Except they could. Microsoft could try to acquire Valve for as low as $1 billion and that would be blocked since that would give them a monopoly on the PC market with Steam.
1 Like
would give him a majority but not a monopoly. then windows ? windows server ? office ? they would all be worse monopolies
And it has nothing do to with the pushback against the acquisition. As I mentioned before - a couple of senators want to promote their bill that has no relation to what FTC is doing regarding ABK at all. It is not even a pushback, especially against Microsoft - the company ranked 1st in working conditions 
Nah, I doubt Steam acquisition would be blocked too. Especially when other launchers exists and some of the games never go to Steam in the first place (like the whole set of MMO games that has their own launchers from NCSoft etc). As Microsoft won’t restrict other games from coming to Steam and I highly doubt they will enforce Steam installation with each Windows OS, I don’t see a pushback either.
1 Like
Look back at my other post that had the values of other companies Disney acquired. They had multiple purchases equivalent to over 30 billion including one worth more than ATVI. My point was it didnt stop other acquisitions either.
1 Like
Maybe not exactly pushback but it still is a legit concern to consider and just shows how crucial Microsoft needs to improve the conditions at Activision/Blizzard and make it a great working environment for all the employees. Since if Microsoft goes from being ranked having one of the top working conditions to going down on the list that could potentially hinder future acquisitions.
I disagree. True there are more launchers out there but they come nowhere near as big as Steam even Epic Games. And the issue isn’t about Microsoft not restricting other games from coming to Steam it’s more about Microsoft having a monopoly over the PC market.
The government was a lot different back then. I’m not saying that it’s impossible for Microsoft I’m just saying it’s more unlikely to happen since the government is a lot stricter on large acquisitions and mergers.
Right we are just entering a recession though, another change is going to happen. These things are in constant states of change.
3 Likes
And it still has nothing to do with acquisition per se. Their concern does not touch monopoly, exclusivity and ownership of IP. It is just that ABK is involved into some lawsuits, that’s why it has some attention. Merger of T2 and Zynga (also 10b+) did not bother anybody for example.
And unless Microsoft is involved in child labour it won’t affect anything. For example SIE has much bigger problems, but nobody cares.
Just being big, does not make it a concern. And Microsoft does not have a monopoly on PC market.
3 Likes
Regardless I do think the Activision/Blizzard deal will go through and think things will work out but you also have to prepare for things to go wrong as well since no one knows the future.
I personally believe that Microsoft should wait before acquiring a large publisher because Microsoft’s main priority should be working on fixing Activision/Blizzard and improving their workplace conditions before adding on with another huge publisher such as EA. Smaller studio/publisher acquisitions I think Microsoft would be able to do since they would be easier to manage.
And sure Microsoft could try to acquire Steam but I’m 99% sure that the acquisition would fail just because of how huge of an impact Steam has on the PC market. Also the fact that PlayStation games such as God Of War and Horizon Forbidden Dawn are also on Steam as well.
With the Sony we have these days I wouldn’t be surprised if PlayStation are currently working on their own PC store/launcher, which will become the exclusive place to play Sony games on PC.
With their gradual move towards PC they won’t want to pay Steam 30% much longer IMO.
1 Like
large amount of people are on steam i dont think they wanna leave those people to make their own store which could turn out to be trash
1 Like
At this pace, Sony won’t have much left to MoneyHat.
EA being on the market is interesting. I know people have a lot of varying opinions on what makes the most sense. However, ABK and the Square western studio sale should have taught us one thing. Dollars and Cents trumps all. So if we continue down this path. Electronic Arts makes a degree of cents even though it would be expensive. As while Fifa, madden, NHL, etc. are all multiplatform. You have one key advantage. You keep all those titles off your competitors subscription service. So if anyone on PlayStation wants madden and doesn’t want to buy an xbox, or PC, or play via cloud streaming they need to spend 70 bucks.
You also have the advantage of all those titles going into your service day and date. All of the sudden your promise for a major game coming every quarter is assuredly met just between the annual sports and formula 1 racing titles.
You have the ability to make jedi fallen order, battlefield, the bioware titles, titanfall, etc all exclusive to your platform. You gain one of the largest battle royal games in apex legend. As while apex isn’t fornite its still very popular and paired with warzone you would have a large share of the free to play battle royale market.
I wouldn’t consider this the best fan favorite move. While I enjoy jedi fallen order, mass effect, madden, etc. It wouldn’t be my first choice of acquisitions. but if I’m just looking at what makes the most business sense from what they have shared as to what there overall goals are. EA makes a large degree of logic if they are on the market.
1 Like
also they have lot of mobile studios people always forget that how many mobile they acquired
2 Likes
In the future if Sony does make their own PC store/launcher then I would think a Microsoft acquisition of Valve/Steam is more likely. But as of now there is basically no chance that it would be able to happen. Especially when there isn’t really a competitor to Steam on the PC market.
Yeah, there were rumors about that though after the “success” of EGS, I wonder if Sony is reconsidering
Considering that allegedly they were on the market before ABK (like Square Enix West) and nobody bothered at that time, I think there is more to it.
EA relies on a lot of third party licenses, which is a headache for any platform holder. I don’t think EA is worth it. I personally don’t see Microsoft going after them as with EA Play that is available on other platform, they also had to deal with that and they will have a huge workforce working purely on a third party licensed IPs (like F1, WRC, NFL, FIFA)
But EA merging with Disney would be a no-brainer, but Disney seems to not having money for that and their current CEO is not into that either. Interesting that WB is going more into Disney direction by getting rid of their studios.
but their licensed games are always on top NPD so its not that big deal if that thing is making money
It is not all about sales.
What’s the point of owning an IP you have little control over and that you are obligated to release on all the platforms? You might want to put in Game Pass, but then NFL will say that they want to keep it in PS+ subscription service too. Which negates the benefitis of having the title in Game Pass - basically you have developers making games for you competitors’ platform and a service.
since EA is moving away from FIFA nd making their own soccer game MS can utilize that dont you think ?either way COD nd sports r better be multiplat cause they generate lot of money either away
FIFA is just a label. EA has to deal with FIFpro and club licenses which does not make any difference as FIFA does not hold any value aside brand recognition.
Microsoft is not going after the money that they get from the competitor’s platform. The same way Disney+ does not release its series on Netflix, despite Netflix having a bigger userbase.
There are certain games - specifically F2P - that benefit from being everywhere, but as we see with the games like Genshin Impact and co, you don’t need to be on each and every platform.
1 Like
games r different from movies dont compare that …games have microtransaction nd dlc purchases which movies never have