UK CMA Says Microsoft-Activision Deal Will 'Not Result in a Substantial Lessening of Competition'

Shmunter

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Shares up 6% overnight, still $10 per share to be made. Thinking of buying now. Will be a supporter of the deal like all the other shills 😂

It’s good for competition guys, lol
 

Yobo

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I don't really see it, let's say microsoft goes after more acquisitions. Sega and ubisoft would want to sell... that's not really a threat.
Its a threat because every third party developer taken away is revenue taken from Sony, and is a game fanbase taken away to go over to Xbox. Whether that fanbase is 20,000 or 20,000,000 people. It all adds up to death by a thousand cuts
 
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Folks were sure it would get blocked.... what happened? CMA da principled savior? FTC?

I see a lot of preliminary cope after lots of folk said a lot of dumb shit on the main thread. Not only was dumb shit said, some were even attacked, passive aggressively or otherwise. "Not gonna happen" "0 chance" "It's not working" "the government doesn't want it (if it really doesn't want it then it would never entertain remedies... that's literally your cue if you happened to fall for the initial trick due to lack of exposure to these things). Or the suggestion the "EU" were the tough guys...lmao, they buckled first, as sort of expected!

I guess everyone has to have that uncomfortable bump with reality from time to time, no matter how much one wishes the fairy tales were true...

Its however perfectly normal for normal people to fall for well crafted theater or to believe that things function a certain way and not totally the opposite (propaganda since birth). Does anyone watch oversight hearings these days... great shows! The politicians get to act tough and justify their salaries by grilling people yet doing nothing of consequence.

I deal with this shit everyday so it was more or less a safe educated guess. If folks realized how "distinguished" diplomats and ambassadors are picked these days... that goes for political appointees across the board in the West. Its pure unfiltered filth everywhere. Sometimes I envy the innocence of normal people....less stress, less of a chance to rub or have to deal with pure shit.
 
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Gods&Monsters

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Its a threat because every third party developer taken away is revenue taken from Sony, and is a game fanbase taken away to go over to Xbox. Whether that fanbase is 20,000 or 20,000,000 people. It all adds up to death by a thousand cuts
Bethesda was not enough to foreclose. Activision is not enough, COD is not enough, Blizzard is not enough. When will it be enough? When they only have their first-party left?

Shit regulators.
 
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anonpuffs

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Its a threat because every third party developer taken away is revenue taken from Sony, and is a game fanbase taken away to go over to Xbox. Whether that fanbase is 20,000 or 20,000,000 people. It all adds up to death by a thousand cuts
The only threat to Sony is if gamepass becomes the default mode of games distribution. CoD won't do that. EA play is already part of gamepass. So is the ubisoft subscription service. The only thing that threatens Sony is if they lose their spark of ingenuity and stop making market leading games.
 

VillaiN

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Not that simple. People are too focused on the $5 billion left for acquisitions they have left. That's a budget appointed until the end next year, with changes to that budget possible if needed. After the recent ACTI news, that budget can increase several times over if they see a major acquisition is necessary. Sony's CEO even said as much.

Take 2 is worth about 20 billion, a number Sony could pay up. The issue here is that T2 probably wouldn't be willing to sell. They have a licence to print money with GTA.
Take 2 isnt that profitable. Check their revenue and profits in last 5+ years. While their games sell good revenue, profit margin re not that great. Maybe shareholders d prefer to sell if its good premium. And rockstar changed a lot in last 10 years. They lost bunch of old devs. What if gta6 isnt that great? Or its full of bugs at launch? I still think if offer s good they ll sell.
 
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Cool hand luke

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Like I said in the other thread, I've had a read of the updated provisional findings and nothing in there suggests the CMA has deviated from their stances:

1. The factors in which behavioural remedies would be suitable as the primary remedy in this case are not present - in fact the factors prohibiting it are even more prevalent in the cloud market than in the console one.
2. Divestiture or prohibition are the recommended remedies.

10 year deals with BYO cloud pop ups hardly address this.

What sounds like a win for MS today may be clearing the way for no formal challenge at the CAT.
 

FatKaz

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Like I said in the other thread, I've had a read of the updated provisional findings and nothing in there suggests the CMA has deviated from their stances:

1. The factors in which behavioural remedies would be suitable as the primary remedy in this case are not present - in fact the factors prohibiting it are even more prevalent in the cloud market than in the console one.
2. Divestiture or prohibition are the recommended remedies.

10 year deals with BYO cloud pop ups hardly address this.

What sounds like a win for MS today may be clearing the way for no formal challenge at the CAT.
Yeah it'll be interesting the next few weeks, I still think if they don't announce a delay to the decision date there is a chance of them blocking or asking for a divestment.

Cloud SLC still has other issues that need addressing such as the duration as it is a growing market are they ok with 10 years? What about non byog providers like playstaton and Amazon Luna? Cause deals have only been made with byog providers.

And the big one is licensing cost. Who decides on cost. Give ms compete control of license is foolish.
 

Yobo

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The only threat to Sony is if gamepass becomes the default mode of games distribution. CoD won't do that. EA play is already part of gamepass. So is the ubisoft subscription service. The only thing that threatens Sony is if they lose their spark of ingenuity and stop making market leading games.
If Sony pivot to a Gamepass model you can basically say goodbye to games like TLOU and God of War. There will be no money in single player games with low retention rates and no post purchase monetisation
 
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Cool hand luke

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Yeah it'll be interesting the next few weeks, I still think if they don't announce a delay to the decision date there is a chance of them blocking or asking for a divestment.

Cloud SLC still has other issues that need addressing such as the duration as it is a growing market are they ok with 10 years? What about non byog providers like playstaton and Amazon Luna? Cause deals have only been made with byog providers.

And the big one is licensing cost. Who decides on cost. Give ms compete control of license is foolish.
Correct. CoD is still deemed an essential input, and MS owning the IP leads to a distorted market where new entrants or existing competitors must pay extortionate costs to provide what MS can do with internal accounting. The same is true of MGS but it's genuinely bewildering that both the EU (rumoured) and CMA don't seem to care. The very existence of an arguably unprofitable (and most certainly less profitable) model that MS is pursuing shows that they simply want to crater the market through subsidies. It's an example of predatory pricing, and should be treated as such.
 
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FatKaz

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Correct. CoD is still deemed an essential input, and MS owning the IP leads to a distorted market where new entrants or existing competitors must pay extortionate costs to provide what MS can do with internal accounting. The same is true of MGS but it's genuinely bewildering that both the EU (rumoured) and CMA don't seem to care. The very existence of an arguably unprofitable (and most certainly less profitable) model that MS is pursuing shows that they simply want to crater the market through subsidies. It's an example of predatory pricing, and should be treated as such.
What's interesting is ms have had 2 chances to address the cloud concerns, back in Feb after the pf was released and in early march but CMA have still kept it. So it defintley seems to be CMAs strongest argument.
 

Yobo

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Be interesting how invested Google are in their objection and if they reiterate that Microsoft's acquisitions prevented them from entering gaming
 
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Airbus

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Half Baked Boo GIF
 

Old Gamer

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Be interesting how invested Google are in their objection and if they reiterate that Microsoft's acquisitions prevented them from entering gaming
We'll see how pissed they are about OpenAI.
The AI shaenenigans are by far a much bigger problem than the gaming takeover.
MS is becoming a threat to human rights at this rate.
 
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Kokoloko

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I don't really see it, let's say microsoft goes after more acquisitions. Sega and ubisoft would want to sell... that's not really a threat.

As much as everyone loves to say Sega isn’t a threat. It is. They have die hard fans like myself.
Sonic can always sell. And so can there older IPs if done right again. Just like Streets of Rage 4 made a comeback and Sonic Movie and game recently done well.
Before they were successful, people would mistakenly call Streets of Rage and Sonic dead IP’s, but some people just can’t get past current worth and see potential.

Plus Sega own Atlus, one of the best JRPG makers and more great IP’s. As well as Total War and Football Manager.
It would be horrible for gamers if MS buys Sega but MS would gain alot.

So its up to Playstation and Nintendo to start buying Japanese Publishers and IP’s as well as western ones before MS does. Its the only way. Nintendo is fine with their own IPs. But Playstation need to buy some or they will lose them. Their choice. Or go super heavy into making alot more IP’s of their own.
They would need to do alot more than they are currently doing to compete with all the IP’s MS will buy unfortunately.
 
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Yobo

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I wouldn't mind Nintendo buying Sega

They are off in their own little world not realising MS will crush them happily as well if they make another misstep like WiiU
 

anonpuffs

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As much as everyone loves to say Sega isn’t a threat. It is. They have die hard fans like myself.
Sonic can always sell. And so can there older IPs if done right again. Just like Streets of Rage 4 made a comeback and Sonic Movie and game recently done well.
Before they were successful, people would mistakenly call Streets of Rage and Sonic dead IP’s, but some people just can’t get past current worth and see potential.

Plus Sega own Atlus, one of the best JRPG makers and more great IP’s. As well as Total War and Football Manager.
It would be horrible for gamers if MS buys Sega but MS would gain alot.

So its up to Playstation and Nintendo to start buying Japanese Publishers and IP’s as well as Sestern ones before MS does. Its the only way. Nintendo is fine with their own IPs. But Playstation need to buy some or they will lose them. Their choice. Or go super heavy into making alot more IP’s of their own.
They would need to do alot more than they are currently doing to compete with all the IP’s MS will buy unfortunately.
Oh, I did forget about Atlus. But honestly, fuck Atlus. They're so greedy...even though I enjoy their games, it always leaves a sour taste in my mouth when they charge full price for low effort updates and have no upgrade path.
 
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Kokoloko

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Oh, I did forget about Atlus. But honestly, fuck Atlus. They're so greedy...even though I enjoy their games, it always leaves a sour taste in my mouth when they charge full price for low effort updates and have no upgrade path.

Me too. I do love there games though.
Its not about what we like or not, they have a impact even if small on the industry. MS will keep taking these slices of the pie the way they are going
 
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Google had their shot at making a bigger ruckus about this. I think we're too far in on the giveaway for Google to let loose in any significant sense. These campaigns take a concerted effort to be carried out. I'm pretty sure Google decided at the time of their objection (aka the inception) the level of fight they were willing to put into it - and safe to say it was clearly minimal. They do however have the lobbying power to actually fight this and potentially kill it. Sony had the strongest case but they are babies in a school yard when it comes to lobbying power in the West. Naturally, Sony are gods if you will...in Japan (as it should be) - one of the many reasons why no matter how much western giants want to get into Japanese pubs and hollow them out from within, they aren't able to do so nor will they even consider to engage in what's a nonstarter in the first place - and everybody knows it (that is, those who understand how big business works geopolitically). Everyone protects their own hens. It's what it's. With the decoupling that's going around in the world, it's bound to get even worse across all industries. Globalization had its time in limelight, side effect of which was to produce too much unwanted competition..... that is now over. Turns out slave labor ain't as stupid as some thought. Naturally those who profited greatly from this "phenomena" should have utilized this once in a millennia level of wealth acquisition to make world shattering investments at home to keep itself at the top (wait... no that didn't happen - well too bad for you (us/me)).
 
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