Mixed opinion, but mostly against.
As I see it Activision is way too big to be taken by Xbox alone. I suppose even Zenimax was/is almost too big for Xbox, and I was all for it( Microsoft really needed Bethesda, and it was funny to see Xbox with 2 Playstation exclusives when they were in need of those games for themselves). The thing is Microsoft did not do the same efforts that Sony did in regard to exclusivity and third parties relations in my opinion. A good game to explain what I mean is Fall guys. When did Sony and Devolver began talking about it? Microsoft probably got the opportunity to take it for them but choose not to. Same for indies games like Sifu, Kena and Stray. Sony invested in those guys who wanted to make games and it worked. If Microsoft did the same, gave money and help for studios that they saw that it would be worth it they would have more games like Hi rush and high on life.
Instead they choose to put 70 billions on Activision. And each time it seems the autorities are against it there is a different excuse given :
- This is not for Call of Duty but King
- This is not for us but to protect against Meta/ Tencent...
- This is for all the gamers (LOL)
All bullshit. If it was for King they would have given strong reassurances for all consoles games( after all King is just mobile). And the "if it was not us it would be another big tech company" is ridiculous. If it was true they would just have to wait and compete with them when that would have become a reality. Yes it could have made ABK cost more but they were already paying extra anyway. Waiting could have made them cheaper as well.
Having a true competitor to buy ABK would probably helped them with the regulators. And Bethesda proves that outside of agreements preceding the acquisition they are perfectly ready to ban games that should have been multiplat from Playstation(if Starfield was on offer
to be a PS5 exclusive a few months before Microsoft acquired Bethesda, a PS5 version was obviously planned)
The thing is they have a need for ABK and the opportunity was good so I can understand that from their point of view it was now or never. That's why I recognise that there will be some positives from it if it happens. With their games coming to PC the loss to gamers will not be as big as when Microsoft games were not on Steam. But if one of the goals is just to but games out of Playstation I hope that it will be blocked by the regulators.
Thanks for the thread, I did not dare to talk in the big one because all i could say would probably already be said and/or refuted and I try to read all comments before talking in a thread.