Microsoft's acquisition of Activison Blizzard

[Eternal_Wings]

People aren't going to ditch their friendlist or console for GP. This is delusion.

Sony needs to create their own niche.
If they can manage to get Square Enix, Capcom and maybe either Larian or CDPR they could have a unique standing like Nintendo. Not directly Nintendo but somewhat in that way.
After Zenimax was was already huge buyout , Microsoft also got 3 big publisher with Activision, Blizzard and King. Sony could easily justify it.

 

[laynelane]

Sony needs to create their own niche.
If they can manage to get Square Enix, Capcom and maybe either Larian or CDPR they could have a unique standing like Nintendo. Not directly Nintendo but somewhat in that way.
After Zenimax was was already huge buyout , Microsoft also got 3 big publisher with Activision, Blizzard and King. Sony could easily justify it.

PS enjoys worldwide popularity due to quality games, hardware, and services. They've provided that for years upon years. As long as they keep delivering, they'll retain that success. Why would they need to create a niche when they're the market leader with no sign of that changing?

 

[Nhomnhom]

Well don’t worry Sony will do at least one or two major acquisitions. I am fully convinced that Sony will buy a one Japanese pub and probably a heavy western RPG smithery (Larian Studios or CDPR).
I don’t think Hiroki Totoki dropped this for fun:
“We will continue to make strategic investments going forward, prioritizing intellectual property.“
It can’t be coincidence that he said this just after PI for FTC was denied. They made their resolve. Better late than never.

Let's hope you are right, I like consoles but I don't like Xbox.

People aren't going to ditch their friendlist or console for GP or Xbox. This is delusion.

That is why crossplay was so important to them, it's all about eroding the PlayStation business over time, weakening or acquiring PS partners, phasing out physical media and B2P and turning it into a competition of quantity instead of a competition of quality (where they always lost).

The best move so far by Sony was the conservative rework of PS+ where they didn't completely bite the bait of offering their game on day one.

 

[Entropi]

Interesting how after this deal got rammed through the FTC and DOJ attempt to up their authority? Trying to tie Sony and others down?

The feds just laid out new guidelines for approving mergers — here they are

The new guidelines are meant to give businesses and courts a sense of how the two agencies determine whether a deal is unlawful.

www.cnbc.com

That’s part of the deal, yes. Buying politicians not only benefits MS, it prevents everyone else to do the same.

 

[On Demand]

The judge is fine but I don't see anything coming out of the UK press. They are not asking Sarah Cardell from the CMA what the fuck happened after she said they were going against Big Tech? MS is the biggest of them all.

Are they getting silenced from MS? We need answers.

Internet watchdog set up to rein in big tech will 'unleash' industry

Sarah Cardell's comments come amid lobbying from the handful of tech giants likely to be affected that the legislation risks overregulation and will make the UK a 'hostile' place to invest.

www.dailymail.co.uk

She’s the one that was interviewed on that U.K. news channel after clown Brad said they don’t know what they’re doing.

She defended the CMA and said we do know what we are doing. We’ve been investigating this deal for 6 months and came to the conclusion that the deal is harmful to consumers and the market.

I don’t know what happened to all that. She does need to be asked some serious questions on why the change of stance.

 

[AshHunter216]

They failed appointing there double agent
View attachment 1908

That's one bit of good news. Sony need to lock down some key partners before MS are able to install people that will make it impossible.

 

[Gods&Monsters]

They failed appointing there double agent
View attachment 1908

Good at least the bitch is gone after political pressure. The EU is not totally lost yet.

Now the CMA needs to answer some questions.

She’s the one that was interviewed on that U.K. news channel after clown Brad said they don’t know what they’re doing.

She defended the CMA and said we do know what we are doing. We’ve been investigating this deal for 6 months and came to the conclusion that the deal is harmful to consumers and the market.

I don’t know what happened to all that. She does need to be asked some serious questions on why the change of stance.

She lost all credibility after this. CMA is pretty much over now like the FTC.

Regulators are useless to stop MS but they continue to piss off every other Big Tech for show. Double standards.

 

[AshHunter216]

Apparently the EU might consider buying too many studios that make a specific type of game a monopoly.

 

[ksdixon]

I'm trying to pull something forward unsuccessfully, but in the context of cloud computing advantage, didn't either Bethesda or ABK have some latency reducing software... Orion? How can Microsoft claim to not be getting a cloud advantage there? It's like buying someone else's patents. It might literally be that, but I'm dumb

 

[Gods&Monsters]

Apparently the EU might consider buying too many studios that make a specific type of game a monopoly.

Of course they do that after MS bought all the shooters and WRPGs studios so blocking everyone else (Sony). It's almost like a joke at this point.

 

[Swift_Star]

Apparently the EU might consider buying too many studios that make a specific type of game a monopoly.

Well, it's obvious that MS holds a hard grip on both the FPS and "W"RPG market.

 

[Darth Vader]

Apparently the EU might consider buying too many studios that make a specific type of game a monopoly.

Seems like that's being drafted to prevent a certain company from buying studios.

 

[FatKaz]

Apparently the EU might consider buying too many studios that make a specific type of game a monopoly.

That shouldn't really cause any issues for sony, i mean it's no secret sony need to diversify their lineup. Lets say sony went for square enix or capcom, they don't really make similar games to them, maybe a few games here and there might have similarities but it's a bit of stretch to stop them buying them because of similarities for a few games.

Seems like it could stop MS more then anyone really, e.g. prevent them buying larian or cdpr wrpg studios.

 

[Swift_Star]

Seems like that's being drafted to prevent a certain company from buying studios.

Imagine if it stopped Sony from buying SE? After they let MS do what they did?

 

[Would_you_kindly]

I'm hedging my bets on a ps5 slim being announced

 

[AshHunter216]

Of course they do that after MS bought all the shooters and WRPGs studios so blocking everyone else (Sony). It's almost like a joke at this point.

A lot of the studios I would want Sony to look at make games in genres that their 1st party studios dont really do atm. I don't think this hurts Sony as much as some of you are worried it will unless someone tries to argue in court that everything with a 3rd person camera is too similar to what Sony has.

 

[AshHunter216]

Imagine if it stopped Sony from buying SE? After they let MS do what they did?

I don't think SE catalogue and studios are really that similar to Sony first party and wouldn't violate that new rule.

 

[Dabaus]

That shouldn't really cause any issues for sony, i mean it's no secret sony need to diversify their lineup. Lets say sony went for square enix or capcom, they don't really make similar games to them, maybe a few games here and there might have similarities but it's a bit of stretch to stop them buying them because of similarities for a few games.

Seems like it could stop MS more then anyone really, e.g. prevent them buying larian or cdpr wrpg studios.

Sony's exact problem is a lack of diversity in genres so yeah. Not sure how this would apply to them.

 

[reziel]

Imagine if it stopped Sony from buying SE? After they let MS do what they did?

I don't think they can. Square is nowhere near as big a buy as Activision. I mean even if they cut out Xbox permanently Playstation and Nintendo are still their main customers it wouldn't really have a major effect negatively on the company minus the G-Pass users and maybe a few actual supporters. So there's no reason to block it. Especially in the states remember guys according to our bigwigs over here. Xbox can have what they want because their American, so that same logic should apply over seas since it "belongs" to them.

 

[Arminius]

I think the Japanese publishers are safe since each one has Their own favorite genre for the most part. Sony can still invest heavily in the rest of the Japanese and western studios and publishers, I guess.

Like Reziel said. These publishers are nowhere near as big as ABK.