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

Do you believe the deal will be approved?

  • Yes, will be approved without changes.

    Votes: 221 24.9%

  • Yes, will be approved but with structural changes to ABK.

    Votes: 102 11.5%

  • Yes, will be approved but only with behavioral concessions.

    Votes: 262 29.6%

  • No, will not be approved.

    Votes: 301 34.0%
  • Total voters
    886
  • Poll closed .
Status
Not open for further replies.
TGO

TGO

Hype Train conductor. Works harder than it steams.
Ar¢tos said:
Hey TGO TGO , can you add Gone Gone to the PlayStation showcase hype train?
I think he is secretly desperate for a front seat.
Click to expand...
I think I saw a stowaway with that description 🤔
type21p3d2v.png

Putonahappyface Putonahappyface
Don't worry BryanK75 is with us in spirit
 
Astray

Astray

Member
Ogbert said:
Well, the short answer is, for the sake of competition. And the glib answer is, because they have the money to.
Click to expand...
The competition excuse is a fallacy bordering on meme at this point. Microsoft merely existing doesn't force Sony to not do something that isn't in my interest, (didin't stop them from doing $70 games for example, to the point where even MSFT itself got in on that party as well), so they aren't even good enough to be a deterrent to other companies. Microsoft also isn't releasing anything, and when they do come around to releasing something, it turns out to be terrible. All this makes me think the market might actually benefit more from them leaving the space and leaving a vacuum that someone better at the gaming business can jump in and occupy.

And them having money doesn't do anything for me, no one should cheer for a balance sheet while not getting anything out of it. I'm getting neither experiences nor money out of MSFT, and they aren't deterring anyone from doing anything that would be bad for me as a consumer, so exactly why should I care about their fate as a console maker?

Ogbert said:
What I fundamentally don’t get about MS’ approach is why they just don’t turn Gears of War into the best 3rd person shooter on the market. Likewise, Halo. They have the IPs. Hell of a lot cheaper too.
Click to expand...
I think part of the problem is MSFT just doesn't give properties time to rest, they want their Halos and Gears as soon as the studios can crank them out. Look at what Sony did with God of War, they put that stuff on a long hiatus and brought it back when they thought they could take it to new places. Microsoft needs to start doing the same with its franchises and start experimenting a little.

Their current acquisition-first strategy makes things worse because now you have to integrate a lot of studios and publishers instead of thinking about a larger more cohesive strategy. That and whenever you buy a studio, you are essentially buying its future release pipeline, this is how Microsoft suddenly found themselves tethered to the fate of Hifi Rush, Redfall and Starfield (Excellent, Terrible and ????), that's not a way to run 1P output and it's getting exposed badly.
 
splattered

splattered

Member
Heisenberg007 said:
Why though?

When EC approved the acquisition, the FTC and the CMA had opposed/blocked the acquisition. So why didn't EC feel the pressure to follow the other 2 regulatory bodies?

Even now the score is 2-1 against this acquisition. So why is China not feeling the pressure to also block it?

And if China and EC didn't feel any pressure to follow FTC and CMA, why would the FTC and CMA feel any pressure to follow China and EC?
Click to expand...

Because the FTC is more interested in blocking anything large that it can regardless of context just so it can make a big dick energy example of their power. They will fail.The EC didn't ""feel the pressure" because they actually worked through the process and came to their own conclusions, some similar to CMA, yet were more reasonable and willing to accept behavioral remedies. CMA clearly don't know what the hell they're doing putting out provisional findings with large embarrassing math errors then trying to save face by saying BUT we're still going to block this based on a theoretical possibility that could happen somewhere down the road within the next 11+ years. Any other company could step up their cloud game within the next 10 years and totally disrupt the cloud market making the CMA's theory fall apart yet here we are trying to cock block based on pride and ignorance and "don't worry guys I work for the CMA and looking forward to continuing playing COD on my playstation"
 
LordCBH

LordCBH

Member
Banjo64 said:
How can you hate British cuisine? It’s one of the best things about this country, alongside the CMA.

f9ec5770272668bfb36061af0c3b4167.jpg
Click to expand...

Cause I’ve seen British breakfast. Flooded with beans and gross looking tomatoes. The bacon and sausage looks nice at least.

Also, then some soggy ass lookin fries.
 
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DeepEnigma

DeepEnigma

Gold Member
sainraja

sainraja

Member
splattered said:
Because the FTC is more interested in blocking anything large that it can regardless of context just so it can make a big dick energy example of their power. They will fail.The EC didn't ""feel the pressure" because they actually worked through the process and came to their own conclusions, some similar to CMA, yet were more reasonable and willing to accept behavioral remedies. CMA clearly don't know what the hell they're doing putting out provisional findings with large embarrassing math errors then trying to save face by saying BUT we're still going to block this based on a theoretical possibility that could happen somewhere down the road within the next 11+ years. Any other company could step up their cloud game within the next 10 years and totally disrupt the cloud market making the CMA's theory fall apart yet here we are trying to cock block based on pride and ignorance and "don't worry guys I work for the CMA and looking forward to continuing playing COD on my playstation"
Click to expand...
In summary, everyone should just bow down to Microsoft, lol.
This is just kinda sad at this point.
  • EC = reasonable because they did what I wanted, even though their conclusion was the same when it came to the cloud; they were just fine with the remedies proposed by MS.
  • CMA = unreasonable because they did not do what I wanted, and they didn't agree with MS's proposed remedies. They suggested their own, which MS wasn't okay with.
MS did successfully acquire Zenimax/Bethesda. So, you'll be OKAY if this still does not go through.
 
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PaintTinJr

PaintTinJr

Member
DeepEnigma said:
About 10b to 11b more.

79b to 80b
Click to expand...
I'm not sure if I'm miss-remembering this, but didn't someone say financially Microsoft were close to being all in on this $69b deal 100-200 pages back?

If so, I wonder what increased level of risk there is for Microsoft if the buying fee went up 30% and the deposit doubled.
 
PaintTinJr

PaintTinJr

Member
Anyone know if there was any correlation between Microsoft's reasoning to roll back the selling software to regular business in Russia a month ago and China potentially levering something for themselves or a friend from the CADE type nothing burger of them passing this deal, today?
 
feynoob

feynoob

Gold Member
PaintTinJr said:
Anyone know if there was any correlation between Microsoft's reasoning to roll back the selling software to regular business in Russia a month ago and China potentially levering something for themselves or a friend from the CADE type nothing burger of them passing this deal, today?
Click to expand...
They have common with US government.
MS wouldn't have done that had US not got themselves involved with those countries.
 
Topher

Topher

Gold Member
splattered said:
Because the FTC is more interested in blocking anything large that it can regardless of context just so it can make a big dick energy example of their power. They will fail.The EC didn't ""feel the pressure" because they actually worked through the process and came to their own conclusions, some similar to CMA, yet were more reasonable and willing to accept behavioral remedies. CMA clearly don't know what the hell they're doing putting out provisional findings with large embarrassing math errors then trying to save face by saying BUT we're still going to block this based on a theoretical possibility that could happen somewhere down the road within the next 11+ years. Any other company could step up their cloud game within the next 10 years and totally disrupt the cloud market making the CMA's theory fall apart yet here we are trying to cock block based on pride and ignorance and "don't worry guys I work for the CMA and looking forward to continuing playing COD on my playstation"
Click to expand...

Time to pump the brakes, man. The cloud aspect of the CMA ruling was there all along. This narrative that you are pitching that they somehow used that to "save face" isn't accurate. The EC and CMA were in lockstep about their cloud concerns and diverged only in the remedy. So for consistency sake, why not lambast the EC for requiring any remedies of Microsoft at all based on future "theoretical possibilities"? I think if you have more than one regulator coming to the same concerns then perhaps not throw it under the bus so quickly. And we all know full well that no other company in gaming will have the combined infrastructure of Azure, the base of Xbox and now the potentially the addition of Activision Blizzard King with Call of Duty, Diablo and the rest and that combination will have the power to yank every and all "licenses" at the end of those 10 years that you believe "any other company" could step and challenge.

And no one at the CMA has said anything remotely similar to "don't worry guys I work for the CMA and looking forward to continuing playing COD on my playstation". You are demonizing the wrong regulatory body there, I'm afraid.
 
splattered

splattered

Member
sainraja said:
In summary, everyone should just bow down to Microsoft, lol.
This is just kinda sad at this point.
  • EC = reasonable because they did what I wanted, even though their conclusion was the same when it came to the cloud; they were just fine with the remedies proposed by MS.
  • CMA = unreasonable because they did not do what I wanted, and they didn't agree with MS's proposed remedies. They suggested their own, which MS wasn't okay with.
MS did successfully acquire Zenimax/Bethesda. So, you'll be OKAY if this still does not go through.
Click to expand...

No, I'll play the games wherever I need to. Ultimately the final decision doesn't really matter to me. I kinda just wanna see it pass for the drama though. It's not about "what I wanted" as I was playing Activision games before the acquisition and I'll be playing them after regardless of the outcome. No, Microsoft should not be able to do whatever they want but when only a couple of regulators are trying to block the deal contrary to every other regulator in the world it just appears as if something has to be seriously off with the motivations behind the two blockers versus everyone else in the WORLD. You can flip the "because it is/isn't what you wanted" argument in either direction. I still remember all the posts of PS fans laughing every time someone suggested a large acquisition like this saying stuff like "oh sure, Microsoft is just going to open their war chest and give billions of dollars to Xbox to go buy huge publishers pffft keep dreaming!" and boom it happened. Then the narrative shifted to "uhhhh ok but that isn't fair because Sony can't afford to do the same. To "But Microsoft is just evil and will ruin everything they touch they must be stopped at all cost!" It's all rather silly regardless of what side of the fence you sit on.
 
T

Three

Member
LordCBH said:
They took the spices from them islands and then refused to put them spices on food.
Click to expand...
Hey now, our favourite dish is actually from India and it uses them spices but we love chips too, not just with bread but with fish too.
 
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