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

Do you believe the deal will be approved?


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I have a new format for anytime that we keep repeating the same stuff again.
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DOJ filed an antitrust suit against ABK...

And seems to have settled it in the same day pending the judges approval.

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/just...d-consent-decree-prohibit-activision-blizzard

https://www.theverge.com/2023/4/3/23668568/activision-blizzard-doj-antitrust-suit-overwatch-league

Not 100% sure if the verge article is right or they have linked to the wrong page.

This was related to the salary cap limits that ABK put to report players in their league.

On one hand, fuck ABK if they're squeezing the living out of player earnings (but it doesn't seem like that).

On the other hand, traditional sports have salary caps for a reason (I suppose that could be a good thing for esports overall too?).
 

Pretty sure this is because Sony publishes these games in Japan. Square used to it for CoD in the past, but the fact that none of these games got released on Xbox in Japan is because Microsoft obviously didnt bother. And not some weird conspiracy theory.
 
Why can't MS do same shit as Sony?
They have infinite money. Stop crying like little girl and spend those money as exclusives.

Don't try to be friendly. Go bam bam like they did with Bethesda and Activision.
because MS is all about giving consumers options. and Exclusives are against what gaming is all about.
 
Why can't MS do same shit as Sony?
They have infinite money. Stop crying like little girl and spend those money as exclusives.

Don't try to be friendly. Go bam bam like they did with Bethesda and Activision.
They tried it with Tomb Raider and it doesn't work if you don't have the install base.

Dumbed down:

5 Xbox Users $60 game = $300
10 Sony users $60 game = $600

Sony - "We will pay you $300 in an exclusive deal"

Xbox would have to pay more than or at least $600 because way less people would be playing the game.

Microsoft paid a rumored $100 million for Tomb Raider which eventually sold as part of an entire company with 50+ IP for $300 Million. I bet Tomb Raider sold better on PlayStation. Microsoft won't do it anymore.
 
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They tried it with Tomb Raider and it doesn't work if you don't have the install base.

Dumbed down:

5 Xbox Users $60 game = $300
10 Sony users $60 game = $600

Sony - "We will pay you $300 in an exclusive deal"

Xbox would have to pay more than or at least $600 because way less people would be playing the game.
because MS is all about giving consumers options. and Exclusives are against what gaming is all about.
They have gamepass.
Pay the money for day1 gamepass. That will put a dent on Sony revenue and their userbase.

They paid $76b for zenimax and Activision. They can do the same thing for gamepass.
 
They tried it with Tomb Raider and it doesn't work if you don't have the install base.

Dumbed down:

5 Xbox Users $60 game = $300
10 Sony users $60 game = $600

Sony - "We will pay you $300 in an exclusive deal"

Xbox would have to pay more than or at least $600 because way less people would be playing the game.
literally MS:

TXK1Wx0.gif
 
They tried it with Tomb Raider and it doesn't work if you don't have the install base.

Dumbed down:

5 Xbox Users $60 game = $300
10 Sony users $60 game = $600

Sony - "We will pay you $300 in an exclusive deal"

Xbox would have to pay more than or at least $600 because way less people would be playing the game.

It's called a loss leader. They lose money on a product initially to attract more customers. In other words, they can afford to do this for a while in order to convince players that want said games to move from PlayStation to Xbox. Game Pass is an example of a loss leader. Do you think it made money right out of the gates? They sank billions into that before it made a profit (assuming it actually did become profitable since they are not transparent with how individual services within a division perform).
 
It's called a loss leader. They lose money on a product initially to attract more customers. In other words, they can afford to do this for a while in order to convince players that want said games to move from PlayStation to Xbox. Game Pass is an example of a loss leader. Do you think it made money right out of the gates? They sank billions into that before it made a profit (assuming it actually did become profitable since they are not transparent with how individual services within a division perform).
Gamepass day1 is enough for that.
Put $10b investment and you will attract more consumers to your platform.
 
They have gamepass.
Pay the money for day1 gamepass. That will put a dent on Sony revenue and their userbase.

They paid $76b for zenimax and Activision. They can do the same thing for gamepass.

it dosent matter. MS is fighting against Google and Amazon and not little PlayStation/Nintendo. Phil's own words.
 
There are many preferences out there, and AA/indie games can sell in the tens of millions as well. Some titles are more niche, but it's such titles that attract platform loyalty as they are a unique addition to the brand. Did having their two big AAAs delayed out of 2022 hurt MS's output that year? Undoubtedly so, it's a weak year overall. Did only having two semi-AAA games and no good AA games to fill in gaps hurt Sony's 2021 line-up? I would say yes. Right now there's a first party PS drought, as currently they don't have a first party game lined up between Ragnarok's release and that of Spider-Man 2's rumored September release date, a nine month gap. A less expensive to make AA game would have been nice to fill that gap.

Having a mix of AA and AAA in a first party lineup is what I consider ideal.
You are making the same mistakes you are trying to accuse others of. You conveniently ignored Destiny: Lightfall, which released at the end of February and is now a Sony first-party game published under Bungie on multiple platforms.

No matter how you try to spin it, list wars are pointless. You guys are using your own preferences and weighting the games that were released based on that to come up with some sort of "gotcha". Putting out games should not be any one of our problems. That is for Microsoft and Sony to manage. Ya'll just gotta relax a bit.

Yes, we all know that people have different tastes. You might prefer low-budget games, and others might prefer high-budget games. As someone else already stated, the amount of money put into a game will influence how that game is designed. That is just a fact. If you are going to do a list war fight, at least try to be objective, lol.
 
It's called a loss leader. They lose money on a product initially to attract more customers. In other words, they can afford to do this for a while in order to convince players that want said games to move from PlayStation to Xbox. Game Pass is an example of a loss leader. Do you think it made money right out of the gates? They sank billions into that before it made a profit (assuming it actually did become profitable since they are not transparent with how individual services within a division perform).

The point is they spent $100 million and it didn't work.
 
They have gamepass.
Pay the money for day1 gamepass. That will put a dent on Sony revenue and their userbase.

They paid $76b for zenimax and Activision. They can do the same thing for gamepass.
One they make money and they have an asset. The other is just purely losing money. I love how Microsoft is just expected to lose billions to fight on terms that favor Sony.
 
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One they make money and they have an asset. The other is just purely losing money. I love how Microsoft is just expected to lose billions to fight on terms that favor Sony.
The difference is that MS will see huge surge on gamepass users. That is MS ultimate goal. To have enough gamepass users.

Gamepass day1 is a lot better for them, compared to timed exclusive. Plus they pay less than timed exclusive for day1 games.
 
I know some people dislike the source but at least it's 'news'



I do like the fact that I don't think Google has much of a business in China apart from their pixel phones/hardware. Definitely no Search and it seems like they pulled out re: cloud in 2020.
 
$100 million isn't a lot of money in the video game industry. If that was the point, it was a bad point.
That's the budget of many AAA games. Imagine spending that for a timed 1-year exclusive deal and getting shit on for doing what your competitor does.
$100 million is a crap ton of money in the game industry for one IP.

That is more than double the amount of GoW: Ragnarok's budget.
The exact budget of Insomniac Spider-Man
1/3 of CyberPunk 2077 budget.

These are recent numbers, imagine how much more $100 million is worth in the early Xb1 era.
 
Why can't MS do same shit as Sony?
They have infinite money. Stop crying like little girl and spend those money as exclusives.

Don't try to be friendly. Go bam bam like they did with Bethesda and Activision.

Have you read through this thread? That's not exactly going to be a popular strategy.
 
Pretty sure this is because Sony publishes these games in Japan. Square used to it for CoD in the past, but the fact that none of these games got released on Xbox in Japan is because Microsoft obviously didnt bother. And not some weird conspiracy theory.
Pathetic.
The Xbox victim complex continues.

Sony start publishing third party games on the Xbox in Japan. This is outrageous behaviour by Sony...apparently.

Is that Sage's Alt Twitter Account?

Capcom is Japanese and I'm sure that it, and other developers in the country, must have full distribution capacity for their games in Japan. I know Ms is not totally a victim, but sony is no saint either. They pay to remove Japanese games from the Xbox, preventing it from even having a chance to be relevant and consequently and supposedly justify the cycle that only benefits them. It's sony and its fans who are crying for exclusivity, and most of the comments in this section are proof of that.
 
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I'm not sure what you're confused by. Read the post that I was responding to (and the posts that they were responding to) for context.

That's the budget of many AAA games. Imagine spending that for a timed 1-year exclusive deal and getting shit on for doing what your competitor does.
$100 million is a crap ton of money in the game industry for one IP.

That is more than double the amount of GoW: Ragnarok's budget.
The exact budget of Insomniac Spider-Man
1/3 of CyberPunk 2077 budget.

These are recent numbers, imagine how much more $100 million is worth in the early Xb1 era.

Right, that's the budget of a game. No single game is going to move the needle in bringing PlayStation users over to Xbox. $100 million won't drastically impact PlayStation or Xbox, because you're only getting one AAA game out of that. Why would someone move from PlayStation to Xbox over Tomb Raider?

Microsoft has the funds to be able to be a loss leader in exclusivity deals for many years in order to convince players to switch from PlayStation to Xbox. They could have sunk a tiny fraction of the $69 billion they spent on Activision Blizzard King into exclusivity deals over the next 5 years. If $10 billion in exclusivity deals over the course of this console generation wouldn't pull people from PlayStation to Xbox and give them a leg up on Sony, then Microsoft would need to re-evaluate if they want to be in the hardware business at all at that point.

Instead of taking this route (which is the same route they took with Game Pass, mind you) they decided to buy the largest third-party publisher in the world. A third-party publisher that has a greater market share than Nintendo, and has over half the market share of the market leader, Sony. This is a ridiculous move, and it was 100% not necessary in order to catch up to Sony/PlayStation. The issue is that Microsoft went for the quick and easy build-up instead of investing in the games.

I hate exclusivity agreements across the board, but Microsoft's way of permanently making a publisher exclusive (because it will primarily be exclusive content, regardless of whether Call of Duty remains multiplatform or not) is way worse than the timed exclusivity deals that Sony engages in (and which Microsoft chose not to invest in).
 
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Capcom is Japanese and I'm sure that it, and other developers in the country, must have full distribution capacity for their games in Japan. I know Ms is not totally a victim, but sony is no saint either. They pay to remove Japanese games from the Xbox, preventing it from even having a chance to be relevant and consequently and supposedly justify the cycle that only benefits them. And who is crying for exclusivity is Sony.

According to StatCounter, Xbox has a market share of 0.11% in Japan as of Feb 2023. What 3rd party would waste their time localizing their game for a product that has less then 1% market share??

That's on Xbox for not making 1st party games that attractive for a Japanese audience.

But instead of fixing the problem and competing, they will throw money and bad PR at the problem. Pathetic like I said.
 
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The difference is that MS will see huge surge on gamepass users. That is MS ultimate goal. To have enough gamepass users.

Gamepass day1 is a lot better for them, compared to timed exclusive. Plus they pay less than timed exclusive for day1 games.
You mean it is better for sony gamers who get everything day 1 and xbox gamers still miss out on games. Plus you set the expectation of all large studio games coming to gamepass day 1. You can't make money paying for content like that. Paying billions a year on 3rd party content would be cycle of losing billions.
 
Have you read through this thread? That's not exactly going to be a popular strategy.
:messenger_tears_of_joy: they've just bought Zenimax, Obsidian and Double Fine and are trying to buy ABK which is going down a hoot. They aren't worried about public perception (although they do try to influence it)
 
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Capcom is Japanese and I'm sure that it, and other developers in the country, must have full distribution capacity for their games in Japan. I know Ms is not totally a victim, but sony is no saint either. They pay to remove Japanese games from the Xbox, preventing it from even having a chance to be relevant and consequently and supposedly justify the cycle that only benefits them. It's sony and its fans who are crying for exclusivity, and most of the comments in this section are proof of that.
Ok so Monster Hunter is the only one where one could argue that there is a chance for exclusivity. But what about the others? MS even published Black Ops 3 in Japan, why didnt they do it with these titles?

But reading your post history its obvious why you even posted this obvious console war bs to begin with.
 
According to StatCounter, Xbox has a market share of 0.11% in Japan as of Feb 2023. What 3rd party would waste their time localizing their game for a product that has less then 1% market share??

That's on Xbox for not making 1st party games that attractive for a Japanese audience.

But instead of fixing the problem and competing, they will throw money and bad PR at the problem. Pathetic like I said.
They're going to localize the game because they want to release it in Japan, not a platform. Your comment doesn't even make sense, not even for damage control. And it's clearly very easy to talk about maket share at the moment, when sony has been using practices for years that try to prevent Ms, not from being dominant, but from fighting as equals. And not even Sony is making FP content for Japan, which is why it's been buying exclusives. FF and other Japanese games are example of this.
 
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