If they did acquire Sega would that be a pain? An American company buying a Japanese one isnt there other hurdles involved with that too?

The worst about this decision is, and I'm sure we can all agree on this, is that I did not get to post the wide Phil Spencer video again.

A block would certainly be easier to understand if logics did not die along with it.

But all is not lost, this deal was exciting for me mostly cause it has shown a new level of ambition and faith to this industry never seen from MS before. This ambition is unlikely to go away and when past acquisitions actualy bare fruits and gamepass grows it will only reach even higher. If this deals does not end up being allowed then this ambition and faith will only find another way, this is only a postponement. Wide spencer will be seen here before long, that's a certainty, don't despair.

Where has this Sega hard on been all this time? I just don't see them going after anyone after this, minus some smaller support studios; especially SEGA with activision scrutiny and Japanese laws. Might be best to take the PS route and invest in startups. 

I feel this is like the only place where there is still some positivity and opisitm about xbox, everywhere else forums, twitter etc its all doom and gloom

Heh I don't read other gaming forums or twitter much at all but I can imagine. I don't know why all the doom & gloom though, we have Redfall, Starfield and Forza Motorsport coming this year and plenty of other games on the horizon.

:o :P

I know we mess about in here and dramatise the doom and gloom for shitposts (for the most part) but outside of here it’s worse on this website now than I’ve ever seen in the 9yrs I’ve been here. The kids in here are aight so welcome and enjoy it whilst it lasts. 

There are hurdles but it won't be impossible and foreign companies acquire Japanese companies all the time.

Another idea I've long had is that Microsoft should take minority stakes in some publishers.

Right...Microsoft's "we're all in on gaming" came before Activision-Blizzard even entered the picture. It is a blow to their ambitions but mainly in the Mobile space and they'll go back to Plan B. Game Pass is growing even without AAAs, Lol. We've yet to see the releases of Perfect Dark, Fable, Avowed, The Outer Worlds 2, Forza Motorsport, Starfield, an exclusive Doom, an exclusive Wolfenstein, an exclusive The Elder Scrolls and Fallout.

Twitter and Reddit thrive off reactionary hot takes, I've long ago purged my Twitter followers of that stuff and barely browse Reddit Gaming Communities anymore. People really need a little critical thinking before they make their doom & gloom comments and I'm glad this thread is actually sensible and reasonable in their complaints for the most part.

Microsoft losing Activision-Blizzard-King doesn't mean Xbox is in danger, it doesn't mean Phil's job is in danger, I want to tell them to stop being ridiculous but I know it will fall on deaf ears, some people act like they can't be negative but there's a difference between being negative and acting like the dang Earth is about to blow up, Lol.

Xbox fans should simply put themselves back in the mindset pre-Activision Blizzard but post-Zenimax where Activision-Blizzard-King wasn't even in the future, think back to then and how positive and optimistic they were about the future, that future is still exactly the same and nothing has changed, Xbox never even owned Activision-Blizzard-King and even under Xbox they wouldn't have produced many exclusives.

Activision-Blizzard-King, I will say again was a lucky opportunity that fell into Microsoft's lap and wasn't taken into account for their long term ambitions, there was no Activision-Blizzard-King in Phil's pitch to Satya. ABK was a very lucky opportunity to meet their long-term ambitions at a much faster pace (Game Pass, Mobile) but also make a bunch of money, it failed and so they'll go back to Plan B which is likely their plan after Zenimax.

It'll take longer to reach those ambitions but they were prepared to wait it out before, they'll still be prepared to wait it out. They'll still likely seek a Mobile developer for the experience of bringing Xbox IPs to Mobile, even CMA says they tried to acquire a Mobile developer, they're looking. They aren't going to stop looking because ABK failed, it isn't Microsoft's fault ABK failed, they couldn't have predicted how ridiculous regulators would be.

And before anyone says it, yes, 2022 was a bad year, Lol. They still released high quality AA titles but a lack of AAA is hurting them, however, by all accounts, Xbox financials are still healthy and doing better than ever even with the lack of AAAs but now the AAAs are right around the corner, Redfall is next week and it will be followed by Forza Motorsport and Starfield (which should be huge).

In fact, doesn't 2023 match 2021 in terms of AAA output (Redfall, Forza Motorsport, Starfield vs Halo, Flight Simulator, Forza Horizon 5)? And 2021 was widely considered a great year for Xbox, I'm way more excited for Starfield than both Flight Sim and FH5 combined as well, Lol. They definitely need more than 3 AAAs per year but I've no doubt that it will be up from here on out.

People are too involved in riding the news cycle, everything negative is needlessly amplified and taken to an extreme, I think the news has been negative but I'm playing games, not news, and I'm having fun, Lol. Year started brilliantly with Hi-Fi Rush which is yet another awesome AA title from Xbox, Age of Empires II port to Xbox was a great achievement, Redfall is next week and I'm looking forward to it, Starfield I'm incredibly excited for.

Not to mention the multiple great multiplatform releases, from Resident Evil to Jedi Survivor, or the multiple successful Game Pass day one launches this year, I'm also having fun with Minecraft Legends and Dead Island 2. So I've got to say, aside from the Hardware sales, I'm not really seeing the doom and gloom. Everything else is up, Lol.

Was tempted to get the red one but I have enough controllers and I want a Elite Series 2.

However, this makes me think they will do a series of Starfield controllers, and dear lord if they all look good.

It's actually really smart to use Design Labs for this...They should do it for all major releases.

Some taking their masks off because they'd love nothing more than for Xbox to leave the industry without realising how awful that would be because my billion dollar corporation is more ethical than your billion dollar corporation apparently, Lol.

Microsoft CEO: I've Never Been More Excited About Xbox's Pipeline Of Games

"Great content remains the flywheel behind our growth. We have now surpassed 500 million lifetime unique users across our first-party titles."

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Literally days ago, Satya commenting on Xbox's future line-up, without Activision-Blizzard-King.

Satya knows the importance of 1st party content.

Also, I want to share this post from a user over on ResetEra.

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PianoBlack Said:

And that’s my replay of Rime finished, 1 collectible and 1 chapter completion cheev glitched but it is what it is. Next up Va-11 Ha-11a.