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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Duchess said:
I wonder how everyone in this thread would feel if it were Tencent ...
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I'm less concerned with companies like Tencent buying studios. It's Sony, MS and Nintendo I don't want purchasing more studios. The incentives for Tencent are to release their games on as many platforms as they can. It's not the same for the big three.

havoc00 said:
Outerworlds was great
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I thought the first planet was really well done. After that the game kind of fell off and I was ready for it to end. The series has promise though.
 
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Thirty7ven said:
How is Obsidian killing anything? Grounded is only a thing in Xbox threads, Avowed looks like piss.

Always such a low standard demanded of these Xbox devs. But let's call a spade a spade, it's just a bunch of "damage control". As soon as they get a whiff of a good thing they will hype it like it's the second coming, look at the Starfield reaction, already treating it as the most important Xbox game ever.
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Starfield would be a massive game regardless of the XBox buyout.

It's essentially what the "Skyrim" team has been working on for over a decade.
 
FrankWza said:
I love me some manufactured meltdown!
Sad Will Ferrell GIF
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Lol just things settling in I suppose. Rather somber really.
 
Thirty7ven said:
Not saying otherwise and I have said that Starfield looks great and I have little doubt it will be at least a really good game.
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Well I think it's the one game that kind of doesn't fit the pattern of Xbox hype because it ACTUALLY is hotly anticipated lol

Hence why it is seen as so important to Xbox.

(and it's unfortunate it's not on Playstation, but thems the breaks)
 
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Timberwolf25 said:
I do need to get around to trying that game. Not sure if it'll be my jam, but I've heard lots of people praising it.
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You should, it's a decent mid-sized WRPG.

Obsidian is a reliable studio, Pentiment is a multi-GoTY winner, Grounded is a fun, successful game which had its 1.0 release a few months back, Avowed looks like a great alternative-fantasy RPG in vein of an alternative-sci fi RPG likr Outer Worlds.
 
Thirty7ven said:
How is Obsidian killing anything? Grounded is only a thing in Xbox threads, Avowed looks like piss.

Always such a low standard demanded of these Xbox devs. But let's call a spade a spade, it's just a bunch of "damage control". As soon as they get a whiff of a good thing they will hype it like it's the second coming, look at the Starfield reaction, already treating it as the most important Xbox game ever.
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Excuse me, but HAVE YOU SEEN TITANFALL?!?
 
Here's a question. Does Sony NEED to do anything at this point?

I've thought about a potential next move for Sony but I'm not at all sure they need to jump on anything like a reactionary purchase of a studio, studios or publishers.

I don't think this deal is going to move the needle much in terms of console dominance. Xbox is certainly sucking all the oxygen out of the room now, but after the controversy is over and the dust is settled, where does that leave us really?
 
Jigsaah said:
Here's a question. Does Sony NEED to do anything at this point?

I've thought about a potential next move for Sony but I'm not at all sure they need to jump on anything like a reactionary purchase of a studio, studios or publishers.

I don't think this deal is going to move the needle much in terms of console dominance. Xbox is certainly sucking all the oxygen out of the room now, but after the controversy is over and the dust is settled, where does that leave us really?
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I'm of the belief they don't need to do anything.
 
adamsapple said:
You should, it's a decent mid-sized WRPG.

Obsidian is a reliable studio, Pentiment is a multi-GoTY winner, Grounded is a fun, successful game which had its 1.0 release a few months back, Avowed looks like a great alternative-fantasy RPG in vein of an alternative-sci fi RPG likr Outer Worlds.
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When Dude is still trying to sell us these lame games on GP,

Pentiment?

1007_171324.jpg


Every time he tries selling that horse shit, the community goes from...

EddvMkp.gif


To

gtfo-entourage.gif
 
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CRAIG667 said:
I wonder how certain salty 'anti merger' folks in this thread would feel had it been Sony jumping through all these hurdles to buy ABK?

Just a thought.
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Unlike Xbox fanatics, I would be 100% against it but I'd expect the pro-merger folks to be for Sony buying ABK since it's all about breeding competition.
 
DryvBy said:
By limiting games to cloud servers and yanking then away from other companies in 10 years, they're making sure there's more competitive playing fields. This is usually how it works, right? Like when Walmart runs all the mom and pop shops out of town, it makes the town shop at more than just Walmart and creates growth.

Me graduated from CMU, Cave Man University.

Edit: lol post #1 reason exactly predicted below me.

I wonder if buying FF16 for exclusive is good to th Xbox fans because it creates competition.
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But at least in this analogy Walmart is giving customers something that the local mom and pop shops can't. And most find it to be beneficial. Making video games streaming only doesn't do that.
 
Jigsaah said:
Here's a question. Does Sony NEED to do anything at this point?

I've thought about a potential next move for Sony but I'm not at all sure they need to jump on anything like a reactionary purchase of a studio, studios or publishers.

I don't think this deal is going to move the needle much in terms of console dominance. Xbox is certainly sucking all the oxygen out of the room now, but after the controversy is over and the dust is settled, where does that leave us really?
Click to expand...
To be fair, they don't really need to do anything -- except just keep strengthening their first-party studios and expand the team sizes so they can all produce multiple games.

If push comes to shove, they can potentially take a similar-ish amount of games off of Xbox by making exclusivity deals or buying a publisher like Ubisoft, Capcom, or maybe even CDPR.

But an acquisition comes with its own set of regulatory and managerial problems, so I'm sure Sony is hesitant in taking such a permanent step.
 
Banjo64 said:
7pm here in britbong land. Wonder when an announcement would drop today.
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Contract time is 23:59 PST.

So in principle any time until then they could announce an extension. But even if they don't the deal is valid until it is actively terminated.

Realistically they should put out an announcement during office hours - so about another 7 hours to go for that.

Even if they don't put anything out today it's not really significant. They can sign whatever and write up a press release for tomorrow.

ATVI would put it out to inform their shareholders - it's not an announcement for the benefit of gamers.
 
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Jigsaah said:
Here's a question. Does Sony NEED to do anything at this point?

I've thought about a potential next move for Sony but I'm not at all sure they need to jump on anything like a reactionary purchase of a studio, studios or publishers.

I don't think this deal is going to move the needle much in terms of console dominance. Xbox is certainly sucking all the oxygen out of the room now, but after the controversy is over and the dust is settled, where does that leave us really?
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do they? debatable; will they? probably since Microsoft has now bought two of the largest 3rd party publishers & stated their intent is to put PlayStation out of business

not really like Sony can be passive in reaction to that, I don't expect they'd go for a company like EA but I could see them shoring up support in Japan + get more IPs under their ownership to go with their transmedia push of late

edit: depending on just how well things have gone with Larian and porting BG3 to PS5, I could see Sony make an offer to them since Larian might be the only 'available' western RPG studio (Microsoft bought up InXile, Obsidian, Bethesda, etc. & CD Projekt doesn't seem to be interested in being acquired)
 
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Thirty7ven said:
Not it wasn't, people went in with kids gloves on it because it's an AA game.
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Unfortunately it seems that the owner of the studio doesn't want himself and his employees to be held to a higher standard despite the fact that similarly sized studios (with less budget than he currently will have available to him at Microsoft) are able to make games that are orders of magnitude more ambitious:

 
Pelta88 said:
When Dude is still trying to sell us these lame games on GP,

Pentiment?

1007_171324.jpg


Every time he tries selling that horse shit, the community goes from...

EddvMkp.gif


To

gtfo-entourage.gif
Click to expand...
I love the historical subject matter. But I just couldn't get the love for Pentiment at all. Lets not forget our worshipped celebrity gamer P Spencer actually recommended Crackdown 3 saying he thought it was great. I played it, stunned at how great he thought it was and how bland it was in reality. To the point I was thinking is this the same game!? Does he have a different version? To each their own I guess... but geez. I don't get why some Xbox players lap it all up and defend mediocrity so much. Shouldn't we all push for better? 🤷‍♂️
 
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Jigsaah said:
but after the controversy is over and the dust is settled, where does that leave us really?
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It doesn't change much besides improve Xbox division revenue, and give them some resources to expand a bit in mobile if they want.

Blizzard has a survival game coming in the next couple years, maybe?

Pretty much exactly the same as now. If Activision / Blizz decide to make any new IP that could be interesting. Very small possibility for some legacy IP or smaller games to show up, like Hexen.

Probably the biggest actual change I can think of is MS getting marketing rights for Call of Duty in a few years.
 
mckmas8808 said:
But at least in this analogy Walmart is giving customers something that the local mom and pop shops can't. And most find it to be beneficial. Making video games streaming only doesn't do that.
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I'm more referring to how Walmart came in and conquered. They'd come in, drop their "low prices" and then when those stores were ran out, they'd raise the prices again. You might be getting more but they didn't come to a place and show off their things you can only get there. They run companies into the mud by having more money. They can afford a year of losing money if they own the town.

The services only thing is another beast that we'll regret but some new generation will think is amazing. You can't have your stuff stolen if you don't own it!
 
Jigsaah said:
Here's a question. Does Sony NEED to do anything at this point?

I've thought about a potential next move for Sony but I'm not at all sure they need to jump on anything like a reactionary purchase of a studio, studios or publishers.

I don't think this deal is going to move the needle much in terms of console dominance. Xbox is certainly sucking all the oxygen out of the room now, but after the controversy is over and the dust is settled, where does that leave us really?
Click to expand...

Need? Considering COD isn't going anywhere they don't need to do anything they aren't already doing, but MS is being ultra aggressive so they should do something.

Console userbase isn't going to grow, so for Xbox to grow they are going to have to take away from PlayStation. They should acquire IP that appeals to the hardcore, that is character driven with transmedia potential. In that sense they do NEED to add IP for PlayStation and PlayStation studios. If they don't then it's really hard to see how their transmedia strategy won't hit a ceiling really soon.
 
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Jigsaah said:
Here's a question. Does Sony NEED to do anything at this point?

I've thought about a potential next move for Sony but I'm not at all sure they need to jump on anything like a reactionary purchase of a studio, studios or publishers.

I don't think this deal is going to move the needle much in terms of console dominance. Xbox is certainly sucking all the oxygen out of the room now, but after the controversy is over and the dust is settled, where does that leave us really?
Click to expand...
They don't have to do anything. They got cod for 10 years, including their existing market deal. Diablo 4 isn't going away either.

Unless they really think 3 years from now MS will hoard all the Cod marketing going forward that sinks Sony into the toilet, nothing will change.
 
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Thirty7ven said:
Need? Considering COD isn't going anywhere they don't need to do anything they aren't already doing, but MS is being ultra aggressive so they should do something.

Console userbase isn't going to grow, so for Xbox to grow they are going to have to take away from PlayStation. They should acquire IP that appeals to the hardcore, that is character driven with transmedia potential. I'm that sense they do NEED to add IP for PlayStation and PlayStation studios. If they don't then it's really hard to see how their transmedia strategy won't hit a ceiling really soon.
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If anything I think Playstation needs to build out other markets too. Consoleis pretty much locked up, granted. But Microsoft is going into mobile now...I think Sony should want a piece of that action too. Let mobile feed those big brand-defining IP for the forseeable future. Question is, can they do mobile in house? Or do they need to get a jump start like what King is doing for Microsoft?
 
Jigsaah said:
If anything I think Playstation needs to build out other markets too. Consoleis pretty much locked up, granted. But Microsoft is going into mobile now...I think Sony should want a piece of that action too. Let mobile feed those big brand-defining IP for the forseeable future. Question is, can they do mobile in house? Or do they need to get a jump start like what King is doing for Microsoft?
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If I had to take a totally wild guess, they'll buy some Korean mobile / upcoming console game studio. No idea though.
 
Jigsaah said:
If anything I think Playstation needs to build out other markets too. Consoleis pretty much locked up, granted. But Microsoft is going into mobile now...I think Sony should want a piece of that action too. Let mobile feed those big brand-defining IP for the forseeable future. Question is, can they do mobile in house? Or do they need to get a jump start like what King is doing for Microsoft?
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honestly mobile is why I see Square-Enix as a solid possibility for Sony to acquire in reaction to Microsoft's purchases

the other one I could see is they've been partnering with Kadokawa but they could just buy them completely
 
GHG said:
Unfortunately it seems that the owner of the studio doesn't want himself and his employees to be held to a higher standard despite the fact that similarly sized studios (with less budget than he currently will have available to him at Microsoft) are able to make games that are orders of magnitude more ambitious:

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"The funding to build things on your own terms".

Is this another dev being held hostage by MS?

We need a seal team to go in and extract these guys… That's gonna be the story for CoD MW4.
 
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Jigsaah said:
If anything I think Playstation needs to build out other markets too. Consoleis pretty much locked up, granted. But Microsoft is going into mobile now...I think Sony should want a piece of that action too. Let mobile feed those big brand-defining IP for the forseeable future. Question is, can they do mobile in house? Or do they need to get a jump start like what King is doing for Microsoft?
Click to expand...

Sony is already in mobile they just don't call it PlayStation(Aniplex) but even then they have already announced to investors that PlayStation IP will make it to mobile.

Sure keep trying to break into Korea, China whatever, but their transmedia strategy is by far the most significant and it needs to be fed.
 
Jigsaah said:
If anything I think Playstation needs to build out other markets too. Consoleis pretty much locked up, granted. But Microsoft is going into mobile now...I think Sony should want a piece of that action too. Let mobile feed those big brand-defining IP for the forseeable future. Question is, can they do mobile in house? Or do they need to get a jump start like what King is doing for Microsoft?
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The Aniplex division publishes Fate/Grand Order which is a very successful mobile game and it was rumored that PS is working on some mobiles games but we will see.
 
Jigsaah said:
If anything I think Playstation needs to build out other markets too. Consoleis pretty much locked up, granted. But Microsoft is going into mobile now...I think Sony should want a piece of that action too. Let mobile feed those big brand-defining IP for the forseeable future. Question is, can they do mobile in house? Or do they need to get a jump start like what King is doing for Microsoft?
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Sony is already facing trouble with their mobile division. If they want to do it right, they will have to buy someone. And I think they will.

They wanted to do live-service right, so they bought Bungie. I can see them using the exact same strategy for mobile games.

Zynga would have been perfect for Sony but T2 scooped them up. Ubisoft can be another good option that is expanding on mobile (albeit slowly) and also gives them console games, lots of IPs with transmedia potential, and live-service games and expertise.

The only problem with Ubisoft is the bloat. Whoever buys it will take a hit in PR because they will have to let go of more than 5,000+ employees and shut down studios.
 
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KingT731 said:
The Aniplex division publishes Fate/Grand Order which is a very successful mobile game and it was rumored that PS is working on some mobiles games but we will see.
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Oh Aniplex is Sony? didn't know that. I know Aniplex for anime. I guess it makes sense given Sony bought CrunchyRoll not too long ago.
 
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