Off Gamepass or Cloud though? I thought Cloud was their big blocker.
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The Microsoft / Activision Blizzard acquisition |OT| Antitrust Simulator (completed; discussing post-merger issues)
- Thread starter Idas
- Start date
- OT
Off Gamepass or Cloud though? I thought Cloud was their big blocker.
I know what you mean, but it seems like an impossibility at this point (literally ticking away 48 hours).
How can any meaningful review happen in that time frame?
As a game pass subscriber from the UK I expect a discount on my subscription if I end up getting less options.
Lol
We should petition the mods to tag anyone who said MS closing over CMA was "fantasy" or "fanfiction" with AO3setera Member
OP
OP
I see that the last few hours have been a lot of fun :p xD
Some new info from the Financial Times (about the CMA):
On the other hand, the merger agreement clearly states the effects that the merger closing will have on ABK:
As a result of the merger, Activision Blizzard will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft and you will no longer own shares of Activision Blizzard common stock. Activision Blizzard expects to delist its common stock from Nasdaq as promptly as practicable after the effective time and deregister its common stock under the Exchange Act as promptly as practicable after such delisting. Thereafter, Activision Blizzard will no longer be a publicly traded company.
So, if they are starting the process I suppose that MS will close next week (or maybe even during the weekend) on every country where it's legally possible to do so (with the CMA's OK, would be my guess).
Some new info from the Financial Times (about the CMA):
Subscribe to read | Financial Times
News, analysis and comment from the Financial Times, the worldʼs leading global business publicationwww.ft.com
On the other hand, the merger agreement clearly states the effects that the merger closing will have on ABK:
As a result of the merger, Activision Blizzard will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft and you will no longer own shares of Activision Blizzard common stock. Activision Blizzard expects to delist its common stock from Nasdaq as promptly as practicable after the effective time and deregister its common stock under the Exchange Act as promptly as practicable after such delisting. Thereafter, Activision Blizzard will no longer be a publicly traded company.
So, if they are starting the process I suppose that MS will close next week (or maybe even during the weekend) on every country where it's legally possible to do so (with the CMA's OK, would be my guess).
All of us suckers in the UK are going to get screwed because the CMA are "protecting customers". Why can't we have anything nice in the UK?
It would make sense to take then off cloud. I can't see the reasoning to take them off gamepass, in doing so reducing consumer access to games and, potentially, denying UK gamepass subscribers the same products as subscribers elsewhere. It would be a PR blunder to be sure.
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Remember uk gamers one can just change account region to the US and have an American game pass account.
my sons account is US region and I just pay his game pass monthly fee via PayPal.
my sons account is US region and I just pay his game pass monthly fee via PayPal.
I might be wrong, but from my exposure to this whole case, it seems like the FTC is focused on the battle and not on the strategy. None of their arguments seem to be unique, and they're acting only on Sony's behalf.
Khan has an ideology, and she would be doing this if the shoe was on the other foot.
Holy shit, tomorrow is my personal climax with my PhD defense and the MS-ABK saga might also reach its pinnacle on Friday or on the weekend. Having prepared the defense alongside the court hearings and having being an Xbox gamer for so long, this honestly feels surreal. Can't read up on the unfolding drama until Saturday though!
I don't see how keeping Call of Duty off Game Pass alleviates cloud concerns. The CMA has cleared the console side of things.
Popping back in this thread just on this...
That speculation on its own doesn't make sense next to the CMA's final report IMO - Acti games on gamepass was the one thing the CMA recognised as constituting a consumer benefit of the deal. Just keeping games off gamepass in the UK not only quashes that but does nothing to address the concerns they did outline in the final report (i.e. around how licensing of 'important supply' would operate post acquisition, and Microsoft's control over same). The only way the CMA would be satisfied with an approach like that is if they're no longer looking for a solution to their concerns as actually outlined, but instead just 'anything' that looks like a compromise on Microsoft's part (which they might - but it would look insanely incoherent as a solution for anyone paying attention to what the final report actually said).
What could make sense IMO is Microsoft divesting itself of UK cloud licensing rights for Acti games, into a UK company, and that when cloud vendors want to license Acti games for the UK market, they go to this independent company instead of MS. So 'Acti UK Cloud PLC'. That might have the side effect of meaning that Acti games won't automatically go onto gamepass (or perhaps more exactly, xcloud) in the UK, but that would be just a consequence of that set up rather than expressly what the set up was designed to do (as per a 'GamePass UK PLC'). In that kind of set up, to offer Acti games on xcloud to UK customers, MS would have to go to this independent company like any other vendor and negotiate/compete for the content, and that would satisfy the concerns the CMA outlined. And they might say that Acti UK licensing will continue to operate independently in the meantime until this structure is set up, to let the deal close immediately while the CMA process winds on.
In that kind of set up, the bottom line impact for UK Xbox customers is that content wouldn't automatically be available on xcloud streaming and MS would have to do extra stuff to make that happen. A more limited impact than content not being on gamepass at all.
(Am putting aside for a moment that this kind of setup would arguably be something the CMA would have issues with previously, and might carry behavioural components, single economic entity components etc. - but this might be the compromise the CMA is willing to make now)
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For me I don't think it's a coincidence that the CMA weighed in the second the PI was denied.
yeah but then we miss out on the exclusive UK gamepass perks like free Toddy Bobblers and discounted Glomptons 😔
So for those who have been following this and are knowledgeable about what's going on, can someone tell me what the actual positives are for the merge?
I can see why people would be against it, but nothing comes to mind as to why this is a genuinely good idea.
How would gamers actually benefit from this? Because let's say the merge doesn't happen, Activision/Blizzard will still be releasing games, won't they?
I can see why people would be against it, but nothing comes to mind as to why this is a genuinely good idea.
How would gamers actually benefit from this? Because let's say the merge doesn't happen, Activision/Blizzard will still be releasing games, won't they?
People pay for GamePass, people will get a ton more games on GamePass for the same fee from a big publisher (Maybe a couple of quid or dollars more).
I get the downsides too and I think it's bad for the industry probably but I won't lie I'll probably still have PC GamePass and probably play a few of them. (I'll probably try COD but no real interest in it though, always felt a bit shallow gameplay wise for me).
AciBlizz games on GP so the hobby is cheaper depending on what titles you play.
Also means that Boobie CockTit might leave the company.
Yep this is amazing. If you aren't at home or your console is being repaired you can easily test out different cloud services. Also many CoD games are huge and with that you'll be able to save storage.
We knew this already but it is still a bit crazy to think about. If you have PURCHASED one or more Activision games on a PC OR CONSOLE store (not explicitly the Xbox store, mind you) OR you have subscribed to "A" multigame subscription service that INCLUDES Activision games, you have the right to stream those games with ANY cloud game streaming service of choice/operating system. That's awesome.
Were there previous big M&A cases where an acquired company listed in the Nasdaq 100 index was removed shortly before closing too ?
Bobby Kotick after gathering his employees to give them a speech on the success of the deal finally being closed
Bobby Kotick after gathering his employees to give them a speech on the success of the deal finally being closed
He'll have a massive golden parachute but at least it'll mean he'll no longer threaten to have employees assassinated.
Off the top of my head:
- Microsoft will allow ABK to unionize (as they allowed their own employees to do that without resistance unlike many other corporations) meaning better working conditions
- Gamepass gets load of ABK games, and it will make Gamepass even more amazing deal than it already is
- Expanded footprint of ABK games - Microsoft already signed deals with multiple cloud gaming providers and Nintendo that they will bring the CoD and/or the rest of the portfolio to their respective platforms
- no loss for Sony as Microsoft would be insane to deny the most popular console (PS5) access to COD, Diablo and the rest of the games. Besides they gave assurances that for the next 10 years nothing changes.
So, in short everybody wins, nobody loses. I don't see how anyone can stand against such a deal. And when Sony says they are against this, I find this the height of hypocrisy - this is the same company that spent hundreds of millions (if not billions) of dollars keeping games away from Xbox.
1. COD to the Nintendo Switch (good for Switch gamers)
2. ABK titles will be available on all cloud gaming services (good for cloud gamers)
3. ABK titles will be available on Gamepass (good for PC and Xbox gamers that subscribe to Gamepass)
4. No negative changes for Playstation gamers, but this merger increases the likelihood that PS will improve their PS+ offering to better compete with Gamepass, which would be a good thing.
Glad I left the UK because this would have pissed me off especially if it ends up being permanent.
If they do end up having to limit Game Pass, UK gamers should sign a petition and send it to the government to try and overrule the CMA you would only need 100K signatures and then the government would have to look into it.
to make it up to us they'll add a big catalogue of commodore 64 and amiga games to gamepass, and a free Viz comic subscription with gp ultimate
the better ps plus is really important for me. I usually buy day one sony games…if i can have sony games day one ( or at least some), it's a great news for me.
It would tickle me if the end result of all of this was a weaker version of what I (an ardent deal supporter) had put out into the ether back in like September or whenever. Back then (or hell, even 2 months ago), CMA had all the leverage to get fantastic concessions from a position of strength and mete out tangible benefits to consumers. That's what the EU did. The FTC did the opposite knowing it had a bad case and ended up with nothing. If the CMA lands on something like taking away publishing control for some titles in a small area just in cloud.. man.. they could have gotten so much more earlier on AND saved everyone so much trouble and taxpayer money along the way. (Not that I pay UK taxes, so it is what it is.)
Not exactly. There is a deadline on that 18th of sorts. It's the point at which either party can leave the agreement for any reason (and pay the fee - right? ABK would still have to pay a fee if they backed out? Or maybe not.). But it's not a drop dead like you're describing. There's no indication that ABK WANTS to back out at this moment (though that could always change). So, no, there is no specific date. But things are definitely more murky and fluid after the 18th.
Getting studios out of perpetually making content for Call of Duty.
Beloved IP that ACtivision/Blizzard won't touch being brought back.
Games on GP day 1.
Regulators should find evidence and base their arguments on facts. EU took the deal seriously and got the best deal for consumers. FTC is just stalling and saying silly things in regards to the cloud deals like the headquarters of some companies aren't in the US, so they don't count. A serious regulator would use actual good arguments instead of trying to desperately find something that sticks. They are wasting money and time they could use to go after actual anti competitive cases.
To add to this...
- Microsoft/Xbox has a somewhat different incentive structure than ABK. ABK wanted to sell, in part, because of the sense that it's started to exhaust avenues for growth. Increasing CoD dependence, studios like Blizzard experiencing a ton of ups and downs, etc. - it hasn't been in the most vibrant place. Xbox doesn't have quite the same sheer pressure to deliver exponential growth, for one, but Game Pass also incentivizes fuller IP utilization and projects of various scopes. So the thing with this purchase is that it's not as if Microsoft just made an amazing offer ABK couldn't refuse. ABK wanted to sell for a reason, Microsoft saw that ABK would be a uniquely good fit for its business model, and there's a decent chance the end result will mean better use of resources overall.
I feel conflicted about the deal for a whole host of reasons, as well, but the part where ABK was in a rough place for the above and for having a shit work environment does go a long way toward making it easier to imagine the positives of an acquisition.
I still don't understand how this can close if the CMA is not sorted?
Surely Microsoft get a fat fine?
Surely Microsoft get a fat fine?
Alright, where are you all getting that no games after this deal will be made exclusive? Obviously they will, as you can see with Starfield, Redfield, Indiana Jones etc.
Like, I'm not saying the deal should be kept from happening because of that, but this narrative that EVERYONE wins, including people who only own Playstations is extremely silly. CoD is safe, as are likely other big Multiplayer or Service games. But Microsoft has proven to and obviously will continue to bolster their exclusive line-up with these purchases.
I highly doubt Sony will do 1st party games day 1 on PS+. They spent over 500m just making two games. If they want to see some sort of profit they need over 10m subs to PS+ extra.
Maybe we will see some of their lesser known games on it but not their tent pole titles.
They probably worked it out with the CMA in the meantime. At least the closing part. I assume they still have to offer a reworked deal to the UK that the CMA will do another probe on.
I imagine it's probably generally agreed with the CMA but have to work out the details. In good faith or something.
If that was offered as a choice, I'd have to think about it.
Yeah it's astoundingly stupid. If the CMA doesn't play ball soon gamers in the UK are just going to be left behind.