Microsoft wins FTC appeal challenging $69 billion Activision Blizzard deal
ChorizoPicozo
Member
... but a what cost, Philnatos?
HeisenbergFX4
Member
Come on FTC
Knightime_X
Member
I wonder if xbox gets an additional cut with each purchase, or does nintendo\sony pony money up front?
ExtendEmbraceExtinguish
Member
great now onto the next acquisition and remaking some of the older games in possession.
Although its licensed I would like marvel ultimate alliance series back. Forget the cgi just give us team based endings; hire some comic book artists to highlight endings from ff/X-men blue/ gold/xforce/xfactor/midnight suns ect..
Although its licensed I would like marvel ultimate alliance series back. Forget the cgi just give us team based endings; hire some comic book artists to highlight endings from ff/X-men blue/ gold/xforce/xfactor/midnight suns ect..
rodrigolfp
Haptic Gamepads 4 Life
Ftfy.
Sooner
Member
Xbox has been day one on PC long before this. Gears and Forza being on PS5 is because of this aquisition.
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Gamer_By_Proxy
Member
Bobby Kotick and Lulu
rodrigolfp
Haptic Gamepads 4 Life
But Sony games on PC not. Plus Activision games on PC gamepass.
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Danny Dudekisser
I paid good money for this Dynex!
Lol, well that's cute that they're still talking about it. I was one of the people that the EU's commission interviewed in determining the competitive impact of this deal being allowed to go through. They were a lot quicker about it, thankfully.
Either way, this is the most laughably short-sighted, actually somewhat self-damaging deal I've ever seen in this business. They deserve every bit of it.
Either way, this is the most laughably short-sighted, actually somewhat self-damaging deal I've ever seen in this business. They deserve every bit of it.
ExtendEmbraceExtinguish
Member
No. It's msft; they get the entire catalog for ai, fuse to their new store and could potentially start a publishing war by selling discounted keys.
Silly theory: raise game prices and sell at a discount on your own store with keys to unlock at the other stores.
Xbox being sacrificed into msft to return as a pc has more value as a unified ecosystem.
Mr Moose
Member
HZD was released in 2020 on PC. What does that have to do with Activision/Xbox?
LordOcidax
Member
Another L for the Neogaf lawyers 
delirium trigger
Member
You were all crying about this going through.
adamsapple
Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
rodrigolfp
Haptic Gamepads 4 Life
Yeah my bad. I was thinking negotiations had started around that time but, no.
UniformDeliverance
Member
I mean.. They don't 'get' those games. Microsoft is selling those games on their platform and profiting from it. Perhaps this is a mutually beneficial situation, but it seems to me like a publisher making money from every storefront, will be more successful than on who only sells on a single platform.
But I guess we will see.
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poppabk
Cheeks Spread for Digital Only Future
Fixed that for you.
Games going to Playstation is because the Xbox continues to sell worse and worse each year making exclusivity a failure, nothing to do with the aquisition.
DeepEnigma
Gold Member
There are over $80+ billion reasons between Bethesda and ABK as to why they haven't turned a traditional profit yet. Probably also why Diablo 4 is getting more and more expensive packages and game/hardware prices are increasing.
Got to pay back those enterprise loans at the investors table.
Danny Dudekisser
I paid good money for this Dynex!
The issue is that the ultimate effect of all this is that PlayStation's ecosystem is being expanded, not Microsoft's. And the ecosystem is what matters to these companies at this point as they scramble to lock players in and have rapidly growing recurring revenue from all of their users. Instead, it looks like all Microsoft ended up buying for their $80b+ is ABK's existing revenue stream; not something that's spiking their ecosystem's userbase or delivering more sustainable revenue in their existing channels. There is no way that this is the outcome they wanted.
Microsoft paid for the deal, and Nadella et al are seeing a hike in revenue as a result of the deal. I haven't seen a single thing that indicates the Microsoft board regrets the deal.
The 'ecosystem' Nadella is chasing isn't hardware sales. It's putting xbox games everywhere. And thats the route Spencer is being directed to take.
I don't like it, but it is what it is.
Activision's revenue stream and a potential shot at an expansion to Mobile is pretty much what they wanted. Along with an uplift in GamePass, even though that part doesn't seem to have had a major impact
Danny Dudekisser
I paid good money for this Dynex!
Okay, but why does Microsoft want to put Xbox games everywhere? It's not for pure game sales, it is to prop up the recurring revenue that comes from a huge ecosystem of paying users. Which is GamePass, which - by your own admission - hasn't really benefitted from this. Certainly not to the level Microsoft would've hoped for out of the gates.
Obviously, Microsoft hasn't been publicly vocal about their feelings around the deal, but look at how dramatically Xbox has been restructuring itself in the last couple of years. These are not the changes you see in a business that's evolving in a positive way, especially in an industry like gaming.
DeepEnigma
Gold Member
Guys like this were writing emails to the CMA in behalf of MS.
Must have had a template floating around in their infamous shill discord channel.
Astray
Member
Bro, Sony and Nintendo both outpace Microsoft in revenue even after ABK closed. Both are significantly more profitable too.
3P players generally don't make as much as successful 1P ones in this industry.
Putting games on PS5 and Switch doesn't really do anything for GamePass, though.
It's revenue they're interested in, not just GP.
Cloud is probably the area they're underperforming the most
They've been vocal about the increased revenue in their earnings report.
They're pivoting to be a third party publisher, and this looks to be a mandate from the MS leadership team.
It just means the CFO is telling Nadella and the Board that they'd make more money from putting their games everywhere, and it's probably not a hard sell for a CEO who's long been an advocate for putting MS stuff (eg Office) everywhere.
Pretty sure MS revenue was greater than Nintendo's for 2024, by no small margin.
The crux of the matter is, with or without the ABK purchase, Sony was always going to heavily outsell Xbox hardware wise, after the collapse in the Xbox one generation
Astray
Member
Nintendo has been slowing down because they didn't have Switch 2.
We're gonna see a firecracker of a launch there imo, both for software and hardware.
PaintTinJr
Member
In the end this ruling wasn't about ATVI, and more about the power of the FTC, and this ruling basically makes them powerless in the US compared to the CMA in the UK.
The outcome IIRC now means they can't get an injunction on a trade deal before it closes without proving in full their case against a merger. A little bit like needing to be ready to prove a case against a criminal in full to send them to jail just to get a search warrant.
I fail to see how anyone outside the US would consider this a good outcome, because it declaws regulators completely against the biggest companies IMO,
The outcome IIRC now means they can't get an injunction on a trade deal before it closes without proving in full their case against a merger. A little bit like needing to be ready to prove a case against a criminal in full to send them to jail just to get a search warrant.
I fail to see how anyone outside the US would consider this a good outcome, because it declaws regulators completely against the biggest companies IMO,
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The FTC's case was shoddy as hell. It doesn't declaw the regulator. They've been able to shut down proposed mergers when their cases had merit.
Just last December 2024, they won and shut down the proposed $25 billion merger of Kroger and Albertsons. They were not 'declawed' then.
Their argument that MS was going to use the ABK purchase to harm PlayStation and diminish competition has ultimately been shown to be completely daft.
Loomy
Thinks Microaggressions are Real
Only because Microsoft tripped over their wallet while celebrating.
But you're right though. This case should never have been brought, and I'm glad it's over.
StreetsofBeige
Member
The grift that keeps on giving.
FTC employees still on MS/Activision years later holding to jobs and billing lawyer fees. Looks like that endless pot of funds hasn't been DOGE'ed yet.
Dont be surprised if you see another similar article in the year 2030.
FTC employees still on MS/Activision years later holding to jobs and billing lawyer fees. Looks like that endless pot of funds hasn't been DOGE'ed yet.
Dont be surprised if you see another similar article in the year 2030.