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

[Nesh]

It's a nice drama/shit show. As pointed out already MSFT should sell COD because COD doesn't matter according to msft so whats the problem?
On the other hand, Sony says that COD is everything!! And they cannot operate without COD and most probably be out of business. So why MSFT do not use 69 blns to secure exclusivity and dominate the market huh?
Doesn't matter what happens at least Bobby is caching out big fat checks and he is fine. Thank god!

I dont think it is exactly "COD is everything". But it is highly important. The share of PS COD players in relation to the total of COD players is substantial and it seems to be growing.
Plus Sony will be literally funding ABK's XBOX exclusive games substantially. So its like feeding the weapons that point at them.
The proposed contract is 10 years. Sony wants Playstation to stay forever, so a 10 year contract suggests no parity or support after that. And they are seeing how potentially that, as well as other titles under ABK will become exclusive and will affect their appeal negatively. ABK is one of the biggest publishers out there. MS owns all their IPs. Those combined with the IPs MS controls with Zenimax that were originally MP makes it harder for Sony to recover in case things are leveled up or go south in the future and harder to compete with gamepass, a business model that Sony can't support. Remember that wide third party support is what makes a console successful. MS owning these third party studios potentially and gradually reduces given third party support as MS sees fit, and makes it even more challenging when a large collection of games that PS owners used to enjoy as well as new ABK games will be available only on XBOX and on Gamepass day one.
If this goes through then it opens up Aeolus' bag for more big third party acquisitions. It becomes a bullshit arms race.

 

[BRiT]

If the deal is scuttled, It will be interesting to see if and how quickly the status quo is broken, where ABK tells Sony to get lost and gives all the promotion deals to Microsoft.

 

[eastmen]

It's a nice drama/shit show. As pointed out already MSFT should sell COD because COD doesn't matter according to msft so whats the problem?
On the other hand, Sony says that COD is everything!! And they cannot operate without COD and most probably be out of business. So why MSFT do not use 69 blns to secure exclusivity and dominate the market huh?
Doesn't matter what happens at least Bobby is caching out big fat checks and he is fine. Thank god!

COD exclusivity doesn't matter. But the profits from COD help make the purchase pay itself back over time

The issue with MS selling off COD is what is the value of COD ? If COD is so big that whole 30 year console businesses would just cease to exist then 1) Who could buy it that wouldn't foreclose on either console company. 2) How much money should it sell for ? obviously Sony wouldn't be able to buy it because if MS is able to foreclose on the industry with it then surely it would be even easier for Sony to do so. So who could pay tens of billions for COD franchise and would likely have to keep it on all the platforms it already exists on at the very least or have to release it on even more platforms (because that is what MS has already committed too)


So if CMA wants them to sell off COD what happens ? The deal closes and then Ms has to sell but what is the price and then what if no one is willing to pay the price ? Does MS have to keep reducing the price until someone takes it ? What if that never happens ? What if 10 years or 15 years go by and no one ever buys COD ?

 

[eastmen]

If the deal is scuttled, It will be interesting to see if and how quickly the status quo is broken, where ABK tells Sony to get lost and gives all the promotion deals to Microsoft.

would be interesting to see if they don't sell off some parts to MS instead. IF COD is the big sticking point for a lot of regulators perhaps Activision just sells blizzard off to MS or blizzard and king and then whats left of activision is just cod and the publishing arm ?

I wonder if regulators would even have a say if Activision sold say diablo and its development team to MS ?

 

[fehu]

If the deal is scuttled, It will be interesting to see if and how quickly the status quo is broken, where ABK tells Sony to get lost and gives all the promotion deals to Microsoft.

impossible

 

[eastmen]

impossible

What would be impossible. If the rumors from last year are correct the marketing deal ends next year. If Sony is ghosting ABK what is to stop them from getting a similar deal with MS ?

 

[iroboto]

the assumption is that they'll stop ghosting ABK once this deal is blocked. I'm just not sure how much ABK will entertain a deal. They may just say, no deals period going forward, and make it 100% equal. That would be a win for MS given the state of the last decade.

the alternative is that, with no deal signed, or through this process, they find a meaningful way to get COD onto gamepass/xcloud. Without ownership.
There are several ways that MS could still benefit from this process, and none of it necessarily involving the ownership of ABK.

any type of additional regulations around exclusivity practices would also be a big win for MS. Currently there are many titles they can't put onto gamepass as a result of contractual obligations with Sony.

 

[eastmen]

the assumption is that they'll stop ghosting ABK once this deal is blocked. I'm just not sure how much ABK will entertain a deal. They may just say, no deals period going forward, and make it 100% equal. That would be a win for MS given the state of the last decade.

It could be , it could also just as likely be that after the deal is blocked the heads of ABK are pissed about their pay day vanishing and instead structure a deal with MS. That is of course if the deal is similar to the sony deal or more likely it be more favorable towards ABK vs the sony contract.

 

[fehu]

Money doesn't stink. Whatever happens they will find a deal.

 

[AlphaWolf]

Money doesn't stink. Whatever happens they will find a deal.

Not if regulatory bodies block. If MS is out so are Tencent, Google and Amazon. That makes the list of possible suitors pretty small.

Maybe they should just merge with Rock*. That couldn't cause problems.

 

[eastmen]

Not if regulatory bodies block. If MS is out so are Tencent, Google and Amazon. That makes the list of possible suitors pretty small.

Maybe they should just merge with Rock*. That couldn't cause problems.

Right if MS can foreclose on Sony with Call of Duty then Tencent , Google and Amazon can do the same to Sony and MS.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

If the deal is scuttled, It will be interesting to see if and how quickly the status quo is broken, where ABK tells Sony to get lost and gives all the promotion deals to Microsoft.

Give? Sell? Activision's management don't own the company, the shareholdersown the vast majority and they will demand that the leadership team make decisions that produce profit.

Microsoft have had marketing deals on Call of Duty on Xbox before - even with a smaller platform base, and they certainly could again. The only people preventing this from happening are Activision-Blizzard and Microsoft. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[iroboto]

Give? Sell? Activision's management don't own the company, the shareholdersown the vast majority and they will demand that the leadership team make decisions that produce profit.

Microsoft have had marketing deals on Call of Duty on Xbox before - even with a smaller platform base, and they certainly could again. The only people preventing this from happening are Activision-Blizzard and Microsoft. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

But they don’t have to accept all of the terms. I agree that shareholders want as much $$ as possible but there are clear blocking terms from Sony that ABK may feel no longer feel is profitable especially since Sony is comfortable burning the ABKs shareholders anyway, why agree to it?

In particular the terms where Sony requires that COD cannot come to gamepass for another 10 years.

MS could easily make a play for older COD titles on gamepass and ABK would profit from gaining new players potentially via xcloud.

 

[tuna]

what a BS world we are living in. A toxic unproductive douche paid millions, and not suffering any consequences because he is a CEO and has huge sums of money

Kotick is really good at his job. Look how much money CoD has generated vs something like Battlefield.

 

[Nesh]

Kotick is really good at his job. Look how much money CoD has generated vs something like Battlefield.

I attribute it to people below him, not this spoiled toxic son of a bitch

 

[Nesh]

It could be , it could also just as likely be that after the deal is blocked the heads of ABK are pissed about their pay day vanishing and instead structure a deal with MS. That is of course if the deal is similar to the sony deal or more likely it be more favorable towards ABK vs the sony contract.

Well I can see MS using their huge amounts of cash, oooor the billions MS will pay to ABK for a no-go deal be used between the good terms of the two companies, to support XBOX substantially.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

But they don’t have to accept all of the terms. I agree that shareholders want as much $$ as possible but there are clear blocking terms from Sony that ABK may feel no longer feel is profitable especially since Sony is comfortable burning the ABKs shareholders anyway, why agree to it?

Whatever agreement is keeping content off (or late to) Xbox, or unavailable in GamePass was agreed to and signed by Activision-Blizzard. They didn't have to sign this, they were complicit in f***ing over Microsoft and Xbox owners. I was responding to BRiT's post taking about the aftermath where any Activision-Sony relationship is potentially in tatters.

In particular the terms where Sony requires that COD cannot come to gamepass for another 10 years.

Contracts can be broken, or voided. There is almost always a good faith (as in both parties will always act within good faith) that can be a lever for voiding contracts, and Activision would have been foolish if there isn't provision to revisit the contract should the market martially change. There will be a cost but Microsoft have a lot of money.

This isn't the unsolvable problem people think it is. Contracts get dissolved or broken frequently.

 

[JPT]

There will be a cost but Microsoft have a lot of money.

This isn't the unsolvable problem people think it is. Contracts get dissolved or broken frequently.

In general I find the "lack of understanding" in the public, on how much or really the only important thing in all of business is MONEY.

Neither Sony nor MS or any other business care about the consumers in any heartfelt way other than what they are willing to shell out on their products.

 

[iroboto]

Whatever agreement is keeping content off (or late to) Xbox, or unavailable in GamePass was agreed to and signed by Activision-Blizzard. They didn't have to sign this, they were complicit in f***ing over Microsoft and Xbox owners. I was responding to BRiT's post taking about the aftermath where any Activision-Sony relationship is potentially in tatters.


Contracts can be broken, or voided. There is almost always a good faith (as in both parties will always act within good faith) that can be a lever for voiding contracts, and Activision would have been foolish if there isn't provision to revisit the contract should the market martially change. There will be a cost but Microsoft have a lot of money.

This isn't the unsolvable problem people think it is. Contracts get dissolved or broken frequently.

While I agree with the direction of your post, Im not sure It’s not up to Microsoft for these contracts, or whether it’s anywhere close to efficient to engage in countering them.

Today Sony is the only platform that charges additional revenue for allowing a title to be cross play if the title sells more than a certain amount. To counter this MS would have to offer uhh money to make up for Sony charging the publisher more? That would effectively be MS paying Sony.

How do we know there isn’t a clause in all of
Sonys contracts that say if you don’t sign on this clause, that blocks you from game pass, we will charge you more revenue. If you dont already have an agreement with gamepass this makes that signature trivial because you aren’t guaranteed to make it onto game pass so you should take more profits as a guaranteed cut. Once again, that would effectively be MS paying out to Sony.

But a year down the line and MS comes knocking, too late. Can’t break the contract.

 

[tuna]

I attribute it to people below him, not this spoiled toxic son of a bitch

He selects the people below him, that is how corporations function.