Microsoft / Activision Deal Approval Watch |OT| (MS/ABK close)

Do you believe the deal will be approved?

  • Yes, will be approved without changes.

    Votes: 221 24.9%

  • Yes, will be approved but with structural changes to ABK.

    Votes: 102 11.5%

  • Yes, will be approved but only with behavioral concessions.

    Votes: 262 29.6%

  • No, will not be approved.

    Votes: 301 34.0%
  • Total voters
    886
  • Poll closed .
Status
Not open for further replies.
BeardGawd said:
Quit with the dumb arguments. Activision refused to put any COD games on subscriptions. MS is being more than amicable by opening this up to everyone. Of course it would be at fair market rates.
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I don't think MS should be expected to offer COD to sony at anything below market price if the acquisition goes through. I don't think the acquisition should go through, however. Sony literally cannot compete against this. It's a false offer because they would be losing potentially billions from it. The idea of putting new COD games on a subscription service is only something Microsoft can do because of it's market power and wealth from other sectors.
 
NickFire said:
We need to stop spreading half truths. The second half of the sentence literally says "and certainly will not increase to a point that offsets the substantial benefits".

The price will go up. They just plan to blame something other than the merger. It's right there.
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Exactly my point.

Otherwise, if we take this statement as is and literally, then it means this is it. This current price is where Game Pass will always be, for eternity.
 
Wow. 43.5 million playstation players accounting for 41% of playstation user based played COD for at least 2h in 2021. That game is huge.
 
adamsapple said:
Game Pass prices will not increase as a result of the Merger.


Excellent.
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Exactly, they will just increase the price and cite other reasons.

The wording is too specific. They are not saying they won't increase the price, they are just saying they won't as a result of this merger.
 
Heisenberg007 said:
Exactly my point.

Otherwise, if we take this statement as is and literally, then it means this is it. This current price is where Game Pass will always be, for eternity.
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We're on the same page, but I disagree we can take 1/2 the statement literally in either direction. That is how the EU was fooled about the last merger I believe. I much prefer to look at the entire statement than either half.
 
DrFigs said:
it'll probably go up when Xbox starts releasing games. yeah it would have been insane for them to increase the price of gamepass while delivering a minimal amount of games. but probably when they start to do more, we'll see an increase. not sure why a 1 dollar rise is ridiculous. people are not saying they're going to triple the price of gamepass overnight.
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Xbox has already started releasing games. Whether you want to acknowledge them is on you but they have released games this generation. And most of them were critically acclaimed

DForce said:
It will not go up as a result of the acquisition, but it can go up for different reasons.
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And what are these imaginary reasons that Neogaf have come up with? Lets hear some. I need a good laugh in the AM
 
GHG said:
Exactly, they will just increase the price and cite other reasons.

The wording is too specific. They are not saying they won't increase the price, they are just saying they won't as a result of this merger.
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NickFire said:
We're on the same page, but I disagree we can take 1/2 the statement literally in either direction. That is how the EU was fooled about the last merger I believe. I much prefer to look at the entire statement than either half.
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Ambiguous white lies. Their specialty.

They don't win awards for PR for nothing.
 
bxrz said:
Xbox has already started releasing games. Whether you want to acknowledge them is on you but they have released games this generation. And most of them were critically acclaimed


And what are these imaginary reasons that Neogaf have come up with? Lets hear some. I need a good laugh in the AM
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Yeah i don't think Pentiment and Hi-Fi Rush were very expensive.
 
DrFigs said:
I don't think MS should be expected to offer COD to sony at anything below market price if the acquisition goes through. I don't think the acquisition should go through, however. Sony literally cannot compete against this. It's a false offer because they would be losing potentially billions from it. The idea of putting new COD games on a subscription service is only something Microsoft can do because of it's market power and wealth from other sectors.
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Playstation will not drop off the face of the earth because COD is offered on Gamepass. You are falling for the FUD that Sony is putting out. People won't pay $120 to $160 a year plus the cost of switching to another platform when they could just pay $70 for the game on their current platform!
 
bxrz said:
Xbox has already started releasing games. Whether you want to acknowledge them is on you but they have released games this generation. And most of them were critically acclaimed
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Grounded, Pentiment or Hi-Fi Rush don't count for some people, because they didn't cost 200m + 100m marketing.
 
GHG said:
Exactly, they will just increase the price and cite other reasons.

The wording is too specific. They are not saying they won't increase the price, they are just saying they won't as a result of this merger.
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That's a positive point in itself, as there have been numerous posts in the history of this topic which have made a direct correlation that "the day the acquisition completes, game pass's price will go up".

At least this is some kind of a concession that it won't be going up 'soon'. Nothing remains constant, even the fucking popeyes sandwich isn't $3.99 anymore. But at least this won't be the catalyst that many assumed.
 
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BeardGawd said:
Playstation will not drop off the face of the earth because COD is offered on Gamepass. You are falling for the FUD that Sony is putting out. People won't pay $120 to $160 a year plus the cost of switching to another platform when they could just pay $70 for the game on their current platform!
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I think Sony is responding to the offer to put COD on PS+ as a behavioral remedy, and saying it would be unfeasible to put COD on it at market rates. And considering that none of the big third party games launch day and date, we Pretty much know that is true.
 
BeardGawd said:
Playstation will not drop off the face of the earth because COD is offered on Gamepass. You are falling for the FUD that Sony is putting out. People won't pay $120 to $160 a year plus the cost of switching to another platform when they could just pay $70 for the game on their current platform!
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I'm just not really sure. I think probably playstation will be fine without cod. But I wonder at what point you think regulators should tell Microsoft "actually this is too much". This seems like a good enough place to step in, considering it's the biggest tech deal ever. But i'm not sure.
 
pasterpl said:
Wow. 43.5 million playstation players accounting for 41% of playstation user based played COD for at least 2h in 2021. That game is huge.
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Really not surprising and why Jim works hard for this deal not to go through.

I can't find source atm, but i posted a couple of hundred pages ago that cod yields Sony around 600 million dollars annually.

It's only fanboys living in a bauble who downplays the importance of cod.

Could Sony survive without cod?
Yes.
But Sony would take a huge hit, and it could easily move users to Xbox.
And even more likely to have both.

This could potentially hit even further, if people only used playstation to first party and Xbox to third party, as it would take further sales in software.

Just speculation, won't say it happens, but Sony knows this could happen, and they don't want that.

They don't want a single person in this scenario. They want everything for themselves.
 
nikolino840 said:
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If we look at the history of Sony's arguments against the deal, all those arguments are basically what Sony is already doing...Nothing but projections. So, I guess somebody's assumption regarding some potentially technical restrictions that Sony uses in their contracts might not be a far off assumption as some games ran worse on Xbox due to that might be truth in the end.
 
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RFQNRpQ.jpg

Looks at Brad Smith signed contracts.
 
The argument comes down to "fair price" for COD. As long as MS set that so called fair price it's going to be difficult for MGS competitors. MS can raise the price of CoD thereby increasing the "fair price" for MGS competitors licencing and further attracting wouldbe buyers to their MGS service. Unless they come up with a model that predicts sales based on price it's difficult to reasonably set a fair price.
 
GHG said:
Are you joking?

Look at the thread of the conversation he was replying to.

There are plenty of regular fans and "fanboys" who are simply passionate about what they like and believe in, sometimes they will get things wrong. However the likes of the individual I quoted consistently lie through their teeth, even when it is clear they are wrong and have been wrong, they will never admit so nor will they be candid and pragmatic in their discussion. All that serves to do is drag the overall level of discussion down to a level whereby they can dictate things via whatever PR they are being shovelled at the time.
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I get that there are fans that goes into extremes but nobody is unbiased here so I still find the whole thread noisy for little reason, it's 600+ pages of fans walking in circles calling each other names and trying to make the other side look stupid.
It's a nice thread when news gets posted though.
 
mansoor1980 said:
wasnt that due to the split RAM of ps3 or did todd howard deliberately botch it
say it aint so or i will change my avatar in protest
C5F9803B02970A5D4C75FFB19E64482F-57746.jpg
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Uh oh, there is split RAM in the series consoles.

Nah, that is a bullshit excuse, since other games had no issues. Just Bugthesda being Bugthesda.
 
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Me personally, I would never make an argument that Microsoft could put a game breaking bug on the last level of Call of Duty if the acquisition goes through.
 
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DrFigs said:
Me personally, I would never make an argument that Microsoft could put a game breaking bug on the last level of Call of Duty if the acquisition goes through.
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No, that'd be just as asinine as saying Sony San Diego deliberately mess up the Xbox versions of MLB The Show.
 
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mrmustard said:
Who cares what the market moves? 3 well rated new ips that offer many hours of fun. That's all that should count for a real gamer.
Edit: Lol, of all the BS in this thread my post gets deleted. Makes sense.
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ugh this wannabe elitist "real gamer" bullshit again......
If you`re not a virgin living in your grandparents basement playing and praising every 2 buck indie game in existence your`re not a "real gamer" I guess.
 
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bxrz said:
And what are these imaginary reasons that Neogaf have come up with? Lets hear some. I need a good laugh in the AM
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It's like you're having a hard time understanding what's going on.

It says they will not increase the price of Game Pass as a result of the merger. That literally means they will not increase Game Pass because they acquired Activision.

That leaves room for OTHER reasons, which is painfully obvious and I shouldn't even have to explain this. They can blame the economics, it could be anything because subscription prices increase all the time. Just look at the reasons why Disney, HBO, and Netflix prices increased....even Xbox Live over the years.

If you think Game Pass will never increase then you shouldn't even be having this discussion at all.
 
mrmustard said:
Grounded, Pentiment or Hi-Fi Rush don't count for some people, because they didn't cost 200m + 100m marketing.
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It's not saying that these aren't good games or people don't like them. But yeah man it'd be obscene if Microsoft raised the price of gamepass in a year where they released budget titles. There's a huge difference in the development costs of these games compared to Call of Duty, or these larger games MS has in development.
 
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mrmustard said:
Who cares what the market moves? 3 well rated new ips that offer many hours of fun. That's all that should count for a real gamer.
Edit: Lol, of all the BS in this thread my post gets deleted. Makes sense.
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We are in a thread that is discussing the business dynamics of the industry. The companies that make these games care. It would be beneficial to Microsoft if they were to create games that drive console sales and subscription adoption but they are yet to demonstrate ability to do so on a consistent basis.
 
Schmendrick said:
ugh this wannabe elitist "real gamer" bullshit again......
If you`re not a virgin living in your grandparents basement playing every 2 buck indie game in existence your`re not a "real gamer" I guess.
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Wow, that's what i call butthurt. I'm no elitist, but people who love to ignore and belittle good games only because of their budget are no gamers in my opinion. They are trolls and console warriors.
 
mrmustard said:
Wow, that's what i call butthurt. I'm no elitist, but people who love to ignore and belittle good games only because of their budget are no gamers in my opinion. They are trolls and console warriors.
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so 95% of the market are no "real gamers" then and you`re totally not an elitist, but ofc one of the selected few.
So manly.
Is that the part where I call you "duuuuuude!"?
 
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adamsapple said:
That's a positive point in itself, as there have been numerous posts in the history of this topic which have made a direct correlation that "the day the acquisition completes, game pass's price will go up".

At least this is some kind of a concession that it won't be going up 'soon'. Nothing remains constant, even the fucking popeyes sandwich isn't $3.99 anymore. But at least this won't be the catalyst that many assumed.
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With how they have worded that statement they can still put the price up on the day the acquisition completes. It would be horrendous PR but as long as the reasons cited don't include the acquisition itself their previous statement would remain "correct".
 
mrmustard said:
I'm talking about those 'Xbox has no games', not the market not buying those games.
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They don't in the 1st party AAA space, hence they are playing takeaway. Without the Bethesda takeaway, there would be slim to no AAA "first party" games for some time.
 
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