Microsoft's acquisition of Activison Blizzard

Zzero

Major Tom
9 Jan 2023
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America is the only market where Xbox was popular - as in, of the general consensus of all console buyers of which hardware they prefer; Xbox, Playstation and Switch. It is now being outsold in its 'popular', home market by 2.5 million units, a year after having no stock and all data indicates that gap will continue to widen. Not exactly popular then, is it?
By that metric the Switch has won every market its entered, so the PS4 and 5 are unpopular too. But we all know that's bullshit, gaming is big enough that multiple competing systems can all be popular and that even the third placed one can be far from "vastly, hugely unpopular".
 

Zeroing

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LOL I think people are confusing brand perception with market and mixing it all up with sales.
 
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By that metric the Switch has won every market its entered, so the PS4 and 5 are unpopular too. But we all know that's bullshit, gaming is big enough that multiple competing systems can all be popular and that even the third placed one can be far from "vastly, hugely unpopular".
How are Sega doing nowadays?
MS is so popular, they are spending $80bn to compete.

Keep reaching though. lol
 

Zzero

Major Tom
9 Jan 2023
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How are Sega doing nowadays?
MS is so popular, they are spending $80bn to compete.

Keep reaching though. lol
From a financial perspective? They're doing fine, great even. They are probably the only Japanese gaming company to have a really good western wing, their current core franchises are all really healthy and even their arcade development wing is great, not sure whether they want to do a Sonic 3 or not but the past two are two of the top three grossing game movies of all time.

You seem to, from the second half of your post, think that them spending more money is somehow a bad thing. Well, all I can say is keep reaching cause you have a long way to go.
 

Nhomnhom

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25 Mar 2023
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Spending money on R&D for new tech? Good idea
Spending $80billion to keep their (hugely popular) brand competing? Bad idea.
Hugely popular?

high quality GIF
 

Zeroing

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6 Jul 2022
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Anyway, back on topic

It begins, Google and Apple will start fighting MS.
Sony will continue focusing on games while MS will be busy engaging on everything but gaming.
 

Zeroing

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Apple I doubt has a dog in this fight but Amazon should be on Google's side because of Luna. hopefully they've already reached out to the agencies and just haven't spoken publicly yet.
Trust me, Apple hates Microsoft, they are just doing it more silently and they do not trust Microsoft to protect customer data. Anyone remembers Meta vs Apple?

Also Microsoft was the company who joined with Epic to take down the app store. Some months later, Apple does a keynote using a PS5 controller and talking about the PS5. Coincidence? I think not.
Yeah Amazon too will be fighting over that but I am talking more than just the cloud. Microsoft by taking openGPT and making it exclusively to theirs, is already heating up things. AI is the next big thing those corporations will be fighting for.
 

Old Gamer

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Microsoft by taking OpenAI and making it exclusively to theirs, is already heating up things. AI is the next big thing those corporations will be fighting for.
This.

Google and others will definitely try to use the ABK cloud concerns for retaliation. Sony does not have the lobbying push Google does.
MS might have gone too hard on AI a bit prematurely, but we'll see how far Google goes on this.
 

Zeroing

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This.

Google and others will definitely try to use the ABK cloud concerns for retaliation. Sony does not have the lobbying push Google does.
MS might have gone too hard on AI a bit prematurely, but we'll see how far Google goes on this.
And it as not even started and Germany is already investigating Microsoft "With Windows and its Office products Microsoft has had a long-standing and very strong position with regard to operating systems and office software… In addition, Microsoft is also active in other areas, including gaming with its Xbox, career networks with its service LinkedIn or internet searching with its search engine Bing."
 

Old Gamer

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And it as not even started and Germany is already investigating Microsoft "With Windows and its Office products Microsoft has had a long-standing and very strong position with regard to operating systems and office software… In addition, Microsoft is also active in other areas, including gaming with its Xbox, career networks with its service LinkedIn or internet searching with its search engine Bing."
If Berlin wants pressure on MS, and Brussels fails to, Berlin will do it themselves. Remains to be seen if they want actual corrections on the market or just charge a ridiculously small fine as per usual.
 
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Nhomnhom

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Trust me, Apple hates Microsoft, they are just doing it more silently and they do not trust Microsoft to protect customer data. Anyone remembers Meta vs Apple?

Also Microsoft was the company who joined with Epic to take down the app store. Some months later, Apple does a keynote using a PS5 controller and talking about the PS5. Coincidence? I think not.
Yeah Amazon too will be fighting over that but I am talking more than just the cloud. Microsoft by taking openGPT and making it exclusively to theirs, is already heating up things. AI is the next big thing those corporations will be fighting for.
Imagine trusting MS with the future of AI... how could that not go completely wrong?
 

Johnic

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People were already complaining but weirdly enough no real articles about those implications. Only how bing’s AI is creepy/funny
When you lock millions of consumers out of playing their bought games an your new systems for 4 days and don't get any mainstream media articles about it, something like this not being mentioned isn't surprising.
 

Zeroing

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When you lock millions of consumers out of playing their bought games an your new systems for 4 days and don't get any mainstream media articles about it, something like this not being mentioned isn't surprising.
What? that happened?? If it was Sony or Nintendo even my grandmother would had know...
 

laynelane

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14 Jul 2022
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Anyway, back on topic


"When we talk to a lot of our customers, they find a lot of these bundling practices, as well as the way they create pricing and licensing restrictions, make it difficult for them to choose other providers," he added.

This is referring to the topic of the article, but it's very reminiscent of what they're trying to do in gaming with acquisitions, Game Pass, and all the deals for the Series S console.