Earlier today, we highlighted Michael Pachter's recent appearance on Yahoo Finance Live and his suggestion that Xbox Game Pass will reach 100 million subscribers, and the Wedbush Securities analyst also mentioned during the discussion that he believed the Activision Blizzard acquisition could conclude by the end of this year.
The main potential roadblock (in his opinion) lies with the FTC, and whether they might try and challenge the deal by October. However, he believes there's no legal basis to do so, and therefore an agreement will be reached instead.
"What the FTC will likely do and should do is seek an agreement with Microsoft and enter into a consent decree, not block the merger, not sue to block the merger.
And the consent decree will say, we're not going to raise game prices or the cost of the console. And we're absolutely going to continue to support Playstation with Activision games. If they get that, this deal sails through."
Pachter says that October is "kind of when the FTC has to fish or cut bait", so if they don't take any action by the end of that month, he believes Microsoft will announce that the deal is done by the end of 2022, or January 15th at the latest.
Whenever the deal does close, it's already been confirmed that Microsoft wants to bring as many Activision Blizzard games to Xbox Game Pass as posible, so that should include the likes of Call of Duty, Crash Bandicoot, Diablo and much more.
Do you think the deal will close this year? Give us your prediction in the comments.
[source uk.finance.yahoo.com]
Comments 15
This has been rumored again and again. Not sure why this keeps getting reposted with no new info
There is no way that this deal can be stopped with Sony acquiring a bunch of studios since this was announced. They can't let Sony do one thing and limit Microsoft. Especially since Microsoft is an American company and Sony is Japanese. American regulates won't handcuff an American company while letting a Japanese company become bigger in a market.
@NeoRatt And don't forget about TenCent and Embracer group too both also adding to their portfolios in recent times. Apple, Google and Amazon are looking to compete with 'streaming' services and I bet Sony will have their own option too - although they are still very much a 'sales' based business, they have services that could become more competitive at the expense of 'sales' so I think they want to get their services to a point where the switch from more sales focus isn't detrimental to their business model.
@NeoRatt
"They can't let Sony do one thing and limit Microsoft. Especially since Microsoft is an American company and Sony is Japanese."
I don't think it works that way. The FTC will scrutinise the deal and proceed with it's findings regardless of Microsoft being an American corporation or not. If they find the deal to be anticompetitive they will block it and Microsoft has to then prove it will not be the case.
That said, I just can not see it being stopped on the basis of Microsoft having a gaming monopoly, they will still be smaller than Sony and Tencent in regards to that .
@NeoRatt They are on a completely different scale though. ABK was $70 billion USD. They were one of the largest gaming publishers and encompass multiple studios and franchises. That is why this is being looked at in more detail. While I 100% expect it to go through it will take longer as anti-competitive practises have to be looked at.
Whereas Bungie was $3.7 billion and it is 1 studio, with 1 franchise and just 2 games released. Haven haven't even released a game, Bluepoint was virtually a Sony second party already etc.
Not the same scale. I'd be looking more at Tencent and Embracer than Sony.
It will close this year, I'm sure of that. Seems to be going at speed and we should hear from regulators this month, most if not all.
Not much of a prediction.
I was hoping the deal would be complete before MW2 launched
@Notoriousmakavel there are alot of Microsoft owned games that aren't on gamepass because of licensing issues so I'd assume that will be the case with Activision games aswell unless Microsoft is willing to pay to renew music/car etc licenses which I doubt
I never wanted Call of Duty to be exclusive to anyone. But then I endured six month of whining sony fanboys and even whining comment by Sony themselves.
Why should it not be exclusive? They're paying nearly 70 billion and ps gamers still got Battlefield.
@NeoRatt Sony/PlayStation are a west coast American big tech company now just like Apple or Google. They originate from Japan obviously but are firmly based in the US.
This deal will go through and I wouldn’t be surprised if MS go out and buy someone else in the future. They’re nowhere near being a monopoly contrary to what PlayStation fans would have you believe.
I was expecting it to be done this year given how fast things seem to be moving (based on recent reporting) but this guy is wrong more often than he is right. At this point it’s obviously he is only right by accident, so any time he says something I just expect the opposite even then there is a trend for what he suggested.
Since the start there wasn't any reason for stopping the deal so it's definitely going to go through. No amount of Sony trying to play victim will erase the fact that Sony is still ahead of Xbox after this deal. Hoping for some Crash Bandicoot racing on gamepass after the deal to play with the kids.
The original statement mentioned that the deal would not close until fiscal year 2023. Somehow, that got reinterpreted as the end of fiscal year 2023 (next June for MS) or even the end of 2023. Sure, this is a much larger deal, but the Bethesda and Bungie deals didn't take anywhere near this long.
I am fairly confident this purchase will be a done deal in 2022. Maybe sooner than we think.
I'm hoping for a new Guitar Hero game!
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