Microsoft's Activision-Blizzard Acquisition Hits UK and EU Regulatory Hurdles

[zlobby]

Great! Hope the deal falls through and Blizz learn the consequence of their actions.

 

[lexluthermiester]

A shit company is looking to buy another shit company, which might change nothing in the grand scheme of things besides a few more exclusive for Microsoft. Or maybe Phil Spencer is not that shitty, and blizzard might finally care about making games that are fun, and get out of the losing streak that they’ve been stuck in for a while. The current status quo is not ideal, and that might be why such a large company is looking to get acquired (even EA is looking to get acquired or merged with another company)

Yeah, but you're not seeing the big picture. If MS buys Blizz/Activ they are going to have a very unfair advantage over the already unbalanced market. This should not be allowed.

 

[silentbogo]

Holy shit, first Bethesda, now Activision. I'm wondering if next year I'll be buying new games from abominable MS Store which they can't get in order in over 7 years....

If MS buys Blizz/Activ they are going to have a very unfair advantage over the already unbalanced market.

It's worse than that - just the last few acquisitions made their gaming/publishing business almost as big as all of the competition combined, including Tencent gaming division. That's nuts.
And that's without even looking at how much "familiar" titles and franchises they own.
I'd rather see Activision/Blizzard stayed a shitty company for awhile longer, and either died a slow death, or eventually khm...khm... learned and transformed.

Also MS has a tradition of releasing titles on PC and XBOX both (very often at the same), a thing which cannot be said about Sony (which only started doing so recently and only with select titles).

The only thing they did well is XB Game pass, but that's also not forever. As soon as all stars align - they'll start pushing prices to the level "customers are willing to pay".
But everything else - nonsense. The only reason they still publish games on PC through third-parties is because their MS Store is borked and has many issues. Or you've already forgotten their early attempts at "exclusivizing" PC games, like broken Gears, or that experimental cinematic abomination Quantum Break. Fortunately they didn't run any devastating experiments on "good" games, but the night is still young.

Sony hoards many trademarks for themselves and they get irritated when MS buys whole publishing house to have more exclusive brands himself?

Exclusives sell consoles, non-exclusives make profit. If you take the second half away - there's not much business left to do.

 

[Ravenas]

Holy shit, first Bethesda, now Activision. I'm wondering if next year I'll be buying new games from abominable MS Store which they can't get in order in over 7 years....

It's worse than that - just the last few acquisitions made their gaming/publishing business almost as big as all of the competition combined, including Tencent gaming division. That's nuts.
And that's without even looking at how much "familiar" titles and franchises they own.
I'd rather see Activision/Blizzard stayed a shitty company for awhile longer, and either died a slow death, or eventually khm...khm... learned and transformed.

The only thing they did well is XB Game pass, but that's also not forever. As soon as all stars align - they'll start pushing prices to the level "customers are willing to pay".
But everything else - nonsense. The only reason they still publish games on PC through third-parties is because their MS Store is borked and has many issues. Or you've already forgotten their early attempts at "exclusivizing" PC games, like broken Gears, or that experimental cinematic abomination Quantum Break. Fortunately they didn't run any devastating experiments on "good" games, but the night is still young.

Exclusives sell consoles, non-exclusives make profit. If you take the second half away - there's not much business left to do.

If they own 1/3 to 1/2 of the game market, they will be able to force games into the MS Store. Couldn't really ever convince people to use otherwise (for gaming).

 

[Vayra86]

So the Sony is objecting to the practise which they used themselves... Clever, really clever...

But Sony is a sad looking Japanese kitten, come on

The fact is though, Microsoft does have a much stronger grasp on the gaming market overall, because they have the share of both a console and the PC platform. What else is there? Nintendo? And I do think smartphone/mobile is on a different plane altogether. That is mostly referring to the many dev studios and publishers behind the content.

But even for mobile, there's King...

 

[lexluthermiester]

Holy shit, first Bethesda, now Activision. I'm wondering if next year I'll be buying new games from abominable MS Store which they can't get in order in over 7 years....
It's worse than that - just the last few acquisitions made their gaming/publishing business almost as big as all of the competition combined, including Tencent gaming division. That's nuts.
And that's without even looking at how much "familiar" titles and franchises they own.
I'd rather see Activision/Blizzard stayed a shitty company for awhile longer, and either died a slow death, or eventually khm...khm... learned and transformed.

You make good points. In fairness, microsoft has done an ok job with Bethesda. They could do better, but they have trashed the company or it's assets. However, that doesn't mean that letting get bigger and buy up everything under the Sun is a good idea. They need to be reduced in size and power, not allowed to continue expansion.

If they own 1/3 to 1/2 of the game market, they will be able to force games into the MS Store. Couldn't really ever convince people to use otherwise (for gaming).

And that's the problem. We already have one "walled garden" in the world(fricken Apple), we don't need another.

 

[64K]

You make good points. In fairness, microsoft has done an ok job with Bethesda. They could do better, but they have trashed the company or it's assets. However, that doesn't mean that letting get bigger and buy up everything under the Sun is a good idea. They need to be reduced in size and power, not allowed to continue expansion.


And that's the problem. We already have one "walled garden" in the world(fricken Apple), we don't need another.

MS seems to still want to buy up even more Studios even after the possible aquisition of Activision Blizzard according to Phil Spencer (CEO of Microsoft Gaming).

Microsoft considering buying more studios to stay competitive with Tencent and Sony

Acquisitions will continue until Microsoft has a bigger piece of the pie.

www.pcgamer.com

 

[zlobby]

MS seems to still want to buy up even more Studios even after the possible aquisition of Activision Blizzard according to Phil Spencer (CEO of Microsoft Gaming).

Microsoft considering buying more studios to stay competitive with Tencent and Sony

Acquisitions will continue until Microsoft has a bigger piece of the pie.

www.pcgamer.com

Spencer right now:

 

[Totally]

You guys support Apple and Google's practices but here are crying bloody murder as Microsoft does the same.

 

[lexluthermiester]

You guys support Apple and Google's practices but here are crying bloody murder as Microsoft does the same.

Google is NOT the same. Apple certainly, but not Google. The marketplace and ecosystem design philosophies are very different. In the case of microsoft, they want to be their own flavor of Apple, and that's a BAD thing. Google just want to entertain everyone and make money doing it. They're not trying to control everyone.

 

[Robin Seina]

Exclusives sell consoles, non-exclusives make profit. If you take the second half away - there's not much business left to do.

That can be said for both Sony and MS. Now, ask yourself: Which side currently has more exclusivities? The answer is: Sony. What MS does is broadening their own portofilio in an effort to equalize things. And you've said it yourself: "exclusives sell consoles" and who is losing in selling game? MS. So here goes their motivation for buying.
However, there is still "much bussiness to do", A-B is certainly not only large publishing house with many brands. This is not CPU or GPU market with de-facto duopoly. I can count at least 6 more large publishers on game's market (Sony and MS excluded).

And if you ask me, why am I fan of this acquisition? Well, because A-B president Bobby Kottick is very probably going to get kicked-off his seat (most probably with golden parachute, but even so, that is a reason for celebration). And at worst if this goes through A-B's games will remain bad (great at money-milking), while at best scenario, it will be about solely player's enjoyment again (won't happen, but I expect some improvement at least).

 

[Mysteoa]

I can't understand why Microsoft is allowed to buy more companies? In the end it will become like a black hole that will suck everything and that will be the end...

It has to do with the fact that Gaming is not the main business of MS, but Windows, Azure and other. So their point of view is that they are not operating in the same sphere or something along those lines.

 

[JAB Creations]

I think Microsoft is the most customer centric.

What is your salary at Microsoft? Because ZERO people who need to use Microsoft products like their default settings.

 

[64K]

Well, because A-B president Bobby Kottick is very probably going to get kicked-off his seat (most probably with golden parachute,

Quite a large golden parachute indeed. If the Activision Blizzard acquisition goes through CEO Kotick may receive a 375 million dollar payout.

 

[medi01]

I was talking about Sony fearing exclusivities MS would gain if the transaction went through smoothly. Sony hoards many trademarks for themselves and they get irritated when MS buys whole publishing house to have more exclusive brands himself?

The freaking key difference here is that Sony gets its exclusive BY BREEDING OWN STUDIOS. You see? Not going to the market and buying stuff everyone buys anyway, but actually CREATING NEW great stuff.

Exclusives always were and still are platform sellers. If not exclusives, console competition would largely come down to who has the faster hardware.

 

[silentbogo]

Which side currently has more exclusivities?

Not sure if you've noticed, but usually it's the side with more cash at hand.
Also, for the past couple of years it should've been apparent to you that just because something was exclusive doesn't mean that it would be next year (see Sony selling PS titles on PC), or the other way around, like Epic buying out exclusives for ridiculous amount of money, which makes both indies and big respectable studios break their "rock-solid" promises to the fanbase, or games being pulled off steam and other platforms 'cause big corporate daddy got a fat paycheck.

 

[Fasola]

The freaking key difference here is that Sony gets its exclusive BY BREEDING OWN STUDIOS. You see? Not going to the market and buying stuff everyone buys anyway, but actually CREATING NEW great stuff.

You mean like Final Fantasy 14?

 

[AsRock]

Great! Hope the deal falls through and Blizz learn the consequence of their actions.

Nope never happen, they know if even they grind it in the ground the top people running it all will get payed one way or another even if it means selling it off.

What i find even more sad is they pretty much wussed giving path of exile a run for it's money. Then again they lost all? the original Diablo creators now.

I guess they will have to grind it even more in to the ground so people with less money than MS can buy it.

 

[zlobby]

Nope never happen, they know if even they grind it in the ground the top people running it all will get payed one way or another even if it means selling it off.

What i find even more sad is they pretty much wussed giving path of exile a run for it's money. Then again they lost all? the original Diablo creators now.

I guess they will have to grind it even more in to the ground so people with less money than MS can buy it.

You got a point there, Yosemite.

 

[MarsM4N]

I think there's a 49% chance they will let the deal go through. If they do, there will be no COD on Playstation in a few years.
If they don't let it go through, I guess they will sell 49% of their shares to Chinese Tencent.

Either way, the gamer will be on the loosing end. Wondering why they don't put their money into startups. There where loads of hot selling indie games in the recent years.