This has been happening for months. Our anti-monopoly legislation is pretty good, and they probably don’t have the balls to pull out of the UK entirely.
Curious how there is no mention of Activision’s shady practices in regards to manipulating the target audience (often children) into gambling mechanics/loot boxes etc.
I would have hoped that would be the main concern. Apparently not.
Ironically, not letting Microsoft buy Activision is incredibly anti consumer. There was a chance of them turning things around.
> The CMA said it had provisionally concluded it would result in higher prices, fewer choices and less innovation.
TBH this just seems a generic response. Microsoft fundamentally operate on a different level to Activision. The purchase represents a huge chunk of PC gaming’s biggest properties that currently flounder because ActiBlizzard don’t know what they are doing. It is in the interests of MS to steady this ship solely because it would help sell Windows licenses.
Perhaps there’s a deal to be reached to let MS actively support major PC gaming properties like WoW, Diablo, Starcraft, etc while giving guarantees about stuff nobody cares about like Candy Crush.
As long as they
Keep their bloody hands off Chucklevision
Fuck SAKE! The fans of Blizzard have been longing for the acquisition of the company by Microsoft thanks to the years of bullshit being pulled by ActiBlizz CEO Bobby Kotick, a bastard of a man who has ground beloved games into the ground, covered up sexual misconduct and been a force for fucking terrible within dev teams by pulling teams off games to work on dead end projects. By blocking the merger, it means we’re now stuck with this arsehole, and the rest of his board which comprises of a whose who of bastards that are only interested in fucking as much money as possible out if players
Will Microsoft care? They might do if the EU or US anti-trust people rule against it but the UK?
Serious question, what would happen if Microsoft just went ahead with it? I presume they’d get fined. And if they said “In that case we’ll pull out of the UK market and stop all our products working”? Every large organisation is pretty much based purely on MS, whether it’s desktop OS, server OS, web servers (I know, Apache has the market share but most companies I’ve worked for the majority of their intranet is IIS). Microsoft could cripple this country if they decided to be dicks about it
Good. We don’t big tech buying everything. Well done cma
If this deal is allowed to happen what’s to stop MS using their immense wealth to buy EA. T2, Square Enix or any other major publisher and completely control the gaming market?
Glad the CMA’s blocked it.
[deleted]
Do they actually have the power to stop this? Neither company are UK based
Why can’t the rest of our regulators actually work.
just wish they’d let them buy it so diablo can get more funding…
Lets hope this stops it, I swear every time you blink the number of games companies gets smaller and smaller
But if it’s accepted in the US what would it mean? Would they still be separate entities in the UK?
[deleted]
I don’t get why this matters to the monopolies commission.
I’m stuck with only one option for my water supplier, but a non essential provider of services can’t expand
That’s a shame, it was Microsoft’s one-up on Sony acquiring Activision Blizzard. Thought it would help incentivise xbox more.
It’s strange how Microsoft buys up all these developers then does absolutely nothing with them.
Armchair businessman here but with the recent acquisition of Bethesda soft works and now Activision/Blizzard, Microsoft might end up being a little too dominant in the sector. Sony aren’t angels with their gradual acquisition of many independent games houses but they haven’t outright bought out multiple publishers.
Activision/Blizzard under current management is a toxic mess. The best we can hope for is that as a concession MS has to break up Acti/Blizz and run them as legally separate multiplatform publishers.
For me, the most anti consumer aspect is paying £70 for a game.
I’ve played dozens of games on gamepass, for £10 a month. That would have wiped
Out my bank account at full price.
22 comments
This has been happening for months. Our anti-monopoly legislation is pretty good, and they probably don’t have the balls to pull out of the UK entirely.
Curious how there is no mention of Activision’s shady practices in regards to manipulating the target audience (often children) into gambling mechanics/loot boxes etc.
I would have hoped that would be the main concern. Apparently not.
Ironically, not letting Microsoft buy Activision is incredibly anti consumer. There was a chance of them turning things around.
> The CMA said it had provisionally concluded it would result in higher prices, fewer choices and less innovation.
TBH this just seems a generic response. Microsoft fundamentally operate on a different level to Activision. The purchase represents a huge chunk of PC gaming’s biggest properties that currently flounder because ActiBlizzard don’t know what they are doing. It is in the interests of MS to steady this ship solely because it would help sell Windows licenses.
Perhaps there’s a deal to be reached to let MS actively support major PC gaming properties like WoW, Diablo, Starcraft, etc while giving guarantees about stuff nobody cares about like Candy Crush.
As long as they
Keep their bloody hands off Chucklevision
Fuck SAKE! The fans of Blizzard have been longing for the acquisition of the company by Microsoft thanks to the years of bullshit being pulled by ActiBlizz CEO Bobby Kotick, a bastard of a man who has ground beloved games into the ground, covered up sexual misconduct and been a force for fucking terrible within dev teams by pulling teams off games to work on dead end projects. By blocking the merger, it means we’re now stuck with this arsehole, and the rest of his board which comprises of a whose who of bastards that are only interested in fucking as much money as possible out if players
Will Microsoft care? They might do if the EU or US anti-trust people rule against it but the UK?
Serious question, what would happen if Microsoft just went ahead with it? I presume they’d get fined. And if they said “In that case we’ll pull out of the UK market and stop all our products working”? Every large organisation is pretty much based purely on MS, whether it’s desktop OS, server OS, web servers (I know, Apache has the market share but most companies I’ve worked for the majority of their intranet is IIS). Microsoft could cripple this country if they decided to be dicks about it
Good. We don’t big tech buying everything. Well done cma
If this deal is allowed to happen what’s to stop MS using their immense wealth to buy EA. T2, Square Enix or any other major publisher and completely control the gaming market?
Glad the CMA’s blocked it.
[deleted]
Do they actually have the power to stop this? Neither company are UK based
Why can’t the rest of our regulators actually work.
just wish they’d let them buy it so diablo can get more funding…
Lets hope this stops it, I swear every time you blink the number of games companies gets smaller and smaller
But if it’s accepted in the US what would it mean? Would they still be separate entities in the UK?
[deleted]
I don’t get why this matters to the monopolies commission.
I’m stuck with only one option for my water supplier, but a non essential provider of services can’t expand
That’s a shame, it was Microsoft’s one-up on Sony acquiring Activision Blizzard. Thought it would help incentivise xbox more.
It’s strange how Microsoft buys up all these developers then does absolutely nothing with them.
Armchair businessman here but with the recent acquisition of Bethesda soft works and now Activision/Blizzard, Microsoft might end up being a little too dominant in the sector. Sony aren’t angels with their gradual acquisition of many independent games houses but they haven’t outright bought out multiple publishers.
Activision/Blizzard under current management is a toxic mess. The best we can hope for is that as a concession MS has to break up Acti/Blizz and run them as legally separate multiplatform publishers.
For me, the most anti consumer aspect is paying £70 for a game.
I’ve played dozens of games on gamepass, for £10 a month. That would have wiped
Out my bank account at full price.
Put actiblizz on gamepass already!