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Yes it is the same via B2P, and as explained it's worse on gamepass due to people not having a permanent license for the underlying game they are purchasing DLC for.

Early Access is more valuable on subscription services. To get value from Early Access in a B2P market you have to pay for the Early Access itself and the full price of the base game. To get value from Early Access in subscription markets you only have to pay for the Early Access and 1 month of the sub. fee.

You might say that this alone could make sub. services more FOMO if not for the fact that Early Access is also available in exactly the same format in B2P markets. It's simply more valuable to the consumer in sub. markets.

You're right. Gamepass isn't for everyone. I don't think anyone is arguing that it is. I know I'm not.

Yep. It doesn't have to be for everyone to be valuable to a group of people.
 
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Isn't it obvious, it's the same for literally all DLC for any game hosted on Gamepass, PS+ and all of their tiers, Games with Gold, ea play. They had to include a way for a subscriber to purchase any and all DLC, this isn't exclusive to DLC with early access. In any of these cases, purchased DLC will be useless if a user unsubscribes from any of these services

The only two other alternatives is include all the DLC for every game on Game Pass, or the inability for a Game Pass subscriber to purchase the DLC for the hosted games. I have a hard time believing either one of these alternatives makes sense in todays market.

That's not what I asked. I'll ask again, why don't they simply offer an "early access only" fee? It doesn't need to be much, just $5-10.

Regardless of the subscription service in question, they could all offer it, so why don't they?
 
So is the judge in effect ruling for the CMA? To be more clear, if the CMA has changed its position due to a implied change to the transaction, is the judge going to block the CMA new position if he doesn't find the new changes compelling enough?
Correct, he was discussing the possibility of a full phase one do-over to be sure the CMA have done their job correctly and haven't been influenced by the FTC outcome or been party to making Sony vulnerable to leverage - in a roundabout way - from his words before the decision.
 
The difference is the option to purchase the game doesn't go away. You can even purchase the game for 10% off if you have Game Pass Ultimate.

Yes, but the moment you start buying games you played on GamePass, the value of the sub service evaporates, as now you're not only paying for the games but also for the subscription... so you're worse off than if you just bought the games and never bothered to subscribe to the service in the first place.

So realistically, no one who subs to a service like that will buy the games they've played on the service.
 
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Most people buy their games digitally these days so what's the point in owning something you can't easily sell?

That's why I love gamepass.

I buy the games I know I want to keep in my library and I just use gamepass to play whatever looks interesting at the time.

It's crazy so many people are against value for money.
 
Well the good news is that it seems to be enroute to get approvals from the CMA at the moment so we're good.
Not really, it all depends on the judge, and he's pretty angry at the CMA, hence why he's got head of the CMA legal writing the evidence, so he has someone to significant to hang a failed decision on if it is wildly wrong.
 
When the only way to get early access is via purchasing all the DLC then yes, people are being suckered.

I don't understand, why are they being suckered? What part of the deal is kept hidden from them?
You need to stop this atitude of thinking you are above everyone else, if they think ALL the dlc plus 5 days early access is worth it, fine. If they don't, don't buy it.

If they were being kept oblivious of that or it they broke their part of the deal, like shipping extra DLC not included, then yes they are being suckered. Otherwise, again it is what it is, and this applies to game pass games or not.

And for what it's worth, everything about the iracing model revolves around suckering people in. They even offer "credit" for participation across a season (which, if you're relatively new will require you to purchase more tracks. Hell, even if you're not new it will require the purchase of more tracks due to new tracks being introduced every season). It's a monetization hamster wheel.

I know iRacing well, I was subscribed for a year, then decided it wasn't worth it, since I have more fun with vanilla AC, but man they never keep this hidden from you. Like if you choose to keep paying for cars and tracks that's on you, yes the "free" selection is terrible I only played Formula Vee and it's worse when you start climbing the SR, but again that's never hidden from you.

I'm not that hardcore of a sim racer but there's a reason people are still on it, to it's credit it was the place where I had the cleanest races and most admin "presence" (in reports), every track is laser scanned and every car is, yes you "lose them" the you stop subbing but again, that's never kept hidden from you. Any MMO works like this.

But to pull it back to GP, at least you have the option to buy the game at any point, in the context of the industry it's really not that big of a deal. With iRacing or WoW, you don't really have that option. With games that remove the content like Destiny you don't have that option. With games that shutdown their online services and make you purchase moot, you don't have that option. And plenty more.

You better hope they never take away the option for people to purchase the games that are available on gamepass. But considering this display of defence for the DLC side of things, I'd say some people are already sufficiently lubed.

At that point I'll probably unsubscribe or will not pay for DLC I know I can't "own" with a base game in the future, but until then you got look in the present. If you don't think it's worth don't buy it, but no one is being "suckered".
 
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Early Access is more valuable on subscription services. To get value from Early Access in a B2P market you have to pay for the Early Access itself and the full price of the base game. To get value from Early Access in subscription markets you only have to pay for the Early Access and 1 month of the sub. fee.

You might say that this alone could make sub. services more FOMO if not for the fact that Early Access is also available in exactly the same format in B2P markets. It's simply more valuable to the consumer in sub. markets.

So in short, the DLC that includes early access is more enticing to gamepass subscribers because the overall initial entry cost appears to be "cheaper" than if someone were to be purchasing the game outright, and that alone makes it more likely that someone on gamepass will purchase the required DLC to get early access. In fact, we saw this exact phenomenon taking place with Forza Horizon 5:


Thanks for proving my point.
 
If subscription services need to charge and compensate in various ways to be profitable, then it has lost its advantage of being profitable with low billing + mass usage.
In the end you will spend as much as if you had bought it, and you will not own the product.
 
I'm against the idea that it's "better value" for everyone. It simply isn't.

Oh and I'm against astroturfers.
It is better value though?. Say somebody only has got a couple hundred set aside for a year of gaming. They can buy 2 games maybe 3 with that. Maybe they will buy a multi game to keep them engaged for that year.

They then buy a single player game which once complete they will most likely trade back in. They may have enough money for another triple A game or a couple Indies. Once those are complete that's it. They can replay them, but if they are anything like me if it's a SP game they probably won't be going back.

Or they can get gamepass, have access to more games than they would of, filled with mixed genres and budgets. They then buy games at a discount later on. Having access to more games.

Edit. Just want to clarify obviously everyone is different and some people do enjoy going back to reply their old games. I do also with certain games. My point was that you can be flexible with your budget if subbed to gamepass rather than not.
 
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So in short, the DLC that includes early access is more enticing to gamepass subscribers because the overall initial entry cost appears to be "cheaper" than if someone were to be purchasing the game outright, and that alone makes it more likely that someone on gamepass will purchase the required DLC to get early access. In fact, we saw this exact phenomenon taking place with Forza Horizon 5:


Thanks for proving my point.

FH5 didn't just have an early access upgrade, those 800k were people include who bough the game full.
 
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So in short, the DLC that includes early access is more enticing to gamepass subscribers because the overall initial entry cost appears to be "cheaper" than if someone were to be purchasing the game outright, and that alone makes it more likely that someone on gamepass will purchase the required DLC to get early access. In fact, we saw this exact phenomenon taking place with Forza Horizon 5:


Thanks for proving my point.

Honestly I doubt the vast majority of people buying Early Access for Starfield in particular are doing so for the DLC content it includes. More likely they're buying for the actual Early Access. You know, playing the game earlier than they normally would. I know that's why I'm getting it. Plenty of people bought Early Access to Diablo 4 (not on Game Pass, btw) and that didn't include any DLC (unless you count the S1 Battle Pass as DLC, I don't).

Yes, but the moment you start buying games you played on GamePass, the value of the sub service evaporates, as now you're not only paying for the games but also for the subscription... so you're worse off than if you just bought the games and never bothered to subscribe to the service in the first place.

So realistically, no one who subs to a service like that will buy the games they've played on the service.

I don't buy the majority of the games I play on Game Pass. Some, yes. But certainly not the majority. I simply don't need to permanently own the majority of games I play. The same is true for movies I watch and songs I listen to. I don't need to horde games permanently.
 
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The issue with this:
didn't force Square Enix to make Final Fantasy a timed exclusive... they simply bid and Square Enix agreed

or this:

Starfield was never going to be exclusive, it was going to be a timed exclusive. This means it would have been released on other platforms 6 to 12 months later. Yet again, Microsoft could have matched the bid or made a better offer.

For Starfield it turned out that they outbid Sony by purchasing the whole Publisher.
I don't like paying exclusivity on third-party, its the same reason why i dont like buying out a publisher that's known for multiplataform third party to make it do exclusives.

You can't be pro on what Sony did then shoot at Microsoft for doing a better deal all around (aka, buying the fucking publisher). It's just that Sony tried to fight with a knife and Microsoft pull out a gun.
No. Microsoft bought a company that wasn't exclusive before and has made it exclusive now, which is way worse than asking a company to rent their game for 6 to 12 months. Then you have Microsoft preaching how they want everyone to play their games... when they simply do not.
 
FH5 didn't just have an early access upgrade, those 800k were people include who bough the game full.

Is it possible to have a factual discussion around here please?:

Forza Horizon 5 launched for early access players on November 5th, 2021. You could access the game before its official launch on November 9th with an upgrade bundle if you were a Game Pass member or spend 99$ for the full game's ultimate edition bundle.


Also:

Early Access begins on November 5th, 2021 for Xbox Game Pass members, Standard Digital or Deluxe Digital Edition owners as part of the Premium Add-Ons Bundle for separate purchase on Xbox and Windows.

 
you-will.gif


:lollipop_grinning:
 
Is it possible to have a factual discussion around here please?:

Forza Horizon 5 launched for early access players on November 5th, 2021. You could access the game before its official launch on November 9th with an upgrade bundle if you were a Game Pass member or spend 99$ for the full game's ultimate edition bundle.


Also:

Early Access begins on November 5th, 2021 for Xbox Game Pass members, Standard Digital or Deluxe Digital Edition owners as part of the Premium Add-Ons Bundle for separate purchase on Xbox and Windows.


that's not true



Re read my post.
 
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Please go to the cat website and read the 8pages of his conditional adjournment and comeback and quote somethings to support that claim
Judge is a non issue. No point to an appeal when both parties dont won't to do it anymore. Waste of time and resources for the CAT, CMA and MS. The evidence will be provided and it will be enough. Non issue.
 
Yes, but the moment you start buying games you played on GamePass, the value of the sub service evaporates, as now you're not only paying for the games but also for the subscription... so you're worse off than if you just bought the games and never bothered to subscribe to the service in the first place.

So realistically, no one who subs to a service like that will buy the games they've played on the service.
Although most 1st party games don't leave Gamepass most 3rd party games will leave at some point. So the discount does come in handy. People for years paid for Gamestop Pro membership to receive 5% off or whatever it was on game purchases. People pay for all kinds of memberships to get a percentage of purchases.
 
maybe you should

FH5 didn't just have an early access upgrade, those 800k were people include who bough the game full.

To make even clearer, those 800k include GP subscribed AND people who bought the game on MS Store and Steam.

EDIT: I can't alter the post after you quoted it.
 
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Re read my post.

Are you going to be honest about your edit or not?

I don't understand, why are they being suckered? What part of the deal is kept hidden from them?
You need to stop this atitude of thinking you are above everyone else, if they think ALL the dlc plus 5 days early access is worth it, fine. If they don't, don't buy it.

If they were being kept oblivious of that or it they broke their part of the deal, like shipping extra DLC not included, then yes they are being suckered. Otherwise, again it is what it is, and this applies to game pass games or not.



I know iRacing well, I was subscribed for a year, then decided it wasn't worth it, since I have more fun with vanilla AC, but man they never keep this hidden from you. Like if you choose to keep paying for cars and tracks that's on you, yes the "free" selection is terrible I only played Formula Vee and it's worse when you start climbing the SR, but again that's never hidden from you.

I'm not that hardcore of a sim racer but there's a reason people are still on it, to it's credit it was the place where I had the cleanest races and most admin "presence" (in reports), every track is laser scanned and every car is, yes you "lose them" the you stop subbing but again, that's never kept hidden from you. Any MMO works like this.

But to pull it back to GP, at least you have the option to buy the game at any point, in the context of the industry it's really not that big of a deal. With iRacing or WoW, you don't really have that option. With games that remove the content like Destiny you don't have that option. With games that shutdown their online services and make you purchase moot, you don't have that option. And plenty more.



At that point I'll probably unsubscribe or will not pay for DLC I know I can't "own" with a base game in the future, but until then you got look in the present. If you don't think it's worth don't buy it, but no one is being "suckered".

Here's the thing, we can and should be able to have honest discussions around (and acknowledge) dogshit sucker/FOMO inducing DLC and monetisation tactics regardless of whether we have fallen foul to them at some point or not.

Considering the money I spent on racing during the time I was participating, yes I'd say I was a sucker and upon analysing the various tactics they deploy to get people to buy more cars and tracks along with the heavy sunk cost aspect it's easy to see why.

But for you to admit that you've been suckered into something like that it requires you to be honest with yourself. Based on how this discussion has evolved, I don't think people are ready for that, nobody ever wants to look foolish.
 
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Man it's in the post you quoted, the edit I made was for a grammar error.
Look at the previous post, I can't edit your quote.
if your post had been edited before I hit quote it would reflect the edited post even if I hadn't refreshed the page

I'm pretty sure you edited in the word just, also what is the point of your post otherwise? GHG wasn't claiming that ONLY GamePass people had bought an upgrade to play early so you are in no way countering his point or pushing your own, instead you're just obfuscating which has been a massive problem in this thread from dozens of posters who resemble you

not that many posts, no avatar, joined in the 2-4 years, etc.

so excuse us if we're suspicious of your motives when frankly I'm fucking exhausted of dealing with the disingenuous propaganda that keeps getting regurgitated here, the ban page is full of alts/trolls/astroturfers and it sure feels like the mods have only nabbed a fraction of them

Only people who got into early access were the ones who bought the ultimate edition
bought the ultimate edition OR bought the upgrade as GHG's post notes

Is it possible to have a factual discussion around here please?:

Forza Horizon 5 launched for early access players on November 5th, 2021. You could access the game before its official launch on November 9th with an upgrade bundle if you were a Game Pass member or spend 99$ for the full game's ultimate edition bundle.


Also:

Early Access begins on November 5th, 2021 for Xbox Game Pass members, Standard Digital or Deluxe Digital Edition owners as part of the Premium Add-Ons Bundle for separate purchase on Xbox and Windows.

 
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Only people who got into early access were the ones who bought the ultimate edition
Yes, I didn't make that clear, also to those who bought the premium edition.
The point I was making was that it wasn't just 800k GP subscribers who were "suckered" into the premium upgrade, we even know from Steam stats that it was a lot of "full buyers".
 
Yes, I didn't make that clear, also to those who bought the premium edition.
The point I was making was that it wasn't just 800k GP subscribers who were "suckered" into the premium upgrade, we even know from Steam stats that it was a lot of "full buyers".
Just a side note not sure where they got that 800k count because I am one of those who was "suckered" into the premium upgrade even owning Gamepass and I checked my standings right before official launch and there were well over a million players on the leader boards, not that it matters
 
That's not what I asked. I'll ask again, why don't they simply offer an "early access only" fee? It doesn't need to be much, just $5-10.

Regardless of the subscription service in question, they could all offer it, so why don't they?
Because it is fucking bullshit. It is holding back a release just so you can charge impatient people and potentially spoil the masses. Not everything has to be monetized, it is really shitty that innovation decayed into feeification.
 
Most people buy their games digitally these days so what's the point in owning something you can't easily sell?

That's why I love gamepass.

I buy the games I know I want to keep in my library and I just use gamepass to play whatever looks interesting at the time.

It's crazy so many people are against value for money.
*Approved by Microsoft👌

I don't know where you live but it's quite easy to resell physical gaming items. I am mainly against what gamepass will do to the industry much like what Netflix has done to the movie/show industry. Utter cheap garbage

Microsoft spending 80 Billion certainly helps GP but they had no hand in making that content. And it will most certainly reduce the overall money generated by these upcoming triple A games. Most will pay the $10 to play Starfield instead of $70 to own. But in the end Microsoft is treating Xbox as if they have unlimited money and are fine with burning it as long as they keep gaining ground in the subscription wars.
 
Not true at all as I buy ultimate versions of gamepass games that I know I am going to play a lot and do it often even being subbed to gamepass.
yes but you're not an average consumer because you've said you have so many free cards for GPU that you will never have to pay for it? that's not going to be the same mindset/approach for your average person that is paying the $15 (now $17) a month for the service

I had 4 Series Xs but one died and stacks of Gamepass Ult cards to where me nor my son will ever have to buy it

Suspicious Gossip GIF by Apple TV+


:)
 
That's not what I asked. I'll ask again, why don't they simply offer an "early access only" fee? It doesn't need to be much, just $5-10
Because how would they sell that non gamepass subscribers. That's the whole point I'm making, regardless of your opinion of early access included in DLC, it isn't exclusive to gamepass. The fact that they don't sell this individually to gamepass subscribers lends even more credence to the fact that early access was not some FOMO ploy devised for Game Pass subscribers. It's a FOMO tactic to entice any potential customer.
Regardless of the subscription service in question, they could all offer it, so why don't they?
They absolutely all allow you to purchase DLC to games you do not own.
 
Are you going to be honest about your edit or not?



Here's the thing, we can and should be able to have honest discussions around (and acknowledge) dogshit sucker/FOMO inducing DLC and monetisation regardless of whether we have fallen foul to them at some point or not.

Considering the money I spent on racing during the time I was participating, yes I'd say I was a sucker and upon analysing the various tactics they deploy to get people to buy more cars and tracks along with the heavy sunk cost aspect it's easy to see why.

But for you to admit that you've been suckered into something like that it requires you to be honest with yourself. Based on how this discussion has evolved, I don't think people are ready for that, nobody ever wants to look foolish.
Agreed. But we shouldn't attribute these "dogshit" monetization models to Gamepass and pretend that it isn't an issue in the industry.

The early access around Starfield is scummy. The game comes out September 6th, a Wednesday when students are back to school. But if you pay for the "early access", it basically releases on the Thursday night before a long weekend.

But even if Starfield wasn't on Gamepass, it would still have that premium edition early access version.
 
Just a side note not sure where they got that 800k count because I am one of those who was "suckered" into the premium upgrade even owning Gamepass and I checked my standings right before official launch and there were well over a million players on the leader boards, not that it matters
I think it was just the count as the time they published? I remember there was a thread on here about it, the number definitely grew as it got closer to release date (probably because some people heard from friends who were playing and went fuck it & bought the upgrade/ultimate edition so they could start playing too)

I remember I nearly caved but I realized I was just falling for FOMO because I still need to finish FH3 and 4 for that matter 🤦🏼‍♂️
 
Because it is fucking bullshit. It is holding back a release just so you can charge impatient people and potentially spoil the masses. Not everything has to be monetized, it is really shitty that innovation decayed into feeification.

The issue I have with it is that they've monetised it in the worst way. I've purchased the "ultimate edition" primarily because of the early access aspect several times before and not once was I spending the extra $30-$40 or whatever because of the DLC (how can I, you don't even know what it is at that point). That ultimately is the reason why they won't say "here, have only the early access portion for a fraction of the cost". When you have FOMO (or your schedule suits a certain release date better) then you are immediately less price sensitive.

They have people right where they want them with this but so many are failing to see it for what it is.
 
Here's the thing, we can and should be able to have honest discussions around (and acknowledge) dogshit sucker/FOMO inducing DLC and monetisation tactics regardless of whether we have fallen foul to them at some point or not.

Considering the money I spent on racing during the time I was participating, yes I'd say I was a sucker and upon analysing the various tactics they deploy to get people to buy more cars and tracks along with the heavy sunk cost aspect it's easy to see why.

But for you to admit that you've been suckered into something like that it requires you to be honest with yourself. Based on how this discussion has evolved, I don't think people are ready for that, nobody ever wants to look foolish.
Nah that's bang on. I have to always buy the Super Duper Triple Deluxe, Titanium plated Monkey Spanking edition of every game. I know I'm a fool. But its just the way it has to be. FOMO, OCD, delusional completionism. I'm sure its all in there for me.
 
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