This part has me scratching my head.. Did Ms stop users from installing whatever they want on their PC's?. Can you not install Linux or another OS on your PC. Honestly i would love to know how Ms acts like they own your PC hardware...

I keep saying.. the evil side of me kinda would like to see this getting blocked just to see what happens next. The whole media seems to be under the impression that things will just go back to be as they were before.. and I just don't see that happening.

As a pc gamer, i dont care, but since call of duty is inside the package, i can understand the worry from sony.

Very much against.
Microsoft is a giant tech conglomerate literally trying to swallow up the largest third party in the dedicated console gaming industry. An industry that means a lot to me. But I’m against all such predatory acquisitions and understand they’re fundamentally bad for industries. And this isn’t new from Microsoft, they’ve been trying this shit since before they got into the dedicated console industry. Just don’t forget what the fuck they are—they’re big tech. Big tech isn’t your friend.

I don’t even give a shit if Microsoft and Activision create a deal between the two companies to provide Call of Duty exclusive to Xbox consoles. Just as long as they don’t swallow the whole fucking company and have the whole thing under their control, and that they can’t negotiate because Microsoft owns them.

Concentration is a rot in any industry; it’s something we should be moving away from, not towards. Trade commissions don’t “have it out for Microsoft” as some have suggested. They’re doing their job. Trade commissions were designed to protect industries from this kind of predatory bullshit… If anything, they should be much more strict than they’ve been. They’ve let a number of mergers and acquisitions occur that almost certainly shouldn’t have happened.

But I’m not surprised people have been sucked in by Microsoft’s corporate PR bullshit. They’re quite smooth. And it seems the number is larger than just Xbox fanboys supporting their company they worship (I’m not talking to you guys). Some people forget Phil S-something (forget his name) is still just spitting corporate PR bullshit. Snap the fuck out of it! :)

I guess the key question would be does this deal allow MS to be more competitive or does it allow them to dominate the industry. Its hard for me to see this deal really giving MS a big advantage. Money wise COD is a win but its not like MS is hurting for money. Can MS lockout games from Sony which would case customers to choose the Series consoles over Sony. I just do not see it. Sony mainline games are incredible strong and Sony brand around the world is way stronger than MS. I believe most PS gamers would just move to another MP game because the market definitely have a lot of alternatives. The other properties from Activision like Overwatch also have a lot of competition in the free to play space. The only real property that plays on console from Activision that I can see that does not have a lot of competition is diablo. When you go to Activision page its all COD and then a bunch of games that have not seen the light of day in years.

I really do not see a competitive advantage for MS. They will need to keep COD on all platforms if this deal goes through. I doubt they will lock out Overwatch and Diablo. If they do lockout Diablo its probably not going to be Diablo 4 and going by how long it takes Blizz to get a game to market, their next effort should show up in about 5 years or better.

I believe that Activision will get purchase by someone, Tencent, Netease, some Saudi conglomerate you name it, putting my American bias on here, I rather it be an American company then anyone else, so I am in favor of the deal.

Agree with most of your post Machiavellian! However the bolded I feel is not really seen as an option for those who are invested in 1 or 2 specific MP games. For me those games have been Dota 2, Apex Legends and COD. I will for the most part follow the platforms those games appear on. So I feel there is a big distinction between gamers who are buying Sony single player games and those that are locked into a particular MP game (Overwatch and Diablo also fall into this category imo). It doesnt seem like there is much overlap either between these two sets of gamers. I think Sony knows this, and they know the number of gamers who are on PS+ purely because of COD, which is why they are fighting so hard.

Just look at XB One and you'll see what MS does once it believes it has the market cornered. Its harder to see when it's happening inch by inch since PC is far more open to begin with.

Why has Windows been the go to OS for PC with basically no competition for like 30 years now? Why did MS want to partner with Sony or Nin for consoles initially and what did they offer to the platforms? When MS couldn't monopolize console OS, what was their next move and what have they done since like with Game Pass most recently?

You don't need control over everything when you have control of enough things to basically control everything else, but then can use that strategic control to keep gaining more and more control.

Same thing Sony done when they couldnt own Nintendo software sales with the Nintendo CD... Make their own console...

Also look what Sony done with the PS3 at first when they thought they had the market cornered. They where lucky they had so many company's support them until they got their shit together. And now with the PS5 they are going back to their old ways. Raising console prices instead of lowering them etc etc.

$499 in 2006 is worth $724 nowadays, so still a ways to go to reach PS3 launch price... If you want to look at disgusting price practices, look at NVidea :/

And erm it was Nintendo that screwed up...
https://nationalpost.com/entertainment/how-nintendos-massive-mistake-led-to-the-creation-of-the-sony-playstation-25-years-ago

“According to the contract, Sony could make and sell CD-ROM games without buying them from Nintendo. Nintendo wanted a monopoly on manufacturing games for its hardware.”

Rather than bring this disagreement to Sony directly — rather than attempt to work out a new arrangement that was more favourable on the terms Nintendo demanded — Nintendo elected to abandon their deal and strike a better one with a competing manufacturer, leaving Sony in the lurch. (Some have suggested that this may be chalked up to cultural differences and Japanese contract law that no one at Nintendo felt obligated to inform Sony of their decision to renege.) Nintendo felt it was better served focusing its efforts on a CD-ROM peripheral that could be manufactured by Philips without compromising their monopoly on first-party software. Nintendo was already trouncing its only major competitor, the Sega Genesis. No one seemed capable of threatening their dominion — and so, making decisions cavalierly, they felt they had nothing to fear.

So it was Nintendo believing they had the market cornered and doing whatever they wanted. It's also Nintendo that never lowers the price of their first party software... And also Nintendo that's the only one not bringing their games to PC. Nintendo have never left their old ways :/

Yeah if your on a tight budget and can't afford games, it's good to have gamepass, but having all those multiplats come as exclusive, for the serious gamer out there who has no problem buying games, it means less overall exclusives compared to if there is no aquisition.

Picture this. There is no acquisition,  and with microsoft already getting questioned over the lack of exclusives, and needing to step it up,  will have to invest and push out exclusives to keep up with sony and the complaints. So ontop of microsoft putting out exclusives, you then have all these multiplat games coming from activision /blizzard, on top, for a bigger count.

If the aquision goes through, more of the multiplat titles will now take the place of some of the " would have arrived" exclusives from xbox. So that's less overall potential exclusives in the end. 

Microsoft will have to market the exclusives from the aquisition,  as their own games.  And with that 68 billion spent, what incentive would they have to go out and spend more money on exclusives.