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

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Spawn_of_Apathy

Spawn_of_Apathy

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10 hours ago, crispy4000 said:

Exactly what he should be saying with what they stand to lose.

 

It’s either Xbox becomes the console platform of CoD, or they pay them for the privilege of subscription parity.

 

I really want to know what those redacted amounts are in the offer.


Sony wouldn’t want to out COD on PS+ regardless of cost, because then they wouldn’t get their 30% licensing fee per copy sold. 
 

Sony wouldn’t even be putting titles on PS+ as soon as they do if ever if they didn’t feel pressure to at least offer something in line with GamePass. 
 

Im honestly surprised Sony hasn’t tried to suggest that MS needs to dissolve GamePass entirely as part of any deal. 

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crispy4000

crispy4000

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49 minutes ago, Spawn_of_Apathy said:

Sony wouldn’t want to out COD on PS+ regardless of cost, because then they wouldn’t get their 30% licensing fee per copy sold.

 

The same holds true on Microsoft's side before this deal is done.  CoD has yet to be on Games Pass.  If it was actually reasonable to broker a deal for it year after year, we would have already seen it happen, and Microsoft wouldn't have felt the need to buy the company.  They could walk away from this deal with their head held high knowing they could cut Activision an annual check ......... but of course, they're not stupid.

 

Fiscally speaking, it still makes the most sense to not put this franchise on a subscription whatsoever and keep riding the money train, not unlike Nintendo's pricing methodology.  The only good reason to put CoD on Games Pass is for a competitive advantage.

 

 

49 minutes ago, Spawn_of_Apathy said:

Sony wouldn’t even be putting titles on PS+ as soon as they do if ever if they didn’t feel pressure to at least offer something in line with GamePass.

 

The only way they can offer something in line with Games Pass post acquisition is to give Microsoft a CoD payout for subscription licensing.

 

It stands to reason that this would drive up the price of PS Extra considerably, or force them to forgo it in spite of Microsoft's offer.  We technically don't have the redacted numbers, but Sony does cite them to make this point.

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Spawn_of_Apathy

Spawn_of_Apathy

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1 minute ago, crispy4000 said:

The only way they can offer something in line with Games Pass post acquisition is to give Microsoft a CoD payout for subscription service licensing.

 

It stands to reason that it would drive up the price of PS Extra considerably, or force them to forgo it in spite of Microsoft's offer.  We technically don't have the redacted numbers, but Sony does cite them to make this point.


no what I mean is the only reason Sony even offers a subscription game service with games hitting there a year or more after release. If Sony didn’t feel like they needed an answer to Game Pass they’d wouldn’t have a game subscription service. Or it would only be PS3 and older games. 

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crispy4000

crispy4000

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23 minutes ago, Spawn_of_Apathy said:


no what I mean is the only reason Sony even offers a subscription game service with games hitting there a year or more after release. If Sony didn’t feel like they needed an answer to Game Pass they’d wouldn’t have a game subscription service. Or it would only be PS3 and older games. 


I know that's what you meant, and I'm saying the same rationale shouldn't apply to an acquisition of this scale, and to a massive IP like CoD.

 

If you really think it's a good thing that Sony should need to find an answer to CoD on Games Pass, you should be rooting for them to find their own M&A with another megapublisher and hit MS with similar terms.  That is the proportionate response.

 

 

Its as I said previously:

 

On 2/21/2023 at 5:21 PM, crispy4000 said:


I think [good for consumer competition] 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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Spawn_of_Apathy

Spawn_of_Apathy

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Just now, crispy4000 said:


I know that's what you meant, and I'm saying the same rationale shouldn't apply to an acquisition of this scale, and to a massive IP like CoD.

 

If you really think it's a good thing that Sony should need to find an answer to CoD on Games Pass, you should be rooting for them to find their own M&A with another megapublisher.  That is the game here.


I’m not saying Sony needs an answer to COD being on GamePass. I’m saying Sony doesn’t even want to have an answer to GamePass at all. They wouldn’t even take a deal where MS would let Sony put COD on PS+ for free. Sony wants GamePass gone so they don’t have to give up any revenue to compete. COD or no COD. 
 

Even before MS bought Zenimax Sony was saying they couldn’t compete with GamePass, when the reality was they just didn’t want to. Sony’s stable of games far exceeded MS’s in quantity and quality. Sony’s customer base far exceeded MS’s. 

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crispy4000

crispy4000

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22 hours ago, Spawn_of_Apathy said:

They wouldn’t even take a deal where MS would let Sony put COD on PS+ for free.

 

Just to clarify in case of confusion, this was never offered, and never would be.

 

22 hours ago, Spawn_of_Apathy said:


I’m not saying Sony needs an answer to COD being on GamePass. I’m saying Sony doesn’t even want to have an answer to GamePass at all. They wouldn’t even take a deal where MS would let Sony put COD on PS+ for free. Sony wants GamePass gone so they don’t have to give up any revenue to compete. COD or no COD. 
 

Even before MS bought Zenimax Sony was saying they couldn’t compete with GamePass, when the reality was they just didn’t want to. Sony’s stable of games far exceeded MS’s in quantity and quality. Sony’s customer base far exceeded MS’s. 

 

This sort of thing happens every so often in this industry.  Do you think Sony and Microsoft wanted to have an answer to the Wii?  It wasn't until they felt like they had to.  Sometimes new competitive pressures ends up being for the better for us, for the industry, for both, or for no one.

 

Subscriptions services are typically the best deal for consumers in the user acquisition phase, when too little is charged.  Sony has expressed concerns of how it could affect development funding going forward, and tried to thread a needle.  Nintendo has never bought into ‘race to the bottom’ tactics and isn't exploring it beyond retro games.  There's also the question of how 3rd parties will need to navigate a landscape where full price game purchases aren't the norm.  Just because Microsoft is dialing up the pressure here and now, and others are reluctant, doesn't mean they've figured out a magic formula for success across the industry.  The proliferation of Games Pass proposes a paradigm shift for games publishers at large and consumer spending habits.  It’s no surprise that everyone else is testing the waters rather than going all in.  Like with the Wii analogy I brought up earlier.

 

Also, these companies aren't your friends.  A little over a decade ago, Sony was the one pressuring Microsoft to include monthly redeemable games with their online multiplayer subscription.  It's all fine and good Microsoft responded with GwG, but it also distracts from their multiplayer paywall having no business being up in the first place, and still remaining.  (They didn’t want to “have to give up any revenue to compete” out of fear of people dropping their subs.) Not to be outdone, Sony proceeded to slide in their own multiplayer paywall into PS+, riding off the momentum of Microsoft's Xbox One missteps to screw their own base too.

 

All is to say, I don't trust either of these companies to have our best interests in mind.  The words (and now ads!) they’ve spent on that should be dealt with a heavy dose of skepticism.

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4 minutes ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

MS took out a full page ad in the Financial Times, a newspaper that's definitely read by members of the UK's CMA:

 

cod-the-verge-ad.jpg


I legit LOL’d

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AbsolutSurgen

AbsolutSurgen

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3 minutes ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

 

They also took out an ad in the Daily Mail (though I can't find a screenshot of it) which is the completely opposite demographic of the Financial Times.

 

Daily-Mail-4.jpg

You know it's a quality paper when the front page has an in-depth article on ear wax cleaning.

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crispy4000

crispy4000

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17 minutes ago, Dodger said:

I’d subscribe to PS+ platinum or whatever if for $14.99 a month if it got me every Sony first party game day and date. They could do it they just choose not to.


I’d subscribe for $2 a month!  They could do it they just choose not to.

 

On a serious note, I spent more on Sony first party games last year than I ever have before, and it was still considerably less than $15 a month.  The Black Friday bargain bin is real, Sony cuts their games too deep too soon for me to care to subscribe.   But that’s also most of the industry.

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Commissar SFLUFAN

Commissar SFLUFAN

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Another day, another 10-year cloud streaming deal for CoD:

 

call_of_duty_modern_warfare_2_key_art_16

Microsoft signs fourth Call of Duty deal in fresh bid to win over regulators - The Verge

WWW.THEVERGE.COM
Microsoft has announced two new Xbox cloud streaming deals this week.

 

Quote

 

Microsoft has signed a fourth deal for Call of Duty access with Ubitus, a white-label cloud gaming service that has helped many publishers stream their games to Nintendo Switch. This latest deal comes just a day after Microsoft signed a similar 10-year deal with Boosteroid to bring Xbox PC games and Activision Blizzard titles like Call of Duty to the cloud gaming service.

 

Ubitus, a Taiwan-based cloud gaming provider, has been quietly using its technology to bring big games to the Nintendo Switch and elsewhere over the past decade. The supernatural thriller Control arrived on the Nintendo Switch in 2020 thanks to Ubitus, and both Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and Resident Evil 7 run on Ubitus’ cloud gaming streaming technology.

 

 

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crispy4000

crispy4000

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CMA just dropped their concerns for the console side of the deal.  It happening, no doubt now.

 

 

Now we get to see the fallout.  Even if Sony comes back to the negotiating table, I don’t foresee them paying whatever large sum Microsoft is asking for day one, PS+ Extra CoD.  Over the next decade, I imagine we see the CoD audience by and large shift to Xbox.

 

I think that will eventually tilt the market in Microsoft’s favor, but we’ll see.

 

Time to start to taking bets on what other Activision properties get withheld akin to Bethesda.  Or what Sony’s contingency plans were when this deal gets approved.  Just remember, it’s all in ‘the consumer’s best interest. :p

 

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crispy4000

crispy4000

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1 hour ago, XxEvil AshxX said:

Does this mean we get to stop hearing all of the inane BS coming from both sides? 

 

I mean, I hope not, cuz it's highly entertaining, but does it?


There’s still the FTC to get through, so not entirely?  It’s more about what steps both Microsoft and Sony take from here, not to block the deal, but to claw out advantages in an Activison-1st-party future.

 

The drama is likely only getting started.  Both companies have more levers to pull.  No reason to think they’ll play nice.

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Brian

Brian

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2 hours ago, XxEvil AshxX said:

Does this mean we get to stop hearing all of the inane BS coming from both sides? 

 

I mean, I hope not, cuz it's highly entertaining, but does it?

Depends how much Sony wants to push this. Sony getting unnecessary attention like below may be a catalyst for them to find an agreement with Microsoft and move on.
 

This is a Washington Senator so I’m sure Microsoft greased some wheels. 
 

9976af017747d82fa908c752836c6627.jpg

U.S. Senator Blasts Sony's Monopoly On Cool Japanese Games

KOTAKU.COM
Politician says 'Sony controls a monopoly of 98% of the high-end game market' in Japan

 

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