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Forums - Gaming Discussion - CMA blocks MS /ABK merger (Update: UK gov smears the CMA)

dane007 on 14 May 2023

Who will play console games on the cloud where most of the world has shitty to non existent internet. Shows how clueless CMA are. Imagine playing cod multiplayer using the cloud. The latency alone would be a big no



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SvennoJ on 14 May 2023
chakkra said:
SvennoJ said:

https://companiesmarketcap.com/tech/largest-tech-companies-by-revenue/

I should have included Samsung and Foxconn though. But indeed Sony is big enough as well. I definitely do not want Sony to buy up ABK either. (Not that they can spend 69 Billion)

I don't like this deal either, but at the end of the day, even after this purchase Microsoft will still be in 3rd place in the gaming market so the whole "monopoly danger" don't apply in this particular instance, regardless of Microsoft's size. In fact, in can be argued that by protecting the market leader the regulators are actually doing the exact opposite of what they are supposed to do; which is why the CMA dropped the whole console market angle and made up a totally new one "Oh, we believe this might hurt a new market that it doesn't even exist yet".

At this point it has become obvious that the CMA came to this decision because they just wanted to give an example of their power, but they overplayed their hand. At the end of the day, what happens between two japanese companies affects Japan's economy one way or another, what happens between two chinese companies affects China's economy one way or another, and what happens between two US companies affects USA's economy one way or another; there is absolutely no way in hell that all the countries of the world would just sit by and let a third one to call all the shots. As is stands right now, the CMA is actually putting the UK's economy in danger, and for what exactly?

Yes, and they'll still be last place in the mobile market. So what?

They did not make up a whole new angle, that angle was always there. It was part of their original suggestions to split off King or Cod. But MS doubled down on finding both essential to the deal. What for? To do exactly what the CMA is blocking the deal for. MS is heavily pushing cloud gaming at the moment, making deals left and right with smaller streaming providers to get the ball rolling. They have their plans to open a mobile store and already have a game streaming stick design ready. MS owns Azure, uses Bing and other stuff to subsidize Gamepass (MS rewards) and of course owns Windows.

The CMA is right to say, wait a minute. Buying up the content as well is one step too far. Either split it up or call it off.

Now how is that putting the UK's economy in danger? In danger of what exactly?



SvennoJ on 14 May 2023
dane007 said:

Who will play console games on the cloud where most of the world has shitty to non existent internet. Shows how clueless CMA are. Imagine playing cod multiplayer using the cloud. The latency alone would be a big no

There are already 430 million 5G subscribers. I tried xCloud myself and no for 'us' it's not good enough (yet). But plenty people already use 5G to game online.

https://www.4g.co.uk/news/4g-injecting-new-lease-life-online-gaming-mobile-broadband/
https://www.ericsson.com/en/5g/5-things-to-know-about-5g-if-you-are-a-gamer

For once the CMA is on the ball when it comes to tech advances. It's much easier to put up cell phone towers than lay fibre internet.



chakkra on 14 May 2023
SvennoJ said:
chakkra said:

I don't like this deal either, but at the end of the day, even after this purchase Microsoft will still be in 3rd place in the gaming market so the whole "monopoly danger" don't apply in this particular instance, regardless of Microsoft's size. In fact, in can be argued that by protecting the market leader the regulators are actually doing the exact opposite of what they are supposed to do; which is why the CMA dropped the whole console market angle and made up a totally new one "Oh, we believe this might hurt a new market that it doesn't even exist yet".

At this point it has become obvious that the CMA came to this decision because they just wanted to give an example of their power, but they overplayed their hand. At the end of the day, what happens between two japanese companies affects Japan's economy one way or another, what happens between two chinese companies affects China's economy one way or another, and what happens between two US companies affects USA's economy one way or another; there is absolutely no way in hell that all the countries of the world would just sit by and let a third one to call all the shots. As is stands right now, the CMA is actually putting the UK's economy in danger, and for what exactly?

Yes, and they'll still be last place in the mobile market. So what?

They did not make up a whole new angle, that angle was always there. It was part of their original suggestions to split off King or Cod. But MS doubled down on finding both essential to the deal. What for? To do exactly what the CMA is blocking the deal for. MS is heavily pushing cloud gaming at the moment, making deals left and right with smaller streaming providers to get the ball rolling. They have their plans to open a mobile store and already have a game streaming stick design ready. MS owns Azure, uses Bing and other stuff to subsidize Gamepass (MS rewards) and of course owns Windows.

The CMA is right to say, wait a minute. Buying up the content as well is one step too far. Either split it up or call it off.

Now how is that putting the UK's economy in danger? In danger of what exactly?

You know what? Forget it. Let's just wait to see how this ends. It is not like whatever you and I think about it is going to influence the outcome.



LurkerJ on 15 May 2023

To get approval in Europe, Microsoft agreed to make:

• All current and future Activision Blizzard PC and console games available on -any- cloud game streaming service of a consumer's choice

• Offer a free license to "cloud game streaming service providers"

Microsoft has confirmed that the EU forced it to automatically offer Activision Blizzard games on competing cloud gaming services.



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LurkerJ on 15 May 2023

These are massive concessions, and Sunak will "steer" the CMA next to approve the merger. Whether you want the merger to go ahead or not, we can all agree the deal is vastly different from the one we had when MS announced they're acquiring ABK.

CMA's best shot is to get MS to concede further. I personally think they're good concessions. A paradigm shift is going to happen and most of us will be playing games through the cloud eventually, however, the duration the EC agreed to is too short in my opinion as the market won't take off any time soon.



SvennoJ on 15 May 2023
LurkerJ said:

These are massive concessions, and Sunak will "steer" the CMA next to approve the merger. Whether you want the merger to go ahead or not, we can all agree the deal is vastly different from the one we had when MS announced they're acquiring ABK.

CMA's best shot is to get MS to concede further. I personally think they're good concessions. A paradigm shift is going to happen and most of us will be playing games through the cloud eventually, however, the duration the EC agreed to is too short in my opinion as the market won't take off any time soon.

How are these concessions? People still buy the games from MS, MS gets the money. People can stream the games on different streaming services, doesn't cost MS any money. The streaming services will get more traffic. Yet any savvy gamer will eventually move over to xCloud with gamepass ultimate instead of essentially paying twice to play the games. It's exactly why the CMA is blocking the deal. The 'concessions' are nothing but a Trojan horse.

Look up any forecasts and all predict fast growth to 2030, ranging between 26% yoy up to 57% yoy growth. The market is taking off right now. We're just at the early stages of an exponential growth curve. It only seems slow now.



LurkerJ on 15 May 2023
SvennoJ said:
LurkerJ said:

These are massive concessions, and Sunak will "steer" the CMA next to approve the merger. Whether you want the merger to go ahead or not, we can all agree the deal is vastly different from the one we had when MS announced they're acquiring ABK.

CMA's best shot is to get MS to concede further. I personally think they're good concessions. A paradigm shift is going to happen and most of us will be playing games through the cloud eventually, however, the duration the EC agreed to is too short in my opinion as the market won't take off any time soon.

How are these concessions? People still buy the games from MS, MS gets the money. People can stream the games on different streaming services, doesn't cost MS any money. The streaming services will get more traffic. Yet any savvy gamer will eventually move over to xCloud with gamepass ultimate instead of essentially paying twice to play the games. It's exactly why the CMA is blocking the deal. The 'concessions' are nothing but a Trojan horse.

Look up any forecasts and all predict fast growth to 2030, ranging between 26% yoy up to 57% yoy growth. The market is taking off right now. We're just at the early stages of an exponential growth curve. It only seems slow now.

Oh, don't get me wrong. I think the CMA sees through the ruse. But also, Sunak's recent (LinkedIn lol) statements can't be ignored, he made them while MS is literally filing for the appeal. The CMA is now under right-wing imposed political pressure to stop regulating. The only way Sunak's statements could've been made clearer was for him to explicitly say "allow the merger". 



Soonerman on 15 May 2023
LurkerJ said:

To get approval in Europe, Microsoft agreed to make:

• All current and future Activision Blizzard PC and console games available on -any- cloud game streaming service of a consumer's choice

• Offer a free license to "cloud game streaming service providers"

***Microsoft has confirmed that the EU forced it to automatically offer Activision Blizzard games on competing cloud gaming services.

I read in news outlet they said that EU is forcing MS to automatically offer **POPULAR** ABK games on competing cloud services. Can we confirm that? Because that allows MS to create original IPs only for Xbox.



SvennoJ on 15 May 2023
Soonerman said:

I read in news outlet they said that EU is forcing MS to automatically offer **POPULAR** ABK games on competing cloud services. Can we confirm that? Because that allows MS to create original IPs only for Xbox.

No need for that. Why would MS care where you play the game after you buy it from them? Any in game purchases will still be from MS and all going to MS. Competing cloud services are as much competing as competing DVD players were competition to Disney...

All MS has to do is make Ultimate a better deal than buying the game from MS or using Gamepass on a 'competing' cloud service. It's not competition to the other cloud services as they don't sell games, they rent out hardware to play on. You bring your own games.

Cloud ecosystems are very different from console ecosystems. The 'competing' ones that will take the offer are not selling games themselves and have nothing to lose from more content running through their system. For ones that do sell their own content, it's nothing but a dangerous Trojan horse, taking away part of their revenue and potentially their customers as well for a cheaper all included xCloud Ultimate deal. The ones not selling games will be affected in the long run as well, but they really have no choice. Not accepting the offer will only speed up the process of users switching to xCloud.

But true, if people don't naturally migrate to xCloud, MS can still make their new games exclusive. Actually, after the merger, anything new released are not ABK games anymore, they're all MS games ;)