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SvennoJ on 16 December 2022
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Shinobi-san said:

I ended up voting as neutral, although I've mostly been against it during debates etc.

I would say I'm fine specifically with this acquisition, provided that there are no additional major acquisitions that follow. In other words, MS stops here, Sony does not retaliate, Amazon and Meta keeps out of it etc.

Xbox needs this to compete and I'm all for the survival of Xbox and strong competition to Sony in the traditional console/hardcore gamer sector.

However, if every other major corporation starts doing the same thing, those that are for this acquisition will very quickly regret it. Sony could buy capcom or Ubisoft, the Saudi Prince can buy EA who knows. Why anyone would be for this type of extreme consolidation of the industry is beyond me.

Furthermore to that, the services impact on gaming quality is going to be noticeable in the coming decade if every major publisher follows suite.

XBox doesn't need this to compete, they're doing fine and it's only going to hasten MS' exit from the traditional console gaming sector. It's not in MS' best interest to keep making console hardware. The already released the Series S and were planning to release a streaming box, moving away from the hardcore gamer. (Who can play on on PC) The Series X is probably the last hardcore machine from MS.

And you can bet your ass that others will follow. Amazon Games, Netflix Games, Apple are ready to jump in. Google Stadia may have failed for now, but they still have the tech and when MS raises the price of GP, the door will be open for other tech giants to jump in and scramble for a piece of the pie. Plus who knows what Tencent's plans are. Or Meta :/

The services impact on gaming quality is already here. Halo Infinite and GT7 are already far removed from what they would have been 10 years ago. Drip feed content is here to stay.

Yet I'm now still for this deal since Activision-Blizzard needs new direction. And if MS gets blocked, it's likely it will get chopped up and sold anyway. Ending up with Amazon and others maybe. MS won't get blocked though, at most they'll have to make concessions and the deal gets chopped up regardless.

The longer this drags on, the longer the focus is off the bad practices and on the public schoolyard fighting between MS and Sony. It's pathetic at this point, making me lose further respect for both.