SE, Ubi, capcom or T2 will harm a ms that have 99% of abk and zenimax ip exclusive to their platform, especially if sony angle is mobile and cloud expansion, markets they have zero footprint in.

Up to Sony in japan(not Jim for the Jim haters) if they plan on letting Jim spend billions to maintain their 35% of all revenue business over at SIE.
If japan don't budge then i wont blame the top brass at SIE if they start leaving.

You know that comment Chris made, saying that ms was better off announcing an electric car? Makes me wonder if Jim was not too happy about Japan wasting money on an industry they have no stake in (something Sony have always done thru its history) vs spending that money on your obvious cash cow, a cash cow that have to contend with a trillion dollar company and what i consider the Disney of video games, ms and Nintendo.
Contention no other division at Sony have to deal with. Their music and movie divisions don’t have to deal with a ms and Nintendo level competition all at once.
No, instead of investing into SIE, they gonna invest into Honda…….

Lets see how Kenichiro and Hiroki follow up, its all on them now.

Exactly! People are so quick to jump in Jim for everything when the CEO literally doesn't take gaming seriously and undermined PS5 from the start.

 

[Danja]

Most of them won't have a release AT ALL. ABK and MS are not reviving dead IPs.
Crash and Spyro are dead as are lots of their IPs.

They made the best choice in my opinion. Let's see how much Xbox gamers love supporting exclusives now.

 

[Swift_Star]

They made the best choice in my opinion. Let's see how much Xbox gamers love supporting exclusives now.

The next diablo is 10 years or more (probably more) away.
Overwatch is dead.
CoD is the only IP worth something and I doubt the support will end after 10 years.
Everyone got what they wanted.
I can see MS fully spinning to xcloud in the future, dropping consoles altogether and becoming third parties for both Sony and Nintendo.
I can also see them mismanaging and devaluing CoD.

 

[Danja]

The next diablo is 10 years or more (probably more) away.
Overwatch is dead.
CoD is the only IP worth something and I doubt the support will end after 10 years.
Everyone got what they wanted.
I can see MS fully spinning to xcloud in the future, dropping consoles altogether and becoming third parties for both Sony and Nintendo.
I can also see them mismanaging and devaluing CoD.

Agreed. I think Playstation may still get ba few other games from them over the years but this deal has kinda been nullified with COD sticking around. Crash and Spyro are dead again too.

Tony Hawk is neither here no there at this point.

Now it's just up to Playstation to utilize that COD money wisely assuming the CEO doesn't continue to cutting their spending power.

 

[Gods&Monsters]

Interesting article with comments from ex CMA lawyer. Obviously something fishy happened behind the scenes and they got scared of Microsoft. Other companies won't have the same treatment.

Analysis: Microsoft tests the limits of Britain's antitrust authority

The decision by Britain's antitrust regulator to rip up its play book for Microsoft shows the limit of its ability to kill mega-deals on its own, even if some agreed with its opposition to the U.S company's $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

www.reuters.com

Tom Smith, a partner at law firm Geradin Partners and previously legal director at the CMA, said the political reaction to the Microsoft block had been "exponentially bigger than any other case I've ever seen".

"I am pretty confident that it has taken the CMA by surprise," he said. "They would have expected something of course - you can't block such a high-profile deal without some blowback - but the scale is different than they would have expected."

 

[Loy310]

Most of them won't have a release AT ALL. ABK and MS are not reviving dead IPs.
Crash and Spyro are dead as are lots of their IPs.

Exactly, in addition to that, Jim knows people are not going to leave PS for crash, spyro, diablo, overwatch and he gets the benefit of denying MS (or MS denying themself) the playstation audience and playstation revenue split for the smaller games, games that launch once a generation.

It was a lay up for Jim "gimme cod for 10 years and ill fuck off with this drama"