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

[nongkris]

I think people are reacting to this too knee jerk. I believe this means MS came in with a counter offer for terms with what to do with large titles like COD.

I think there's a better deal going on than 10 year.

Also note that after this goes through, MS will not be able to buy anyone large. So Square, Capcom, Sega any kind of publisher at this point is off the table.

I also believe we hear about a big purchase from Sony after the ink drys on this.

But I repeat what i said over a year ago, its going through but with concessions that protect certain titles.

Besides the first half of your post being guess work, allowing this transactions means that their will be MORE consolidation not less. If the regulators see MS buying the largest multi platform as not lessening competition due to being in last place in consoles, then that same logic applies to them buying EA, Ubi etc. The precedence this gives is literally that nothing is too big or off limits for anti trust.

 

[On Demand]

I think people are reacting to this too knee jerk. I believe this means MS came in with a counter offer for terms with what to do with large titles like COD.

I think there's a better deal going on than 10 year.

Also note that after this goes through, MS will not be able to buy anyone large. So Square, Capcom, Sega any kind of publisher at this point is off the table.

I also believe we hear about a big purchase from Sony after the ink drys on this.

But I repeat what i said over a year ago, its going through but with concessions that protect certain titles.

MS and any company can buy whatever they want after this. Nothing else will be like Activision. It will be easier.

 

[Yurinka]

Makes sense. Making CoD console exclusive wouldn't substantially negatively affect the competition in console and wouldn't be profitable for MS, what I always said.

But I disagree regarding cloud gaming, I think that as of now it's a tiny market and will continue being a very small one for a decade or two because it depends on things like data cap, fast and reliable internet speeds or latency and having servers relatively close to the customers. So I think cloud gaming ins't important, and I also think that CoD being exclusive there wouldn't cause significant lessening of competition.

I think people are reacting to this too knee jerk. I believe this means MS came in with a counter offer for terms with what to do with large titles like COD.

I think there's a better deal going on than 10 year.

Also note that after this goes through, MS will not be able to buy anyone large. So Square, Capcom, Sega any kind of publisher at this point is off the table.

I also believe we hear about a big purchase from Sony after the ink drys on this.

But I repeat what i said over a year ago, its going through but with concessions that protect certain titles.

This change means that after getting more data the CMA saw that wouldn't be profitable for MS to make CoD console exclusive (because a huge part of its money comes from PS), and that it wouldn't cause a signifiant lessening of competition in consoles, pretty likely because CoD players are a tiny portion of the players of their competition and only a small portion of that tiny portion would leave PS if CoD goes console exclusive.

Square, Capcom Sega or similar are way smaller than Activision Blizzard. And all their games are even way less important than CoD for the market. So their acquisition would cause even less impact in competition. If they approve this, pretty likely would also approve way smaller and less important acquisitions as would be any of the other 3rd parties.

But for that to happen the other publishers would need to want to sell. Which as of now doesn't seem to be the case. And if they ever decide to someone, they'd have to consider that MS is the best option between those interested, which I assume wouldn't be the case.

After the ABK acquisition MS will continue way behind Sony, Tencent and others in many areas. So if something, to allow them to continue acquiring (something they plan to do) would mean to help competition.

 

[Fenton]

MS and any company can buy whatever they want after this. Nothing else will be like Activision. It will be easier.

Yes, MS is going to buy more. Their CEO added AB and Xbox revenues and gave the sly excuse that even if they buy Activision, MS will be behind Tencent and Sony. But the fact is Sony may not be in that position for long, PS can get weakened.

Microsoft CEO Think Its Activision Blizzard Deal Will Go Through

Should the deal go through, Microsoft would only be the third largest player in the industry behind Sony and Tencent.

www.gamespot.com

 

[Papacheeks]

MS and any company can buy whatever they want after this. Nothing else will be like Activision. It will be easier.

No, this is something that regulators will push back on since now they have reviewed MS impact with owning Bethesda and soon ABK. They can buy studios, but them being able to buying anything big like a publisher at this point is off the table.

Even a small indie publishing house. Also studio size will also be looked at. So anyone as big as Bungie's size will be heavily looked at and more than likely rejected.

Remember they look at impact to market. Need to take your emotion out of it.

But the bigger thing is ABK signals Tenecent and others that its open season. Ubisoft I believe is probably right now being looked at.

 

[Yurinka]

Seems like some common sense related to remedies applied.
MS presented it and CMA changed it provisional stance.
It is good.

We need to know what remedies ended being accepted by CMA.. in the previous MS defense they showed a lot of options.

According to CMA their change of opinion comes from the extra market + CoD player behaviour data they got, not from the remedies.

CMA said that now isn't worried about the console market, but continues worried about the cloud gaming market. So I assume that if MS has to apply remedies should be for the cloud gaming market, not consoles market.

Besides the first half of your post being guess work, allowing this transactions means that their will be MORE consolidation not less. If the regulators see MS buying the largest multi platform as not lessening competition due to being in last place in consoles, then that same logic applies to them buying EA, Ubi etc. The precedence this gives is literally that nothing is too big or off limits for anti trust.

Everybody knows MS makes acquisitions for improve their position in the market: this is why all acquisitions are made.

CoD sells a lot but Activision Blizzard only has a very small market share of the huge console market, so their acquisition doesn't lessen the competition. Yes, EA, Ubi etc have a way smaller market share than Activision Blizzard so the effect in the market of acquiring them would be even smaller.

The market leaders like Tencent or Sony don't even have a 20% market share, ABK is way smaller than that. After the acquisition MS will barely be in the low tens too. In consoles Sony outperforms MS by more than 2:1 in basically every metric, so allowing MS to grow but still being way under Sony wouldn't change almost anything.

This is the reason of why regulators approve or should approve this acquisition.

 

[Zzero]

How do you go from wanting Activision to sell off Call of Duty to this?

Was always about cloud gaming, IMO, in regards to the CMA. We'll have to see if Microsoft's streaming deals are enough to get the deal through with all parts or minus CoD, Blizzard or both.

 

[Zeroing]

Meanwhile in Reee

 

[On Demand]

No, this is something that regulators will push back on since now they have reviewed MS impact with owning Bethesda and soon ABK. They can buy studios, but them being able to buying anything big like a publisher at this point is off the table.

Even a small indie publishing house. Also studio size will also be looked at. So anyone as big as Bungie's size will be heavily looked at and more than likely rejected.

Remember they look at impact to market. Need to take your emotion out of it.

But the bigger thing is ABK signals Tenecent and others that its open season. Ubisoft I believe is probably right now being looked at.

Complete nonsense.

Whatever the “regulators” (a government body that’s means jack shit if MS is allowed to buy Activision) try to block because of any anti competitive concerns, a company like Sony can just take them to court and dangle in front of the judge the 70 BILLION DOLLAR PUBLISHER ACQUISITION of Activision they allowed MS to buy. Regulators have absolutely no case in court or any reason to block any other buyout after this.

Get real.

 

[Papacheeks]

Complete nonsense.

Whatever the “regulators” (a government body that’s means jack shit if MS is allowed to buy Activision) try to block because of any anti competitive concerns, a company like Sony can just take them to court and dangle in front of the judge the 70 BILLION DOLLAR PUBLISHER ACQUISITION of Activision they allowed MS to buy. Regulators have absolutely no case in court or any reason to block any other buyout after this.

Get real.

Please go look at Nvidia's rejected buyout of ARM. CMA blocked it cold turkey. And the difference between that deal and this deal has always been where people are marketshare wise in the respective markets. Microsoft is not large compared to Sony in gaming, outside of gaming thats a different thing. Which is why if you read the article this only applies to concerns regarding console gaming.

This decision does not apply to their concerns with cloud.

 

[Old Gamer]

How do you go from wanting Activision to sell off Call of Duty to this?

Political pressure, corruption.

 

[Zzero]

Short term I think MS is done investing in gaming after this. Not because it gets them what they want or because of market regulators but because they are dealing with a potential wider recession and definite tech-specific down period. Its what caused the headcount cut, its what will stimie major purchases in non-core areas.

 

[Swift_Star]

Short term I think MS is done investing in gaming after this. Not because it gets them what they want or because of market rehulators but because they are dealing with a potential wider recession and definite tech-specific down period. Its what caused the headcount cut, its what will stimie major purchases in non-core areas.

Lots of people will be laid off after this acquisition, too, because there will me major overlapping in employees functions. And, guess what? Era will handwave this.

 

[Old Gamer]

Short term I think MS is done investing in gaming after this. Not because it gets them what they want or because of market rehulators but because they are dealing with a potential wider recession and definite tech-specific down period. Its what caused the headcount cut, its what will stimie major purchases in non-core areas.

ABK employees will have more layoffs to look forward to then...

 

[Satoru]

Next acquisition will be @Yurinka studio.

 

[On Demand]

Please go look at Nvidia's rejected buyout of ARM. CMA blocked it cold turkey. And the difference between that deal and this deal has always been where people are marketshare wise in the respective markets. Microsoft is not large compared to Sony in gaming, outside of gaming thats a different thing. Which is why if you read the article this only applies to concerns regarding console gaming.

This decision does not apply to their concerns with cloud.

The Nvidia Arm block was before MS buying Activision. Nore was it as large and expensive. Anything is fair game now.

You really believe M$ won’t get the CMA to look pass their cloud concerns? They already don’t care about the console market after originally wanting MS sell COD if they wanted to buy Activision.


Please stop spouting the narrative that MS is not big in gaming compare to Sony. They can become big, and bigger than Sony, buy buying everything. Which is the point.

 

[peter42O]

No surprise here. Shit can finally close, be done and we can move on. Best of all, give me Diablo IV on Game Pass day one!!! Let's go baby!!

 

[Firefly]

The deal is getting passed, its time people accept that this is the way the industry is headed. Sony needs to start going after publishers now. If they don't I wont feel sorry for them if MS scoops more of them up uncontested.

 

[Sircaw]

No surprise here. Shit can finally close, be done and we can move on. Best of all, give me Diablo IV on Game Pass day one!!! Let's go baby!!

Open Beta today you big slut, in just over an hour's time, druid and necro are ready for play testing.

Can't wait.

 

[Swift_Star]

The deal is getting passed, its time people accept that this is the way the industry is headed. Sony needs to start going after publishers now. If they don't I wont feel sorry for them if MS scoops more of them up uncontested.

Era will seethe when Sony buys both SQEX and Capcom. I can't wait.