Support NeoGAF

[trikster40]

Glad to see this happening. It would set a dangerous precedent.

Microsoft went down the “let’s buy studios to make games” route. Didn’t work, so now they’ve been going down the “buy publishers so we own all the IP” route.

If this goes through, it won’t stop. EA would be next, then they’d start going for the few Japanese publishers that are left.

 

[DForce]

Yeah, it's going to get way more complicated if they have trouble passing this deal in UK and Europe.

 

[jm89]

CMA gonna get some confidence to block it? CMA could deal the knock out blow.

 

[NonPhixion]

Well then we can expect their day in court in one years time or so hah. Court won’t happen tomorrow everybody.

 

[Kagey K]

What huge publisher?

Psygnosis

 

[Ronin_7]

EU & CMA blocking is what Will kill this Deal.

CMA holds All the power in the UK, it's scary lol

 

[chigstoke]

Jezz Corden typing furiously:

 

[mejin]

I don't think Sony bought a huge publisher back then. But I could be wrong since I'm not familiar with that history. At the time all I cared about was my PS1 games. Plus my N64 was awesome as well. So many good memories.

A big publisher like Activision? Nope, not even close. Even Zenimax is way bigger than anything Sony has ever bought.

 

[Ar¢tos]

I don't think Sony bought a huge publisher back then. But I could be wrong since I'm not familiar with that history. At the time all I cared about was my PS1 games. Plus my N64 was awesome as well. So many good memories.

Has Sony ever bought a publisher? I see them buying individual studios, but I don't remember them ever buying a publisher with multiple studios.

 

[N30RYU]

It will go trough... but I'm enjoying it more than any CoD I bought (I bought none in my life)

 

[DeaDPo0L84]

Just block it already and let's move on. Microsoft should use whatever money they were gonna spend to acquire essentially CoD in some fashion to build up proper first party studios. But that would require actual patience and proper management so .

 

[Ash Sparrow]

IF I was MS I'd go buy a bunch of other companys and tbh I would make all the games Xbox exclusive. Now, whereas I thought they should share at first.

 

[analog_future]

Activision Blizzard isn't happy about this either: https://www.polygon.com/23500417/microsoft-activision-blizzard-deal-ftc-lawsuit-acquisition

“The FTC’s job is to protect consumers, not competitors,” said Lulu Cheng Meservey, executive vice president of corporate affairs and chief communication officer at Activision Blizzard. “This vote departs from precedent but the law hasn’t changed. Any claim the deal is anticompetitive ignores facts; the deal benefits gamers and the industry, especially given competition from abroad. We look forward to proving our case in court and closing our deal with Microsoft.”

 

[ChiefDada]

No wonder they were desperate to tweet deals lmfao

Yep, "deals" that meant absolutely nothing.

 

[abacab driver]

FTC is gonna get smoked in court. Badly.

 

[Ezekiel_]

Easily, happened with Time Warner and ATT. It happened with Sprint and TMobile too if I'm not mistaken. They sued and won the appeals. I think with Sprint and TMobile, they found some kinda loophole after the initial purchase failed where instead of Sprint buying TMobile, Tmobile bought Sprint. I don't know exact details but basically it went through the 2nd time they tried.

Edit: I won't say easily, but it's definitely possible.

ABK just needs to buy Microsoft

 

[kaizenkko]

The agency cited Microsoft’s acquisition of game developer ZeniMax, and it says that the company’s subsidiary made titles including “Starfield” and “Redfall” exclusive to Microsoft devices despite previous assurances to European regulators.

Basically this! It's funny to see Microsoft's weak and pointless advances, such as signing a deal with Nintendo. But what's the point of it? Activision alone is fully capable of offering COD to Nintendo, this is not a concession, this does not represent that Microsoft is committed to offering games to more people, it is just a very, very weak argument.

 

[Mowcno]

FTC was honestly the one I least expected to attempt the block. UK and EU following suit seems likely, especially considering the FTC are alleging Microsoft basically lied to EU authorities during the Bethesda acquisition.

 

[MasterCornholio]

Has Sony ever bought a publisher? I see them buying individual studios, but I don't remember them ever buying a publisher with multiple studios.

Bungie is the biggest that I'm aware of. But they certainly made some pretty big concessions to get them. Definitely unusual for a Sony acquisition.

 

[Pop]

I still think this deal is a good one for the industry and it should go through with strong concessions.

You just want $1 acti/blizz games...

 

[Swift_Star]

As they should. Good.

 

[Kvally]

Glad to see this happening. It would set a dangerous precedent.

Microsoft went down the “let’s buy studios to make games” route. Didn’t work, so now they’ve been going down the “buy publishers so we own all the IP” route.

If this goes through, it won’t stop. EA would be next, then they’d start going for the few Japanese publishers that are left.

It hasn't stopped Sony from buying publishers and developers. Hopefully this does go through. We need more competition.

 

[Pelta88]

It's in the nature of big tech, or any big enough corporation, to buy out smaller competitors.

Competing on equal terms is hard and risky, so why do it when you can just throw money around?

I hear what your saying but I'm of the view that this isn't big tech. It's creativity. Arguably art. Microsoft refuses to invest in actual developers to bring that creativity and art to the fore. Weird, right?

 

[DeepEnigma]

Bungie is the biggest that I'm aware of. But they certainly made some pretty big concessions to get them. Definitely unusual for a Sony acquisition.

And they weren't a publisher. They are a developer with less than a handful of IPs under their belt. Oh, and they are operating independently, business as usual.

 

[MasterCornholio]

Psygnosis

I don't think that was even big to be honest.

 

[TheRedRiders]

FTC was honestly the one I least expected to attempt the block. UK and EU following suit seems likely, especially considering the FTC are alleging Microsoft basically lied to EU authorities during the Bethesda acquisition.

I agree. USA's anti-trust laws are much more relaxed compared to Europe, so if the FTC wants the block the deal then you know shit is looking pretty bad.

 

[Kagey K]

Has Sony ever bought a publisher? I see them buying individual studios, but I don't remember them ever buying a publisher with multiple studios.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psygnosis

 

[Kvally]

Basically this!

But what was said isn't true.

 

[Swift_Star]

I still think this deal is a good one for the industry and it should go through with strong concessions.

Yeah, seizing control of the industry sure is good.

 

[DeepEnigma]

I don't think that was even big to be honest.

It wasn't. And they still published their games via third party.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

You just want $1 acti/blizz games...

I don't own and likely will never own an Xbox.

Bungie is the biggest that I'm aware of. But they certainly made some pretty big concessions to get them. Definitely unusual for a Sony acquisition.

Sony also bought Psygnosis for an undisclosed amount. Though doubtful it was worth 2.4 (3.6) billion even adjusting for inflation.

EU & CMA blocking is what Will kill this Deal.

CMA holds All the power in the UK, it's scary lol

If the FTC is moving to block this, you can count on the CMA and EU to follow suit. They'll need to fight this across multiple fronts and it'll likely tie them up for years, blunting much of the value they're looking for.

 

[Kvally]

And they weren't a publisher.

Bungie is a publisher.

 

[DR3AM]

Is the acquisition still on track or that the lawsuit kill it?

 

[Kagey K]

I don't think that was even big to be honest.

They were one of the biggest publishers at the time, you could barely load a game back then that didn't have the owl.

A few years after they bought them Psygnosis was responsible for 40% of all game sales in Europe.

 

[Swift_Star]

This is one of the biggest antitrust lawsuits against big tech by the FTC that I can recall in the last 20 years, seems like kind of a big deal that could have wider implications outside of just this particular merger

I hope they go after Disney later and take fox out of them.

 

[Ezekiel_]

I hear what your saying but I'm of the view that this isn't big tech. It's creativity. Arguably art. Microsoft refuses to invest in actual developers to bring that creativity and art to the fore. Weird, right?

I don't think they see it as art though, that might be their issue.

They probably see it more as a business opportunity, where projections show that it's a growth sector, so they need to invest, and in this case, buy competitors.

 

[Markio128]

The drama in here is hilarious.

 

[OmegaSupreme]

Some people on this forum are going to lose sleep over this.

 

[MasterCornholio]

Sony also bought Psygnosis for an undisclosed amount. Though doubtful it was worth 2.4 (3.6) billion even adjusting for inflation.

Definitely need to research that but it doesn't sound anywhere near the size of Activision. Heck probably even smaller than Bethesda or Bungie.

 

[dorkimoe]

Just once I’d like to see someone other than Microsoft get blocked from buying companies. Meanwhile Disney owns everything.

 

[GhostOfTsu]

Has Sony ever bought a publisher? I see them buying individual studios, but I don't remember them ever buying a publisher with multiple studios.

They have to go back in 1993 when Sony bought a very small pub with no big IPs called Psygnosis.

Psygnosis grew under Sony and they were multiplatforms all along.

 

[Mr Moose]

Bungie is a publisher.

What have they published? DLC?

 

[Mibu no ookami]

Yeah, seizing control of the industry sure is good.

Don't think this will seize them control and is in reality entirely overbought.

Would probably go down as one of the worst M&As in history. All it takes it one COD killer to tank the value of a 70 billion dollar deal...

 

[OverHeat]

 

[BiohazardX95]

IF I was MS I'd go buy a bunch of other companys and tbh I would make all the games Xbox exclusive. Now, whereas I thought they should share at first.

Why not just make your own things?

 

[MasterCornholio]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psygnosis

Yeah that's pretty small. I thought it was a huge 3rd party publisher.

 

[Elios83]

Activision Blizzard isn't happy about this either: https://www.polygon.com/23500417/microsoft-activision-blizzard-deal-ftc-lawsuit-acquisition

Consumers will definetly feel protected once competitors are either gone or forced into a niche.
So are they even admitting that this isn't good for their competitors? Maybe it's time to stop the PR until they can digest the implications.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

They have to go back in 1993 when Sony bought a very small pub with no big IPs called Psygnosis.

Psygnosis grew under Sony and they were multiplatforms all along.

They were possibly the largest publisher in Europe at the time. A big reason why Sony dominates in Europe today.

 

[DeepEnigma]

Bungie is a publisher.

They are one studio with one IP of value (so far). Activation was their publisher until they got out of the contract for a very short bit. They are a development house first and foremost with no other studios and storied IPs. They are allowed to operate as third party still. Don't be pedantic.

 

[MikeM]

“The agency cited Microsoft’s acquisition of game developer ZeniMax, and it says that the company’s subsidiary made titles including “Starfield” and “Redfall” exclusive to Microsoft devices despite previous assurances to European regulators.”

Is this true? If so, oof.