Xbox's Activision Blizzard Deal Officially Blocked In The UK

Ah, so it wasn't (nominally) because of Sony. Unexpected, but Jim Ryan isn't cryin'.

No Diablo for me

I swear this government does this to make itself look important .....it's ok the appeal will go on and by that time the goverment will lose and then try to show it's not a big thing that they lost

So what happens now? I assume there will be an appeals process?

Oh good, now this gets to be dragged out even longer, just what everyone wanted.

Well damn. No cod on switch 😭

@Widey85 What do you mean by monopolistic? Console sales?

I would argue that monopolistic is what MS is attempting to do by buying up studios and publishers, no?

I don’t even know what this means, it was passed in many other countries so does this mean they go to court? Or Microsoft just won’t care and will look forward to other nations passing it and getting the deal done?

The dream is dead. Oh well, moving on now.

Push Square will have a field day with this news.

Gonna be some good podcast today !

@Widey85 Even though I still expect it to go through one way or another Xbox will be just fine without ABK. Bear in mind that the deal being blocked doesn't mean they are going to lose out on anything they currently have and it's highly unlikely ABK will be entering into any sort of deals with Sony off the back of everything that has happened during the saga so MS could still take advantage there.

The two worst things about this, 1) I have to hear more about this and 2) Bobby Kotick keeps his job. At this stage, I'm pretty ambivalent about the news. The thing I've always been confused about is how Microsoft would make the 69 billion back. Current revenue for gamepass is 4 billion a year (revenue, not profit). I can't see gamepass making 6 billion profit a year, even at which stage it would take over 11 years to pay off??

What a JOKE - the Cloud sector isn't really a Platform and MS certainly doesn't have the POWER to Monopolise Cloud gaming. It screams of a LACK of understanding of the Gaming market and 'just' because MS is one of the 'first', They can't 'dominate' the Cloud sector and/or 'prevent' others from Competing even after the ABK deal.

IF Sony wanted to get serious about Cloud streaming for example, they would be 'just' as Competitive - maybe even more so with their Exclusives that would 'compete' to bring gamers in.

The fact that MS would only 'OWN' a 'small' fraction of the total Gaming Studios making games, a tiny percentage of ALL IP's, they cannot 'dominate' the Cloud Sector. All 3rd Party Publishers could opt to start their own Streaming service and 'keep' their OWN games 'exclusive' to attract their OWN customers to Cloud is why this is Ridiculous.

ABK had NO intention of EVER putting their Games into any Streaming Service as it doesn't suit their 'money grabbing' very sales focussed business model!

I guess what that will mean is that Games made by ABK - at least until MS appeal and take CMA to court, the deal will still 'conclude' but ABK made games won't be on Game Pass in the UK...

How daft is this?? They blocked the deal on the basis of weakening of choice for gamers when it comes to cloud, when Microsoft have agreed a number of deals with cloud gaming operators to bring these games to their cloud services and hence giving more options to consumers. Blocking the deal means these games won't come to those services and players will not have access to them via these services.

Thankfully the UK is not a guiding beacon when it comes to good decisions and good governance.

@Widey85 I follow now, thanks for clarifying. That 70% is based on console sales.

By buying all the publishers, studios, etc, MS is hoping to gain some market share in the “high end” I would assume.

@Widey85 makes sense!

Jeezo UK, cmon lads, get it together. 🤦‍♂️

Hope this deal is dead. I am an Xbox guy and I wanted this to happen but not at the cost it has incurred over Gamepass and Xbox's victim narrative.
If this isn't a call to make everything a paid exclusive now to Xbox, from Final Fantasy to Peppa Pig then maybe Phil should really pack his stuff and go.
Pull Minecraft off PS and take the war to them.

Does this mean they can't buy ABK? What if the FTC say yes though? Why appeal this decision though? CMA will say no to the appeal if they said no to this anyway.

ROFL damn I didn't see that one coming. The reasoning is kinda crap. Seems they are blocking it because it would require work on their part? Well, is this it then? Next month EU has their verdict, if it's different than clearly this will carry on for a lot longer. Not sure if they can appeal this but the decision that we require a deal that doesn't have any work for us doesn't seem like sound logic. Anyways....this is WOW!

@Snake_V5 yes, they need to get it overruled in the UK before they can buy

@Widey85 Microsoft couldn’t pay to keep COD from Playstation, Activision wouldn’t agree to it. If they could they already would. MS paid for numerous exclusives in the 360 day wen the player base was similar to PS3. Today Playstation has a far bigger player base, all 3rd party games sell a lot more on Playstation. MS would have to cover this loss. It wouldn’t be financially viable.

It would be the clueless UK who had to block it with a clear lack of understanding....UK government and anything they are involved in are a joke...bunch of clowns who need removing

🤣 did not expect that verdict. I’m sure it’ll still go through but it’s going to be harder.

‘The cloud allows UK gamers to avoid buying expensive gaming consoles and PCs and gives them much more flexibility and choice as to how they play.’

That’s bad for consumers how? Who’s allowed to innovate in that market then and make the first big push into it? Not Microsoft according to the CMA 🤣

I’m just worried Xbox gets abandoned if ABK ultimately doesn’t go through. Microsoft decides its not worth it to keep investing and suddenly we see GamePass fade and far fewer games, as they wind things down and start selling everything…

The ruthless part of MS left with Gates. Now just a bunch of twitter users

What the f***! God I hate the UK and ESPECIALLY the pathetic government. They have literally sided with the monopolistic market leader. I expect brown envelopes exchanged hands, hope Xbox dumps the UK market then. The CMA can then explain why they forced out competition siding with the main market leader instead.

@Martsmall Oh yeah he’s very two faced, best ignore him.

Shame, suppose I will cancel my Gamepass sub once I've finished Redfall. There's nothing coming out after that I'm excited about to justify paying for both Gamepass and PS+

“ The report from the CMA also mentions a bit about Microsoft's attempt to remedy these concerns, explaining that accepting the company's proposal "would inevitably require some degree of regulatory oversight".

Read: we would have to do some actual work and really can’t be bothered, civil servants want to only work 4 days a week now, from home…..

@Martsmall it was a joke, you know as playstation say its for the players, I was saying CMA is playstation....

Microsoft always trying to remake the gaming industy, this time with cloud gaming. Microsoft is not as bad as they use to be to users and the industry. Hopefully, they'll get the decision changed in Appeals Court.

@electrolite77 yeah sorry bud..the last decade has been a bit of a cluster-thing 😅

@Widey85 Sorry, the CMA has no appeals process really, all you can do is say to the court we don’t like the decision, all the court will do is pass the case back to the exact same team in the CMA to review again, and you can imagine what they will do. No court has the power to actually overturn the CMA’s decision, the rate of successful appeals is pathetically small as a result.

Time for plan B…fight to reverse the decision by making more compromises that don’t particularly benefit Xbox console owners. Then should that fail…plan c? Hopefully plan c is to buy the marketing rights to cod and start investing in marketing as a whole, a long side 3rd party full exclusivity deals akin to what Sony does…all for the fraction of that 69billion price. Getting gamepass on other consoles will just have to wait a little longer. Instead they’ll hopefully focus on offering xbox and gamepass quality titles.

The biggest blow to MS over this is the head start in mobile gaming it would have offered. Anyway, today ps fans time to party!🥳

@Kaloudz No! No court can overturn the CMAs decision, literally all they can do is request the same team in the CMA review it again. That’s all. Very very very few CMA decisions are changed in the appeal process.

OK, no Activision games in the UK anymore. Let‘s go Europe and US.

@Widey85 Unfortunately I see this as a possibility. I don't want to see the day where we will have to migrate all purchases over to PC.
This isn't the time to be nice, it's the time to wage a war.

@Bleachedsmiles a years exclusivity for COD on Game Pass for the next 5 years should do it. This also means of course NO COD on Switch now, or it’s successor.

Living in the UK they should know that cloud gaming needs a good internet infrastructure, that we haven't got. Honestly seems a crock. Let's hope Europe and US can get this through.

@Widey85 Nope, Nintendo will just continue to dominate over Sony, with ease. Don’t forget a new Switch Successor is on the horizon. Sony likes to pretend Nintendo aren’t a competitor to make themselves feel better.

@S1ayeR74 I ignored him long ago. Now I just see half the conversation and can still tell the guys a muppet 🤣

@Widey85 Well in terms of maybe overall IP's and of course the 'high-end' quality of the games as they are running on higher spec servers - incorporating DLSS and the best RT possible.

MS run on Series X hardware..

Nothing is stopping Sony from 'competing' with their OWN cloud service or any of the OTHERS. Netflix for example certainly didn't stop others from creating their OWN streaming services for TV/Movie content - like Disney+, HBO, Amazon Prime etc and MS won't own the vast majority of 'games', Studios making Games or Gaming IP's to monopolise Cloud gaming. They don't own EA, Ubisoft, Sony, Nintendo, TenCent etc and all those Studio's, IP's and Games they make and 'could' use to compete with Game Pass. EA Access for example could compete - Battlefield vs CoD for example...

@Martsmall Yeah and what's so bad about that? I don't want Microsoft buying the publishers who's games I play on playstation such as Square Enix, Atlus or Capcom.

@Kaloudz Go and Google the CMA appeals process, it’s practically none existent, they have all the power, literally a court can only pass the case back to the CMA for review, you can’t sue them either as that mechanism doesn’t exist in the UK courts. It’s a government department, and the UK government are total ***** to be frank, all of the parties are.

@Kaloudz I wonder if this means we need to have VPN nonsense to download them?

I dont know seem like i will just sell my xbox, i dont see them being a good gaming company anytime soon, i will stick playing on pc and buy a pc gamepass, im done with xbox this gen and I've been waiting for them to comeback for ages now

@Beermonkey Those markets don’t matter now, the UK games market is huge and considered extremely strategic for these companies, the CMA have effectively just killed the deal stone dead.

@BrilliantBill They gave it the old college try, and like you, I applaud the stones on them. But we have seriously tested the limits now on what can and can't be bought. MS has wasted a crap load of time, and probably could have bought up SE's western studios had they not been fooling with this mess. What they thought would be a boon has probably now just been a burden.

@Titntin no Diablo? You’ll only miss running around pressing A for 100 hours it’s no biggie 😄

@UltimateOtaku91 it wasn't too long ago u were putting on push that Sony should buy square and make all the games exclusive

@Seioni
Even though it passed in other countries it means that if MS go against the CMA decision then the UK government has the right to ban all Microsoft products and services in the UK. Meaning no Xbox, no GamePass, No Windows or Office. Leaving that market entirely open season to Sony and Apple. And potentially Google.

It wouldn't be worth their while going against them because they'd lose more than the deal is worth. If the appeal fails, and it highly likely will with this decision because the UK government is stubborn, then this deal is completely dead.

I don't see the meeting at Downing Street going well.
UK= Microsoft let's see your products.
Microsoft= OK. Set up a date.
CMA = We block the deal.
UK= will you invest in the UK
Microsoft= ***** off.
I love the CMA's description of Cloud gaming. It bypasses expensive consoles 🤣🤣🤣 Not if you live in the UK as Internet is crap here

@cragis0001 ironically the internet is crap entirely thanks to the government… they are more interested in wasting hundreds of billions on a train set (HS2).

@Martsmall Yes but I also put why, due to Microsoft, Tencent and Embracer buying up everyone. Sony need to do the same as the competition otherwise in 20 years they will be in a bad position, and square enix is the one I'd want them buy as PS is my jrpg machine.

@Widey85 Wrong, they cannot over turn decisions. Don’t listen to people on Twitter, Google it and research it yourself, it’s a government department. And the UK government is incredibly stubborn.

See, this is why we broke off from the King and his tyranny to form America!

All kidding aside, I’m not going to lose sleep about rich people not getting richer. Would have been nice to have these games on Gamepass but maybe MS will take this stupid amount of money and sign deals to make the service more appealing (personally it has not been doing it for me for months). I’m not really interested in MS gobbling up more of the industry, but this is a LOT of money freed up to apply in other ways — and they’ve been sandbagging themselves during this whole thing to get the deal approved. Maybe this will get the gloves taken off.

Also screw Bobby Kotick. Maybe he doesn’t get as good of a golden parachute now.

@Fenbops Im a stoner mate. Running around pressing A is all I can manage some nights!

I mean… really stupid of course. Xbox going to be sitting here eventually with 69B (minus any fees) and a hole in their pocket the shape of Sega or Ubisoft etc.

The UK don’t really get anything right tbh. The economy is so f*d right now why not just damage it further.

“The UK is closed for business” indeed.

@Widey85
Ungovernable because of a game console? That's ridiculous. And as for Windows and Office there's a lot more options these days and many businesses now rely on cloud software and open source so it's MS that needs to be careful, not the UK.

@Widey85 So you’ve spoken to Microsoft’s lawyers have you?

Here you go read these:

http://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1113639/Energy_Guidance.pdf

http://www.inhouselawyer.co.uk/legal-briefing/appealing-a-decision-by-the-cma-in-a-merger-review/

“ Even if an applicant successfully appeals the CMA’s substantive assessment in a merger, the CAT will not make a fresh decision, but will instead remit the case back to the CMA for further review –typically by the same decision makers and case team as previously. This may not be an attractive prospect, particularly if the deal economics or environment have changed since the transaction was first signed (months or years previously).”

The CMA are a joke, who gives a **** about cloud gaming? Most use it as an addition to their hardware. I doubt there's many who can't afford a £250 Xbox or £200 Switch who are spending money on cloud games and to play on what exactly? If anything this could damage the cloud gaming business

@K1LLEGAL I’ve concluded it’s a plan to wreck the UK economy, because it’s the only way to make any sense of what the government has and is doing. Part of the wider WEF plan probably.

Just curious, say the deal collapsed. Could Microsoft not just buy say 75% shares in Activision an become the boss so to speak?

@Martsmall you’re a brave man confronting someone who actually liked Forspoken. 🤣 I wouldn’t even go there.

@TheArtfulDodger I wondered if they could just buy the IP and leave ActiBlizz as a shell company. Maybe just buy one IP a month to spread it out a bit 😉

@BrilliantBill It's funny, you read my mind. As soon as I wrote that, I wondered if all if this money would be repurposed back to the Xbox division anyway, or (more likely) spread throughout MS. It's obvious the big reason this check was cut was for the mobile division and, like you said, COD microtransactions. That's an insane ROI.

I'm a multiplat guy so I don't really care about COD going exclusive, but to your point MS has now purchased (or already had) a lot of IPs...I think at this point it's not an IP problem but a project management one. Looking forward to them shoring this up and getting some of these long-in-the-cooker exclusives (Perfect Dark, Fable, maybe a good Halo again someday) out the door.

@Widey85
"Trust me bro!" 😂

I work in IT too certified in network engineering and towards cyber security analysis and you seem to be forgetting that Azure is still in its infancy with Google cloud making strides. You may also be unaware that there are many businesses starting to migrate to open source such as Linux and open source software. Apple also provides server software in many businesses nowadays. It all comes down to licencing.

And even if they didn't cut Windows Cloud, Server and Office, not complying with the CMA decision would no doubt result in a ban of Xbox and GamePass services in the UK. That makes no impact as it's just a consumer electronic device and software that Sony, Google, Amazon, Apple and now Netflix can fill the gap on.

It really wouldn't be worth it for MS to even lose that market in their gaming revenue alone.

@S1ayeR74 exactly. Cloud gaming being the norm, if ever!!!! in the UK is probably a decade away. It would require high speed broadband & 5g being nationwide & then pricing as well would be a factor. So the CMA decision is strange.

@Widey85 We shall see. But the odds are not in Microsoft’s favour. The British government is taking a hard stance against American tech giant corporations.
Either way this deal won’t complete for months now if not years. It’s as good as dead.

this is the saddest news i’ve read in a while

@Fenbops I just don't like liars and two faced ppl
It's says a lot about a person that will stick to what they believe

Me myself I don't hate ps I just hate what sort of company they have turned into ,I miss the gd old days when it was about getting classics out to the players

What a load of rubbish! I'm glad they are appealing it.

Honestly take the passion and bias out of this deal and I’m shocked anyone thought it was gonna sail through. It was obviously bad for the industry on paper. The terrible behaviour of Activision aside. Which meant it’s better to be with Microsoft for sure.

Even as a GPU subscriber I felt the deal was going to struggle for sensible reasons.

I’m shocked it got blocked in the U.K. I thought it would be the other two that would be the issue.

I wasn’t a fan of the Bethesda deal for the same reason - I want more games and more choice not less. Xbox will only release so many in one calendar year. I don’t want to wait years for some of my fave IPs. I’d rather pay. I’m not greedy.

I suspect the deal will happen still as money talks.

I don’t understand why so many really beg for deals like this to happen though.

It’s not the same as your fave sports team signing a star player yet many act like it is.

The thing that worries me now is the activision gets a worse home. Which is entirely possible.

I’m ideal situation would be Activision wasnt run by scumbags and they could actually be a decent company on their own two feet.

Seems unlikely. I suspect deals will done and this will still happen. Either way people shouldn’t be so angry and worked up either way unless they or their relatives work for Activision. Those are the people I feel for right now.

Theee things but first

@SplooshDmg they aren’t going to sadly be moving on.

1) I thought appealing in the UK was mostly pointless. But I guess we’ll see.

2) regardless of the outcome they need to push in the US because Khan needs her power checked

3) this is never going to be over T_T

So all the articles about this deal being pretty much a done deal were full of crap? Articles for clicks it seems, shocked pikachu face 😳

MS can go " alright we're going to sign deals with third party game to exclude them from coming to PS"

@FraserG we wanna see the pic!! You are saying you cursed it?!?!? FRASER!!!!

@Belkan the absolutely are not going to do that. That tactic doesn’t provide the numbers they want for the price ergo they don’t do that.

@R1spam What? It's not about gamepass. How about this headline. "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II generates over $1 billion in 10 days"

I'm on neither side of the pond for this subject tbh, I used to be fully green, but I don't believe MS for one second on anything they say or do. People have literally forgotten what happened with the Xbox one saga. They tried to adopt most of their current decisions back then and was literally kicked to the ground for it. (But now it's acceptable) what they say and do is two different things.. it's all about profits and always will be. Sony are no different. The whole gaming market is awful and it's generally lost its identity.

@Widey85
Did you not read what I just said? Even if their IT side of business was permitted to still operate within the UK it has no major impact to ban Microsoft's gaming division as there is much competition anyway.

And since a verdict has been reached and if Microsoft lost an appeal but still took over ABK with acceptance from other countries the fact is the deal was rejected so sale of gaming products and services from Microsoft would be banned in the UK.
It really wouldn't be worth their while going against that decision if they lose an appeal because Sony would have even more dominance than they already do.

Can we cut down on the anti U.K. xenophobia comments please. Thanks.

I don't have a horse in this race and don't care either way whether or not Microsoft ends up owning Activision Blizzard. I just wanted to stop hearing about it. Now we've probably got to carry on hearing about this deal for at least another 12 months.

@mousieone yeah.... MS are not a**holes when it comes to gaming.

One of the main reason they said no was cause microsoft could raise the price of GP once the acti games are included ...... Name one thing in the UK that hasn't gone up in price ????? Lmfao

@Belkan I don’t know if I’d say that. More like MS doesn’t like to spend 100 million if it doesn’t move the needle for their brand. And it generally doesn’t. For them.

@Markatron84 true that. I’d rather the deal go through than hear the nonsense and conspiracy theories from both sides. I’d like the whole topic to go away and just more solo player games get released. Whatever makes that happen

@Stocksy To be honest; your comment regarding “Xbox will only release so many in a calendar year” is something I hadn’t really thought of.

Square Enix likes to step over themselves waiting a few months then releasing like 9 games in the space of 4 months. And it doesn’t seem to do them any favours. So yea good point well made.

@Martsmall me too pal me too. I figured his game out last year and he remains the only person I’ve ever blocked. You’re never gonna change the mind of someone like that, so I decided to just ignore and move on.

Going forward I may block anyone who admits to liking Forspoken, it seems like a good test of a persons sanity 😜

@mousieone one thing for sure, is that regulators are afraid of MS dominating the gaming industry

@Belkan they do that now ,gamepass is full of them

@Fenbops I have blocked no time for the bs

Not played it myself I saw gameplay and not for me so that means I'm not insane ...maybe lol

@tallythwack this is what Xbox meant about Sony protecting their dominance.

@mousieone Yeah, the CMA appeal COULD work, but I'm not confident it will, and I'm definitely no fan of Ms. Khan, as she just seems a bit of a nutter. But SCOTUS just dealt a pretty big blow to the FTC as a whole, so that's a thing at least. However, I was really hoping for the reality where MS just closed any way, regardless of the FTC. That surely would have been the most interesting outcome.

My real concern for dragging this out is that Xbox seems to be giving this way too much attention while everything just sorta seems like it's on fire. When Nvidia realized regulators weren't going for their ARM purchase, they just cut bait. The fact that MS is so willing to just keep going kinda says that this is way to important to their overall strategy now, and it might not happen. Seems rather troubling.

@BrilliantBill Yeah, in no way do I think this fails and MS quits buying stuff. In some ways I think this failing might just turn into the worst possible out for other consoles, as I think MS will just keep buying and adding them to the exclusive roster. So, guess we'll wait and find out. Ahhh... Waiting. It is the Xbox way.

My dream scenario is MS goes through with the purchase anyway, and cant sell activision games in the UK. Watch the Brits riot over no CoD, Diablo, etc. and then watch these dweeb regulators sweat.

@Widey85
Thought the EU already said yes? Or atleast a majority.
But yeah I'm not trying to sound aggressive, and maybe I gave a huge worst case scenario granted. But in the end Microsoft makes more money by keeping Xbox products and services in the UK active than the expenditure of the ABK deal. They'd stand to lose a lot more in the long run and while competition is growing from the like of Amazon, Apple, Google etc Sony would hugely dominate in that market. More than they already do anyway. And I can't see an appeal being approved if they're adamant on this.

They told Sony/Jim to come up with a CoD competitor over the next 10 years of continued parity. But maybe they can take their own advice and do the same.
A new IP, new competition. Thats better for the industry in the long run. Because let's face it, everyone has access to ABK games anyway so gamers don't really lose out on all platforms but we could potentially see more games come out of this from the verdict given than a takeover.

Atleast that's how I see it. Otherwise MS contradicts itself if they think it's feasible for Sony to create a CoD competitor and they can't do the same.

The thing that's ridiculous is that the CMA outright went 'Microsoft offered to be regulated, but we decided that it would be better to not regulate them and instead block it entirely'.

Yeah, that makes sense... NOT. To take a offer where they'll happily accept regulation and have made deals for, when the ink's dry, several companies to get a bite of the cherry, including a couple of competing cloud services... and say 'It's better to just keep the status quo'.

Yeah, this needs the FTC and EU to go 'Look, the deal is good enough, we'll approve, why won't you REALLY?'

@SplooshDmg I don’t. I want this to be over. I know their case in the US is ver strong. But the UK I don’t know. I also think the fallout from this not going through will an unmitigated disaster. I just want this over and I don’t think it will be any time soon.

One thing I do know is that the CMA just put a target on their own a heads and Lulu wants blood…

@Widey85 we are just as bad as everywhere else. Most of us don’t support the tories more of us didn’t vote for Brexit that did. It’s no excuse for xenophobia coz a bit of plastic isn’t gonna have a free game. I’m just not into it. It’s lazy for non brits to start abusing the U.K. we can abuse ourselves though. Lmao

@FraserG haha. The deal will go through in the end I’m almost certain of that.

Nobody is cloud streaming CoD! Much less, really cloud streaming in general. Punishing Microsoft because Sony chooses not to expand their cloud streaming offerings, is insanity.

@K1LLEGAL it’s been the only reason I don’t like the Activision and Bethesda deals…. The GPU model means Xbox will release 4/5 AAA games MAX a year. When you start listing all the IPs they would/do own it’s a VERY long wait between some. Especially when you consider COD will be yearly whatever they do

I’ve always said I’d rather pay and get more games/choice.

@mousieone Oh, I def want it to be over. I personally don't think they should even appeal. I think it's surely a fruitless effort. I'm just saying I liked the idea of the UK and EU both approving, then MS just closing even with the FTC lawsuit against them. So, you know, yesterday's news. That would have been fun. This appeal process is the opposite of fun. Just take the deal out back, put it down, and let's get this out of the news and out of our lives.

@Widey85
Thing is though it's the CoD name that holds power and would attract people who may not follow gaming as in depth as some like dedicated sites here. It's like the FIFA crowd. They know they name and that's all that matters. Install base or not.

Sony has Killzone, Socom and Resistance. I can never see those being anywhere near the impact of CoD no matter how big Sony is. Because the names are just not well known to the casual masses. They know CoD. And if it's not on PlayStation they'll be like "where is it?" And flock in droves. I think that's the fear Jim has.

I mean, for the record I despise consolidation and wish they'd all pack it in and let us play games.

TLOU factions is coming from Naughty Dog. And I doubt that will have much of a following at all. Even from gamers in the know. I know I'm not going to bother with it.

Everyone wishing for consolidation maybe doesn't seem to realise that they gain nothing out of it because they get the games anyway. But someone will always lose out because it gets taken away from one platform or another. And some are too well invested to switch.

@Grippie I thought the plan for ABK was games to be made available through gamepass day 1, as they would (and I think still will end up being) a 1st party studio. That 1 billion in 10 days has a large amount of folks paying 70 bucks day one. However, someone has sensibly replied with comment about how ABK would sit as an asset on the books and not be required to generate the price of acquisition back.

@SplooshDmg I don’t think that’s going to happen. I just don’t know how fruitless it is. I really don’t know. I do think it’s weird the blocked solely based on cloud when MS could just pay to put the games on cloud and not share. And they specially mentioned they would remedies before but now no. Not that I think it will help just I have no idea how UL law works.

@mousieone From the looks of it, they used MS's own argument against them. Sony has 70% of the console market share, therefore Xbox doesn't threaten to foreclose PS. Xbox has 70% of the cloud market share and would then own ABK, one of the single largest suppliers of video games, which they think is a problem. The CMA doesn't seem willing to accept behavioral remedies for the cloud concerns. Not that I'm happy about it or anything, but that just seems to be what they're running with.

@Widey85
In fairness there's nothing stopping Microsoft from making a deal with ABK for favouritism of CoD over Sony because they have the money to outbid them. And there would be nothing the UK could do about it because it's not considered a takeover.

There's always that option. But in regards to Sony IP's the have nothing compelling in the shooter genre. Even Halo wasn't able to stand toe-to-toe with CoD. Not even Battlefield. Maybe Fortnite though, in time.

This is pure insanity. A sudden reversal from all indicators, citing the reasoning being that they don't want to have to regulate the offered solutions so they're just not going to allow it? Not because the solutions weren't good, but because they'd need oversight vs just doing nothing? And their reasoning that allowing the key game but not other games (which NO ONE , not even Sony, was challenging!!) which listed virtually every single service except Amazon Luna (yes, it included an offer to PS Plus that Sony rejected, the offer was there), and the argument that cloud gaming is a "market", specifically rather than a sales channel in the gaming market, such as mobile, which is already inherently cloud-connected even with local mobile software......this is all purely insanity.

I think this generation is well and dead. Should just fall back to PS4's and forget the current gen at this point. We've cemented the Sony monopoly who will continue gouging worse and worse, Xbox is going to do nothing at all and chase ABK for the rest of the gen, then it either finally goes through with a dull thud after the brand has been pretty stagnant for another generation ready to rebound next gen, or MS goes on the warpath, and starts buying a ton of things that people actually care about, unlike ABK, and we go back to the nasty 16-bit console wars, though we're already mostly there.

I don't see MS just letting go. If they don't get their ABK, they need to recover the images of their corporate strength, looking weak here doesn't just make their gaming division weak, it makes Microsoft Corp look weak in the legal space for future acquisitions which hurts the whole umbrella. They'll have to recover that appearance of strength which means they'll really have to go on the warpath to carve out domination after that, not for the sake of Xbox, but for the sake of MS Corp's total image of strength against Amazon/Google/Meta/Apple. This goes from a benign buyout of something gamers shouldn't have even cared much about to MS having to go back to their ugly 90's selves and try to actually monopolize something new, maybe gaming, maybe something else.

Very surprised. I was hoping it would go through to end this back and fourth between Xbox/PlayStation and all their fans. I don’t play CoD. Never was a fan so I wasn’t looking forward to the deal. However, now this is going to continue on even longer :/

@themightyant
Literally a mountain vs molehill comparison to equate general market share with cloud market share. How many people are going to stream CoD multiplayer over the cloud? That's just absurd!
Who are Microsoft going to concede to when Sony won't implement cloud? They can't make concessions to something that doesn't exist. Sony doesn't want to really use cloud and neither does Nintendo. Horrible basis for the ruling when the 2 main competitors willfully reject cloud offerings.

@NEStalgia “sudden reversal from all indicators” where were you getting those indicators? The gaming media? They clearly had it wrong from the the start. I’m shocked so many “gaming experts” thought this deal would sail through and now why so many are emotional. The gaming media narrative from the start has been ridiculous on this.

The deal was always going to be problematic and the extent Xbox went to promote the deal was a signal they knew that.

The deal will still go through. Money talks.

Although I said that about Sainsbury’s and Asda and it died in the water.

The cloud aspect is the bit that seems most off for me which is why I think the deal will pass in the end.

@S1ayeR74 That's right mate, a court cannot overturn a decision made. I work for the homeless, and housing decisions are exactly the same. If the court thinks there has been lack of due process, they can return the decision to us to reconsider, but they cannot over-rule it. Mainly we make the same decision, but evidence it better.
People thinking that an appeal will get a different result are clutching at straws I'm afraid, though I appreciate why they would.

Oh yay, this deal now gets to drag out even longer and we all get to hear more and more about it..

Also, I can't believe the amount of people thinking that Microsoft will pull Xbox out of the gaming market if the deal doesn't go through. Those are just panic statements. I do not see that happening. They've been just fine during the last 22 years without the deal.

@SplooshDmg yeah. I don’t disagree. I just don’t think MS is going to let this go. I also don’t know what this means in the long run.

@Belkan maybe? I think they don’t get a lot of the new tech. The CMA that is. I think they don’t want to approve anything if it has the potential to cause issues. Also a lot of people don’t “trust” MS in general because of past behaviors. I understand concerns I mean that’s normal.

The FTC blocked because they want to extend their power and Khan doesn’t like big tech in general

So is Microsoft gonna finally get aggressive with this deal now?

@mousieone Oh, I don't think they'll let it go either. But like you said, I have no idea what the future looks like now. We are treading into seriously wild territory that will maybe take years to wind down.

@R1spam I couldn’t agree more. I’m not delusional, I know Bobby would get one hell of a lump sum before going, but at least he’d be gone. I have trouble bringing myself to buy anything from ABK while he’s still there. I want Diablo IV but can’t bring myself to get it knowing I help line that dirtbags pockets.

@Titntin Exactly, I saw another comment state Microsoft's lack of reading the room is incredible, I have to agree, it's been obvious for years that European governments have become increasingly hostile towards American tech giants. And it was a risky move to make this acquisition as the European games markets are worth endless billions in revenue.

Well this is great news to hear, this dumb of a country finally made a right choice this year. I'm thrilled to say the least.

@bpomber You aren't familiar with Xbox history then are you...

@Stocksy From a legal perspective there was never a meaningful challenge against it, and all recent leanings from CMA after they stopped looking at console concerns were that they were approving.

The only thing we've learned is that these governments both don't understand, at all, industries and companies positions and histories in markets they are investigating, nor do they want to put time into doing so (I mean their verdict essentially openly says so.)

Everyone knew there would be challenges, however MS pretty much gave away the store with the main area the challenge existed in terms of CoD literally everywhere, which was the only point contended against. And CMA rejected it because they'd have to oversee that, and they just don't want to. I don't think I've ever seen any government reject a plan because, in plain words "we don't want to have to do work instead of just doing nothing"

I think the UK government is officially more pathetic than the US government today. Congrats? We still have much to learn from the motherland it seems, lol.

On the flip side, this probably means MS pays US congress to continue to dig deep into Sony's exclusivity probing which is a win for everyone.

MS should send Master Chief to destroy CMA

@Trmn8r
But alright to punish Sony cause Microsoft cant sell games or consoles are fine?

its ironic that the reason the deal gets blocked is cloud gaming where Microsoft and Sony both partnered up to use Microsoft Azure to provide their cloud gaming services

@SplooshDmg agreed. Stephen Totilo posted this https://twitter.com/stephentotilo/status/1651223746923864065?s=46&t=WCDs1NVYEstoCbR4sxq_Kg

Basically there is a way forward in the UK. I don’t know if MS will do it. But he says the appeal process could take 3 years T.T

3 more years …

@mousieone Oh, Pachter. That guy could transform himself into a literal clock and still somehow not be right even twice a day.

The other day I joked about this deal being approved in 2028. Unfortunately what I said might become true lol.

@themightyant I actually took the time to read the CMA's report, and really, they have a fairly long list of grievances. It seems they're really going the same route as the FTC in trying to protect what they see as the developing cloud market. However, Xbox console fans have a hard time seeing that, because they don't really care right this second. I think the reality is that MS does see it, which is why they made such rubbish concessions in regard to the cloud market and are investing so heavily in server blades. I sort of predicted this from the start that MS was so willing to just put CoD on every console because they never cared to begin with. Cloud and mobile was always their end game here. I personally am still pretty in favor of this being permitted, but I also don't think the CMA's arguments are a nothing burger.

@S1ayeR74 what history suggests to you that Microsoft would shut down Xbox if this deal doesn't go through?

@themightyant And Sony, (whom has cloud tech, but willfully) refuses to join the cloud market, and also has the general gaming market share of top developers isn't capable of making a competitor for CoD in 10 years? It's just such a weak argument.

Wow the UK CMA seems like a real ***** show.

@SplooshDmg yup but I think he’s right about the three years ._.

@mousieone Oh yeah, that part I don't doubt. Even then, it seems the UK appeals process sort of exists if you think the regulators were all just drunk and high when they made their ruling, and based on the reading, I really just don't think they are just clueless as to what is going on. So, I see a really uphill battle here.

@Neverwild Lol punish Sony!? Poor, poor market leading Sony... As if Sony isn't capable of making their own military shooter over a 10 year period.

@themightyant I'm growing less and less confident it's going through. I think if these were concessions MS was willing to make, they'd have made them before now. I think at a certain point they want something advantageous with their 70bn, and the regulators are basically stopping them at finding anything advantageous about this. From the looks of it, MS might have to wage war with the entire western government to get this thing across the line in a shape they see desirable, and I think they can fight, but I'm not confident they will win.

Have to say I’m surprised as all of the sounds coming out of the UK CMA were that they were happy with the deal just weeks ago. The full report reads like Jim Ryan wrote it. How strange!
The whole argument around Cloud gaming is odd because Sony are not really that bothered about that. Streaming on PS compared to Xbox is vastly different to the point of PlayStation cloud play and remote play being pretty naff.
As a mainly Nintendo gamer who has Game Pass, in many ways the news doesn’t affect me that much but as an interested spectator, it pretty much kills the Nintendo 10 year deal for COD although that was never a great concern and I doubt Nintendo will worry too much about that.
Xbox have already put plenty of money behind this deal and it’s a roll of the dice that could turn to be a very bad one. Of course Microsoft can soak that up because the size of their other businesses but it’s still a kick in the nuts.
CMA appeals are not noted for succeeding and I suspect that Xbox will not get this overturned. And there could be no way back. Not only will it leave Activision/Blizzard worrying about finances and jobs, it leaves Xbox and Phil Spencer looking pretty stupid. Jim Ryan will be in hysterics over this and he has played a blinder. He’s made statements that have really been picked up and he has got in the regulators heads for sure!!
What a farce!

@themightyant There's also a matter of they aren't putting PS5's on it because they aren't committing PS5 hardware to that. MS is committing Series X's to server blades right now, and it's absolutely a long-term strategy they are just hoping pays off while their console flounders in the market. However, now their early commitment to cloud is coming back to bite them, where had they not done so, this probably would be over the finish line.

@themightyant Problem I see is, this is giving fuel to the FTC's legal challenge. We have no idea if the EU will rule in favor of this, and seeing as yesterday everyone was all but certain the UK was going to approve, nothing is sure anymore. I think if they get challenge from the UK, the EU, and the FTC. Just give it up and go home.

@Trmn8r and Microsoft with unlimited money cant create their own CoD?

@SplooshDmg eh the appeals process really isn’t an appeals process in the UK. All it does it throw the case back to the CMA a second time, and they rarely reverse their decision. I don’t think they’re clueless either. I think cloud is so new. I think they don’t understand it enough to know what future implications will be, and most people don’t. That seems honestly a sound enough argument, and I think most people could understand “we don’t know what cloud will evolve into and allowing MS to have a strong foothold in a baby tech market may be a bad thing.” Unless MS can think of a solution between then and now, that argument just seems to stand in my opinion.

Finally some good news. I'd love to play Activision games on Game Pass, but not if it comes about by more power in the industry in the hands of fewer companies.

@Odium if you've got a series x, there's always that second hand disc market....
I really enjoyed the open beta and it's how I plan to play that game.

@R1spam that’s a good point, I didn’t consider that.

I don't really get the opposition from Xbox gamers. These games are still coming out on Xbox regardless of the decision. Or is it a complaint that they will have to buy them at full price (shock!) instead of getting them 'for free' with Gamepass?

Tencent is the only one who have activision :.. and sony

@themightyant But you are literally proving my point then. Sony is willfully, not joining it. So, how is that a valid argument against Xbox?

@UnusedBabyWipes All typing with one hand...

@Neverwild Sony should be free to buy Activision too if they want.

They should buy them anyways just not release in the uk.

@TheArtfulDodger Say the deal really doesn't go through or is eventually abandoned. ABK could do Sony-style advertising and exclusive content contracts with Xbox from 2024 forward. Regulators are uninterested in blocking that, apparently. Not sure if they would want to enter into Game Pass. ABK's relationship with Sony is undoubtedly damage, and theirs with MS has strengthened. There will or would likely be negative repercussions for the UK tech sector, causal/passive and retaliatory.

@Titntin same there goes £70 thanks CMA for being consumer friendly

@RadioHedgeFund but now i have to pay for them

@theduckofdeath but doing that would massively hurt sales of COD. Reason Playstation get exclusivity deals is because of their huge player base. Over 70% of COD console sales are on Playstation.

weird to see users here so personally invested in this. Billions of dollars changing hands and none of it is going to end up in your pockets, believe it or not.

@TheArtfulDodger Not to pull CoD from PS, but to reverse the advertising and exclusive content. I think the user could bear it. That would be a slow bleed.

Sony should not be rewarded for their actions. ABK has lost a sweet deal. Their stock is down 11% today and they will lose further value if they are proven difficult to sell. Even if the deal does go through, the terms may be renegotiated in July. The offered price per stock may drop.

Maybe I'm looking at it naively, but as a fan of Xbox/Microsoft I've been hoping the deal doesn't go through.

Considering the concessions that need to be made, and not even being able to make COD an immediate exclusive, it seems like almost 100 billion is massively overpaying for basically COD and Candy Crush.

It's not like COD is at its peak either, far from it. At the time the price seemed high, now given the proposed concessions, it seems absurdly high.

@RicebinBernacky It's like anything else. Some people don't want MS to buy ABK. Some people don't want Disney to own Marvel and Lucasfilm. Some people don't want Discovery to own HBO (me). Some people don't want Tencent to buy anything.

Additionally, some of hold us hold stock in MS and/or ABK and would like to buy more. It would have been nice if the bag news brought a temporary dip for MS, but no...

@Raffles Yes, the concessions seem like overreach. I think Phil said the price would be around $75 billion. You have to remember that MS gets the studios, mobile footprint, talent, tech, and IPs along with the CoD. Spinning up and staffing that many studios would prove difficult and take years-to-decades.

The opportunity is not all about exclusivity. They would be bringing in billions to the platform, directly under Xbox (not MS giving them funds). The $75 billion would be recoup very quickly. That's why MS is so open to publishing/permitting the existing titles on other platforms and services.

@Kaloudz Yeah, mate, I'm curious too. If one (or two) regulatory bodies blocks it, but the others approve, what would happen?

Too many comments so won’t catch up:l and apologies for any redundant statements covered in other comments:

1. Find it odd they claim the cloud deals were exclusive to ABK games, as far as I recall, those deals we’re for every Microsoft owned game.
2. This is obviously going to be appealed, this is not over, but damn we going to keep hearing about it for a long time
3. At the worse case, Microsoft can finish this without the CMA, they just have to do some legal acrobatics to spin-off UK based ABK operations into the equivalent of an LLC that is entirely independent, or they can entirely leave the UK gaming market.
4. Going forward without the CMA just makes it harder to fight an FTC lawsuit, since they can point at it as a reason they are not alone in their opinion. Not a lost cause, but harder.
5. right now the EU will be the biggest concern, although any negative outcome will likely be also appealed.

@Tharsman "Going forward without the CMA just makes it harder to fight an FTC lawsuit, since they can point at it as a reason they are not alone in their opinion. Not a lost cause, but harder".

Spot on, I was thinking the same.

@themightyant I will consider taking a look at the full statement, but I would likely be wasting my time.

You can't compare the "cloud gaming market" (?) to the console market. Consoles have $500 barrier to entry and tend thus be mutually exclusive. Cloud/streaming services are subscription based. A user could walk at any time or subscribe to multiple services.

As well, the bulk of subscriptions, at least early on, come from console owners. If PS had a true equivalent to Game Pass, subscriber numbers may blow right by it. Which brings me to the last point — the would-be cloud competition is not even trying. That is why MS has a large share (according to the CMA's figures).

Wow and now this gets dragged out for longer. Personally I don't see this deal going through and this also shows that indications of the deal passing is just smoke and mirrors, we actually have no idea what will come when it's decision time. Will be very interesting to see what the EU and US will do in the future for sure.

I’m happy with this ruling. I like having console hardware and physical media, and I dislike cloud gaming. Hopefully Xbox can focus on making games again.

25Snake_V512:42pm
We did it guys! Good work CMA! Sony must be so happy.
This comment from pushsquare...

There should be a full investigation of the CMA for corruption.

@Tasuki Honestly, all of this has really soured my relationship with Sony as a company, for sure. No doubt it's going to make me avoid Sony products going forward if I can. For example, I was in the market for a new TV not long after this whole scenario started, and I might have bought a Sony TV if it wasn't for their recent antics, but knowing their recent behavior made me very resistant towards going for them.

I wonder if Sony is aware that Jim Ryan's antics is having this sort of effect on their general image and consumer relations.

The same CMA that allowed o2 to merge with Virgin media? or Sainsburys with Argos...

Do the cma realise that sony chose MS azure to help with ps now?...or didnt that ever come to fruition?

Truly sad. I hope xbox and MS had some contingency plans ready to go. We'll see how this shakes out.

@teknium_ ‘Snake_V512:42pm
We did it guys! Good work CMA! Sony must be so happy.
This comment from pushsquare...’

Now we know who the people sitting on their sofas in their Playstation onesies were, frantically emailing the CMA ‘xBox BAd’. That bloody Snake and co from over at PS.

I don't have the legal wherewithal to make any informed comment on this. Apparently neither did most news commentators.

I will say I like the Xbox brand. As a smaller division of a monolithic larger company, I always saw Xbox as a plucky underdog. The continued existence of Xbox is good for us all, as it kept the competition alive after Sega bowed out. Things would be so much worse without them entering the console market, I truly believe that.

That said, I hate streaming and how it flies in the face of ownership rights. I do not like GamePass. I did not like Playstation Now. I do not like this new direction Xbox has taken. Hate that this news site is 30-40% Gamepass articles, and less actual substantive gaming news. Not this site's fault, just how things are currently. It's clear (I think), Microsoft was using this acquisition to push their GamePass initiative more than anything. So I'm glad it's in hot water. Good.

In all the hubbub and debate, one simple fact has been lost. If Microsoft wants to compete, they have to release a good product. That means games. They can "beat" Sony, to borrow some console war parlance, but they are just gonna have to do it the old fashioned way - by actually putting out some good games. The terms of engagement in the console market share battle have never changed. Make good stuff, reap rewards. Microsoft used to be aware of this and put out iconic titles. Let's go back to that I say. They have the resources and talent.

@jonnybuck84 There is little chance MS would sell Xbox after all this. Who could even buy it? The deal would just get blocked.

Twenty-three years. They have built too much and want to grow even greater. A fourth entrant in the game business would love to start off in this position.

@UnlimitedSevens Microsoft can't "beat" Sony in the traditional hardware sense. Not for a few generations. Sony is too entrenched. Xbox would have to churn-out so many pretty, lowest-common-denominator games to make a significant dent.

Their best bet (to win America, at least) was to come out strong after 360 (and maybe no RRoD). That includes acquisitions. There is no way around it. Sony did it. If Google or Apple wanted to launch a console, they would have no option but to make acquisitions and exclusive partnerships.

@GADG3Tx87 Right and ABK want to appeal too. So they could just simply favour making games for Xbox, especially if Microsoft make it financially somehow financially. That maybe tricky of course without the support of a takeover and essentially becoming a studio.

Either way Xbox will go press on and won’t hurt them long term I think. I can understand them appealing, seemingly so close to the finish line. Bethesda deal was significant anyway.

Ok having looked more into this I actually support the CMA to an extent. They states Microsoft Xbox has 60 to 70% of the GLOBAL game streaming market, that's huge, and buying Activision Blizzard would give them a massive advantage over competitors.

Yes the games could be in competing platforms but MS still gets paid then. So this would stifle competition in the market.

What MS 'should' have done is never tried to buy ActiBliz, but spend far less on exclusivity deals, out bid Sony, as that wouldn't take half as much resource, they could then put all their efforts into getting their first party studios working and stop the high profile staff leaving. And try to stop the endless game delays they have.

Now we could end up with a 2 tier Game Pass service where in the UK you get no ActiBliz games, but we pay the same, but in other countries you do get those games.
I also don't appreciate the responses from Microsoft or Activision on this block, I find their attitudes quite arrogant towards the UK as a whole. Definitely a copium unprofessional approach. That shows poor judgment to me and a bit insulting to be honest.
I won't be surprised if the EU also blocks the deal now though, for the exact same reasons.

Microsoft announced a huge loss in Xbox sales in their earnings this week or last. But subscribers numbers are up. They just want a service business.

And I can't believe I just said that. But I took a time out to reflect.

The one thing no one is talking about is Google. It was news they were worried about mobile dominantion but they said Microsoft buying Bethesda was the root cause to closing Stadia so I bet they layed that down thick to the CMA. Yes Nvidia settled with a Microsoft deal but there initial complaint woukd be similar to Google's.

There is no notion of weight in their report, they only assess the potential negative risks, however small, without taking into account the positive effects, however large. And objectively, better competition in the console market and in the mobile market represent far greater benefits than the possible negative effects in a market as small as cloud gaming.

The reality is that the CMA does not protect the consumer but the dominant position of sony in the console market, the duopoly of google and apple in the mobile market, they prevent millions of players (nintendo, geforce now, boosteroid, .. .) to play activision blizzard games, and all this under the bogus pretext of cloud gaming, a market that represents very few gamers, very small compared to the console market and the mobile market. Their argument of making activision games exclusive to the xcloud when they will be multiplatform is ridiculous, proof that it is false with the partnerships signed with cloud services precisely. Putting cloud gaming on the same level as the console market and the mobile market is still damn inflated, their argument is extremely weak and will not be able to stand up to a real court.

Also, I have the impression there is a confusing between gamepass and xcloud. The gamepass is a catalog of games accessible for download, it is not cloud gaming. The success of the gamepass is due to the fact that there are day one games on it and a catalog of quality games. The Xcloud which is good for cloud gaming is only accessible via the gamepass ultimate, I don't know the numbers but it's certainly a drop in the bucket for really active players on Xcloud. They speak of a growing percentage, but that's normal because it's a new market, but in terms of volume it's peanuts and we don't know the future of this. It's not MS's fault if stadia went broke, if sony doesn't want to invest in cloud gaming, or if amazon with luna is struggling to take off.

It will do as with the FTC, the CMA will be totally disavowed and discredited in front of a real court. Their lack of objectivity and their ideology will definitely kill its authorities, which is a shame because they have a role to play, but with solid and credible arguments, not under bogus pretexts to actually hide a political trial.

@Belkan microsoft has the means to make exclusive games with the studios they have ,you know like Sony and Nintendo do ,they seem more concerned about getting all the content on gamepass,its no secret that the xbox brand was dead in the water and the ms bigwigs wanted it scrapped ,then uncle Phil thought of gamepass to keep it alive,they won't be happy with all these shenanigans.

This is nothing but a political hit job through Sony lobbying.

first off just cause the CMA said no doesnt mean the deal is dead and even if ms loses on appeal they can still buy actiuvision then say F U to the UK and not sell any activision games as its not approved in the UK, personally MS should sell off their stake in the London Stock exchange(4%) and stop investing the nearly 2 billion annually that they invest in the UK....

@Widey85 @Fenbops @Martsmall I just wanted to support your comments and to say that you are totally right about that.

@Banjo- yep unfortunately there are ppl like that

@tallythwack and now game pass has become not just competition but a threat to CMA and Sony.

Could MS not simply buy say 75% of Activision shares an become “the boss” so to speak?