Microsoft Tries to Buy Activision Blizzard

[Neon Ignition]

Microsoft responds to re-filed "gamer's lawsuit" against Activision acquisition | Eurogamer.net
10 gamers try for a second time to stop the buyout with the most feeble challenge yet

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[Cassius_Smoke]

By the time MS owns them, there'll be no one there working on anything.

https://www.ign.com/articles/blizzard-producer-claims-studio-is-creating-crisis-maps-as-more-employees-depart

[MartyG]

It's been blocked over cloud gaming. Wtf? Cloud gaming? Seriously?

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/breaking-microsoft-vows-to-appeal-as-the-uk-regulator-blocks-its-acquisition-of-activision-blizzard

[Neon Ignition]

It still reads like the CMA still don't really understand what Cloud Gaming is, Call of Duty isn't going to decide the fate and monopoly of Cloud so after all the hoops they've gone through it's a weaker position to take a stance on than the one they hand wrung over originally.

God knows how long the appeal process is. If the EU or FTC block it then presumably it's 100% dead, if both pass it then the CMA will look really out on a limb. Either way, I still think Sony is in for a rockier road if it doesn't go through than if it does.

[Cassius_Smoke]

It's a valid reason to block it. MS are the only ones with a full blooded cloud gaming environment, with no real competition. Taking a mega franchise like COD and putting it on a single access system would be bad for customers. Neither Sony or Nintendo can currently access Xbox cloud gaming, making it (technically) a monopoly.

They'll appeal, but since this was a straight out block, with no court involvement, it'll likely fail. And an appeal will take them past the the June deadline for the acquisition. In effect, the acquisition is now dead.

[Neon Ignition]

Effectively MS being penalised for other companies backing out the space.

Well, COD fans can now look forward to... well... not much of a difference. PS fans can likely look forward to numerous small-mid tier companies being aggressively hoovered up by MS in future denying them of far more IPs than this would have.

[Lebowski]

Their right though Microsoft owning Call of Duty would be a massive benefit to Microsoft and only really beneficial to xbox's existing gamepass player base (i sub to gamepass) it means they don't have to pay £70 to play the new cod on xbox, Pushing one of the biggest multi-platform game on the planet into their cloud and gamepass eco system is a massive boon for them.

The discussion about gamepass canabalising its own sales comes up again and again. if you put that discusion into a platform choice it gets even more sketchy. Play all new Activision, bethesda, Id, Arkane, ect games for one small monthly fee on xbox or pay £60-70 a game on playstation or not at all as is the case of games like Redfall and Starfeild.

i don't get the above ad either Call of Duty is already available on xbox where are they getting this 150 million more players from?

[Cassius_Smoke]

Effectively MS being penalised for other companies backing out the space.

More or less. They do say that in 10 years the market could move to being more cloud based, and MS being the biggest player in the cloud space along with COD might squash any rising competition in that market (NVIDIA, Apple ect).

MS could put those billions into creating games from their existing IPs they own....but that's too much hard work, better to spend it on 50 smaller companies, have them release 1 game and kill them.

[Neon Ignition]

The 150 million figure has been a misleader like Sega's 6bn players. They're referring to the 10yr agreements they signed meaning that they were classing bringing COD to Cloud, NVidia and Switch being an expansion.

With the deal dying Switch now loses receiving COD and MS software support also which is something MS will presumably appeal on.

I'm already curious as to which company will be the next in their sights because you don't get this acquistion report and those hardware sales figures in the same week and not have the big bosses wanting a fast Plan B

[Cassius_Smoke]

They need to fire big Phil for a start. Under his command the Xbox has declined year on year for 6 years. Going an entire year with no games is completely inexcusable. You own 27 ****ing studios Phil, tell them to make some games and also, perhaps you should have told them to start production 5 years ago so your new console has something to play!

But yeah, they'll just buy a load of developers now and expect magic.

[Neon Ignition]

I'm equally amazed at the lack of leaks on Xbox games considering how long they develop them for

[nonny]

I honestly find that decision insane given that the reasons given were around competition in cloud gaming... Absolutely Microsoft will appeal, the CMA clearly doesn't have a clue.

[Cassius_Smoke]

I can see what the CMA are saying.
Their decision was based on the idea that in 5 or 6 years, if NVIDIA for example want to expand their cloud environment, it would be that much harder to compete with the behemoth of Microsoft if they also had COD available on XBOX Cloud. Remember, by that point, if cloud gaming takes off, the only place to play COD on a phone on the bus would be if you had a MS account.

The EU courts were also waiting for the UK to make its decision, so it's likely they'll follow suite to match us.

[fishbowlhead]

Good. Mega corp isn’t allowed to gobble up a massive corp, what a shame.

[CMcK]

Why are the CMA so convinced cloud gaming is the next big thing?