Here's some industry news for you: the UK's Competition and Markets Authority has announced today they've blocked Microsoft's takeover of Activision.
Interestingly, the main concern of the UK CMA here seems to be around Cloud Gaming specifically. As they said in their statement "Microsoft has a strong position in cloud gaming services and the evidence available to the CMA showed that Microsoft would find it commercially beneficial to make Activision’s games exclusive to its own cloud gaming service." and that "The deal would reinforce Microsoft’s advantage in the market by giving it control over important gaming content such as Call of Duty, Overwatch, and World of Warcraft. The evidence available to the CMA indicates that, absent the merger, Activision would start providing games via cloud platforms in the foreseeable future.".
Quite a big blow to the $68.7 billion deal!
We saw Microsoft attempt to get around these concerns, with various Cloud Gaming deals being announced over the last year but it seems that just hasn't been enough. An interesting part of the CMA announcement was on a proposal submitted by Microsoft, to address some of their concerns, this proposal was to set out "requirements governing what games must be offered by Microsoft to what platforms and on what conditions over a ten-year period" but one of the shortcomings noted was "It was not sufficiently open to providers who might wish to offer versions of games on PC operating systems other than Windows.". Nice to see.
The UK certainly isn't the only country to be concerned by the power this deal would hand to Microsoft with the US FTC also trying to block it and according to Reuters earlier this year there were no substantive settlement talks on it. So now with the UK blocking it, that will likely boost the FTC's argument to block it too. On top of that, there's also the EU regulators decision coming up next month.
Microsoft, naturally, will be attempting to appeal the decision.
What are your thoughts?
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Only way to fix the issues at Activision is for them to be bought out and Microsoft is SADLY the only company that can afford them that we should trust to them cause the only other company I foresee doing so is Apple and we don't want their gruby hands on Activision..
Last edited by tohur on 26 April 2023 at 5:09 pm UTC
Quoting: Modestassony fanboysDo those exist?
Sony is not a monopoly in any market, MS is and that’s why they’re scrutinised and treated differently.
yes Microsoft and Activision are not good companies but IMHO Microsoft is the worst company that Activision can get bought out by
when it comes to the desktop for gaming Microsoft has a monopoly and they also have the Xbox do you think they are going to rales games for the PlayStation or any other rival system I do not think so just looking at the List of Microsoft video games Wikipedia page there are just 8 that where relets on the PlayStation and 7 on a Nintendo system there may be more
IMHO I do not trust Microsoft and its data telemetry I know how bad bug reports can be from the average user but I do not think Microsoft sees Windows as a high priority just look at the number of bad updates that have been released that's why I use GNU/Linux as my main os
I have a BIG list of changes that Microsoft needs to change in Windows for me to go back to Windows but that is getting offtopic
Last edited by MadWolf on 26 April 2023 at 7:05 pm UTC
Quoting: massatt212wasn't surprise this would happen, Sony corruption is too big, Sony even bought another studio last week and complaining how microsoft will take COD there money Goose lol.
This is what you read so often as a defence for the takeover, I am sorry but there is a huuuuuuge diffrent between Sony buying a small studio which not even has a franchise to Microsoft buying BA for 68 billion dollars which has some of the biggest franchises in the game market not to mention the mobile part.
This is so much bigger then Sony PS vs Microsoft xbox, this is about the long run, 10 or 15 years from now.
Microsoft is a company and has an obligation to its shareholders to maximise profit, so yes on the short run everything will be great, BA games on the gamepass, more people will flock to it. There are several trains of though about the gamepass and if it is really good for (small) developers but that is not what this post is about. It is the long run where the money is, get so many people on windows/xbox/gamepass that it will become unavoidable and even epic or steam won't be able to compete against a gamepass on which almost every game will be included for a crazy cheap amount and that is scary for anybody who wants atleast some competition and an open market.
Last edited by Bumadar on 26 April 2023 at 7:25 pm UTC
Quoting: BumadarIt is the long run where the money is, get so many people on windows/xbox/gamepass that it will become unavoidable and even epic or steam won't be able to compete against a gamepass on which almost every game will be included for a crazy cheap amount and that is scary for anybody who wants atleast some competition and an open market.You're actually missing the actual long term end game: And then, after running all competitors out of business with pricing at a loss, once there is no competition the prices get jacked up again and then some.
We're seeing this everywhere these days, so many spaces where there are few enough competitors, that they could all quietly agree to jack up the prices together. That's why groceries are so expensive.
Devastatorius Apr 27, 2023
Only that tencent keeping me away from those games which companies they owns or got invested...
For me MS is better than those chinese spies.
TheRiddick Apr 27, 2023
Quoting: AsciiWolfThis is actually bad news. Activision is not a good company at all. They did countless bad things to Blizzard and other companies they own. The acquisition had a potential to change it for the better (and possibly bring Blizzard games to Steam :-)).
This is one of the most absurd corporate suck off lines I've ever heard. All that will change would be ownership since disturbing the structure would lose them money and I think you just don't want to recognize that Microsoft's desperate positioning to try and get anything so they can convince regulators is exactly that.
Arehandoro Apr 27, 2023
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