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 .
Status
Not open for further replies.
feynoob said:
I don't think Sega likes Sony at all.
They will offer themselves to MS before Sony.

Sega is still bitter about the old rivalry.
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Sega still does playstation exclusives (p5, example) so the relationship can't be that bad, and it doesn't really matter if they like Sony or not, all that matters is what shareholders think of Sony's offer.
 
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HoofHearted said:
great - now how many movies, shows, and music / songs have you streamed over the same period ?
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A lot more.
And I was also being sarcastic with that earlier post :messenger_winking:
I have to admit though - in particular cases where I really care about the content, it is nice to have the physical option. Westworld was delisted if I remember correctly?
 
Methos#1975 said:
Personally I think right now is the best time to be a fan of physical, we are getting great 4k releases on disc right now
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Not disagreeing - but the reality is that physical sales of media continue to decline YoY …

Those that continue to purchase physical media are essentially becoming a niche market …
 
Ar¢tos said:
Sega still does playstation exclusives (p5, example) so the relationship can't be that that bad, and it doesn't really matter if they like Sony or not, all that matters is what shareholders think of Sony's offer.
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That is atlus. They are weird company.
They roll a dice and choose a platform for their games.
Look at Shin Megami Tensei games.
 
My personal musings- I'd imagine we see call of duty on Playstation up until the launch of the next hardware.

Taking the PS software cash in now while transitioning as many as they can to game pass and their ecosystem over the next few years makes a lot of sense. On top of not wanting to raise even more red flags with the regulatory bodies or cut off the money coming in, they won't want to decrease the population of COD players. Doing that mid generation means you would have lots of people that drop off that game because they were already playing on their PlayStations. Such a move could irreparably damage the player base and the call of duty brand. Better to move as many of those players over to other platforms first before cutting off the spigot. Timing-wise I'd imaginate a full switch with call of duty as an exclusive at the launch of their next game pass box.

And of course blame Sony because Sony didn't give them access to their new PlayStation 6 hardware or didn't accept some s*** terms like having game pass on PlayStation required for people to play it.

If/when the deal passes PlayStation will definitely need to be working double time to entice call of duty players away from that game and on to something new or they will lose a lot of money. I think to protect their business they'll need to buy take two or epic or something equivalent. They will need a Grand theft Auto or fortnite sized GAAS exclusive to make up for what will otherwise be a mass Exodus of casuals next gen. Although picking up Capcom and square would be more to my personal liking, they are going to have to make a large purchase for sure.

I do think it's worth mentioning that Microsoft will very likely mismanage the hell out of Activision Blizzard so call of duty will naturally be on a decline in popularity as their new corporate overlords f*** it up somehow. As much as I dislike Bobby he and his teams know how to turn out pretty solid games. Microsoft on the opposite side seem to be getting worse in this department and I wouldn't be surprised to see them turn COD into the next Halo level failure. They'll do something stupid only their greedy corporate asses know how to do like replace a ton of developers at thosd studios with remote worker temps to save money, like they did with Halo, and then watch it all go to s*** and wonder why their greed hasn't paid off.

One thing's for sure, if they are going to let Microsoft buy up large chunks of the industry with little to no restrictions and Sony seems to be going the same direction with a bunch of gaas b******* they can both f*** off. I'm going to go 100% steam/Nintendo at that point.
 
I still think comparisons of game streaming to movie/music are faulty. If/when game streaming becomes indistinguishable from local gaming no matter where you are then perhaps those comparisons would make more sense, but as things are the game streaming experience is highly dependent on location relative to the datacenter whereas music and movies just need relatively decent bandwidth. Because of this, I think installation of games to local devices will remain an option for quite some time even as game streaming eventually becomes a popular option alongside.
 
Goalus said:
A lot more.
And I was also being sarcastic with that earlier post :messenger_winking:
I have to admit though - in particular cases where I really care about the content, it is nice to have the physical option. Westworld was delisted if I remember correctly?
Click to expand...
Understandable.. ;)

And I'm the same way - I used to buy a LOT of movies / music for the same reason - but I find myself doing that less and less.

I expect I may eventually get back to buying media again and updating my home library and finally converting it all to digital to be available via Plex, etc. But for the moment- I'm too busy to even think about spending extra time doing that.

I just checked - I can still get Westworld via Apple+ - obviously for more than what you probably paid for it for physical copy.
 
Ar¢tos said:
They are part of Sega anyway.
Click to expand...
Which is hilarious 😂. Atlus be like
look at me threat GIF
 
cebri.one said:
Those games were already available everywhere, now they are being excluded from PS. How is that bringing more players?
Click to expand...

Yeah sorry I wasn't clear....

That was parrotting the stuff that has been said by Xbox advertisers...

{Todd} Howard also believes that this deal is "about more than one system or one screen. <snipped the rest>

and

"Our intent is to become more relevant on more screens. We have a pretty good idea of how to build a win-win relationship with Nintendo, and, frankly, Sony," Phil Spencer told Bloomberg.


But that was what they said then - and they say a lot of things don't they?
 
Topher said:
Interesting. Seems I was wrong about PS being COD's largest platform. I had googled it and saw different results.
Click to expand...
Unlike PS, you can make unlimited Activision accounts on PC. This can inflate those numbers.


Edit: Twitter link is messed on my keyboard.
 
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Topher said:
Interesting. Seems I was wrong about PS being COD's largest platform. I had googled it and saw different results.
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Oh yeah, COD is huge on mobile. Part of me is thinks that MS was just pointing at Sony this entire time to distract from how much money they stand to make from casual mobile free to play shit.
 
 
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Goalus said:
We all know that streaming will never take off, and physical discs are and will be the preferred way of delivering games to customers. Spending money on an imaginary streaming business that will never exist in the future therefore cannot be anti-competitive. Rather, it's a huge waste of money.
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Physical disks haven't been the preferred way of delivering games for quite a while now.
HoofHearted said:
Agreed .. and this data appears to lend further credence to MS's statements that this deal is much more about mobile in general - not consoles…
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All the companies MS studied for potential acquisition were measured according to three axes of growth, out of which console was #3. It's important but not the most important market to them.*

Of course Activision purchase is known now to be an unexpected opportunity more than a planned acquisition.
 
feynoob said:
If that scandal didn't happen, MS would have bought Sega by now.
Click to expand...
I'm actually curious what would have happened, they probably had other acquisitions planned that fell through when they decided to go for Activision.

What's even stranger is that Ybarra, who seems to have been influential in the deal, only became Blizzard's president after J. Allan Brack had to resign. And Kotick covering Brack and Afrasiabi was the main reason behind all the employee protests.

So in short, Blizzard executives' tendency to lure fat cosplayers to their Blizzcon hotel room may have been the catalyst for the biggest acquisition in history.
 
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Chukhopops said:
I'm actually curious what would have happened, they probably had other acquisitions planned that fell through when they decided to go for Activision.

What's even stranger is that Ybarra, who seems to have been influential in the deal, only became Blizzard's president after J. Allan Brack had to resign. And Kotick covering Brack and Afrasiabi was the main reason behind all the employee protests.

So in short, Blizzard executives' tendency to lure fat cosplayers to their Blizzcon hotel room may have been the catalyst for the biggest acquisition in history.
Click to expand...
They say greed is the downfall of an empire.
 
kungfuian said:
My personal musings- I'd imagine we see call of duty on Playstation up until the launch of the next hardware.

Taking the PS software cash in now while transitioning as many as they can to game pass and their ecosystem over the next few years makes a lot of sense. On top of not wanting to raise even more red flags with the regulatory bodies or cut off the money coming in, they won't want to decrease the population of COD players. Doing that mid generation means you would have lots of people that drop off that game because they were already playing on their PlayStations. Such a move could irreparably damage the player base and the call of duty brand. Better to move as many of those players over to other platforms first before cutting off the spigot. Timing-wise I'd imaginate a full switch with call of duty as an exclusive at the launch of their next game pass box.

And of course blame Sony because Sony didn't give them access to their new PlayStation 6 hardware or didn't accept some s*** terms like having game pass on PlayStation required for people to play it.

If/when the deal passes PlayStation will definitely need to be working double time to entice call of duty players away from that game and on to something new or they will lose a lot of money. I think to protect their business they'll need to buy take two or epic or something equivalent. They will need a Grand theft Auto or fortnite sized GAAS exclusive to make up for what will otherwise be a mass Exodus of casuals next gen. Although picking up Capcom and square would be more to my personal liking, they are going to have to make a large purchase for sure.

I do think it's worth mentioning that Microsoft will very likely mismanage the hell out of Activision Blizzard so call of duty will naturally be on a decline in popularity as their new corporate overlords f*** it up somehow. As much as I dislike Bobby he and his teams know how to turn out pretty solid games. Microsoft on the opposite side seem to be getting worse in this department and I wouldn't be surprised to see them turn COD into the next Halo level failure. They'll do something stupid only their greedy corporate asses know how to do like replace a ton of developers at thosd studios with remote worker temps to save money, like they did with Halo, and then watch it all go to s*** and wonder why their greed hasn't paid off.

One thing's for sure, if they are going to let Microsoft buy up large chunks of the industry with little to no restrictions and Sony seems to be going the same direction with a bunch of gaas b******* they can both f*** off. I'm going to go 100% steam/Nintendo at that point.
Click to expand...
I just wanted to say, your personal censoring is fucking hilarious. People who do that remind me of a kid wanting to swear but not wanting to get in trouble for doing so.

Also on your point of CoD going exclusive, it won't happen. Microsoft would be stupid to make it exclusive and miss out of 30% cut off their competitor. That's just leaving money sitting on the table which is bad business practice.

What I could maybe see is CoD going exclusive eventually because Sony chooses to not want to give 30% cut. That way it is on Sony and their choices "for the player" or some console warrior bullshit. At the end of the day, where can I play games and enjoy that perspective with friends? I give no shits what platform it is on, as long as I can play.
 
adamsapple said:
Click to expand...

I dont know how many times a deal fell through at the last minute despite it looking locked and loaded, but I find it weird the index would mess with delisting a stock before it's 100% done. If for whatever reason it did cancel at the last minute, would Nasdaq put Activision back in and Trade Desk out?
 
Eotheod said:
I just wanted to say, your personal censoring is fucking hilarious. People who do that remind me of a kid wanting to swear but not wanting to get in trouble for doing so.

Also on your point of CoD going exclusive, it won't happen. Microsoft would be stupid to make it exclusive and miss out of 30% cut off their competitor. That's just leaving money sitting on the table which is bad business practice.

What I could maybe see is CoD going exclusive eventually because Sony chooses to not want to give 30% cut. That way it is on Sony and their choices "for the player" or some console warrior bullshit. At the end of the day, where can I play games and enjoy that perspective with friends? I give no shits what platform it is on, as long as I can play.
Click to expand...
Oh no I fucking curse like a sailor! Lol, Unfortunately Google is some uptight old church lady and edits me every time I use talk to text on my phone. Too lazy to fix it.
 
Represent. said:
It's going to be historic to see Call of Duty's brand power fall under Microsoft's poor leadership.

I remember when Halo and COD were neck and neck.
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I won't be a fanboy and say they will, but I'm so tired of seeing that mediocre CoD franchise dominating the video game landscape that I wouldn't be sad if MS kill it in some way.
 
Represent. said:
It's going to be historic to see Call of Duty's brand power fall under Microsoft's poor leadership.

I remember when Halo and COD were neck and neck.
Click to expand...
ABK can function as is. They aren't struggling to produce now so with the MS hands off method, aside from exclusive directives, things should run as they have.
 
StreetsofBeige said:
I dont know how many times a deal fell through at the last minute despite it looking locked and loaded, but I find it weird the index would mess with delisting a stock before it's 100% done. If for whatever reason it did cancel at the last minute, would Nasdaq put Activision back in and Trade Desk out?
Click to expand...
I don't think it is that strange to remove a stock that isn't trading on its fundamentals. Nasdaq are probably just hedging their bets - deal goes through they have to delist it anyway, deal fails the stock is going to plummet dragging down the index artificially.
 
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