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Microsoft / Activision Deal Approval Watch |OT| (MS/ABK close)

Do you believe the deal will be approved?


  • Total voters
    886
  • Poll closed .
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Gone

Banned
I bet Xbox fans wouldn't bother with this merger if their wasn't a subscription service. We all know why Xbox fans shill for this or want MS to buy everything in their path, because of Gamepass and nothing else.

I know this fanbase want to see the gaming industry to be fallen apart with less quality and only quantity shit.
You're right.

Maybe Sony's 11 live service games will help.
 

DeepEnigma

Gold Member
now do one of the whole thread .. :messenger_face_screaming:
Michael Scott Reaction GIF
 
It's reflected in their discussions of profitability, revenue, etc. That gets baked into the valuation. A company with a higher valuation is much more influential to the industry. It's why bigger deals are less likely to go through.
But those were foreclosure concerns, unrelated to market cap and price tag.
 

wolffy71

Banned
There were enough of them, hence this discussion.

As for the bold, I purchased an Xbox one for one game. One game. But I have always had a capable PC and I already had a ps4 at the time. That is not the average consumer who chooses one platform. At the time it was objectively the worst platform available, not even up for debate.



Deliberately selecting and handing over your hard earned cash for an inferior product which will result in inferior experiences all because you think you are being nationalistically charitable is extreme.
The difference is the idea of what's inferior is the hang up.

And this why I said it explains "problems". People don't understand the macro economics of supporting their locales.

Xbox vs Sony may not be important but the idea of buying American products, because ur an American, seen as a negative is the idea I was talking about.
 

Nubulax

Member
If you can find the moral fortitude to give him hundreds of millions then you can surely find a way to keep on a guy who is the best performing CEO in the gaming biz.

Are you sure its not more like this for the $$ Bobby will be getting from this deal.....


Dr Evil GIF by Product Hunt
 
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James Sawyer Ford

Gold Member
But those were foreclosure concerns, unrelated to market cap and price tag.

The reason they are concerned about foreclosure is precisely because of the amount of units CoD sells every single year, which makes up a huge portion of third party revenue across all consoles/platforms, and which is why Activision is priced at $70B

If this was Bungie or somebody else, the regulators wouldn't bat an eye.
 
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Kilau

Gold Member
Is the beta that bad ? I thought about downloading it but 78GB for something that ends Sunday, especially with RE4 out right now is a nah from me.
I'm anticipating server traffic issues like Diablo 3 and what they are warning about with the open beta doesn't give me confidence 4 will be much smoother.
 

DeepEnigma

Gold Member

splattered

Member
Well damn here I was thinking about how this game was gonna appear on Game Pass

Well i mean either way it WAS published by Activision... who knows how that could affect Gamepass though?

Is it up to From because they own the IP? Or up to Activision/Microsoft because they own publishing rights for the first game?

Maybe the first game goes up on GP but they don't get a sequel? I dunno
 

Topher

Gold Member
Well i mean either way it WAS published by Activision... who knows how that could affect Gamepass though?

Is it up to From because they own the IP? Or up to Activision/Microsoft because they own publishing rights for the first game?

Maybe the first game goes up on GP but they don't get a sequel? I dunno

Probably all depends on the contract between From and Activision. Usually this stuff is all spelled out for a number of different scenarios.
 
The reason they are concerned about foreclosure is precisely because of the amount of units CoD sells every single year, which makes up a huge portion of third party revenue across all consoles/platforms, and which is why Activision is priced at $70B
It still had nothing to do with the market cap of ABK or Microsoft. The point of those concerns were about possibility of turning Sony into Sega. Epic would cost less and it would be a bigger concern for example.

If this was Bungie or somebody else, the regulators wouldn't bat an eye.
Before ABK, we never had politics involved into acquisitions in gaming. After all those were just games.
 
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James Sawyer Ford

Gold Member
It still had nothing to do with the market cap of ABK or Microsoft. The point of those concerns were about possibility of turning Sony into Sega. Epic would cost less and it would be a bigger concern for example.


Before ABK, we never had politics involved into acquisitions in gaming. After all those were just games.

You clearly aren't following

Market cap is a proxy for influence and importance. Market cap is based on a valuation, which takes into account things like earnings which the regulators are discussing.

So yes, when a merger is being evaluated as anti-competitive, the market cap is either directly or indirectly a primary consideration relative to other market competitors.
 
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Snake29

RSI Employee of the Year
That’s because PS block games from coming to gamepass, we haven’t seen Microsoft pay a third party to not put a game on PS+

Your really living in your own world believing this nonsense. So MS’s third party GP games is also blocking it to come to PS+, right right

Stupid ass arguments. Were is the proof? Because big mouth MS said it? So how do you call MS having timed exclusives deals?
 
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so what happened with the CMA to change their minds? they first said that the deal will harm competition and consumers. now they are saying it wont. what changed?
 
Successful remedial discussions, maybe. I don't think we'll ever find out 100% one way or the other.

so the 10 years concessions were accepted? if cma approve next month, how long until the deal is officially closed? i hope it isnt dragged out any longer.
 
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Thirty7ven

Banned
educate me. what info did they learn?

Somehow MS showed them how much money they would lose if they cut PlayStation out of the equation and the CMA was like “Holy shit that really is a lot of money, you’re definitely not doing that.”

But anybody who’s been around big time money knows what probably happened is that somebody talked to somebody who talked to somebody.
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
so the 10 years concessions were accepted? if cma approve next month, how long until the deal is officially closed?

I wouldn't say the CMA has already approved, the process is still on-going.

FTC is still a hold up and their hearing is in August. MS did say if they get the approvals in EU and CMA they will look into closing it without FTC, or something to that account.

I'm not sure how that works but let's see.
 

sainraja

Member
Most people in favor of Microsoft and this deal are hiding their words and trying to leap on MS's claim of trying to be more "competitive" and throwing shade at Sony for making exclusivity deals, when some of them basically want the same thing but with Microsoft. MS was doing all that and more during the X360 era. If things swing heavily in their favor now, expect that to return (even though it didn't really stop completely, given they were still making deals like that, but at a smaller scale).
 

Topher

Gold Member
I guess the twitter "Don't worry guys, i work for the CMA and i look forward to continuing being able to play COD on my Playstation" guy got fired and they actually had to do some investigative work themselves rather than just take the word of someone internal who plays videogames. *shrug*

That guy works for the EC.

No we haven’t, but we do know Sony has done that 100%

It doesn’t mean Microsoft ain’t but we do know Sony has

Sure. Does it really matter when the company whose game is being "blocked" wasn't going to put it on Game Pass in the first place? This was all really just a nothing burger controversy. The game in question, RE Village, is way past the "blocking" term set in the marketing contract. Is it on Game Pass? Nope. Still wanting to maximize those game sales it would seem.
 

sainraja

Member
Nope and that’s a good answer but is it blocked from PS+ day one when it’s available on PS?
I don't think games Sony has paid for marketing rights for and has some sort of exclusivity with are blocked from being day one on Game Pass when they become available on Xbox. So I don't see your point here?
Both are businesses. They won't pay to market a game that won't benefit their ecosystem. You don't expect MS to market games they are paying for....for Sony, right?
 
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I wouldn't say the CMA has already approved, the process is still on-going.

FTC is still a hold up and their hearing is in August. MS did say if they get the approvals in EU and CMA they will look into closing it without FTC, or something to that account.

I'm not sure how that works but let's see.

fuck sake! lets hope it ends before then. i think the CMA has pretty much already approved at this point. they wouldnt have said what they did today if they were not going to approve.
 
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adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Still there, unsure if behavioural concessions is enough

On the cma document,
- they realised that the partial foreclosure element of degrading the quality on ps was overplayed and consumers would still buy/play cod
- they realised that they had done the maths wrong but I need to dig in deeper. They definitely didn't agree with both but they realised that they have accounted for COD users twice in the LTV and they had used data from a period of higher engagement re new console release.
- COD ain't minecraft re the likely strategy
- Losing cod revenue is likely to be bigger than the long term benefits re new users and gp revenue.

Quoting Reks's summary.
 
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