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Idas Said:

The full list of remedies proposed by MS, addressing also the "residual concerns" from the CMA (I don't think it was posted):

1) Ubisoft may not grant Microsoft an exclusive licence to the Activision Games, and any such purported licence would be null and void.

2) Ubisoft may not offer Microsoft preferential pricing nor material preferential treatment with respect to Cloud Streaming Rights not made available to third parties.

3) Microsoft must offer the Activision Games to Ubisoft at a price that is no higher than the wholesale price for digital download and retail sales of PC and console versions of the same content (whichever is lower); [REDACTED].

4) Microsoft must provide Ubisoft with the Activision Games in a standard executable format sufficiently in advance to allow Ubisoft to release them on the same date as they are released on console and PC.

5) Microsoft will ensure that the quality, content, features and performance of any Activision Game delivered to Ubisoft will be materially similar to the non- streaming version of that Activision Game. Microsoft will not design PC versions of Activision Games, or any other versions which are or are planned to be available on multiple cloud streaming services, to be solely optimised for its own cloud streaming service.

6) Microsoft must port Activision Games to non-Windows OS following a request from Ubisoft. Ubisoft may also request that Microsoft perform technical modifications, including to ensure that the Activision Games support emulators like Proton. Microsoft must carry out this work at its regular pace and at a quality and standard which is customary in the gaming industry. Microsoft can only charge Ubisoft for the reasonable costs incurred for this work. Microsoft is also required to provide Ubisoft with development and porting plans for the Activision Games reasonably in advance.

7) Ubisoft will compensate Microsoft for the Activision Streaming Rights through a one-off payment and through a market-based wholesale pricing mechanism, including an option that supports pricing based on usage. This will allow Ubisoft to license out the Activision Streaming Rights under any business model of its choosing, including buy-to-play, multi-game subscription services, or any other model that may arise.

8) Microsoft will offer technical support to Ubisoft for Activision Games [REDACTED]. It will also offer reasonable technical support for Ubisoft's sublicensees, provided these cover Microsoft's reasonable costs.

Add to that:

"A Monitoring Trustee to oversee the Parties' compliance with the Proposed Undertakings, if required by the CMA. The Parties will also be required to provide annual compliance reports to the CMA setting out the steps taken to ensure compliance with the undertakings. The Proposed Undertakings require the Parties to comply with the dispute resolution provisions included in the Ubisoft Divestment Agreement, encompassing a fast-track escalation process and arbitration, and require the Parties to keep the CMA informed of any dispute referred to the fast- track escalation process".


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I'd actually LMAO if Ubisoft was like "oh shit, we have all these ABK titles now for Cloud...What should we do with them" and went ahead and decided on making their own Cloud streaming service and made all ABK content exclusive to it and no other Cloud streaming services (except in the EU) had access to it. It'd be even more hilarious if Ubisoft's Cloud streaming service used Azure.

Only fair right? That's the free market! Ubisoft can decide to not give anyone shit.

Last edited by Ryuu96 - on 22 September 2023

jason1637 said:
Angelus said:

Sarah has been cemented as the next head of MS Gaming for a long time tbh

Yeah it’s either between her or Matt. But I think Sarah is ahead rn if the decision was made today.

I think she's way ahead of Matt at this stage, Matt "only" leads the XGS but Sarah since being with Xbox had helped lead Game Pass, has helped lead M&A, over the past few years has been by Phil's side on basically every single business trip, she is forming relationships and business deals with all the major publishers, she is expanding Xbox's global team and Phil praises her specifically in company emails quite often.

He made note of her contribution in particular to the new Ubisoft/CMA deal which suggests she had something to do with forming the deal (not a surprise, as M&A is an area of knowledge for her) so that basically means Sarah is partly responsible for the closure of a $69bn deal. She has been pushed in the spotlight a lot more lately too, appearing in most major media events, usually alongside Phil.

I just hope Matt is happy with his career peaking at "XGS" inside of Microsoft because there's always a risk that when people realise they can't go any higher up the chain, they leave the company for another as they want to actually progress in their career but if Matt just loves what he is doing and doesn't have aspirations like that then he may stay.



Ryuu96 said:

Idas Said:

The full list of remedies proposed by MS, addressing also the "residual concerns" from the CMA (I don't think it was posted):
[...]

6) Microsoft must port Activision Games to non-Windows OS following a request from Ubisoft. Ubisoft may also request that Microsoft perform technical modifications, including to ensure that the Activision Games support emulators like Proton. Microsoft must carry out this work at its regular pace and at a quality and standard which is customary in the gaming industry. Microsoft can only charge Ubisoft for the reasonable costs incurred for this work. Microsoft is also required to provide Ubisoft with development and porting plans for the Activision Games reasonably in advance.

[...]

Considering Ubisoft themselves does not port their titles on Non-Windows OS I don't think this will see much use. CMA might be clueless and think this is great to prevent reinforcement of Windows OS share but in reality, why would a customer using cloud streaming care if the server OS is Windows on Linux, and if the customer doesn't care why would the server operators care so much to wait for a port.

The request to comply with any Proton support request in this context is even more ludicrous, why would a cloud operator that already sees cloud-related performance loss as their main barrier to gaining customers and being seen as a legitimate option willfully add another layer of performance loss by running a Windows executable on a Linux server using an emulator.

This is more for a CMA wanting to show they've done something even though what they've done has no real value 🙃.

Last edited by EpicRandy - on 22 September 2023

CMA: Microsoft you dumb idiots, you should have offered this Cloud concession to us at the start!

Also CMA in February 2023:

At this stage, the CMA has identified the following possible structural remedies

(a) Requiring a partial divestiture of Activision Blizzard, Inc. This may be

(i) Divestiture of the business associated with Call of Duty,
(ii) Divestiture of the Activision segment of Activision Blizzard, Inc. (the Activision segment), which would include the business associated with Call of Duty,
(iii) Divestiture of the Activision segment and the Blizzard segment (the Blizzard segment) of Activision Blizzard, Inc., which would include the business associated with Call of Duty and World of Warcraft, among other title

(b) Prohibition of the merger.

CMA: We hate behavioural remedies, we can't monitor them.

Also CMA now:

"A Monitoring Trustee to oversee the Parties' compliance with the Proposed Undertakings, if required by the CMA. The Parties will also be required to provide annual compliance reports to the CMA setting out the steps taken to ensure compliance with the undertakings. The Proposed Undertakings require the Parties to comply with the dispute resolution provisions included in the Ubisoft Divestment Agreement, encompassing a fast-track escalation process and arbitration, and require the Parties to keep the CMA informed of any dispute referred to the fast- track escalation process".

Last edited by Ryuu96 - on 22 September 2023

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Xbox 1st Party in 2023 👀

  • Age of Empires II HD on Xbox
  • Goldeneye 007 HD
  • Hi-Fi Rush
  • Ghostwire Tokyo on Xbox
  • Minecraft Legends
  • Redfall
  • Quake 2 HD
  • Starfield
  • Age of Empires IV on Xbox
  • Forza Motorsport
  • Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 👀
Last edited by Ryuu96 - on 22 September 2023



Ryuu96 said:

Xbox 1st Party in 2023 👀

  • Age of Empires II HD on Xbox
  • Goldeneye 007 HD
  • Hi-Fi Rush
  • Ghostwire Tokyo on Xbox
  • Minecraft Legends
  • Redfall
  • Quake 2 HD
  • Starfield
  • Age of Empires IV on Xbox
  • Forza Motorsport
  • Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 👀

1. Doesn’t count coz it’s a remaster 

2. Same as #1 

3. Doesn’t count was in dev before MS bought Zenimax 

4. Same as #4

5. 71 meta so it counts.

6. 56 meta so it counts 

7. Same as #1

8. Same as #3

9. Same as #1

10. It’s Forza, looks the same as every single FM ever released… 

11. Doesn’t count, also deal is dead. 

Stop kidding ya self xbot. 



Ride The Chariot || Games Complete ‘24 Edition

konnichiwa said:

So tired of running to the lodge to store my stuff, planned to make an outpost and store all my stuff......What's up with the 150 MASS storages?

Yeah, I also find it a bit silly that storage boxes in places like the Lodge or your owned house in a major city have unlimited storage, but all storage containers in outposts have tiny limits. I have like 14,000 weight of resources in the tiny little storage box in the basement of the lodge by the crafting stations, and yet the exact same design of storage box built in an outpost has a 10 weight limit on it, smh. You pretty much have to to spend a ton of resources just to build enough of the medium shipping container sized storage boxes at each outpost to harvest alot of different resources and link them to other outposts so that you can mass produce the highest value items. 

There are lots of smaller QoL (Quality of Life) fixes that I'm going to download mods for if Bethesda hasn't fixed those issues themselves by then (they are at least adding an Eat button soon). The storage issue is one of them, but also the painfully slow levelling, the missing of some crucial functions within their current skills (such as being able to increase maximum vendor money), and more. 

Last edited by shikamaru317 - on 22 September 2023