Nvidia: Xbox's Acquisition Of ActiBlizz Would Be 'A Benefit To Cloud Gaming'

The more I think about this, the more I think MS and ABK might go nuclear on this, if the EU approves the deal.

By this I mean, ABK might restructure their operations in such a way that they leave the UK entirely before the acquisition, something that would leave the UK's approval or block a purely symbolic thing.

This might mean moving Sledgehammer out of the country, spinning it off into an independent entity, or entirely shutting it down.

Editing to clarify because I have noticed a few reactions are missing the point:

ABK restructuring to "leave the UK entirely" does not mean they would stop selling in the region, it simply means that all their offices and studios could be moved out of the country. They could be shut down, or they could be spined off into independent entities with contracts to do development and regional publishing. If they are not part of the deal, the UK has no say on whether or not this acquisition can go forward, only reason the UK can block the deal is precisely because there are regional operations involved in the acquisition.

Even the competition comes to support this merger. I guess Microsoft will have a chance in court if this support remains.

The CMA are looking like utter fools. By bad for cloud they must mean "bad for Sony's cloud."

To top it off they just made a statement claiming it's impossible for a COD game to run on Switch when we have already had Switch cloud games like that run on Switch.

From the way they're talking, it sounds like they have been getting all of their talking points from Sony fanboys.

Of course they say that when MS has been throwing cash at them recently.

@JayJ You understand cloud games don't actually run on Switch right and that cloud gaming on Switch is terrible?

Also unless you have evidence to say otherwise Sony had no impact here.

@Tharsman All bark and no bite. The amount of money they make from the UK would make leaving here a very dumb and foolish move and show how salty, bitter and weak minded they are. In fact doing do would give Sony ammo as they would no doubt exploit MS tantrum over it.

@WallyWest Leaving the UK does not mean halting sales in the UK. Do you think every indie dev out there selling their games on Steam all over the world have business in every single country?

Regional distribution does not need to be handled by ABK, they can pay someone else to handle that. The reason the UK has a say in this merger is because ABK has multiple offices in the country (2 publishing offices and 3 studio offices, I do think these offices are all for the same because as far as I recall, only Sledgehammer is in the UK, but they might have some smaller support studios there too) therefore they get to make calls on acquisitions.

But ABK can do multiple things to work around that, from spinning them off and contracting them to do the work they are already doing, shutting them down and hire someone else, or relocating them.

This is only a card that can be played if the EU does not block the deal, though, because there is no chance for ABK to manage to restructure that much.

Edit:
Here is the list of countries they have offices at

Publishing:
Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Republic of Korea, Malta, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, UK, USA

Studios
Australia, Canada, China, Germany, Mexico, Ireland, Poland, Spain, Sweden, UK, USA

This is why we are hearing from so many countries about regulatory approval, its not this common to get so many countries involved.

If they did these exclusives / decisions I would be a happy man

Third person bad boys video game
Samurai Jack third person
Spawn , blade , black Adam , black panther
John wick ( max Payne/ matrix ) style
Batman beyond
Black samurai third person
Def jam vs Roc nation fighting game
Third person StarCraft game
Doom spin-off third person to compete against silent hill or dead space
Purchase lionsgate films , dreamworks and tidal Music to combine with gamepass
Merge with asus and lock down capcom exclusives if Microsoft can’t purchase them ( lost plant )
Make japanese anime shows / movies with Xbox exclusives
Acquire Ubisoft , kalypso , creative assembly , paradox , wb games , embracer group

Copy n paste hoping someone important sees some ideas lol

@WallyWest they threw cash to them in the form of a 10 year deal to bring games that are sought after, yeah i agree.

@Green-Bandit think wally is referring at an entirely unrelated deal where Nvidia is supplying the chips powering Bing's ChatGPT.

Microsoft does not pay Nvidia for the streaming deal, if anything, it is Nvidia that pays royalties to Microsoft.

Not that that stopped Nvidia being against this deal until they got the cloud streaming deal. That deal has the potential of empowering a lot of startups to cement their presence in the cloud arena even if it does not end up renewed after 10 years.

Thats how Netflix got its start, with a streaming sub-license from Starz. That deal is long gone, but it allowed Netflix to grow into an entirely independent powerhouse.

I agree with Nvidia on this.

Cloud gaming needs a player like Microsoft to build and mange the infrastructure, but also a game that appeals to the masses and for which all these investments are worth it.

Otherwise, cloud gaming stays as lukewarm as it is now. I only used it for jrpg’s (final fantasy series) on my phone when those games were on Gamepass.

It’s also weird: IGN’s xbox podcast made the comment that ‘Microsoft managed to build a great streaming infrastructure, and for that, they’re now punished, which is really odd.’

It’s correct. They have the best cloud gaming service out there. Google tried it, failed, mainly due to a bad business model. Amazon is still there with Luna. Facebook has a very bad service laying around somewhere. Nvidia has the best competition for Microsoft. Am I missing a player here?

Microsoft is the only one actually investing much in cloud gaming. Actually building the infrastructure. And now they’re not allowed this deal which would benefit a lot of services, but also cloud gaming as a whole.

@WallyWest Hi man sorry they can leave UK and move offices in the European union. Scotland is still A EU country hahahahahaha.
Who will LOOSE? Activision operated in Britain under another name they export their games to uk at a higher price to PS FANS and xbox gamers. FULL STOP!

@grumpypotato ok I may be wrong though the people of Scotland voted to remain in the EU in 2016 and its still undecided as per google search. What about the Ireland and France, Belgium they not far from UK mainland. I believe despite the fact only UK blocking the deal Microsoft will ignore all the other countries that approved it. Only if Europe block it then it will be a different story.

@grumpypotato On 23 June 2016 the people of Scotland voted decisively to remain within the European Union (EU). Article 50 was triggered in March 2017 but the UK Government is yet to gain the UK or Scottish Parliament’s agreement to a deal.

@WallyWest Sony did have a say in it. There criticism of Games Pass supposedly did include cloud gaming. Article 15 in one of the CMA documents mentions it. But it was mostly Google's closure of Stadia that influenced the CMA.

I think it's worth noting here... Microsoft's cloud tech is used by Sony. As of 2019 I believe.

I think the CMA likely came to this decision about the cloud regardless of Sony rather than because of them.

A lot of their reasoning is strange but I can see the concern. This isn't a near-term 10 year thing. They're thinking 20, maybe even 30 years down the line if Microsoft is allowed to get such a strong stranglehold on cloud now given Google and Amazon are currently the only two who can reliably compete. And google failed. (Nvidia's cloud is an entirely different story and business model).

Still, ideal situation is they reverse their decision via the CAT declaring the CMA's findings illogical, if they don't the EU is very likely to follow the CMA's lead on this and the FTC soon after.

EDIT: And for those saying Microsoft could just 'leave the UK'.
1. It's their second largest market after the US
2. Their deal with Activision stipulates that it's all or nothing. The CMA, EU and FTC all have to agree or the deal falls through.

@Tharsman I was thinking the US government more than Microsoft might retaliate. Wouldn't be the first time they have acted to protect there own interests. Banning Chinese tech firms over spying that was never proved was happening. Renaming French fries to Freedom fries when they had a spat with the French to name two examples. Plus having BRICKS nations devalue the $ they'll frown at any Allie blocking deals that will help the US tech firms keep the top dog status.

@WallyWest
😅😅
You on a rant against Microsoft:
Of course they say that when MS has been throwing cash at them recently

Then again on your Sony loving:
Also unless you have evidence to say otherwise Sony had no impact here

Not sure if aware or capable but you can support a mega- corp without going so transparently fanboy. There is no need for it😅.

Holy cow, CMA jumped a whale shark on this one. They stood their whole reasoning up on cloud, without any objections from cloud competitors and now the only one that did at one point raise an objection is openly sponsoring the deal on account of the offered remedy benefiting them and their market. Just wow.

Conspiracy theory or not, I have to come back to incompetence or corruption here.

This may actually help with eu a lot. They can't copy the cloud market schtick when the whole cloud market including the entity that once objected is now championing it. I agree with @tharsman. If cma ends up alone on sketchy grounds with even the pm trying to sidestep them...Ms may just plow through.

@Moonglow To be fair, Amazon Luna is probably Microsoft's biggest cloud gaming competitor, but as far as anyone knows, they have never raised any objections about it and are looking to acquisitions as well, such as Tomb Raider.

@JayJ They seriously think Nintendo will be selling the 2017 switch for 10 years? Maybe incompetence after all...

@grumpypotato

maybe someone in UK is developing cloud gaming service? BritCloud or Greggs Now or Gammon Play

Yeah there are strong rumours it will be called Gammon Play. With Rees Mog and Farage as president and CEO respectively. It will be exclusively available for only Brexit voters and folk that only watch GBNews and TalkTV. They are also after Piers Morgan to be in charge of the Indie games development....with all the financial backing of old fart R Murdoch 😀.

@grumpypotato I didn’t know Jimmy Krankie browsed here on Pure Xbox. Learn something new everyday.

@Seygamers Scotland are not part of the EU. They left with the rest of the UK. It's true that Scotland voted to stay (as did London) but it was a UK wide referendum so it (unfortunately) made no difference.

@NEStalgia No lol, but my argument was simply that we have seen "cloud version" games for Switch already that would otherwise be too ambitious to work on the hardware. Right now that would include games like Resident Evil 2 and 3 remakes, RE7, RE Village, and Dying Light 2.

I mean if they can get stuff like Dying Light 2 and the REmakes to work on a Switch, I am sure they could get COD to work on a Switch.

@JayJ Also Control, AC Valhalla (Japan only). Absolutely they could get cloud cod on current switch, BUT considering it's a 10 year deal that hasn't started yet end Nintendo almost certainly has new hardware in 1-2 years the whole argument sounds like it came from 2019. Just totally cluelessness. Nintendo has got to be listening to that thinking "you think we should tell them?"

@Kaloudz I'm leaning toward incompetence indeed. The only thing leading me to think corruption is that they were lock step with Sony until only a month or two ago, then suddenly nonchalantly said they don't care about console only cloud, then indicated they were in favor then had a sudden reversal. A bit sketchy. Yet their incoherent reasoning makes Kahns spurious argument almost look sound. Babbling about switch like it's not on the way out while not thinking of cloud which was the entire basis of their concern and not even realizing how ironic that is kind of pushes me in the incompetent direction though. Darned kids and their controller games. I bought one of the Nintendo's when Thatcher was here, and it still works fine!

@Moonglow CMA is afraid game pass will destroy gaming innovation.

A company working with Microsoft back Microsoft.

Hold the front page.

At least you can see the logic of what they say. It’ll make their offering better. Greed again.

Same as the nonsensical ramblings of some on here. “CMA is corrupt” - ok Trump.

Don’t like a result - call it fake and corrupt.

It’s sad people are like it.

@Sol4ris that made me lol.

A few on here a fully paid up members of the “project fear” everything is a conspiracy when they lose GBeebies style of life. I suspect our Nintendo themed friend might be Farage. Makes about as much sense.

I would be keen to understand the educational and employment background of the arm chair analysts claiming CMA know nothing about cloud gaming. You might be upset about the decision but that doesn’t mean you know better than the people who have spent the last 12 months researching and deliberating on the decision…..and I thought it was Jim Ryan and the Ps fans who were meant to be the whiners.

Either way looking forward to several “So and so said the deal would be good” articles about this every day for the next two months 🥱

As MS wouldn't OWN ALL the Games, Publishers or Studio's making games, I can't see how they can monopolise Cloud. Nothing is stopping any other from competing in the Cloud against MS with their OWN games too.

It doesn't matter if they are 'Windows' based specifically on Game Pass for example because they are not running locally and it doesn't matter if I don't have 'Windows' hardware - Android and Apple iOS can still 'stream' games running on a 'Series X' server somewhere. Sony/Google/Apple etc could set up their 'OWN' non-windows based platforms and 'stream' their own games onto every platform too. Point is, doesn't really matter because its not running 'locally'. If Sony built their Servers with their own Sony Playstation APU's, obviously not Windows, it would still 'stream' to Windows, Apple iOS, Android etc devices because it isn't 'required' to 'run' locally. You can't 'run' Starfield on a Samsung Android Mobile, but you can play it there thanks to Cloud.

The argument really does lack understanding of Cloud, Cloud gaming etc. Its like Disney+ acquiring Marvel - it doesn't stop Netflix, Amazon Prime etc from 'competing' for your Subscription with their OWN content on EVERY device. Just because you can't watch Marvel TV shows on Netflix, doesn't mean you can't Subscribe to Disney+ on the EXACT same devices so you 'never' miss out on Marvel content.

If MS owned CoD and it was ONLY available via Cloud Streaming on Game Pass, it still doesn't stop Sony from Competing in Cloud Gaming with their OWN IP's like Spider-Man, Wolverine, Last of Us, etc on their OWN OS and stream to all the same Cloud based devices...

By 'blocking' this, they are basically saying that CoD cannot be a Cloud based game, cannot 'reach' consumers on a much wider range of Platforms and must only be on 'Premium' Hardware - therefore greatly limiting the choice and options for consumers so only the 'rich/affluent' or 'dedicated' gamers can play...

@BAMozzy Blocking the deal doesn't stop anything. CoD could fine we'll be made available on the cloud if Activision wanted it to. It's only one route to it being made available on cloud that has been closed off. Everything that MS were offering, including bringing CoD to "Nintendo platforms", ABK could still do if they really wanted to.

We all know that you dont care about cloud gaming, you want this deal cause you get more games cheaper on gamepass.

If you cared about cloud gaming then Microsoft could spend this money on their current studios, build new studios and help smaller studios.

@Kevw2006 They possibly 'could' do if they wanted but they have never shown any inclination to change their business model from a Purely Sales based to a more service based.

Bringing CoD to Nintendo would Cost ABK a lot of 'money', not just in porting, optimising and getting it to a playable state, but also all the long term continuous support, updates, fixes, additional content etc etc and if they don't think it will sell 'enough' to justify the additional costs and of course Staff to work on it, then it doesn't make 'financial' sense.

You also have to remember that ABK get 'less' revenue per game than a First Party Studio as they have to 'pay' to release on those 'Consoles', as well as lose 30% to the Platform holder as the 'retailer' for digital content etc. If ABK was owned by MS, MS would get that '30%' as retailer on Xbox, not have to 'pay' to release on their own platform and of course could bring in Money from Subscriptions/Sales from a much wider array of sources to make it more 'financially' viable.

As for the CMA claims about CoD 'Never' running on a Switch, you could say the same about the Witcher 3, DOOM etc. DOOM may not be 1080p or even 60fps on Switch, yet can run at 4k with RT on a Series X and 60fps minimum. CoD on Switch may well end up at 540/30fps - similar to DOOM - which maybe why ABK also 'refuse' to port as they probably don't think 30fps CoD would sell enough.

Fortnite can be played on Mobiles at 30fps against Consoles (up to 120fps) or PC gamers and doesn't stop them from 'playing/having fun' even if its 'not the best' way to play.

Cloud is an 'entry' point and likely always will be - because in 'competitive' games like CoD, lag/latency really matters so people will buy Premium Hardware to get the full 'Premium' experience with the lowest lag/latency and/or highest possible frame rates. They won't 'want' to play at 1080/60 with extra latency/lag unless that's either all they can afford or the only option for on the go. But eSports etc will still use Hardware and LAN to offer the best, most consistent playing field...

@Moonglow Its because NVIDIA signed a 10 year deal to have ActiBlizz games on their platform. They will financially benefit if the deal goes through, hence the comment. Don’t go thinking it’s a good thing, it’s only good for NVIDIA bank balance.

@NEStalgia Whats weird is, it basically seems like MS is just turning every other cloud company into a customer, more so than a competitor. MS's agreement basically has MS allowing the games on their services but MS keeps 100% of the money. It's kinda wild, really. Seems a lot more complicated than what I just rattled off here too.

Tech outlets like the verge seem to think the CMA killing this is a huge setback for cloud gaming in general, because not many companies really have the infrastructure to this on a massive scale like MS does. But from the looks of things, the CMA has kicked a hornets nest, so who freaking knows what's going on now. Honestly, this might turn into that juicy discovery we wanted after all.

@Aeula I edited my original post to clarify something I had already clarified in some other posts, but TLDR: ABK leaving the UK does not mean they stop doing business/selling games in the UK, it simply means they no longer own any offices within the UK and therefore the UK does not get to make any calls to block the acquisition.

It does means going forward all regional publishing and marketing would have to be conducted by an independent third party, be it a new entity created only for this, or cutting a deal with another big publisher like EA or Ubisoft that has operations in the region.

@WallyWest

Also unless you have evidence to say otherwise Sony had no impact here.

Didn't see this before but its worth addressing:

The final CMA response did state that Microsoft cloud gaming remedies only addressed concerns with purely streaming services, but not with "multi-game subscription services", there are basically only 3 such services of any note right now:
Game Pass Ultimate, Play Station Plus Premium, and Luna.

Given Luna is not even in the region, and has not expressed any concerns, and the fact that Sony claimed in the past that including CoD in their multi game subscription program would bankrupt them (with the only solution being no one should get that game in their multi-game subscription programs) I think its clear that Sony did have at least some influence in this result.

@Kevw2006

Everything that MS were offering, including bringing CoD to "Nintendo platforms", ABK could still do if they really wanted to.

Except ABK has expressed zero interest in streaming, in fact they have actively blocked services like Nvidia Now from streaming their games. They also have zero interest on investing in their own cloud infrastructure, outside hosting game servers, they are not in the business of hosting expensive server infrastructure, much less for risky venues as cloud streaming can be.

@Tharsman And that's entirely their choice. Although my comment just said they could do it if they wanted to, they have just actively chosen not to. Which poses the question of why they are so desperate to be bought by Microsoft if they are so dead against these things.

@Kevw2006

Which poses the question of why they are so desperate to be bought by Microsoft if they are so dead against these things.

They want to sell themselves precisely because they know they are in a position where they are running very thin, and despite how much money they make, they cant really take major risks without fearing to lose almost all they built.

Its not that they are against CoD in cloud, they simply wont be giving anyone a cut of their revenue, and they cant afford to risk investing in their own cloud infrastructure. If MS ends up owning them, at that point its MS's bank account that is at risk, not ABK investor's, so they could care less what kind of business model ABK adopts going forward.

@Stocksy “At least you can see the logic of what they say. It’ll make their offering better. Greed again.”

Those awful companies just wanting to profit, but in the process investing in better technology and options that will benefit consumers. Just like that terrible Henry Ford, who just wanted to profit but made cars affordable and available for consumers in the process. Or that evil company Apple. All their greed came out in the invention of the IPhone. So what if it revolutionized communication and offered a good that slowly became more available to consumers of all backgrounds. And don’t get me started on Amazon. Nothing but greed there. So what if in the process it gave consumers access to goods in farther places and at cheaper prices than they’d ever experienced before…

Seriously though. I’m not sure if this was your intention, but these kinds of comments come off as “Boo Capitalism!” comments, which are the most ill-thought out comments there are. Most of what has literally made our world a more advanced, connected place was created and spread as a result of large scale investment in the post Industrial era. There are obviously negatives to capital accumulation. But the constant investment by capitalists and businesses for profit motive leads them to only invest in useful and potentially profitable things, which in turn leads to innovation and sale of more goods that serve a beneficial purpose. Same with this case. MS efforts to invest in Cloud, and Nvidias use of the situation to get games on their service, will literally lead to more options and availability of games in more places. That is quite certainly only a positive. But never mind. Boo Capitalism!

@Seygamers Scotland left the EU. They wanted to rejoin but because they need the English an can’t manage as an independent country they aren’t allowed to rejoin!! They just blow pipes an wear skirts!! 😂😂

A benefit to cloud gaming, but not to the UK or EUs tech industries.

@Sol4ris
Sounds good - we don’t need even more dominance from US corporations. Weren’t you lot worried about that aspect due to things like “chlorinated chicken”?

@Tharsman They could also make them subsidiaries in the UK. No need to close any offices

@Seygamers Scotland isn’t in the EU, they were forced to leave wen England left.

Will be glad when it’s all done one way or another. Too many egos at play and it’s all unsavoury.
I want as many games to be available on as many platforms as possible but also am happy with exclusives. When all systems are on top form, gamers benefit but this whole saga has become more about Jim Ryan and Phil Spencer acting like spoiled brats in a playground.