Microsoft acquired Activision Blizzard King for $69 Billion on 2023-10-13
- Thread starter Rangers
- Start date
Two hours and twenty-five minutes! Not saying it ain't good or informative, but could you give a summary of it when you're done watching it please? I got too much housework to do today.
Two hours and twenty-five minutes! Not saying it ain't good or informative, but could you give a summary of it when you're done watching it please? I got too much housework to do today.
FTC arguments =
Two hours and twenty-five minutes! Not saying it ain't good or informative, but could you give a summary of it when you're done watching it please? I got too much housework to do today.
Stand out is the first lines of it. About 23 mins in. He talks about how in the opening line they put Microsoft and Sony control the market for high-performance video game consoles. So by putting Microsoft and Sony together in that sentence implies they are equal but of course Sony moved what 2 times the amount of ps4s as MS did xbox ones ? Then the second part of course is they put in high-performance because it excludes Nintendo. With Sony and nintendo each selling what 120m+ units (and in nintendo's case still going) MS's 60ish million is nothing. 60m consoles in a sea of 300m consoles is not controlling the market.
I am only 40 minutes in. It's interesting to listen too
he is talking about the EU's statement that MS didn't go back on what it said about the Bethesda purchase but that it's a grey area but doesn't look good for the FTC and the FTC would def not want that out there
He is now talking about section 12. This is again the purchase of Bethesda. He goes over the Microsoft release from the other day which has their statement of commitment to the EU regarding ZeniMax and of course EU saying that MS never made those guarantees
I think this part is interesting ant its about 45 minutes in. " Future decisions on wether to distribute Zenimax games for other consoles will be made on a case-by-case basis, taking into account player demand and sentiment. Factors that will inform Microsoft's decision-making on future games include consumer demand and prefrence and the willingness of third parties to work with Microsoft to launch games for their devices (and it says its MS zenimax form CO, Jan 29,2021 at p.5)
It futher stated " For future Zenimax games , Microsoft intends to make these games available for purchase on PC and, where the games are designed as native mobile games , on mobile devices running both ios and andriod. Future decisions on wether to distribute zenimax games for other consoles will be made on a case-by-case basis, taking into account player demand and sentiment, mmicrosoft's strategic and financial goals, and the willingness of third party gaming hardware providers to run Microsoft games and services. Microsoft will maike all aqired games and future releases available to subcsribers of Game pass service on the day the games are launched { which can be used to play on pcs , xbox consoles and andriod mobiles} but does not currently anticipate distributing them through other subscription services. This reflects MS's broader strategy to promote a subscription-based model which it believes will generate value and choice for game players. This policy would not perclude players from downloading or buying these games outside of Xbox Game Pass": microsoft anticipates that the existing games and future multi-platform games will be avalible for purchase from relevant digital store fronts of all major consoles and PCs.
Then there is an interview with bloomberg in sept 2020 Phil noted Clearly our commitment with this move is that Xbox and PC and people playing on xcloud and game pass wil lget zenimax games in terms of other platforms I think we will make a dicision on a case by case basis
Again from these comments it doesn't look like MS ever lied or mislead anyone
Last edited:
the number of questions he is given and is paid for... and the amount of times this news cycle keeps releasing new documents. He has seen his revenues easily double or triple. This is the spiciest the industry has ever been and he's at ground zero handing out popcorn, hotdogs and beer
I am sure it beats trying cases all the time.
Wonder if I can get paid to argue with Dsoup all the time on youtube. Maybe we split it 60/40 what do you say @DSoup
D
Deleted member 11852
Guest
If this were 2018 he's be making some decent money, alas YouTube ads are currently worth $3 - $5 per 1000 video views, which is shocking compared to what it was. It's no wonder most channels have a fallback Patreon. He's getting 8-13k views regularly on the acquisition vids - which is way above what he was getting on the stuff he was putting out previously.
He must be hoping this drags on for as long as possible!
Wow lots of mental gymnastics there
We already have access to what MS said to the EU as I typed above. They never pledged not to go excusive with Zenimax games. Again here is what MS put in their merger notice to the EU
And yes it makes sense for Starfield to go exclusive because its a single player game while COD doesn't make sense because it is a multiplayer game. When you are playing a single player game it doesn't matter how many other people out there are playing it you still have a single closed experiance. With a multiplayer game like COD you will want as many people as possible playing it at the same time so you have access to as many game modes and as many people of your play level as possible.
D
Deleted member 11852
Guest
Interestingly, if you read the EU Commission's notice of approval for Microsoft acquiring Zenimax, much is predicated on the Commission's assessment that there was no incentive for Microsoft to do certain things (word search: "incentive") and you'll find a bunch such as - the relevant one for Starfield and Elder Scrolls VI, paras 82 to 88:
So essentially, the Commission failed to predict that Microsoft might withhold IP from rival consoles. Having erred on the Zenimax acquisition, that explains their more cautious approach on this acquisition as this was a key risk flagged in their November statement.EU Commission said:
D
Deleted member 11852
Guest
Not from the start, only after the investigations starting to become more intensive. That was too late to avert the UK and EU processes hitting stage 2. Even if Sony had agreed to sign a 10 years deal, that doesn't address the other market risks that UK and EU regulators are looking at. Sony are not in control of these processes, Governments are.
Microsoft called Sony the day the deal was announced publicly, and I think that's when they first told Sony they had no intention of removing COD from that platform.
So what do you consider to be "the start"?
Am I the only person who thinks Microsoft was asleep at the wheel on this? They should have spent more time with the regulators than Sony. Full Stop. At least with the FTC.
I'm pretty sure there is something in the contracts that it can't come to GamePass without breeching the contract or they have to put it on Playstation Plus if it is going to GamePass. I'm sure if the deal doesn't go through Microsoft will have enough cash to make the GamePass deal but I doubt Sony would and therefore it is not happening.
The FTC has been friendly with this stuff until the biden admin came in. MS has donated a lot to the democrats and assumed it be clear sailing. The problem is the democrats are more about messaging than playing nice with each other. They will throw anyone under the buss if it means they look good in front of others.
We will ultimately see what comes of this. But I think at the end of the day it will not move the needle either way. This is only a few months out from the next election cycle. Like I said MS not opening its wallets to democrats will get a lot of them to put pressure on democrats up for re-election. Going anti union on this will also hurt a lot of democrats images.
Would need to make financial sense for both ABK & MS.
Exactly same deal as what Sony has could easily make sense.
By the time the current deal is up, the next game should be current gen only. Meaning market share isn't as lopsided as was last gen.
What they could do is make some things Gamepass perks. Some paid for skins, weapons etc however things work in COD.
Having a Series/5 only COD on Gamepass would also put it on Xcloud. That could make the potential market larger for Xbox than it would be for Playstation. Of course, this would also mean that they would have to offer it for sale on Xcloud in order to make money on it, and to my knowledge that hasn't happened yet. No game is available to purchase and play as streaming without a Gamepass sub to unless I missed something. The closest thing there is is the Fortnite streaming deal, which is a free game available to stream without a sub.
Silent_Buddha
Legend
It's quite likely that MS has spent FAR more time with the FTC than Sony has. Any corporation that is being looked into by the FTC will be doing that as they need to find out what objections the FTC might have as well what the FTC might want to change in order for them to not seek an injunction. Standard operating practice when the FTC does it's job to help companies be in compliance with the law by advising corporations of what to do or what not to do WRT the law as it is written.
However, MS isn't trying to stop the acquisition from happening (what Lina Khan wants) while Sony does want to stop it (what Lina Khan wants). So, you can take a guess as to which side the FTC is going to take on this, even though they aren't supposed to be taking sides.
Well, in this particular case they're supposed to be taking the side of consumers. Instead they are taking the side of one competitor as any other competitor in the gaming space has either publicly said they don't see a problem with or are in favor of it or they haven't said anything.
But again, what the competition has to say does not matter to Lina Khan (the FTC) unless the competition is against it, then it matters to Lina Khan (the FTC). And if that competitor happens to be the market leader? Well, that's the only one worth listening to.
Regards,
SB
Last edited:
Similar threads
