Looks like the UK government just wants to block it so Microsoft will need to lobby them with more campaign contributions in order to get it passed. I guess passing stuff in the UK requires extra lobbying expenses than other countries.The cloud argument is a joke. Mobile gaming is the biggest revenue and profit generator among gaming, all of which is on the cloud. Activision-Blizzard and Microsoft itself has almost no mobile game presence besides King Games and a few mobile off shoots (like Diablo Immortal) that haven't gained a ton of traction compared to things like Raid Shadow Legends. In cloud gaming, Microsoft and Activision-Blizzard are the small fish in a big pond.
There is no cloud gaming it was a fantasy. They tried it, it failed. Google themselves threw in the towel. Blocking it over something that has no meaningful market and is unlikely to in the future is the height of absurd. Assuming they can clear the other regulatory concerns they should simply pull out of the UK market if this persists, it's too small to be meaningful and as they've excluded themselves from the EU it will be a drop in a large lake.No one uses "cloud gaming" no one will likely ever use such things until computing mainframes capable of reliably rendering gameplay at high fps for thousands of players simultaneously are available commercially for prices significantly less than current supercomputing and graphics arrays cost AND until quantum communication fiber to the home (if not computer/device itself) internet connections promising <6ms response times are mainstream and widely available. The experience is simply too subpar, the whole set-up too confusing, and the technical problems for multiplayer too challenging to overcome while presenting a fluid experience for all players for this to be the thing that certain rentier techno-corps want it to be. Subscription access to games will continue to grow over outright purchasing but subscription access to computing to run them remains a distant reach out of meaningful sight for regulatory purposes. The market arguments are also balderdash.
This argument go no legs at all to stand on in court. Its probably over before it gets to court.
Their justification is weird but seeing big corporations get owned is enjoyable.
I tried reading the reason earlier, and it felt like gibberish. On second attempt, it feels like it was written by an A.I. gotten off Wish. And apparently they were okay with Sega buying the Angry Birds developer. Oh, and with Sony buying Bungie. Yeah, congrats on using no logic/ rhyme/ reason to this ruling.And I'd really appreciate it if someone on Sony's staff would figure out that "winning" for them is going to turn into an absolute nightmare. Congrats, you won, now expect Microsoft to do the same to you for the next decade.
Bet the suits looking for their big payday at ABK are pissed lol, like anyone believes MS won't try to corner a new and fast growing emerging market hoping to completely dominate it by the end of the decade.Probably for the best, would probably be the end of blizz as we know it if it happened. activision was bad but MS has always been worse.
The reasoning behind the decision just highlights the ignorance of the CMA.
Just allow it, dammit and let Microsoft fire Kotick already!
Merge would be the best thing could happen for Blizz gamers.
This is great news. It was bad enough when Activision aquired Blizzard, look how that turned out.
Microsoft acquiring Activision would be bad, I feel like we will see a lot more monetization if they do.
Firstly, now we know why Certain Egregious Overlords were so reluctant to resign when the %^&* hit the fan within Act-Blizz. Big payouts ahoy. Oh dear.But the massive huffy knicker-twist is interesting. They aren't giving any clear legal reasons but going straight for the 'UK is !@#$' attack. Which seems a tad weak? Admittedly much about the UK at the moment IS #$%^, but preventing tech behemoths isn't part of that.The 'Cloud Gaming' thing is weird tho and it's not like gamers haven't been used to a landscape of massive monopoly from the beginning, given that consoles and PC have been driven by specific platform-only games since the industry began!Tin foil hat firmly on my head, I'd suggest there's more going on. The money exchanges and communications within the industry may be more of a driver? But why don't they just say that? Interesting stuff.
more suffering for ActiBlizz and M$ is something i welcome with open arms.though i feel that Sony still has a card to play even if they seem to have no hand in this block. sony are not exactly the good guys here (they're jerks in their own way), but man i've lost count of how many times M$ buys a studio then all of a sudden that studio's games are no longer available on other platforms, or outright killed. even after promises that they're going to keep it available anyways.