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[Panajev2001a]

This does nothing but prevent cod from being on cloud gaming. That is not a win for gamers

See it is statements like this that make me think you will say anything to support this deal / nothing if you could help make it pass. Come on, you cannot be this disingenuous…

 

[Zheph]

UK will. Even more isolated than Brexit exit

 

[daninthemix]

It should be illegal to block acquisitions based on hypothetical future situations. They assume cloud gaming is going to take off in popularity and they assume that Sony won't have infrastructure to compete with Microsoft by the time that happens. Dumb decision all around.

Really bad news for Xbox. Will only slow sales down more. Not looking good. Good chance people will look back on this as CMA killing the Xbox brand.

So the CMA is not allowed to hypothesize, but you are?

 

[IlGialloMondadori]

Now, at last, it’s time for Sony to deliver the killing blow. Blue Box Studios Silent Hill will be revealed. All is happening according the plan.

Hasan Rising.

 

[IlGialloMondadori]

Man the pantshitting at re. Bunch of people seem to have invested in ActiBlizz and are now poorer.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

Man the pantshitting at re. Bunch of people seem to have invested in ActiBlizz and are now poorer.

Playing acquisition arbitrage is fun until you get burnt.

 

[Banjo64]

Yeah, I am suprised at how many in here is actually thinking anyone is afraid of a cloud monopoly.

Xbox is trying to build a service where we don't have to spend fortunes on games, and people are trying to defend Sony and the broken AAA model.

Reminds me of a fantastic video I watched on YouTube this week where someone ripped in to Xbox’s current strategy and said ‘they have somehow convinced people that they don’t measure success in money’. You’ve been had hook, line and sinker.

 

[Banjo64]

Reminds me......where is @ManaByte anyway?

I definitely believe the discord rumour now. Everytime there’s serious negative news on Xbox there’s radio silence from a couple of them but then they all rock up at the same time. Mods should keep an eye on this coordinated astroturfing.

 

[John Wick]

Yet Sony can go on studio spending sprees

Nothing stopping MS from buying a studio. Big difference from Sony buying Firewalk and MS trying to aquire ABK. But you already knew that so why act the fool?

 

[DJ12]

Xbox is nothing short of a disaster. Dump Phil or lose the brand for good.

Isn't this what they are doing anyway, xbox is already sidelined in favour of Microsoft gaming.

I think if things don’t turn around Microsoft will sale Xbox off and it will turn into a publisher. Then Sony will have a monopoly on high end console market.

To who, who has enough money for one. Then those that can afford it, why wouldn't they just go it alone rather than try with a brand name that's hardly Stella and comes with serious baggage though constant mismanagement.

Your samsungs and apples would start fresh for sure.

UK will. Even more isolated than Brexit exit

Don't worry, we still have the HMS Victory, we'll fire up the empire again if things get tough.

 

[Nicktendo86]

At what point did they start to really fuck up Xbox? It looked so promising for the first half of the 360 era, I’d say about then the first party offerings started to either dry up or dive in quality leading to the Xbone launch fiasco.

They don’t seem to be interested in trying to complete by making better products since about then, I honestly have no idea what their goal in this industry is anymore. So many wasted studios and IP, they’re like a bed blocker in a hospital.

 

[recursive]

Tennis or Basketball?

Squash actually.

 

[azertydu91]

At what point did they start to really fuck up Xbox? It looked so promising for the first half of the 360 era, I’d say about then the first party offerings started to either dry up or dive in quality leading to the Xbone launch fiasco.

They don’t seem to be interested in trying to complete by making better products since about then, I honestly have no idea what their goal in this industry is anymore. So many wasted studios and IP, they’re like a bed blocker in a hospital.

So around 2009 2010?

 

[Nydius]

Sony does need to start securing their partners and start solidifying themselves in this industry.

Selling massive amount of consoles and breaking record is great but so is rectifying their weakness.

The only thing Microsoft is outperforming Sony on is subscription service and cloud services.
Game Pass and xCloud are the only things Microsoft have that are "winning".

Sony is destroying them in console sales, software attach rates, software sales. The things that matter for a gaming division. Microsoft has to resort to gimmicky PR numbers like "player engagement" or "total number of players" to make their games sound bigger than they are -- and those numbers are pumped up by, you guessed it, Game Pass.

Marvel's Spider-Man alone has sold over 30 million copies, Horizon Zero Dawn (not including Forbidden West) has sold over 20 million. Halo, combined, has only sold 81 million over twenty years. The only estimate I could find for Forza Motorsport plus Forza Horizon is 16 million combined.

What, exactly, does Sony need to shore up? Their own first party FPS game? Because that's about the only thing they lack relative to Microsoft.

Sony's never really shown much interest in cloud gaming, so the entire cloud argument has nothing to do with Sony at all.

 

[baphomet]

At what point did they start to really fuck up Xbox? It looked so promising for the first half of the 360 era, I’d say about then the first party offerings started to either dry up or dive in quality leading to the Xbone launch fiasco.

They don’t seem to be interested in trying to complete by making better products since about then, I honestly have no idea what their goal in this industry is anymore. So many wasted studios and IP, they’re like a bed blocker in a hospital.

It's literally been downhill since the final couple of 360 years.

They stopped caring about first party games and still don't give any fucks about them.

 

[rnlval]

13 million XSX
32 million PS5

Enough said.

 

[Duchess]

Good chance people will look back on this as CMA killing the Xbox brand.

The only entity that has killed the Xbox brand is Microsoft. We all know it.

In years to come, people will look back on this as the week Microsoft conceded the 9th console generation to Sony.

Starfield will likely get a good reception, but it simply won't be enough. And Redfall is certainly not a reason to invest in an Xbox, and neither will Senua's Saga.

 

[Banjo64]

Holy fuck I’ve just realised this cheeky bastard has actually listed Banjo Kazooie here!? What the fuck?

 

[John Wick]

But but.. the experts at Gaf said it will go through

Remember when Wall St said this deal would fail? GAF Xbox fanboys said how stupid those guys were. How MS hasn't a Monoply in the games market etc etc.

 

[John Wick]

They've always been ridiculous throughout this whole thing. They were slightly less ridiculous when they acknowledged their math errors. Now back to full ridiculous.

Aww don't be upset. The correct outcome for gamers has been reached. The CMA are doing their job properly.

 

[DenchDeckard]

I hope MS pull out of this soon. Focus on the core business and actually put some real effort in to securing great games and delivering strong first party output.

 

[Nicktendo86]

It's literally been downhill since the final couple of 360 years.

They stopped caring about first party games and still don't give any fucks about them.

Thinking about it a little more I think Kinect was the turning point.

Edit: just to elaborate I am not blaming Kinect itself but saying it was a product of their shifting mindset. It seemed to be went studio output went downhill, Rare focused on Kinect, Lionhead shit the bed with Milo etc

 

[BbMajor7th]

Explain ff7, ff7-2, deathloop, ghostwire, forspoken, and ff16 then.

Money is money. If ms outbids Sony there is no reason they can’t at least get cod on gamepass.

Those are all marketing partnerships. Platform holders are much more effective marketers due to the vast audiences they're plugged into and the data they farm. Publishers don't have that - they're trying to develop it through thier own platforms (which are usually unpopular) - but it's miles behind the biggest platform holders. That's why they do it.

 

[Mokus]

Microsoft should have gone with Sega... in the early 2000s.

 

[John Wick]

Clearly a ton of fanboys here that didn't want it to go through because it wasn't their platform of choice.

The decision is quite baffling tbh, based on their ACTUAL written reasoning (cloud gaming). The deal not going ahead means the game is not available for cloud streaming at all, whereas if it did go through it would be available on all browsers, Xbox, playstation, mobile and just about every other.

So instead of it being on the most widely available platforms for cloud. It's now on none. It honestly seems like CMA don't really understand what they are regulating here.

Pack it up guys. We have a bonafida armchair expert who knows far more than the CMA.
So when Cloud gaming becomes a thing do you think ABK will leave that money on the table? You seriously think they won't bring streaming for their games?
Sometimes I wonder about the hot takes on here.

 

[b6a6es]

Pretty sure I remember the sole reason was to "can't wait to see the meltdown. It will be glorious". I think those posts didn't aged well.

Actually, that statement aged like wine

 

[TrebleShot]

The naivety of ms pulling Xbox out of the uk is staggering, absolutely brain dead.
Their second biggest market, the portal into Europe and a huge developing market - nah some fanboys aren’t happy let’s pull out of the uk , lol, so dumb.

 

[mansoor1980]

The naivety of ms pulling Xbox out of the uk is staggering, absolutely brain dead.
Their second biggest market, the portal into Europe and a huge developing market - nah some fanboys aren’t happy let’s pull out of the uk , lol, so dumb.

they wont do it , its just PR talk

 

[reksveks]

they wont do it , its just PR talk

It would have to be said from MS/ABK to be PR talk, right? Their current comments arent the same as 'MS will pull out of the UK'.

It's stupid from the people saying that nevertheless.

 

[TrebleShot]

they wont do it , its just PR talk

It would have to be said from MS/ABK to be PR talk, right? Their current comments arent the same as 'MS will pull out of the UK'.

It's stupid from the people saying that nevertheless.

I promise you it’s not even being considered.

 

[John Wick]

Suddenly everyone worries about the cloud. When not a single person could careless about it 1 hour ago. I've got 1,000 mb's fiber internet which is 5x faster than the average US connection and I also do not have a data cap. Which a lot of people have. And when I stream a 4k video game at 60 fps when lots of things happen on the screen it pixalates. And I still have high latency and packet loss. Good luck with the cloud future. It's going to be an eternity before people will have internet connections worthy of seamless 4k 60/120 video game streaming. Imagine how strong the hardware is going to be by then. No chance that Internet gets better faster than hardware. Overall it's a dumb decision. I don't think cloud gaming is the future. Nobody wants to play a soft video that pixelates, has input delay, etc. When they can play natively.

Clearly someone can't see the wood for the trees. If you don't understand the arguement the CMA are making then your either thick or being dense on purpose.

 

[reksveks]

I promise you it’s not even being considered.

The furthest I can see MS taking it is changing their VC priorities to try and minimise risks but even then i am not sure it's going to have a major impact.

 

[Marvel14]

Is this an actual Brexit benefit since the EU was ready to approve the deal?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-65407005

Answers on a postcard....

Not to toot my own horn but my intuition was that the deal was MS' strategy to be the monopolist (like Amazon) in cloud gaming.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

At what point did they start to really fuck up Xbox? It looked so promising for the first half of the 360 era, I’d say about then the first party offerings started to either dry up or dive in quality leading to the Xbone launch fiasco.

They don’t seem to be interested in trying to complete by making better products since about then, I honestly have no idea what their goal in this industry is anymore. So many wasted studios and IP, they’re like a bed blocker in a hospital.

I was there for those early 360 days. I was one of those guys who literally camped outside a Best Buy back in 2006 overnight for launch, no joke. That first year experiencing HD gaming for the first time with Dead Rising and Gears of War was memorable. Dead Rising was the game that killed my launch 360, Gears 1 ended up being the one which killed my second. My 3rd 360 was the one that I have to this very day, it's in a closet somewhere in my house. All hail the RRoD, genocider of early 360's.

They had all this goodwill built up from the first couple years of 360. But somehow MS completely squandered their early lead even though they had help from Sony completely fumbling the PS3 launch. But Sony really worked hard to turn it around, by the time I got my PS3 + MGS4 bundle, things had really started looking up for Sony and somehow they not only recovered they went on to take 2nd place at the end of that gen behind the runaway meme success of the Wii because 360 fell off a cliff.

MS decided instead of trying to build on what worked with the 360, they tried to chase Nintendo with the Kinect even though even Nintendo saw that motion gaming was a total fad and would soon be forgotten and then it was TV TV TV and Always Online/No Used Games with the XBone and they completely killed it before it even launched. By the time the XBone and PS4 launched, the XBone was stillborn because Sony had learned a lot from the mistakes made with the PS3 and the PS4 was a complete turnaround for them.

Since then, MS has seemed very uninterested in the Xbox, they basically sent XBone out to die and then followed up with the equally listless XSX/S which has almost no first party game support. After an entire gen of PS4's dominance, 3rd parties also seem very wary of XSX/S and aren't willing to do timed exclusive deals with MS anymore after they saw how timed exclusives for Titanfall killed that nascent franchise before it could even be born and also Tomb Raider which almost killed that venerable franchise.

MS really has shown a complete lack of care after the first few years of 360, which is one reason I'm baffled by why they should suddenly decide to blow $70 billion to acquire Activision Blizzard when they could hardly bother to support the XBone and XSX/S. The behavior of monopolists in competitive markets is always confusing, I guess.

 

[IlGialloMondadori]

Thinking about it a little more I think Kinect was the turning point.

Edit: just to elaborate I am not blaming Kinect itself but saying it was a product of their shifting mindset. It seemed to be went studio output went downhill, Rare focused on Kinect, Lionhead shit the bed with Milo etc

MS still dancing to the Kinect tune.

 

[reksveks]

Is this an actual Brexit benefit since the EU was ready to approve the deal?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-65407005

Answers on a postcard....

Not sure what 'answers on a postcard' means

Nope, the CMA and their responsibilities predates Brexit. Most EU countries do also do some antitrust infringement investigations as well.

 

[mrmustard]

 

[reksveks]

Fear that's only true if the EC also blocks the deal otherwise this will continue for a while.

P. S my fear is cause I am getting rather bored.

 

[MasterCornholio]

The eating shall commence soon. Glad this is almost over.

 

[DForce]

It's funny how the narrative changes.

Before the block:
"Microsoft doesn't care about console sales. They're focused on Game Pass and putting it on every single device."

After the block:
"How can they block the deal based on cloud gaming? It's an unproven market!"

 

[Spitfire098]

Busted out the special sheets for this special news day. Sleeping well tonight!!!!

 

[Zheph]

Fear that's only true if the EC also blocks the deal otherwise this will continue for a while.

P. S my fear is cause I am getting rather bored.

it's a dead deal tho but yeah we might still have to talk about it for a bit because ego? They need to move on

 

[Nicktendo86]

I was there for those early 360 days. I was one of those guys who literally camped outside a Best Buy back in 2006 overnight for launch, no joke. That first year experiencing HD gaming for the first time with Dead Rising and Gears of War was memorable. Dead Rising was the game that killed my launch 360, Gears 1 ended up being the one which killed my second. My 3rd 360 was the one that I have to this very day, it's in a closet somewhere in my house. All hail the RRoD, genocider of early 360's.

They had all this goodwill built up from the first couple years of 360. But somehow MS completely squandered their early lead even though they had help from Sony completely fumbling the PS3 launch. But Sony really worked hard to turn it around, by the time I got my PS3 + MGS4 bundle, things had really started looking up for Sony and somehow they not only recovered they went on to take 2nd place at the end of that gen behind the runaway meme success of the Wii because 360 fell off a cliff.

MS decided instead of trying to build on what worked with the 360, they tried to chase Nintendo with the Kinect even though even Nintendo saw that motion gaming was a total fad and would soon be forgotten and then it was TV TV TV and Always Online/No Used Games with the XBone and they completely killed it before it even launched. By the time the XBone and PS4 launched, the XBone was stillborn because Sony had learned a lot from the mistakes made with the PS3 and the PS4 was a complete turnaround for them.

Since then, MS has seemed very uninterested in the Xbox, they basically sent XBone out to die and then followed up with the equally listless XSX/S which has almost no first party game support. After an entire gen of PS4's dominance, 3rd parties also seem very wary of XSX/S and aren't willing to do timed exclusive deals with MS anymore after they saw how timed exclusives for Titanfall killed that nascent franchise before it could even be born and also Tomb Raider which almost killed that venerable franchise.

MS really has shown a complete lack of care after the first few years of 360, which is one reason I'm baffled by why they should suddenly decide to blow $70 billion to acquire Activision Blizzard when they could hardly bother to support the XBone and XSX/S. The behavior of monopolists in competitive markets is always confusing, I guess.

This almost word for word my exact experience. It was Fight Night which blew me away when my brother got a 360, played the hell out of his console until it RRoD and then forked out for my own elite 360. PS3 was a total joke during those early days, I eventually picked one up and through Sony’s sheer effort turned it around to the point I moved on and my PS3 was just favoured more.

I only have a XBone as my brother gave his old one to me and I barely touch it, not sire why I am still subbed to game pass tbh. I really hope they turn it around, Sony are always at their best when they have proper competition.

 

[mrmustard]

Fear that's only true if the EC also blocks the deal otherwise this will continue for a while.

P. S my fear is cause I am getting rather bored.

I just wanted to summarize the last 36 pages for the newcomers.

 

[reksveks]

it's a dead deal tho but yeah we might still have to talk about it for a bit because ego? They need to move on

I think it's dead. Ego is a big part of it but also the fact that the CMA arguments basically blocks them from buying any companies in digital markets where Azure and/or windows could be an advantage.

I do think they need to move on and get Microsoft gaming services working on Linux and that could maybe help any potential acquisitions in this space.

 

[IlGialloMondadori]

Brad Smith has no chill. "He said that UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak should "look hard at the role of the CMA," and he said the European Commission's approach was far better."

Get Sunak on the phone! Gamers need COD on Gamepass! It's that or the death of liberty, Sunak!

 

[Corndog]

I was there for those early 360 days. I was one of those guys who literally camped outside a Best Buy back in 2006 overnight for launch, no joke. That first year experiencing HD gaming for the first time with Dead Rising and Gears of War was memorable. Dead Rising was the game that killed my launch 360, Gears 1 ended up being the one which killed my second. My 3rd 360 was the one that I have to this very day, it's in a closet somewhere in my house. All hail the RRoD, genocider of early 360's.

They had all this goodwill built up from the first couple years of 360. But somehow MS completely squandered their early lead even though they had help from Sony completely fumbling the PS3 launch. But Sony really worked hard to turn it around, by the time I got my PS3 + MGS4 bundle, things had really started looking up for Sony and somehow they not only recovered they went on to take 2nd place at the end of that gen behind the runaway meme success of the Wii because 360 fell off a cliff.

MS decided instead of trying to build on what worked with the 360, they tried to chase Nintendo with the Kinect even though even Nintendo saw that motion gaming was a total fad and would soon be forgotten and then it was TV TV TV and Always Online/No Used Games with the XBone and they completely killed it before it even launched. By the time the XBone and PS4 launched, the XBone was stillborn because Sony had learned a lot from the mistakes made with the PS3 and the PS4 was a complete turnaround for them.

Since then, MS has seemed very uninterested in the Xbox, they basically sent XBone out to die and then followed up with the equally listless XSX/S which has almost no first party game support. After an entire gen of PS4's dominance, 3rd parties also seem very wary of XSX/S and aren't willing to do timed exclusive deals with MS anymore after they saw how timed exclusives for Titanfall killed that nascent franchise before it could even be born and also Tomb Raider which almost killed that venerable franchise.

MS really has shown a complete lack of care after the first few years of 360, which is one reason I'm baffled by why they should suddenly decide to blow $70 billion to acquire Activision Blizzard when they could hardly bother to support the XBone and XSX/S. The behavior of monopolists in competitive markets is always confusing, I guess.

How are they a monopolist?

 

[Corndog]

Isn't this what they are doing anyway, xbox is already sidelined in favour of Microsoft gaming.

To who, who has enough money for one. Then those that can afford it, why wouldn't they just go it alone rather than try with a brand name that's hardly Stella and comes with serious baggage though constant mismanagement.

Your samsungs and apples would start fresh for sure.

Don't worry, we still have the HMS Victory, we'll fire up the empire again if things get tough.

You really think investment groups can’t afford to buy Xbox? They manage trillions of dollars. Vanguard holds 8 trillion in assets.

 

[yazenov]

So is this the final nail in the MS coffin? They put all their hopes and dreams in one Activision Blizzard basket and the CMA said hell no.

Does MS even have a plan B? I mean, they are currently being dominated by the competition and even with the deal getting potentially passed by the regulators, MS doesn't stand a chance at catching up to Sony this generation. And now without this deal, they are practically a floating corpse in the water.

It's hilarious to see so many people invested in this deal literally by buying Activision Blizzard stocks because they listened to the bullshit PR and clueless armchair analysts that this was practically formality at this point and the regulators can't do anything to stop it. Jokes on them for not using their brains and thinking for themselves instead of regurgitating PR gibberish with the hivemind mentality and eco chambers.

Live and learn my friends.

 

[begotten]

Does MS even have a plan B?

Release more controllers