Microsoft Activision Blizzard Acquisition Given Greenlight In US After FTC Loses (Again)

It's getting hard to keep up with this. Everytime I see an article it either says appeal, or approved. Yet, still nothing! Wake me up when Act/Bliz games are on GP 🫠

I had a feeling the FTC would be denied again. Their case wasn’t strong. They should have focused on the consumers and not Sony if they wanted a chance to stop the acquisition. I always thought Microsoft had the stronger case and apparently the courts do as well.

This is it now surely? Done deal right? CMA are not going to be able to stop this surely?

NEVER A DOUBT! Was wondering when the article would come up on purexbox …

"Reports suggest Microsoft could potentially sell the rights of Activision cloud releases to remove certain roadblocks."

How does that even work? I mean, if it gets Microsoft to the finish line with minimal impact, I guess Microsoft will do what it has to do, but that just seems so...messy.

I saw in the big summer sale there were a couple Activision games that I was thinking of buying. Crash n-sane trilogy, Spyro reignited, and some older cod games that I have physically but tought of buying digitally was what I was looking at. Then I thought that I’d just wait for gamepass. Should be coming by the end of the year I think.

That's great news. Hopefully CMA get their sh*t together so I can play Crash Bandicoot via Game Pass.

@EvilSilentFrame The FTC got shot down 3 times in as many days.

1) Lost the PI trial.
2) Lost request for Judge Corley to extend the TRO.
3) Lost appeal of Judge Corley's decision.

The just keep insisting that they are right while presenting no evidence and poor arguments. That is there basis of argument — we're right and don't have to prove anything because there is a even the smallest chance of some form of consumer harm. For that matter, any complaint raised against a merger should result in a PI.

@S-Bacc not strictly true. Rare, Ninja Theory, Playground are all UK studios and I’m pretty sure Sledgehammer have a satellite studio here too. So they do both have presence in the UK.

Either way I think the CMA issue is resolved by the deadline

I dont doubt the CMAs ability to get a worse deal for uk customers

The FTC's line of reasoning was skewed far to heavily towards Sony to have the interest of competition at the fore. They really needed to go after exclusivity deals which are manipulative and blatently anti competitive (but that's hard because everyone does it - maybe the industry needs some sort of legislation.)

Microsoft's case was they need more studios to compete. No idea why it was never raised that they already have enough to compete, but they aren't doing much with them.

Anyhoo, it's hard to be invested in anything Activision. Their monetary practices are unaligned with my love for the hobby. I do hope they don't try to aquire Japanese studios and turnthem into generic western ones. That would be heartbreaking. But, I fear we are going to see more aquisitions...and everyone will now be using the excuse of having to compete to do it. And Nintendo could get hurt in the crossfire.

@S-Bacc I would suspect there will be some leanway around the order and being able to close in the interim.

We might even find out a bit at the CAT meeting on Monday if not before

The overwhelming weight of Evidence supporting the deal going through was always going to make an Appeal by the FTC impossible, if not pointless without any new Evidence as to why it should be blocked...

The FTC look even worse now after losing twice in a court of law. It makes the CMA look bad too as the only other region to 'Block' when its been approved in a Court of Law

@GrailUK problem is a lot of their studios are small. So, they can’t make games as fast as Sony and the quality. So, yes they need more studios.

I recommend you look up the size of these studios and compare to Sony’s. Sony will still have more developers over Microsoft even after the merger.

Bungie alone has over 900 developers. 343 industries has less than 300 developers. Insomniac has over 900 developers. The coalition has 200 developers.

Sony can develop and produce games faster then Microsoft.

In the FTC case publishers and developers said it takes 400 developers to release a AAA title about 2 years being made from scratch

@theduckofdeath They didn't lose the appeal of Judge Corley's decision as that hasn't even taken place yet. The appeals court denied the FTC an extension of the TRO which means Microsoft can close the deal at any time between now and the 18th.

Also Push Square haven't even acknowledged this news story yet, clearly they want to live in some sort of denial that it's finally over.

@Acurisur yes it has. They lost the appeal. It’s all over government websites and news.

@Deshalu just wait until Sony has to make a console to pay MS. Thats what this deal does. COD on ps makes more than all their first party and they will be paying 80% of that to MS. So what does all that even mater. Then throw in future new titles from ABK can be exclusive to Xbox/PC. Not like PS is dead, far from. They have great great games. They will be just fine. But this deal means MS has enough titles coming to GP to keep it engaging to users. Make billions to invest into the platform and branch into mobile with king which was always the biggest play here. I ain’t here to count heads on studios. Surprise to see you think that matters any.

Microsoft and Activision will be one this weekend. UK will be resolved a bit later. No hurdles left.

Microsoft don’t need to comply with the tiny UK. They are on an island of dumb all by themselves. 40 countries have approved the deal. Make the UK take the EU deal. They don’t need better or worse. The CMA and FTC came out of this looking like clown shoes. They are ran poorly and while i approve of big tech deals being looked into, i do not approve of protecting market leaders and weak cases wasting time and money. I hope MS buys more smaller support studios and breaks up the COD machine to spin new ABK EXCLUSIVE games to bring to Xbox. Deal is finally done!!

@HonestHick island of dumb ? Way to insult a lot of ppl , it's not the UK's fault just as much it's not America's fault for the ftcs rubbish , if u blame anyone blame the CMA not the country itself

@HonestHick Nothing actually changes in reality for Sony. The only difference is that instead of money going to ABK its now going to MS. MS will have the 'same' 3rd Party' costs involved as if it were ABK, Ubisoft, EA etc - just another '3rd Party' Publisher that has to pay a 'license' fee to Sony to release games on 'their' platform and give '30%' of the price to Sony as the retailer in Digital content...

Of course, if you give Gamers a LOT more choice of where they want to play without missing out on any early access, any Content etc, then Sony may not get the same Sales. Xbox/PC gamers with PS5's too may choose 'not' to buy on PS5 now because they get the game on their 'preferred' platform without missing out on 'Only on Playstation' bonuses - maybe would prefer to play on Switch as it enables them to play 'on the go'.

Sony 'could' see their revenue stream from Call of Duty 'drop', but I doubt many will swap PS5 for Series X just because of Game Pass - its not as if they can't buy CoD on PS5, get the same content etc and still be able to play Spider-Man, Wolverine, Final Fantasy etc...

What will be funny is when COD ends up not on PlayStation because huge baby child Jim Ryan wouldn’t sign the 10 year deal! Ryan has scored such an own goal when he could have kept it all very simple.

I hope and the cma and Microsoft work something out for the uk sake

@Martsmall very sorry!!! In no way was i blaming the UK as a country or their people. But the CMA. Sorry i didn’t word it better. Been drinking beers and playing Diablo 4 all night. Yes CMA and FTC were on an island of dumb per say. They had weak claims and i am glad one of them lost and soon to be the other one, but at the moment the CMA are on an island alone. I meant no disrespect to the UK nor their gamers. 😊

@BAMozzy the point is no one has to switch consoles for this deal to make MS loads of money. They get 70% from Sony and Nintendo COD sales and then 100% from Xbox/PC. That money allows them to build more studios, exclusive deals, etc etc. investment in Xbox is substantial on just this deal alone. Sony will be just fine, that was always a conclusion. The bigger picture is Xbox is here for good on this deal. Throw in Bethesda and all 32 studios. They have their one AAA game every 3 months practice they wanted. Meaning the drought is not only over but future ABK new games are likely to be exclusive to Xbox/PC. Imagine Prototype, Hexen among others getting revived and being Xbox/PC exclusives? This is a HUGE get and it’s not over yet. They will acquire more. Just happy to see Xbox correcting Xbox one mistakes. 😊

@HonestHick no problems matey , none of us over here want the CMA to give the problems they do, it's certainly not the ppls fault , it's yet again the ppl in power do what they want to not what the ppl want it to just like the ftc has done , and both say it's for the good of the consumers ...what a laugh

@Martsmall it is plenty good for competition. This deal will close no later than Monday in the USA. We have just witnessed history in the largest media deal ever. Easily the biggest in the video game industry. Who knows what’s next, but for now this is history. Thank you for understanding i meant no harm towards anyone other than the CMA and FTC. Both are looking bad without me needing to say a word. 😊

@HonestHick honestly say no more about it everyone types stuff how they didn't mean it,it's not a Biggie ,
The thing is I hope that the CMA do reach a deal cause if they sell off the UK cloud gaming part I won't b happy , yet again they think what the consumer wants ....just to get Thier bit of fame

Exactly as I expected.

the deal can finally close in this part of the world.

Correct me if I'm wrong but the merger doesn't need UK's approval and has nothing to do with UK, actually. Since the CMA's last decision used the cloud as an excuse to delay the acquisition based on nothing, the only thing that the CMA is forbidding is the inclusion of ABK in Xbox Cloud in UK. Microsoft could sue the CMA in UK but it seems that they prefer to sell the rights to ABK games on Cloud. That's the thing I don't understand. Microsoft will own ABK games. What are they selling exactly and to whom? For how long? What does it mean in terms of control and earnings? Does it mean that those games would be on another service by another provider? An additional subscription like EA Play and Ubisoft Plus? Why not just propose the same concessions as in EU, take it or leave it. Would the CMA really leave it?

@S-Bacc I was wondering if Microsoft could ignore the CMA's decision as they haven't sued each other yet and just deal with the consequences that would hurt the CMA and the UK economy more than Microsoft, e.g., being sued by the CMA.

@TheAshCohen09 Many companies have branches outside their country. Of course, they have to comply with the law there, e.g., working conditions and local taxes but that doesn't mean that the UK can block the merger. It's not even the UK but the CMA, I'm sure that if Microsoft sued the CMA in UK, Microsoft would win but they don't want to wait any longer. Why would Microsoft win? Because the CMA's reasoning is the following: Xbox Cloud will make the cloud market less innovative and with less competition in the future. On the other hand, the CMA wouldn't sue Microsoft as a whole with the purpose of hampering their business in UK because that would be a disaster.

@Kaloudz It's likely that Call of Duty games being fixed in the last days mean that Microsoft's engineers are already dealing with Activision's technical problems.

Yet some users have said on these threads that they are happy that the CMA is protecting them as consumers... The CMA is protecting the market leader Sony, not the consumers. 2023, the UK is behind any of the European countries included in the EU in that sense. Unsurprisingly, some PS users came here to assure us that the UK had blocked the merger...

@HonestHick Since all this started, I have noticed how Push only reports news that make Microsoft look bad and portray the facts subjectively. Isn't that what the gutter press do?

@HonestHick Of course its a 'big' investment from MS to build up their Studios, their list of owned IP's etc and will probably earn 'less' from Sony than ABK earn now because 'some' Playstation owners will 'prefer' to play on any of the other Platforms.

If I had a decent PC and PS5, I'd feel 'forced' to buy CoD on PS5 because on PC, I'd miss out on something, but now I could 'choose' to play on PC via Game Pass so 'Sony' lose that sale and any potential 'extras' I may have purchased - but MS only gets my 'monthly' Sub fee for GPU instead of '70%' of the cost to buy.

Its no different from Minecraft - another MS owned IP and biggest selling Game in the world. MS may get a decent chunk of revenue from other Platforms but hasn't changed the fact that Sony can still make 'money' from Minecraft, just like they can still make money from CoD - at NO cost to themselves.

MS has to pay Sony to release games on their Platform - a License fee and will lose '30%' to Sony as the Retailer. Therefore Sony makes 'money' from MS too. MS is the one who own the IP, the Studio etc, paying them to make these games for ALL platforms. Sony 'can't' lose because every sale, especially digital, is pure profit - money for literally owning Playstation.

Exclusives aren't for the Consumer - as much as they try to spin it, its for the platform holder to make people buy their Hardware and spending money in their ecosystem. They 'could' release on their closest rival but that's 'printing' money for them as they get 30% and 'License' fees and they 'lose' out on a Unique Selling Point.

No doubt big Online games with Active and established Communities of gamers on 'other' Platforms will continue to be 'multi-platform'' as MS doesn't want to split up Communities and instead grow them. Of course it 'benefits' them Financially because a bigger Community means more 'money' coming in. but from Sony's perspective, they are still getting these games to Sell at 'NO' cost to themselves, that '70%' that went to ABK, still goes to ABK, its just that ABK is now owned by MS instead. They aren't 'losing' money - unless the Gamers 'choose' to play CoD on different platforms in the future...

My fellow xbox soldiers we have hold the line against the enemy(FTC). Now we must prepare for the upcoming battle(CMA).

@Moonglow how many developers do you think Zenimax has?

How many developers do you think Sony has?

It’s already Been confirmed. Sony pays a lot less for studios and publishers to make games exclusive to its platform. Which isn’t much different than buying a publisher in my opinion.

When Microsoft purchases to make a game exclusive, they lose money in revenue, which this was confirmed in the FTC case.

Also, none of the Sony fan boys had a problem with Sony making Spider-Man exclusive when Spider-Man was on every platform

Not a new game but they also released Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition for Xbox for the first time (a 9/10 game according to Pure Xbox), so 8 first-party console games versus 1. From now on, Xbox will have more games than PS every year.

@Banjo- @Deshalu . Thank you banjo. You remind me of something else. most of the Activision developers only work on call of duty which means Microsoft helps bring their games out on PlayStation too.

Call of Duty, Minecraft, Psychonauts, and they brought existing Bethesda titles to PlayStation plus extra. Plus every upcoming elder scrolls online expansion and fallout 76 has also released on PlayStation.

where is the Spider-Man and wolverine game only on PlayStation. Which I don’t care because I think that it pushes both companies to be competitive. This merger for Xbox. I actually think it’s a good thing. Like the judge said, Microsoft has a good history of sticking with their word when they say they’re releasing something on PlayStation.

@Deshalu I agree with you that Sony keeps everything for themselves even things that they don't own by paying as little as possible because of their position as a market leader. That's anti-competitive and it's illegal in most markets, markets in general, not just video games. That's why Sony is being investigated.

Microsoft will keep Call of Duty on competing platforms for 10 years, I'm 100% sure that they will keep their word. My only doubt is Call of Duty on Playstation because Jim refused to sign the agreement, so if Playstation doesn't get Call of Duty after the agreement between Activision and Sony that expires in 2024, it's Sony's fault.

Those agreement between third parties and platform holders should be banned, those that kept Final Fantasy and Zenimax games off Xbox. To pay a small price because you are the market leader to hurt the competition should be forbidden. If Sony wants Final Fantasy games to never be on Xbox, buy Square Enix.

Regarding development, it's true that in recent years, after Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2 and Crash Bandicoot 4 (both from 2020), most Activision studios are supporting the development of Call of Duty games but I honestly think that we will have fewer Call of Duty games and more games from other IPs after the acquisition. As much as Call of Duty makes money, they can make more money with fewer, better games on more platforms and feed Game Pass with a variety of games. Activision teams said that they want to make Crash, Spyro and Tony Hawk and Microsoft won't force them all to make Call of Duty, based on what they have done with the other studios that they have acquired.

@Moonglow This merger seems to make Xbox and PS play at the same level. It's completely fair because Sony needed stronger competition and because ABK was looking for buyers, anyway. Sony almost had a monopoly and bought Xbox exclusion deals on top of that.

You are right, Microsoft was forced to do this. Sony was paying Zenimax for Xbox exclusion deals and was paying ABK for exclusive content and early access. That's over. I hope that this also means that Sony won't buy more Xbox exclusion deals since they are being investigated and even if they could, it probably would not be worth it. Because Square Enix is a loose cannon, it wouldn't surprise me if they start releasing their games for Xbox again, now that Xbox will be more important and considering that Octopath Traveller 1 skipped PS, Octopath Traveller 2 skipped Xbox and just some Final Fantasy games are not available on Xbox.

@Banjo- @Moonglow so moon I’m lost, you agree with Banjo and me on what we said.

So why do you have a problem with the merger? We’ve seen what the true monopoly can do and that’s what Sony’s been doing.

You said there was 13,000 developers in activision, did you know 15 studios worked on this last call of duty? Did you know the previous call of duty, It was nine Studios?

These crazy accusations, that Microsoft would put exclusive Content on call of duty is crazy when they’ve been on the up and up with Minecraft, ESO, and Fallout.

But moon. I also think you underestimate Sony‘s position and power that they have, and how big their studios actually are, and what they can produce.

This is not a monopoly and Sony will be fine

@Deshalu @Moonglow I think that you just have a misunderstanding.

@Moonglow but you didn’t call me out though. Let me ask you with out looking up how many developers do you think naughty dog actually has?

@Snake_V5 I mean, if selling CoD and giving MS 70-80% of the money is their idea of revenge, then yeah, sure. They'll have their revenge.

@Moonglow but it does matter and your math is off, naughty dog and insomniac are not their biggest developers. So you don’t know but firesprite which is a newly acquired Studio has 4000 developers they’re rumored to be working on the next twisted metal and a bunch of VR games.

Also, Santa Monica Studios is big too, they’re the guys that make god of war. Gorilla games (not the correct spelling of gorilla) they’re also big and they’re working on multiple games so I’m not sure where you’re getting the support studios.

Again, you are heavily underestimating Sony. There’s a reason people are saying they hope this acquisition of activision, lights a fire under them.

I’ve owned every PlayStation, PS4 in my opinion was by far the weakest for first party titles releases

@Deshalu My only PS console is the PS4 and I was disappointed with it, too. My favourite PS4 exclusive is a compilation of older Sony games, Wipeout Omega Collection. In between, isn't Guerrilla the name of Sony's Dutch studio?

@Kaloudz @Moonglow The question is, how will PS word the official announcement of the merger?

@Banjo- yes it is Guerilla. I didn’t know the correct spelling. So, I just said gorilla. lol

Sony has so many good IP’s that missed a PS4. Twisted Metal, Socom, Warhawk, Resistance, EverQuest, and More.

I wish they wouldn’t have abandoned a shot at another PlayStation all-stars, the smash brothers clone

@Moonglow I’m sorry I meant Xdev.

Also Xbox has one studio that has 12 people and another that only has 21

@Snake_V5 yeah sure Sony can have their revenge. To an extent that MS will force Sony to pay more revenue share to MS if Sony will try anymore with those antics style.

@Moonglow well I don’t want to engage with somebody that thinks Microsoft has an advantage in the gaming industry when all their games are multi platform.

What is Spider-Man 2 releasing on?

@Banjo- People says that MS should act like a trillion dollar company. And here we are, MS now buys studios to reinforce Xbox. To an extent that they are forced to because of Sony's shady antics.

@Moonglow Based on my own experience, I can't help saying that @Deshalu is a nice guy. @Snake_V5 has the same opinion as any of the pseudo-neutrals, only difference is Snake is not two-faced.

Geez, 72 comments in and there has already been bickering and drama.

This was always going to go through and FTC losing the appeal was no surprise as their arguments to date have been almost baseless.

The interesting bit is what comes next and what this going through triggers.

Short term it just adds a tonne more content to the Xbox portfolio and creates some interesting competition. Long term - no clue.

@Belkan Yep, for Microsoft it doesn't make any sense to pay for PS exclusion deals but to become more relevant in the market by expanding their studio portfolio. They are multiplatform and they are Game Pass. It also eliminates Sony's exclusion contracts with Zenimax and ABK to keep games and content off Xbox. Besides, as @Moonglow wisely mentioned, it makes more difficult for Sony to pay third parties for excluding Xbox.

I just thought about this. What if Toys for Bob could remake Banjo Kazooie/Tooie like they did for Crash and Spyro? I think they would do a good job.

@Johnnel and Conker

@SplooshDmg because really they were never going to take the golden goose away. That would be dumb. They just wanted the profits from COD, not kill the profits.

@Snake_V5 How are Sony going to have their revenge if Microsoft can just buy everything? I'm sure Sony would have tried to buy ABK themselves, but they can't afford a $69 billion purchase.

The truth is that Sony has tried to bully everyone ever since they entered the console space: Sega, Nintendo and Xbox.

The problem for them was when Microsoft stepped in, fed up of Sony's bullying tactics and decided to start buying entire publishers. First Zenimax Media and now Activision Blizzard.

Sony is now trying to fight a far bigger company with much deeper pockets than themselves.

The CMA are pushing, really pushing hard for divestiture as a resolution, either of xCloud or Call Of Duty.

If Microsoft sell off Cloud, I could see the CMA trying to force concessions like it being removed from Game Pass, requiring an additional fee on top of XGP Ultimate, with no change to Game Pass's own price. The 'consumers' are protected at that point, aren't they?

If they sell off Call Of Duty, things like the planned Nintendo Switch builds get quietly cancelled and whatever company buys it gets equally quietly approached by Sony to restore the golden handshake that gave them preferential treatment. Again, The 'consumers' are protected. Honest.

The EU deal pretty much closed the deal for everyone except the FTC and CMA, since it promised, going forward, everyone sharing their subscriptions with everyone else, Well, unless you're Sony, who want to own everything for minimum effort.

@Acurisur Yeah but Microsoft wins, not by producing great, industry defining games from their own studios, but by buying the publishers who have already done so.

@Snake_V5 at what point do you consider a game something under MS’s helm something they helped with?

@Snake_V5 Hush now, child

@Snake_V5 Lol you actually quoted MBG word for word as well (comment #83). Says a lot 😂

The only Sony game that Playstation had when they started was Gran Turismo. Everything else was Sony buying studios and publishers and, worst of all, paying for third-party titles to be exclusive or partially exclusive.

@OM1993 I did yes, he said it perfectly.

@Snake_V5 You're MBG

@Moonglow so I agree with your points. But you’re not pointing that it’s a monopoly and that’s the thing it’s not a monopoly.

And having an advantage isn’t a monopoly it’s just good business.

But here’s the thing, the thing that you consider an advantage. Hasn’t been working for Microsoft.

Yeah, and there’s a reason for that.

I’ve been on the pushsquare website discussing the same thing over there, I own both consoles.

I’ve always been a PlayStation gamer.

On pushsquare head to the FTC article and read me my forms and I’ll explain everything.

I do believe this acquisition is good for competition, better games, and better prices.

The fact that we’re all actually discussing this and people are actually talking about Microsoft being competitive. Trust me it’s a good thing. We all know Sony isn’t gonna get hurt by this Sony will still have Call of Duty on their platform. Sony will answer back.

But I did put up really good arguments in pushsquare.

The moon if your PlayStation gamer is gonna be fine you’re gonna be just fine

@Banjo- I literally said the same thing in pushsquare about Sony buying their studios.

that the naughty dog acquisition was actually a hostile one and they found out that Sony was going to buy them so they quickly as fast as they could sold crash bandicoot, because they were scared that would get stuck making crash bandicoot’s for the rest of their lives.

Evan Wells says in an interview and it’s even in the gameinformer magazine as a trivia question

@Snake_V5 amazing how you all come up with Sony creates Thier talent blah blah , like the studios they paid for never released a game before , oh and one of Thier biggest hitters ( spider man) is rented from marvel ,

It business if your buying milk from the local cow everyday if you buy the cow, money saved and earned in the future ,just cause Sony can't afford to buy the cow it's not microsofts fault , it's gd business move for Microsoft, thinking about the future

you said
not by producing great, industry defining games from their own studios, but by buying the publishers who have already done so.

Do you know what Microsoft will releases later ? Unfortunately they can't create games in a couple of years ask the last of us factions if it's so easy how long has that been now ?

This is awesome for GP subscribers like myself (pc).

In the long run it is still my belief Nintendo has shown the future of console gaming and it is alive and and well. Sooner than I expected Xbox and Remakestation will be nothing more than a app and a controller.

@Snake_V5

It's not over, Sony will have their revenge
....You are getting emotionally invested again😂. Don't.

Sony already are in revengeful mode with the biggest franchises Squeenix own. Microsoft is just ensuring a steady stream of GamePass content, It can however, get much uglier from both sides though.

@BAMozzy yeah i get all the business side of the games. My point was MS now profits from COD on any system they sell it on and that is a cash cow alongside candy crush with king that will help funnel game development and more into the Xbox Brand. Not to mention not have less perks to the game that is owned by Sony at the moment. This is a huge deal for Team Green and i am happy it’s over.

How much have the lawyers made during this whole thing?

@Deshalu Yes, I'm reading and upvoting your comments there and you are spot on! You also share information that few people know, as the Crash thing. I didn't know that. I like reading those history bits.

@__jamiie I don't know how much but I wouldn't mind been given just 5% of it

@Banjo- yeah naughty dog started out as a trade company not a private company. They found out their shares were being bought out by Sony and found out Sony was going to buy them so they quickly sold crash bandicoot because they didn’t wanna get stuck making those games forever

@Deshalu Fascinating, I didn't know that. About Rare, the Stamper brothers offered their 51% to Nintendo, Nintendo refused to buy it in spite of owning 49% of Rare, then Microsoft stepped in and bought Stamper brothers' part and,, finally, Nintendo sold their part to Microsoft.

I read your answers to ultimate otaku and others and I made a few comments there and he quickly replied to me. I had not mentioned him, I was just explaining why the acquisition makes sense and why Sony would do it if they could afford it.

My curiosity finally got the better of me after months of staying away from anything ABK and CMA related because it absolutely drove me insane. As I'm in the UK it has been nothing but doom and gloom and I thought that my time as an Xbox user was over.

Anything to do with business just completely goes over my head. There could do to be an Explain It Like I'm Five section here. So this deal is on the brink of being completed but the UK (as always) are being difficult. So if concessions are to be made or that the CMA blocks Xbox does that mean no more Xbox in the UK whatsoever or just no ABK games? I have confused myself so much over this.

If it's any consolation to Sony fans, you'll still get COD after the deal closes. 😉

@Judas Xbox isn't leaving the UK. The issue would be ABK content in the UK and how it would be made available across ANY platform.

you'll still have everything else and xbox itself isn't moving.

@Snake_V5 "not by producing great, industry defining games from their own studios".
What do call about Sony getting ff16, spiderman etc etc. Did Sony created those games?
Sure they're exclusive. But that doesn't mean they made those games.

@Belkan It's a double contradiction. Firstly, Sony has been buying developers and publishers since they dumped Nintendo and created the first Playstation with the SNES CD-ROM. Secondly, if Sony's first-party IPs were that awesome, they wouldn't need to pay third parties to keep games and DLC off Xbox in order to remain as relevant.

@Banjo- now that xbox entered competition, sony has a real competitor. They have no choice but to use cutting edge exclusion deals.

Cry baby MBG in the chat under the name Snake_V5 which is MBGs favourite character in video games
😂😂😂

@Nalverus Hey thank you for this, I really appreciate it.

@GrailUK the only one i see turning their Japanese business into a western one is Sony. Hence Sony is more a California company with the PS than they are Japanese and Nintendo didn’t get hurt in the ABK deal, in fact they got the industry’s largest game on their platform for 100 million plus gamers. Imagine a Switch 2 launching with a Mario and COD in November, not a bad start I’d say.

@Deshalu ever hear of a game called Starfield coming Exclusively to Xbox/PC this September. Thats called an advantage game. Yes we know Spider-man is huge, we also know Sony keep’s all their games for their console. Xbox plans to have some exclusives of its own. Both are worth the money and gamers time. They both have some great content. 😊

@HonestHick yeah but StarField was confirmed not to be anti-competitive by Jim Ryan in his testimony. Microsoft is still good and safe by PlayStation. lol

@MSX We got him! 😂😂😂

@Deshalu yeah Jim dislikes it. But said it wasn’t unfair.

@Acurisur The Ninth Circuit court of appeals denied the FTC request for appeal. That happened on the evening of the 14th. There are numerous articles about it.

I think they first went back to Judge Corley's court and requested an extension of the TRO (after losing the PI trial).

@HonestHick Sony is the most obvious. They are definately hard to miss lol.

Do not be surprised if Microsoft extends its deal with Activision to beyond the 18th, some who are more grounded in this topic are claiming MS are showing no signs or intentions of steam rolling the deal through before the CMA approval, also could possibly have something to with the text on its agreement that all regulatory parties must approve it. But I would think they could work around that text. We shall see as lots of conflicting evidence around whether the deal will close or not on Tuesday. Tomorrow will be a very interesting day.

@Kaloudz there was definitely venom with Sega vs Nintendo. Was a bit atrocious but you hit the nail on the head lack of social media and widespread internet didnt see it as much.

@S1ayeR74 This could close early tomorrow. CMA issued a statement stating they now want to look to resolve this expeditiously.

https://www.thurrott.com/games/285700/uk-cma-backtracks-again-speeds-toward-microsoft-activision-blizzard-approval

@OM1993 All I see is the same as already reports, that they plan to close their investigation well before the August deadline. We shall see what happens tomorrow. It will put the UK market in an interesting position. But also I suspect nothing will change in relation to any games availability if the deal closes until the CMA make their verdict, if it’s only a couple of weeks away.

@S1ayeR74 I wouldn't underestimate the power of the CAT intervention though in accelerating things, but that's fair, I do agree that on the whole it just furthers the point CMA are looking to close well ahead of schedule, and that is what we know. Looking forward to seeing what comes fron tomorrow!

@OM1993 @S1ayeR74 If Microsoft delays to satisfy CMA's demands, surely the FTC can show that Microsoft lied about the urgent nature of the deadline and hence they could easily also be lying about the CoD deals (the 10 year deals as well as the oath about not taking CoD off Playstation)?

@Grumblevolcano UK concerns are Cloud only. The remedy is supposedly in place principally with the Cloud division of gaming being divested to an external source, and that third party is rumoured to be EE. COD is an irrelevant factor here.

@Grumblevolcano Just in...

https://www.theverge.com/2023/7/16/23792215/sony-microsoft-call-of-duty-cod-deal-signed

@OM1993 Which basically confirms it's closing on Monday.

@Grumblevolcano You would imagine, yes. CMA are well and truly on their ones now.

@Grumblevolcano Not sure about that after the news Sony has signed its deal. Personally I think they will close the deal, I’ve just seen others saying they may delay it. All eyes on tomorrow. Just hope we in the UK end up with the same perks from this merger, such as games on Game Pass, not sure about the cloud as I believe the concession put forward is for Microsoft to sell the cloud rights on Acti Bliz games in the UK?

@Kaloudz I have my fingers crossed the CMA will allow the merger without their complaint and as you say work on the concessions. And the CMA accept the concession, I think they will if they are working with MS on them. This is the best outcome for us in Blighty and for the case against the FTC.
Will be very interesting to see how tomorrow plays out. Especially now Sony have folded, and paid a price too seemingly.

On a side note I saw some of that case with Khan is it from the FTC, and one of the Senates pointed out how she had even let her own lawyer licence lapse! Khan seems to really not be fit for the job.

@theduckofdeath No, they didn't reject the appeal. They rejected extending the TRO. First Judge Corley rejected extending it and then the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal rejected extended it. The appeal schedule remains unaffected but the appeal itself will take months, by which time Microsoft will have already completed the takeover.

There's also no chance that the FTC could even win that appeal now that Sony have signed an contract with Microsoft to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation as that was the entire basis of their argument against the merger.