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

Zheph

Member
UK will. Even more isolated than Brexit exit 🤡
Episode 2 Whatever GIF
 

daninthemix

Member
It should be illegal to block acquisitions based on hypothetical future situations. They assume cloud gaming is going to take off in popularity and they assume that Sony won't have infrastructure to compete with Microsoft by the time that happens. Dumb decision all around.

Really bad news for Xbox. Will only slow sales down more. Not looking good. Good chance people will look back on this as CMA killing the Xbox brand.
So the CMA is not allowed to hypothesize, but you are?
 

Banjo64

cumsessed
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.
Reminds me of a fantastic video I watched on YouTube this week where someone ripped in to Xbox’s current strategy and said ‘they have somehow convinced people that they don’t measure success in money’. You’ve been had hook, line and sinker.
 

DJ12

Member
Xbox is nothing short of a disaster. Dump Phil or lose the brand for good.
Isn't this what they are doing anyway, xbox is already sidelined in favour of Microsoft gaming.
I think if things don’t turn around Microsoft will sale Xbox off and it will turn into a publisher. Then Sony will have a monopoly on high end console market.
To who, who has enough money for one. Then those that can afford it, why wouldn't they just go it alone rather than try with a brand name that's hardly Stella and comes with serious baggage though constant mismanagement.

Your samsungs and apples would start fresh for sure.
UK will. Even more isolated than Brexit exit 🤡
Don't worry, we still have the HMS Victory, we'll fire up the empire again if things get tough.
 

Nicktendo86

Member
At what point did they start to really fuck up Xbox? It looked so promising for the first half of the 360 era, I’d say about then the first party offerings started to either dry up or dive in quality leading to the Xbone launch fiasco.

They don’t seem to be interested in trying to complete by making better products since about then, I honestly have no idea what their goal in this industry is anymore. So many wasted studios and IP, they’re like a bed blocker in a hospital.
 
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azertydu91

Hard to Kill
At what point did they start to really fuck up Xbox? It looked so promising for the first half of the 360 era, I’d say about then the first party offerings started to either dry up or dive in quality leading to the Xbone launch fiasco.

They don’t seem to be interested in trying to complete by making better products since about then, I honestly have no idea what their goal in this industry is anymore. So many wasted studios and IP, they’re like a bed blocker in a hospital.
So around 2009 2010?
 

Nydius

Gold Member
Sony does need to start securing their partners and start solidifying themselves in this industry.

Selling massive amount of consoles and breaking record is great but so is rectifying their weakness.
The only thing Microsoft is outperforming Sony on is subscription service and cloud services.
Game Pass and xCloud are the only things Microsoft have that are "winning".

Sony is destroying them in console sales, software attach rates, software sales. The things that matter for a gaming division. Microsoft has to resort to gimmicky PR numbers like "player engagement" or "total number of players" to make their games sound bigger than they are -- and those numbers are pumped up by, you guessed it, Game Pass.

Marvel's Spider-Man alone has sold over 30 million copies, Horizon Zero Dawn (not including Forbidden West) has sold over 20 million. Halo, combined, has only sold 81 million over twenty years. The only estimate I could find for Forza Motorsport plus Forza Horizon is 16 million combined.

What, exactly, does Sony need to shore up? Their own first party FPS game? Because that's about the only thing they lack relative to Microsoft.

Sony's never really shown much interest in cloud gaming, so the entire cloud argument has nothing to do with Sony at all.
 

baphomet

Member
At what point did they start to really fuck up Xbox? It looked so promising for the first half of the 360 era, I’d say about then the first party offerings started to either dry up or dive in quality leading to the Xbone launch fiasco.

They don’t seem to be interested in trying to complete by making better products since about then, I honestly have no idea what their goal in this industry is anymore. So many wasted studios and IP, they’re like a bed blocker in a hospital.

It's literally been downhill since the final couple of 360 years.

They stopped caring about first party games and still don't give any fucks about them.
 

Duchess

Member
Good chance people will look back on this as CMA killing the Xbox brand.
The only entity that has killed the Xbox brand is Microsoft. We all know it.

In years to come, people will look back on this as the week Microsoft conceded the 9th console generation to Sony.

Starfield will likely get a good reception, but it simply won't be enough. And Redfall is certainly not a reason to invest in an Xbox, and neither will Senua's Saga.
 

Nicktendo86

Member
It's literally been downhill since the final couple of 360 years.

They stopped caring about first party games and still don't give any fucks about them.
Thinking about it a little more I think Kinect was the turning point.

Edit: just to elaborate I am not blaming Kinect itself but saying it was a product of their shifting mindset. It seemed to be went studio output went downhill, Rare focused on Kinect, Lionhead shit the bed with Milo etc
 
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BbMajor7th

Member
Explain ff7, ff7-2, deathloop, ghostwire, forspoken, and ff16 then.

Money is money. If ms outbids Sony there is no reason they can’t at least get cod on gamepass.
Those are all marketing partnerships. Platform holders are much more effective marketers due to the vast audiences they're plugged into and the data they farm. Publishers don't have that - they're trying to develop it through thier own platforms (which are usually unpopular) - but it's miles behind the biggest platform holders. That's why they do it.
 

John Wick

Member
Clearly a ton of fanboys here that didn't want it to go through because it wasn't their platform of choice.

The decision is quite baffling tbh, based on their ACTUAL written reasoning (cloud gaming). The deal not going ahead means the game is not available for cloud streaming at all, whereas if it did go through it would be available on all browsers, Xbox, playstation, mobile and just about every other.

So instead of it being on the most widely available platforms for cloud. It's now on none. It honestly seems like CMA don't really understand what they are regulating here.
Pack it up guys. We have a bonafida armchair expert who knows far more than the CMA.
So when Cloud gaming becomes a thing do you think ABK will leave that money on the table? You seriously think they won't bring streaming for their games?
Sometimes I wonder about the hot takes on here.
 

John Wick

Member
Suddenly everyone worries about the cloud. When not a single person could careless about it 1 hour ago. I've got 1,000 mb's fiber internet which is 5x faster than the average US connection and I also do not have a data cap. Which a lot of people have. And when I stream a 4k video game at 60 fps when lots of things happen on the screen it pixalates. And I still have high latency and packet loss. Good luck with the cloud future. It's going to be an eternity before people will have internet connections worthy of seamless 4k 60/120 video game streaming. Imagine how strong the hardware is going to be by then. No chance that Internet gets better faster than hardware. Overall it's a dumb decision. I don't think cloud gaming is the future. Nobody wants to play a soft video that pixelates, has input delay, etc. When they can play natively.
Clearly someone can't see the wood for the trees. If you don't understand the arguement the CMA are making then your either thick or being dense on purpose.
 
At what point did they start to really fuck up Xbox? It looked so promising for the first half of the 360 era, I’d say about then the first party offerings started to either dry up or dive in quality leading to the Xbone launch fiasco.

They don’t seem to be interested in trying to complete by making better products since about then, I honestly have no idea what their goal in this industry is anymore. So many wasted studios and IP, they’re like a bed blocker in a hospital.
I was there for those early 360 days. I was one of those guys who literally camped outside a Best Buy back in 2006 overnight for launch, no joke. That first year experiencing HD gaming for the first time with Dead Rising and Gears of War was memorable. Dead Rising was the game that killed my launch 360, Gears 1 ended up being the one which killed my second. My 3rd 360 was the one that I have to this very day, it's in a closet somewhere in my house. All hail the RRoD, genocider of early 360's.

They had all this goodwill built up from the first couple years of 360. But somehow MS completely squandered their early lead even though they had help from Sony completely fumbling the PS3 launch. But Sony really worked hard to turn it around, by the time I got my PS3 + MGS4 bundle, things had really started looking up for Sony and somehow they not only recovered they went on to take 2nd place at the end of that gen behind the runaway meme success of the Wii because 360 fell off a cliff.

MS decided instead of trying to build on what worked with the 360, they tried to chase Nintendo with the Kinect even though even Nintendo saw that motion gaming was a total fad and would soon be forgotten and then it was TV TV TV and Always Online/No Used Games with the XBone and they completely killed it before it even launched. By the time the XBone and PS4 launched, the XBone was stillborn because Sony had learned a lot from the mistakes made with the PS3 and the PS4 was a complete turnaround for them.

Since then, MS has seemed very uninterested in the Xbox, they basically sent XBone out to die and then followed up with the equally listless XSX/S which has almost no first party game support. After an entire gen of PS4's dominance, 3rd parties also seem very wary of XSX/S and aren't willing to do timed exclusive deals with MS anymore after they saw how timed exclusives for Titanfall killed that nascent franchise before it could even be born and also Tomb Raider which almost killed that venerable franchise.

MS really has shown a complete lack of care after the first few years of 360, which is one reason I'm baffled by why they should suddenly decide to blow $70 billion to acquire Activision Blizzard when they could hardly bother to support the XBone and XSX/S. The behavior of monopolists in competitive markets is always confusing, I guess.
 

DForce

NaughtyDog Defense Force
It's funny how the narrative changes.

Before the block:
"Microsoft doesn't care about console sales. They're focused on Game Pass and putting it on every single device."

After the block:
"How can they block the deal based on cloud gaming? It's an unproven market!"
 

Zheph

Member
Fear that's only true if the EC also blocks the deal otherwise this will continue for a while.

P. S my fear is cause I am getting rather bored.
it's a dead deal tho but yeah we might still have to talk about it for a bit because ego? They need to move on
 

Nicktendo86

Member
I was there for those early 360 days. I was one of those guys who literally camped outside a Best Buy back in 2006 overnight for launch, no joke. That first year experiencing HD gaming for the first time with Dead Rising and Gears of War was memorable. Dead Rising was the game that killed my launch 360, Gears 1 ended up being the one which killed my second. My 3rd 360 was the one that I have to this very day, it's in a closet somewhere in my house. All hail the RRoD, genocider of early 360's.

They had all this goodwill built up from the first couple years of 360. But somehow MS completely squandered their early lead even though they had help from Sony completely fumbling the PS3 launch. But Sony really worked hard to turn it around, by the time I got my PS3 + MGS4 bundle, things had really started looking up for Sony and somehow they not only recovered they went on to take 2nd place at the end of that gen behind the runaway meme success of the Wii because 360 fell off a cliff.

MS decided instead of trying to build on what worked with the 360, they tried to chase Nintendo with the Kinect even though even Nintendo saw that motion gaming was a total fad and would soon be forgotten and then it was TV TV TV and Always Online/No Used Games with the XBone and they completely killed it before it even launched. By the time the XBone and PS4 launched, the XBone was stillborn because Sony had learned a lot from the mistakes made with the PS3 and the PS4 was a complete turnaround for them.

Since then, MS has seemed very uninterested in the Xbox, they basically sent XBone out to die and then followed up with the equally listless XSX/S which has almost no first party game support. After an entire gen of PS4's dominance, 3rd parties also seem very wary of XSX/S and aren't willing to do timed exclusive deals with MS anymore after they saw how timed exclusives for Titanfall killed that nascent franchise before it could even be born and also Tomb Raider which almost killed that venerable franchise.

MS really has shown a complete lack of care after the first few years of 360, which is one reason I'm baffled by why they should suddenly decide to blow $70 billion to acquire Activision Blizzard when they could hardly bother to support the XBone and XSX/S. The behavior of monopolists in competitive markets is always confusing, I guess.
This almost word for word my exact experience. It was Fight Night which blew me away when my brother got a 360, played the hell out of his console until it RRoD and then forked out for my own elite 360. PS3 was a total joke during those early days, I eventually picked one up and through Sony’s sheer effort turned it around to the point I moved on and my PS3 was just favoured more.

I only have a XBone as my brother gave his old one to me and I barely touch it, not sire why I am still subbed to game pass tbh. I really hope they turn it around, Sony are always at their best when they have proper competition.
 

reksveks

Member
it's a dead deal tho but yeah we might still have to talk about it for a bit because ego? They need to move on
I think it's dead. Ego is a big part of it but also the fact that the CMA arguments basically blocks them from buying any companies in digital markets where Azure and/or windows could be an advantage.

I do think they need to move on and get Microsoft gaming services working on Linux and that could maybe help any potential acquisitions in this space.
 

Corndog

Banned
I was there for those early 360 days. I was one of those guys who literally camped outside a Best Buy back in 2006 overnight for launch, no joke. That first year experiencing HD gaming for the first time with Dead Rising and Gears of War was memorable. Dead Rising was the game that killed my launch 360, Gears 1 ended up being the one which killed my second. My 3rd 360 was the one that I have to this very day, it's in a closet somewhere in my house. All hail the RRoD, genocider of early 360's.

They had all this goodwill built up from the first couple years of 360. But somehow MS completely squandered their early lead even though they had help from Sony completely fumbling the PS3 launch. But Sony really worked hard to turn it around, by the time I got my PS3 + MGS4 bundle, things had really started looking up for Sony and somehow they not only recovered they went on to take 2nd place at the end of that gen behind the runaway meme success of the Wii because 360 fell off a cliff.

MS decided instead of trying to build on what worked with the 360, they tried to chase Nintendo with the Kinect even though even Nintendo saw that motion gaming was a total fad and would soon be forgotten and then it was TV TV TV and Always Online/No Used Games with the XBone and they completely killed it before it even launched. By the time the XBone and PS4 launched, the XBone was stillborn because Sony had learned a lot from the mistakes made with the PS3 and the PS4 was a complete turnaround for them.

Since then, MS has seemed very uninterested in the Xbox, they basically sent XBone out to die and then followed up with the equally listless XSX/S which has almost no first party game support. After an entire gen of PS4's dominance, 3rd parties also seem very wary of XSX/S and aren't willing to do timed exclusive deals with MS anymore after they saw how timed exclusives for Titanfall killed that nascent franchise before it could even be born and also Tomb Raider which almost killed that venerable franchise.

MS really has shown a complete lack of care after the first few years of 360, which is one reason I'm baffled by why they should suddenly decide to blow $70 billion to acquire Activision Blizzard when they could hardly bother to support the XBone and XSX/S. The behavior of monopolists in competitive markets is always confusing, I guess.
How are they a monopolist?
 

Corndog

Banned
Isn't this what they are doing anyway, xbox is already sidelined in favour of Microsoft gaming.

To who, who has enough money for one. Then those that can afford it, why wouldn't they just go it alone rather than try with a brand name that's hardly Stella and comes with serious baggage though constant mismanagement.

Your samsungs and apples would start fresh for sure.

Don't worry, we still have the HMS Victory, we'll fire up the empire again if things get tough.
You really think investment groups can’t afford to buy Xbox? They manage trillions of dollars. Vanguard holds 8 trillion in assets.
 
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yazenov

Member
So is this the final nail in the MS coffin? They put all their hopes and dreams in one Activision Blizzard basket and the CMA said hell no.

Does MS even have a plan B? I mean, they are currently being dominated by the competition and even with the deal getting potentially passed by the regulators, MS doesn't stand a chance at catching up to Sony this generation. And now without this deal, they are practically a floating corpse in the water.

It's hilarious to see so many people invested in this deal literally by buying Activision Blizzard stocks because they listened to the bullshit PR and clueless armchair analysts that this was practically formality at this point and the regulators can't do anything to stop it. Jokes on them for not using their brains and thinking for themselves instead of regurgitating PR gibberish with the hivemind mentality and eco chambers.

Live and learn my friends.
 
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