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Microsoft / Activision deal prevented to protect innovation and choice in cloud gaming

But.....................Nvidia can have the EXACT same thing on GeForce Now by doing a direct deal with Activision.

Confused Always Sunny GIF by It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia's Always Sunny in Philadelphia

they don't know obviously....
 

rofif

Can’t Git Gud
Can someone explain why Microsoft can't buy activision if they want to sell ?
If it was a buyout... then sure. But if activision wants to sell?
And if really UK can block it.. so what? it's just uk.

Anyway. I dont care for cod, cloud or any of activision shit.
 
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rofif

Can’t Git Gud
Another gem:


https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2021/06/10/ ... microsoft/

Phil Spencer said:
As a company, Microsoft's all-in on gaming. We believe we can play a leading role in democratizing gaming and defining that future of interactive entertainment, quite frankly, at scale. There are really three, I think, areas or key areas where we believe we have incredible competitive advantage. First is our leadership in cloud computing; second, the resources we have to build out the subscription value with Xbox Game Pass; and third is our overall focus on empowering creators. I'm really excited about the opportunity in gaming.


So the first key area is now no longer key and inconsequential. Sure then.
democratizing ?!?!?!
Fuck off Phil you liar.
How is taking away physical gaming at all and then moving to cloud democratic ?!
 

3liteDragon

Member
Can someone explain why Microsoft can't buy activision if they want to sell ?
If it was a buyout... then sure. But if activision wants to sell?

Anyway. I dont care for cod, cloud or any of activision shit.
It's called a buyout regardless of whether or not it's a hostile takeover or an acquisition that's agreed upon by both parties involved. Bungie willingly sold to Sony, Bethesda willingly sold to Microsoft & both deals went through without any concessions. Now when we're talking about the biggest gaming acquisition of all time worth $69 billion, it's obviously gonna face heavier scrutiny from regulators. In this case, the CMA found the deal to be anti-competitive for the cloud gaming market & blocked it. Simple as that.
 
Lol these shills are really mourning that they can't take away games from other platforms. It's hilarious and sad at the same time

Yeh the reaction to the news has been funny but also some of the saddest shit I have ever seen in my life.

I just read some high profile fanboy say the verdict was a 'grave injustice' for example. Like someone's life was on the line! A mega-corp was told they can't just buy the biggest publisher in the world, that's all that has happened here. They just bought one and locked all its multiplatform games to Xbox motherfucker!
 

Bragr

Banned
But why is Epic not better then? You get literally FREE games that you get to keep forever and can play whenever you want to; there is no risk of them ever leaving the service/library.
What? why they are better? because they offer like 1% of the games, and they don't release new games free.
 
Yeh the reaction to the news has been funny but also some of the saddest shit I have ever seen in my life.

I just read some high profile fanboy say the verdict was a 'grave injustice' for example. Like someone's life was on the line! A mega-corp was told they can't just buy the biggest publisher in the world, that's all that has happened here. They just bought one and locked all its multiplatform games to Xbox motherfucker!


FbXDz4iXgAApcC2.jpg
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
But.....................Nvidia can have the EXACT same thing on GeForce Now by doing a direct deal with Activision.

Confused Always Sunny GIF by It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia's Always Sunny in Philadelphia

Activision's probably not open to making these kind of deals like MS is. It they were, don't you think it would already be a thing?
 

bender

What time is it?
Can someone explain why Microsoft can't buy activision if they want to sell ?
If it was a buyout... then sure. But if activision wants to sell?
And if really UK can block it.. so what? it's just uk.

Anyway. I dont care for cod, cloud or any of activision shit.

Oddly enough the answer lies within cupcakes.

giphy.gif
 

Topher

Gold Member
Right? What's the stigma against renting games. I re-sub game fly every couple of months to rent out games coming out in that window as well and buy the occasional one I want to ala RE4 remake.

Same here. Great option for saving money. Folks just need to realize there are other options than just subscriptions such as Game Pass though. Game Fly has been around a long time.
 
Too many arguments here to defend one of the other, but the sad truth is that both Sony/Microsoft aren't doing this for the players, this is a business and that's all. There is only one thing both care and it is old

Make It Rain Money GIF by SpongeBob SquarePants


In this topic, I am talking only about what those 2 care about. I know from a "gamer" standpoint there are other arguments to take into account, but won't talk about them. So do not believe any of them are doing this for anyone else more than money.
 

Yoboman

Member
Yeah, I am suprised at how many in here is actually thinking anyone is afraid of a cloud monopoly.

Xbox is trying to build a service where we don't have to spend fortunes on games, and people are trying to defend Sony and the broken AAA model.
Pay a $180 yearly subscription for the rest of your life to retain access to your games library

Xbox fans: so you're telling me it's free?
 
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Bragr

Banned
The point is that they would have the market power to be able to do so if there are no alternatives (or have power over IP which enables them to do so), and that's what rulngs like the the CMA's seek to avoid. It's about preventing these things at source, not after the fact once the damage has been done.

Microsoft don't charge like this for any of their other services? Tell me you don't know anything about azure consumption charges without telling me you don't know about azure consumption charges. Better yet, ask yourself what you're interfacing with if and when you're in an end to end cloud gaming session. That's right, a server. Next ask yourself what pricing models servers are increasingly moving towards and you have your answer.

Xbox will say they are open to publishing elsewhere when convenient but the moment they don't have to they won't. We've seen this play out time and time again with Microsoft as a business.

Also, this isn't about Sony or Playstation, and hasn't been for a while now.
It's all about Sony, that's the competition and the comparison to Sony's studios is why they got shut down.

This is nothing like Azure, just because a cloud lives on a server doesn't mean the entertainment industry is gonna price things like an organizational service.
 

Yoboman

Member
Can someone explain why Microsoft can't buy activision if they want to sell ?
If it was a buyout... then sure. But if activision wants to sell?
And if really UK can block it.. so what? it's just uk.

Anyway. I dont care for cod, cloud or any of activision shit.
The simple answer is that Microsoft is not the right buyer

Like selling a gun to a lunatic with a history of shooting himself
 

fart town usa

Gold Member
Can someone explain why Microsoft can't buy activision if they want to sell ?
If it was a buyout... then sure. But if activision wants to sell?
And if really UK can block it.. so what? it's just uk.

Anyway. I dont care for cod, cloud or any of activision shit.
Here's my lousy explanation. To prevent a potential monopoly. We're accustomed to regulators allowing massive corporations to gobble up anything so when something is blocked, it comes as a total shock.

I actually think the cloud gaming aspect makes sense. Yea, it's not a huge factor now but it definitely will be at some point. The whole 10 year agreement is super suspicious to me because in 10 years cloud gaming could be the only option. At that point MS could just make the stuff exclusive to their platform and other platforms that previously had the titles could risk failure.

Look at physical media sales and the drive to have shows/movies locked to a specific streaming service. The same thing is going to happen with gaming down the road.
 

GHG

Member
It's all about Sony, that's the competition and the comparison to Sony's studios is why they got shut down.

You should try reading the CMA's verdict. It will prove to be educational.

This is nothing like Azure, just because a cloud lives on a server doesn't mean the entertainment industry is gonna price things like an organizational service.

Because consumers have never been charged in similar ways to organisations right? You only need to look at pretty much every single service based monopoly or collusion in history to see exactly how we end up being treated.
 

Bragr

Banned
Just because Xbox AAA model is broken doesn’t mean Sony’s is.

You should point your anger at another direction buddy or maybe your entitlement is out of control.
This is not a controversial take. The problems around expenses and time management of big modern triple-A games are not unusual topics. Buddy. You don't think Sony finds it problematic that God of War takes 5-6 years to produce?
 

Bragr

Banned
You should try reading the CMA's verdict. It will prove to be educational.



Because consumers have never been charged in similar ways to organisations right? You only need to look at pretty much every single service based monopoly or collusion in history to see exactly how we end up being treated.
I did read the CMA's verdict.

Do you think this merger would lead to a monopoly? with how strong Sony and Nintendo are now, do you think Xbox owning Activision-Blizzard would sink them?
 

Bernoulli

M2 slut
They are getting destroyed here
“Basically, this is Microsoft and Brad Smith throwing their toys out of the pram after they didn’t get the decision they wanted after all the lobbying they did,” said Max von Thun, director of the Europe office of the Open Markets Institute, a proponent of stronger antitrust enforcement.

“They’re struggling to maintain that ‘good guy’ reputation,” von Thun said.
 

Yoboman

Member
Some things are too big to sell and that's how it should be

ABK could have easily segmented up their business and sold it that way. Just as example:

COD Warzone and Infinity Ward to Microsoft
COD Black Ops / Modern Warfare and Treyarch to Sony
COD Vanguard / Advanced Warfare and Sledgehammer Games to Nintendo
Starcraft to Microsoft
Warcraft to Tencent
Diablo to Sony
King to EA

Etc etc

They may have even made more money this way
 
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