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[Noxxera]

woah, I definitely didn’t expect this after their last revision

I agree with others that this is for the best, Microsoft has plenty of studios already and didn’t need more (they have more than Nintendo or Sony already)

Bethesda has been saving them so far this gen from their own terrible management of all their other studios

Nah definitely not for the best, imagine how much better games blizzard would make.

 

[CircleOfFire]

Genuinely baffling to me that people are going "Boo, this is terrible for gaming." or whatever, for consumers there's literally no upside to this acquisition going through, other than in the near term them being able to get CoD in GamePass, which is pretty small beans.

But the comparative downside is every major FPS franchise being controlled by one company, which would allow them to lock down a massive chunk of the market.

All the "PlayStation fanboys are cheering" complaints blow my mind, they can only view it through a tribal lens. As opposed to what my take is (and I assume a lot of others here): "I think this will be bad and will mean that to play the games I like I wont have any choice as to where I buy them.".

 

[jm89]

They will just go buy GTA now. Ms isn’t going anywhere and will continue to fuck shit up. Ubisoft as well. They are very cheap and produce far more games than ABK.

But good news for the industry regardless.

Not a chance in hell they will get GTA.

They will face the same arguments.

 

[CuNi]

I'm mostly interested in SenjutsuSage post history

 

[Zheph]

Really disappointed by the majority response here in neogaf. Liberty dies with thunderous applause from playstation fanboys.

haven't seen better on Twitter yet, very impressive sir

 

[keefged4]

Gunna suck to live in the UK when everyone else in the world is getting Xbox and call of duty and your left out in the cold, gloomy, rainy hellscape known as the UK. MS will simply move on without the UK. They may even move MS as a whole out, not just Xbox. Enjoy your Linux and battlefield!

wut

 

[Skifi28]

Nope, didn’t Sony recently acquire another studio? They’ve been doing it unscathed for years, but like a frog in a pot, cooked slowly and no one notices or cares.

Buying a small studio, buying a 70 billion publisher with some of the most popular franchises. Is it a case of not wanting to see the difference or not being able to?

 

[Fabieter]

Nope, didn’t Sony recently acquire another studio? They’ve been doing it unscathed for years, but like a frog in a pot, cooked slowly and no one notices or cares.

Ms also bought alot of studios before they got Bethesda and while some fans were disappointed, ms had nothing to fear.

No one would say a peep if ms comes out today and buy 10 different indie studios. No one. What's even your point here?

 

[Mr.Phoenix]

Only 9 pages late

 

[kyussman]

Really disappointed by the majority response here in neogaf. Liberty dies with thunderous applause from playstation fanboys.

It's revenge from us over here in the UK to you kicking us out in 1783.....there can be no other explanation,lol.

 

[BadBurger]

Absolute awful take, just ignorant and dumb and the guy should stick to counting numbers.

Regulators are trying to prevent what happened to social media, when for example Facebook bought Instagram and WhatsApp and killed innovation for good. It had to come from China (Tik tok) because nobody in the west was willing to compete.

You have to prevent bs, not fix it.

It's like the guy is completely oblivious to the technology sector and how any of the top companies today rose to prominence over literally the past two and a half decades.

 

[DeepEnigma]

Never missed!

This kiss of death stays consistent.

 

[zomboden]

Point being that MS has everything it needs to create the future that they are saying IS the future. Get it? This isn’t hard.

So we should cripple Microsoft's ability to expand their games portfolio while we give Sony time to sit there and build up their cloud gaming infrastructure so Sony can have the best games, the best cloud, and the best console. While Microsoft just closes the Xbox division. Yeah, makes sense.

Punish Microsoft for already having cloud infrastructure while giving Sony a chance to get it so Microsoft can never compete/use their advantage. I see now.

 

[64bitmodels]

People who say shit like this don't realize how small Xbox is in Microsofts mind and the higher ups would rather just flip a switch and stop gaming if they think it's literally too much trouble for them. It's not like Sony and PlayStation where they rely on it. Xbox is small fry to Microsoft. They could kill it without hesitiation. Hell, their stock might go up if they closed all the gaming studios and fired everybody.

seems wasteful and destructive. It'd give them even worse PR than they already have.

 

[Heisenberg007]

Absolute awful take, just ignorant and dumb and the guy should stick to hiding numbers.

Fixed it for you.

 

[SEGAvangelist]

Why would Phil want to make matchmaking take 1-2 hours per round?

? Next gen Switch will be the best selling console anyway.

 

[ToTTenTranz]

This deal is not gonna push Xbox into any sort of monopoly position in the cloud space.

Of course it's not.

Because it was blocked.

whaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?????? But weeks ago everyone was sure this was gonna pass. lol

Weeks?
This is WCCFTech 2 days ago:

Microsoft’s Acquisition of Activision Blizzard Expected to Be Approved in the UK​

And this is WCCFTech yesterday:

Microsoft Reportedly Plans to Close Activision Blizzard Deal Despite FTC Lawsuit​

Microsoft's operational expenses must have been sky high this past week.

 

[Draugoth]

I love how Microsoft employees are melting over this

 

[JackMcGunns]

Hopefully Phil pulls a Sony and pays for CoD to be exclusively not on PlayStation.

That would be hysterical. Not letting us buy it? fine, pays billions to keep CoD exclusive to Xbox for 10 years out of spite

 

[graywolf323]

Nah definitely not for the best, imagine how much better games blizzard would make.

how so? I mean Blizzard being free of Activision would be great yes but Microsoft has not demonstrated that they’re good at studio management

 

[Coloress_Kafka]

Crazy that Sony is gonna end up reaping the benefits of the deal getting blocked while simultaneously not being the bad guy because the CMA already nullified their concerns.

 

[FrankWza]

Hopefully Phil pulls a Sony and pays for CoD to be exclusively not on PlayStation.

Right about now Microsoft telling Phil

 

[ulantan]

So we should cripple Microsoft's ability to expand their games portfolio while we give Sony time to sit there and build up their cloud gaming infrastructure so Sony can have the best games, the best cloud, and the best console. While Microsoft just closes the Xbox division. Yeah, makes sense.

Punish Microsoft for already having cloud infrastructure while giving Sony a chance to get it so Microsoft can never compete/use their advantage. I see now.

Why can't Microsoft just make better games that draw people in they have the money and the talent?

 

[Heisenberg007]

They will just go buy GTA now. Ms isn’t going anywhere and will continue to fuck shit up. Ubisoft as well. They are very cheap and produce far more games than ABK.

But good news for the industry regardless.

They will run into the same issues with GTA.

Ironically, since console SLC was ignored by the CMA, and the deal got blocked because of xCloud's 70% gaming market, Sony might actually be allowed to buy Take Two because they only have a 20% Cloud gaming market share.

 

[zomboden]

seems wasteful and destructive. It'd give them even worse PR than they already have.

Doesn't matter. It's about long term profitability. Look at Google they refunded every single person who bought literally anything on Stadia. DLC, MTX, everything. Yeah, it would cost way more to do that with Xbox but I still think it's in the realm of possibility.

 

[FalsettoVibe]

Did Lulu delete all her previous tweets related to this deal or am I overlooking them?

 

[Fabieter]

So we should cripple Microsoft's ability to expand their games portfolio while we give Sony time to sit there and build up their cloud gaming infrastructure so Sony can have the best games, the best cloud, and the best console. While Microsoft just closes the Xbox division. Yeah, makes sense.

Punish Microsoft for already having cloud infrastructure while giving Sony a chance to get it so Microsoft can never compete/use their advantage. I see now.

Their advantage as in not allowing any competition?

 

[Heisenberg007]

Hopefully Phil pulls a Sony and pays for CoD to be exclusively not on PlayStation.

That will kill Activision, COD, and Xbox faster than you can think There is a reason why it hasn't happened yet.

 

[ergem]

I think a change in course for the company as a whole already started now that the tech world and Nadella is obsessed with the next big thing; AI. I suspect they'll be putting obscene amounts of money into that to fight Google, who unlike Sony/Nintendo, have a similarly ridiculous war chest of cash.

Put it this way - what industry do you think MS sees as more profitable and has the potential to be a more disruptive tech right now, console/cloud gaming or AI? It's clear to me the latter would be the clear favourite.

I don't like MS buying ChatGPT but it is what it is. I don't want MS's hands in AI industry as I don't want it to turn into a Windows situation again. But if that's what will keep Nadella to look away from the gaming industry then I'd rather have him have it and leave gaming alone.

 

[DForce]

Hopefully Phil pulls a Sony and pays for CoD to be exclusively not on PlayStation.

They would have to pay billions... and that wouldn't be worth it.

 

[NickFire]

I love how Microsoft employees are melting over this

She might want to put the keyboard away today. Most of her stuff I’ve seen is benign. But that kind of tweet is probably not in her company’s best interests right now.

 

[Mr.Phoenix]

Nope, didn’t Sony recently acquire another studio? They’ve been doing it unscathed for years, but like a frog in a pot, cooked slowly and no one notices or cares.

So you do not know the difference between sony buying a studio called Firewalk (bet you can't even think of a game they have made) and MS buying a publisher called Activision? less than a year after also just buying a publisher called Bethesda?

Are you in that much denial?

Notice how no one batted an eye when MS bought Ninja theory? Same reason no one bats an eye when Sony buys studios that are typically usually already working with them exclusively.... even if that wasn't the case with ninja theory.

 

[Noxxera]

how so? I mean Blizzard being free of Activision would be great yes but Microsoft has not demonstrated that they’re good at studio management

The way I see it games take years to develop and Microsoft purchased studios not too long ago. Game haven't even been made under their umbrella. I have not idea what you guys are talking about when you say they haven't "demostrated good studio management". Like.. let's say bethesda was purchased this year you'd expect Starfield 2 to be released next year right? That's demostrating good studio management? If you think that, that blows my mind

 

[zomboden]

Their advantage as in not allowing any competition?

Sony already uses Azure. So I don't see why they couldn't just continue paying Microsoft to use it. They blocked this assuming that I GUESS Sony is going to build its own cloud infrastructre (yeah right). Sony will never be able to afford to build anything rivaling Azure.

 

[IlGialloMondadori]

I love how Microsoft employees are melting over this

Lulu throwing out threats.

 

[DeepEnigma]

Legitimately concerned about Xbox as a brand at this point.

I think it's time for me to consider a shift to PC as my primary gaming platform.

 

[solidus12]

But Hoeg’s law said it was a done deal?

Anyway what a great news to wake up to !!!

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

ok....so....the CMA just opened MS's legs for the FTC?

this week was supposed to be a week of celebration, happiness and relief.

 

[Gone]

But the comparative downside is every major FPS franchise being controlled by one company, which would allow them to lock down a massive chunk of the market.

Wasn't Halo "dead" to most people?

Isn't Battlefield there?

Who's stopping Sony from creating a good fps that can take market share? (Ps: they're making some fps games)

 

[64bitmodels]

Legitimately concerned about Xbox as a brand at this point.

I think it's time for me to consider a shift to PC as my primary gaming platform.

if you do it, use linux to put some extra salt in the wound

 

[killatopak]

Does this mean Sega is out as well?

 

[Mibu no ookami]

The CMA narrowing the deal made an appeal very difficult.

Awful week/month/year for Phil Spencer

 

[Skifi28]

this week was supposed to be a week of celebration, happiness and relief.

I got a fat bonus from work I'm blowing on a GPU. The week is going great!

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

But Hoeg’s law said it was a done deal?

Anyway what a great news to wake up to !!!

i dont think he said that....in the other hand Michael Pacther and the other creepy lawyer.......

 

[graywolf323]

The way I see it games take years to develop and Microsoft purchased studios not too long ago. Game haven't even been made under their umbrella. I have not idea what you guys are talking about when you say they haven't "demostrated good studio management". Like.. let's say bethesda was purchased this year you'd expect Starfield 2 to be released next year right? That's demostrating good studio management? If you think that, that blows my mind

we aren’t just talking about the past few years when we say stuff like that, it’s going all the way back to 2008 when Phil Spencer took over as the head of Xbox Game Studios, it’s been a problem for Xbox since after the first half of the 360 gen (they knocked it out of the park those first few years)

 

[Heisenberg007]

Did Lulu delete all her previous tweets related to this deal or am I overlooking them?

Lulu is hurt. Expect her to remove her profile picture from Twitter and start posting sad songs and quotes.

 

[Zheph]

She might want to put the keyboard away today. Most of her stuff I’ve seen is benign. But that kind of tweet is probably not in her company’s best interests right now.

it's the stance Activision has chosen it seems

again another spicy last quote

 

[BadBurger]

I love how Microsoft employees are melting over this

She's actually an ABK employee executive. I suppose she had a lot to gain in stock options or some such if this deal had gone through.

 

[Zok310]

This is substantial. Where is it from?

Its in the op

 

[Mibu no ookami]

If I’m Sony, I announce a move to buy T2 and FromSoftware today.