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.
Vox Machina said:
Still have not seen any proof of this after a decade+ of these accusations.
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Stevie Wonder GIF by John Legend
 
James Sawyer Ford said:
It's not a conspiracy that in 2021 Xbox had not had a good year in a very, very, very, long time. 2021 was a good year for them, including Infinite. We know how much MS butters the press with paid shills, especially after this whole merger Acquisition deal brought them all to light. They were eager to pounce and claim Xbox had turned it around, publisher of the year, game of the year, yada yada. It was just a good year, don't make it more than it was. Phil Spencer even admitted Xbox lived or died with Halo....so that's how important it was to them, the audience, the press. It was an existential moment for them. When Halo failed to deliver that, them acquiring Activision was the existential moment - if Microsoft doesn't get Activision, Xbox dies (see: Jez Corden and crew)
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So I was right. Just a crazy conspiracy theory from you. Because getting an 87 MC with reviews from 98 outlets is a clear statement.

'publisher of the year' was a Metacritic thing, taking the critical reception of games released by Microsoft Games into consideration.

Apparently these same press shills that comfort MS with great reviews after having a barren year had all died off when Redfall showed up for reviews?

James Sawyer Ford said:
Calling Halo Infinite GOTY is to me like claiming Call of Duty is game of the year. They're kind of in that same situation of being fun playable games, obviously Call of Duty has much more massive appeal, but largely not soemthing that hits the GOTY lists because it just simply isn't. Halo COULD be a GOTY type game in the future with better direction, but Infinite isn't it.
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I certainly can't remember when last a COD game hit a MC score as high as 87.
Nobody here has claimed Halo Infinite was a consensus GOTY winner. I did say it won several GOTY awards. You can find that detailed here


Topher said:
Reviews are nothing more than an individual opinion of the reviewer. They are no more "right" or "wrong" than any other opinion.
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Sure, but people have long used Metacritic or Opencritic as an aggregator to determine a game's quality. MC scores for Baldur's Gate are being discussed on the homepage with the clear context that It's directly related to quality.

Why make an exception when it comes to Halo Infinite?
 
Ozriel said:
So I was right. Just a crazy conspiracy theory from you. Because getting an 87 MC with reviews from 98 outlets is a clear statement.

'publisher of the year' was a Metacritic thing, taking the critical reception of games released by Microsoft Games into consideration.

Apparently these same press shills that comfort MS with great reviews after having a barren year had all died off when Redfall showed up for reviews?
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The person I was originally responding to claimed Halo Infinite was GOTY. To each their own, that's their personal opinion. It's just not really reflective of consensus. My personal GOTY will probably not be the concensus game of the year, and I admit its a flawed title in many ways.

That's not really what I was talking about though. There's no conspiracy. The media overrates certain platform darlings all the time. But for some "existential games" it seems to have a much larger narrative push. 87% metacritic seems high to me for Halo Infinite - but let's accept that this is a reasonable score, generally that's not what the GOTY will receive in any given year. Win some awards? Sure, but not the consensus GOTY. The press shills for Redfall were actually out in full force leading up to release - hands on impressions that did not bring to light any of the major flaws in the game. Colteastwood being a prominent example. But those sorts of lies can't last once it gets into the public's hands.
 
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Ozriel said:
Sure, but people have long used Metacritic or Opencritic as an aggregator to determine a game's quality. MC scores for Baldur's Gate are being discussed on the homepage with the clear context that It's directly related to quality.

Why make an exception when it comes to Halo Infinite?
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I'm not making an exception to anything. Just because BG3 has awesome reviews doesn't mean everyone must agree. Aggregated opinions are still just opinions. I've yet to play a GTA game I like and yet the games gets rave reviews. So is my opinion "wrong"? Is mrmustard mrmustard 's opinion of Halo Infinite wrong? Of course not. Metacritic should be used as a guide for making purchasing decisions, not as a weaponized tool for console war nonsense. Not saying that's what you are doing, but the suggestion that review scores proves other opinions "wrong" or "right" about a game is just absurd. That's what I was responding to.
 
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James Sawyer Ford said:
It's not a conspiracy that in 2021 Xbox had not had a good year in a very, very, very, long time. 2021 was a good year for them, including Infinite. We know how much MS butters the press with paid shills, especially after this whole merger Acquisition deal brought them all to light. They were eager to pounce and claim Xbox had turned it around, publisher of the year, game of the year, yada yada. It was just a good year, don't make it more than it was. Phil Spencer even admitted Xbox lived or died with Halo....so that's how important it was to them, the audience, the press. It was an existential moment for them. When Halo failed to deliver that, them acquiring Activision was the existential moment - if Microsoft doesn't get Activision, Xbox dies (see: Jez Corden and crew)

Calling Halo Infinite GOTY is to me like claiming Call of Duty is game of the year. They're kind of in that same situation of being fun playable games, obviously Call of Duty has much more massive appeal, but largely not soemthing that hits the GOTY lists because it just simply isn't. Halo COULD be a GOTY type game in the future with better direction, but Infinite isn't it.
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Neither was an existential moment for them.
 
There is simply no way people are in this thread trying to rearrange the debacle that was Halo infinite. That game died a horrific death and even worse the community abandoned that game en masse. Turning what was once a marque franchise into something that was ridiculed and so financially unsuccessful that the studio behind it was gutted.

I don't want to hear about the 20/10 reviews the game got from Jez/Windows central or stevivor either. Especially since we have documented receipts of their sycophantic behaviour.
 
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Pelta88 said:
There is simply no way people are in this thread trying to rearrange the debacle that was Halo infinite. That game died a horrific death and even worse the community abandoned that game en masse. Turning what was once a marque franchise into something that was ridiculed and so financially unsuccessful that the studio behind it was gutted.
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Surely even you can differentiate between single player and multiplayer?
The game's community largely left after they found the MP sparse in content rollout post launch, plus a poorly thought out progression system and missing game modes.

The high review scores at launch are largely driven by the paid single player mode.

I don't believe anyone here has claimed the MP was handled well, or that 343i don't have a lot to answer for with how they screwed up the post launch release cadence.

Pelta88 said:
I don't want to hear about the 20/10 reviews the game got from Jez/Windows central or stevivor either. Especially since we have documented receipts of their sycophantic behaviour.
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98 critic reviews made up that score. I'll go on a limb here and guess Jez Corden doesn't write for 90+ outlets.
 
Awkward The Simpsons GIF


Pelta88 said:
There is simply no way people are in this thread trying to rearrange the debacle that was Halo infinite. That game died a horrific death and even worse the community abandoned that game en masse. Turning what was once a marque franchise into something that was ridiculed and so financially unsuccessful that the studio behind it was gutted.
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Imagine the scores if the reviewers had to actually spend months (like the consumers) on the GaaS game before reviewing on day one flash and flare. I would think they would read differently. This goes for a lot of GaaS games.
 
Regardless of how Halo Infinite scored, it's obvious years afterward it didn't reach the level of success Microsoft and Xbox expected hence the moves made accordingly to address this.
 
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Pelta88 said:
There is simply no way people are in this thread trying to rearrange the debacle that was Halo infinite. That game died a horrific death and even worse the community abandoned that game en masse. Turning what was once a marque franchise into something that was ridiculed and so financially unsuccessful that the studio behind it was gutted.

I don't want to hear about the 20/10 reviews the game got from Jez/Windows central or stevivor either. Especially since we have documented receipts of their sycophantic behaviour.
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June MAU showed it's still in the Top 20 of games played on Xbox. "...died a horrific death" is a bit hyperbolic, don't you think?
 
CuNi said:
I was with you until that part.

Their games aren't complete dumpster fires, but they are as far away from being GOTY as humanity is from having room temperature super conductors. And funnily their games got worse over time instead of better.
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Halo 4, 5 and Infinite all won and were nominated for multiple GOTY awards at various outlets, and although I personally HATED Infinite with a passion for multiple reasons that doesn't mean I'll just blatantly disregard the all the high praise, great reviews and the awards it got.

James Sawyer Ford said:
This is…not reality.
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Except everything I said about each studio is 100% reality.

Ar¢tos said:
If we ever needed proof that brainwashing is real...
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Stating facts means I am brainwashed? GTFO.

Enlighten me then, fucko.
 
bitbydeath said:
I thought the CMA originally said around the 21st but then some rumours arrived of it being sooner. 🤷‍♂️
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I never thought any rumors about it being sooner were reliable, it's clear that MS and CMA started out very far away from each other in terms of negotiating positions. MS likely demanded to have the acquisition approved without any further concessions, CMA likely were firm in demanding some kind of divestment for approval.

Since technically MS and ABK agreed to extend until October, I think MS will stall and use as much time as possible to try and keep applying more political and military pressure to make CMA cave. It's too bad US and NATO are sending all their military assets to Ukraine or they could actually legitimately threaten to invade the UK if the merger isn't approved 😂😂
 
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Akhawi said:
Halo 4, 5 and Infinite all won and were nominated for multiple GOTY awards at various outlets, and although I personally HATED Infinite with a passion for multiple reasons that doesn't mean I'll just blatantly disregard the all the high praise, great reviews and the awards it got.



Except everything I said about each studio is 100% reality.



Stating facts means I am brainwashed? GTFO.

Enlighten me then, fucko.
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Joined in 2020, still Neo Member.
43 posts in 3 years...

I don't waste my time with alts, sorry.
 
Pelta88 said:
There is simply no way people are in this thread trying to rearrange the debacle that was Halo infinite. That game died a horrific death and even worse the community abandoned that game en masse. Turning what was once a marque franchise into something that was ridiculed and so financially unsuccessful that the studio behind it was gutted.

I don't want to hear about the 20/10 reviews the game got from Jez/Windows central or stevivor either. Especially since we have documented receipts of their sycophantic behaviour.
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As a massive Halo fan...I totally agree.

343 were horrible for Halo, not just the games either e.g. megablocks suck, lore fucked after Halo 4 etc.
 
MasterCornholio said:
They are going to accept the old deal?

Now I'm definitely confused.
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I I don't quite understand your post, so will explain what I think is the situation.

The CMA front of house that interface with the merging companies and third parties with an interest, had accept to put Microsoft's "new" proposal to the inquiry group - assuming as Microsoft claimed it wasn't the same merger - provided the Judicial Review appeal was adjourned. They made no pre-emptive claims about the decision of the inquiry group. In fact they repeatedly said to the judge they couldn't do that.

So here we are waiting to see if the accept the same deal in new wrapping, or reassert the finds of the original report and refute Microsoft's claims of special reasons, and material different market conditions.

Tweet from the Aussies probably means they've been informed of a preliminary decision and are now awaiting the CMA to write it up and let us all know.
 
PaintTinJr said:
I I don't quite understand your post, so will explain what I think is the situation.

The CMA front of house that interface with the merging companies and third parties with an interest, had accept to put Microsoft's "new" proposal to the inquiry group - assuming as Microsoft claimed it wasn't the same merger - provided the Judicial Review appeal was adjourned. They made no pre-emptive claims about the decision of the inquiry group. In fact they repeatedly said to the judge they couldn't do that.

So here we are waiting to see if the accept the same deal in new wrapping, or reassert the finds of the original report and refute Microsoft's claims of special reasons, and material different market conditions.

Tweet from the Aussies probably means they've been informed of a preliminary decision and are now awaiting the CMA to write it up and let us all know.
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OK so it won't be the same merger that the CMA blocked. That makes more sense to me.

To summarise there will be changes made to it but we don't have the details on what Microsoft is offering. Hopefully the CMA lets us know what those changes are for transparency reasons.
 
PaintTinJr said:
I I don't quite understand your post, so will explain what I think is the situation.

The CMA front of house that interface with the merging companies and third parties with an interest, had accept to put Microsoft's "new" proposal to the inquiry group - assuming as Microsoft claimed it wasn't the same merger - provided the Judicial Review appeal was adjourned. They made no pre-emptive claims about the decision of the inquiry group. In fact they repeatedly said to the judge they couldn't do that.

So here we are waiting to see if the accept the same deal in new wrapping, or reassert the finds of the original report and refute Microsoft's claims of special reasons, and material different market conditions.

Tweet from the Aussies probably means they've been informed of a preliminary decision and are now awaiting the CMA to write it up and let us all know.
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Everything you noted above, except that last sentence, makes sense. It gives the impression that Australia is simply going to wait and follow what UK decides instead of standing up and delivering their own decision.

This goes back to the reported "collusion concerns" between CMA and FTC.

Each agency should just report their findings - period.

EDIT: minor edits for clarity..
 
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