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 .
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Heisenberg007 said:
Yeah, but these billion $ corporations don't need to sell their companies. They are financially self-sustainable and earn billions of dollars every year.

Smaller studios like HouseMarque and Ninja Theory ... makes sense. Take-Two and Activision, not really.
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I don't understand why you sit here and say someone doesn't "need" to do something... it's THEIR company and they WANT to. It's up to them and what they want as long as it's deemed legal, not up to you to decide whether they "need" to because you are afraid of losing some games on Playstation.

I agree that these are uncertain times, but man i've been playing videogames since before the days of Atari. As i've said in here multiple times i am very much interested in seeing major shakeups in the industry. New studios splintering off and rising up taking more chances on new ideas and new IPs. The industry is fairly stagnant at this point... a lot of major publishers have swollen to a near unmanageable amount just to maintain status quo annual franchises and sequels to games we've all been playing for decades.
 
DeepEnigma said:
If MS pulled CoD after the deal, the CMA would go back after them and stop it. It's in the CMAs own recent words about divestment.
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Although this also means that CMA accepted Microsoft's answer that "10 years are enough for Sony to come up with a COD alternative."

Which is stupid as it means Sony needs to take all the risks and make a COD competitor, while MS can just buy multiplatform publishers and IPs.
 
Dick Jones said:
They wouldn't. They actually wouldn't bother.
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They've done so to companies in the past.

Heisenberg007 said:
Although this also means that CMA accepted Microsoft's answer that "10 years are enough for Sony to come up with a COD alternative."

Which is stupid as it means Sony needs to take all the risks and make a COD competitor, while MS can just buy multiplatform publishers and IPs.
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Things that make you go, hmmm :pie_thinking:
 
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nightmare-slain said:
Looks like Sony is gonna need to suck it up and sign a deal or not get CoD at all. It'd be hilarious if this passes and MS have full approval to never sell CoD on a PlayStation again. It'd suck for the players but I'd like to see Sony put in their place for being so stubborn and arrogant.
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Sony's real worry wasn't that they wouldn't get COD it's that they had a lot invested in having COD exclusive content and marketing. For them merely having equal ground in COD is a big loss.
 
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DeepEnigma said:
Dave Chapelle GIF by MOODMAN



They literally have a PC OS/Enterprise monopoly.
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You must've missed the existence of macs, Linux users, and all the open source alternatives to their enterprise. Or do those not count for some reason!
 
nightmare-slain said:
Looks like Sony is gonna need to suck it up and sign a deal or not get CoD at all. It'd be hilarious if this passes and MS have full approval to never sell CoD on a PlayStation again. It'd suck for the players but I'd like to see Sony put in their place for being so stubborn and arrogant.
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So you'd replace arrogant Sony with an arrogant Microsoft?

Kill Me Smh GIF
 
Looking forward to another drop of games coming to gamepass once this deal goes through.

Not really a COD die hard, but it will be nice to not have to buy the game outright on every release to play with friends.
 
Riky said:
Great news, but expected by anyone with an ounce of business sense.
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It just takes one ounce of business sense to immediately conclude that a $70b acquisition by a trillion dollar company could lead to absolutely no potential immediate or future market/consumer harm in every region of the world?

Baby Boomers Ok GIF by Originals
 
Yeah I'm done. Regulators are going to approve the deal with baby slaps worth of behavioral remedies. Microsoft will feel emboldened to make further large gaming publisher acquisitions. Other big tech companies will do the same. Sony and even Nintendo will need to make publisher acquisitions of their own now.

Love how regulators just signed a death warrant for the gaming market. All this mass consolidation is going to lead to another crash and unlike the "Atari" one, actually global and much bigger. We're going to get less games, not more. We're going to see content put in the vault to artificially boost value (just look at what Disney is doing today with so much of the Fox content they acquired), when we probably would have seen new installments in that content if those companies weren't acquired. Ironically, this is going to lead to more closed ecosystems, not open ones.

I would have been cool with at least a COD/Activision divestiture. I was never flat-out against the deal otherwise. But just wait until Microsoft starts violating these behavioral remedies and laughs away as they pay the fine...if they're even required to pay them. Oh well.

Welp gaming was a nice hobby to have while it lasted. But I don't see this industry not crashing and burning 10 years from now. Enjoy it while you can.
 
gothmog said:
Convenient math error.
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Convenient for who? I wouldn't want to be the CMA saying "oops" like this... if they had scoped this properly in the beginning we probably already would have had the green light by now. I wouldn't be surprised to see the CMA investigated over this, but an error is an error. A mistake. Shit happens.
 
GHG said:
Don't think there's much they can do at that stage in all honesty.
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They seem to be doing it with mobile walled gardens, etc..

Didn't they go back after companies in the past? Not saying they will here since this is a "hmm?" turn of events 180, but yeah, they've done so in the past before.
 
Obnoxious times ahead of us huh... Just thinking about all this chest pumping ms gonna be doing is gag effect inducing.


There it is.


Oh another one.


I'm gonna be sick.
 
DeepEnigma said:
Windows is over 90% of the OS market. Go on with your fake ass "duopoly."
Sassy Red Wine GIF by Married At First Sight
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There are several options for people who don't want to use windows (also phone OS should be included in that market too but whatever), and Microsoft hasn't tried to hinder or stop any attempts at new OS in what, 20 years? just because people want to use windows over those other options doesn't make it a monopoly,
 
DeepEnigma said:
They seem to be doing it with mobile walled gardens, etc..

Didn't they go back after companies in the past? Not saying they will here since this is a "hmm?" turn of events 180, but yeah, they've done so in the past before.
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The problem is that it's far more difficult to do anything retrospectively once the horse has bolted. It takes a lot of time for anything to come into effect, by which point the damage is done.

Which is why regulators usually adopt a prevention is better than cure stance.
 
GHG said:
Don't think there's much they can do at that stage in all honesty.
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That's why Sony will probably sign tho right. I can't see them breaking up Xbox for violations. But if Sony signs they can sue for $$.

Or Sony rides it out hoping it still doesn't pass.

Maybe Jim goes nuclear and just says fuck COD, we will make our own and screw up this $70b purchase. That would be interesting
 
SlimySnake said:
If Sony doesnt go and buy Take2 and use GTA as a bargaining chip then I just dont see Sony continue to be the force they are today.

The CoD pie affects everything from their PS+ subs to their digital store sales to ALL the F2P and other shooter audience cod has helped them cultivate. Will fortnite be as big on PS with half of the CoD audience gone? Doubt it.

Sony will have to severely downscale their operations to match what Nintendo is doing. Cheaper hardware. Way fewer AAA first party games. Way cheaper games. They wont have any money for third party exclusives like FF which is a good thing for those of us who hate moneyhats but you just know MS will sweep in to get those moneyhats so I dont see Sony getting many more FF games, at least on day one.

Nintendo is still very successful with their handheld only approach, but tbh, they are as irrelevant to me as ouya. I want big AAA exclusives, not the small quirky stuff they put out nowadays with their only AAA games like Zeldas, Metroids and Marios taking 6+ years to make. If thats the Sony we have to settle for in the future then thats a depressing thought.

The most interesting thing to see would be exactly how soon this happens. Sony will be in denial for the first few years. they might even go buy Square Enix or some other smaller FPS studios. But everyone other than CMA knows that Sony is now on borrowed time. Without CoD, their revenue drops by 30% minimum and that will affect their bottomline. Investors will know this. I wonder if pressure is put on Sony to sell to Apple or Amazon.

GTA acquisition is the only thing that can help them retain their dominance but as of right now, even if Sony isnt going to die anytime soon and might even reinvent themselves like Nintendo did, they simply wont be the juggernaut they are today.
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yeah sony's screwed. they need to respond in a big way.
 
NickFire said:
Need a new prediction thread. Who raises new game prices above 70 first, and how long before we get there?
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probably not Microsoft but it'll be interesting to see what happens with the price of GamePass after this closes

I'd be highly surprised if it stays $9.99 ($14.99 for GPU) for long

Kvally said:
Sony has plenty of big IPs. They don't need to respond.
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so did Microsoft without buying ABK, so why do they need ABK exactly? 🤔
 
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wolffy71 said:
Maybe Jim goes nuclear and just says fuck COD, we will make our own and screw up this $70b purchase. That would be interesting
Click to expand...

If I were him I'd do this along with doing a deal for every 3rd party partnership I can get my grubby mitts on.

But I can be petty and I'm not in a position where I need to answer to board members and shareholders.
 
graywolf323 said:
probably not Microsoft but it'll be interesting to see what happens with the price of GamePass after this closes

I'd be highly surprised if it stays $9.99 ($14.99 for GPU) for long


so did Microsoft without buying ABK, so why do they need ABK exactly? 🤔
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They don't need ABK. MS just bought them to try and be more relevant. ABK went to MS to be bought and MS accepted.
 
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