Microsoft-Activision-Blizzard Discussion Thread (Part 1)

[Biggzy (Hassan)]

@Vivir

I don’t think MS is steering the public discourse on this.

It’s all Sony lol.

I did not say they were. But it is amazing that all the discourse is over CoD when King is the main money maker at ABK.

[TheBrightestSun]

@Madumbrella

I think isnt that bad, I mean as long as they let them make another franchises exclusive, also not every cod player is going to move to xbox if the franchise became exclusive, but hopefully phil will make the same things as sony by making some content exclusive, aswell getting the marketing rights

Microsoft should really become more aggressive with time exclusives 100%

@Biggzy

I did not say they were. But it is amazing that all the discourse is over CoD when King is the main money maker at ABK.

Main gaming community, media and twitter folks do not consider mobile gaming as true gaming so

[Resist]

@proelitedota

Does it really matter? Lol.

I can’t see wow nor RTS ever making it to consoles.

MS is releasing rts for consoles though?

[Madumbrella (Mad)]

@TheBrightestSun

Microsoft should really become more aggressive with time exclusives 100%

Exactly, they should do the same thing as sony by making several modes exclusive for 1 year(or forever), make the beta exclusive to xbox, etc

[Vivir]

@Biggzy

I did not say they were. But it is amazing that all the discourse is over CoD when King is the main money maker at ABK.

Can’t be too surprising, mobile games don’t drive discourse.

COD is well… COD lol.

[Madumbrella (Mad)]

@Resist

MS is releasing rts for consoles though?

Yea, they are going to release age of empires, also if wow cant be ported to xbox then make spinoffs based on it, a game based on those properties will make a ton of hype

[TheBrightestSun]

We thought that the main event will be FTC, but with this EU news the expectations were subverted End of the year is gonna be fire

Hoeg will have a lot of videos to make

[proelitedota (Andrew)]

@TheBrightestSun

We thought that the main event will be FTC, but with this EU news the expectations were subverted End of the year is gonna be fire

Hoeg will have a lot of videos to make

Main event is Sony’s subsidiary CMA.

[Paxton]

I can agree on a 10 year transition, but game pass and stuff will move on day one, anything excluding that for me is a immediate lawsuit against FTC and even Sony.

[Visceron]

I can’t help but to hate this deal potentially going through with concessions because if this was Sony, things would be vastly different. It’s super lame to be honest and I want MS to go “scorched earth” and not be the nice guy in the gaming space anymore when it comes to Sony.

On the inverse, whatever it takes to get this done quicker so MS can acquire more studios that I selfishly want then the better

[TheBrightestSun]

@Paxton

I can agree on a 10 year transition, but game pass and stuff will move on day one, anything excluding that for me is a immediate lawsuit against FTC and even Sony.

I don’t believe that Microsoft would offer 10 year deal precluding Game Pass. I don’t see them offering PS+ Day 1 either (Sony did not pay 70b to have a benefit like that) and I don’t see regulators asking for that in the first place. After all Sony did not even make a case that having COD in Game Pass would somehow destroy their business (they only talked about COD exclusivity).

Still it is interesting what’s gonna happen in the end. Microsofit is playing a chess game here it seems.

[hexbacon]

@Paxton

I can agree on a 10 year transition, but game pass and stuff will move on day one, anything excluding that for me is a immediate lawsuit against FTC and even Sony.

I can see them signing a concession declaring that in the case of PS+ they could engage in good faith negotiations. Key word is “good faith”, if Sony wants on PS+ they must be willing to pay the right amount

[hexbacon]

@TheBrightestSun

I don’t believe that Microsoft would offer 10 year deal precluding Game Pass. I don’t see them offering PS+ Day 1 either (Sony did not pay 70b to have a benefit like that) and I don’t see regulators asking for that in the first place. After all Sony did not even make a case that having COD in Game Pass would somehow destroy their business (they only talked about COD exclusivity).

Still it is interesting what’s gonna happen in the end. Microsofit is playing a chess game here it seems.

My assumption for PS+ would be “good faith” in negotiations

[TheBrightestSun]

@hexbacon

My assumption for PS+ would be “good faith” in negotiations

Why would PS+ is an exception there though? We have Luna, Geforce Now and so on services. Why would PS+ have a special care? I could (though still cannot believe that it came to that) understand the reasoning behind COD on Playstation because it is a platform. However additive service is an entirely different thing.

Sony is not offering their own games or did not offer COD before (outside some PS+ games in the past), why would regulators ask Microsoft for that option?

[leburn98]

@TheBrightestSun

Why would PS+ is an exception there though? We have Luna, Geforce Now and so on services. Why would PS+ have a special care? I could (though still cannot believe that it came to that) understand the reasoning behind COD on Playstation because it is a platform. However additive service is an entirely different thing.

Sony is not offering their own games or did not offer COD before (outside some PS+ games in the past), why would regulators ask Microsoft for that option?

Good faith or market value isn’t something that Sony could afford or would be willing to pay for anyways, so it’s a moot point.

[TheBrightestSun]

@leburn98

Good faith or market value isn’t something that Sony could afford or would be willing to pay for anyways, so it’s a moot point.

The point is that Microsoft should not obligated to offer that in the first place. COD on Playstation is entirely different matter - I think it is only due to Sony’s marketshare that it was even a concession. If Xbox had 50/50 at least or if it was Xbox 360, I don’t think any regulator would ask for COD on Playstation. But with Playstation having 70-80% market share in some countries, they are “the consumers” essentially.

This situation teaches one thing - market share is important and kumbaya attitude should go away.

[hexbacon]

@TheBrightestSun

Why would PS+ is an exception there though? We have Luna, Geforce Now and so on services. Why would PS+ have a special care? I could (though still cannot believe that it came to that) understand the reasoning behind COD on Playstation because it is a platform. However additive service is an entirely different thing.

Sony is not offering their own games or did not offer COD before (outside some PS+ games in the past), why would regulators ask Microsoft for that option?

To be fair I don’t consider PS+ to be anything specially or any competitive to gamepass, neither should be CoD which is the somehow something regulator have all decided to focus on.

[leburn98]

@TheBrightestSun

The point is that Microsoft should not obligated to offer that in the first place. COD on Playstation is entirely different matter - I think it is only due to Sony’s marketshare that it was even a concession. If Xbox had 50/50 at least or if it was Xbox 360, I don’t think any regulator would ask for COD on Playstation. But with Playstation having 70-80% market share in some countries, they are “the consumers” essentially.

I don’t think they should have to offer any concessions, but they are well past that point it seems. All I’m saying is if the EU, CMA or FTC requested that, I don’t think it’s enough to kill the deal and should be considered.

[TheBrightestSun]

@leburn98

I don’t think they should have to offer any concessions, but they are well past that point it seems. All I’m saying is if the EU, CMA or FTC requested that, I don’t think it’s enough to kill the deal and should be considered.

No I don’t think the deal will be killed but I don’t think the regulators asking for that. No regulator is concerned about Game Pass service in the first place. There was COD and sometimes cloud. Multi-game subscription service argument was not strong and nobody paid attention to it much.

It is still mind blowing that offering COD to Playstation is a realistic situation. It’s insane. Imagine paying 70b and then still being ask to release COD games on a competitor’s platform - that is constantly engaging in anti-competitive and anti-consumer practices (good customer support behind a paywall, price increases, nickel and diming) - for 10 years.

But that’s the price Microsoft has to pay for their Xbox One fiasco and erased market share

[hexbacon]

A bit off topic but not really, seems that there has been a lot of work done in the deal in the last couple weeks. A year ago around this time MS had already engage in talks with ATVI working nonstop until January.