That’s the rub, anyone suggesting this are being dramatic.
From Xbox is a monopoly to Xbox is dead it doesn’t take much
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guess the MS shareholders are happy lol
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Stock is up two Sony’s from yesterday.
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Its not like Satya Nadella gave Phil Spencer 69 billion $ to go to the next publisher supermarket. If the CMA ruling stays there is not a lot Xbox could buy without them again preventing a deal. So maybe they buy some mobile game company or something completely different like AI.
Well, I didn’t say Xbox is dead but yeah sure.
All I want is Xbox to start pushing more their own projects and growing and build their brand, and not to swallow huge publishers because they don’t want to try to gain market share by using brand awareness, by offering good services everywhere, by offering localized services and games. They had 20 years to do it, and it feels like they didn’t learn much. Xbox is so irrelevant in my country and here in HK, it’s crazy. 70 billion would help fix this problem. But them buying Activision won’t change that, especially if they still release them on the Playstation.
But hey, I’m not Phil Spencer.
Anyway, expecting EU and China to block this now. This deal won’t go through and if it does, it’s going to take a while.
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Can you or someone explain what this would mean for xbox?
I get that it would means separating Xbox UK from the rest but to what level? How exactly would this work and why would it be a solution?
Certainly, it’s the idea of no longer operating a segment of the business in a certain country/region (which is something we actually do see a lot in other industries, especially the auto industry - a great example is the Nissan-Renault-Mitsubishi alliance). This could mean, all of Xbox, just xCloud/GP, or any number of other delineations.
I’m not saying it would work, or even that I think it’s a viable solution - but I’ve been wrong plenty in this case and in life, so I’m willing to admit if professionals think it’s a possibility, it shouldn’t be ruled out as a discussion point.
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What would happen to the current or future uk studios if this were to happen?
The only reason China would block this deal would be for geopolitical reason of getting back at USA.
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Xbox UK spun off as an independant business. They distrubute the consoles and advertise in the UK as a sub-contractor to Xbox USA.
Anyone using China as a valid real good faith actor in this deal… yeah, no.
Not in 2023. We might as well ask Russia what they think. It’s why I think if the EU clears this, it’s still game on.
There’s no real thing as a ‘global world’ anymore. Not now. It’s not a big happy family so I wouldn’t be surprised if we see some wild stuff like certain regions getting content & some others not. It’s not beyond the realm of possible.
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Which I totally expect because of those reasons.
But the big one is EU and, once again, i tend to think they will block it, killing this completely.
No idea, the ringfencing that I’m aware of took years, closed operations, etc.
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EU has traditionally preferred behavioral remedies for vertical mergers, especially in tech, but after CMA’s unprecedented rollercoaster of a case, I am no longer sure.
Based on the CMA’s pf which listed behavioral and structural, you would think having reduced SLC would not result in the harshest remedy.
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Why though? They’ve given several indications of the opposite…
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Man it’s getting boring at this point i don’t wanna see Activision talk all the time now it’s gonna be more about this thing
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I’m sure some numbered accounts in Switzerland just unlocked.
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Well people were also confident the CMA would allow it to go through with some conditions. Guess that didn’t happen.
MS just needs to hope that EC has better judgement and doesn’t block this deal because of cloud fears.
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I think it’s pretty clear that you can’t fully trust precedence, logic or insider news.
By all three measures, the CMA should have cleared this.
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