Microsoft's acquisition of Activison Blizzard

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

In case there were any remaining doubt, Hoeg Law is 100% an Xbox fanboy. Today's tweets cement that.

I don't even think it's just him placating to that audience; he seems to genuinely feel that way himself. Extremely unprofessional of them given their line of work but it's also not very surprising.

 

[MrRevocs1256]

well well well... Fucking LOL

 

[Dabaus]

In case there were any remaining doubt, Hoeg Law is 100% an Xbox fanboy. Today's tweets cement that.

I don't even think it's just him placating to that audience; he seems to genuinely feel that way himself. Extremely unprofessional of them given their line of work but it's also not very surprising.

Guys like Hoeg's law who speak with authority shouldnt be allowed to take super chat donations. I was listening to an insane cult xbox podcast today to see what theyd say and dude was just bold face lying and taking super chats. I get that it'snot illegal to donate money to anyone but the grift is obvious.

 

[AshHunter216]

In case there were any remaining doubt, Hoeg Law is 100% an Xbox fanboy. Today's tweets cement that.

I don't even think it's just him placating to that audience; he seems to genuinely feel that way himself. Extremely unprofessional of them given their line of work but it's also not very surprising.

There was an obvious reason the Xbox fanboys liked him and Florian so much. They're all on the same team.

 

[Swift_Star]

chorizo laughs last.

You're not laughing, though, the deal is still dead.

 

[Sircaw]

well well well... Fucking LOL

I'm not too fond of the way they use the word may.

"May be applied Globally "

 

[Gediminas]

is was expected, the eu is weak, but this is a blessing in disguise, this will drag ms for some good time for nothing

while, it was better EC just block, but their decision actual makes CMA decision credible and it can't be overturned as illogical or irrational.
it is basically check mate move by any move from EC.

 

[Yurinka]

Recap of the results

EU findings:

• EU thinks that to make the AB titles console exclusive wouldn't significantly harm the consoles and game subscriptions markets and that MS isn't incentivized to do it
• PS outsells XB 4:1 in the European Economic Area (EEA) as seen here
• CoD is less important in the EEA than in other regions (NA/USA), Sony could replace it with other games thanks to their huge catalog and position
• Even without this acquisition ABK wouldn't have included their game in the rival subscriptions because game subs canibalize their main revenue source, game and dlc sales
• They think cloud gaming today is "very limited market" but has potential to grow and be transformative in the future. They think ABK games could help to make it popular but that to do it exclusively in GP would harm this market, and in the specific case of PC, MS could limit it to their OS so it would also harm the PC OS market.

Remedies proposed by MS to address the European Commision concerns in cloud gaming in a 10 years commitment to provide:

• A free license to consumers in the EEA that would allow them to stream, via any cloud game streaming services of their choice, all current and future Activision Blizzard PC and console games for which they have a license.
• A corresponding free license to cloud game streaming service providers to allow EEA-based gamers to stream any Activision Blizzard's PC and console games.
• These licenses will ensure that gamers that have purchased one or more Activision games on a PC or console store, or that have subscribed to a multi-game subscription service that includes Activision games, have the right to stream those games with any cloud game streaming service of their choice and play them on any device using any operating system.
• Activision's games available for streaming will have the same quality and content as games available for traditional download.
• After getting feeback from 'a large number of market participants' the Commision sees this as positive because think it would help cloud gaming market including relaetd small clould gaming services from EU.

https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_23_2705

Personal opinion:

I think the Comission made a big mistake ignoring that (at least what they said in UK, I assume same applies for the EU) that instead of paying to these cloud gaming platform holders the typical 30% revenue made by selling in these platforms the Activision Blizzard games and their DLC/IAP/passes, MS wouldn't pay them nothing.

These platforms would have to pay the server costs for these games that would be providing them no revenue at all producing them loses, while also keeping their players busy instead of playing other games of their platform that provide them revenue. So that deal would damage them and would be abusive and unfair, to the point I personally think is a reason to block the acquisition.

In any case, getting the ok from the EU doesn't matter because the FTC and CMA already killed the acquisition, instead of MS gets very lucky and they win in the appeals for both decisions, where they have very low chances.

 

[Johnic]

well well well... Fucking LOL

So what's the point of approving it then?

 

[Swift_Star]

well well well... Fucking LOL

Wow, that's amazing and is being overlook on the Era thread.
Actually, rereading that, it's just common sense, it just means that if the CMA isn't overturned, the deal remains dead, which is what we've been saying since the beginning.

 

[On Demand]

well well well... Fucking LOL

Where is that from?

 

[FatKaz]

Recap of the results

EU findings:

• EU thinks that to make the AB titles console exclusive wouldn't significantly harm the consoles and game subscriptions markets and that MS isn't incentivized to do it
• PS outsells XB 4:1 (wtf!) in the European Economic Area (EEA)
• CoD is less important in the EEA than in other regions (NA/USA), Sony could replace it with other games thanks to their huge catalog and position
• Even without this acquisition ABK wouldn't have included their game in the rival subscriptions because game subs canibalize their main revenue source, game and dlc sales
• They think cloud gaming today is "very limited market" but has potential to grow and be transformative in the future. They think ABK games could help to make it popular but that to do it exclusively in GP would harm this market, and in the specific case of PC, MS could limit it to their OS so it would also harm the PC OS market.

Remedies proposed by MS to address the European Commision concerns in cloud gaming in a 10 years commitment to provide:

• A free license to consumers in the EEA that would allow them to stream, via any cloud game streaming services of their choice, all current and future Activision Blizzard PC and console games for which they have a license.
• A corresponding free license to cloud game streaming service providers to allow EEA-based gamers to stream any Activision Blizzard's PC and console games.
• These licenses will ensure that gamers that have purchased one or more Activision games on a PC or console store, or that have subscribed to a multi-game subscription service that includes Activision games, have the right to stream those games with any cloud game streaming service of their choice and play them on any device using any operating system.
• Activision's games available for streaming will have the same quality and content as games available for traditional download.
• After getting feeback from 'a large number of market participants' the Commision sees this as positive because think it would help cloud gaming market including relaetd small clould gaming services from EU.

https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_23_2705

Personal opinion:

I think the Comission made a big mistake ignoring that (at least what they said in UK, I assume same applies for the EU) that instead of paying to these cloud gaming platform holders the typical 30% revenue made by selling in these platforms the Activision Blizzard games and their DLC/IAP/passes, MS wouldn't pay them nothing.

These platforms would have to pay the server costs for these games that would be providing them no revenue at all producing them loses, while also keeping their players busy instead of playing other games of their platform that provide them revenue. So that deal would damage them and would be abusive and unfair, to the point I personally think is a reason to block the acquisition.

In any case, getting the ok from the EU doesn't matter because the FTC and CMA already killed the acquisition, instead of MS gets very lucky and they win in the appeals for both decisions, where they have very low chances.

Yeah these deals are absurd and clearly will benefit MS, they will pull it after 10 years basically doing further damage to competitors.

These poor deals will be used as ammunition by the CMA.

 

[Swift_Star]

According to Idas, it's unusual for the CMA to respond this quickly:

Not like this. In fact, publishing a response just minutes after the press release is very unsual.

For example, in 2021 the CMA criticised in public the EC regarding the Google/Fitbit acquisition and the behavioural remedies accepted. But it was a couple of months after the decision, not just minutes.

It's obvious that there is tension between both and that the CMA is feeling some extra pressure to justify its decision.

and he believes there is some animosity between the EC and the CMA, which it might be true. The CMA seems to not want to be bullied by anyone, specially MS, and that might be the reason they released this statement so fast. And it seems they're even more determined to block the deal, regardless of the appeal.
MS will have a long, bloody, uphill and losing battle to face.
It'll take two to three years and they'll leave this really hurt.
The smartest decision now is to let this go and invest on what they already have, but this is MS.
So I hope they crash, burn and take ABK to the grave with them.

 

[FatKaz]

According to Idas, it's unusual for the CMA to respond this quickly:



and he believes there is some animosity between the EC and the CMA, which it might be true. The CMA seems to not want to be bullied by anyone, specially MS, and that might be the reason they released this statement so fast. And it seems they're even more determined to block the deal, regardless of the appeal.
MS will have a long, bloody, uphill and losing battle to face.
It'll take two to three years and they'll leave this really hurt.
The smartest decision now is to let this go and invest on what they already have, but this is MS.
So I hope they crash, burn and take ABK to the grave with them.

idas is the hopium giver.

One of his most absurd takes was saying that CMA could approve without concessions.

 

[Nhomnhom]

So what's the point of approving it then?

What is the point of blocking a deal that is already dead?

 

[LED]

So what's the point of approving it then?

That's what they have to do, regardless of what outcome any other regulatory body comes up with.

The only hope for Microsoft is they have to appeal to the CMA to change their mind, but they won't budge, and the likelihood of them changing their thoughts is less than 1% ESPECIALLY after the spicy series of tweets the CMA just posted after EU's decision.

 

[Swift_Star]

That's what they have to do, regardless of what outcome any other regulatory body comes up with.

The only hope for Microsoft is they have to appeal to the CMA to change their mind, but they won't budge, and the likelihood of them changing their thoughts is less than 1% ESPECIALLY after the spicy series of tweets the CMA just posted after EU's decision.

Yep. The CMA won't be bullied into an approval, that pretty much is a given.

 

[Nhomnhom]

The CMA after MS/Activision threatened the UK:

 

[AshHunter216]

According to Idas, it's unusual for the CMA to respond this quickly:



and he believes there is some animosity between the EC and the CMA, which it might be true. The CMA seems to not want to be bullied by anyone, specially MS, and that might be the reason they released this statement so fast. And it seems they're even more determined to block the deal, regardless of the appeal.
MS will have a long, bloody, uphill and losing battle to face.
It'll take two to three years and they'll leave this really hurt.
The smartest decision now is to let this go and invest on what they already have, but this is MS.
So I hope they crash, burn and take ABK to the grave with them.

I get the feeling that the two regulators have known how the other was going to rule on this case for a while now. The interview that the EC president gave supports this.

 

[Cool hand luke]

Forgot to add - The same european commission that was told by Microsoft that games would not be pulled from playstation after the Zenimax acquisition now trusts that shit company again. Microsoft who, for multiple times, have promised to course correct shit in the EU and did not.

Nice.

This is the part that meets the bar for irrationality for me. What kind of a comment is "PS is too strong in Europe, MS will never remove COD from the platform" when the same was true of all Zenimax titles. They earn less than COD, yep, but MS also paid less for the properties, so they'll lose a proportional amount of money by foregoing access to PS.

It's clear what MS' endgame is to anyone who's looking.