If Jim Ryan pulls this off, this might be his legacy defining feat for PlayStation.
Thankfully I still have faith that the EU and CMA won’t be swayed by obvious lies and FUD from Sony’s camp.
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If it gets blocked it will have nothing to do with big Jimbo and everything to do with big tech bad
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Here’s the real question though. Will he still be memed as Cryin Ryan if he gets the W?
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That won’t be ever going away
Lol, yeah I suppose
I’m fine with this. Give them concession for more GAAS, keep the single player games console excusive though.
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I mean he’s already got the win hasn’t he? Microsoft offered a 3 year deal to start, now they’ve been pushed up to ten with potential other concessions as well. Whatever way you look at it they got a lot more than Microsoft initially offered, though it is possible that was always a first negotiation for MS anyway.
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Well let’s hope the day the 10 year deal is over MS shuts down all servers on Playstation and no longer puts games there.
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I can see it now. The year is 2034, MS shut’s down COD 2077 Modern Warfare server for PSN and Jim Ryan still does not have an answer to COD after all these times, still crying. 
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Sony has shutdown many servers for their games in much less time, they can’t expect Microsoft to maintain servers for all the CoD games forever.
MS should shut down all Playstation cod servers day 1 of the purchase except the most recent 3 titles. If players want a nostalgia hit, they can pick up GamePass and play every old cod online via cloud, PC or Xbox.
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EC Statement of Objections tomorrow
CMA provisional findings likely next week
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The fact that Jim and Sony went to beg the EC instead of the CMA tells me that Sony knows the CMA is going to approve. If the CMA blocked then there would be no need to go to the EC
After-all the CMA is the one that MS likely wouldn’t be able to appeal, so why not go all in with them?
They probably went to the EC because because the CMA is a lost cause for them, so go to the next best one since the FTC is already against the deal. Beg the EC to block.
Its the absolute textbook definition of a hail mary, last ditch effort. Even with a 5% chance of success it’s still worth it for Sony to try.
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So, we’ll find it if deal goes through next week?
Not really. It’s just 1 more step on a long journey. The process still allows time for Microsoft to respond and for the two sides to come up with suitable solutions.
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The CMA provisional findings are basically an early draft of their final decision. We won’t know 100% until official decisions are made, but if the CMA findings are positive next week then there’s like a 95% chance the deal will close before July
The CMA were always the most important jurisdiction to get approval in
Next week will pretty much have a 95% rough idea of what’s going to happen
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I don’t blame Jim Ryan for doing what he is doing. Anyone in his position would be doing the same. However, if the acquisition goes through and he declined the 10 year COD offer, it would be hilarious if due to that decision, Microsoft makes it exclusive to Xbox out of Xbox/PlayStation.
Sony is going all out to block the deal because they know, if the deal passes, Microsoft can’t be prevented from buying smaller (money wise) publishers like Ubisoft and others because if the massive one goes through, how could a regulator block a small one that’s worth maybe 1/10th of ABK?
Outside of any already agreed contracts like with Nintendo, im staying with my prediction that the ABK deal goes through with no restrictions in EU and UK. Then, Microsoft will then close in the U.S. and proceed to file a federal lawsuit against the FTC because well, why not?
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Dunno about that, while they may be able to buy someone like Sega, I think Ubisoft despite being a trash fire right now would be too big for MS to get away with
I don’t either but it’s hilarious that the number one company in the space isn’t being laughed out of the meeting by the regulators.
Their market cap is under $3B. Ubisoft isn’t worth a lot. Would probably cost around the same as Bethesda. Maybe a triple the $3B due to the IP’s. On paper, looks bigger than what it currently is.
Agreed. Microsoft is #4, or #3 if you exclude PC.
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I dont think it means that. Reportedly Microsoft doesnt have much idea of what the CMA will do, so its likely that neither does Sony. They might as well exhaust their options, so it makes sense to fo to the EC.