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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ManaByte said:
Kotick will take his golden parachute a few years after closure.
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Perhaps. I would love to see some old IP resurrected, but I think if anyone who is really expecting that to happen is going to be disappointed. Phil Spencer knows how to play to the crowd.
 
Topher said:
He said they have Hexen. He said nothing about brining any old IPs back. Last I heard, he said ABK would operate exactly as they have and Kotick is still in charge.
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This is pure speculation but have a feeling a succession plan is in place to get Ybarra in charge

Not sure if that's funny because he wanted away from MS rule or sad their plan actually worked since Ybarra told Xbox many times to pay whatever it took to make COD exclusive to Xbox in the past
 
Dick Jones said:
The amount of people who love COD but need them to be on Gamepass to play is staggering.
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I don't think it's that surprising. As one of those people, I used to love a COD campaign, but never play multiplayer, so I haven't played one in probably a decade (the controversial airport one is the last I recall) - the switch to a multiplayer focused title with a really short campaign priced me out... Just wasn't worth the asking price. I'll definitely work through them on Game Pass.
 
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Topher said:
Perhaps. I would love to see some old IP resurrected, but I think if anyone who is really expecting that to happen is going to be disappointed. Phil Spencer knows how to play to the crowd.
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They're just saying Kotick is sticking around now for whatever shareholders are bizarrely loyal to him.
 
Topher said:
Structural
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Meh - if I'm understanding the updated deal correctly - this is more of a "timed" structural - eventually MS will have everything - just not for the next 15 years (which Ubisoft will "own") ... unless there's something else updated via the CMA updates (that I admittedly haven't fully read up on yet - only on my first cup of coffee still)..
 
Drell said:
I guess they could only do so much with the FTC being powerless and EU being cucklords.
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The FTC didn't have a convincing argument to block, and the EU were even more stringent than most other global regulators.

Thirty7ven said:
W for Xbox fans that can now go online and say MS owns Call of Duty, and pretend they are going to spend their gaming time on AB trash.

Don't forget candy crush, which now becomes the most played mobile game for Xbox fans.

Big day.
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Or just a win for GamePass subscribers who can now get a lot more content in their sub.

Certainly not a loss for most people since it preserves multiplatform access to 'AB trash' as you put it.
 
HoofHearted said:
Meh - if I'm understanding the updated deal correctly - this is more of a "timed" structural - eventually MS will have everything - just not for the next 15 years (which Ubisoft will "own") ... unless there's something else updated via the CMA updates (that I admittedly haven't fully read up on yet - only on my first cup of coffee still)..
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Ubisoft will get the streaming rights for all current ABK games and all ABK games released over the next 15 years, but Ubisoft owns those right permanently. That's a structural change.
 
Ozriel said:
Or just a win for GamePass subscribers who can now get a lot more content in their sub.

Certainly not a loss for most people since it preserves multiplatform access to 'AB trash' as you put it.
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People who already subscribe to GP are not who MS cares about with this one. If that's all it did, maintain the status quo, yikes.
 
tenor.gif


It's been fun while it lasted.
 
HeisenbergFX4 said:
This is pure speculation but have a feeling a succession plan is in place to get Ybarra in charge

Not sure if that's funny because he wanted away from MS rule or sad their plan actually worked since Ybarra told Xbox many times to pay whatever it took to make COD exclusive to Xbox in the past
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Man.....we suddenly have a lot of well-known executives suddenly thrown into the mix at Microsoft. No clue how all this is going to shake out.
 
Thirty7ven said:
People who already subscribe to GP are not who MS cares about with this one. If that's all it did, maintain the status quo, yikes.
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No way did they buy Activision purely to bolster Gamepass. I can't believe that people are still saying it.

Now we've seen what Microsoft expect to pay to get games on Gamepass, they could sew up an entire generation of AAA games for less. That would have destroyed the competition completely and made Gamepass the default for everyone.
 
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Topher said:
Ubisoft will get the streaming rights for all current ABK games and all ABK games released over the next 15 years, but Ubisoft owns those right permanently. That's a structural change.
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Right.. agreed - but after those 15 years the rights for any "future" ABK games released thereafter go back to MS correct?
 
Well done world wide regulators. Not sure what any of you actually regulate but whatever. At least one of the largest enterprises in Earths history can finally compete. :lollipop_yum:
 
Well I voted structural changes so I guess I win or something. Hopefully we start seeing some games on GP soon.
 
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Topher said:
Perhaps. I would love to see some old IP resurrected, but I think if anyone who is really expecting that to happen is going to be disappointed. Phil Spencer knows how to play to the crowd.
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That's what frustrates me about this. There's such an opportunity for Microsoft to use the IP they own to bring back the energy that made Xbox 360 great. Invest a couple billion into some fan service to encourage growth. But they seem completely oblivious to what people want.
 
Kept my mouth mostly shut on this, since I had a feeling the UK was just putting up a facade. They do a good job of that over there.
 
GG guys, it's been a fun ride.

We made some friends along the way, we lost some friends, and some of us found the meaning of true love.

See you all on the CoD lobby's.
 
after every other regulatory body approved, the CMA didnt want the smoke. i genuinely think they thought in their minds they were going to look like the big tough leader in going after "big tech", and everyone else was going to follow, but it blew up in their face. the backpedaling was fun to watch.
 
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Mr Reasonable said:
I personally think as an addition to Gamepass this acquisition is pretty underwhelming.

All signs point to this not being about Gamepass or Playstation. Even Jim Ryan said so, saying this is "a bigger play" and I'm inclined to believe him.

You're right that Gamepass could benefit significantly from this money being used to outright buy games (Ryan estimated that $5bn would buy a few years of COD exclusivity, iirc). For that reason, I'm inclined to believe that Microsoft aren't driven by wanting to bolster Gamepass, they know how many games they could buy up for the same money and the effect that it would have their competition, if that was the idea, they could have bought up COD, various EA Sports, Ass Creed, etc. Etc. For maybe a generation and spent less.
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??? This deal will be huge for Gamepass.

But, the deal was primarily about MS buying a profitable business with one of the highest rates of return in the entire industry.
 
Mephisto40 said:
I think it's pretty nailed on COD is going to turn into some microtransaction laden free to play game now, which is probably why they arent that bothered about having COD as an excvlusive, they won't be making any money from game sales from it anyway
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Yeah! They will probably call it something like: "Call of Duty: Warzone"
 
All this anti CMA spiel, yet they were one of the only ones to at least challenge MS. They certainly didn't make it any easier for MS and they've forced at least some concession/alteration to the deal. And for all the disappointing theatrics of the FTC piece, at least they tried. Nothing is infallible these days when it comes to politics, money and business. But I'm glad a couple of bodies out of the whole world, did at least try and do something. For me the only entities that should be getting any stick, should be all the bodies who did absolutely nothing.

For me, I voted for the approval with structural changes, but that doesn't make me any happier to be right. Its still a shame to see huge 3rd party publishers of this magnitude being bought out. Especially after seeing the recent Xbox road map leaks. Unfortunately for me being a GP ultimate subscriber with an XSX this doesn't bring me anything either from a short sighted selfish point of view. As I dont play ABK games. Still, I'm glad they cant get their hands on Ubisoft yet. So there's that.
 
It was mentioned that there would need to be work done before they could bring games to game pass... I wonder if they've been quietly working on this in the background waiting for the deal to close so that games can come quicker? I don't really use game pass like most people so it doesn't affect me either way but I'm still curious.

Also now I'm really curious if this is going to bring a bunch more games to the backwards compatibility program.. they have all this licensing now for the games that they will now own.
 
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Heisenberg007 said:
Regardless of the outcome, this was an epic thread -- one for the ages. Enjoyed every second of it! ❤️
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Topher said:
Really was a fun and extremely educational thread.
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For sure. It's had some brilliant moments. At the back of my mind though, I think we ain't seen nothing yet - can you imagine the thread when they try to go for Valve or Nintendo. I'm laughing now just thinking about it.
 
King Dazzar said:
For sure. It's had some brilliant moments. At the back of my mind though, I think we ain't seen nothing yet - can you imagine the thread when they try to go for Valve or Nintendo. I'm laughing now just thinking about it.
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Nah I don't think they're going to go after anyone that big for a while... But I could maybe see them buying into some of the embracer devs and ips?
 
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