Microsoft-Activision-Blizzard Discussion Thread |OT4| - Dawn of the Final Day, Deal is done!

[MJ_INC]

@Zappy5

But this is a new deal that applies globally? So I’m not so convinced that Canada can’t restart the clock now….

I don’t think it does because it’s a post acquisition divestment. So Microsoft is still buying the whole of ABK and then selling off the streaming rights once they own them. The deal with ABK is unchanged so the deal hasn’t changed for other regulators

[Cairnst (Bill Cairns)]

@Daniel

Lol doing that isn’t some shady thing and I wouldn’t exactly say any company is “above board” they all do toxic shit that’s bad.

The bigger issue is that how Microsoft acts here will be reflected in their future acquisitons - is it worth pulling a fast one on Ubisoft and risking a prolonged legal battle when it’s all just going to make future acquisitions more difficult?

[MJ_INC]

@euV2

The most disappointing part of all this is xcloud gains absolutely nothing. In fact, it lost any advantage it had when they were forced to share XGS games with Nvidia and others. How do you even gain market share vs Nvidia who will always have better streaming hardware besides price.

If MS had continued buying single studios, they could have continued bolstering cloud whilst keeping exclusivity. Now they have nothing.

You mean other than the fact that all these games go straight into gamepass so you get everything for the price of ultimate whereas with Nvidia you still need to pay the monthly fee and buy the games?

[euV2]

@strawman

The obvious solution for Microsoft is to improve their cloud offerings on the technical level to entice more consumers.

Not going to happen in the current fashion, where they have to use Xbox hardware which stays stagnant for almost 8 years. Nvidia upgrades their hardware to latest gpus every 2 years. They would have to move to streaming off windows instead.

@Haven

This allows them to reach more people through streaming besides the cloud here may still be based on Azure.

Azure is just speculation at the moment, almost all Xbox competitors are more likely to use AWS or GC. Only those using windows have possibility of getting better contracts for using azure.

[FarSightXR-20]

• Ubisoft : +6.88% (28.75€)
• Activision : +1.54% (92.12$) (pre-market)
• Microsoft : +0.48% (323.42$) (pre-market)

https://twitter.com/DMOptions/status/1693903599162868117?ref_src=twsrc^tfw|twcamp^tweetembed|twterm^1693903599162868117|twgr^|twcon^s1_&ref_url=

[strawman]

@euV2

Not going to happen in the current fashion, where they have to use Xbox hardware which stays stagnant for almost 8 years. Nvidia upgrades their hardware to latest gpus every 2 years. They would have to move to streaming off windows instead.

Palpatine: Dew it.

[Friday]

just saw the news and fell to my knees in Walmart. jk but I really thought this was going to be finished by the end of the month.

[euV2]

@MJ_INC

You mean other than the fact that all these games go straight into gamepass so you get everything for the price of ultimate whereas with Nvidia you still need to pay the monthly fee and buy the games?

That assumes the current model will remain unchanged. What happens when MS wants to offer the ability to stream owned games. It also assumes future cloud gamers will not want options for better streaming quality and fps.

[Haven (Victor)]

@euV2

Azure is just speculation at the moment, almost all Xbox competitors are more likely to use AWS or GC. Only those using windows have possibility of getting better contracts for using azure.

@euV2

Azure is just speculation at the moment, almost all Xbox competitors are more likely to use AWS or GC. Only those using windows have possibility of getting better contracts for using azure.

It’s still only for ABK and it seems Microsoft is dedicating more of their cloud on AI. The thing here is can Ubisoft afford cloud gaming on this level.

[BadMoodJones (Prem K. Singh)]

Idk why everyone is worried. I see this as a way to announce Ubisoft + coming to Gamepass and also preventing any other competitor of Microsoft from buying out Ubisoft. I think it’s a smart move. What’s 2 more months. We’ll be lost in the Starfield all the while anyway.

[Vonterribad (Matt)]

That is crazy…

[Hue]

I hope we get clarity soon if this means that Xbox / ABK games will not be available on cloud in the UK at all without a Ubisoft+ subscription as that really screws me over. I don’t want to have to pay for Ubisoft+ on top of GamePass.

Also I guess this means Xbox will likely have no chance to acquire the Embracer studios now (such as CD & Eidos again).

[nrXic]

I bit my tongue earlier because I think people would have thought I was trolling but I was going to say, a couple days ago, that my internal deadline was October 31st.

That by then, all the dust will have settled.

I wish I did because then I would have looked like Nostradamus lol

[Rsebi]

@jasheeldz

Everyone needs to calm down. This isn’t hampering this gen, it’s not dictatorial, and it’s now over reach. The CMA has, amazingly, actually won something for consumers - outside the EU, AB(K) games are going to be in a multigame subscription service on multiple platforms, including PlayStation+.

Think about that. Sony’s not going to be able to stop that, and MS get the revenue. There’s nothing stopping these games from being in Gamepass either, unless I misunderstand the deal.

This is for cloud streaming only though, given how small the cloud streaming market is this isnt exactly a substansive win,

[Hue]

@Rsebi

This is for cloud streaming only though, given how small the cloud streaming market is this isnt exactly a substansive win,

After reading the summary it appears it’s also only for 15 years and it’s only Activision content. Ubisoft are also required to basically market these rights to meet Microsoft’s existing EU arrangements (I assume GP customers) and market arrangements (Ubitus, Boosteroid etc) including Xbox itself.

Microsoft Corporation (Microsoft) and Activision Blizzard, Inc. (Activision) have notified to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) an acquisition by which Microsoft will acquire Activision, excluding Activision’s cloud streaming rights outside of the European Economic Area (EEA). As part of the proposed acquisition, Activision’s global cloud streaming rights (excluding the EEA) for all current and future Activision PC and console games released during the next 15 years will be divested to Ubisoft Entertainment SA (Ubisoft).

The divestment will take place immediately before completion of Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision. Ubisoft will also receive a non-exclusive licence for Activision’s EEA cloud gaming rights to enable it to stream and sub-license streaming of Activision games in that region. At the same time, Microsoft will receive a non-exclusive licence from Ubisoft for cloud streaming rights to the extent necessary for Microsoft to fulfil its obligations under its commitments to the European Commission and certain existing third-party cloud streaming agreements.

The terms of the transaction will allow Ubisoft to commercialise these rights to other cloud gaming services providers (including to Microsoft itself). Ubisoft will compensate Microsoft for the cloud streaming rights to Activision’s games through a one-off payment and through a market-based wholesale pricing mechanism, including an option that supports pricing based on usage.

[strawman]

Playstation ultras are conveiving scenarios where Sony will enforce Playstation native versions of all ABK games thanks to this deal.

[MJ_INC]

@euV2

That assumes the current model will remain unchanged. What happens when MS wants to offer the ability to stream owned games. It also assumes future cloud gamers will not want options for better streaming quality and fps.

This doesn’t change Microsoft’s ability to stream games on xcloud or potentially stream games you own. As for quality, we have no idea what their plans are for the future of their cloud gaming hardware. They could transition to PC hardware when they feel they need to move from the current server blades

[howlingmosquito (mosquito)]

Sold it to a company that wont survive 15 years was smart.

[Anecronomicon]

@FarSightXR-20

• Ubisoft : +6.88% (28.75€)
• Activision : +1.54% (92.12$) (pre-market)
• Microsoft : +0.48% (323.42$) (pre-market)

https://twitter.com/DMOptions/status/1693903599162868117?ref_src=twsrc^tfw|twcamp^tweetembed|twterm^1693903599162868117|twgr^|twcon^s1_&ref_url=

I think it’s fair to say there’s no guarantee with the CMA at all.

I’ve been reading too many “this guarantees the deal will close!” comments for over a year now, so we just don’t know what to expect.

All I know is this had gone on for far, far too long, it’s reached a point where Xbox has lost nearly two years of this gen chasing this deal against a regulator (CMA) which has done nothing but delay & constantly shift goalposts. First they did bad math when declaring console market concerns, then dropped that & declared cloud concerns, then insinuated at the CAT there would be some sort of response to the revised MS deal some point after the week of the 7th of August, then Tom Warren said we should expect news from the CMA “soon”… & now we find out they’re opening a new investigation ‘phase 1’ which goes to the expiry date of the renegotiated MS-Activision deal in October. All whilst the deal is getting worse for MS.

Bull and sh*t. That’s my opinion.

[Rsebi]

@Daniel

I am beyond confused haha, does this mean there’ll be not a single exclusive going forward of ABK games, because they’ll be on Ubi+ cloud?

They’ll be natively exclusive

This entire deal is entirely for cloud, theoretically Playstation users can access these games via cloud streaming through Ubisoft+ for the next 15 years