• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Microsoft / Activision Deal Approval Watch |OT| (MS/ABK close)

Do you believe the deal will be approved?

  • Yes, will be approved without changes.

    Votes: 221 24.9%

  • Yes, will be approved but with structural changes to ABK.

    Votes: 102 11.5%

  • Yes, will be approved but only with behavioral concessions.

    Votes: 262 29.6%

  • No, will not be approved.

    Votes: 301 34.0%
  • Total voters
    886
  • Poll closed .
Status
Not open for further replies.
R

reksveks

Member
Unknown Soldier said:
Streaming killed physical media but that's because you just sit there and watch or listen to movies and music.
Click to expand...
Streaming ate into physical media because it was more convenient and people didn't care enough of the quality of the 'stream' from the physical version over the convenience of the streaming services.

Unknown Soldier said:
Gaming is interactive and no one can solve the problem of Internet lag which ruins the interactive aspect of gaming in fundamental ways. Since it's not possible to exceed the speed of light with our current level of technology, cloud gaming will always be limited to very casual games. Unfortunately, mobile controls the casual games market.
Click to expand...
I am not arguing that hardcore gamers (aka people spending 400 USD+ per year) will get converted, same like I don't think people buying UHD blu-rays will convert to streaming all of their movies. There might be a minor % of their time but I think there probably will have to be a different audience that buys into streaming services.

Again I just find definitions around casual and hardcore a nebulous one if we don't define it more precisely.
 
Thirty7ven

Thirty7ven

Banned
aries_71 said:
Nahh… we are talking of the general public here. The millions of casual gamers don’t care or even know what production levels or latency are. Most console players don‘t even know that their tvs have low latency modes and play with interpolation modes designed for movie watching. They will play the future FIFAs and CODs streamed from their Smart TVs, tablets and phones. Marketing campaigns and easy availability will drive them there. They won’t spend years to get a new console out of a scalper, they will fire up the equivalent to GeforceNow or xCloud from their Samsung TV and go. The super specialist fan that cares or knows about such things will have to revert to advanced PC hardware… if, and only if, software would still be locally installable by 2045.
Click to expand...

The mythical casual horde that MS has been chasing since the Kinect days. Then gamepass. Then Series S. Any day now. Consoles were going to kill PCs. Mobile would kill consoles. Now streaming will kill everything.

Carrot and the stick. Young adults surely.
 
Last edited:
DForce

DForce

NaughtyDog Defense Force
IllegalLemon said:
I know this isn't relevant in this specific discussion & if the mods find it irrelevant or platform war material, feel free to remove it and give me a warning if required.



I find it funny that our boy Timy here has used Vgchartz media, when Xbox was beating playstation in sales for almost 4 months, & yet when these charts flip around and show playstation demolishing xbox with an almost 3:1 ratio in sales, he can't seem to keep the same energy. What a hypocrite and shill. Nevermind the other guy he quoted, who was trashing xbox, he's just another platform warrior. I normally ignore console war stuff like this, but Tim's damage control is on another level. Xbox is doing amazingly well, yet some fanboys can't seem to accept it when their rival is outselling their favourite box.
Click to expand...

ETg2uVZWkAUfywL.jpg
 
thismeinteil

thismeinteil

Member
IllegalLemon said:
I know this isn't relevant in this specific discussion & if the mods find it irrelevant or platform war material, feel free to remove it and give me a warning if required.



I find it funny that our boy Timy here has used Vgchartz media, when Xbox was beating playstation in sales for almost 4 months, & yet when these charts flip around and show playstation demolishing xbox with an almost 3:1 ratio in sales, he can't seem to keep the same energy. What a hypocrite and shill. Nevermind the other guy he quoted, who was trashing xbox, he's just another platform warrior. I normally ignore console war stuff like this, but Tim's damage control is on another level. Xbox is doing amazingly well, yet some fanboys can't seem to accept it when their rival is outselling their favourite box.
Click to expand...

Can't do anything but laugh at the irony of Tim trying to claim PS5 has no games. :messenger_tears_of_joy:
 
IllegalLemon

IllegalLemon

Member
thismeinteil said:
Can't do anything but laugh at the irony of Tim trying to claim PS5 has no games. :messenger_tears_of_joy:
Click to expand...
Timmy is just salty. He was promised that all those acquisitions would be the greatest redemption story of all time for Xbox and a nuclear weapon to demolish playstation. Guess that promise was a little... over-exaggerated, to say the least. Look, all I gotta say for Xbox is that so far, it's doing great, it's a far cry from how the Xbox one was way back when. But to say that what MS is doing right now is some secret trump card that'll demolish their competition, with whom they failed to compete for 20 years is... a wet dream.
 
Last edited:
jm89

jm89

Member
IllegalLemon said:
I know this isn't relevant in this specific discussion & if the mods find it irrelevant or platform war material, feel free to remove it and give me a warning if required.



I find it funny that our boy Timy here has used Vgchartz media, when Xbox was beating playstation in sales for almost 4 months, & yet when these charts flip around and show playstation demolishing xbox with an almost 3:1 ratio in sales, he can't seem to keep the same energy. What a hypocrite and shill. Nevermind the other guy he quoted, who was trashing xbox, he's just another platform warrior. I normally ignore console war stuff like this, but Tim's damage control is on another level. Xbox is doing amazingly well, yet some fanboys can't seem to accept it when their rival is outselling their favourite box.
Click to expand...

Those numbers aren't gonna be kind to those boys going forward. Seems like vgchartz have changed their release schedule to monthly releases after the actual sales report for major regions like USA and Europe come out so they can adjust based on those reports. While the numbers still won't be accurate it does mean maybe it won't be as skewed towards xbox, but time will tell if that is the case.
 
Last edited:
sainraja

sainraja

Member
Thirty7ven said:
The mythical casual horde that MS has been chasing since the Kinect days. Then gamepass. Then Series S. Any day now. Consoles were going to kill PCs. Mobile would kill consoles. Now streaming will kill everything.

Carrot and the stick. Young adults surely.
Click to expand...
On a surface level, you can easily dismiss statements like "...this will kill that..." but things in life hardly happen in absolutes. Streaming music and movies did influence how people watch and listen to them; this might not be true for you, but most people have warmed up to streaming when it comes to those types of content.

So, saying that streaming will kill gaming does not have to mean the complete absence of the purchase option, but it won't be as attractive as time goes on. Of course, there are other variables too. Something else unforeseen can happen that might push streaming out of gaming altogether. Who knows!
 
Loxus

Loxus

Member
fred420170 said:
Well Sony themselves said that they would go out of business without COD and pretty much trashed their own titles to make it seem like they would go out of business without it.
Click to expand...
Haven't seen Sony say that.

In all honesty, Sony doesn't want to lose the revenue COD brings in, especially to the only competition they have in the console space. That's like having COD as one of their studies, but without the investment.

Realistically speaking, Xbox having COD isn't going to change the landscape by much. Imo based on Sony saying 30% of PS5 owners never had a Playstation console, Microsoft is trying to stop Sony from taking away anymore of their user base.
 
Thirty7ven

Thirty7ven

Banned
sainraja said:
On a surface level, you can easily dismiss statements like "...this will kill that..." but things in life hardly happen in absolutes. Streaming music and movies did influence how people watch and listen to them; this might not be true for you, but most people have warmed up to streaming when it comes to those types of content.
Click to expand...

Passive entertainment that already relied on a form of streaming. Cable TV, tv boxes and radio. Etc etc etc this is more complex than that. Games are not passive entertainment.
 
Last edited:
sainraja

sainraja

Member
Thirty7ven said:
Passive entertainment that already relied on a form of streaming. Cable TV, tv boxes and radio. Etc etc etc this is more complex than that. Games are not passive entertainment.
Click to expand...
Yeah, that is a fair point. Gaming is definitely not passive, but there are so many different varieties of games too. Mobile gaming is big and we largely ignore it/dismiss it. I am not for streaming, and I don't ever want it to become mainstream, but technology can improve quickly, and we don't really know what shape that future will take.
 
DrFigs

DrFigs

Member
aries_71 said:
Nahh… we are talking of the general public here. The millions of casual gamers don’t care or even know what production levels or latency are. Most console players don‘t even know that their tvs have low latency modes and play with interpolation modes designed for movie watching. They will play the future FIFAs and CODs streamed from their Smart TVs, tablets and phones. Marketing campaigns and easy availability will drive them there. They won’t spend years to get a new console out of a scalper, they will fire up the equivalent to GeforceNow or xCloud from their Samsung TV and go. The super specialist fan that cares or knows about such things will have to revert to advanced PC hardware… if, and only if, software would still be locally installable by 2045.
Click to expand...
I think your average gamer is pretty knowledgable about this stuff. And even if they're not really into the hobby, if you shop for a TV, they advertise having "gamer" mode or low latency modes, so I think people in general are aware of these things. We'd also have to explain why Playstation Now and Xcloud aren't popular if this was the case that casual gamers didn't care about latency.
 
Last edited:
PaintTinJr

PaintTinJr

Member
aries_71 said:
Nahh… we are talking of the general public here. The millions of casual gamers don’t care or even know what production levels or latency are. Most console players don‘t even know that their tvs have low latency modes and play with interpolation modes designed for movie watching. They will play the future FIFAs and CODs streamed from their Smart TVs, tablets and phones. Marketing campaigns and easy availability will drive them there. They won’t spend years to get a new console out of a scalper, they will fire up the equivalent to GeforceNow or xCloud from their Samsung TV and go. The super specialist fan that cares or knows about such things will have to revert to advanced PC hardware… if, and only if, software would still be locally installable by 2045.
Click to expand...
It depends where you draw the line for casuals. PS4 shows a resurgence of dedicated hardware, and PS5 looks to be doing equally as well - probably better without Covid problems.

If a market of 100-200m people can see the benefit of moving from ps3/360 gen to last-gen, and are still seeing a reason to move to this gen - with production quality/Graphics and QoL improvements largely being the drivers - I don't see why that will change until PlayStation and Epic, etc say they can't do better.

Cloud only developed games are nowhere close to the production level of PlayStation first party games from the ps3 gen. Dropping 200-500m on production for cloud exclusive games is yet to happen AFAIK. If it does, then I would agree, but while CoD, Fifa, GTAs, Fornite, Destiny and PlayStation first party games continue to differentiate their new versions on local hardware, local hardware will be released to drive those game sales to the masses IMHO and the esports angle for lower latency in competition will still compliment that for those 100-200m gamers, I suspect.
 
S

SneakersSO

Member
Sanepar said:
People talking about Sony going after Capcom and Square. I would go after CDPR, Larian and FromSoftware first. They need to lock rpgs first.
Click to expand...
Im not quite sure why you think that - making a WRPG, and the proliferation of WRPG gameplay systems into some of their games, is already something Sony is doing. This is probably going to be a natural expansion of what they are already offering to their consumers.

No one is producing content that is equivalent to JP publishers or devs, and Sony has largely cut down on their JP development teams. These are also groups who are seeing fantastic growth in SW sales and revenue in the core gaming space.
 
Last edited:
Pelta88

Pelta88

Member
There is a video of timdog stalking people outside of bestbuy to see if they bought an XB1X. He's in the vid talking about NPD being a lock for that particular month. A month which XB didn't "win." NPD.

I'm not sure Tim adds any more to the discussion than Jez or Colt.
 
Last edited:
IllegalLemon

IllegalLemon

Member
Pelta88 said:
There is a video of timdog stalking people outside of bestbuy to see if they bought an XB1X. He's in the vid talking about NPD being a lock for that particular month. A month which XB didn't "win." NPD.

I'm not sure Tim adds any more to the discussion than Jez or Colt.
Click to expand...
Tim is like a broken record at this point. Doomed to repeat the one sentence, he's been repeating over and over again ("Xbox is gonna dominate. Just you wait"). He's repeated it so many times, that he has created an illusion where that has become a reality. Reality is a lot more different though.
 
Topher

Topher

Identifies as young
MasterCornholio

MasterCornholio

Member
b6a6es said:
Possibly EC too since we haven’t got a response yet, and had either (if not both) blocked the deal it would assist the FTC’s case tremendously
Click to expand...

What's curious is that Microsoft was the only one to talk about it straight after the meeting. They told us their arguments but they didn't tell us the response that they received. Makes me wonder if the EC is still deciding on whether or not their concessions are enough. Hopefully we get some info on that soon.
 
jm89

jm89

Member
MasterCornholio said:
What's curious is that Microsoft was the only one to talk about it straight after the meeting. They told us their arguments but they didn't tell us the response that they received. Makes me wonder if the EC is still deciding on whether or not their concessions are enough. Hopefully we get some info on that soon.
Click to expand...
Wasn't it just a hearing? Maybe it was more then that, but i read it was microsoft and other parties stating their cases to the EC.
 
adamsapple

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
akaFullmetal said:
big boobs pron GIF

Aloha, when do we expect to get some new news or updates from court?
Click to expand...


I can't stop watching this gif on a loop, it's .. mesmerizing.

is there a source for it ? DM me if necessary lol.


oh uh .. and to your question .. there's oral hearings in London starting on the 28th. So we'll probably hear things in the first week of March.
 
Last edited:
jm89

jm89

Member
MasterCornholio said:
I'm just confused on why Microsoft didn't tell us they won if they actually did.
Click to expand...
I don't think a decision/response would have been given by the EC by the end of that hearing. Timeline of events was posted here a while a go, but i'm pretty sure there are more steps before a decision is made.

But i guess there is a way that microsft could use to measure if everything went well even without the EC giving a response, based on the arguments each party made. Maybe it didn't go well and they decided to do the presentation afterwards as usual to get public support, maybe it did go well and they are just flexing to the public.
 
Last edited:
B

b6a6es

Banned
Since it’s very clear that the CMA (and possibly EC) would reject the MS’s behavioral remedies of 10 years plan as it’s clearly not enough (OG MW was released 16 years ago! and the series still topping the sales chart ever since), and since it’ll be a quite month ahead of us newswise I’d say its time for predictions:

Personally Im 50/50 on either the deal going through with 20+ years deal with Sony (if not perpetual) in behavior remedies, including a guaranteed B2P option on cloud or F2P in case of Warzone), as this will give Sony enough time to create its substitute in its ecosystem longterm,


Or they’ll stick for structural remedies or Block situation, which means the deal’s dead for good




To me personally the main issue isn’t subscriptions like GP, but rather availability to consumers of 100M+ userbase, especially in longterm
 
Last edited:
xHunter

xHunter

Member
I wonder if MS offering Nintendo all Xbox games was going to be the next step if the current deals are not enough for the EC and CMA. It clearly seemed like MS internally talked about offering more than CoD to Nintendo
 
adamsapple

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
xHunter said:
I wonder if MS offering Nintendo all Xbox games was going to be the next step if the current deals are not enough for the EC and CMA. It clearly seemed like MS internally talked about offering more than CoD to Nintendo
Click to expand...

There were rumors a few years back that MS might partner with Nintendo for game pass streaming on Switch. That is the only way I see MS offering anything more than CoD to Nintendo at this point.
 
Last edited:
B

b6a6es

Banned
xHunter said:
I wonder if MS offering Nintendo all Xbox games was going to be the next step if the current deals are not enough for the EC and CMA. It clearly seemed like MS internally talked about offering more than CoD to Nintendo
Click to expand...
I think they did, but their lawyers advised them not to, as this might lead to a situation where Sony could ask for a similar deal in a future acquisition/antitrust case for Microsoft/Xbox (especially with MS’s insisting of including Nintendo as part of console marketshare), unless it’s a GP related cloud deal stuff
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

Microsoft has Closed the Activision Blizzard King Deal
22 23 24 25 26
1K
91K
MasterCornholio replied
Microsoft now says the CMA was ‘tough and fair’ over Activision Blizzard deal
Opinion Business Game Dev
17
3K
SportsFan581 replied
FTC appeals to block already-completed Microsoft-Activision deal
2
63
7K
Mythoclast replied
  • Locked
UK minister defends CMA's decision to block MS/ABK
News
0
1K
Daniel_Mallorca1985 replied
  • Locked
Microsoft to sell off Activision cloud gaming rights to Ubisoft in bid for UK approval
News Business 2 3 4
154
17K
Spyxos replied
Top Bottom