They shot themselves in the foot by saying this was about mobile, now CMA says ok divest cod/activision and you can have your mobile. But we all know that was bullshit from day one, they got outplayed by the CMA.
Microsoft's acquisition of Activison Blizzard
- Thread starter Satoru
- Start date
So what happens to this image?
Klobrille worked so hard.... he was up all night copy and pasting!
This is not a joke, this is his life!
"Deal on the ropes? Fuck it, Age of Empires 2 is on Xbox."
Not in the slightest ... not surprising that people are only reading the first tweet of the chain and ignoring the rest since that conforms to their preferred narrative.
Honestly, what makes you think the ABK shareholders will want to sacrifice CoD, knowing it's not only the company's golden goose but the only thing it makes?
That's what the remedial discussions are for, CMA hasn't set anything in stone and all parties will now be allowed to remedy and offer concessions to pass it through.
We all knew this months ago.
surely Microsoft has to go through with what the CMA is saying, if they know pull out of the deal for the mobile bit, that would be caught lying to a regulator?
There must be huge ramifications for that?
I've seen people on Era and other places state with certainty that the CMA wasn't even going to require remedies.Did we? i thought you guys were celebrating it like it was written in stone?
Guess they're gonna go full mask off now.
Of course they did. They constantly, conveniently forget things pertaining to Microsoft's resources when the argument requires it. Suddenly the warchest is empty. Suddenly they aren't pulling in ~ $70 billion a year in net profits. Suddenly they're the size of a mom & pop shop.
I get it from the perspective of improving Xbox's revenue stream so that the division can get by on its own weight but...this isn't what that actually does. The division providing a product, software & services that appeal enough to the majority of the customer market to win over their dollars is the actual way you're supposed to grow the revenue and make the division self-sufficient, not buying publishers and simply assimilating their revenue to your gaming sector's to provide an (artificial) boost.
Which MS have already done with Minecraft/Mojang (not sure if they were a publisher at the time but I believe so), and did again with Zenimax. And in the case of ABK, it's not Xbox's money enabling the purchase, but money from other parts of the company that have been much more successful.
The fact MS (and ABK lawyers) have made claims that Sony would be fine without COD (which may or may not be true), in order to gain favor for the acquisition, kind of betrays part of their intention in the deal in the first place, IMO. Why entertain the concept of Sony being OK without COD unless you were planning at some point to remove it from the platform and that ecosystem?
Doctor Avatar helped open real dialog on ResetERA. Always good to see.
Though I can see valid points in both the 'dude' and 'Kyra' posts. The CMA have in fact left room for approving the deal but, behavioral remedies likely won't cut it since those basically fall into ESG territory and at least the FTC have already said they aren't interested in that type of stuff. I'd think the CMA and EC lean somewhere similar in that regard.
I know what divesting COD into its own entity would entail. Sounds like CMA are saying "COD and/or Activision", which I guess would mean a scenario MS can still keep COD but divests the rest of Activision? Which IMO MS would prob rather want to divest Activision because those IP collectively aren't worth what COD is, let alone COD & the Blizzard-King stuff, so I think Activision being divested would be like a slap on the wrist at most and not resolve the concerns the CMA are bringing up, hence why they would lean to a COD divestiture.
Curious about the mobile side, though. They divest COD (preferably as its own company, not selling it to another investor or publisher), but still have all the Blizzard & King IP, Battle.net, so on and so forth. It seems like MS wants to try pulling an Epic and not want to pay Apple, Google etc. a cut on MTX sales of mobile game content, and there's a huge part of that debate focused on if companies like Apple & Google actually need that model considering they don't subsidize their hardware. Except from what I've read, they don't have "massive" profit margins on the mainstream phone models. Decent profit margins, yes, but maybe by $100 - $150 or so, and most users get the phones through carriers who bake in the costs they buy the phones for in the data plans, that way the carriers make profit off the subscription contracts.
I don't even think using the fact Apple, Google etc. make profit off their phones, in order to invalidate their practice of taking a revenue cut from MTX sale & software sales on their storefronts, even works because in the console space Nintendo sell their hardware at a profit and enforce the same type of cut. And they produce Switches at mainstream volumes the same way Apple does iPhones (although Apple makes way more iPhones, obviously). The whole razor/razor blades thing is just one part of the traditional console business model, and there's never really been a hard-set rule in how to implement it. Sony found the best balance for it with the PS1 where in early years the hardware sold for a small loss but later on could be revised to be sold with some profit as install base grew and production costs came down, and the profits were made in the software. But it's about having smart management over the design and build of the hardware; companies like Sega didn't do that with the Saturn which is why they ended up bleeding a lot of money in subsidizing the hardware with price cuts to stay competitive.
Microsoft's problem is probably a combination of Sega's along with excessive spending on historical contracts for components in previous systems that left them at a disadvantage (Nvidia), costs associated with hardware flaws (RROD), lowered 1P sales and revenue, lowered 3P sales and revenue, and sunk costs into big acquisitions (Zenimax, what they're trying now with ABK) along with forced price cuts to try staying competitive eating into revenue (Series S holiday sales promos) all culminating into a situation where they feel the specific razor/razor blades model they've operated on for Xbox is a prerequisite for justifying a revenue cut off 3P software and MTX but if they do actually feel that way, they should probably reevaluate their own business model and see that even Nintendo & Sony have largely avoided that situation, and if they can have profit on their hardware while still justifying revenue cuts, companies like Apple & Google probably have good grounds to enforce similar, meaning I don't see a scenario where MS can appease Apple, Google and so forth and get big access on their mobile marketplaces without paying them a cut in revenue.
I mean Microsoft may be a much bigger company than Epic but they still have to play by the same rules when they're in someone else's house.
I love how resetera users cheering for this deal to goes thought pretend they only want this because of Activision workers and not because of console wars lol
Pachter has given this deal his famous kiss of death. Anytime he predicts something, the opposite happens
lol some people are ridiculously delusional
Pachter saying that CMA 'know they have a losing legal argument'..... the guy thinks that CMA have to answer to a court for their decision... he is such an ignorant clown.
He says the deal will close by May. Why does this guy have a job in the industry? LOL
He says the deal will close by May. Why does this guy have a job in the industry? LOL
So now that the FTC and CMA have shown their hands, do you guys think the smaller counties that kept delaying will weigh now? Particularly curios what China and Japan say after Koticks and Nadellas east vs west pitch.
Pachter has made a lot of bad predictions. Didn't he say that Playstation would be totally screwed this gen? Even if the deal goes through, there may be so many concessions made it may not even be worth the price of the deal anymore.
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When have analysts been right?
www.gamesindustry.biz
These articles are for clicks for rabid fanboys from both sides.
They don't know shit.
Analysts see CMA objection to Activision Blizzard acquisition as a sign deal will go through
The UK Competition and Markets Authority today released provisional findings of its investigation into the possible ant…
www.gamesindustry.biz
They don't know shit.
Michael pachter is going to give xbox fanboys copium until reality set in. I actually dont think reality will set in for some of them. This Qanon levels of conspiracy now "Trust the plan" and "Two more weeks." Literally.