Microsoft-Activision-Blizzard Discussion Thread (Part 1)

Don’t really care but I doubt that’s the case.

Atleast we get them all on GamePass day 1, bit still sucks that Microsoft seemingly isn’t allowed exclusives

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Yeah, I think the same. Good for me, for having more Game Pass games, but not so good for the potential growth of the Xbox ecosystem, and especially Game Pass.

In this day and age exclusives still move the needle. Some people may prefer playing on other platforms despite the games being on Game Pass.

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I don’t play on Playstation anymore so I don’t really care. I just want the deal done as fast as possible.

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Disappointing, but I think it is about COD only.

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Ultimately I don’t care as I just want it all over with, however I can’t imagine it would be all ABK games.

At the end of the day there will be porting costs to make the games available for PS4/PS5 which I don’t think they could enforce. For COD as the top selling game each year yes they could easily argue Xbox would make it’s money back, but smaller titles like Spyro not necessarily.

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Shame that with concession Microsoft loses leverage against Sony with ABK. Regulators like to protect market leaders it seems…Xbox One did too much damage in Europe.

Not happening.

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Unless I’m missing news, there are none at the moment right?

If the only concession ends up as COD being on PS I don’t think it’s much of an issue?

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Enforced concession regarding COD on PS for 10 years means that Microsoft cannot threaten or use COD in any shape or for as a leverage against Playstation because they are obligated to support Playstation for 10 years anyway.

Conditions remain to be seen but in worst case scenario Microsoft might not even have a control over how much % Sony want - as they are obligated to support Playstation anyway. But MSFT’s lawyers are strong so I guess they will negotiate, but I doubt regulators can enforce Sony to have only 30% cut or maybe Microsoft will be bound to 30% cut while other platforms and other publishers will get 10% in the future (if market situation changes).

It also remains to be seen if some “performance parity” clauses apply or not and so on.

I think it’s unlikely we would have seen Microsoft leveraging CoD like that, it would somewhat prove the regulators/Sony’s concerns as founded if they were to leverage the size of Call of Duty to force their competitors into giving them an advantage.

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It’s not ideal but if it is all of ABK i’ll live

It’s much more important getting ABK and every game on GP and be multiplat than not get them at all

They’d still own ABK though and that will give them a gargantuan amount of power and influence, not neccessarily over Sony but the better Xbox does, the harder it will be for Sony to make deals with other third parties and the easier it will be for Xbox to make their own deals going forward

Regulators did not care when Sony was asking for a cross play tax so I doubt they would care about COD that much in that case :man_shrugging: Granted there are always double standards regarding Sony. “Do as I say, not as I do” is too ingrained in Playstation dominated markets.

The problem is that with multiplatform ABK, Microsoft won’t gain market share much in Europe anyway as they don’t promote Game Pass and there is no particular value for Xbox in that case in Europe. Xbox is not a must have item at this point. As I said in a marketing threat - I think Microsoft decided to give up on gaining marketshare in Europe and want to sell Xbox as a secondary console to Playstation dominated market. The dream of “Xbox 360 v2” is dead.

It is one of those things that (I guess) Microsoft does not get - “better value” does not mean “must have”. According to Jez they want to promote Game Pass via word of mouth like they do with Surface devices and it tells everything you need to know about that strategy.

Speculation is one thing but this makes no sense at all, if you believe that a universe exists where MS sign up to a concession that mandates CoD on PS and also allows Sony to take what ever size cut they like for having it in their store then I’ve got a bridge to sell you.

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If regulators enforce COD on Playstation, what options Microsoft will have? There is a bias towards Playstation in Europe and - while I do think that Microsoft lawyers will negotiate - I would not be surprised that certain terms won’t be favorable towards Microsoft.

It is the problem with all those concessions and bias. Xbox/PC had less content that Playstation for years despite having 20% of the market share, yet now Microsoft must provide feature parity to the market for 10 years.

I dont think its the disadvantage that some are suggesting to have COD on Playstation. This is a massive income stream that helps fund the rest of Xbox and reduces risk for Xbox. Next gen, if Xbox happens to really do poorly like in the Xbox One era, there is revenue to fall back on from mobile and Playstation that allows them to keep funding the Xbox projects. Not to mention the inherent benefits to the franchise being multiplatform like overall IP growth and more stable matchmaking (more users).

Assuming that it isn’t all Activision-Blizzard titles that are on Playstation then they will develop a string of exclusives for Xbox as well. Funds also will likely be allocated to continue growing XGS, Bethesda and ABK so this just gives more money to expand.

Watch if be what they already said to Jim that they would get, so in the end Microsoft comes out as a winner while Sony just wasted everyone’s time for nothing. Well, not for nothing, Jim will keep his position cause he will be seen as the guy that saved COD on PS, when in reality, dude hasnt done shit, basically how he has worked for the last couple of years…

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In all honesty, a part of me wants to see Microsoft take all the regulators and Sony to court and fight this shit. And I wouldn’t care if it takes a decade. Amazing how it’s always Microsoft that has to be the company that has to be good and nice. What a load of shit. Amazing how the #4 platform can’t do shit without this or that being an issue but #1 can do whatever the fuck they want. Unbelievable!!!

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I want to see this acquisition complete as much as the next person, but you can’t ignore the fact that it’s not Xbox buying Activision, it’s Microsoft. 1 of only a handful of trillion dollar companies that exist in the world. They can’t just let something like this go with at least a little bit of pushback or it will have much more dire consequences long term.

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In this case it’s MS offering CoD on PS first 3 years now extended to 10 (low initial offer which can now be extended to make them look like they are accommodating) with the probable intention of doing a Minecraft and keeping it there for ever to milk the cash cow. So it’s MS writing the contracts.

Also they are unlikely to insist on parity for anything other than base game as historical evidence shows that exclusive game modes, skins etc do not contribute to any kind of foreclosure as Sony already benefit from this and it has had no foreclosure effect on MS who have a smaller market share.