The correct decision.
Gaming Microsoft buying Activision | CMA blocks deal over concerns for the cloud gaming market, decision to be appealed, Blizzard EVP threatens UK
- Thread starter shamans
- Start date
-
In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik (@Rood) was joined by comedian Ali Woods to look back at the best and worst moments of a rollercoaster season with the annual United Hour Awards.
Has Ten Hag been sacked yet? We're not sure and we hope not, but it's looking more likely as the days pass.
Who should replace him and why is it taking so long to make a decision?
Good question.
One wonders why this wasn't brought up when they got EA involved in it all too.
They'll get this one through and any future one they want.
People really don't understand what MS is and how it got to that position. Let alone how Activision got there too.
It won't stand. One way or another, they'll get Activision.
Happy to destroy the industry to say Xbox wins and they call themselves gamers.
Yep, I kind of wonder if it's an "Oh feck we better do something" decision when really they should have been thinking about all this a couple of years ago.
Nah, it's a "my palm wasn't greased enough" decision.
And people still don't give a shit and back both these corrupt scumbags and the huge corps...then moan about the lack of talented teams and good games coming out.
Sony is massively bigger than MS in console gaming. Which is what my post was based on? In fact, I would go as far to say that in 2023 the playstation brand has become too big to fail. You could put a monkey in charge and they will still sell 100 million units.
Xbox consoles sales have been nothing more than mediocre for a long time, now and Series S and X are going to be outsold by more than 2:1 again this gen. I'm not sure how much longer MS will keep making consoles. I'm not saying they will leave the gaming business. Buying Activison would have reinvigorated the brand.
I'm not sure where to go with this, you are painting one of the biggest companies in the world as the underdog?
Unless you think the Xbox division are buying Activision by themselves? Because if you do, maybe you should look a little deeper into the size of both those companies.
Yep, worth remembering that Sony had a partnership with Primark once. I've never seen any Microsoft stuff in there.
Smaller mass appeal than Greggs is saying something.
Seeming though only a couple of generations ago the 360 had the market at its fingertips and decided to produce the monstrosity that was kinect and Xbox one that comment is a stretch.
Microsoft were on the precipice of being or at least head to head with Sony and threw it all away with one of the worst consoles ever released.
Then they pretty much gave up then reignited there interest when they saw there was another opportunity to create a closed market with gamepass and cloud gaming.
Badum tshhh
The 360 was propped up by two markets, the UK and the US. The only markets that Xbox has ever been able to crack. It was also given extra life by the success of the kinect. And even after all that and many Sony feck ups, it was still outsold worldwide by the PS3.
Xbox are the underdog against playstation. Very much so.
Remind me, who's buying Activision?
Wait, I thought you knew about gaming?"success of the kinect"
Ok, you have to be on a wum now
Go and check out how much the OG kinect sold. It was a huge success financially. Where do you think the Xbox One come from?
They had all the pieces in the right place it was only a matter of time if they kept on doing what they were doing.
It was an absolutely massive own goal and set them back decades, Sony handed it to them on a plate with the ridiculous ps3 price, new architecture, then Microsoft returned the favour with kinect, always online and no game swapping, birthing this video.
Last edited:
Yeah nice try. Reminds me of the days when Cider and Alock were trying to convince people they could motion capture themselves into games with Kinect 2.0. Great times!
Reinvigorated it how?
Not going to help them make better consoles. Certainly not going to help Microsoft studios grow the appeal of their dying flagship IPs either.
No one, now.
Again, MS having access to a war chest does not change the fact of how playstation= gaming for large swaths of the planet.
Exactly this.The kinect 1.0 and 2.0 were both shit and huge mistakes imo. However, financially, the kinect 1.0 was a huge hit! It boosted the 360 sales big time at the end of it's life. It's why they had a hard on for the 2.0.
Yeah nice try. Reminds me of the days when Cider and Alock were trying to convince people they could motion capture themselves into games with Kinect 2.0. Great times!
Takeover will go through, don't kid yourself.
Microsoft aren't going to leave the console business - not any time soon, anyway.
Work on their supply, actually market it - only marketing for Xbox I've seen so far this year is pitchside advertising in an FA Cup game - and invest in their existing studios and they'll be fine. Doesn't really matter as the ABK deal will still go through, will just take a bit longer that's all.
Redfall, Starfield and Forza are coming in the meantime so just enjoy them when they're out and relax.
Work on their supply, actually market it - only marketing for Xbox I've seen so far this year is pitchside advertising in an FA Cup game - and invest in their existing studios and they'll be fine. Doesn't really matter as the ABK deal will still go through, will just take a bit longer that's all.
Redfall, Starfield and Forza are coming in the meantime so just enjoy them when they're out and relax.
They started off well enough before that. The OG Xbox and the way they set up initially was fantastic.
The 360 era, which despite the shocking quality of the machine build-wise was a success, was more about the PS3 being horrible to develop for and MS literally giving away development machines and rights for free. The mistake after that was scaling back and being caught up trying to cut costs and compete more on the Nintendo side of things whilst not being fully committed to the Xbox division.
The kinect stuff was just hilarious to watch
Stop talking shite and answer the question. The deal is going through...who is buying Activision, it's a simple question!
Just in general mood around the brand. I agree that it would not have led to a huge difference in console sales for them (because COD would not be exclusive). It would have increased the income of the gaming division dramatically, though. And that looks good to shareholders if nothing else.
They tried to numerous times. But that wasn't leaving gaming, it was more a hardware thing which of course they will get in a couple of generations anyway.
But no, the Xbox division is going nowhere. It's daft as mud to suggest otherwise.
I don't think the deal will go through. However, if it did then guess what? MS would STILL behind Sony (slightly) in gaming revenue.Stop talking shite and answer the question. The deal is going through...who is buying Activision, it's a simple question!
Xbox- no, consoles - maybe have one more gen in them.
That's their problem for committing to releasing all first party games day one on GP and turning their acquired publishers from multiplatform into (mostly) one platform and PC.
Despite what some say, day one GP does affect game sales.
Whos shareholders? MS?
So you do know the answer, but refuse to concede where the problem is with your guesswork huh?
Fair enough, stick to your guns.
Maybe?
Tell me, what do you base that on? Explain to me, since you know so much, the factors that will lead hardware manufacturers such as Sony to step away and go full online? What's the timeline between now and the whole world having the internet capabilites and the server farms the capacity to run all games exclusively via the "cloud"?
You know since you think I don't know much about gaming and you seem to know better. Educate me on all this. I'm listening.
Last edited:
I wonder if he knows just how much MS prop up the gamepass (and for you Dixie, no I'm not talking about the XBOX division I'm talking about Microsoft).
It's just like people who moan about Netflix cutting series and costs, whilst putting prices up. People really don't understand just how in the infancy this subscription based stuff really is, and how propped up these companies are. Similar to how now people seem to be cottoning on to Uber and all that.
Subscription models are great until everyone of your competitors has one to and then they are terrible all round, just becomes a giant gatekeeping contest.
Not for the people who have to do the work they aren't.
Well at least not when those companies have to start clawing the money back anyway. Sunshine and lollipops at first though!
Erm, I meant xbox might have one more console gen in them. Not Sony, sorry if that wasn't clear. Sony will ride consoles for as long as possible. It's such a huge part of their business. They would be crazy to go cloud only. Whereas, Xbox for a long time was a fart in the wind to MS.
As for 'sticking to my guns' - I'll acknowledge that MS is a company far far bigger than Sony. That's a fact. I mean what other opinion would be possible?
I won't concede that Xbox has ever been anything other than a underdog when up against PlayStation and Nintendo.
Btw, you do know a lot about gaming, that's why I was surprised about the
for my kinect point. I don't know if we got our wires crossed and you were perhaps talking about the quality of the device rather than sales figures? I dunno.
Last edited:
I think a lot of people have their heads in the sand over it - and it's easier to be unaware when Microsoft doesn't report that kind of thing in depth in their financials.
Like, every financial report we know exactly how many PS+ users there are but the number of GP users is a mystery. I think it was 2-3 years ago that people were speculating it was nearing/broken through the 30m barrier but the last estimate was below that. Part of their push into TV apps and that Keystone device was to try and reach more people who won't buy the console but maybe would get GP to play on the TV, but the TV app is still limited to one provider and the Keystone device got scrapped - I'm sure it'll be back in some form sooner or later.
Are you deliberately being this obtuse?
Again:
Then you have no idea about this subject at all. Sure they were and are always playing catch up in the gaming sense, but you fundamentally fail to understand what this takeover is about, who is doing it and the consequences. You simply do not understand who is buying what here and for why.
It's all rather ironic considering that word you mentioned in your first post about this. It's almost as if you have an unhealthy attachment to a brand and just won't let yourself see the bigger picture. Fear not though my friend, we've all been there at some stage
Anyway, this will happen. One way or another. And no, Activision games will not always be on the PS, that's lip service to get it forced through. As a gamer it's a double edged sword for me: On the one hand, Activision are trash and hugely suited to MS plus I have an X and PC so it doesn't bother me anyway. On the other, it's further stifling of the industry/hobby I love. What does get me though is just how many people blindly back these big corporations playing these games which ultimately mean worse deals for everyone down the chain. It's like people who can't wait to give billionaires like Musk money, where exactly are your heads at?
That's the crux of it, since it's MS who runs the show and is subsidising it all, we will never know. Which is why it's so weird that some think one of the biggest companies, and certainly right up there as one of the most powerful, in the world is some kind of underdog!
Especially as it's really not hard to look up how they got there through this exact same behaviour historically.
But hey, as long as their bit of plastic plays a game someone else's doesn't, I guess it makes sense.
They have literally removed all future Bethesda games from PlayStation ffs