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

Do you believe the deal will be approved?


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And you think xvault is any better? he's literally ranting on about xbox this, xbox that, constricting himself.
fanboys are the worse on both sides, xvault being one of them.
The only positive I could give almost any other fanboy/shill over Mueller is they don't dox. They are (extremely likely) annoying cunts but not doxxing
 
Do robots seek babes?
726691.jpg
 
WHAT... that's it for Kotick? Subscription Services and Nintendo Switch? Man he got off easy haha
What else is the FTC supposed to bring up?

They did a decent job of showing that some of the things MS says about how the purchase will expand access to games, might happen w/o MS buying Activision.

Basically got Kotick to say "if the price is right we'd do it" or "we aren't planning on it but we'd consider it", but Kotick also said he disagrees with the day 1 strategy of MS. So it's not like they knocked it out of the park.

In the end Kotick is one of the least important witnesses as this trial is about what MS not Acti.

Much better day than the last couple for the FTC.
 
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WHAT... that's it for Kotick? Subscription Services and Nintendo Switch? Man he got off easy haha
How much more would really have direct relevance? My opinion is he could have been avoided entirely if FTC and MS entered a simple stipulation:

1) It would be cost prohibitive for the largest third party games, like COD, to release day 1 on a platform holder's subscription service.
2) MS would gain benefits that it may or may not outweigh those concerns if it bought COD.
3) Current switch could never properly run current COD.
4) Nintendo has large market share, so releasing on Switch's successor cannot be ruled out.
5) MS plans for Activision content do not make business sense for Activision, but Activision's board doesn't give a damn if MS buys out the shares.
 
WHAT... that's it for Kotick? Subscription Services and Nintendo Switch? Man he got off easy haha
I believe that the sole intention of the FTC lawyer was to make Boby's opinion look irrelevant....

When he asks if the sale of ABK is going to make him 400 million it is clearly a message to the judge: "This guy is going to say anything in favor of the sale because he is going to make 400 million"
 
Kotick basically just spelled it out and confirmed that he info we got from the emails.

Devalue games
Moat by way of IP acquisition
Chase mobile way of gaming, it's about time spent in a game nothing else
 
I believe that the sole intention of the FTC lawyer was to make Boby's opinion look irrelevant....

When he asks if the sale of ABK is going to make him 400 million it is clearly a message to the judge: "This guy is going to say anything in favor of the sale because he is going to make 400 million"

He didnt seem in favor of the sale though, this dude is so rich he is going to continue reaping massive amounts of money whether he sells the company or not. I dont think he gives a damn one way or another.
 
I mean there's lots to unpick there, but picking an easy one out - Nintendo can both be in the console space and not be a competitor to Sony (or Microsoft).

It isn't false logic.

Think about the car market. Both Ferrari and Ford are in it, but they do not compete. They target different people, they offer products for different use cases.
Ehh.
So, if I have 70$ as disposable for games and have PS5 and Switch at home and I can only buy one game per month, isn't that competition?

If I have PS5 and Switch and I'm buying Battle Pass for Fortnite, aren't Nintendo and Sony competing for my money?

If I can only afford one console and I'm deciding between Switch, Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5, aren't all three companies competing against each other for my money?

Like. There is no doubt that Xbox and PlayStation are closer competitors. Thanks to fact that AAA multiplatform games are usually released on both platforms. But pretending like Nintendo is not competing in console space is wierd.
Not to mention fact that next Nintendo console would probably mean that more and more multiplatform games will be released on Nintendo platform too.

And strangest was Ryan's explanation for "younger" target audience.
This is Switch demographic

nintendo-switch-age-demographics.PNG
 
c'mon Sony 🤦‍♂️ fyi if his Twitter isn't allowed here then I apologise in advance, I'm not aware of a ban list on certain accounts, but if there is one, can someone ie Mods point me to it, cheers 👍
 
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And strangest was Ryan's explanation for "younger" target audience.
This is Switch demographic

nintendo-switch-age-demographics.PNG
There is no doubt that Nintendo targets a younger audience. Just because we are all man-babies and most mid 20's are still living at home with their mom's making them meals, does not change that fact.

We can even argue that mentalities have matured less and less over the years.
 
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It'd be a bit funny if the merger goes through but there is a stipulation in the contract that CoD is not allowed to be put on gamepass. Spencer would be like:

Staring Episode 2 GIF by The Office
I hope this happens honestly. I mean Warzone is already free. Who gives a damn about the campaign being on Gamepass. Not worth it IMO. HMmm, I guess you got Multiplayer. Still, I think from a financial standpoint you don't need COD to be on gamepass. I think it's more profitable if you let people just buy it. Cuz they are gonna buy it.
 
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Ehh.
So, if I have 70$ as disposable for games and have PS5 and Switch at home and I can only buy one game per month, isn't that competition?

If I have PS5 and Switch and I'm buying Battle Pass for Fortnite, aren't Nintendo and Sony competing for my money?

If I can only afford one console and I'm deciding between Switch, Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5, aren't all three companies competing against each other for my money?

Like. There is no doubt that Xbox and PlayStation are closer competitors. Thanks to fact that AAA multiplatform games are usually released on both platforms. But pretending like Nintendo is not competing in console space is wierd.
Not to mention fact that next Nintendo console would probably mean that more and more multiplatform games will be released on Nintendo platform too.

And strangest was Ryan's explanation for "younger" target audience.
This is Switch demographic

nintendo-switch-age-demographics.PNG
Nintendo's aimed at young children. Just because there is an older audience doesn't mean it's not aimed at kids.

The same as My Little Pony but there is a sizable older audience.
 
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I hope this happens honestly. I mean Warzone is already free. Who gives a damn about the campaign being on Gamepass. Not worth it IMO.
The only reason I even load up CoD is for Warzone, and the fact that the original WZ was retired and the new one is nowhere near as fun me and my usual group have totally moved on. The campaigns are fun for a couple days but even then I lose interest rather quickly. This potential merger is still a huge deal but with the insane saturation of multiplayer games available it's not nearly as big a deal as it would've been years ago. I just wish Sony would get back to being interested in 1st party multiplayer games, we need SOCOM and MAG to come back, ironically made by the same developer at the time.
 
MS doesn't want to do these things - there is no way that Activision was going to do them out of the kindness of their hearts.
Activision wouldn't need to do this out of the kindness of their heart. If subscription services begin to eat retail sales then Activison would be incentivised to try and seek out that audience that game on subscriptions. If CoD on switch was in demand then Activision would be incentivised to go after that audience, if cloud gaming becomes a large market Activision would be incentivised to offer their games on cloud services...etc etc.
 
Ehh.
So, if I have 70$ as disposable for games and have PS5 and Switch at home and I can only buy one game per month, isn't that competition?

If I have PS5 and Switch and I'm buying Battle Pass for Fortnite, aren't Nintendo and Sony competing for my money?

If I can only afford one console and I'm deciding between Switch, Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5, aren't all three companies competing against each other for my money?

Like. There is no doubt that Xbox and PlayStation are closer competitors. Thanks to fact that AAA multiplatform games are usually released on both platforms. But pretending like Nintendo is not competing in console space is wierd.
Not to mention fact that next Nintendo console would probably mean that more and more multiplatform games will be released on Nintendo platform too.

And strangest was Ryan's explanation for "younger" target audience.
This is Switch demographic

nintendo-switch-age-demographics.PNG
This says a lot about society.
 
Kotick just basically told the judge that all the consumer benefits (Cloud Licensing, Nintendo COD, and Gamepass inclusion) of this merger can theoretically happen without it.

Big win for the FTC imho.
There is huge difference between
We will consider Switch (or next Nintendo console) releases/cloud license/Game Pass
and
We will release COD on Switch (or next Nintendo console), cloud and Game Pass if this merger will go ahead

Also. That is not a point that FTC need to make to get PI. They need to prove that this deal will hurt consumers and and competing space within games industry.
 
There is huge difference between
We will consider Switch (or next Nintendo console) releases/cloud license/Game Pass
and
We will release COD on Switch (or next Nintendo console), cloud and Game Pass if this merger will go ahead

Also. That is not a point that FTC need to make to get PI. They need to prove that this deal will hurt consumers and and competing space within games industry.

No but the info helps the cma case and iam sure ms wont close without it. Its a really bad look for future acquisitions but they could do it anyway.
 
What does that have to do with the one I posted?

Bobby just added more to Ryan's comments about publishers not really liking these services and the day 1 model.

I mean, it's the very next line and he says that he might not agree with it personally but he will bow down to shareholders (and stacks of cash)
 
No but the info helps the cma case and iam sure ms wont close without it. Its a really bad look for future acquisitions but they could do it anyway.
CMA dropped console SLC so it is totally irrelevant.

If anything, those testimonies actually hurt CMA's case, because Jim Ryan and even Stadia guy told judge that they don't consider cloud gaming being separate market. Which is main anchor of CMA's block.
 
More or less. Nintendo aiming itself at mid 20s onwards would likely lose a chunk of kids and the sizeable number of weirdos. [Not all older owners of a Switch are freaks, I just mean the owners who got it as a gift from their wife's boyfriend]
I was thinking specifically of the adults that play My Little Pony.
 
All this cloud shit basically boils down to:

- Hardly anyone uses cloud
- Much of those who do are using their console to do it

ROFL... xCloud is such a wet fart. People are only using it to quickly check out games before installing them. Or get some daily MS points.
 
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