Psygnosis games also saw their way into the Sega Saturn and N64
Microsoft acquired Activision Blizzard King for $69 Billion on 2023-10-13
- Thread starter Rangers
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List of acquisitions if a reference is needed.
en.m.wikipedia.org
List of acquisitions by Sony - Wikipedia
How does that work when EU single market policy dictates freedom of movement between goods and services ? I'm pretty sure CMA can't unilaterally overrule on M&A cases like this since that undermines the jurisdiction of the EU commission. Even if the CMA could do such a thing how exactly would enforcement work if goods/services that are considered 'contraband' by one set of members which isn't the case with another set of members can flow freely between each other within the trading bloc ?
I am almost certain that the CMA did not have as much power then as it does now when leaving the single market ...
They sure must have signed some, but they were in such a position where they didnt have to rely on it as much.
The Saturn was dead, the N64's agreements werent very attractive and the hardware was too limiting.
Exclusives were coming automatically as in the case of MGS and Final Fantasy.
But I mean I don’t think it’s untrue here. Since brexit CMA is making a decision wholly on its own now. It only needs to look after UKs own needs as opposed to having to look after EUs. Because of that decision criteria on acceptance could be different.
Essentially instead of 6 people in a car figuring out where to go together, it’s a single driver in a single car.
Or a more apt comparison is a being part of a board of directors for a condo vs now being a single home owner.
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The people like Eastman are also conveniently forgetting that both Sega and Nintendo made some absolutely fundamental errors when Sony entered with the PS1. Sony undercut them both of them on licence fees. Sega went with the bonkers decision to release the Saturn in the US and UK a mere 6 months after releasing the 32x and claiming it was the future for the US and UK. Nintendo stuck with cartridges when the entire industry was moving to CDRom. Both of their fundamental fuck ups gave Sony a free pass to dominate. Sega totally tore up their reputation with the 32X debacle and Nintendo lost Squaresoft for a generation which killed them in Japan.
The regulators still make decisions based on their own indepentent research. Its not one body like the FTC where they all sit together. They all still have their own car. The EU is not a fully integrated economy like the US is. It is mixed
Perhaps, but even if so, that's not what won it for them - not by a long stretch.
Not least Nintendo ditching Sony at the last minute!
They suffered, and then adapted, competed and succeeded.
I think this is Microsoft's biggest issue, because they have so much money, somehow they believe money will always fix their problem(s). Money helps, but it doesn't necessarily mean the issue is fixed. Skype comes to mind. Them potentially going after Discord because Skype got out maneuvered by the likes of other social media and communication apps such as Zoom, Facetime, and Whats. Purchasing Activision may help MS further their cloud gaming endeavors in the short-term, but cloud gaming and most entertainment subscriptions models always require new content on being successful and retaining customers. Does Microsoft simply purchase more and more huge game publishers just to "succeed" in a niche space of gaming (as of now) because they're failing in the current standalone console gaming space, due to their own self-inflicted blunders? Or, are they looking at a future where Xbox series devices are simply cloud gaming gateways [mostly] dependent on cloud compute?
Not least Nintendo ditching Sony at the last minute!
Are you saying that Nintendo was able to recover and beat Sony??
No no that can't be true. Sony are unbeatable you know. If MS is not allowed to buy ABK we'll be doomed to a 1000 years of Sony domination! 
Are you saying that Nintendo was able to recover and beat Sony??
Edit:
Actually I see that you meant that it was Sony who adapted, competed and succeeded. But I think Nintendo was also able to adapt and has succeeded despite Sony's own success.
No, you had it right first time - Nintendo still managed to compete despite the virtual monopoly/duopoly they faced against PS (and XB360). Although to be fair they still had a monopoly in the handheld space. 
They didn't have to buy up lots of studios/publishers to put out a new successful product that up-ended the performance of previous failures. It can even be argued that the competition of the console space is exactly what led Nintendo to innovate and provide something different with a different consumer proposition, instead of the console space being split evenly three ways between three virtually identical machines.
They didn't have to buy up lots of studios/publishers to put out a new successful product that up-ended the performance of previous failures. It can even be argued that the competition of the console space is exactly what led Nintendo to innovate and provide something different with a different consumer proposition, instead of the console space being split evenly three ways between three virtually identical machines.Johnny Awesome
Veteran
So they said... but are we really to believe that CMA was worried about Cloud gaming 10 years from now. They aren't THAT dumb.
Uhh. Skype is MS Teams. And MS teams is quickly becoming (edit: is now) the largest unified collaboration suite. It’s just destroying the market I work in, Cisco is losing tons of lines to MS Teams, that Office bundling is so powerful that they are being regulated to remove it. It used to be all Cisco WebEx, some ring central, Broadworks etc. but everyone is moving to Teams; it’s nuts Cisco legit is having troubles competing here.
With operator connect expanding very soon you don’t need a local line anymore. Any service provider that support operator connect, or if you have a data plan or wifi and your MS teams number and you can go anywhere in the world with no LD fees to call out or receive.
It’s a legit beast: worth reading how insanely fast they became the market leader.
https://www.businessofapps.com/data/microsoft-teams-statistics/
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Initially, they used their in house teams and exclusive deals with 3rd parties to secure exclusive content for Playstation. Ironically, Psygnosis was picked up by Sony in 1993 but were run independently of SCI. That's why their game got ported to Saturn and N64. I've heard it was a contractual obligation related to the acquisition, but I've never actually seen confirmation of that. It may be notable that they stopped licensing out their IP for other consoles by 1999, when they ceased being Psygnosis and became Studio Liverpool.
Yes, they did. Right from the start. Mortal Kombat 3 was a "next gen" timed exclusive for them at launch, for example. Ultimate MK3 came out on Saturn, of course. But vanilla MK3 was only on Playstation for that generation.
Not sure about MGS, but FFVII was an exclusive. Not only does it say "It's only on Playstation" on the original cover art, it was published by Sony. Google "Final Fantasy VII Cover Art Misprint" and you should find a scan or pic of the original back artwork with "And it's only on Playstation" right below the misplaced "i" in masterpiece. The Sony Computer Entertainment published badge is right to the left of the ESRB. The Sony Computer Entertainment America contact info is listed below the # of players/Memory card blocks info, like it is for most publishers on Playstation titles. If you look at MGS, it has a Konami badge near the ESRB and Konami contact info below the # of players. I think there was a draft of the FFVII marketing agreement leaked at one point as well.
Sony's game for control back then was to either sign an exclusive deal that simply involved not releasing on rival consoles, or a deal to publish the game, thus making it an exclusive. I think they realized the publishing part was a mistake when they found some of the more popular IP that they helped build into mega franchises like FF, Crash, and Spyro become multiplatform titles.
I mean, isn't this what MS is trying to do?Not least Nintendo ditching Sony at the last minute!
They're suffering, they're adapting by moving out of hardware and into cloud to compete, and now they're just being blocked from succeeding lol.
iceberg187
Regular
Weighing in some more, I still don't think it's a certainty that this is done.
The CMA tries to say that in 10-15 years, this will happen or that will happen, in a hypothetical sense.
However, the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) says this.
That's outside the purview that CAT has given the CMA to go by in terms of time and not one of you here think that this is going to be the last generation of hardware from either Microsoft, Sony or Nintendo.
See, all of these companies are all over the place with their projections of when the cloud is supposed to take off but the CMA, a group of people outside of the industry is going to know the industry better than the industry people? Also, that's outside of consideration for 5 years too.
The CMA ultimately took every conceivable hypothetical and weighed it against Microsoft. I'm not saying that Microsoft is going to ultimately win anything, but I do believe that the CMA is going to have to revisit a lot of this because CAT will rule in Microsoft's favor in a large degree.
The entire argument is that Activision makes Microsoft's cloud business unbeatable, mainly off the strength of Call of Duty, which is patently absurd. That is the CMA's single theory of harm. WiiU had COD, sold 10 million. Switch doesn't have COD, sold over 100 million. CMA is going to have to answer for a lot of these answers is what I think.
The CMA tries to say that in 10-15 years, this will happen or that will happen, in a hypothetical sense.
However, the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) says this.
That's outside the purview that CAT has given the CMA to go by in terms of time and not one of you here think that this is going to be the last generation of hardware from either Microsoft, Sony or Nintendo.
See, all of these companies are all over the place with their projections of when the cloud is supposed to take off but the CMA, a group of people outside of the industry is going to know the industry better than the industry people? Also, that's outside of consideration for 5 years too.
The CMA ultimately took every conceivable hypothetical and weighed it against Microsoft. I'm not saying that Microsoft is going to ultimately win anything, but I do believe that the CMA is going to have to revisit a lot of this because CAT will rule in Microsoft's favor in a large degree.
The entire argument is that Activision makes Microsoft's cloud business unbeatable, mainly off the strength of Call of Duty, which is patently absurd. That is the CMA's single theory of harm. WiiU had COD, sold 10 million. Switch doesn't have COD, sold over 100 million. CMA is going to have to answer for a lot of these answers is what I think.
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