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

[Inuhanyou]

This is clearly MS trying to lobby congress into giving them an advantage somehow. Good luck to them, congress are for the most part filled with old people who dont even know basic shit about any kind of technology like TikTok, let alone video games

It's clear their argument is very weak though. One of their thrusts is that they are weak in japan because of Sony. but most exclusives in japan are not actually due to Sony but the cost to production ratio of other games companies in either localizing their games or selling them in the market due to consumer disinterest. And this goes for western games published in Japan and Japanese games

 

[iceberg187]

Don't think so small guys.

The war of attrition has begun. After Activision, there will be others.

This is what the lawyer who has been piecing all this together for us said today on Resetera

But complaining to the agencies also have risks:

- Third-party materials and testimonies that now are confidential could become public
- It's not cheap
- You are wasting time that could be spend on your business
- It's a one-way flow of information (the regulators will not provide a complaining third party with info about the investigation)
- It could affect future acquisitions: regulators could use arguments and information submitted by Sony in the future (market definitions, for example)

So, I understand what Sony is doing and it makes sense from their perspective. But if the trend of the industry is consolidation, they'll have to make more acquisitions too. And being so aggressive now could have unintended consequences in a few years.

In a way, by going so hard at Microsoft, they've stepped in their own shit. Currently, Sony as an organization said that they have 5 billion in acquisitions to still spend. If it's video game related and it's a Japanese company especially, Microsoft is going to go higher than Sony will. So, don't be distracted by what Microsoft is doing right now because it's plain to see. They are trying to set groundwork to acquire a Sega, Capcom, Namco, Square Enix, using The United States government as a bully pulpit with Sony's own words. Try to stop an American business from investment in Japan and Sony will never get another deal done again. That's what is happening now. Japan is being put on notice. This is way bigger than Final Fantasy 7 remake and Monster Hunter. It's about protectionism in countries for one company and not in another for the other company.

 

[Inuhanyou]

Of course, that's only if Japanese devs want to play the game MS is playing. So far they have tolerated MS because they are a decent chunk of the western market, but trying to muscle in on their business practices just due to the amount of money MS has is a good way to get cold shock.

This is only about MS thinking they can throw their money around anywhere they please because they failed for more than 20 years to do basic competent marketing in regions Sony excells in. If Sony doesn't buy any pubs MS certainly has no claim to them, atleast any more than Sony does.

In addition, if MS tries to do something in Japan, it's gonna be a lot different because Nintendo will definitely not sit by in that instance. Activision and Bethesda are not Nintendo oriented third parties but the Japanese devs absolutely are

 

[SmooTh]

Funny times
Japan approved the deal

https://t.co/1j03Xd78NZ

 

[Inuhanyou]

Funny times
Japan approved the deal

https://t.co/1j03Xd78NZ

View attachment 8523

What authority would they have to block a western publisher deal like this? Why would it being Japanese regulatory commission make it more or less likely to block the deal?

I feel like once the EU approved the deal the cards will all fall at once. I think china was also waiting for the EU decision

 

[BRiT]

More tweets of the Japan Fair Trade Commission approval of the deal:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1640634247013646336

https://twitter.com/x/status/1640630982117310464

https://twitter.com/x/status/1640636856688693251

 

[troyan]

Germany's regulators have started an investigation into Microsoft business practice. I cant understand why the EU could allow this Acquisition going forward at the same time...

 

[iroboto]

This is clearly MS trying to lobby congress into giving them an advantage somehow. Good luck to them, congress are for the most part filled with old people who dont even know basic shit about any kind of technology like TikTok, let alone video games

It's clear their argument is very weak though. One of their thrusts is that they are weak in japan because of Sony. but most exclusives in japan are not actually due to Sony but the cost to production ratio of other games companies in either localizing their games or selling them in the market due to consumer disinterest. And this goes for western games published in Japan and Japanese games

I mean, on this point, I can't know if MS is valid here. But I can say that Xbox will fail in Japan if they are unable to secure Japanese content onto their console. If that is the obvious point of failure, and somehow Sony has been leveraging it's leadership position to ensure that Xbox never obtains meaningful Japanese content to even compete in Japan, then I would say if that infringes on trade agreements between the US and Japan; their claims may be more relevant here - outside of simple posturing.

I think it's a mistake to just look at a company and think that any amount of money or resources can supplant a well entrenched competitor such as Sony. It can't. And if Sony has been pushing to ensure it's Japanese content dominance in Japan, which also means, Japanese content is then limited further for the rest of the global regions of Xbox; Sony could be heavily engaged in ensuring that Xbox can't succeed.

So when people talk about why they choose PS over Xbox, it's because it's got 'exclusives and Japanese games that never come to Xbox'.
Well....

I'm not saying it's true, but it's important to see the argument MS is making before dismissing it as noise. Yes Xbox has made huge mistakes in regions outside of US, but Sony can't also have a hand in impedance.

This is a bigger deal for Xbox than you think, because despite being unable to sell consoles in Japan, or the APAC or EMEA region, they have internet, some of the fastest internet in the world. They don't need to sell consoles, they just need regional content to stream to devices.

 

[Johnny Awesome]

MS doesn't have the content to compete in Japan and most non-Japanese companies don't do so hot there to begin with due to nationalism. Apple does alright because there's more bias against Korea (Samsung) than the US there, for example.

Sony foreclosing content in Japan has always hurt competitors, starting with Nintendo and Sega over 20 years ago.

 

[iroboto]

Kotick knocks Sony's behavior in Xbox/Activision Blizzard deal

Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick calls Sony's behavior regarding the Xbox/Activision Blizzard deal

www.retbit.com

“Microsoft offered Sony (the dominant console leader for well over a decade, with 80% market share) a 10 year agreement on far better terms than Sony would ever get from us,” Meservey said. “We’ve also offered Sony guaranteed long-term access to Call of Duty. But they keep refusing. Why?”

Kotick made reference to Sony wanting to block the Xbox/Activision Blizzard deal in his letter as well.

“Sony has even admitted that they aren’t actually concerned about a Call of Duty agreement—they would just like to prevent our merger from happening,” Kotick continued. “This is obviously disappointing behavior from a partner for almost thirty years, but we will not allow Sony’s behavior to affect our long term relationship.”

Kotick concluded, “PlayStation players know we will continue to deliver the best games possible on Sony platforms as we have since the launch of PlayStation.”

 

[Inuhanyou]

I mean, on this point, I can't know if MS is valid here. But I can say that Xbox will fail in Japan if they are unable to secure Japanese content onto their console. If that is the obvious point of failure, and somehow Sony has been leveraging it's leadership position to ensure that Xbox never obtains meaningful Japanese content to even compete in Japan, then I would say if that infringes on trade agreements between the US and Japan; their claims may be more relevant here - outside of simple posturing.

I think it's a mistake to just look at a company and think that any amount of money or resources can supplant a well entrenched competitor such as Sony. It can't. And if Sony has been pushing to ensure it's Japanese content dominance in Japan, which also means, Japanese content is then limited further for the rest of the global regions of Xbox; Sony could be heavily engaged in ensuring that Xbox can't succeed.

So when people talk about why they choose PS over Xbox, it's because it's got 'exclusives and Japanese games that never come to Xbox'.
Well....

I'm not saying it's true, but it's important to see the argument MS is making before dismissing it as noise. Yes Xbox has made huge mistakes in regions outside of US, but Sony can't also have a hand in impedance.

This is a bigger deal for Xbox than you think, because despite being unable to sell consoles in Japan, or the APAC or EMEA region, they have internet, some of the fastest internet in the world. They don't need to sell consoles, they just need regional content to stream to devices.

Sony making exclusive deals isn't any different from MS or Nintendo making exclusive deals. And the modius operandi for all of them is the same. Enrich their platform by making things exclusive and cutting out competition from access. It's not some Sony specific thing.

If "exclusive deals and "buying out entire publishers" is not anti trust in general, there should be no reason to assume the exact same action with the exact same intent is any different elsewhere.

The reality is that 360 ate into Sony's market share heavily right after a period when everyone thought sony were untouchable. Nintendo has been up and down on the roller coaster to the point they are now considered "their own market" unrelated to wider gaming despite being literally the only publisher in town at one point due to both Sega and Sony's introductions to the market place and introduced competition.

It took the mistakes of these companies to sway back and forth in their positions. And to act like Sony is an outlying monolith who is unfair because they haven't messed up recently and MS fumbled all their chances to really claw hearts and minds away is really silly.

MS can't on the one hand claim Sony is using their market leverage to make exclusive deals(which MS already did just fine with tons of Japanese devs in 360 era where they were relatively young to the market and then just stopped on their own) while proclaiming tens of launch console exclusives literally every conference they have, let alone the gamepass deals which are supposedly the most attractive option in gaming, which come from pretty much all corners of the market Japanese and western.

If Sony can't explain that obvious sentiment to a legal team they are absolutely hopeless and Jim Ryan should be fired immediately

 

[iroboto]

Sony making exclusive deals isn't any different from MS or Nintendo making exclusive deals. And the modius operandi for all of them is the same. Enrich their platform by making things exclusive and cutting out competition from access. It's not some Sony specific thing.

If "exclusive deals and "buying out entire publishers" is not anti trust in general, there should be no reason to assume the exact same action with the exact same intent is any different elsewhere.

The reality is that 360 ate into Sony's market share heavily right after a period when everyone thought sony were untouchable. Nintendo has been up and down on the roller coaster to the point they are now considered "their own market" unrelated to wider gaming despite being literally the only publisher in town at one point due to both Sega and Sony's introductions to the market place and introduced competition.

It took the mistakes of these companies to sway back and forth in their positions. And to act like Sony is an outlying monolith who is unfair because they haven't messed up recently and MS fumbled all their chances to really claw hearts and minds away is really silly.

MS can't on the one hand claim Sony is using their market leverage to make exclusive deals(which MS already did just fine with tons of Japanese devs in 360 era where they were relatively young to the market and then just stopped on their own) while proclaiming tens of launch console exclusives literally every conference they have, let alone the gamepass deals which are supposedly the most attractive option in gaming, which come from pretty much all corners of the market Japanese and western.

If Sony can't explain that obvious sentiment to a legal team they are absolutely hopeless and Jim Ryan should be fired immediately

I don't disagree with the general sentiment, but you're talking about established and entrenched companies competing against established companies. In the case of Xbox in Japan, it is not established in that region. Exclusivity harms Xbox significantly more there because the few titles that they can get, are taken away, leaving Xbox in Japan with English only games. And that doesn't make a lot of sense. If Sony is going to constantly make exclusive all the big games coming from Japan, then technically they leave no possibility for success for any new entrants in Japan that are non-Japanese.

This is not like the situation where Xbox was coming into an established (Sony, Nintendo, Sega) market in the US, and was able to curate it's own English titles in America _for_ an American audience and be able to have differentiating features that was able allow Xbox to succeed. That's just not happening in Japan.

 

[Nesh]

I mean, on this point, I can't know if MS is valid here. But I can say that Xbox will fail in Japan if they are unable to secure Japanese content onto their console. If that is the obvious point of failure, and somehow Sony has been leveraging it's leadership position to ensure that Xbox never obtains meaningful Japanese content to even compete in Japan, then I would say if that infringes on trade agreements between the US and Japan; their claims may be more relevant here - outside of simple posturing.

I think it's a mistake to just look at a company and think that any amount of money or resources can supplant a well entrenched competitor such as Sony. It can't. And if Sony has been pushing to ensure it's Japanese content dominance in Japan, which also means, Japanese content is then limited further for the rest of the global regions of Xbox; Sony could be heavily engaged in ensuring that Xbox can't succeed.

So when people talk about why they choose PS over Xbox, it's because it's got 'exclusives and Japanese games that never come to Xbox'.
Well....

I'm not saying it's true, but it's important to see the argument MS is making before dismissing it as noise. Yes Xbox has made huge mistakes in regions outside of US, but Sony can't also have a hand in impedance.

This is a bigger deal for Xbox than you think, because despite being unable to sell consoles in Japan, or the APAC or EMEA region, they have internet, some of the fastest internet in the world. They don't need to sell consoles, they just need regional content to stream to devices.

Thats a theory that has no real basis. XBOX1 and 360, and especially the 360 had exclusives from big Japanese companies that never saw PS versions.
Especially the 360, it enjoyed a time without Playstation 3 presence and had Japanese exclusives as well as timed exclusives with collaborations with big Japanese names. The games still didnt drive enough units and mostly flopped in Japan even during that period.
All big Japanese companies support XBOX and brought their former-PS exclusive titles over to MS's platform. There was barely much going on between Sony and other Japanese companies that shows Sony removing XBOX support in Japan. The other Japanese companies are mostly smaller companies or companies that dont localize games for other regions. They simply dont bother. Sony isnt worried at all about the Japanese market. It just is theirs without doing anything. It is the rest of the market where it feels the most competition and hence the timed exclusive deals and in rarer occasions the exclusive ones.
The claim is unsubstantiated.

 

[iroboto]

Thats a theory that has no real basis. XBOX1 and 360, and especially the 360 had exclusives from big Japanese companies that never saw PS versions.
Especially the 360, it enjoyed a time without Playstation 3 presence and had Japanese exclusives as well as timed exclusives with collaborations with big Japanese names. The games still didnt drive enough units and mostly flopped in Japan even during that period.
All big Japanese companies support XBOX and brought their former-PS exclusive titles over to MS's platform. There was barely much going on between Sony and other Japanese companies that shows Sony removing XBOX support in Japan. The other Japanese companies are mostly smaller companies or companies that dont localize games for other regions. They simply dont bother. Sony isnt worried at all about the Japanese market. It just is theirs without doing anything. It is the rest of the market where it feels the most competition and hence the timed exclusive deals and in rarer occasions the exclusive ones.
The claim is unsubstantiated.

The claims have been made. It’s okay to be skeptical, I’m just not being dismissive of it. You have no idea what has been signed in Japan and only MS knows the challenges it has been facing in growing content there.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

The claims have been made. It’s okay to be skeptical, I’m just not being dismissive of it. You have no idea what has been signed in Japan and only MS knows the challenges it has been facing in growing content there.

Yeah, but they aren't going to be honest in talking about those challenges if the responsibility for market failure was more their screw-ups. eg,. Creating an awesome 3D camera interface that only works in US sized large rooms and not the living spaces of Japan and European cities. MS won't ever admit, "yeah, Sony and Nintendo just outcompeted us, creatnig the right products at the right price with the right local support." No company will unless they get a management change and can blame the outgoing executives.

Listening to the different sides of this story, we'll learn nothing as all perspectives are hugely biased. Unless we get clear evidence of deals made that were clearly holding MS back, I don't think any weight should be afforded those views.

 

[iroboto]

Yeah, but they aren't going to be honest in talking about those challenges if the responsibility for market failure was more their screw-ups. eg,. Creating an awesome 3D camera interface that only works in US sized large rooms and not the living spaces of Japan and European cities. MS won't ever admit, "yeah, Sony and Nintendo just outcompeted us, creatnig the right products at the right price with the right local support." No company will unless they get a management change and can blame the outgoing executives.

Listening to the different sides of this story, we'll learn nothing as all perspectives are hugely biased. Unless we get clear evidence of deals made that were clearly holding MS back, I don't think any weight should be afforded those views.

Sure, I agree with this. The only difference between then and now, will be that their aim is global with cloud gaming, unless there is suddenly 2 Billion customers in the US that I’m unaware of, regional content is a major component of this strategy - see how Netflix is making the same shows but in all regions.

The requirements that MS must fulfill to succeed on this are very different from then, so the road toward that progress of being a global game provider needs to start today, as we know it will be 5-10 years before the fruits of that labour shows.

If Koticks message is to be believed and I don’t think a CEO would lie on this, Sony is there to block MS on ABK for content reasons, I would see similar reasons to block them out of content in Japan as well. (In today’s landscape).

Sony is typically free to acquire US companies as we saw with Bungie, but we’ve not seen any movement here with MS being able to acquire Japanese ones. At least not yet, and this is something I suspect they will need to do.

 

[troyan]

Why should Sony not be allowed to make exclusive Deals with private companies? That would mean that Netflix shouldnt be allowed to make their own content exclusiv because they hire independent actors, directors, producers etc...

 

[chris1515]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1641052773860114432

EDIT:
The Apple Mac share is huge in Japan

https://twitter.com/x/status/1641054995012534273

 

[Nesh]

MS has a culture of warfare in the industry towards any competitor who tries to mess with them and they are sending payback signals of "dont mess with me or you are going to get worse".
This is why MS tried to ask for Sony's corporate documents to check their "anti-competitive" practices and are now lobbying with the US government to attack Sony's "monopoly" in Japan.
None of this would have happened if Sony did nothing about the deal.

 

[SmooTh]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1641054876930023425

At some point in the conversation, which was conducted at times through translators, Activision executives felt that Mr. Ding threatened Mr. Kotick. The Chinese government was reviewing the Microsoft acquisition, and the executives recalled that Mr. Ding said NetEase could sway the government either to block or support that deal depending on the outcome of the licensing discussion, according to two people familiar with the call and a document reviewed by The Times.