I like the idea of Microsoft being forced to make their games run on other operating systems. Linux World of Warcraft anyone?The cloud stuff is silly given all MS has done to try alleviate that.Ultimately though this deal isn't about microsoft being good for gamers. It's about them being better than the alternative. If they don't buy ActiBlizz, Facebook probably will give it a shot.
I get what Blizzard is going for with a merger. Of course, I wouldn't be surprised if we saw another article about this. However, mergers by-and-large only benefit companies. In fact, Blizzard is a case-in-point since unless you genuinely like CoD's formula or any other Activision game, you gain nothing.
Are we really letting brittian of all countries decide? When was that EVER a good idea.
That's a pity. Hope Kottic still goes.
Has it been clearly established yet that this isn't simply another disgruntled gamer?
All they will manage is deprive UK customers of the ATVI content in the Game Pass.
UK leaders are dumb af, they are all old men who don't have a clue.
Yet another UK L, I'm not surprised at this point
consolidation is bad for every market, not exclusive to gaming culture. IT already is an oligopoly and the last years have seen gaming industry following this trend. since the "liberal" markets inception, the trend for monopolies always ended in the same results: qualitative stagnation and quantitative financialisation, even state authorities interventions often failed due to timing, insufficient legislation and jurisdiction (eg Standard Oil). oligopoly means less competition over any market, less innovations and massive entry barriers for newcomers. oligopolies limit any markets evolution via the reproduction of their product sortiments standards for save revenue (in their cornered market segments) - customers lose quantitatively and qualitatively,as products prices will be increased, while content quality will stagnate, its going to be more of the same old, but more expensive.MS market control in IT is already as dangerous as Alphabet and Apple, ITs evolution doesnt require bigger megacons, but a restructuring for more competitive innovation, product quality and end-user prices. (btw MS already owns 60-70% of the currently most evolving market - cloud gaming)(there is a lot more detail into it, but these wouldnt fit a comment.)
Yeah someones getting paid. Seems like a weak argument. Also, isnt CMA a UK thing? How can they block Microsoft from doing anything?
So can they just go meh and merge anyways? Do they even need permission from this group?
It seems like people have forgotten what mergers mean for companies. It creates an unbalanced market that if left unchecked can destroy competition. If that happens then the door to massive change happens. Lay offs, revamps, section cuts, and sometimes even termination of entire games in this case. A great example of this going bad is when companies have to buy licensing to publish games or allow them to be accessed from the owner. The owner can charge or demand whatever they want, usually more than its worth. Then you end up with stuff like Wow in China being dropped because no one will pay the absurd price to run servers from Activision/Blizzard. Games that fall out of style will die out much faster without multiple parties being able to host them. Diversity is the reason gaming grew to what it is today. I like to think of Blizzard before Activision acquired it, when WoW had its highest sub rates and the game felt very interactive and creative. It will force game developers to have buy licensing to publish there games through Microsoft or no one will be able to play it due to it being unsupported. This merger will literally kill any new coming development teams that are not a part of Microsoft.
I like the Statement by Lulu Cheng Meservey.It is pure PR-nonsense for the masses to incite a political pressure on the CMA to change their mind.Nothing in this statement is remotly true.Microsoft succeeded in dragging nearly every enterprise customer into their cloud. Most users of MS Office now use the cloudbased service (Office 365, if you are a private customer). For interoperability reasons between players on the market this creates a de facto monopoly, because everyone has to use it and can't change it. Look how everyone is useing active directory, outlook and remote services (and is flabbergasted when they get hacked - although nothing says 'hack me' like these things).SAP did something alike, but not in the same way.This is bad. Bad for customers, bad for corporations and bad for the industry itself.The Merger of ATVI and MSFT would be the first step into cloudbased gaming going big for Microsoft.Seeing MS way of action in other fields of operation, the concerns of the CMA are very much on point.Just like Lulu Cheng Meservey intended it, you guys in the comments mix two things, that have nothing in common: the potential for your own user experience and the potential for the industry itself. The CMA only looks at the latter.
Aren't both US companies? What does UK have to do with it?