Microsoft acquired Activision Blizzard King for $69 Billion on 2023-10-13

[eastmen]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1679103828929511424

UK's CMA open to new Microsoft-Activision probe after u-turn

Britain's competition regulator said on Wednesday a restructured deal between Microsoft and Activision Blizzard could satisfy its concerns, subject to a new investigation, marking a climbdown in its opposition to the biggest gaming deal in history.

www.reuters.com

CMA needs to be careful. If they are going to the negotiating table in bad faith this can all back fire on them. I still largely suspect that they have already struck a deal and this is just them saving face.

 

[wco81]

If anything, more layoffs to fund this big acquisition. Then years down the line, streamlining meaning more layoffs.

 

[eastmen]

If anything, more layoffs to fund this big acquisition. Then years down the line, streamlining meaning more layoffs.

Perhaps , they hired up to much staff during the pandemic and had their stores that were forced to shut down to deal with an all that staff. they let go of the last of the store staff a few days ago

 

[eastmen]

FTC appeals its loss to Microsoft in Activision Blizzard case

All eyes are now on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

www.theverge.com

Now that the FTC is choosing to appeal Judge Corley’s decision, the regulator needs the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to issue an emergency stay to extend the existing temporary restraining order (TRO) that is set to expire at 11:59PM PT on Friday, July 14th. It’s not clear if the appeals court will even rule before the deal deadline on July 18th, potentially leaving the door open for Microsoft to close the Activision Blizzard deal on Monday or Tuesday without a restraining order in place.

Microsoft still needs to resolve the issues of the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) with its acquisition before it can close, after the regulator blocked the deal on cloud concerns earlier this year. Both Microsoft and the CMA almost instantly announced they had agreed to pause their legal battles to negotiate after Judge Corley’s ruling on Tuesday.
In a surprise statement on Wednesday, the CMA then warned Microsoft’s opportunity to restructure its deal could “lead to a new merger investigation,” and that talks between the regulator and Microsoft were still at an “early stage.”
A report from CNBC originally claimed Microsoft and the CMA had agreed on a “small divestiture” to address the cloud gaming concerns, but was later corrected to clarify Microsoft has only offered “a small and discrete divestiture” that the CMA hasn’t necessarily accepted. CNBC didn’t expand on what that divestiture could involve, but such a scenario will likely be specific to the UK and could involve changes to Microsoft’s Xbox Cloud Gaming services in the region.

FTC filed an appeal. MS can file to dismiss it , not sure how much time they have to file that motion. But there is two days before the TRO is set to expire so as the article says they may not even hear it before MS closes. This is a 100% on the FTC as if they filed in Dec all this would have been decided but they knew they had a bad hand and instead wanted to run the clock

More waste of tax payer money

 

[stu11]

This article pretty much sums up why Microsoft won and what some of the ramifications of the deal will be down the road.

Because the case was assembled to specifically be against Microsoft owning Activision (and even more specifically, Xbox owning Call of Duty), rather than about the dangers of a company as big as Microsoft merging with a company as big as Activision, all Microsoft had to prove was that it would share Call of Duty to get the whole deal cleared.

As for some of the ramifications of the deal.

I believe Xbox buying Activision is a bad thing, not because of Call of Duty (or indeed any exclusives), but because Activision already has a habit of squeezing its smallest teams into the meat grinder of its most profitable games. All Xbox will do is provide more meat grinders. It not only shrinks the pool of games available for players and therefore the creative outlets for the artists who make them, it also shrinks the job pool. If you leave a studio because you don't like the way they do business or because you have been harassed or forced, your prospects are limited when the owners of that studio own the 17 others you might otherwise have gone to.

The article in the link is interesting as well. Basically MS wants to be everyone's friend now and once they become the monopoly they are wanting to move to all they'll care about is making sure people pay through their noses for their content, just like Disney is today.

 

[iceberg187]

Looks like Activision is being delisted from Nasdaq prior to Monday.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1679308183251087360

Looks like a close is happening.

 

[Cardassian Bob]

Has the food industry imploded?

Worldwide food industry is about $10 trillion per year. Confectionery and snack industries account for $1.6 trillion alone.

 

[eastmen]

Looks like Activision is being delisted from Nasdaq prior to Monday.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1679308183251087360

Looks like a close is happening.

Yea I don't think they will get an restraining order in time to stop it. MS still has time to file a response to dismiss the FTC's appeal. Then the panel of judges would have to actually meet and and grant the order. It could happen for sure but the time line would be extremely tight to get it done by 11:59pm PST time on Friday.


Also

https://twitter.com/x/status/1679295285455998977

 

[Silent_Buddha]

The article in the link is interesting as well. Basically MS wants to be everyone's friend now and once they become the monopoly they are wanting to move to all they'll care about is making sure people pay through their noses for their content, just like Disney is today.

You've just described every corporation on the planet ... including Sony. They'd be more than happy to acquire or eliminate every competitor (Nintendo, MS, Toshiba, Samsung, LG, Sharp, EA, Square-Enix, SEGA, Disney, Warner Bros., and on and on) off the face of the planet if they could.

Regards,
SB

 

[see colon]

As for some of the ramifications of the deal.

I disagree with this article on so many levels. The idea that consolidation in the market is going to completely remove all developer agency because there will only be a few places to work hasn't been borne out in the industry's history. Activision itself was the first 3rd party publisher. It's very existence was brought about directly because of Atari's treatment of it's developers. And while there's certainly been consolidation at the top, there are probably more video game studios now than there have ever been. This industry has a ton of stories that go something like "I worked on X game, but the upper management at the studio did something and I ended up leaving, making my own studio, and making at hit".
Jason West and Vince Zampella have this story twice. They left EA after working on Medal of Honor games, formed their own studio (Infinity Ward) and made Call of Duty, got bought by Activision, some stuff happened, and the ended up leaving and founding Respawn. Warren Spector made Deus Ex after having the game rejected by Origin. He quite to make it at Ion Storm. Ken Levine left Looking Glass with 2 other coworkers to form Irrational Games, later on making Bioshock. Kojima did it. Yuji Naka did it. Keiji Inafune did it. Tim Schafer did it. Ron Gilbert did it. Cliff Bleszinski did it even if it didn't work out.

This is probably the most common story of how a new studio gets founded. To act as though there aren't ever going to be new video game studios ignores the entire history of the industry.

 

[eastmen]

I disagree with this article on so many levels. The idea that consolidation in the market is going to completely remove all developer agency because there will only be a few places to work hasn't been borne out in the industry's history. Activision itself was the first 3rd party publisher. It's very existence was brought about directly because of Atari's treatment of it's developers. And while there's certainly been consolidation at the top, there are probably more video game studios now than there have ever been. This industry has a ton of stories that go something like "I worked on X game, but the upper management at the studio did something and I ended up leaving, making my own studio, and making at hit".
Jason West and Vince Zampella have this story twice. They left EA after working on Medal of Honor games, formed their own studio (Infinity Ward) and made Call of Duty, got bought by Activision, some stuff happened, and the ended up leaving and founding Respawn. Warren Spector made Deus Ex after having the game rejected by Origin. He quite to make it at Ion Storm. Ken Levine left Looking Glass with 2 other coworkers to form Irrational Games, later on making Bioshock. Kojima did it. Yuji Naka did it. Keiji Inafune did it. Tim Schafer did it. Ron Gilbert did it. Cliff Bleszinski did it even if it didn't work out.

This is probably the most common story of how a new studio gets founded. To act as though there aren't ever going to be new video game studios ignores the entire history of the industry.

When looking unreal / Unity / Id Tech/ Crytek along with the lack of physical media , I believe it never been easier to create new small studios. The whole pipe line from development to distribution is extremely easy today and is only going to get easier.

Sure if some people leave ABK because of the purchase to make their own studio they wont rival COD or Diablo right away but they can quickly develop new smaller IP and over time that company can easily grow

 

[Deleted member 11852]

This is probably the most common story of how a new studio gets founded. To act as though there aren't ever going to be new video game studios ignores the entire history of the industry.

The Infinity Ward duo are the exception rather than the rule. They were well known in the developer circles and that is how they were able to leave, and get funding for a new studio to continue working on AA/AAA games. What successful games (commercially successful) outside of indie space have released from a newly formed studio?

I'm really struggling to think of any. When you look at the all commercially-successful games over the last four years, they're all come from massive publishers. When industry consolidation reduces the market to five or six massive publishers, the ability of people to leave and fund a studio, and still compete with the absurd resources of the big publishers, is probably going to be zero. Many may well turn from from AA/AAA to the saturated indie space.

Every time a big publishers get acquired and loses its independence, that's not good. If Microsoft have proven one thing over two decades of console gaming, it's being massively inconsistent and blowing hot and cold on their internal studios.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

That's because the FTC decided the outcome before they looked at the facts. We know they had contact with the CMA, and every other regulatory body who approved the deal published their findings. You would think they would have spent a few hours reading those decisions and figuring out why they wanted the deal blocked, instead of trying to block it without a case prepared for the inevitable trial.

Something to remember is that assessments and decisions from other regulators are often not going to be that relevant, because the situations in different markets are different.

 

[Nesh]

People are acting like what has happened with the ABK merger is something new. MS and Sony and Nintendo have been able to do this for the entire history of their respective corporations.

Large acquisitions like this happen all the time. This just happens to be the largest in modern video game history.

Has the food industry imploded? Are vehicles so much worse now than they were 100 years ago when there were far more car manufacturers? Has one car manufacturer acquired all other smaller car manufacturers? Is there only one remaining dominant tech corporation because they've acquired all of the others?

Before people continue to freak out, remember the one key thing. An acquisition generally requires someone wanting or needing (for example, shareholders forcing the sale of a company) to be acquired in order for an acquisition to happen. While hostile takeovers are possible, they are exceedingly rare and difficult to pull off.

And, generally speaking, a video game company or publisher is usually only going to want to be sold if that company or publisher thinks that there is a high likelihood that they may cease operations or their ability to compete in the market will so seriously decline that the value of their company would be significantly lower in the next few years.

IE - Internally those companies believe that either the end of their company is near or that there is a great risk that they'll be facing bankruptcy if even one title in development fails to perform well in the market.

So, if you're going to start panicking about the sky falling down, first go and determine which publishers/developers are in imminent danger of failing or going bankrupt and those are the companies that are most likely to be acquired. If the developer or publisher is doing fine, then it's incredibly unlikely that they'll want to be acquired by another company.

Regards,
SB

Finding examples from different industries doesnt make it better, since companies becoming too powerful and owning large chunks of the economy is a problem itself that exists in general. Nobody claimed large acquisitions in general never existed before, that was never the argument. What we are discussing though is the phenomenon of unprecedented acquisitions in the gaming industry. Large acquisitions forming huge monopolies and oligopolies come with a set of negative consequences a lot more often than people think, but they aren't directly visible to them.
Even by going through the argument of publishers being in imminent danger (which ABK wasn't, but even if they were), this IS part of the problem of the industry.
Big publishers becoming too big to sustain themselves until they put themselves up for purchase to the highest bidder, especially by platform owners is a problem where, from a competitive environment the industry is evolving into a super consolidation. The industry isnt evolving into a healthy one. It is a form of degeneration.

 

[fehu]

FTC appeals its loss to Microsoft in Activision Blizzard case

All eyes are now on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

www.theverge.com

 

[Shifty Geezer]

People are acting like what has happened with the ABK merger is something new. MS and Sony and Nintendo have been able to do this for the entire history of their respective corporations.

Large acquisitions like this happen all the time. This just happens to be the largest in modern video game history.

Has the food industry imploded? Are vehicles so much worse now than they were 100 years ago when there were far more car manufacturers? Has one car manufacturer acquired all other smaller car manufacturers? Is there only one remaining dominant tech corporation because they've acquired all of the others?

The difference is the same foods are everywhere - you don't get exclusives. Want chicken? Go to Sainsbury's. want potatoes? Head to Tescos. Want a Sunday roast? Spend 2 hours driving around burning fuel to pick up all the ingredients from all the different stores. Cars use the same fuel - you don't get exclusives. "You want to use BP fuel? Okay, you'll need a Mazda or Toyota. What's that, they don't do a car that's appropriate? You want the Land Rover? Well, you'll just have to go with BP and get your fuel from Texaco. Can't have both." Consoles are nothing but their content and the more exclusives, the more need for two boxes which is expensive and wasteful.

I don't think there are any parallels are all. Every other media is cross platform. Closest we get is exclusive content on media platforms, not hardware.

I don't know that the whole market is going to be divided - I don't know how much money these companies have to throw at it and Sony certainyl can't spend like MS for years to come - but the future is one that is possible and different from other industries and why people are waving their arms around.

 

[GhostofWar]

The Infinity Ward duo are the exception rather than the rule. They were well known in the developer circles and that is how they were able to leave, and get funding for a new studio to continue working on AA/AAA games. What successful games (commercially successful) outside of indie space have released from a newly formed studio?

I wish I was better with names and followed things closer so I could provide better details here, but I think the guys who made Ascent were ex blizzard? Embark is ex dice and have 2 projects coming with the first in beta, Surge (and surge 2?) was made by ex cdproject devs I think (some may have done lords of the fallen before that aswell). Mortal Shell dev had some ex blizzard artists I think. It seems nearly every time lately I hear about a new studio it always has some part saying stuff like founded by former devs from y company.

I think it's a hard thing to quantify if the downsize is because a lack of funding, because normally when people leave to form their own thing they always say things like I wanted to work on something smaller, I wanted to make something different than I have for the last 10 years etc.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

I wish I was better with names and followed things closer so I could provide better details here, but I think the guys who made Ascent were ex blizzard? Embark is ex dice and have 2 projects coming with the first in beta, Surge (and surge 2?) was made by ex cdproject devs I think (some may have done lords of the fallen before that aswell). Mortal Shell dev had some ex blizzard artists I think. It seems nearly every time lately I hear about a new studio it always has some part saying stuff like founded by former devs from y company.

None of these are AAA or AA games though, which is my point. Plenty of talented devs who worked on AAA titles have gone on to work on really smaller titles, including some really stellar titles like Firewatch. If the counter argument to consolidation limiting developer agency is the option for developers to leave these big publsihers/studios and create a new studios, then you have to compare like with like.

The fewer independent environments for AA and AAA games that exist, the fewer options there are for developers to create such games. We know from the FTC case how much money Sony spends on their AAA first party titles. Horizon Forbidden West has a budget of $212m and The Last of Us Part 2 had a bunched of $220m, both are which are ridiculous - like closing on half a billion dollars for two games.

 

[eastmen]

The difference is the same foods are everywhere - you don't get exclusives. Want chicken? Go to Sainsbury's. want potatoes? Head to Tescos. Want a Sunday roast? Spend 2 hours driving around burning fuel to pick up all the ingredients from all the different stores. Cars use the same fuel - you don't get exclusives. "You want to use BP fuel? Okay, you'll need a Mazda or Toyota. What's that, they don't do a car that's appropriate? You want the Land Rover? Well, you'll just have to go with BP and get your fuel from Texaco. Can't have both." Consoles are nothing but their content and the more exclusives, the more need for two boxes which is expensive and wasteful.

I don't think there are any parallels are all. Every other media is cross platform. Closest we get is exclusive content on media platforms, not hardware.

I don't know that the whole market is going to be divided - I don't know how much money these companies have to throw at it and Sony certainyl can't spend like MS for years to come - but the future is one that is possible and different from other industries and why people are waving their arms around.

We have huge consolidation every where when it comes to media. Disney bought Fox with a 72 billon dollar purchase. Sony bought MGM years ago also. Then we have Sony purchasing into the anime industry with Funimation in 2017 and Crunchyroll in 2021 which are the two biggest anime streaming companies in the world. We just had discovery purchase time warner for 40B and there are already rumors of Paramount shopping itself around.

The problem is this stuff unlike food can be produced by anyone. You and I can start a company up right now and make a video game , we can start a company up right now and make music or anime and so on and so forth. The capital to do so ranges from literally having a cell phone in the case of music and movies to needing a computer to make a game. The investment to start a viable farm cost tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars.

 

[GhostofWar]

None of these are AAA or AA games though,

Not sure I agree that none of the ones I listed were not AA, and I pretty much figured this would be the answer so i'll just let sleeping dogs lie.