Microsoft Blizzard purchase getting approved by the EU

[maflynn]

Color me surprised.

I guess the 10 year promise to keeping COD open and bringing it the Nintendo switch helped quell EU regulators. I don't know if that will be enough for US regulators or the EU approval will alter the US' thinking process and they approve it.

Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard purchase will reportedly be approved by the EU

Microsoft has reportedly cleared a major regulatory hurdle as it tries to move toward finalizing its Activision Blizzard purchase. The company’s licensing offers to competitors are expected to appease European Union (EU) antitrust concerns about the $69 billion acquisition, according to Reuters. The EU previously said it believed the deal could “significantly reduce competition” in PC, console and cloud gaming.

 

[opeter]

Well, hard to tell what it will be in the long time. If they say Microsoft can buy AB, what can a single person do? Nothing. Of course everyone can have an opinion.

For these who need this stuff (aka playing AB games daily, being dependent) like everyday food, I understand that it will hurt, if prices/subscriptions go up.

 

[maflynn]

Well, hard to tell what it will be in the long time.

I've gone back and forth with this. The graph below from wikipedia was bantered about and was used to justify the merger. However look at the Fiscal Year in the exhibit its 2020 to 2021. In 2022, Microsofts game revenue was 16 billion and it appears Tencent has had a bad year missing targets, so much so this link seems to be more accurate .
(all in billions)
Sony 28.2
Microsoft 16.2
Tencent at 13.9
Nintendo 13.8
Activision 7.4

My point is MS already has a commanding positioning in the gaming industry and absorbing Blizzard will put them on par with Sony. I think its really bad for consumers to have two companies control so much of the industry. If anything it will cause more consolidation as others will need to merge to compete against MS.

 

[Spaceboi Scaphandre]

Color me surprised.

I guess the 10 year promise to keeping COD open and bringing it the Nintendo switch helped quell EU regulators. I don't know if that will be enough for US regulators or the EU approval will alter the US' thinking process and they approve it.

Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard purchase will reportedly be approved by the EU

In terms of the FTC, they got no case. Their main argument to blocking the deal was already debunked by EU legislators. The FTC at this point are only doing stall tactics like when they tried to block Meta's acquisition of VR fitness app Supernatural, only for Meta to challenge it in court and win in a landslide, giving Microsoft case law as a result. The acquisition at this point is not if, but when. (At least soon we can hopefully kill Bnet for good and I can get Blizzard games on my Steam Deck)

Now comes the fun part: Harvesting the Playstation Fanboy salt.

 

[diamond.g]

In terms of the FTC, they got no case. Their main argument to blocking the deal was already debunked by EU legislators. The FTC at this point are only doing stall tactics like when they tried to block Meta's acquisition of VR fitness app Supernatural, only for Meta to challenge it in court and win in a landslide, giving Microsoft case law as a result. The acquisition at this point is not if, but when. (At least soon we can hopefully kill Bnet for good and I can get Blizzard games on my Steam Deck)

Now comes the fun part: Harvesting the Playstation Fanboy salt.

Eh I hope it will make the cries about how FF16 (really anyting from Square Enix) is PS5 exclusive go dormant. I doubt it will though.

 

[Spaceboi Scaphandre]

Eh I hope it will make the cries about how FF16 (really anyting from Square Enix) is PS5 exclusive go dormant. I doubt it will though.

Bro the fact the PC version was announced but it's not day in date is asinine, and now they're trying to gaslight us that a PC version wasn't even announced. Square did an amazing job on FF7R's PC release, even making sure it's Deck verified, and yet FF16 not being day in date is so crap.

 

[diamond.g]

Bro the fact the PC version was announced but it's not day in date is asinine, and now they're trying to gaslight us that a PC version wasn't even announced. Square did an amazing job on FF7R's PC release, even making sure it's Deck verified, and yet FF16 not being day in date is so crap.

Eh, Square did admit that Sony is bankrolling it (FF16), so yeah.

 

[Spaceboi Scaphandre]

Eh, Square did admit that Sony is bankrolling it (FF16), so yeah.

Sony's bankrolling the Silent Hill 2 remake and that's day in date on PC

They also bankrolled Stray, and that was day in date on PC

SONY HAS THEIR PLAYSTATION PC DIVISION AND IS PORTING THE LAST OF US REMAKE THIS MONTH

 

[laptech]

The problem with the buyout is that more PC games will be on the back burner with consoles getting the priority. Microsoft giving 'promises' to the EU reminds me of Hershey giving 'promises' to the UK government of it's purchase of Cadburys. A year later those promises were broken and I have no doubt Microsoft will do the same.

 

[Spaceboi Scaphandre]

The problem with the buyout is that more PC games will be on the back burner with consoles getting the priority. Microsoft giving 'promises' to the EU reminds me of Hershey giving 'promises' to the UK government of it's purchase of Cadburys. A year later those promises were broken and I have no doubt Microsoft will do the same.

Bro all Xbox games are day in date on PC and have been ever since Halo MCC PC sold so well it caused Steam to crash, and Microsoft to rethink their entire PC strategy, as well as cause Sony to start doing PC releases

If anything, it's when Sony bankrolls a game is when the PC version will be on the back burner. Case in point: Final Fantasy 7 Remake and 16.

 

[maflynn]

The problem with the buyout is that more PC games will be on the back burner with consoles getting the priority

I don't think so, their cloud gaming service is console based and their focus as been growing the xbox marketshare. PC gaming is a nice add on, but the xbox is their focus

 

[Danfango]

That'll be two separate turds turning into one amorphous turd. I don't see the problem with it.

 

[rafark]

Why does the eu have a say in this purchase anyway? Aren’t all these American companies?

 

[MacDaddyPanda]

Blizzard sucks. I had ton of problems recently with COD MW2 on battle.net. I ended up rebuying the game on Steam. If MS Can fix Blizzard good. If not oh well I guess. And if games become so crappy that I just stop buying them I guess I'll jump over to my Mac 100%. For now I'm splitting my time between the 2 platforms. Blizzard had all kinds of issues with logins for whatever reason. ANd networking issues with connecting to their servers even after logging in. I had enough. The game still has bugs, but on Steam platform I don't have those basic issues.

 

[Vref]

Could one of them put out a patch to change players voices, the pre pubes teen screeching is bothersome 😂

 

[JouniS]

Why does the eu have a say in this purchase anyway? Aren’t all these American companies?

The EU is a big market, and Microsoft would like to continue selling their products there in the future. Being a foreigner does not make you immune to local laws.

 

[Vref]

The EU is a big market, and Microsoft would like to continue selling their products there in the future. Being a foreigner does not make you immune to local laws.

Just stop selling in the EU, I’d wager all the gamers will just VPN to the US to download and give them their $$

Be nice for them to do that, not give the tax dollars to the EU and let them have their tantrum

 

[JouniS]

Just stop selling in the EU, I’d wager all the gamers will just VPN to the US to download and give them their $$

Be nice for them to do that, not give the tax dollars to the EU and let them have their tantrum

That would mean stopping to sell Windows, Office, and Azure in the EU as well. Since the EU is about a sixth of the world economy, the damage to shareholders would be over $300 billion. Shutting down their game business worldwide would be far less damaging and easier to justify.

 

[salamanderjuice]

Why does the eu have a say in this purchase anyway? Aren’t all these American companies?

They're multinationals. Activision has studios in the EU and the oft forgotten part of Activision Blizzard King is the King part which is HQ'd in Malta. Microsoft has offices and studios in Europe too. They also both do business in Europe...

 

[Zest28]

Color me surprised.

I guess the 10 year promise to keeping COD open and bringing it the Nintendo switch helped quell EU regulators. I don't know if that will be enough for US regulators or the EU approval will alter the US' thinking process and they approve it.

Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard purchase will reportedly be approved by the EU

Why wouldn't it get approved? Sony dominates the console market so it's kinda funny that the regulators were listening to Sony in the first place.

The regulators were protecting the dominant market player (Sony) basically, which is a joke.

Btw Sony is the one who forces game developers to be exclusive to Sony, not Microsoft.

 

[diamond.g]

Why wouldn't it get approved? Sony dominates the console market so it's kinda funny that the regulators were listening to Sony in the first place.

The regulators were protecting the dominant market player (Sony) basically, which is a joke.

Btw Sony is the one who forces game developers to be exclusive to Sony, not Microsoft.

Forces is such a strong word. Guess we will see if that is actually the case since the FTC/MS is going to get their exclusives data going back to 2019.

 

[Janichsan]

Why wouldn't it get approved? Sony dominates the console market so it's kinda funny that the regulators were listening to Sony in the first place.

Because Microsoft's gaming division is not an separate entity but part of the third largest company in the world (by market capitalisation). Otherwise they wouldn't have had $70 billion dollar to throw at ABK. You can't just look at the gaming sector while ignoring the massive mega company behind it.

 

[maflynn]

Because Microsoft's gaming division is not an separate entity but part of the third largest company in the world (by market capitalisation). Otherwise they wouldn't have had $70 billion dollar to throw at ABK. You can't just look at the gaming sector while ignoring the massive mega company behind it.

I think that's a good point, but I also believe them leap frogging and buying up some of the biggest publishers in the past few years is not in the best interest of the consumer. I wasn't against them buying Bethesda, but if I was still on Sony hardware, I'd be very disappointed once Starfield comes out.

Overall, MS can use their entire size to their advantage and also affect the gaming market.

I don't know how this will play out, but I do wonder if the EU's acceptance will make the US's objections harder to stick

 

[salamanderjuice]

Why wouldn't it get approved? Sony dominates the console market so it's kinda funny that the regulators were listening to Sony in the first place.

The regulators were protecting the dominant market player (Sony) basically, which is a joke.

Btw Sony is the one who forces game developers to be exclusive to Sony, not Microsoft.

Where does this MS doesn't do exclusives BS come from? They absolutely do exclusives. There's no Forza or Flight Simulator on Playstation and they've done timed exclusives too like Rise of the Tomb Raider. Sure, they might also release games on Microsoft Windows, but they benefit from that too! You don't even see Mac ports of Microsoft games anymore like you used to. Microsoft controls like 95% of the PC gaming landscape.

Activision Blizzard is one of the hugest 3rd publishers with some of the biggest IPs. It would be ridiculous if Sony bought modern Square Enix, Activision Blizzard is bigger. I don't think it will help the industry even with a 10 year deal.

 

[maflynn]

Btw Sony is the one who forces game developers to be exclusive to Sony, not Microsoft.

One word - Starfield - MS already stated that's not going on the PS4/PS5. Its an exclusive. There's others to be sure. Both platforms have exclusives.