I'd still wager we're over a decade away from it not being a loss leader and seeing widespread adaptation. IT's still in the proof of concept phase as a mass business.
Microsoft is Buying Activision Blizzard $68.7B ***Update: Acquisition Finalized***
- Thread starter rikwebb
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World doesnt have the network infrastructure of Seoul.
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Nah, game pass services will never take over gaming. It's easy to just listen to some music or have a movie on in the background but a video game is a commitment. Nobody has the time to play through dozens of titles a month. Most people just choose a few games to buy per year because that's all they have time for and they also own the game forever without having to worry about when the game will leave the service. Many sub services are already slowing down. I just don't think it is going to work in the long run for video games.
I truly believe quality will win over quantity in this industry and not the other way around.
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This has been my exact thinking for why I'm skeptical whether a sub service can work or not for gaming. Almost everyone watches TV and listens to music. It's not comparable to gaming at all. At the same time though I think MS understands this which is why they are after cloud gaming. They need to get xbox services in front of as many people\devices as possible in order to make it work.
I've been following the people who read through the report and looking back it's obvious why this whole deal should be blocked. Microsoft controls so much when it comes to cloud infrastructure. They've already had the EU questioning their current cloud infrastructure and if they have a monopoly. I'm honestly thinking that the EU might take a step back and block this deal as well based on cloud concerns. The EU was expected to pass this but I'm not so confident anymore.
I think the thing people don't realize about cloud gaming is a service provider has to pay a license fee for the game, which piles up really fast. It's just not profitable unless you jack up the price
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Yep which is another reason MS is trying to buy all these companies. You avoid paying the licensing fee. They already own the equipment needed to run it all with Azure. MS will be hard to beat when it comes to cloud gaming.
Honestly the report the CMA release made it sound like MS shouldn't be allowed to purchase any other publisher\developers because anymore IPs will just continually see them gain more of a hold over cloud gaming.
If you have a business and want to get into cloud gaming and you want to license the IP from MS. Oh but wait MS notices you're not using Azure servers well that's a shame because they offer discount licensing fees for Azure customers. You can really see how MS can be put in a position to really take over the market and hurt competitors.
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Is this related to news I’ve read in recent weeks of M/s unbundling Teams from their suite offerings so as to offload or destrengthen, to say, and appease European regulators thinking M/s monopolistic?
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This is unrelated. This was a complaint Slack themselves submitted to the EU. I do wonder if the EU looked at that issue though and is now looking at how the EU could they abuse their cloud setup. The EU, CMA, and FTC all talk to each other.
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Blizzard just scrapped the PvE mode for Overwatch2:
https://www.theverge.com/2023/5/16/23725808/overwatch-2-hero-mode-canceled-2023-roadmap
https://www.theverge.com/2023/5/16/23725808/overwatch-2-hero-mode-canceled-2023-roadmap
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Never once thought that was a good idea and I don’t know anybody who did.
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Its like the current Overwatch development team realized why Titan was canceled and repurposed to be a Team Fortress 2 clone.
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Yep I posted about it in the sherdog news industry. The interesting part here is that the EU also had issues with MS\Cloud confirming what the CMA also had issues with. The only difference is that the EU accepted all the contracts that MS signed while the CMA has decided regulating an industry that is just getting started isn't a good idea and cloud should be allowed to just grow on it's own without regulation.
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This was already one of the most widely criticized, puzzling rulings ever handed down by a market authority, pretty much everyone smelled a rat, but now...
Nvidia and Microsoft Announce 10-Year GeForce Now Partnership
Xbox and Bethesda games (and, eventually, Activision Blizzard) are coming to GeForce Now
That cloud gaming "monopoly". Your move, CMA.
Nvidia and Microsoft Announce 10-Year GeForce Now Partnership
Xbox and Bethesda games (and, eventually, Activision Blizzard) are coming to GeForce Now
That cloud gaming "monopoly". Your move, CMA.
How does the 2 leading cloud gaming services signing a deal address the CMA's fears of Microsoft being too powerful in a nascent market?
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LOL, their "fears"? What justifies their "fears"? They haven't justified any fears. This is why the world of business analysts' mocked their decision, and reacted with collective befuddlement.
How do you block a deal based on a "nascent" market? The entire point of nascent markets is that nobody has yet established a "powerful" foothold because the market isn't yet powerful itself. It barely exists. It's a wide open land-rush. That would have been like the CMA blocking Facebook's acquisition of Oculus because it would give them too powerful a foothold in VR.
What is the current revenue of cloud gaming, and what percent of gaming does cloud gaming constitute? Moreover, what percent of cloud gaming revenue does Microsoft currently wield, and how on earth does an Activision-Blizzard merger significantly compound this? What are Activision-Blizzard's current cloud services and foothold? They have zero presence in cloud gaming. So what is the argument, here? Microsoft has the best positioning in cloud gaming, so the acquisition of Activision-Blizzard strengthens their software library so greatly it makes a monopoly of cloud gaming a foregone conclusion? Have you asked yourself what the basis is for that logic? Because even with the acquisition of Activision-Blizzard Xbox wouldn't monopolize the non-cloud software landscape today.
And now Microsoft has signed a major deal with one of their chief cloud gaming competitors. How can it be cogently argued they are positioned for a monopoly of the market? That vaporous justification has melted under this development just as quickly as Sony's complaints when Microsoft made it clear they offered deals to put COD on Sony's consoles.
It can't be denied this is a profoundly corrupt interference by a market authority. The CMA has been compromised, and isn't acting neutrally in good faith. It's quite absurd.
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this hasn't been approved in the usa, either. and the ftc has stated they'll block it. the biden admin has been pretty against m&a in general, and especially so with bigger companies.
and that was before jpm scooped up banking assets, which pissed them off even more (not that they did even a single thing to help).
and that was before jpm scooped up banking assets, which pissed them off even more (not that they did even a single thing to help).
Shoosh, don’t mention that, it’s only the corrupt CMA that’s clearly been compromised that has an issue.
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Looks like Blizzard is set for another round of layoffs:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/22/arts/blizzard-diffusion-ai-video-games.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/22/arts/blizzard-diffusion-ai-video-games.html
They clearly laid them out, whether you agree or not. At any rate, if the fears or unjustified, then Activision should be able to get the decision reversed. I also have no idea what relevance the word of business analysts has to do on a legal matter like antitrust.
Yes, which is when competition and avoiding unfair foreclosures is most critical.
Small. I don't have it off hand open, but the redacted figures it's using are Newzoo.
If i recall from the CMA report, it's the vast majority currently, with some of Sony's figures being inflated by their change to online services last year. And that's the point, AB has so far withheld its catalogue, but that won't last forever. Buying the company would give Microsoft the option of leveraging it for cloud gaming, whether its license fees or exclusivity.
Partly, but they also wield the power of owning Azure and Windows licenses, which the CMA noted.
So who or what party is paying off which party or members of the CMA?
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