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

Do you believe the deal will be approved?


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I can't help but wonder if running out the clock was intentional by the FTC from keeping Microsoft potentially closing on the CMA before the 17th. If so...

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There was a huge demand for the older games to be BC the most voted BC games actually, people stopped playing because of cheaters and hackers, deliver those games on gp free of hackers and maybe a resolution bump and thats a huge value to gamepass.
Damn these dudes want everything for free. It's like "MS just keep spending money to make everything better and make it free to us, thank you". Like wtf?

Is this really what it's come to now? And once the price of subs reach a certain point y'all would stop subscribing in a hesrtbeat
 
Damn these dudes want everything for free. It's like "MS just keep spending money to make everything better and make it free to us, thank you". Like wtf?

Is this really what it's come to now? And once the price of subs reach a certain point y'all would stop subscribing in a hesrtbeat

I don't mind the wanting it for cheap or free…

Its the stupidity of believing it is free when it is self evidently not. And the naivety of trusting the good intentions of corporations - they don't make these moves without a plan to get consumers to pay for it.
 
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Free ain't free, and a sub not having an impact on game development in the short term means nothing, because the metrics for content engagement within subs will be different. Xbox fans who think GP will be about single player AAA games are out of their rockers.
 
The outcomes from this is that Sony is gearing up for M&A, it is basically no times until game industry becomes heavily consolidated like movies industry.
I just hope this gearing up doesn't mean Square. Square is a pile of trash.

Best moves Sony can make: CDPR, Capcom, From(whole Kadokawa) and Larian, All 4 would cost less than 20 bi.
 
I just hope this gearing up doesn't mean Square. Square is a pile of trash.

Best moves Sony can make: CDPR, Capcom, From(whole Kadokawa) and Larian, All 4 would cost less than 20 bi.
CDPR is publicly traded, so the buying price would always be overpriced because of shareholders, Capcom would be difficult even for Sony because it's family owned (ever tried to buy something owned by multiple members of a single family? It's pure nightmare), Kadokawa would be extremely overpriced just for FromSoftware, the small VN studios are useless for them and then there's the Manga magazine business (and some real estate, I think), and Larian wants to remain independent.
 
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I don't mind the wanting it for cheap or free…

Its the stupidity of believing it is free when it is self evidently not. And the naivety of trusting the good intentions of corporations - they don't make these moves without a plan to get consumers to pay for it.
I don't want it for (or think it's) free - but I do want everything to be on one of the two sub services, and I'll happily pay for that. Actually, I'd rather everything was on all sub services so I only need one. We got there with music (movies and tv is a shitshow still), and my hope is games will be the same.
 
Best moves Sony can make: CDPR, Capcom, From(whole Kadokawa) and Larian, All 4 would cost less than 20 bi.
Sony is only snatching-up the studios that will fit nicely inside their structure. Even Bungie takeover was somewhat in-line with this framework, because Bungie helped wit DS4/DS designs and were heavily in touch with PS during the early PS4 days.

Just look at MS. All those years later, the studio culture is still a mess in many of their newly purchased studios and a lot of games are struggling from the lack of unified vision and proper integration. It's all in the mails.
 
So I asked Bard what (likely) happens after July 18. Here is the response.

pUNyvHr.jpg


And when I asked it to go through the Microsoft and Activision acquisition contract to find the extension clauses, this is what it said:

TysTgPS.jpg


It is still just AI so take it with a grain of salt and everything, but it is interesting nevertheless that it says that the shareholders approval is mandatory.
 
So I asked Bard what (likely) happens after July 18. Here is the response.

pUNyvHr.jpg


And when I asked it to go through the Microsoft and Activision acquisition contract to find the extension clauses, this is what it said:

TysTgPS.jpg


It is still just AI so take it with a grain of salt and everything, but it is interesting nevertheless that it says that the shareholders approval is mandatory.
With marketing deals ending next year and a CAT/CMA situation that can go well into next year, I don't see Activision shareholders approving an extension unless MS considerably increases their offer.
 
Free ain't free, and a sub not having an impact on game development in the short term means nothing, because the metrics for content engagement within subs will be different. Xbox fans who think GP will be about single player AAA games are out of their rockers.
I'd be surprised if we didn't see more of a shift to "core" game experiences placed on the service with lots of paid for additional content. In short loads of GaaS focus, but that concept taken further. I still think you might get some exception, top tier AAA though as a service seller. I'm fearful that long term we see more and more watered down experiences, that are always falling short of greatness due to the financial modelling of the service. For me its great to see some of the industry at least appearing to be resistant to it.
 
So I asked Bard what (likely) happens after July 18. Here is the response.

pUNyvHr.jpg


And when I asked it to go through the Microsoft and Activision acquisition contract to find the extension clauses, this is what it said:

TysTgPS.jpg


It is still just AI so take it with a grain of salt and everything, but it is interesting nevertheless that it says that the shareholders approval is mandatory.
It's just going to scrape whatever it can find online and regurgitate it.

I think the possibility of a brief extension isn't impossible (something like 2-4 weeks or so) and should be manageable for a merger that already had shareholder approval, but that all depends on Kotick's current appetite for the merger, which is a factor we don't really know about yet.
 
I don't want it for (or think it's) free - but I do want everything to be on one of the two sub services, and I'll happily pay for that. Actually, I'd rather everything was on all sub services so I only need one. We got there with music (movies and tv is a shitshow still), and my hope is games will be the same.

I have no interest in paying that much for my gaming - either monetary or lost quality of games.

Sub services have added nothing of value to any medium - in fact they have made the content more bland, shallow and disposable despite taking more money from consumers.

They just need your attention for 5 minutes to justify their existence - those are the experiences you get, and people sleepwalk through the monthly costs.
 
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I'd be surprised if we didn't see more of a shift to "core" game experiences placed on the service with lots of paid for additional content. In short loads of GaaS focus, but that concept taken further. I still think you might get some exception, top tier AAA though as a service seller. I'm fearful that long term we see more and more watered down experiences, that are always falling short of greatness due to the financial modelling of the service. For me its great to see some of the industry at least appearing to be resistant to it.
You know the company that isn't pushing its sub service has many more gaas in development. The projection on gamepass and Microsoft is amazing. Almost every game in development by Microsoft is single player. The exceptions are the io game and contraband. Gaas defeats gamepass. If your only playing 1 game there is no reason to get gamepass.
 
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What baffles me about Xbox gamers is the idea about a game being on gamepass make it free pass to be broken or bad... They are totally fine if the game is on gamepass. MS output and studio management would be in a better spot if their audience demands better quality games instead of being fine with anything. That's why MS is the worst company to consolidate the industry.
 
Almost every game in development by Microsoft is single player.
I remind you that Honkai: Star Rail (and I love it) is SP only without even the slightest idea of PvP. It's still GaaS. Service game with retention-based model can still be pure SP and still be nauseating with it's monetization.
 
Communication Workers of America Union just got a new president. They were noted supporters of the deal under their old administration (LINK), said old admin has been rocked by sexual miconduct and violent intimidation scandals apparently.

 
Communication Workers of America Union just got a new president. They were noted supporters of the deal under their old administration (LINK), said old admin has been rocked by sexual miconduct and violent intimidation scandals apparently.


AOC just leaving the mask hanging for tiny barrier.
 
The Sermon is on again in case people need to listen to it.

Qdftd31.jpg


I am surprised that the narrative has now shifted to that it is in FTC's favor that the decision is delayed and MS/ABK does not even have any problems with the delay.

YU17moM.jpg


I think this is most likely bullshit anyway, but does anybody know or have an opinion on this and if there's any truth to it?
 
You know the company that isn't pushing its sub service has many more gaas in development. The project on gamepass and Microsoft is amazing. Almost every game in development by Microsoft is single player. The exceptions are the io game and contraband. Gaas defeats gamepass. If your only playing 1 game there is no reason to get gamepass.
There's clearly an audience for it. My point/fear was more around the potential for GaaS being taken to a further extreme and made worse due to the sub model. And taking that sub model and putting it into the hands of Xbox running their studios. Especially when I think about the likes of Halo and Redfall, I'm not over flowing with optimism about where they will take things. And this is from someone who owns an XSX.
 
What baffles me about Xbox gamers is the idea about a game being on gamepass make it free pass to be broken or bad... They are totally fine if the game is on gamepass. MS output and studio management would be in a better spot if their audience demands better quality games instead of being fine with anything. That's why MS is the worst company to consolidate the industry.
That's just natural selection. By definition if people who don't like bad games leave an ecosystem, it means the only people remaining are those who like bad games. And these same people leave nothing but bad feedback and praise of bad decisions. Hence their wish to give more awards to Phil Spencer.

Have you seen a Nintendo fan? They never shut up about their criticism of Nintendo. Because they care.
 
What baffles me about Xbox gamers is the idea about a game being on gamepass make it free pass to be broken or bad... They are totally fine if the game is on gamepass. MS output and studio management would be in a better spot if their audience demands better quality games instead of being fine with anything. That's why MS is the worst company to consolidate the industry.
Thank you for your concern, concerned gamer™. You know whats best for us Xbox gamers.
 
The Sermon is on again in case people need to listen to it.

Qdftd31.jpg


I am surprised that the narrative has now shifted to that it is in FTC's favor that the decision is delayed and MS/ABK does not even have any problems with the delay.

YU17moM.jpg


I think this is most likely bullshit anyway, but does anybody know or have an opinion on this and if there's any truth to it?
This lunatics brain is fried.

Of course the FTC doesn't give a toss about getting a decision now.

It's obvious the FTC will gladly wait weeks for a decision if the judge decided to take that long. I mean it's no secret they've been dragging this out for a while now.
 
I always take the Neo to mean "special" 😁 I wear mine with a sense of honour and prestige....

Please don't feel that way. Seems as though 99% of people with that title prove themselves to be the meat in an idiot sandwich. Like being called "The Rookie" in an apocalyptic world. You've got people betting how quickly you'll die and to what. Because damn near every rookie before you does. And it's usually embarrassing.
 
With marketing deals ending next year and a CAT/CMA situation that can go well into next year, I don't see Activision shareholders approving an extension unless MS considerably increases their offer.
This is a huge caveat in all of this. Activision will be unable to make any new deals, which will then impact their business model, weakening them.
 
Communication Workers of America Union just got a new president. They were noted supporters of the deal under their old administration (LINK), said old admin has been rocked by sexual miconduct and violent intimidation scandals apparently.


It's always the same playbook, their most useful weapon in current year.
 
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