Sounds like they did. If I read that email correctly Phil offered all existing ABK titles and their future iterations until 2027. Jez said this just included COD.
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Exactly like I thought, the CMA isnât caving.
Me as a Xbox Gamer: 
Me as a MS Shareholder:
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Nah, this is the Sega announcement 
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This is actually more interesting than people might think, the previous deal included everything but finished right before next gen, you know the exact time to make everything exclusive 
Now itâs just call of duty but goes a few years into next gen, pretty much either way confirms some games will be exclusive, which is an obvious move!
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Why exactly were people thinking Sony got a better deal than was offered originally? Nothing that has happened recent has given them more leverage. Iâd wager Sonyâs lawyers told them to get a deal signed even itâs worse than what was originally offered. Thatâs the risk they took going all in trying to block the merger.
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In this whole ordeal I only trust MS team of experts and lawyers. Beth Wilkinson, Brad Smith and Co. wont be fooled by the CMA.
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Enjoy Sunday. Monday is going to be a long busy day.
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I wonder if theyâll separate Activision and Blizzard from each other. Once this passes? It would make logical sense to slio them. Since theyâre previous direct merger no longer applies with this new acquisition.
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Been thinking the same. Once the merger goes through it doesnât make sense in my opinion to still run things as one company as ABK is absolutely enormous and might be more efficient to split them and have Activision, Blizzard and King report to Phil individually.
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only if youâre completely lacking in any sort of nuance. and itâs not a slogan.
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Not really, it could be anything, there is a case management court tomorrow with the CAT.
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I remember discussing this monthâs ago, some were adamant there was no point in Sony doing a deal. They had a lot of leverage back then as I pointed out, who knows what they could have got. Instead they have got nothing.
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Specifically given the reportedly bad working culture that has spawned or been made worse due to such a combination of entities. Where different types of staff personalities didnât mix well or let alone did they have the same goals. In addition to all the harassment and general meddling from suits to managers and producers. It bleeds from top down.
Jez knows nothing.
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But itâs clear Ryan tried to leverage their position - his email showed exactly that. MS held firm though.
The other thing that is clear now is that in reality Sony never had any leverage. Had they immediately at the outset said the deal was great and supported it the FTC and their crazy ideology would still have pushed to block and the CMA with their desire to show they are a new on the block tough regulator would have done likewise. It might have made it harder even for MS as FTC would have focussed on cloud stuff and itâs clear that whilst still an uphill battle a properly laid out cloud gaming argument would have got them far further in court than their nonsense about Sony and cod did.
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He didnât even indicate the nature of the news. I donât see how anyone can genuinely jump to any conclusion from what Jez said. It seems like they have a preconceived notion and seeing what they want to see.
Of course there will be news. They have at least the Monday CAT proceeding.
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He followed it up with a tweet saying itâs not based on anything he knowsâŚ
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He followed up saying it wasnât any inside news, just simple case of newsworthy things on docket for next week.
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When people say they donât trust the CMA I think they are misreading them. The CMA arenât anti big tech ideologues like Lina and the FTC. They arenât swanning round telling people they want to kill mergers.
These are low profile civil servants who stick to their own rule book.
The thing with the CMA is they are straight down the line. They have a remit to protect nascent markets they donât believe in behavioural remedies (well documented) and they use independent expert panels to determine SLCs.
They like the EU found a cloud gaming SLC and then stuck to their guns on behavioural remedies being insufficient.
The real question of trust now is whether you trust that MS have absolutely and completely nailed down that whatever remedy or structural change they have offered completely satisfies their concerns. That is on MS to be sure of to have in writing before they agreed to stay the CAT process. If MS have given them proposals they âthinkâ will be enough without assurances in return then that would be monumentally stupid as again anything the CMA look at is viewed against their framework which is written down. Itâs simply yes or no based on their rules.
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