'Dude they will have bought enough Publishers if this merger goes through, enoughs enough. ' MS needs to own more so we gamers can get more free games on Gamepass. Gone is the they that i pay full price for games and i will never start again.

@Battlestar23

Xbox fanboys like you are parasites that are too cheap to pay for games and support developers. This deal is good for no one except the rabid xbox fanboys like yourself. You don't gain anything from it, but everyone else lose.

"MS needs to own more so we gamers can get more free games on Gamepass. Gone is the they that i pay full price for games and i will never start again."

God damn..oh well..just pray you don't get Redfall-"good enough for Gamepass" types of games then.

What makes video game different from other media like movies and TV shows on streaming services?

Show proof

@343

Sony has set aside $18B for purchases over 3 years. They can't afford more than that. That's as a whole company, not PlayStation.

But you think Xbox, which is worth less than PlayStation, can afford it and buy it without the revenue from other departments?

On revenue alone it would take a minimum of 5 years for Xbox to take in the cost of the purchase. Not profit. Merely revenue, of which a small portion is profit.

So now people claim that monopoly is bad and there should be competition in the market? I might be wrong but I read so many many many comments on this site before wishing for MS to go away and leave the console business.

Tsk tsk…

CMA will zero basis now. Part of the EU passing it was that all popular AB IPs must be made of available to all cloud based services worldwide.

CMA is an INDEPENDENT body not state controlled. Geez….

@Hof

I know that and have even mentioned it, but the government have the power to overrule the CMA if they get the votes. Don't forget this is the Tory Party, the people that are destroying the NHS because of private healthcare lobbying and have destroyed our public services for a quick buck.

Microsoft has confirmed that the EU forced it to automatically offer Activision Blizzard games on competing cloud gaming services. Microsoft will offer this globally.

This concession may play a key part of Microsoft's CMA appeal. The EU got a concession out of Microsoft that will now apply in the UK, too. The CMA has additional licensing concerns Microsoft will need to address though

Didn’t that come with catch that the games available on those stream services would be using that storefront rent free? Something about Microsoft being the sole receiver of micro transactions for those 10 year deals? Something about too much control in that growing cloud space?

I’m paraphrasing of course, but it wouldn’t be hard to search

Those are not concessions. Those are lobbying attempts.

The odds were not in their favor. Did you miss the part where MS accepted remedies that they wouldn't accept in the UK?

@Hofstaderman A lot of Xbox fanboys on n4g downvoting people to death, when people say things they don’t want to hear. Lol

@SteakDeck after the CMA ruling I felt sorry for them and didn’t rub it in after my initial reaction. But mark my words after this winds down and the CMA does not budge at I’m going to have a field day. In the interim I’ll be playing Final Fantasy and Spider-Man 2 while these dudes play copium, blind misguided hope and fanaticism.

"and didn't rub it in"

Sure you did.

"How’s UK looking?"

And now your feelings are hurt, because some are boasting over a result that was obvious to most.

Or maybe because the deal requires approval from the CMA, the EU and the FTC.

@pitythefool you hit the nail on the head. The EU decision is pure copium.

I think its more they are petty and d oont want XBOX to succeed.

I was only joking, pal.

Making fun of that they used a pc of Mario brothers for an A/B infographics.

What in the blue hell, I was only kidding...u guys ain't reading?

I just though it was funny that they used Mario for something completely unrelated.

we only need the big three.

"you guys will be saying the whole of Europe is closed for business lol."

Uh huh. Maybe you should just stop with the predictions? Just sit back and watch.

enjoy your Xstick and mobile games! Stadia 2 inbound

They can’t come up with a good reason to block.

Maybe they’ll say the merger is too woke or something

Yes and no, they're seeking to block it and they are set to go to court in August.

That are under Microsoft wing. Please, we aren't all morons or cheap ass gamers that don't buy games.

This is true but the actual deal between MSFT and Activision requires approval in the UK. From a pure business perspective Microsoft isn't gonna pay $70 billion only to not be able to sell the content in its 2nd biggest market.

So the deal for now is still blocked.
If the EU had blocked they probably would have ended the deal. But now they will feel compelled to keep going.

They also won't close the deal for obvious reasons but the easiest to understand is that the US could still block the deal which would require divestiture.

Right now the deal has about 30% chance of going through.

@Eonjay

Can't Microsoft just pull out of the UK and make the deal?

The CMA is only for the UK regulations. The rest of the world seems to be fine with this aquisition.

They could but they won't simply because of money. The UK is their single second biggest market outside of the US. It would also require MSFT and Activision to rewrite their deal which could be problematic in and of itself. Otherwise Activision still has a claim to $3 billion from Microsoft. The reason the deal dies is because that's what the two companies agreed to. People gloss over this.

The only practical path forward is to win on appeal.

Why do you care? You don't have Game Pass. Stick to your PlayStation

Answer the question. Don't be afraid.

And if "if" was a spliff, we would all be high.

And besides, most can argue that the number of games on PS+ and GP that can be played right now is way greater than $150-$180 a year. If you play 5-6 games a year, you would be paying that anyway, and you get tons more. You can cancel at any time at no cost, so theoretically, you can play 4-5 games or more for your set amount of money, $40 or less for 3 months, play until your heart's content, and move on if you like.

For instance, let's say you are only interested in SF on Xbox, sub for a month or 2, play the game and you effectively paid less than $70. The only people that I see that this would affect negatively are collectors or people that just enjoy physical box copies, which lets face it, those numbers are dwindling.

Cool story bro

We already seen this is very bad for gaming. But Microsoft keeps try wreck more and more

Then there's also legitimate classics like Wasteland 3 and Psychonauts 2 where both studios outwardly admitted that both titles would have been smaller in scope and probably less quality without their acquisition. Even smaller passion projects like Pentiment exist because of the acquisition.

I'm waiting to see what comes from Arkane. They have been one of my favorite devs, but Redfall is a wreck in a lot of ways. They lost their creative lead because he got tired of working with Bethesda and Zenimax and I think it's showing. Death loop was pretty solid, Redfall is a mess. Neither are nearly as good as something like Dishonored or Prey.

But it's a general consensus that, as a whole, the gaming community realizes that Gamepass is a good value and that there are many great games there. People can call it filler all they want, but they're always adding quality titles.

Sony makes quality AAA award winning games. Yes they do that very well. They propel the industry.

Those scumbags at MS can't compete so they buy the competition. I'll never buy an xbox if this deal goes through.

When has Sony bought the Parent Company.

Sony has bought small 3rd party studios who already made exclusives for it's systems.

They also make AAA games.

Microsoft needs to try making Some AAA games.

@DarkZane
You must not be paying attention to what is going on. He is not done if he does it. And its obvious by your comment you dont understand what Microsoft and other Companies are doing to force his hand. Listen I have no Horse in this race, im not into the Console Wars. But if you are reading the news papers in the UK, and the News you would know the CMA is being grilled by their Government right now. Also did you know that Microsoft is UK Governments biggest Tech partner right now??? The CEO of Microsoft has threatened to pull out of that deal as well. Politics is Politics no matter the country young fella.

By the way this is going, it sounds like even if it goes through, we won't see any games from them on this Xbox. Maybe the next xbox will be fit from this purchase 😭

They're all there to make money. Not just Microsoft. Prices are still going up regardless.

They are so desperate for something. That they think this is a victory. An incompentent company in videogaming, that still is in videogaming because Microsoft keeps giving them billions, while this keep losing market share,