Microsoft-Activision-Blizzard Discussion Thread |OT3| - Sony bends the knee!

Gaming
9142

Still nothing from NZ yet it seems?

9143

If we’re talking about OtherEra, gofreak’s insane mental gymnastics to justify every stupid by CMA/FTC never failed to crack me up.

Man, if Sony, FTC and CMA negotiated in good faith, they could have got so much out of the deal. CMA and FTC - reputation as harsh, but reasonable negotiators who care about competition and consumers, Sony likely Microsoft’s commitment to many more IPs than just COD. But you play stupid games, you win stupid rewards.

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9144

It’s entirely possible they’ve approved it and told MS/ABK without updating the website first.

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9145

New Zealand so obviously don’t want to break from cover. They clearly think there will be further updates soon so simply don’t want to say anything till then.

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9147

English is not my first language, but nothing says that it’s approved.

9148

Nah they haven’t approved it - at least not publicly. There is no decision published yet.

9149

Apologies lads. deleted it now.

9150

Sony traded 5 years of all ABK for 10 years of just CoD. Sorry if already posted woke up to 200+

https://www.reddit.com/r/GamingLeaksAndRumours/comments/151mgfz/spanish_insder_sony_traded_7_years_of_all_abk/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=2&utm_term=1

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9151

NZ is putting a clown show, Microsoft’s revenue is nearly as big as New Zealand’s economy. If NZ had any actual objections to the deal, they could have aired them in the last 17 months and negotiate a solution of sorts. Blocking at the last minute would be akin to declaring war. What would they expect to happen this late in the process? Microsoft to leave NZ with its gaming operations or all operations? How would anyone gain anything by doing that?

Worst case scenario, MS closes the deal and NZ/Aus block the deal in support of the CMA, but they won’t prevent MS from closing. By delaying so much, they pretty much admit their decision is meaningless… Compare that to eg. Brazil who swiftly assessed the deal in terms of its impact on the global and the local market or to the EU that spent 6 months negotiating remedies.

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9152

I don’t think Sony is that concerned about ABK’s other titles apart from CoD judging by the court case, so I think they prefer 10 years of CoD rather than 5 years of everything.

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9153

I’ve been wondering about the division of labor for the extra 7000 odd workers ABK have hired since the start of this whole process? It would be great if a lot of those workers were tasked to COD so the support studios can go back to making some variety to the portfolio. I would love to see a ton of new content come from this acquisition and expansion

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9154

COD was never going exclusive. So now you lose your sure thing for the projects we dont know about.

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9155

Well having more staff isn’t going to hurt and ABK clearly were going to staff up regardless, which to me points to them wanting to get off just COD. At the end of the day having 1 big title you rely on was always a dumb move even with how big it is.

9156

This is wrong interpretation of the mail

The 2027 year date is to keep current Activision Blizzard games on PS supported. It does not mention new games. Only Cod franchise new games are mentioned.

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9157

N

Not sure if that is right. Every other observer seems to think that the earlier deal offered all ABK content to 2027 and this new one offers only COD until 2033.

ASSUMING that is the case, whilst I can see why some might view the newer deal as better for Sony’s bottom line, I think it’s worse.

This new agreement effectively gives MS the green light to make everything apart from COD exclusive.

That aligns with the fact that all territories, even the US now, finally said that there was no console SLC. So they are free to do that if they wanted to.

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9158

It’s very quiet this morning. I suspect that unless we hear from the CMA relatively soon we can assume they aren’t going to do anything special to allow this to close in advance of the deadline tomorrow.

The case hearing before cat is just a formality and I don’t expect anything significant out of that at all. Doubt it lasts very long.

9159

The 2027 date deal is still in place. All current act bliz games will be supported until 2027.

10 year deal is for Cod only.

Basically

  1. 10 year deal of Cod. Existing and new Cod games
  2. 2027 deal. All current games supported until 2027. This does not include any new game release

Nothing new is offered.

5 years deal for all new act bliz games was never offered.

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9160

Pre-market is almost 94. Wild.

9161

For what it’s worth, the Merry Mayhem bundle in COD: MWII (ex PS exclusive) is now available on Xbox.

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9162

Wait, that was exclusive until now?