Microsoft Acquiring Activision/Blizzard

[Dungeoncrawler]

So basically its positive because it will add more game options for people with game pass? If so, clearly a very narrow view of things imo.

Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard transaction negatively impacts right to privacy

https://exbulletin.com/tech/1430130/

 

[theshadowcult]

So basically its positive because it will add more game options for people with game pass? If so, clearly a very narrow view of things imo.



https://exbulletin.com/tech/1430130/

im not sure how this deal is more problematic for privacy, vs facebook selling all your data and breaking their own eulas every year, so they can sell everything about you to 3rd parties?

 

[DeathKnight]

https://exbulletin.com/tech/1430130/

It’s clear that Microsoft is working to take over most of the gaming market.

What an ignorant statement.

They have a looooong way to go to get to that point. "most" implies a vast majority. With this latest acquisition it only puts them in 3rd place behind Tencent and Sony. There's a ridiculous amount of competition in the gaming market and Microsoft's acquisitions aren't changing that. Microsoft is working to carve out a nice, sizeable piece of the pie that's been dominated by Sony and Nintendo for many years.

Microsoft is finally rocking the boat in a big way recently, and showing they're dead serious about gaming. Obviously it's ruffling some people's feathers who were used to the status quo.

 

[Notbilly]

M€ta?

Touche

 

[Sundance Kid V2]

It’s clear that Microsoft is working to take over most of the gaming market.

What an ignorant statement.

They have a looooong way to go to get to that point. "most" implies a vast majority. With this latest acquisition it only puts them in 3rd place behind Tencent and Sony. There's a ridiculous amount of competition in the gaming market and Microsoft's acquisitions aren't changing that. Microsoft is working to carve out a nice, sizeable piece of the pie that's been dominated by Sony and Nintendo for many years.

Microsoft is finally rocking the boat in a big way recently, and showing they're dead serious about gaming. Obviously it's ruffling some people's feathers who were used to the status quo.

Yea.. that "article" is dog poop at best. MS is not even 3rd biggest gaming. Nintendo, Sony etc is still bigger than MS in gaming. (I read that somwhere).

 

[SubCog]

The reality is that there's very likely to be massive shifts in "gaming" over the next several years. We've had 3 categories of gaming for the last decade, between PC, console, and mobile
Things on the horizon can challenge that alot. Is Steam Deck a console or a PC? What if Apple gets serious about gaming on Mac? What if Cloud gaming finally becomes a juggernaut? What if Meta makes VR a thing?

I think categories in the future are likely to include console, PC, Mac, mobile, VR, AR, eSports, game-pass subscriptions, cloud... And actually the boundaries between them won't be so well defined. Buying Activision puts MS in a better position to compete no matter what the industry looks like. It gives them competitive options that transcend the "Xbox vs playstation" debate.

 

[Mangler]

In the case of the deck, it is a pc, I mean, it is literally running pc games and has no native titles.

 

[Trunks0]

Steam deck is a bridge device

 

[SubCog]

In the case of the deck, it is a pc, I mean, it is literally running pc games and has no native titles.

If Steam Deck starts to get alot of studios supporting it, creating specific profiles optimized for it, and if studios start to specifically target the Steam Deck specs, it's hard to argue that it's not a console. Maybe then we see Valve start to buy exclusively rights for games... But like I said, the category definitions will start blending together.

 

[Napoleonic]

Apple/Google + FB doesn't have an S that can be replaced with $, so M$ is clearly more evil.

Appl? or Goog£e would disagree with you and since ? & £ are more valued than $, they are more evil.

 

[Mangler]

No, the $ is the de facto symbol of greed, you know that is the truth.

 

[Android1]

Microsoft Activision Acquisition Expected to Face Deeper Investigations in UK, EU

Microsoft Activision Acquisition Expected to Face Deeper Investigations in UK, EU

It will be interesting to see whether the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in the United States will approve the deal.

Earlier this month, the UK's Competition and Markets Authority recommended it begin a second-phase investigation into impact of the deal, concerned that Microsoft's ownership of Activision Blizzard would "result in a substantial lessening of competition within a market or markets in the United Kingdom."

Microsoft was given five business days to supply evidence that would allay these concerns, but the Financial Times reports it has opted not to do so.

Sources familiar with the situation told the FT that Microsoft believed there were no obvious commitments it could make that the CMA would be likely to accept.

As such, an in-depth investigation is expected to start this week.

Source: GamesIndustry.biz

 

[Trunks0]

lol, I think these people are really over-estimating Activision/Blizzard's. As is they are some type of industry juggernaut that they really haven't been for awhile now (The number of games from them fell off a cliff around 2017)

 

[Mangler]

lol, I think these people are really over-estimating Activision/Blizzard's. As is they are some type of industry juggernaut that they really haven't been for awhile now (The number of games from them fell off a cliff around 2017)

It's because of COD, sony has laid down the claim that Call of Duty is the one game to rule them all.

 

[Sundance Kid V2]

Yea.. I'm surprised about the hoopla going on with this deal. You would swear MS is buying every game studio and more.

And Sony can suck it. They are biggest hypocrites ... they do exclusives, blocking games going cross platform...

 

[Dungeoncrawler]

Could end up being bad for smaller indie developers.

Short is afraid the dark times for indie developers are coming as it will be hard for them to gain players’ attention on Microsoft’s subscription service if it is flooded with so many AAA games.

Phil Spencer says Microsoft won’t press pause on acquisitions, comments on Call of Duty future.

https://gameworldobserver.com/2022/...s-that-might-be-outshined-by-aaa-blockbusters

 

[DeathKnight]

Brazil just approved the acquisition (with no restrictions).

https://www.windowscentral.com/gami...rchase-activision-blizzard-approved-by-brazil

Sony, specifically Jim Ryan, has been whining to the different regulators about how it's going to be so bad for them if the deal goes through. It's been nothing but crocodile tears.

A statement of note from the Brazilian CADE:

It is important to highlight that the central objective of CADE's activities is the protection of competition for Brazilian consumers, and not the defense of the particular interests of specific competitors.

We'll see if the other regulators come to the same obvious conclusion.

 

[Sasquach]

Could end up being bad for smaller indie developers.





https://gameworldobserver.com/2022/...s-that-might-be-outshined-by-aaa-blockbusters

The indie solutions:

1.) Release the games during a AAA lull and not near or at the same time as them.
Kind of like how it works on Nintendo's platform (to be fair Nintendo themselves have really big gaps between their AAA releases so theres plenty of space to populate with indies....)

2.) have some kind of "showcase" of the indie title(s) that would show up on the main splash screen or something. Might be something that would probably need to be done on the gamepass side of things though.

3.) Release a GOOD game. Lots of indie junk/shovelware out there masking the good ones.

 

[Sundance Kid V2]

Brazil just approved the acquisition (with no restrictions).

https://www.windowscentral.com/gami...rchase-activision-blizzard-approved-by-brazil

Sony, specifically Jim Ryan, has been whining to the different regulators about how it's going to be so bad for them if the deal goes through. It's been nothing but crocodile tears.

A statement of note from the Brazilian CADE:

It is important to highlight that the central objective of CADE's activities is the protection of competition for Brazilian consumers, and not the defense of the particular interests of specific competitors.

We'll see if the other regulators come to the same obvious conclusion.

Noice.

Yea Jim Ryan can go fly a kite. When they do exclusives its fine...

 

[Napoleonic]

The indie solutions:

1.) Release the games during a AAA lull and not near or at the same time as them.
Kind of like how it works on Nintendo's platform (to be fair Nintendo themselves have really big gaps between their AAA releases so theres plenty of space to populate with indies....)

2.) have some kind of "showcase" of the indie title(s) that would show up on the main splash screen or something. Might be something that would probably need to be done on the gamepass side of things though.

3.) Release a GOOD game. Lots of indie junk/shovelware out there masking the good ones.

Solutions to what? Solutions to their greedy ambition? Indies are doing fine as it is already, indies need to focus on their niche and building their own fanbases so to speak, not hoping to steal a magical thunder like no man sky expecting it to be the norm...