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Microsoft/Activision Blizzard Acquisition - Information Thread, update: The Deal Has Closed

Bacon

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Spawn_of_Apathy

Spawn_of_Apathy

Posted
Posted
8 minutes ago, stepee said:

 

Yeah they argue that because it helps their case, but they are in the same market still, they just don’t compete. That they can both exist in the same market without one harming the other is a good sign that this deal will be fine for consumers. But regulators seem to be removing all aspects of the market beyond Sony and MS and are focused solely on if MS will hurt Sony with this, is what I mean.


that’s why I said this feels like playground console war shit happening at the government level. 
 

It’s like “oh, THIS is what does it for you?? COD?!” 

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stepee

stepee

Posted
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3 minutes ago, Spawn_of_Apathy said:


that’s why I said this feels like playground console war shit happening at the government level. 
 

It’s like “oh, THIS is what does it for you?? COD?!” 

 

lol exactly like it literally seems like somehow thats what this is

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Spawn_of_Apathy

Spawn_of_Apathy

Posted
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2 minutes ago, Brian said:

There should be some advocacy groups that can share a neutral opinion on the merits of this merger. There were advocacy groups vehemently against the Ticketmaster and Live Nation merger. No one seemed to care. Now I get to pay Ticketmaster fees that cost as much as the tickets did so my daughter can see Disney on Ice. I assume this merger is bad as most are, but its ridiculous dissenting opinion is being sourced by the likes of Google. It’s absurd. 


yeah. These regulators are like “won’t somebody please think of the other BIG guys?” 
 

It all rings so hollow. I don’t believe for a second these objections from the UK and other governments are some new found altruistic approach to protecting the markets and consumers. 
 

If this deal ends up being just the beginning of rejecting all these mergers and lead to even breaking up some of these trusts, then I’ll gladly be wrong. I just don’t believe it for a second until I see it. 

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AbsolutSurgen

AbsolutSurgen

Posted
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25 minutes ago, stepee said:

 

It is kind of weird how these regulators don’t seem concerned about if the deal would hurt the public or not (I believe it would be largely to the public’s benefit cuz gamepass) only if it would hurt this one other already huge company that is known to be pretty damn anti consumer when it can be. It’s like they want to stop it just to stop it and are creating an imaginary market that excludes anything besides MS and Sony to make the argument for a monopoly.

They consider the loss of competition to hurt local consumers -- that is a big part of what they consider. 

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stepee

stepee

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3 minutes ago, AbsolutSurgen said:

They consider the loss of competition to hurt local consumers -- that is a big part of what they consider. 

 

Yeah I just don’t think that’s what they are doing. They aren’t focusing on competition within the industry just between MS and Sony. Maybe a weaker Sony is good for the industry and will allow more competition.

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Ghost_MH

Ghost_MH

Posted
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2 minutes ago, AbsolutSurgen said:

They consider the loss of competition to hurt local consumers -- that is a big part of what they consider. 

 

Except this same group waved through the Adobe-Figma acquisitions and that one is exponentially worse for consumers than this Activision deal. That's why this entire thing rings more hollow for many. Nobody cares about the end consumer. Activision is only being scrutinized because it could, potentially, hurt another multi-billion dollar conglomerate.

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AbsolutSurgen

AbsolutSurgen

Posted
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1 minute ago, stepee said:

 

Yeah I just don’t think that’s what they are doing. They aren’t focusing on competition within the industry just between MS and Sony. Maybe a weaker Sony is good for the industry and will allow more competition.

They explicitly refer to it in their reports.

In general, vertical integration is seen as bad for the consumer.  Always.

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crispy4000

crispy4000

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, stepee said:

 

It is kind of weird how these regulators don’t seem concerned about if the deal would hurt the public or not (I believe it would be largely to the public’s benefit cuz gamepass) only if it would hurt this one other already huge company that is known to be pretty damn anti consumer when it can be. It’s like they want to stop it just to stop it and are creating an imaginary market that excludes anything besides MS and Sony to make the argument for a monopoly.


The idea is that a console manufacturer owning CoD could stifle competition, not encourage it.  Which I 100% agree with.

 

Does it hurt consumers in a way that’s tangibly visible right now, in today’s market?  No.  On the surface, consumers win by getting CoD on Games Pass, and Microsoft promises they’ll play nicely with the brand for a ’long’ time because it’s in their best interests.  Win/Win right?

 

Could it be used as a convenient excuse to jack up the price of their consoles and Games Pass in the future, because they own CoD?  Absolutely.

 

If nothing else, it encourages further fuckery on both sides to gobble up more of the industry and be poor actors in everything else that’s not CoD.  It puts major pressure to hedge their bets.  A 10 year time bomb just means this will be ongoing and define the rest of this gen and the next.

 

Generally, I think the industry is more pro-consumer when hiring not buying out talent (and IP) is the competitive norm.

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stepee

stepee

Posted
Posted
3 minutes ago, Brian said:

Lbh, CoD will be a dead franchise in 10 years based on Microsoft’s track record. 

 

That’s why I think this deal is good for competition, it will really open up the fps market once the COD games vanish into the abyss of Xbox product management.

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crispy4000

crispy4000

Posted
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7 minutes ago, stepee said:

 

That’s why I think this deal is good for competition, it will really open up the fps market once the COD games vanish into the abyss of Xbox product management.


Realistically speaking, even the drama at Infinity Ward that led to Respawn couldn’t touch the brand.

 

And I don’t think ‘Let us buy it we’ll ruin it!’ is a strong enough argument here for regulators. :p

 

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AbsolutSurgen

AbsolutSurgen

Posted
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4 minutes ago, crispy4000 said:


Realistically speaking, even the drama at Infinity Ward that led to Respawn couldn’t touch the brand.

 

And I don’t think ‘Let us buy it we’ll ruin it!’ is a strong enough argument here for regulators. :p

 

I think we've hit on it.  Sony won't sign the contract, because they know if MS buys CoD, they WILL kill it.  And once CoD is dead -- that will cut into their 30% store listing fees.

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crispy4000

crispy4000

Posted
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1 hour ago, stepee said:

 

Yeah I just don’t think that’s what they are doing. They aren’t focusing on competition within the industry just between MS and Sony. Maybe a weaker Sony is good for the industry and will allow more competition.


I think that holds water for Games Pass and Microsoft’s PC ports.  Sony’s been pressured to respond, even if they haven’t been willing to go quite as far.

 

Those are organic developments with positive, pro-consumer results in the here and now.  I don’t think an acquisition war weakening Sony should be considered healthy competition by comparison.  It’s just going to breed more of that, or similar moves to leverage IP that’s not owned.

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Guest

Guest

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I can’t think of but a couple of pro-consumer things to come out of ABK being purchased by a platform owner. The longer story is less options and higher prices than if they stay independent, always.

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stepee

stepee

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, crispy4000 said:


Realistically speaking, even the drama at Infinity Ward that led to Respawn couldn’t touch the brand.

 

And I don’t think ‘Let us buy it we’ll ruin it!’ is a strong enough argument here for regulators. :p

 

 

I think the evidence is there to support it!

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Commissar SFLUFAN

Commissar SFLUFAN

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19 minutes ago, sblfilms said:

I can’t think of but a couple of pro-consumer things to come out of ABK being purchased by a platform owner. The longer story is less options and higher prices than if they stay independent, always.

 

Certainly you more than anyone else on this board is more attuned to the effects of industry consolidation.

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Guest

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30 minutes ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

 

Certainly you more than anyone else on this board is more attuned to the effects of industry consolidation.


“But it’ll be totally awesome when X-men are in the MCU” 😑😑😑

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Xbob42

Xbob42

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, crispy4000 said:


Not really.

Oh yes, really. Everyone else is already expanding into other platforms! It's good for the industry and all that jazz! Nintendo's strangehold on their games clearly has had negative consumer problems! Look at price alone! Their games almost never go on sale and continue to sell at full price even as the console nears the end of its life! Preposterous! And despite making games for a fraction of the cost of other companies while also targeting much lower specs, they're still happy to charge the exact same premium price! The rest of the market has less choice because of their blatant exclusivity and that has negative repercussions as users are forced to use proprietary, low-end mobile hardware with faulty controls or pay exorbitant prices for "pro" controllers that defeat the purpose of a handheld system!


Yes, yes, it all makes sense now...

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Keyser_Soze

Keyser_Soze

Posted
Posted

Arguably if the merger goes through, Activision is better without COD. Bobby turned Activision into a COD factory, if divesting COD into it's own company is what makes this deal go through then for the consumer it's better because we will get games from all these studios forced to make COD and all the IP they are sitting on.

And then when the COD company goes bankrupt like when Fox Sports turned to Ballys and went Bankrupt then no one will have COD and we can all point and laugh at Sony.

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crispy4000

crispy4000

Posted
Posted
4 hours ago, Xbob42 said:

Oh yes, really. Everyone else is already expanding into other platforms! It's good for the industry and all that jazz! Nintendo's strangehold on their games clearly has had negative consumer problems! Look at price alone! Their games almost never go on sale and continue to sell at full price even as the console nears the end of its life! Preposterous! And despite making games for a fraction of the cost of other companies while also targeting much lower specs, they're still happy to charge the exact same premium price! The rest of the market has less choice because of their blatant exclusivity and that has negative repercussions as users are forced to use proprietary, low-end mobile hardware with faulty controls or pay exorbitant prices for "pro" controllers that defeat the purpose of a handheld system!


Yes, yes, it all makes sense now...


Who is Nintendo buying?  What acquisition is enabling them?

 

What’s stopping their competitors from encroaching into their market?

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crispy4000

crispy4000

Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, Keyser_Soze said:

Arguably if the merger goes through, Activision is better without COD. Bobby turned Activision into a COD factory, if divesting COD into it's own company is what makes this deal go through then for the consumer it's better because we will get games from all these studios forced to make COD and all the IP they are sitting on.

And then when the COD company goes bankrupt like when Fox Sports turned to Ballys and went Bankrupt then no one will have COD and we can all point and laugh at Sony.


Surely they can both be better without CoD and more valuable with it.

 

I’m with you on hating what they’ve become.

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