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

Do you believe the deal will be approved?


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I'd love to see them take another stab at a single player StarCraft FPS again ( remember the cancelled StarCraft: Ghost?….. good time to revisit it)

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I think WoW should get a single player RPG. Imagine something similar to dragon age where you have a squad you can command….. but also it's an action game…..maybe make the combat a bit like a sort of dark souls intense combat style action RPG- but with light tactics anc character switching like dragon age…… they should hire me to lead that one! 😅😅
Hexen/Heretic is a must. That has to happen.

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A rebooted Tenchu would fill a nice void in the catalog. I'd take cues from the likes of sekiro, wo long and other modern Japanese action games and just…..I'd even go as far as hiring from software to make it. It could be a bit like Sekiro but with Ninja instead of samurai. And a lot more stealth and verticality to the gameplay. Great sword play, an interesting story…. Crazy boss fights. And it would have two thing going for it….. its a beloved IP, and it would be developed by from, which would be a suprise, for sure and a very compelling reason to get an Xbox/GPU on PC.

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800m in US, 1.5bn globally.
You are seriously over estimating the value of console COD if you think it will make Xboxs fly of the shelves.
Many people I talked to would rather move to PC than buy a Xbox for COD, because they would get Xbox games and eventually Playstation games there.
Most people that claim that they would switch from PS to PC instead of Xbox when it comes to CoD are either fanboys or ignorant. Just comparing the price points between a Series X/S to a PC are gigantic a 300$ PC barely can play CoD while the quality of the Series X is unmatched and then there is the whole competitive adjustment by going from controller to mouse and keyboard and the even more ridiculous claims I have read of playing with a controller on PC in CoD.

Those gamers would be mass migrating to Xbox and the Xbox's would be selling out in record time.
 
Most people can not tell the difference between a streamed album/4k video stream vs it playing off of physical media. This cannot be stated as true for streaming video games on a whole. There are pockets of people who live in areas with adequate infrastructure, but most of the world's population still need a physical box to play their games at high fidelity.

The current comparisons with music and movie industry do not work when cloud gaming is a supplementary service. Because of the inherent tolerance to latency with music and video, streaming those mediums just makes sense, and is by far easier execute at high quality. This is why I don't buy into the doom and gloom scenario of hardware going away. As long as there are people willing to spend money on hardware, there will be a supplier.

There was a time when it took me 2 weeks to download music video from Kaaza. Now I can stream any music video instantly. Technology is progressing. Infrastructure is progressing. It's a matter of when, not if.
 
@lastmessiah Stop with the passive aggressive LOL emoting.
If you want to say something, grow a pair and say it.
The 1st thing I ever do whenever I join any forum is to immediately remove all reaction notifications.

I'd genuinely advise you to do the same, your forum quality of life improves immensely and you don't feel the need to change your posts or act out at people in order to fit in.
 
should never been blocked ? hahaha
so only company in the industry that has trillions of dollars should just be allowed to buy everything ? wow, some of you guys are 15y old or just not smart.
in the court they showed Microsoft email that had list of all the studios in the industry that they could buy.

it's called MONOPOLY, that's why it was blocked.
explain to us how would Nintendo and Sony compete with this ?
would it be ok if MS buys Ubisoft and Capcom and Sega and Square and Take Two..... ???
Microsoft are a massive company yes but not in the console space, they're in last position. We know COD remains multiplatform for at least 10 years under Microsoft and in fact will be made for Nintendo platforms as well.

Of course they shouldn't and they certainly wouldn't be allowed either, so not really worth posting it. The reasons to block were IMO weak or just plain wrong, that's why I found the posters against it to be fueled by emotions rather than intelligence.
 
should never been blocked ? hahaha
so only company in the industry that has trillions of dollars should just be allowed to buy everything ? wow, some of you guys are 15y old or just not smart.
in the court they showed Microsoft email that had list of all the studios in the industry that they could buy.

it's called MONOPOLY, that's why it was blocked.
explain to us how would Nintendo and Sony compete with this ?
would it be ok if MS buys Ubisoft and Capcom and Sega and Square and Take Two..... ???
This is what these guys don't understand. Microsoft is a scummy company that is only out for itself. They can't make their own games and have to spend big to compete. They're also apparently horrible to work with. They claim this deal is to help future gamers, but it really hasn't. Those games could be played on pretty much every platform regardless. This deal is just to help them compete with Nintendo and Sony. I have no clue how they're allowed to spend close to 100 billion on big and established companies.

The judge has just allowed the door to be opened for gaming companies to spend whatever they want without any consequences. And Microsoft can't argue their case if Sony decided to buy Take-Two, because they literally just spent 69 billion. And if Sony did get Take-Two and make those games exclusive, that would be the end for Xbox and Game Pass. The judge basically gave Microsoft the potential to take Activision games away from millions and make them exclusive. And her argument about the console market shrinking is stupid as hell. Just because it's shrinking for Microsoft doesn't mean it's shrinking for Sony and Nintendo.
 
Let's see what happens next week.
Sony at least secured COD.
CMA is the last wild card left but if rumors are true and they're willing to divest Xcloud in the UK then it will be hard for CMA to refuse since it's a structural divestement and it involves what they're concerned about.
Maybe Microsoft will need a small extension but given that the thing is almost in the bag I don't see particular resistance here.
 
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You are absolutely being "That guy". Your implication that anybody who disagrees with you is "paid off" is, frankly, pathetic and insulting. It's even more pathetic when you realize that my post isn't "pro MS" at all. It simply described the purpose of the acquisition and clarifies that using consoles sold as a metric for success is pointless because that's not the goal, as is evident by the fact that Call of Duty remains multiplatform.

Literally everything you have posted here has been addressed in the very post you're quoting.


This is unrelated to the acquisition. The acquisition isn't intended to move hardware on the short term (This generation). Something that is blatantly obvious. What is really going to change with this acquisition in the short term, say, current gen? Nothing. Blizzard games are mostly multiplats. Call of Duty will remain multiplat. Nothing is changing in the short term for consumers, So why would anyone expect a short term market shift? It makes no sense at all.


Addressed this in the very post you're quoting. Yes, streaming games is very small right now. But Microsoft clearly expects that it is going to grow substantially. Whether you personally like that or not, is irrelevant to the discussion: The POINT is that MICROSOFT thinks that's where gaming is headed, and they are making business and acquisition decisions accordingly.


That doesn't even make any sense.
Not surprised. Spend $80 billion and expect no change for at least 5 years. That's crazy in my opinion.

I'm hoping your beliefs aren't the majority's. Because that'll be a sad day for gaming.
 
Yeah, unless the CMA aren't following the law, this makes no difference to the cloud SLC and is just an insurance policy for PlayStation, because it does nothing to protect companies that haven't even been started, yet to compete in the cloud gaming market in the coming years. All this might help with is arguing the point with ATVI that extending is worth doing, but I still have a feeling this deal dies either on the 18th or in 6 weeks time.

Nothing the CMA can accept from Microsoft - short of them divesting CoD - will remedy the cloud gaming SLC that has been correctly identified by the CMA. So unless the CMA act illegally I don't see this passing now or in 6 weeks.

edit: Accidentally wrote 'have', instead of 'haven't'
Are you still peddling this nonsense? Seriously dude the deal is all but done. Have a lay down to accept it and stop posting please.
 
The 1st thing I ever do whenever I join any forum is to immediately remove all reaction notifications.

I'd genuinely advise you to do the same, your forum quality of life improves immensely and you don't feel the need to change your posts or act out at people in order to fit in.
I need my GAF reaction dopamine hit.

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There was a time when it took me 2 weeks to download music video from Kaaza. Now I can stream any music video instantly. Technology is progressing. Infrastructure is progressing. It's a matter of when, not if.
Downstream bandwidth is not the issue here, it's proximity to data centers as well as available servers. We are talking about data centers within a 30ms (60ms round-trip) radius to roughly 180 million households globally. This idea that local hardware is literally going to be replaced is absurd. Again, as long as their is a market for hardware, supply will exist.
 
There was a time when it took me 2 weeks to download music video from Kaaza. Now I can stream any music video instantly. Technology is progressing. Infrastructure is progressing. It's a matter of when, not if.
And then when the download finishes, it turns out it was a .wma file and when you try and run it, windows media player tells you it needs to download some files in order to run the music file...
 
The 1st thing I ever do whenever I join any forum is to immediately remove all reaction notifications.

I'd genuinely advise you to do the same, your forum quality of life improves immensely and you don't feel the need to change your posts or act out at people in order to fit in.
I never realised I could do that.
I disabled it now, thanks!
 
Downstream bandwidth is not the issue here, it's proximity to data centers as well as available servers. We are talking about data centers within a 30ms (60ms round-trip) radius to roughly 180 million households globally. This idea that local hardware is literally going to be replaced is absurd. Again, as long as their is a market for hardware, supply will exist.

I hate to break it to you, but it's already here. And it's only getting better and better.
 
Are you still peddling this nonsense? Seriously dude the deal is all but done. Have a lay down to accept it and stop posting please.
What? That it isn't regulators' responsibility to protect Sony, but consumers and the market? Yeah, I am still peddling that idea, just like the CMA will. If this agreement is the reason why insiders thought the deal was definitely passing, then just like you, they contradict themselves by showing they thought this was about Sony, when for the CMA, it was never about Sony.

How does a UK startup innovate in cloud gaming to be number 1 when Microsoft will have ATVI and all its library to monopolize the cloud gaming market worldwide, and have zero incentive to supply on equal terms that an independent ATVI would have for an innovator?

How does the current offer to Sony and CMA fix that 500page cloud gaming SLC?
 
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Man so this deal looks like it's getting done now.

Guess I've come to grip with that fact.

Not a fan of the consolidation going on, but at least it isn't Tencent I guess.
 
What? That it isn't regulators' responsibility to protect Sony, but consumers and the market? Yeah, I am still peddling that idea, just like the CMA will. If this agreement is the reason why insiders thought the deal was definitely passing, then just like you, they contradict themselves by showing they thought this was about Sony, when for the CMA, it was never about Sony.

How does a UK startup innovate in cloud gaming to be number 1 when Microsoft will have ATVI and all its library to monopolize the cloud gaming market worldwide, and have zero incentive to supply on equal terms that an independent ATVI would have for an innovator?

How does the current offer to Sony and CMA fix that 500page cloud gaming SLC?
The deal between Sony and Microsoft won't have any impact on CMA because they're concerned about cloud.
But if Microsoft has committed to divest Xcloud to an other company, CMA will have the big structural remedy they wanted in the market they were concerned about.
Maybe they won't close next week but it's hard to think this won't go through with all the concessions and limitations Microsoft has conceded.
 
I hate to break it to you, but it's already here. And it's only getting better and better.
That's some BS right there. Like I stated earlier, there are pockets of population who have necessary infrastructure. Things change dramatically when you are not near a major population center. The investments required to serve rural customers is not cost effective.

I'm not shitting on cloud gaming, as I use it frequently, but the experience varies dramatically based on location. I can't tell you not to have faith in these doom in gloom predictions, I believe it's just not something that is going to happen. I can't imagine a world were gamers are going to be satisfied with the caveats presented from a 100% cloud based gaming future. Obviously you think different, but I would bet that most people you ask are going to want local hardware.

Music streaming and VOD wasn't something that was forced on us, we chose to spend our money there. How many people on Gaf do you think would choose to invest in a 100% cloud based gaming service?
 
Kaaza? Blast from the past there.

Twenty years ago I came home from work and logged onto my computer and tried to surf Shacknews.com to see what the latest gaming news was. There was one problem: everything was running like molasses uphill in the winter. This came as a stunning surprise to me because I just had a cable modem installed and speeds were generally incredible.

Instinctively, I knew EXACTLY what was happening. I barged into my roommate's room and saw that his computer was on but his monitor was switched off. I turned it on and immediately/predictably spotted the problem: Kazaa was open with at least 20 porn downloads going simultaneously.

Now, I couldn't just cancel his downloads. That would let him know I had been in his room and was fully aware of his shameful activity. So, I just unplugged his ethernet cable
and went back to my room and enjoyed Shacknews.com and a whole lot of Battlefield 1942.

A few hours later, I saw him pull up to the curb, so I dashed into his room and plugged in his ethernet cable, then dashed back out.

Moments later, he entered the apartment. We exchanged greetings, but he looked like he had a rough day at work and probably just wanted to head to his room to blow a load into a wad of paper towels. So the pleasantries were brief.

Anyway, into his room he went.
I listened carefully for a reaction. There was a minute or so of silence followed by a thunderous "GODDAMN IT!!!!"

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I wonder if Jim Ryan now regrets not striking that new CoD deal when Bobby came for one right after acquisition announcement. Would be interesting to see the differences between them. He could have signed something preventing CoD on Game Pass when this whole started…but it would have weakened his case against the merger. Hindsight is 20/20 but with the way things planned out this was probably the largest error that occurred on Jim Ryan's watch. He must have felt very strongly that the deal would be blocked, or that the concessions would be greater than where things ended up.

The one thing about all this, looking around at republicans grilling Lina Khan/FTC on the hill, different news outlets and law commentators saying the law/facts were not on the FTC's side, if this was known, surely the Playstation folks knew this also? So why go down that path? I'm sure the deal originally offered was much better.
 
What? That it isn't regulators' responsibility to protect Sony, but consumers and the market? Yeah, I am still peddling that idea, just like the CMA will. If this agreement is the reason why insiders thought the deal was definitely passing, then just like you, they contradict themselves by showing they thought this was about Sony, when for the CMA, it was never about Sony.

How does a UK startup innovate in cloud gaming to be number 1 when Microsoft will have ATVI and all its library to monopolize the cloud gaming market worldwide, and have zero incentive to supply on equal terms that an independent ATVI would have for an innovator?

How does the current offer to Sony and CMA fix that 500page cloud gaming SLC?
This PS contract is not about appeasing the CMA (although it can't hurt). The way the CMA has reacted after the FTC failure and now Sony signing a deal they never wanted to sign. Shows Microsoft have satisfied the CMA behind closed doors for now, and are just waiting to make it official.

You honestly think Spencer would announce that PS have signed with such bullish wording as "following the acquisition of Activision Blizzard". Seriously give up the ghost mate 🤣
 
Damn so they only got a 10 year deal after all...? Surprised they signed anything then. Has to be more to the contract then that we haven't seen yet?
 
What? That it isn't regulators' responsibility to protect Sony, but consumers and the market? Yeah, I am still peddling that idea, just like the CMA will. If this agreement is the reason why insiders thought the deal was definitely passing, then just like you, they contradict themselves by showing they thought this was about Sony, when for the CMA, it was never about Sony.

How does a UK startup innovate in cloud gaming to be number 1 when Microsoft will have ATVI and all its library to monopolize the cloud gaming market worldwide, and have zero incentive to supply on equal terms that an independent ATVI would have for an innovator?

How does the current offer to Sony and CMA fix that 500page cloud gaming SLC?
How does a UK startup innovate in cloud gaming to be number 1 when Sony has GoW, Spiderman, TLOU, Uncharted, Gran Tourismo, and MS has Gears, Halo, AoE, Forza Horizon, Forza Motorsport, FlightSim, and Activision has CoD, Diablo 4, WoW and Nintendo has Mario, Zelda etc?
The best chance they have is to have at least 10 years of CoD on their platform.
 
Great news, this EE spinoff of its UK cloud gaming will get the deal passed? If the rumours are true of course.
Is there a link to this rumour and what it would look like? Is it just the 'selling cloud gaming rights for the UK' that was touted a couple of days ago or something else?
 
The deal between Sony and Microsoft won't have any impact on CMA because they're concerned about cloud.
But if Microsoft has committed to divest Xcloud to an other company, CMA will have the big structural remedy they wanted in the market they were concerned about.
Maybe they won't close next week but it's hard to think this won't go through with all the concessions and limitations Microsoft has conceded.
That makes no difference. rebuilding xcloud is absolutely nothing to a multi trillion dollar company, and them focusing on the UK only doesn't fix the SLC for future UK startups, as it would need to be world wide, and because they still get the library, it effectively still means it is a behavioural remedy which Microsoft will just take fines over to breach. The CMA can't accept that offer against the legality of the 500page report they have produced, and they can't rewrite that report without looking like liars.

For this deal to still go through we are at the WMDs weapons inspector report situation before the war in Irag. I not saying it won't go through, I'm saying it only goes through if the CMA and CAT break the law.
 
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