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Microsoft / Activision Deal Approval Watch |OT|

ToTTenTranz

ToTTenTranz

Member
He's confident you say?


https://coinyuppie.com/nvidia-ceo-j...m-acquisition-but-eu-expresses-great-concern/

Jen-Hsun Huang said he was confident that the deal would be finalized because Nvidia and Arm are complementary and the two would come together to generate more innovation
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and half a year later later:

https://nvidianews.nvidia.com/news/...ination-of-nvidias-acquisition-of-arm-limited



Perhaps people should understand that showing confidence is a CEO's job, it's not vinculative to anything and doesn't really mean anything.
 
adamsapple

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
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Tiago Rodrigues

Tiago Rodrigues

Member
Microsoft is either the No. 4 or No. 5 competitor in the video game industry, depending on how you count, Nadella said. And the No. 1 player, Sony Group Corp.,
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Never imagined I'd agree with this guy on something but here we are.
 
drganon

drganon

Member
SenjutsuSage said:
The cringe is how personally you're taking all this. It's just games. Does it bother you that I say the deal is absolutely going to close, and that nothing can or will stop it? That's my belief of the realities at play for what's going to go down. I guess you don't have to like the inevitable outcome, but I suggest start acclimating to a the real world scenario in which Microsoft is the owner of Activision Blizzard come March-June 2023, this way you won't be caught off guard.
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I never said it wouldn't go through. Most likely it will. There's nothing for me to acclimate to, like you suggest.On the other hand, I suggest you stop being such a cringey fanboy.
 
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SlimySnake

SlimySnake

The Contrarian
skit_data said:
Pretty uninspired way to compete by buying up publishers making 3rd party games previously available to everybody exclusive but whatever floats the boat I guess. Can’t fault Nadella and Spencer for not playing to their companys strengths.
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Yeah, I really dont see how this brings value to the average xbox owner. Starfield was always coming out on Xbox. There is no way CoD was ever going exclusive. I know I said I was glad to see MS finally go all in and stop treating their gaming division like the bastard child, but i wouldve rather they create new studios and build AA studios and turn them into AAA like Sony did in the late 2000s with GG, Sucker Punch, MM and Evolution Studios. Not all of them panned out but not every business venture is supposed to be successful as makers of zune would know.

I think they were trying to do that with Ninja Theory, Obsidian, Playground Games acquisitions and the creation of the Initiative, but they must have seen the slow progress and decided to go get third party publishers instead. I wish they had stuck with that appraoch and maybe bought out a 4A Games, Quantic Dream, or even CD Project instead. Those studios need the big backing of a publisher who isnt afraid of taking risks and has big pockets to go and compete with hollywood studios for artists, and other studios for developers. I am struggling to understand why a company that can afford $75 billion for one publisher cannot outbid ND, IW, Treyarch, Insomniac etc for video game talent in the great Los Angeles area.

If MS wants to compete with Tencent and Apple then they better do more than just gobble up entire publishers. They need to bring NEW talent in the industry and stop the talent drain thats currently resulting in delays and fewer games overall. We are losing artists to movies and streaming services that are making more and more higher budget tv shows with CG. We need that talent in gaming and MS has the money to prevent that talent from going to hollywood.
 
SenjutsuSage

SenjutsuSage

Halo TV Series Promoter - Live from: Reach
drganon said:
I never said it wouldn't go through. Most likely it will. There's nothing for me to acclimate to, like you suggest.On the other hand, I suggest you stop being such a cringey fanboy.
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I suggest you go grab some food and have a nice day. Today is too good a day for all the arguing lol.
 
Chukhopops

Chukhopops

Member
geary said:
I wonder who raised the game prices to 70 euro and locks game francises through exclusive deals…I bet is MS
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Exactly my point, and it’s the same idea behind all the moneyhats. People keep repeating that it’s easier for Sony to get exclusives because they have higher market share… which is exactly a definition of abusing dominant position to attempt to kill or cripple the competition.

If one day it reaches a point where it’s just Sony and Nintendo, you better start saving money because shit is going to get increasingly expensive fast.
 
DenchDeckard

DenchDeckard

Member
just get it over with lol

I think it might not go through, then there will be mass lay offs and Activision may sell off in piece meal to people like tencent.
 
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SlimySnake

SlimySnake

The Contrarian
ToTTenTranz said:
He's confident you say?


https://coinyuppie.com/nvidia-ceo-j...m-acquisition-but-eu-expresses-great-concern/



and half a year later later:

https://nvidianews.nvidia.com/news/...ination-of-nvidias-acquisition-of-arm-limited



Perhaps people should understand that showing confidence is a CEO's job, it's not vinculative to anything and doesn't really mean anything.
Click to expand...
That's true, but the ARM deal wouldve fucked over everyone from Apple to Amazon and Microsoft. The lobbying against that deal it was far more intensive than simply Sony raising a stink. I havent even heard Nintendo talk about that deal because they havent had a cod game in over a decade. I think i played Blops 2 on the Wii U and nothing after that.

At the end of the day, it all comes down to lobbying and Sony is pretty much all alone in opposing this. Jimbo has gone public to start some controversy on twitter but these govt agencies only listen to lobbyists.
 
C

C2brixx

Member
ToTTenTranz said:
He's confident you say?


https://coinyuppie.com/nvidia-ceo-j...m-acquisition-but-eu-expresses-great-concern/



and half a year later later:

https://nvidianews.nvidia.com/news/...ination-of-nvidias-acquisition-of-arm-limited



Perhaps people should understand that showing confidence is a CEO's job, it's not vinculative to anything and doesn't really mean anything.
Click to expand...
Comparing Microsoft's political clout to Nvidia's is just silly. I don't think it just confidence. Microsoft is having constant communications with regulators namely the FTC who have been particularly silent throughout this process. If the feedback from US regulators weren't in their favor I'd bet we'd see a difference response from Nadella.
 
Hawking Radiation

Hawking Radiation

Member
solidus12 said:
“So if this is about competition, let us have competition,”
rdo0A4r.jpg

🤔
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IMO They want to corner the gaming market like they've done in the PC space. Activision is the first step in that process.
 
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Iced Arcade

Iced Arcade

Member
SlimySnake said:
Yeah, I really dont see how this brings value to the average xbox owner. Starfield was always coming out on Xbox. There is no way CoD was ever going exclusive. I know I said I was glad to see MS finally go all in and stop treating their gaming division like the bastard child, but i wouldve rather they create new studios and build AA studios and turn them into AAA like Sony did in the late 2000s with GG, Sucker Punch, MM and Evolution Studios. Not all of them panned out but not every business venture is supposed to be successful as makers of zune would know.

I think they were trying to do that with Ninja Theory, Obsidian, Playground Games acquisitions and the creation of the Initiative, but they must have seen the slow progress and decided to go get third party publishers instead. I wish they had stuck with that appraoch and maybe bought out a 4A Games, Quantic Dream, or even CD Project instead. Those studios need the big backing of a publisher who isnt afraid of taking risks and has big pockets to go and compete with hollywood studios for artists, and other studios for developers. I am struggling to understand why a company that can afford $75 billion for one publisher cannot outbid ND, IW, Treyarch, Insomniac etc for video game talent in the great Los Angeles area.

If MS wants to compete with Tencent and Apple then they better do more than just gobble up entire publishers. They need to bring NEW talent in the industry and stop the talent drain thats currently resulting in delays and fewer games overall. We are losing artists to movies and streaming services that are making more and more higher budget tv shows with CG. We need that talent in gaming and MS has the money to prevent that talent from going to hollywood.
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being exclusive? no, but all those games going on gamepass and day 1... yeah its a big value to your average xbox owner and business.
 
O

Ozriel

Member
Hugare said:
Xbox was way stronger in terms of first party titles than it's today
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…And now they’re making investments that should see them get back to those heights relatively soon.

Pelta88 said:
No doubt he damaged the brand with the XB1 at the end of his tenure.

But Don was about games. He brought a lot to the forefront and in turn gave us 360 gamers confidence. XB and PS was a 1-2 punch that pushed this hobby forward. Now we get execs doing meaningless PR, almost daily.
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Man, You literally made a thread celebrating Yoshida’s interview with GI Live, but now it’s ‘meaningless PR’ for Nadella - who isn’t at all responsible for making games at Microsoft - to respond to a question from Bloomberg on the biggest tech acquisition ever?
 
ChiefDada

ChiefDada

Member
SenjutsuSage said:
Edit: On a serious note, he's confident because, unlike most who comment on this deal, he's aware there are factors at play far beyond just Call of Duty and whether it stays on Playstation.
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Yes there are other reasons for Microsoft to pursue the purchase, however the most compelling evidence in support of a merger block would be the nature of the console gaming industry, Microsoft's position as a console manufacturer, and the fact that there are so few players in that market that I don't need all the digits of one hand to count them all. Therefore it's time waisted focusing on other motivations when again, the potential ramifications on the console gaming industry is the most sensitive to the antitrust concerns surrounding this deal.

SenjutsuSage said:
There are major economic and global factors far beyond just game consoles tied to this deal. It's why there was never any chance of it being blocked.
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I don't know what you're trying to say here. What global factors are you referring to?

SenjutsuSage said:
See those interest rates continuing to being raised by the U.S. Federal Reserve? All of that stuff actually matters. Yes, even in England.
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Now this is where you started to get really weird - What in god's name does rising interest rates have to do with this deal's antitrust concerns?

SenjutsuSage said:
Microsoft deals like the one with Activision is what's considered a "good news" story for markets, and factors well above the head of Jim Ryan and what us gamers think will see this deal through to approval.
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russell westbrook wtf GIF by Steve Harvey TV
 
DarkMage619

DarkMage619

Member
StealthGoblin said:
The issue is GamePass. The regulators (and Sony) are rightly concerned that COD and other activision games going day 1 on Gamepass will harm competition and make it very difficult to compete with GamePass. How is a new sub meant to compete with it? That’s the issue.
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I'm confused. Is Game pass bad for gamers or is it a threat that competitors need to be concerned about? If Game pass is bad no one will sign up and it will disappear right? No one should be concerned about a bad service. Didn't Sony start console game sub services? It should be pretty easy for them to beat out the competition.

It is also weird to see people say Xbox is 3rd or even in 5th place(!) and a failure then in the next breath they are a monopoly and taking over the industry. How can it be doing both at the same time? Clearly this acquisition will go through and afterwards MS still won't be number 1 so there is plenty of space for competition. The industry is huge.
 
ToTTenTranz

ToTTenTranz

Member
SlimySnake said:
That's true, but the ARM deal wouldve fucked over everyone from Apple to Amazon and Microsoft. The lobbying against that deal it was far more intensive than simply Sony raising a stink. I havent even heard Nintendo talk about that deal because they havent had a cod game in over a decade. I think i played Blops 2 on the Wii U and nothing after that.

At the end of the day, it all comes down to lobbying and Sony is pretty much all alone in opposing this. Jimbo has gone public to start some controversy on twitter but these govt agencies only listen to lobbyists.
Click to expand...

I only spoke about the "Nadella feeling confident" point that generated this thread, which again is completely meaningless.

As for the lobbies, it's just one factor. An acquisition this big was always going to put under severe scrutiny. And at least Nvidia was making a ton of concessions (non-compete clauses, obligation to keep serving all ARM customers who approached them, etc.). On Microsoft's side it looks like they're trying to go with no concessions at all, at least for now.


Besides, it's not like making these threads everyday is going to make any difference. Does this help people sleep at night or something?
 
SlimySnake

SlimySnake

The Contrarian
onesvenus said:
More games in Gamepass -> More people subscribing to Gamepass -> More games in Gamepass

It's really not hard
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reksveks said:
Another timeloop?


Gamepass and playanywhere and xcloud support
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Did MS have to acquire Square Enix to make Outriders and Guardians of the Galaxy available on gamepass? Or Major League Baseball?

Did Netflix have to buy the Seinfeld IP or Warner Bros. to have Seinfeld show up on Netflix?

You dont need to spend $75 billion on massive purchases just for gamepass. If they wanted to give gamepass users COD, they wouldve simply forked over $250 million to have COD on day one. Thats basically how much money CoD generates on the xbox platforms in digital and retail sales before microtransactions.
 
phil_t98

phil_t98

#SonyToo
RCU005 said:
“Let us have competition” he says. LOL

It’s like the rich kid that brings his expensive toys to school just to brag.

One thing is to make competition, another thing entirely is to buy the entire industry because you don’t know how to make good games. If only all that money was used to create their own studios and their own IPs, Xbox would be huge. if they wanted competition they would do that, and maybe buy a couple of studios to complement it.

What they are doing is just trying to own the industry. Nintendo is successful doing their own thing, Sony too, but Microsoft just can’t.

I still can believe Ganepass is profitable. It’s just a pipe dream for them that they make work only because they can afford to hemorrhage money into it. Any other business would be bankrupt with a GamePass model.

It would be a shame if this deal pass. I know it will because there is a lot of money involve and they will be able to “convince” everyone involved in the decision.

As I said, they should use the money to create their own studios. Look how much Sony paid for Insomniac and they do amazing games.
Click to expand...


so its ok for Sony to buy studios but Microsoft should make their own studios instead, yeah right!!!
 
R

reksveks

Member
SlimySnake said:
Did MS have to acquire Square Enix to make Outriders and Guardians of the Galaxy available on gamepass? Or Major League Baseball?

Did Netflix have to buy the Seinfeld IP or Warner Bros. to have Seinfeld show up on Netflix?

You dont need to spend $75 billion on massive purchases just for gamepass. If they wanted to give gamepass users COD, they wouldve simply forked over $250 million to have COD on day one. Thats basically how much money CoD generates on the xbox platforms in digital and retail sales before microtransactions.
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But that's not the question you asked lol. You asked about what value is there for xbox user not xbox as a business

They spent 75bn cause Activision is extremely profitable, have a powerhouse of a console ip and King. I think the deal relative to the profit margin isn't crazy.
 
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A

azertydu91

Hard to Kill
SlimySnake said:
I had to google it. now im intrigued.
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Oh man you have to try...i only tried chicken madras but if you are not affraid to eat spicy (I don't) then prepare to sweat over plate....Of course the spiciness of the dish varies from a restaurant to another but it is my favorite indian dish.
 
Daytonabot

Daytonabot

Banned
Sony needs to get out of the way of battle.net getting shut down and those games coming to Steam, which is the only part about this acquisition that matters.
 
thicc_girls_are_teh_best

thicc_girls_are_teh_best

Member
Bernd Lauert said:
Isn't Sony working on 12 GaaS games, several of those being online shooters? Just make a COD killer, problem solved.
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It's not that easy.

Sosokrates said:
“So if this is about competition, let us have competition,”

Hell yes.
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You don't need to buy publishers to have competition. You just need to make high-quality games.

Let's not pretend like MS didn't have teams prior to 2018, or that they didn't buy several developers prior to Zenimax.

Banjo64 said:
Fucking hell, he definitely posts on GAF

And the No. 1 player, Sony Group Corp., has made several recent acquisitions. “So if this is about competition, let us have competition,” he said.
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NGL I do love the GameFan-era energy in that quote. I like seeing CEOs talk shit.

TheGodfather07 said:
"Let us have competition"

buys call of duty, fallout, elder scrolls, doom, prey, dishonored and thats just naming a few.

If Microsofts idea of competition is who can spend more money, than sony are already out. Bungie is like a rice grain in sand compared to Activision and zenimax but isn't this why its being looked into? At what point do they actually step in and block Microsoft? whats stopping Microsoft from going for EA, ubisoft and take two and become the market leaders?
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I think if MS's Xbox division, post-ABK, already starts matching Sony's and yet they're out trying to buy yet another big publisher, is when it finally gets shut down. Because the idea of buying your way to being the #1 revenue platform in the gaming industry isn't exactly the type of competition that is favored in industries. Heck, they're already kind of pushing it with ABK.

I just hope after this MS actually focuses on the teams they currently have and build them up right. Make sure they're being guided properly, and give the market some time to let the results speak for themselves. That's a good five or so years IMO.

FritzJ92 said:
You spent a whole paragraph talking about how Microsoft should create their own studios. Then used Sony purchase of insomniac as an example which contradicts all those words you wrote.

If building a studio from scratch was simple Sony and Microsoft would go that route. However it makes more sense to purchase talent. Welcome to the world of business.
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Sony helped build up and guide Insomniac's creative growth over a period of two decades, though. So they've been intimately involved with Insomniac since the mid 1990s. It's not like Microsoft buying Ninja Theory or ABK, for example.

MS have had some close ties with Bethesda since the early 2000s though, so that can be seen as a natural progression of a relationship, when they purchased Zenimax/Bethesda.

geary said:
I wonder who raised the game prices to 70 euro and locks game francises through exclusive deals…I bet is MS
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Psychonauts 2 physical edition is $70 on Xbox platforms.

Ozriel said:
Notable that Nintendo hasn’t filed any complaints for the regulators. Surely, if your claims are valid, Nintendo should be worried too?
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This is whataboutism; Nintendo barely gets ABK games outside of the Crash, Spyro type of games. COD hasn't been on a Nintendo platform since the Wii days and I'm not even sure about that. They don't have a close business relationship with ABK the way Sony does, so why would Nintendo file any complaints?

Now if MS were going after, say, The Pokemon Company, or Sega, or maybe even Ubisoft...well I bet you Nintendo would be filing a lot of complaints in those cases given how close they are with The Pokemon Company and Sega, and they've gotten a couple of exclusives out of partnerships with Ubisoft as well.
 
adamsapple

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Bernd Lauert said:
Isn't Sony working on 12 GaaS games, several of those being online shooters? Just make a COD killer, problem solved.
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Yes. At the earliest, if this deal goes through, they will still have CoD till 2028. For their first party output, it's reasonably enough time to create a high quality first person shooter of their own.
 
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