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

Fabieter

Fabieter

Member
lefty1117 said:
Interesting ... so they're worried about the cloud gaming dominance. Then I would think the CMA has no concerns if MS wants to make a bid on EA or 2k. IN retrospect one of the things we heard months ago was the possibility of Activision divesting parts of the company to get the deal approved. Guess that was the signal all along. On one hand Sony will be happy about this (even though in the end their arguments had nothing to do with it), on the other hand now you've got a pissed company with 65 billion and a better understanding of what acquisitions will be allowed. Sony has been continuing to make acquisitions during this drama so I think the road ahead is clear for MS, if they want to take it.
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The road was always clear for studio acquisitions.
 
graywolf323

graywolf323

Member
Topher said:
Not necessarily. Many of us just do not see all this consolidation to be good for the gaming industry. If Sony tries to buy a publisher such as Square Enix, I'll say the same thing.
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yep, hopefully this stops the consolidation spree, I’m fine with what Sony’s been doing (buying new studios mostly that they’ve partnered with) and even what Xbox was doing before the Bethesda acquisition was okay

heck most people begrudgingly accepted the Bethesda acquisition, you didn’t hear the complaints around that one but after buying a large third-party publisher (and taking their games away from other platforms despite having said otherwise prior to it closing) they now want to buy the LARGEST third-party publisher? no, that’s not good & it has nothing to do with console warriors
 
Saber

Saber

Gold Member
Captain Toad said:
Sony already owns a percentage of From and has had a close working relationship with them for years
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Yes, but yet they don't fully own them.
I totally believe they reach an agreement, but Sony can't possibily interfere with the vision of their games. I think Bloodborne was born thanks to Sony not actually touching anything in the game. If Sony fully owns them, they would have fully control over FromSoftware decisions.
 
Honey Bunny

Honey Bunny

Member
Zheph said:
it's the stance Activision has chosen it seems

nPZqg2T.jpg


again another spicy last quote :messenger_grinning_sweat:
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The UK just shot themselves in the foot.

I don't know how much the rest of you know about American culture (I'm an expert), but honor and shame are huge parts of it. It's not like it is in the UK where you can become successful by being an asshole. If you screw someone over in America, you bring shame to yourself, and the only way to get rid of that shame is repentance.

What this means is that Microsoft after hearing about this, is not going to sell their own console in their 2nd largest market, nor will they let their own customers play on their cloud gaming platform. This is HUGE. You can laugh all you want, but the UK has prevented an entire executive board's bonuses with this move.
 
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dotnotbot

dotnotbot

Member
Robb said:
Unexpected tbh, I thought it’d go through for sure. Although I also did not even consider cloud could be the reason.

Wonder what’ll happen now?
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Ubisoft? Capcom? But nothing is as attractive for gamepass portfolio as Activision with its yearly COD releases.
 
Tams

Tams

Member
LQX said:
This seems like such a cop-out in that blocking it in any other way did not make much sense. Moreover, if anything Sony and Nintendo just do not take cloud gaming that seriously for there to be much competition. Sony had the foresight but has mostly regulated it to old games.
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If there were seen to be enough competitiveness in the cloud gaming market (from anyone, not just Sony and Nintendo), then it probably would have been approved.

But that wasn't the case. GeForce Now is the closest, but still much smaller and a different model. The closest direct competitor is probably Amazon's Luna, and frankly that seems on life support.

The purchase of ActivisionBlizzard is as a whole, so it cannot be reviewed in its different constituent parts.

Now, if ActivisionBlizzard were to be split up prior to sale, with the cloud gaming part separate, then the non-cloud gaming part would likely get approval.

Would ActivisionBlizzard be happy with that? Probably, as they are greedy cunts and it's all money and big payouts at the end of the day. Microsoft though? I doubt it, as they have placed a lot of chips in cloud gaming and in gaming it's the only place where they lead (dominate even - which ironically is their major problem here).
 
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Bernardougf

Bernardougf

Gold Member
Oh well... is for the better of the industry ... like it or not XBOX has serious management issues for years now... I would be 100% onboard if xbox was in a better state .. buy your way out of this with daddys money is never going to end up well for this industry in the long run
 
Clear

Clear

CliffyB's Cock Holster
The CMA's rationale is entirely sound, especially as MS have been consistent and clear about their intentions.

Remember when Phil said they no longer considered Sony their competition? This quote right here:

Phil Spencer said:
“When you talk about Nintendo and Sony, we have a ton of respect for them, but we see Amazon and Google as the main competitors going forward,” he said. “That’s not to disrespect Nintendo and Sony, but the traditional gaming companies are somewhat out of position. I guess they could try to re-create Azure, but we’ve invested tens of billions of dollars in cloud over the years.”
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Its funny people remember the WHAT, but not the WHY...
 
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killatopak

killatopak

Gold Member
Saber said:
Yes, but yet they don't fully own them.
I totally believe they reach an agreement, but Sony can't possibily interfere with the vision of their games. I think Bloodborne was born thanks to Sony not actually touching anything in the game. If Sony fully owns them, they would have fully control over FromSoftware decisions.
Click to expand...
Didn’t Japan Studio help them with Bloodborne? I don’t know how they helped it since it seems the game isn’t technically sound from the things I heard about it. Haven’t played it yet so I wouldn’t know.
 
Robb

Robb

Gold Member
dotnotbot said:
Ubisoft? Capcom? But nothing is as attractive for gamepass portfolio as Activision with its yearly COD releases.
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Yeah, that money will be spent elsewhere. But I’m thinking more if this is dead for sure? Will they try to fight this?

And what happens to ABK? If this fails they’re still looking for a buyer I assume, so will they be forced to sell off parts instead of the entire business?
 
kyussman

kyussman

Member
So Activision want to go to war with the UK.......hey,they might win.....our army is teeny tiny these days,lol.
 
lefty1117

lefty1117

Gold Member
Bernardougf said:
Oh well... is for the better of the industry ... like it or not XBOX has serious management issues for years now... I would be 100% onboard if xbox was in a better state .. buy your way out of this with daddys money is never going to end up well for this industry in the long run
Click to expand...

yeah this is the argument that doesn't hold water with me. You're acting like Sony hasn't been making acquisitions for YEARS, as if they haven't actually built up their business through acquisitions. Because they have. For a lot of companies the path to getting to a "better state" is via acquisition - bringing in better talent and IPs. I don't question the comment about management issues because the fact that they have to rely on this speaks to that, but to say making acquisitions is not a valid path (one which the competition heavily utilizes) just isn't true.
 
S

StealthGoblin

Banned
crackajack said:
Or they could just take the money and invest in their studios and create new IPs. Then no one has to approve something and they won't have to promise Nintendo and Sony anything. Instead of waiting 10 years to fully get ABK, build something themselves, which should not take that long. Either way it is throwing money at a problem, trying to catch up with Sony and also figthing for a market that has yet to show that it actually will become the future. The early fantasies evaporated by now and only winners are probably the Onlive and Gaikai founders finding quite early a buyer in Sony, but no one else made bank with it.
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Indeed that is what I’d prefer them to do. PlayStation and Nintendo’s approach has bore fruit. Invest in localisation, building teams and have diverse IP.
 
Zheph

Zheph

Member
lefty1117 said:
yeah this is the argument that doesn't hold water with me. You're acting like Sony hasn't been making acquisitions for YEARS, as if they haven't actually built up their business through acquisitions. Because they have. For a lot of companies the path to getting to a "better state" is via acquisition - bringing in better talent and IPs. I don't question the comment about management issues because the fact that they have to rely on this speaks to that, but to say making acquisitions is not a valid path (one which the competition heavily utilizes) just isn't true.
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and Microsoft made plenty very recently
 
Saber

Saber

Gold Member
killatopak said:
Didn’t Japan Studio help them with Bloodborne? I don’t know how they helped it since it seems the game isn’t technically sound from the things I heard about it. Haven’t played it yet so I wouldn’t know.
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Yes. The point of what I was making is that we don't know the level terms of this collaboration.
Maybe Sony reach them to make Bloodborne and FromSoftware agreed but only if they would have freedom to make the game the way they want(Sony probably agreed since Blooborne it's their game).
As for the game itself well it plays...typical Souls game and probably isn't much but I was able to platinum the game. Don't expect marvel of performance though.
 
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diffusionx

diffusionx

Gold Member
Clear said:
The CMA's rationale is entirely sound, especially as MS have been consistent and clear about their intentions.

Remember when Phil said they no longer considered Sony their competition? This quote right here:



Its funny people remember the WHAT, but not the WHY...
Click to expand...
Microsoft: Sony and Nintendo are irrelevant, cloud gaming is the future
CMA: your acquisition is denied because of cloud gaming future
Microsoft:
FUOCLnS.png
 
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apple_of_enlightenment

apple_of_enlightenment

Member
I didn't know Activision was a UK company???

Ah I think the Blizzard arm is UK. Or maybe not. There must be a portion of the company registered in the UK for CMA to have authority I'd have thought.
 
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Unknown?

Unknown?

Member
lefty1117 said:
yeah this is the argument that doesn't hold water with me. You're acting like Sony hasn't been making acquisitions for YEARS, as if they haven't actually built up their business through acquisitions. Because they have. For a lot of companies the path to getting to a "better state" is via acquisition - bringing in better talent and IPs. I don't question the comment about management issues because the fact that they have to rely on this speaks to that, but to say making acquisitions is not a valid path (one which the competition heavily utilizes) just isn't true.
Click to expand...
What publishers have they bought? Sony buys small companies and Microsoft already have more developers and much larger workforce with Bethesda.
 
64bitmodels

64bitmodels

Reverse groomer.
the fact they're appealing is just so damn desperate. like holy shit man you're not gonna get COD. give it up already
 
mortal

mortal

Member
Oh shit, I figured Microsft would win out in the end given the absurd amount of capital they spent to secure those companies.
I hope they kept their receipt.
 
GHG

GHG

Member
TheGodfather07 said:
How about Brad Smith comparing PS to blockbuster?
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The own goals rapidly mount up.

And it all could have been avoided if these guys knew how to just shut the fuck up and actually focus 100% on their job which is to put out the best product(s) possible.

Imagine trying to PR and spend your way to dominance in an industry instead of simply providing the best products possible for your customers. Oh wait, no need to imagine, they already did that before. It's in their DNA.
 
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