Microsoft President Makes Headline News With 'Furious' Response To UK ActiBlizz Verdict

The whole thing is a farce. To say it was about cloud gaming was a clear fabrication from the CMA. I seem several 🐀

And the most dramatic statement of the week award goes to…

I do wonder where Microsoft/Xbox go from here. Personally, I'd rather them spend just a few billion on getting their own studios in order and then money-hatting exclusives - Sony style.

The ActiBlizz acquisition seems quite pivotal to the future roadmap of Microsoft gaming and I wonder if the deal is blocked - do they still see it as viable? I feel a bit concerned for the future of Xbox.

It's interesting from the dialogue how MS is putting all its eggs in the EU basket by stating how open and easy the process has been with them the whole time in contrast to the CMA.
It means if the EU block the deal, then MS will be the ones looking very foolish. That said, if the EU approve it then the CMA ends up the fool looking like another isolated decision from a post Brexit Britain.
All of this is distracting from Redfall coming out in a few days anyhow. Would be a shame if the game is amazing and overshadowed by the ActiBlizz nonsense.

They sound like children that can't get their own way at this point.

"discourage innovation and investment in the United Kingdom".

That just reads like a subtle scare mongering threat that they know they won't follow up on and potentially risk losing even more money. Don't f**k with the UK Microsoft because they can be unpredictable. You've just seen that.

@outswimmingtheflood
This exactly. I'm sorry but the lack of games and multiple delays and the Redfall fiasco just shows they have an internal mismanagement problem and for now should really focus their efforts on cleaning it up and getting some games out there. Not taking on more than they already can't handle.

Sony have been running rings around them at this point with releases making it look like Xbox is running into a barren Xbox One hiatus again. Albeit for now.

Holy crap! And everyone thought Jim Ryan was a crybaby. Brad Smith not only takes the cake, he's bought the whole bakery too 🤣

@themightyant I don't think it's pressuring the EU so much as doubling down on the result they get from them. If the EU approve, they can appeal the CMA decision with added gusto, if EU block then MS should just stop trying altogether with the whole thing.
The EU isn't foolish enough to be blackmailed by the empty threat of MS investment, the statement from MS today is just them coming out fighting (which is what you'd expect considering the vast amount of time and money they've put into this deal to have it tank).

Edit - My comment about the EU is specifically the comments made about the process and transparency (as can be sourced from BBC & Guardian). MS is essentially saying that the CMA is unprofessional in comparison (somewhat ironic with their overblown statement as well)

@pip_muzz
I've got it in my head that the EU would follow suit and move on. They've got a lot more problems right now than to deal with a gaming squabble. Might be wrong and I'd be very surprised but I guess we'll see soon enough.

I'm just as shocked as anyone by the outcome from the UK. I honestly thought it sounded like a done deal last week.

@GADG3Tx87 The odds of the EU following suit and blocking as well are definitely high. Why I'm personally surprised MS are putting so much weight into the decision there. If the EU say no, MS don't just lose the deal but a huge amount of credibility as well.

seems to show MS true colours with all this whining.
Effectively saying "We're buying everyone we can so there is no longer anyone left to compete with us and if you don't let us there will be repercussions". Just a huge corporation trying to bully anyone and everyone to get their way.
Not everyone agrees that taking away the biggest publishers (Bethesda and ABK) from competitors is 'great' for the industry.
I'll be getting these games alongside my free GamePass subscription so thats good, but in no way is this ever good for the games industry.
The best thing for the games industry would be to leave these companies alone and make loads of inhouse awesome original new games instead of spending all that money to churn out the same games over and over just to block X% of the gaming community from enjoying them.

This is now getting both embarrassing and ridiculous. Microsoft should start showing some decorum right about now with this. Or how about starting to liase with EU regulators and give them proper and tangible solutions to assuage their potential concerns about the deal, no?

I'm an Xbox owner, like Xbox and I'm heavily invested in the ecosystem but comes a time when we need to look at this objectively.

That didn't take long. Thats the Microsoft talk we all know.

@pip_muzz

The odds of the EU following suit and blocking as well are definitely hig

Exactly. The EU regulators passing this deal now will be a bigger surprise than the CMA decision. Microsoft has to let this one go.

MS and Activision definitely aren't coming out of this looking good from their responses. They should just keep a dignified silence and follow due process for the appeal. These sort of statements aren't going to help their appeal.

So now they are threatening the UK because they couldn't get their own way?

This acquisition has really shown these corporate clowns true colors. I'm so glad it's being blocked. It's game over for this deal. Better spend some money on your internal resources now before the brand takes another hit.

Talk about being melodramatic. Sony acted like children we can all agree but there is nothing like a rich child throwing a tantrum

@Kevw2006
I think that often. Often than not whether it's good news or not someone at Microsoft opens their mouth either to gloat or moan. There are times when Phil Spencer will make statements that can be perceived as childish and subtle goading and I sit here thinking "I wish you'd keep your mouth shut"

He's always doing that.

The Deal is dead, long live the Deal!

I miss the days when we just talked about our excitement for upcoming games or our enjoyment of a recently released game.

All the politics and corporate stuff is really sucking the joy out of my hobby.

Going to go back to trying to ignore this stuff again. I have said what I think of this whole thing more than once and it's not like I can change any outcomes.

The future can take care of itself I am going to try and enjoy what's in front of me now.

Next news:
Brad Smith and Jim Ryan nominated to the Oscar.

Y’all are hilarious. One country makes a misguided decision and instantly the internet is awash with “the deal is done.”

@themightyant it's not really laughable as we haven't had any US government response yet to the decision. They got involved when Sony was trying to influence the narrative so I'd expect them to respond to the CMA doing the same.

@pip_muzz Good point! I would wager the EU is chomping at the bit the embarrass the UK right now, too.

@BBB
I hear that and it's only going to get worse. I hate consolidation and the bad practices we've seen only escalating since the start of the last generation.
The more this goes on, the more people will think they know what goes on in the boardrooms and how much money these corps have and who will kick who in the balls.

It's tiresome. And more often than not I find myself going backwards with games, not forwards. My PS2 has been on more lately than any new game. And when everything gets gobbled up, choice is reduced, delays and greed gets worse I'm done with the future of, quite frankly mediocre and underwhelming games. (Because they tend to get over hyped a lot now).

I've got a big enough library to last the rest of my days. So everyone can have their clouds, their services, their greedy microtranactions. I'll be good.

The difficulty is, @outswimmingtheflood, that Xbox cannot secure the quality third-party in the same way as the PlayStation. The problem is the install base on each console. Currently, the PlayStation has around 150,000,000 gamers, the Xbox fewer than 50,000,000. So, if 1% of gamers buy an exclusive game on the PlayStation the developer sells 1,500,000 copies of the game. If 1% of gamers buy an exclusive game on the Xbox the developer sells just 500,000 copies of the game. That effectively means that Microsoft has to cover the cost of those lost 1 million sales, and that cost is simply prohibitive. Where Sony can say you'll sell a million more games on the PlayStation, Microsoft have to compensate for the 1 million fewer sales. The bigger the game, the higher its quality, the more it costs Microsoft to lock down exclusivity. It's easy to imagine Sony being able to lock down exclusive rights for Elden Ring 2, there's just no way that Microsoft would do it...

The problem with the notion of investing more in their current stock of studios, @outswimmingtheflood, is that Xbox needs those games now, not in two, three or more years time. That was the attraction of the ABK deal; an instant influx of quality games and studios that would bolster what Xbox has to offer, and increase subscriber numbers. The question is now whether Microsoft will want to continue investing in new games when the landscape looks so bleak...

@themightyant

And the sort of thinly veiled threats

Let us all then have a sigh of relief that Microsoft are not a Russian company and friends with Putin, sitting across the table with a big red button on it.

will hinder more than help their case

The case is dead, all its left to do really is to make a decision on pulling the plug on the apparatuses or let someone else do it for them.... Just want to break the seriousness on this drama 😁

Politics. That’s what this is. He’s hoping our politicians read his statements and think sh*t, maybe we should look at this.

I think you're right, @pip_muzz, what happens in the coming weeks with regards to the EU will be pivotal. If the EU also block the deal, then this gives an enormous amount of ammunition to the US to do the same. If the EU back the deal, and the US loses in Court, then the focus will shift back to the UK, who may well change their ruling, if they can (or can to claim have) get some further assurances from Microsoft. I don't think that the UK would want to be the little guy (which they are in comparison to the other two) seen to be blocking the deal, as it could just make them look foolish.

I guess the question is, will the EU now decide to go along with the UK (potentially changing their stance on the deal from approval to not), or will they follow their own path and approve the deal...

@themightyant it is a bit hyperbolic, but still holds true, and it’s not a thread, I don’t think.

The way modern capitalism works, financing a new company is done with the eventual expectation of having it grow and the cash out, selling it to a larger fish.

If having a UK presence is going to result in preventing larger companies acquiring yours, just because you are successful, or due to some unrelated fear (cloud gaming is not even a business ABK is into, or expressed any interest for) then future investors and growing companies are very likely to avoid the region.

@Moonglow finally someone speaking a modicum of sense.

@Sol4ris if the EU does not block the deal, the case is far from dead, depending how much Microsoft really wants to push through.

ABK can restructure the deal, entirely spinning-off all UK operations, and not include that entity in the sale. UK does not hold much legal power outside operations in their region.

Edit: as far as I can tell, Sledgehammer is the only UK based studio. They likely also have a local publishing and marketing arm there.

Edit 2: hell, at the end ABK might even decide to entirely shut down all UK operations, if all they want is liquidation and this is the only path they see for that.

Its going to be a glorious day when this deal completes, and MS cant sell Call of Duty in the UK thanks to the CMA. Every UK gamer can send love letters to Sarah Cardell, since the UK is open for business, while the rest of the world plays Activision games.

@k3lt0n 2 countries. It was blocked by US as well. That's 2 huge markets and if EU goes the same way then yes its effectively dead.

lol, nutter. is a bit toys out of pram.

i still don't understand how any seperate country's regulator has the power to block a deal.
what would happen if they did it anyway if the eu and the usa ones say it is ok?

@GADG3Tx87 MS is the only adult in the room with Jim Ryan stomping his feet over this deal.
When a company has billions to throw around their threats will only be ignored by the ignorant.

This is why the United States of America is the place tech thrives. Apple Google and Microsoft all thrive in America and Britain say’s they want to be the San Francisco of Europe with tech, but yet have an archaic mindset of business. Bobby warned this would hurt tech in the region months ago, wether or not it does or not will have to be watched over the next 2 years or so. But Industry wide this has been looked at and public said as a good thing here in the USA.

@Chaudy where are you getting your facts? The FTC decision has not been finalized.

@Widey85 that number seems too low for their subscriber base. That 5k capacity must be a regional UK data center thing.

@Kaloudz Lol, I was thinking the same! I think it is Teller...?

Microsoft does not need the UK.
The UK needs Microsoft products.
they should just sign and move on with the deal without the UK approval its their loss and not the way arround.
This is buisness and sometimes you gotta make sacrifices for your own benefits

I’m (was) down for the MS ABK acquisition, but this is an exaggeration. The darkest day of MS?!? Come on!! Xbox One and Windows ME launch, anyone? This is a wake up call for MS to use their 23 studios and start launching games!!!

@GADG3Tx87 What money? the UK is broke!

@Ashadelo
Is it? London is one of the three major economic sectors of the world and right now the EU is falling apart without the financial support from London. France has especially taken a huge hit and other countries are now considering pulling out. Greece is one toe out the door and others thinking about it. If you follow the political goings on it's a real s**tshow right now.

Trade has taken a hit across the UK and EU, some of which out of spite but in fact, since the split, which is still yet incomplete, the UK has been financially better off without having to provide EU countries financial support or member fees.

London and Brussels were the main financiers of the European Union, in which the UK provided the bulk of that economy.

The only thing about the entire ordeal that bothers me is if after the transition period the UK loses access (or pulls out) of the European Court of Human Rights. The conservatives have shown how mad with power they can be without additional legislation from them.

@FenIsMightier Yamauchi was a mad man. Guy was totally bonkers. People love to say that Xbox killed Rare. No, Yamauchi killed Rare because Nintendo had an entire year to buy the other half of the shares and the guy was like, "Nah, we don't need you" and just sent them out to find a whoever would buy them. Truly unbelievable that was. It didn't matter if you were his enemy or ally, he'd just tell you to take a hike.

@Healz I'm pretty sure thats when a company has a monopoly and too much power, when a whole country NEEDS them. Without doubt MS are trying to monopolise all they can and are now going for the gaming market. They already own more studios that Sony and adding a tonne more. I really don't understand why MS can't use that money to get us more games. Using that money for ABK and Bethesda games doesn't give us more, but gives us the same as before. Spending that money on new studios / current studios would give us more games.
Am I misunderstanding why Xbox owners want this to happen? Choice between 345 new AAA (games at 200 mil a game - I think) on top of current list of games OR same list of games but PS owners don't get ABK games anymore?

I still think the deal will go through , chances are they will offer Microsoft a deal like saying don't rise the prices of game pass for a set period

@Sebatrox I could be wrong but I believe Minecraft may have something to do with those figures looking so weird. Even playing on PS you need to log in to an MS/Xbox account to use online functionality.

Quite frankly I don't see this as hyperbolic whining, I think of it as a professional attempt to hide pure shock and rage at what is an obvious political/manipulated result, made more shocking by what appears to be a true last minute 11th hour quiet reversal of everything they had indicated prior, and ignoring their own statements.

What shocks me more is that we're not hearing talks of scandal/corruption on CMA's part. I don't know much about CMA, or their history, but if what happened with this is normal, there's something very wrong in that agency, and if it's not normal why is there not more conversation on this bizarre twist being abnormal? Yeah, Smith comes across as threatening here, but honestly I suspect that's the most professional he can manage to appear while seething and knowing something below board just happened.

@Moonglow Yeah, I said in the other thread yesterday that I can't figure out if the verdict is a result of incompetence at not understanding the market at all, and not actually trying to despite a year of weird, also off-the-mark investigation, or if it's the result of chicanery. I figure it's 50/50 that it's either that they worked out a plan to protect Sony but deflect the blame from them by blaming cloud so they can look unscathed, pure corruption - or if it's incompetence that these guys don't understand the cloud market even slightly and decided that "doing nothing and preserve the status quo" is the best option when not understanding the implications of anything at all.

Corruption vs incompetence is almost impossible to tell with government, but it's one or the other, really. You don't stop a business from developing to protect competition that doesn't actually exist just in case some day it might. That makes no sense. Weirder is that the small players in the market were to benefit from it, while the big players.....there aren't any.

I can't even find an analogue for it, it's just unprecedented. I think if EU blocks, then it means the climate is just anti-big-business without looking at the facts and details across the board, nobody was even interested in hearing the case and is just blanket shutting down big company growth and everything else is glorified acting to justify it by process. Which I'd normally agree with, but not in the case of this particular market right now. If the EU approves.....I think there's some serious questions to be asked about propriety at the CMA.

Microsoft should stop this deal and do like sony with square Enix, and just to make Sony furious they should stop making call of Duty for the Playstation that's what they deserve.

Pathetic egotistical comments from Microsoft, if they weren’t trying to monopolise a growing market they are dominant in then there wouldn’t be a problem.
I think some need to read more in depth on this and ignore the hyperbole rhetoric from MS and ActiBlizz employees. 60 to 70% global market owned by Microsoft, and they wanted to buy ActiBlizz.

@Neonix I was actually insulted by the disgusting ActiBlizz comment, no these hard line American giant capitalist comments do not work at all. Socialism from Europe and capitalism from America don’t always work.

@Sebatrox The next sentence in that faq is the part I was speaking about - "With a Microsoft account, Minecraft players on PS4 can play with others on non-PlayStation devices such as iPadOS, iOS, Android, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, and Windows devices (via cross-play, Realms, or Servers).". If you want to play with people on other devices you need to have a Microsoft account.

@Kaloudz

They especially won't want MS seeing EU as "the" place to do business if the EU say yes when UK have said no

After yesterday's ruling, we owe to be very cautious in reading too much or pining too high a hope in what Regulators say until they actually pass a verdict

Personally I can't really see a scenario were the CMA is not conversing with EU regulators or the FTC. The decision they have made was not to somehow be an outlier to the other two big Elefants in the room, hence why I'm not too hopefull.

I did mention here before that if Microsoft really wanted to bring games to more people via the Cloud they should never made Bethesda's new output games exclusive.
Keeping them on Gamepass/XCloud while also having them on Sony and Nintendo store fronts would have gone a long way in alleviating regulatory concerns. Especially If their plans were to acquire ABK all along. Intention, perception and optics matter here. Anyway that's just my two cents on this.

@FenIsMightier That's true, it's something I find particularly annoying that it's a necessity for cross play and hopefully somewhere down the line a better solution is found. I was only mentioning Minecraft in response to a post that was highlighting the discrepancy in the number of PS and Xbox consoles out there compared to the number of active accounts that they report. I could be way off the mark though.

@NEStalgia tbh you just don’t understand what CMA etc do.

The UK is secretly working on a modern Sinclair Spectrum console. This is how they build their own monopoly.

@NEStalgia I’m quite frankly amazed that you consider that a professional response!!! 🤣

Look I get that MS is angry but to start throwing around idle threats about investments etc isn't a good look at all. They need to pull thier trousers up and take it to appeal and wait for the decision. Sometimes saying nothing is the better option because if they carry on they will do nothing but anger the CMA and the UK gov and that won't end well for MS or any UK gamers.

If the deals didn't pan out I hope microsoft put that cool 70B to making more games or building new games studio rather than just buying the old one.

@NorthwestEagle
I miss the old days of the Nintendo Seal of Quality.
Games in full, ON the cartridge!

The best response I've seen on BBC's comments on this story:

"Have they tried turning the deal off and then on again?"

Wasn't there a clause that said if M$ didn't buy Acti/Blizz that they still had to pay a "fine" to Acti/Blizz?
Was that just if M$ backed out or does it not count since the courts and other agencies blocked the purchase?

I can understand M$ and Acti/Blizz being pissed off if:
1 - M$ still has to pay and can't get anything for it
2 - Acti/Blizz for not getting a huge paycheck

@Moonglow You do know the regulators job is to look into the future too, like in 5 to 10 years time, by then I doubt VERY much it will be a 2% revenue, and still 70% of the market is a monopoly, simple. CMA did a good job here.

Just lock Brad Smith and Jim Ryan in a room with each other, let them fight it out like the days of old.

He's not lying

@S1ayeR74 You are confusing your global market with your cloud market. Fail
@Moonglow You can't reason with these disingenuous people who just make things up.

I don't think these comments are going to help their cause. It's basically like holding them to some of kind of ransom, without actually saying to them "we won't invest in the UK anymore without this passing" if anything it sounds like complete entitlement. They do realise they are quite literally one of the biggest corporations in the world.. they hold so much PC market share with windows, that this was inevitable to be a hard sell.

@Fiendish-Beaver

Xbox only has 50,000,000 gamers? If thats the case, how are there currently 120 million MAU's on Xbox Live?

@Trmn8r Well you fail as the CMA stated 'global market' in its report. And I seriously doubt you work for the CMA.

@Moonglow Pretty sure those aren't the exact words they've used. But please link to them if they are.

There's a lot of comments here from PlayStation fan boys.

So everyone that relentlessly mocked Sony on here for throwing their toys out the pram…. What’s this then?

This whole thing has left a bad taste in my mouth. Both Sony and Xbox and unfortunately many websites and posters online. The anger and ridiculousness posted during this saga.

Some of you should be ashamed.

@Titntin lmao!!!!! Finally some light relief in all this.

@PsBoxSwitchOwner @Hamst88 yeah I used to think that poster was a sensible guy. He has embarrassed himself with his responses to this deal.

So many just seem blind to what was always going to be a complex deal.

As soon as Xbox started 10 year deals and taking adverts in tube trains trying to push the deal through I knew it was on the skids.

If it was a “clear” as so many made out they wouldn’t have bothered with any of that.

Wow I wouldn’t of expected that reaction from one of worlds biggest tech company. I hope Brad Smith is speaking for himself here and not on Microsoft’s behalf because I’d of expected MS to be a bit more classy and professional with its response to this.

If this is indeed MS’s reaction then they must know that the deal is never going to happen. They are appealing it and still seem confident of the deal passing but Brad Smith’s comments suggests otherwise.

I saw someone post either on here or on pushsquare quoting the CMA for their reasons for the block that it’ll prevent future companies in the Cloud space to compete with MS and the person who posted made a point saying that “If’s and but’s don’t apply to the law, only cold hard facts”. He/she was basically saying the CMA can’t speak for companies that don’t even exist. Plus Cloud gaming hasn’t even really took off yet.

Can MS take the CMA to court like with the FTC? Because I don’t think the CMA will have a leg to stand on when it comes to presenting evidence to make a case to block the merger.

@KaijuKaiser Well, I did say 50/50 incompetence or chicanery. I won't argue if your vote is incompetence.

The verdict itself is very....off. Namely the reasoning given doesn't actually make sense, their cloud argument is contextually off base, they themselves were calling for remedies, and then when MS supplied them their reasons for rejecting them came down to it being limited to select competitors (while it was a list consisting of basically every competitor except Amazon Luna, it didn't even exclude Sony, they were offered it for their cloud service as well, they just weren't interested.) So the "limited" nature of it was basically everyone but Amazon, and Amazon has raised no objections to date. Very questionable reasoning. Their other reason is simply that they were unwilling to oversee the remediations, which also makes no sense because a request for remdies was their own, and they already said they'd take that into consideration before the verdict said they wouldn't because it requires effort on their part.

Up until a month or so ago, their focus was on console, their industry inquiries were on console, though all very strange and disjointed. Then they announce they no longer have console concerns about a month before the verdict and are switching to cloud concerns, but then give every indication that they'll approve with remedies, then suddenly after all that just shut it down citing really tenuous cloud based reasoning.

Again, they either didn't do their due dilligence and don't understand the topic and chose to do nothing rather than mess something up because they don't actually understand what they're involved in, or, they're still really caving to the Sony lobby but taking the heat off them by pointing to cloud. It doesn't take tons of money to buy off a politician or 10. Support, contracts their superiors champion, access and invitations to things they couldn't otherwise, advertising, campaign support, jobs for relatives, offering kindly not to let their spouse know about that night with the secretary.... at worst a cool 500,000 in their bank....lots of ways to "negotiate" with politicians and appointees. It's not an American thing, it's a human thing.

Could be the former. Could be the latter. Neither is impossible or unlikely. Again, I think EU will tell us a lot about CMA. If it's a round rejection it's a reflection of the "keep corporations in place" mindset on that side of the ocean. If they approve, CMA is behaving in a unique way, and they were the ones originally primarily lobbied, and the only entity that ever really followed Sony's talking points to begin with (FTC kind of pantomimed it but they have their own agenda and didn't even apply Sony's objections properly.) "Officially" Cloud is the reason. But their reasoning, is very poor and illogical. IDK if it's "conspiracy", "business as usual" or plain old incompetence.

As for why I'd be behind it, I'm technically only half-behind it. I actually agree with you regarding consolidation overall, and I agree even with FTC over simply wanting to stop big business and big tech in particular from getting bigger. So overall I support those agendas and your point of view. However, the specifics of the market in question need to be calculated. If this were MS from a position of strength moving to a position of strength, either from a dominating gaming position only securing even more domination, or from a second place position catapulting into dominance, there would be an argument. But this conversation needs to separate the role of "Xbox/Micrsoft Gaming" in the overall gaming market from the role of "Microsoft Corp" in the global business market.

Microsoft Corp as a global business is absolutely titanic and powerful. But this acquisition is about Microsoft's role in the gaming industry (including mobile, PC, not just console or cloud.) And despite Xbox being an established brand, their presence in overall gaming is far, far beneath their peers across the board. Sony crushes them in console, as does Nintendo. In the specific market segment Xbox and PS participate in (Nintendo is in a separate market segment by choice) Sony has near total share, as Sony itself keeps publicizing. In the mobile market which is, by far, the biggest segment of gaming, Microsoft is nearly absent entirely short of Minecraft's success while Apple, Google, Tencent, Take Two (via Zynga) and Activision itself (via King) dominate that space, and Apple and Tencent are the dominant players by an overwhelming margin. MS's most cohesive presence remains in PC gaming, yet even there, beyond Game Pass, they're the outlying player, while Steam, Epic Games, even CDPR are much bigger players.

The only place Microsoft has a leading position is in cloud, which is why the verdict targets that. However we're talking about a slice of market that simply hasn't developed in a way that warrants regulatory scrutiny based on "what ifs". There are multiple players in cloud. Google already failed out of the market. Sony is in the market by has chosen a different competitive path that is not a direct competition for MS's product. Smaller players were helped by this merger gaining access to a major publisher they currently can not access. As was nVidia. Luna and Netflix remain the main direct competitors and never raised competitive objections over the merger. CMA decided to invent a complaint and move to block a merger based on a complaint of their own invention of which no real competitor lodged a complaint, for a merger that would have enhanced an outlying competitor in the total gaming market in their competitive ability both in console (dominated by another company(s), mobile (dominated by other companies), and PC (dominated by other companies), in order to protect "competition" in the cloud market where nobody competing there actually objected to the merger to begin with except for nvida who withdrew the objection in signing a contract to benefit from it - the remedy was satisfactory for them.

I'm not for consolidation, however in this case my only concern was not for the market itself, but for fear of MS getting too complacent on the console front as a result of it. MS's position is not a leading one in mobile, PC, or console, and this acquisition would not have moved them to a leading position in any of those three, but would have enhanced their competitive ability. The concern over cloud dominance sounds plausible at a glance, but not for any reasons they stated, and it fails to take into account that cloud is not a market on its own, but one competing platform in the overal games market. There is precedent for the argument to be valid in courts of law that entertainment business competes not only against their own media but against all other entertainment (games compete against music, tv, movies, radio, books, youtube, etc) for entertainment money and time. CMA tries to make the argument that not only is tv, movies, music, and youtube not a competitor for MS's cloud business, but also that consoles, PC gaming, and mobile is not, as well. That is not a sound argument.

I'm for it in general, ironically, because I do agree with you about consolidation. In this specific market, the market is already largely consolidated to a handful of entities in each market segment, and MS is not one of them in any. None of these independent publishers are truly independent, as in the console space they are all already almost entirely dependent on Sony and in the mobile space they are all almost entirely dependent on Apple. They have one distributor per market that is the only key one that matters for their ability to profit. Enhancing MS's position which is not a dominant one in those markets weakens the totality of control the other entities have. Increasing competition. Which is supposed to be the point.

Both fans and "regulators" keep making the same flawed assumption here. "Because MS is huge, they must be the dominating force in the market. Because MS is huge, they can't be the disruptor in the market." But in all fronts of the gaming market they are the latter, except cloud, which CMA choses to assume is a separate market they dominate rather than what it is, a disruptive competing platform in the overall fray of the gaming market.

@Hamst88 An attempt at being professional under pressure to do so while seething at the absurd.

@S1ayeR74 Lol you think Xbox owns 70% of the global gaming market? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA I guess Xbox is totally dominating the console war. That's news to me ROFL!!!!

@Sebatrox MS can sod off, that's the tricks they use in America, Apple didn't like a courts decision once so they cried to Obama I think to get the courts ruling overturned, MS is thinking like American corporations do, that they can do what they like.

@Trmn8r Nope the CMA does, you missed that part in my comments. I'm fairly sure they will know more than you do. Seems anything the CMA has stated in its report is 'news' to you.

@Sebatrox Why? And which post number is it?

@Sebatrox That sounds an awful lot like blackmail.

@S1ayeR74 The CMA said 70% of CLOUD MARKET SHARE. How can you seriously think that Xbox has 70% of the general market share? You can't honestly tell me that Xbox is winning the console war with 70% of market share. Please, tell me you believe that honestly. "I believe that Xbox is winning the console war right now with 70% of the gaming market." Please say it so I can laugh at it.

@Widey85 Thats the worst thing ever. Playing politics with the deal. Dirty politicians in the UK. Worst there is. Sunak and the rest will do anything to stay in power, anything.

@Trmn8r I won't say anything, here is what they state, you can twist what the state to suite your argument: "Microsoft already accounts for an estimated 60-70% of global cloud gaming services and has other important strengths in cloud gaming from owning Xbox, the leading PC operating system (Windows) and a global cloud computing infrastructure (Azure and Xbox Cloud Gaming)."

http://www.gov.uk/government/news/microsoft-activision-deal-prevented-to-protect-innovation-and-choice-in-cloud-gaming#:~:text=The%20CMA%20has%20prevented%20Microsoft's,over%20the%20years%20to%20come.

@S1ayeR74 FFS dude, it literally says "global CLOUD gaming" in your quote you shared. Bravo! Bravo! Thank you for proving me right and yourself wrong.

#1 Reason why this is a worse outcome for the future: With A-B current business model, numerous IP are buried so that several support studios can make COD and a few other games. This deal was the only chance we had of support studios and IP being freed within A-B to bring back Crash, Tony Hawk and others, due to the gamepass model and monetary support MS would bring. This is sad for us gamers who want to see those IP return and for creative freedom to come back to now-COD support studios.

@S1ayeR74

Thats the worst thing ever. Playing politics with the deal. Dirty politicians in the UK. Worst there is. Sunak and the rest will do anything to stay in power, anything

I'm not sure why UK politics and politicians been corrupt and rotten to the core would come as a surprise to you.
Corruption or sleaze as the British media likes to affectionately call it, is so ingrained in politics that its pretty much the norm now. Brexit, Boris Johnson and his cohorts have virtually desensitised most of the British public to this plague...

@Trmn8r If you don't take it out of context it's "global cloud gaming services" and what do you think that means?

@NEStalgia According to Microsoft Word, your essay is 1407 words. Good God, man.

@Sol4ris Oh it's not a surprise mate, not in the slightest. Sunak would only overturn the CMA purely to look good next to the EU. The institution we apparently voted to leave. And we all know what's happened with that.

@SplooshDmg Did you check with Lotus Notes? Microsoft Word might have built and inferior version of the word counter to make my post look bad.

@NEStalgia I'm actually filing an appeal with Microsoft Office to have the MS Office Tribunal reevaluate if MS Word actually analyzed and understood all of the words it had received as input and counted every last one. We should know in about three years if the essay was 1407, or perhaps it was actually 1408. Sorry, not sorry for any financial damages you may incur during this time.

@S1ayeR74
S1ayeR74 9:06am ...60 to 70% global market owned by Microsoft, and they wanted to buy ActiBlizz.

Trmn8r 11:30am
@S1ayeR74 You are confusing your global market with your cloud market. Fail

S1ayeR74 11:47am
@Trmn8r Well you fail as the CMA stated 'global market' in its report. And I seriously doubt you work for the CMA.

Trmn8r50m ago
@S1ayeR74 The CMA said 70% of CLOUD MARKET SHARE

I've literally said CLOUD the entire time. You are the one saying just GLOBAL MARKET. There is a BIG difference between cloud market and overall gaming market. If you meant cloud when you misspoke, you had like 4 chances to clarify. But you didn't because you thought it was overall market then or are just too proud to admit a clear mistake. Now you are gaslighting after proving yourself wrong. Yes, I am referring to "Global Cloud Market" when I say "Cloud Market", as if that clarification is needed. But saying Global Market =/= Global Cloud Market, especially when you argue against me calling it Cloud Market without ever saying Global Cloud Market yourself. I can't English it any harder than that.

Well he is spot on. The CMA's decision makes the UK look weak and corrupt.

The CMA are dodgy. Looking at all the UK supermarket and Mobile network mergers they have allowed, you wonder what made them really reject this deal.

I feel like the EU will relish making the UK look bad and the US agreement is likely to pass too.

@__jamiie Yeah I find it funny how Playstation fanboys apparently have nothing better to do besides obsess over politics for rival platforms and troll gaming sites for platforms they don't even like.

One would think they would have something better to do, but I guess the PS fanbase is all about everything besides actually enjoying video games.

@Trmn8r Go and read post 82 then 92 and you'll finally get the context. And why you are half wrong, I'll give you something as you stated global market. My bad as you said global cloud market in your initial reply and I didn’t correct you. But you can think what ever you want to be honest. I mean you jumped into my reply to another comment and utterly failed to read that comment I was replying to, and took everything out of context and you look foolish for doing so as you miss all the context.

@JayJ Don't get me wrong, I own a PS5 and a Switch too. I just find it really depressing when people act like pathetic children over loyalty to a machine they bought.

@__jamiie Yeah I mean same here, I also got a PS5 and Switch, but the Sony fanbase can simply be embarassing sometimes.

@themightyant I was thinking how many letters will be written demanding Rishi to bend the knee 🤣🤣

@SplooshDmg That really shakes my confidence in writing words in MS Word.

@NEStalgia Well, maybe you should just invest in Apache OpenOffice where words are still open for writing.

@SplooshDmg I tried that but it gave me an error that it couldn't be run because cloud resources are already open, so now I'm back to just trying to write words in MS Word. But Clippy's only running at 30fps and my print job is delayed again and my file save is delayed again, too, and it really would have all gone better if I could have just used Apache OpenOffice. Everyone else is allowed to use it. And some people just have GoogleDocs pretty much entirely to themselves. IDK why I can't use OpenOffice, but it keeps telling me I can't use it because I'm already using cloud resources. Just like everyone else.

@Chaudy It was not blocked in the US. The FTC have no power to block the deal (unlike the CMA (which has proven time and again that it favors Sony over everyone else even before Brexit) ever since the UK left the European Union or the European Commission). Only a federal judge can block. The only thing the FTC can do is recommend a Judge so he/she blocks it (but it's not likely it will happen since there's no proof to the FTC's claims and the fact that even lawyers that used to work there left because of Lina Khan's unfitting behavior for the role that she was given)

Cheers everyone

His salty tears go well with my meal tonight. The mask is dropped and his threats will never happen.

i agree with brad smith UK cma should be ashame of themselve we all know by now that UK love playstation no doubt it played a major rôle into this deal,it was a cold shower for missieur smith and alot of xbox fans.

@CrispyMango92 typical Americans. They’re basically making a subliminal threat.

I'm not sure that an MAU is, @RIghteousNixon & @Sebatrox, but I am only citing what has been reported on this site previously, when they said there were around 50 million active users. It also came out in the ABK acquisition that the split between PlayStation and Xbox was 70%/30%. I don't know how to do a link on this site, but if you search in the above search bar, this is the title of the article:

Xbox Series X|S Is Getting Trounced by PS5, Microsoft Weirdly Reveals

Also, going by the above article, and then extrapolating from your figures; if there are 150 million gamers on the Xbox, then there would be in the order of 350 million gamers on the PlayStation, which seems inordinately high to me.

As I said, I'm not sure what an MAU is, but I for one know that I have created at least 5 separate gamer tags over the years. I had one, but then lost access to my email address, and so had to create a new one to replace it. And I have created a further 3 for my children, who then went on to discard the ones I had created for them when they left home, only to then to create their own ones. So I alone account for 5 gamer tags, only one of which is actually in use...

I bet they just pull out of markets that don't get approved just to make the deal go through. If they do, what's stopping them from going back after the deal is finalized? I really have no idea how it actually works.

@Chaudy Well, the Sony camp has no problem in being douchy, so why not Microsoft.

And every word he says is correct what an embarrassing mess this is for the UK drive business they say take opportunity wow just WOW!

Yo all those that think ms is bluffing they get the eu approval they will just pull xbox out of uk... it's not like the uk is a huge buyer of xbox anyhow....., also do you that say this is a empty threat realize MS owns 4% of London stock exchange and invest 2 Billion a year in the UK its not a empty threat. They can hurt the uk if they wanted to by pulling out od the market... yes it would hurt themselves but ms can withstand a self inflicted wound if it has to...

@Fiendish-Beaver Do you mean the 150 million players Xbox claims it will bring Activision Blizzard games to if the deal is passed? That's true but most it that number is made up of Nintendo Switch gamers, the rest are just Nvidia gamers etc. so no deal no 150 million extra players.
Also for now a what Xbox says about COD being brought to 150 million extra gamers can be taken with a pinch of salt, because as the CMA stated no evidence was provided to them to prove that the current Switch can run COD. And considering the next gen Switch isn't out yet then that user base is zero.

@Blessed_Koz You need to go and read up on business. If they pull out of the UK you can fully expect the share holders to fire the Microsoft board of executives. And dump there stock. And people in the UK will be annoyed with Microsoft then rather than anything the CMA has done, so the backlash could mean dropped sales all round for Microsoft products.

Well, good luck.

American business tactics don't work over here.

No, @S1ayeR74, I think you have got the wrong person. A couple of guys said that the Xbox had 150,000,000 gamers. I was saying that my understanding is that there are currently around 50,000,000...

@S1ayeR74 my response wouldnt be based on business it would pure spite and hate.... and MS would be able to absorb any blow from the UK, if they are the only ones stopping this i would pull xbox out of the UK and tell em to go pound salt... and then finish the deal.....again xbox isnt a huge seller in the UK and honestly the COD deal is bigge for MS then the UK for is for xbox.... as for the board if the deal for COD is bigger then xbox in UK they would be fine with it....and again xbox isnt that huge in the UK so who gives a flying ***** what the people of the UK think, if they are unhappy with that then blame their CMA for being the only one to block it... i mean in 2+ plus years they have only sold 550k units roughly there so again if they lose that market for the xbox i honestly dont think there would be that much care from board members and stock holders... remember there is a bigger play here then just xbox consoles, they are prepping for the future and streaming.....so having activision blizzarrd is bigger then having the UK as market...

@Blessed_Koz Yeap, I can tell your response isn't based on business or reality.
Also the UK market is worth billions to MS, it is a big seller despite what you may think. More than people give it credit for. They could tell the UK to get stuffed, but then the investors in MS will most likely sack the board and take them to court. For losing them billions in returns on their investments.
The UK market is worth more than the 69 billion the deal is costing them. Think about that.

@Fiendish-Beaver 50 million? Not bad, does that include Game Pass subscribers though like those on PC? It's not going to be 150 million that's for sure.

@S1ayeR74 Yes the 150 million only if the deal passes, and that's not for COD because as the CMA said not produced any evidence to show COD will run on the 'current' Switch model, so far.

From reports we've seen on this site, @S1ayeR74, I believe the 50 million Xbox gamers (it's actually a bit less than that, I think) is based on console players alone. That, however, includes those playing on the Series and the Xbox One (and probably a sprinkling of those on the 360!). I'm honestly unsure whether Microsoft include those that game on the PC too, mate. I'm inclined to think not.

As for Game Pass subscribers, again, I've seen that figure put at between 20 and 30 million, though for some reason, Microsoft just won't tell us the actual figure...

@Fiendish-Beaver That makes sense that it includes all the console generations. I think Game Pass figures are around 25 million, I think most are console gamers but the PC market is the fastest growth sector for game Pass currently.