I mean sure, if the regulators were complete non functioning morons and never stepped outside, touched social media and were entirely disconnected from the world.
I mean theyâre protecting Sony but at the same time their provisional findings for ABK were far more favorable than 99% of the other phase 2 provisional findings
Iâve been hearing idiots keep screaming âMONOPOLYâ to which I askâŚwhat exactly does MS have a monopoly in? Operating systems ? With cloud, theyâre behind AWS and with productivity software theyâre behind Google Apps. The reason MS is such a valuable company is because they diversify, its better to be in 2nd and 3rd place in 5-6 different areas vs Google who are basically making like 65% of their revenue off advertising
MS doesnât want to be a monopoly because they donât want regulators on their asses non stop. Why do you think they bailed Apple out in the 90âs ? Because if Apple is out of the picture then regulators are going to be laser focused on Microsoft.
Right now Apple and Google are constantly getting fined for anti-trust and routinely have to appear in front of congressâŚMS loves this because it keeps the heat off of them. They love having good relations with governments because they get those PHAT defense contracts with the Pentagon and the UK Parliament almost entirely uses MS products including Surfaces.
I guarantee if it ever got to the point where Sony was about to go under that Microsoft would likely end up bailing them out, they want Playstation and Nintendo around and healthy. Playstationâs market power and position have been a key arguing point for MS in the ABK deal
Yâknow I was going to post that Sony couldnât have headlines like, âSony says ânoâ to Call of Dutyâ, âSony rejects Call of Duty offerâ, or " Sony denies Call of Duty a future on PlayStation" as they would be far too negativeâŚ
But youâre right.
The reality is that we wouldnât see headlines that harsh. There would be some pressure from the media but theyâll likely claim to want to be balanced and go into detail why Sony is doing what theyâre doing. There would be just as much pressure on MS as Sony. 
Looks like Epic is on board. Even though Tim Sweeney is an asshole.
It is a way to bring Fortnite.
Microsoft Corpâs (MSFT.O) remedies to address European Union antitrust concerns over its $69 billion acquisition of Activision (ATVI.O) focus only on cloud gaming services, with no mention of rival Sony (6758.T), people familiar with the matter said on Monday.
However, the absence of a Sony solution suggests the Commission no longer has concerns about competition in the console market.
The EU competition enforcer has given rivals and customers until the end of this week to provide feedback before it decides on the deal by May 22, they said.
The Commission is likely to accept such licensing deals and clear the deal, other people with direct knowledge of the deal have told Reuters, but it is not clear if the UK watchdog will accept such so-called behavioural remedies.
Gaming media has been nitpicking and biased
Makes sense, considering EC concers are now only about cloud.
Not helpful lol
I dont get why the Media insists on being so flat out wrong on this. The 10 year contract with Nintendo goes towards the console space.
Its as if the media are clueless fish with only 5 minute memories.
You donât negotiate with yourself and as Microsoft has said many times, the contract with Sony is there for them to sign.
Theyâre not reporting on the deals that MS announced publicly. Theyâre talking about the proposal MS submit to the EC after private discussions with them over the last week. They make it sound like the EC dropped their concerns over the console space so MS remedies submit to them didnât require any of those guarantees.
I tell you what though, I would love to be a fly on the wall at Sony. I believe they have always bet on regulators ultimately insisting on access to CoD even if the deal is approved, so it was always a win win for Sony for the longest time.
However, with the EC seemingly uninterested in the console angle, things are all of a sudden getting a bit dicey for Sony.
I believe Microsoft would still make the deal with them but in business you always minimise risk, and not signing the deal before the decision is starting to increase that risk.
Not any media. Again its the UK media. LOL. Looks like Jimmy Boy has greased nearly all the pockets.
One thing that is depressing as an Xbox fan is that all the politicization of this deal has made it way less likely for Xbox to buy anyone else. It feels like Xbox gained very few exclusives out of this deal. Itâs just going to have to be that way for the foreseeable future. In that regard, Iâd say Sony should be pretty happy about that. Silver lining is that if the deal goes through, then Xbox is absolutely in the gaming business for the long game. Pay close attention to âpartnershipsâ those are basically future acquisitions that will potentially happen after the smoke clears from the Activision deal. All this as just a long way to say⌠Sega in 5 years.
I see it exactly the opposite. Everyone else after ABK will be so small they wont move the scales at all, and thus fly through without extensive review processes.