Xbox |OT|

[Ryuu96]

This Cloud stuff is such an odd concern.

Worrying that Microsoft will have an advantage in an unproven, unprofitable, insignificant market which likely accounts for less than 1% of Gaming overall and more than half of Microsoft's competitors have zero interest in. Two of the biggest publishers (Take Two, Activision-Blizzard) are already publicly on record stating that they have no interest in Cloud/Subscription Services and don't believe in their future.

It's simply a market that right now has next to no consumer interest, a market that is at least a decade away from becoming viable, if it ever does and if you want it to become viable, you'll need to go after ISP's first, they're being worried about something that may never actually take off and become a proper market with a consumer interest.

They're worried that Activision-Blizzard would give Microsoft an advantage but if they block the deal, then nobody gets Activision-Blizzard titles because they've already made it clear that if independent, they have absolutely zero interest in the market, they've even blocked their titles from GeForce Now.

Either way, Sony is never getting CoD into their Streaming Service or Cloud Service on day one, the cost firstly would be ridiculous and secondly, Activision has no desire to do it. They may get it years later but by then the effects have been significantly reduced. So, the choice to regulators, either Microsoft has it or nobody has it.

Let's be honest, Microsoft is one of few actually committing to it and trying, it feels like in order to stop Microsoft from having an advantage, regulators are thinking the solution is to cripple the market entirely, if it's not even profitable for Microsoft then it leaves little room for anyone else and killing deals like this may cause it to never become a viable business, is that really the preferable outcome?

If they blocked the deal on that basis, they not only maintain the status quo, leaving a dominant PlayStation easily outselling the competition and punish proactive early innovation, bringing new ideas to the industry, but they also severely cripple Cloud Gaming as an industry and leave it remaining insignificant.

Microsoft have already stated that Cloud Gaming isn't profitable, they've missed internal targets, it's an incredibly tiny market and Google have already abandoned it, two of the largest publishers have no interest in it (Take-Two/Activision-Blizzard), it's at least a decade away from becoming viable and entirely dependent on ISPs which is out of Microsoft's control.

Who is to say that blocking this deal won't just make Microsoft also abandon Cloud Gaming? If it becomes a reason as to why they can't grow their business then can you really blame them if they decide to abandon it entirely given all the other factors? Thus delivering another huge blow to the Cloud Gaming industry.