They can, because even if the CAT were to agree with MSFT on the fine print of the law, if the on looking public - and by extension all MPs in parliament - agree with the CMA then new legislation/laws will get passed neutering the merged entitiy's activities going forward, making the CAT win irrelevant.
Some issues unite us as a nation quite easily in the UK.
Yeah and Steam is also on PC, has nothing to do with MS.
Then we just get 200 threads a day instead wondering how many money Microsoft gave these people under the table.
Some issues aren't political, even if they need political structures to enact things. This would optically look like a non-political regulator making a decision to curtail big business that was going to damage the UK (market), and a big business company using legal fine print to bypass regulation, with political structures then collectively coming to back the non-political regulator.
Not 8 billion from the uk though.
100% this!!!
it will be corrupt this and corrupt that. it will be fun
They would have to win with the CAT, which in this case is only going to happen (IMHO) when the law will be technically at odds with the essence of the law, meaning a judge's hands would be tied by what the law actually says, rather than what it was intended for.
So these idiots consider gamers using Windows os as an advantage for Microsoft? Well, no shit they're using the only OS that people and devs alike are ok with.According to the CMA
1.Third parties have significant concerns about Microsoft's acquisition of ABK
2.Microsoft's internal documents track PlayStation more closely than Nintendo
3.Third parties confirmed that Nintendo is not as close a competitor
4.Microsoft provided false information
5.PlayStation won't be able to compete without CoD
6.And Microsoft will be utterly dominant in UK: OS, consoles, subscriptions, cloud gaming and services
Ironic that you suggest Microsoft cant compete without buying ABK.
The profits are much bigger from Activision/Blizzard than doing business in the UK especially when Microsoft can utilize them for subscriptions, hardware sales, accessories, etc. This thread is about UK and not all of Europe. Only UK has been a problem for Microsoft so far. You can have concerns, but the UK CMA obviously didn't do any research and are using Sony's talking points in their statements.
Because they want to be in the number one place, or is that reserved for Sony?
Breaking news every corporation has lobbyist including Sony and Nintendo they all have to someone has to do the dirty work for them to keep their hands clean. Now don't get me wrong I'm sure there's behind the scene action going on from both sides lobbying for and against in the interest of each. I'm sure the cma wants their lawyers paid and are profiting off these investigation cause there's no way in hell they think these arguments could hold up if they go to court. No judge is going to rule on what Microsoft could hypothetically do in 20 years. Same as we won't know what Sony would do with companies like bungie the only difference is Sony won't let them walk with their company and buy themselves back.
Why wouldn't it be? The only reason devs and people alike are "OK" with it is because the OS advantage was used to develop DirectX which created compatibility issues for games on other OS. Which meant that gamers had to get Windows for their games to run. That directly feeds into development for console and cloud too.
They can be number one if they keep pumping out great games. If you dont understand why the CMA has concerns about this, you better start reading the 76 page PDF they made publicly available.
I dont think that they have created many IPs in the last decade or so, largely due to not having enough first party studios. But like i said, their numbers are up and when they start to release their new games they will obviously go up even more. Its just a waiting game at this point but seems like Microsoft doesnt want to wait that long.
10-20% is not a small percentage. It's rather big even globally when you consider the number of consoles there are. It's concentrated to a few consoles and that's if you consider Switch and Steamdeck who have great success differentiating as a handheld. Wii U however was not competitive. Xbox as a console is doing fine as one of the very few major competitors out there.
Or they can buy devs and put their games on Gamepass and customers wouldn't need to buy those said games at 70$ each (they'll still have the option though).
So 10-20% of revenue? Isn't Sony at like 8% or something?
I could argue the PR damage for UK as well for rejecting Microsoft acquisition especially if it is the only one. UK isn't the behemoth it once was, it's economy is failing badly and can't afford losing a big company like Microsoft from operating there.
I can, UK economy is failing so badly losing Microsoft could very well make it a third world country at this point. Too much money will be leaving UK and less choices for consumers. We've seen many companies bow down to Microsoft including US which is way bigger than UK.
Man get your ass back on your main you clown
You think MS are going to make more profit from subscriptions than Activision make from selling full priced games.
Win-exit
Money isn't guaranteed, especially 2.4 billion dollars from a country that has an economy that is shrinking endlessly. Also, 2.8 Billion is still bigger than 2.4 billion dollars. Activision/Blizzard and Microsoft would easily make more money. Think about all of the accessories, subscriptions, and games Microsoft could sell.
