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 .
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Thirty7ven said:





Morons cheer for this broken ass system, and then complain when the system they cheer for fucks them elsewhere. Get what you deserve.
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This is on Lina Khan and the idiots over at FTC who let a judge with a clear conflict of interest decide the outcome of their case. Amateur stuff.
 
SlimySnake said:
All those cod bros on the 360 moved to the PS4. I am with Jim Ryan when he says no one gives a shit about BC. If people cared about eco systems and previous purchases so much they would've bought the Xbox one and xsx which have way better BC than the PS consoles.

When the gen ends, it will start fresh. If MS didnt believe that they wouldnt have spent $70 billion on CoD.
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you make a persuasive argument. it just seems incredible that sony would spend 50 billion + on something like Take 2 or whatever. But yeah, they need something big. They really could be in trouble.
 
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SlimySnake said:
All those cod bros on the 360 moved to the PS4. I am with Jim Ryan when he says no one gives a shit about BC. If people cared about eco systems and previous purchases so much they would've bought the Xbox one and xsx which have way better BC than the PS consoles.

When the gen ends, it will start fresh. If MS didnt believe that they wouldnt have spent $70 billion on CoD.
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You and I just have to agree to disagree here. You think that a crushingly substantial amount would leave. I disagree and feel that other options would become attractive in light of a sudden vacuum. The whole process also showed that the CMA agrees with this sentiment. That CoD exclusivity would not cause a substantial enough switch in the platforms to be a big concern.
 
DrFigs said:
you make a persuasive argument. it just seems incredible that sony would spend 50 billion + on something like Take 2 or whatever. But yeah, they need something big. They really could be in trouble.
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They can't outspend MSFT, it's irrelevant.

If they try to make a public offer for Take2, MSFT will improve it. Sony can only go after private companies, or Japanese companies where the goverment has the last say.
 
SlimySnake said:
This is on Lina Khan and the idiots over at FTC who let a judge with a clear conflict of interest decide the outcome of their case. Amateur stuff.
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Like seriously just less then a week after all findings submitted, 3 days instead of 5 days delay.

There is no precedent ever like this in court. This is not an emergency issue. This is oligarchy nightmare.
 
Historia said:
People saying that it is Sony's fault to put all eggs in a basket forget that nobody expects Microsoft to buy Activision Blizzard, 10 times what Zennimax worth. It is an insane deal
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I read it's more money than all of the profit console makers have ever made, combined.
 
SlimySnake said:
I think its funny that they said that they need only 1-2 of their GaaS games to be successful. So even they know its a fucking gamble. I think everything except for Bungie's new IP flops. Factions wouldve been a minor success but its in dev hell and likely cancelled. Helldivers, that billionares are evil game, and the firewalk game look uninspired and will flop like Outriders.

The thing with Capcom is that they make relatively niche games. If you look at RE, SF and DMC sales, they are all around 5 millon. I think the best selling RE game just hit 10 million. SF6 sold just 2 million. RE4 sold 3.5 million in 3 months. These are actually lower numbers than what Sony does with their own games. It wont move the needle. It will not given any cod player any incentive to leave cod. It will not black mail Microsoft into putting cod on playstation. It will just make us feel good for a while and punt the problem down the road.
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While the capcom game sales may not set the world on fire, there is good synergy in terms of media tie-ins for Sony movie and TV content.
 
Sleepwalker said:
I actually do feel this is the beginning of the end for COD as we know it. COD killed Halo now the owners of Halo are here to kill COD :p
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COD will die at some point anyway, everything does in the end. You could even argue that COD is already dying with tons of streamers saying how arena shooters are old hat, and they cant play them anymore.
If you include Warzone as COD then COD has a long life ahead of it. The yearly mainline games though, the future imo isnt set in stone.
 
Varteras said:
Was I dreaming when they tried to double the price of Xbox Live during a pandemic? And only walked it back because of the massive backlash? I must have been dreaming. Surely.
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Not only that, but I think even now consumers still cannot find the $60 annual gold membership option on Xbox consoles anymore, so it's only available via other retailers like Amazon, Bestbuy, etc. as of present. Compare that to Sony where consumers can still purchase a $60 12 month membership for PS Plus essential tier on PlayStation consoles. Heck, Sony even offers occasional discounts on the PS Plus essential tier for the 12 month option. This is just my opinion, but I don't think it's an accident that the 12 month $60 gold option has been gone from Xbox consoles for the last few years or so, and that it's very much intentional on Microsoft's part to do something anti-consumer later on.
 
DrFigs said:
you make a persuasive argument. it just seems incredible that sony would spend 50 billion + on something like Take 2 or whatever. But yeah, they need something big. They really could be in trouble.
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I'm not one for acquisitons but if Sony was looking to get a publisher they'd need to get EA over take two and hold their sports franchises over MS as a deterrent, mutually assured destruction and all that. GTA comes once every 8 years or whatever.
 
Stuart360 said:
COD will die at some point anyway, everything does in the end. You could even argue that COD is already dying with tons of streamers saying how arena shooters are old hat, and they cant play them anymore.
If you include Warzone as COD then COD has a long life ahead of it. The yearly mainline games though, the future imo isnt set in stone.
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COD isn't an arena shooter. It also is absolutely not dying.
 
Thirty7ven said:





Morons cheer for this broken ass system, and then complain when the system they cheer for fucks them elsewhere. Get what you deserve.
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It will never not be crazy to me that one person got to rule on something of this magnitude.

How it's not a panel of people who are subject matter experts is baffling. Half the case was spent explaining/outlining basic things for the judge and even still she basically said "who gives a fuck, it's just videogames" while the closing arguments were taking place.
 
Sleepwalker said:
I'm not one for acquisitons but if Sony was looking to get a publisher they'd need to get EA over take two and hold their sports franchises over MS as a deterrent, mutually assured destruction and all that. GTA comes once every 8 years or whatever.
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Sony couldn't keep MLB exclusive, they won't keep madden or FUT either.
 
Stuart360 said:
COD will die at some point anyway, everything does in the end. You could even argue that COD is already dying with tons of streamers saying how arena shooters are old hat, and they cant play them anymore.
If you include Warzone as COD then COD has a long life ahead of it. The yearly mainline games though, the future imo isnt set in stone.
Click to expand...

Honestly, I don't even know about Warzone. I just hear how shit it is and the one thing some streamers still liked about CoD is fucked. Funny enough, even if Warzone is the part of CoD that continues on, that doesn't really lend itself that well to GP since it's F2P.
 
zapper said:
luckily i missed all the posts on twitter today, now i open and find this thread with the judge's document. how did the ftc not recuse her?
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Yeah. Her judgment came in very hot.

She even preemptively said there would probably be faulty legal citations because of the rush.

Maybe she wanted to make the FTC appeal easier 🤷‍♂️
 
I held my tongue when seeing some of the FTC court commentary on here, people actually suggesting that the FTC were dunking on MS when it was clearly a complete shit show for the FTC, who were incompetent, unprepared and fundamentally, didn't have a good reason to block the merger.
 
Kvally said:
Unless you have proof showing that Microsoft lied to the consumers and shareholders about Game Pass being profitable, the onus is on you to provide facts that state otherwise. Until then, the facts are that Game Pass is profitable.
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Microsoft never said to shareholders that GamePass is profitable.
 
I see the people who acted like everyone who said this would be denied and the deal eventually go through were wrong and in for a rude awakening and yadda yadda, are now unable to accept it was they that actually were wrong in the end.
 
Kilau said:
EA still has license agreements with clubs do they not?
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Thats Fifpro. They only provide the license for team names, logos and stuff like that. I dont think that they have any say about a game going exclusive.

Edit: actually Fifpro seems to be about the players, not the clubs. My bad.
 
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GHG said:
It will never not be crazy to me that one person got to rule on something of this magnitude.

How it's not a panel of people who are subject matter experts is baffling. Half the case was spent explaining/outlining basic things for the judge and even still she basically said "who gives a fuck, it's just videogames" while the closing arguments were taking place.
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Somebody who admitted to not understand much of economics, and 0 about the market, yet hurried up for the underdogs.

But it is what is, it's not like it's a big surprise for most who aren't sleeping through life.
 
GHG said:
I think they are being stubborn.

They don't want to be like Nintendo because it's pretty much what Microsoft want them to do (and it's what they are trying to force them to become through all these acquisitions). Hence the resistance, no matter how much sense it might make.
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Well the future is uncertain anyway because I dont have any faith in MS as a criative place... so if gaming in the future is resumed to microsoft well.. shit times ahead..
 
Varteras said:
You and I just have to agree to disagree here. You think that a crushingly substantial amount would leave. I disagree and feel that other options would become attractive in light of a sudden vacuum. The whole process also showed that the CMA agrees with this sentiment. That CoD exclusivity would not cause a substantial enough switch in the platforms to be a big concern.
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I think COD is probably worth 60% of ABK 20% is King and the rest is Blizzard. Hope COD is a house of cards when Bobby retired, the faster it coplased the better industry will be
 
Kilau said:
EA still has license agreements with clubs do they not?
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Yeah they have some commercial agreements with clubs but it's not a central organization ala MLB and are not exclusive agreements, those clubs all have agreements with efootball and other upcoming football games, even football manager. Football clubs/and leagues individually don't really care as long as they get their bag of $. They get paid to be put in the game but they don't get a revenue cut.
 
Corrik said:
I see the people who acted like everyone who said this would be denied and the deal eventually go through were wrong and in for a rude awakening and yadda yadda, are now unable to accept it was they that actually were wrong in the end.
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They were wrong how? Maybe you would have a point if no regulator had issues or tried to stop the deal but that isn't the case is it?

For the record, I did say the PI would be denied and that the deal would go through but to act like because a judge denied a PI means all the events of the last 7 months just didn't happen is asinine.
 
GHG said:
It will never not be crazy to me that one person got to rule on something of this magnitude.

How it's not a panel of people who are subject matter experts is baffling. Half the case was spent explaining/outlining basic things for the judge and even still she basically said "who gives a fuck, it's just videogames" while the closing arguments were taking place.
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One person is not the arbiter. This single judge simply refused to block the deal until FTC has a trial. FTC can still appeal her decision above her head. FTC can still have its own trial and then seek to enforce its outcome afterwards. The only thing this judge blocked was an injunction so far.
 
Stuart360 said:
COD will die at some point anyway, everything does in the end. You could even argue that COD is already dying with tons of streamers saying how arena shooters are old hat, and they cant play them anymore.
If you include Warzone as COD then COD has a long life ahead of it. The yearly mainline games though, the future imo isnt set in stone.
Click to expand...
CoD isnt dying. Halo lasted what? 7-10 years? Battlefield is a shell of what it used to be and topped out with BF1. 10-12 years run. CoD is going strong after 16 years topping the charts every year save for one when GTA5 launched in 2013 and Cod Ghost flopped.

CoD literally has 25 million mobile players. Warzone has even more. Overall, across all cod games, it pulls in 110 million players. PS4 sold 120 million in 9 years. Its a huge number.

For some reason, CoD has managed to appeal to millenials and zoomers as well as regular guys who dont even own consoles and play cod on mobile. its insane.
 
Historia said:
People saying that it is Sony's fault to put all eggs in a basket forget that nobody expects Microsoft to buy Activision Blizzard, 10 times what Zennimax worth. It is an insane deal
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Well after Zenimax. SONY could have made some moves. Kadokawa were really cheap in 2020. Capcom. After Zenimax they were left with just a few wrgps they could have got cdpr, larian. But they stayed on their parallel reality. I mean their sp games are the best in the industry but 1-2 per year is not enough and you need variety with 3p content
That's what ms is taking from them.

XBOX fanbase doesn't care about sp games. They don't care about sony games. They don't play these games. And for gamepass high quality sp aaa of $200 mi budget is not their goal. Their audience don't demand these games and what they want from ps audience is people who cares about these 3p games they are locking in. Vast majority of ps players.

Like I said one more move: EA and it is done. Soccer game is not under fifa label anymore. They can make exclusive. They would crack PS European market.
 
NickFire said:
One person is not the arbiter. This single judge simply refused to block the deal until FTC has a trial. FTC can still appeal her decision above her head. FTC can still have its own trial and then seek to enforce its outcome afterwards. The only thing this judge blocked was an injunction so far.
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The problem with this process though is that it allows the deal to go through even while the regulators are still opposed to it (or still have concerns that have not been appropriately addressed).

To that end I say what's the point of the regulators then? Might as well cut the facade and allow it to be a free-for-all.
 
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Sanepar said:
Well after Zenimax. SONY could have made some moves. Kadokawa were really cheap in 2020. Capcom. After Zenimax they were left with just a few wrgps they could have got cdpr, larian. But they stayed on their parallel reality. I mean their sp games are the best in the industry but 1-2 per year is not enough and you need variety with 3p content
That's what ms is taking from them.

XBOX fanbase doesn't care about sp games. They don't care about sony games. They don't play these games. And for gamepass high quality sp aaa of $200 mi budget is not their goal. Their audience don't demand these games and what they want from ps audience is people who cares about these 3p games they are locking in. Vast majority of ps players.

Like I said one more move: EA and it is done. Soccer game is not under fifa label anymore. They can make exclusive. They would crack PS European market.
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I think FA, FICC, UEFA and other association will step in like MLB.
 
Sleepwalker said:
Yeah they have some commercial agreements with clubs but it's not a central organization ala MLB and are not exclusive agreements, those clubs all have agreements with efootball and other upcoming football games, even football manager. Football clubs/and leagues individually don't really care as long as they get their bag of $. They get paid to be put in the game but they don't get a revenue cut.
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Well we don't know their details, they might be okay with being held exclusive to a system or not. I don't follow FIFA games or FIFA at all so I have no idea if this new one will be as big. EA also split EA sports out as a division. It would be possibly maybe to buy one side and not the other.
 
GHG said:
The problem with this process though is that it allows the deal to go through even while the regulators are still opposed to it (or still have concerns that have not been appropriately addressed).

To that end I say what's the point of the regulators then? Might as well cut the facade and allow it to be a free-for-all.
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Probably to put up decent enough arguments to get the injunction in the first place.
 
DeepEnigma said:
citation please.
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Police-officer-writing-a-ticket-to-combative-driver.jpg
 
Historia said:
People saying that it is Sony's fault to put all eggs in a basket forget that nobody expects Microsoft to buy Activision Blizzard, 10 times what Zennimax worth. It is an insane deal
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Anything can happen.

MS bought LinkedIn for like $25B 7 years ago. And at that time, LinkedIn was much smaller and didn't have many revenue streams like now.
 
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So if the UK doesn't play ball what does that mean? Could they merge operations in the US and remain separate in the UK? I imagine we are a much bigger market anyway
 
Kilau said:
Well we don't know their details, they might be okay with being held exclusive to a system or not. I don't follow FIFA games or FIFA at all so I have no idea if this new one will be as big. EA also split EA sports out as a division. It would be possibly maybe to buy one side and not the other.
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No, no we don't, this is just a thought experiment (tm), football has too many governing bodies, it's not centralized like american sports. The football licensing wars with efootball have been going on for some times, that is why at times some games (including fifa as recently as last year) have had to use fake club names for some of the teams in their games. FIFPRO handles the licensing for player images and names, but these contracts are not exclusive and any football game can buy into it.
 
Finally sanity has prevailed.
The CMA is shitting itself, and the deal will close.
Any remedies that MS come up with for the CMA will mirror the EU deal. Any gives by MS will only be around cloud, as that was what the CMA blocked it on.

COD will stay multiplat forever. MS wants that money, and there is no way they backtrack on that after everything they have been through.

All other Activision games will most likely be Xbox exclusives, including the new Rumoured Infinity Ward IP..

COD will be in GP day and date, and you better believe that subs will increase as will sales of Xbox.

Microsoft won't try to buy another massive publisher like T2, Ubi, EA, Embracer etc.
Any futher aquisitions will be smaller studios like Certain Affinity, Asobo etc.

They may also buy a Japanese publisher like Square, Capcom or Sega.

This is great news for gaming. It shows MS is all in. Rumours of them getting out of gaming can now fuck off for good.

The meme "xbox has no games" will forever go on the scrapheap.

Sony will continue to build up their first party studio's, which is excellent news for PlayStation players. Hopefully they won't be all GAAS games.

Sony won't buy a major publisher like T2, EA etc, as they don't have the money, and it would never go through the regulators as we have seen.

A great day for gaming.
 
Thirty7ven said:





Morons cheer for this broken ass system, and then complain when the system they cheer for fucks them elsewhere. Get what you deserve.
Click to expand...

So you're saying Woman Judge who happens to be a woman ignores multiple pieces of evidence and testimony in favor of monopolistic mega-corp...🤔


Someone check her bank account(s)
 
GHG said:
The problem with this process though is that it allows the deal to go through even while the regulators are still opposed to it (or still have concerns that have not been appropriately addressed).

To that end I say what's the point of the regulators then? Might as well cut the facade and allow it to be a free-for-all.
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If the FTC truly has a strong case then they can still win and get an order of divestment later. If they don't have a strong case and just wanted to run out the clock, then the system worked even though I disagree with the decision. Unless we are talking about things with national security implications, I don't think we should be requiring approvals from political appointees before someone can sell their intellectual property. Just my two cents.
 
GHG said:
Well, considering how spineless and incompetent the people representing the FTC proved to be that was never going to happen.

It's almost as if it's all by design.
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Reality is there is no argument that stacks up in this case. MS are too big, it will hurt Sony and the cloud just weren't good enough reasons to block the deal …
 
Honestly, i'm not particularly surprised. If a trillion-dollar corporation wants something, it gets it. Now i'm going to have to listen to this crap about how the competition can create their own Call of Duty, as if the power of branding meant absolutely nothing. A company like Sony needs 3P support, no matter the size of its exclusive portfolio, without it, their business model may gradually start to change, not necessarily in the way we would hope.
Because i don't believe MS won't fuck them hard, for ten years of incompetence in managing their own brand. The same goes for pretty much the entire industry if this snowball starts rolling.

When some corporate suit or politician starts talking about "giving you choices," you know you have to grease your ass or it's going to burn.


It was a great ride tho. :lollipop_beaming_smiling:
 
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