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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Not open for further replies.
RickMasters said:
Well...GTA is probably the only other franchise as big as COD. even if they do buy it it will have to stay everywhere. sony would probably have to go through all this BS with the courts too. them lawyers must be expensive.



have they got 24Bn to buy T2? what happens if both companies bid for it? who wins then? the company that pays more, no? either way I doubt t2 is even interested in being acquired at the moment.
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Why would they have to go through anything they already allowed the biggest merger possible.
 
wolffy66 said:
If there's a company Sony wanted and was for sale they would have or would buy them so this is just silly
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That was never Sony's style though. They have always relied on "independent partners" instead of acquiring companies.

Remember when SquareEnix was in trouble? They helped them, funded their companies, and sold their shares back to them when they got out of financial trouble. They could have acquired SquareEnix and got all their assets and IPs, but they didn't.

There are other examples too, e.g., when Capcom was struggling. Sony helped them by funding their games, e.g., SF5. But didn't make an attempt to acquire them.

Things will likely change now, however.
 
adamsapple said:
776166.jpg



loving the new avvy, Ass :D
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Thank you fellow rat

Praise Xbox

God bless Phil Spencer
 
StreetsofBeige said:
UK organization all bark no bite. I don't know anything about them but in this debacle they sure seemed tough and confident. So hey, whomever they are sure seem like they won't back down to anymore.

They literally announced smoothing it out less than an hour after the FTC decision.

They were just waiting for them to make the first move the whole time. If FTC win they'd buddy up and join. If they lost, they bail. That was the plan the whole time.
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This is actually very unusual. Which is why the deal was largely deemed dead when they said no.
 
aliadiere25 said:
No. It's a bad day for every gamer. This will only make more games exclusive. It's totally fair game now for Sony to spend way more money to buy big companies. What happens if they buy Take-Two and make GTA exclusive to just PlayStation? The list goes on.
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Not to mention hundreds of studios and thousands of IPs under a single bahemoth corporation umbrella... One can be only delusional if believes in this scenario we'll get better output than with independents studios fighting for their survival in a competitive enviroment.
 
Id just like to point out for posteritys sake, so that everyone who ever reads this thread will know down the line.

There are folks here decrying this as the doom prophecy and some cheering this on.

That always seems to be the case when things like this. Who will be right, that remains to be seen.
 
Uh oh that check finally cleared.......bad for Sony. No reasonable person will think that things that came out in court during this whole ordeal hasn't built up animosity between Sony and MS.

I expect MS to keep things the way it is until the dust settles from the deal going through then they will pull the rug from under Sony. First making dlc come to Sony platforms last then to making titles only Xbox and PC. I wouldn't be surprised if optimization for Sony platforms start become a problem. Similar to Bethesda ports.
 
SpearFist said:
So diablo 4 on gamepass ?
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That does explain the Brazilian leak, doesn't it? MS might have known about the judgement the day of or slightly prior, maybe the judge's son got in touch with her to get a word and passed that along to Good Guy Phil™.

Then Good Guy Phil™ ordered his Game Pass slaves to make the graphic but one of the slaves rebelled and leaked it early before removing it and had another slave, Mike Ybarre, dismiss the leak publicly for purposes of plausible deniability.
 
Schmick said:
So does this mean, MS closes before negotiations with CMA is completed or does this mean that Activision will be more inclined to extend the agreement to complete the negotiations before MS closes.
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As it stands, unless they can get something agreed with the CMA in the next week then an extension will likely be necessary. But as things stand I don't think either party (or shareholders) will have an issue with an extension.
 
RickMasters said:
Well...GTA is probably the only other franchise as big as COD. even if they do buy it it will have to stay everywhere. sony would probably have to go through all this BS with the courts too. them lawyers must be expensive.



have they got 24Bn to buy T2? what happens if both companies bid for it? who wins then? the company that pays more, no? either way I doubt t2 is even interested in being acquired at the moment.
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Not really. How the hell would Sony have to go through all the court stuff if they just allowed Microsoft to spend 70 billion on a company? You can't block any future deals if you just allowed that.

This decision has just given the go-ahead for the other companies to buy whatever they want.
 
StreetsofBeige said:
UK organization all bark no bite. I don't know anything about them but in this debacle they sure seemed tough and confident. So hey, whomever they are sure seem like they won't back down to anymore.

They literally announced smoothing it out less than an hour after the FTC decision.

They were just waiting for them to make the first move the whole time. If FTC win they'd buddy up and join. If they lost, they bail. That was the plan the whole time.
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It shows that the CMA plan the whole time was to rely on some "five eyes" axis with the FTC and maybe the NZ regulator all blocking the deal.

This is quite a defeat for them already no matter what they get out of MS in the negotiations.
 
poppabk said:
If the PI is granted then I think Activision walk, it means that the merger will have to wait through years of FTC shenanigans. If the PI is denied then I think Bobby can persuade the board to extend until the UK situation is resolved. I don't think MS has any plan to close without, at a bare minimum, a favourable CAT judgement and most likely not without CMA approval.
Edit: guess I missed the news
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Ah don't worry. It popped outta nowhere.

I'm disappointed we didn't get to see what would have happened between MS and ATVI on July 19 though 🤷‍♂️

Nevermind - next drama will deliver hopefully.
 
RickMasters said:
Well...GTA is probably the only other franchise as big as COD. even if they do buy it it will have to stay everywhere. sony would probably have to go through all this BS with the courts too. them lawyers must be expensive.



have they got 24Bn to buy T2? what happens if both companies bid for it? who wins then? the company that pays more, no? either way I doubt t2 is even interested in being acquired at the moment.
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Depends on how Sony wants to response.

Sony can also just give Rockstar like $400-500 million and make GTA 6 a permanent console exclusive (PS5/PC) without going through the trouble to acquire Take-Two. It's not like they'd be releasing a GTA 7 before 2035.
 
wolffy66 said:
It will be interesting to see if people echo this sentiment on Sonys next acquisition
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A lot of them already were. The problem is, now it's about to be the way of things. Now, in order to maintain good competition between two first party entities, the other will try to ensure they're not locked out. "Keeping the same energy" doesn't apply when one company just spent $75 billion to outright own a huge chunk of the industry. They changed the rules.
 
Mr Moose said:
You are renting them. If you pay full price (or better yet, wait a bit for price drop), you keep them.
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Very few people actually care regarding renting vs owning. And even then, even if you purchase a game outright nowadays all you're actually purchasing is a license to play it which can be revoked at any point.
 
aliadiere25 said:
No. It's a bad day for every gamer. This will only make more games exclusive. It's totally fair game now for Sony to spend way more money to buy big companies. What happens if they buy Take-Two and make GTA exclusive to just PlayStation? The list goes on.
Click to expand...
Sony cant compete in a biding war against MS.. they have to stick to their strengths and plans and hope that MS continues to fuck up as they beeing doing since the 360 times , buying shit dosent make you any better at running the shit you bought, just shows your desperation because you cant produce yourself because of your incompetence... so let MS do their thing and SONY continues theirs ...
 
Brigandier said:
Money talks... big corp always gets what they want.

I can see acquisitions galore going forward now.
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It's going to get so much worse now... buy hey i guess a few Twitter warriors can put lists out...

Cause that's why we all game and love gaming, because of list wars.

I've said it before but fuck MS for going full retard and setting this precedent, all bets are off now, it's open market in gaming...

But our competition right 🤣
 
Heisenberg007 said:
That was never Sony's style though. They have always relied on "independent partners" instead of acquiring companies.

Remember when SquareEnix was in trouble? They helped them, funded their companies, and sold their shares back to them when they got out of financial trouble. They could have acquired SquareEnix and got all their assets and IPs, but they didn't.

There are other examples too, e.g., when Capcom was struggling. Sony helped them by funding their games, e.g., SF5. But didn't make an attempt to acquire them.

Things will likely change now, however.
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LMAO. So when Sony outright purchases exclusivity for a major installment in a long running franchise (Street Fighter V), it's presented as Sony being charitable and a savior for Capcom. When Microsoft purchased exclusivity for Rise of the Tomb Raider and helped fund its development, Microsoft is portrayed as an evil conglomerate taking away from the people. Just so strange to see people and their rose-tinted glasses.
 
Topher said:
Oh.....just remembered that Riky Riky predicted that the CMA would bow to "political pressure" and I vehemently disagreed with him. Looks like he was right as well.

I'm just glad I didn't make any avatar bets this time.

Matthew Broderick GIF
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I'm still laughing at the fact that Giphy is/was a greater threat to an industry and consumers.
 
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StueyDuck said:
They'll just go around the UK...

What's another billion when you've already dropped 69 to make cod exclusive
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Considering the fact that the CMA have just reopened the door, it's highly unlikely they will just go round them but stranger things have happened throughout this process.
 
Bernardougf said:
Sony cant compete in a biding war against MS.. they have to stick to their strengths and plans and hope that MS continues to fuck up as they beeing doing since the 360 times , buying shit dosent make you any better at running the shit you bought, just shows your desperation because you cant produce yourself because of your incompetence... so let MS do their thing and SONY continues theirs ...
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I don't think Sony will have the luxury to wait and just do their own thing after this. They could do it (and did it) after Zenimax.

But now they will feel the need to come out of their comfort zone and make things happen, including acquiring other companies and making their games exclusive to PS5 (unfortunately).
 
Mr Moose said:
You are renting them. If you pay full price (or better yet, wait a bit for price drop), you keep them.
Click to expand...

How many people really care about that though is the question? It works in movies\tvshows\music. It could also work in gaming. I think the only difference is are there enough people so into gaming they are willing to pay a monthly cost for it the way they do music and tv?
 
Begins the gaming consolidation free for all. Sony needs to lock up Japan and parts of Europe.

Sony needs Square-Enix, Capcom, Kodakawa, and CD Project Red

Tencent, Saudi prices will now enter the frey..
 
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aliadiere25 said:
No. It's a bad day for every gamer. This will only make more games exclusive. It's totally fair game now for Sony to spend way more money to buy big companies. What happens if they buy Take-Two and make GTA exclusive to just PlayStation? The list goes on.
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Every single gamer on Earth has went on and on about this platform has this and that exclusive.

We demanded that the platforms have as many as possible. We publicly bash companies that don't buy exclusivity and celebrate when our favorite platform does.

Even though I think this is about revenue for the xbox division it obviously provides a catalog of games and it's the result of this thinking.
 
CMA will likely just copy the EU deal and call it a day. They were wrong to block it in the first place and with no one else blocking it, it made them look like the fools they are/were.
 
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