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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.
DeepEnigma

DeepEnigma

Gold Member
Banjo64 said:
Found him.

Click to expand...

Dude stays trying to audition for a MS job, wayment... maybe he's one of them turfers in the industry we hear so much about?
ryan.png
 
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feynoob

feynoob

Gold Member
adamsapple

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
feynoob said:
If you want to play Activision games day1 for free, just apply here, and pay the monthly fee.

Much better than gamepass day1.

Video Games: Rent/Buy PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X, Nintendo Switch, 4kUHD, Blu-ray & MORE! Plus Consoles, Collectibles & Arcades Games | GameFly

GameFly, the #1 video game rental service. Rent and buy PS5, PS4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X, Xbox One, 4k UHD, Blu-ray and more. Plus Consoles, Controllers, Accessories, Collectibles and Arcades.
www.gamefly.com www.gamefly.com
Click to expand...

I renew to them every couple of months, their shipping times are abysmal.
 
Barlow

Barlow

Member
EC to MLex about Bethesda
Microsoft didn't mislead EU over ZeniMax deal, watchdog says in response to US concerns

Microsoft didn't make any "commitments" to EU regulators not to release Xbox-exclusive content following its takeover of ZeniMax Media, the European Commission has said.

US enforcers yesterday suggested that the US tech giant had misled the regulator in 2021 and cited that as a reason to challenge its proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

"The commission cleared the Microsoft/ZeniMax transaction unconditionally as it concluded that the transaction would not raise competition concerns," the EU watchdog said in an emailed statement.

The absence of competition concerns "did not rely on any statements made by Microsoft about the future distribution strategy concerning ZeniMax's games," said the commission, which itself has opened an in-depth probe into the Activision Blizzard deal and appears keen to clarify what happened in the previous acquisition.

The EU agency found that even if Microsoft were to restrict access to ZeniMax titles, it wouldn't have a significant impact on competition because rivals wouldn't be denied access to an "essential input," and other consoles would still have a "large array" of attractive content.
Click to expand...
 
R

R3claimer117

Member
Microsoft didn't mislead EU over ZeniMax deal, watchdog says in response to US concerns

Microsoft didn't make any "commitments" to EU regulators not to release Xbox-exclusive content following its takeover of ZeniMax Media, the European Commission has said.

US enforcers yesterday suggested that the US tech giant had misled the regulator in 2021 and cited that as a reason to challenge its proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

"The commission cleared the Microsoft/ZeniMax transaction unconditionally as it concluded that the transaction would not raise competition concerns," the EU watchdog said in an emailed statement.

The absence of competition concerns "did not rely on any statements made by Microsoft about the future distribution strategy concerning ZeniMax's games," said the commission, which itself has opened an in-depth probe into the Activision Blizzard deal and appears keen to clarify what happened in the previous acquisition.

The EU agency found that even if Microsoft were to restrict access to ZeniMax titles, it wouldn't have a significant impact on competition because rivals wouldn't be denied access to an "essential input," and other consoles would still have a "large array" of attractive content.

Funny sounds like the EC is calling the FTC out for lying and basically killing their argument for court.
 
splattered

splattered

Member
R3claimer117 said:
Microsoft didn't mislead EU over ZeniMax deal, watchdog says in response to US concerns

Microsoft didn't make any "commitments" to EU regulators not to release Xbox-exclusive content following its takeover of ZeniMax Media, the European Commission has said.

US enforcers yesterday suggested that the US tech giant had misled the regulator in 2021 and cited that as a reason to challenge its proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

"The commission cleared the Microsoft/ZeniMax transaction unconditionally as it concluded that the transaction would not raise competition concerns," the EU watchdog said in an emailed statement.

The absence of competition concerns "did not rely on any statements made by Microsoft about the future distribution strategy concerning ZeniMax's games," said the commission, which itself has opened an in-depth probe into the Activision Blizzard deal and appears keen to clarify what happened in the previous acquisition.

The EU agency found that even if Microsoft were to restrict access to ZeniMax titles, it wouldn't have a significant impact on competition because rivals wouldn't be denied access to an "essential input," and other consoles would still have a "large array" of attractive content.

Funny sounds like the EC is calling the FTC out for lying and basically killing their argument for court.
Click to expand...

Holy crap... man all this back and forth is just crazy
 
skit_data

skit_data

Member
It’s good to see that the ”Universe will realign itself in order to oppose Pachters predictions”-theory still holds up so well.

Imagine him taking longer and longer inbetween his antinostradamic tellings because he gets burned every time but at some point he always shows up in some clip and time/space/nature itself always adjust accordingly.
 
N

NickFire

Member
splattered said:
Holy crap... man all this back and forth is just crazy
Click to expand...
Hang onto your seat cause this will probably keep getting crazier over the next couple of months. MS may come out on top still, but now they also have to deal with political noise (politicians wanting to give off appearances). If the recent posts are accurate the EU people might be saying we were not tricked before. That would be a win for MS. But it could also boomerang back against MS, if the same EU people become afraid they will now look weak if they don't come down hard like the FTC who called them out for being tricked.

Even the "analysts" are all over the place. https://www.wsj.com/articles/microsoft-faces-tougher-path-to-closing-activision-deal-11670602158

This will get wild. Hopefully the court seals don't work well like with Apple and Epic's case. The dirt could be epic.
 
adamsapple

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
R3claimer117 said:
Microsoft didn't mislead EU over ZeniMax deal, watchdog says in response to US concerns

Microsoft didn't make any "commitments" to EU regulators not to release Xbox-exclusive content following its takeover of ZeniMax Media, the European Commission has said.

US enforcers yesterday suggested that the US tech giant had misled the regulator in 2021 and cited that as a reason to challenge its proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

"The commission cleared the Microsoft/ZeniMax transaction unconditionally as it concluded that the transaction would not raise competition concerns," the EU watchdog said in an emailed statement.

The absence of competition concerns "did not rely on any statements made by Microsoft about the future distribution strategy concerning ZeniMax's games," said the commission, which itself has opened an in-depth probe into the Activision Blizzard deal and appears keen to clarify what happened in the previous acquisition.

The EU agency found that even if Microsoft were to restrict access to ZeniMax titles, it wouldn't have a significant impact on competition because rivals wouldn't be denied access to an "essential input," and other consoles would still have a "large array" of attractive content.

Funny sounds like the EC is calling the FTC out for lying and basically killing their argument for court.
Click to expand...



Everyone championing the EU Bethesda thing will conveniently ignore this.

Just watch :messenger_grinning_sweat:
 
DeepEnigma

DeepEnigma

Gold Member
adamsapple said:
I'm sorry but nope, lol.

Nick's speculating based on what could happen.

The EU straight up said MS didn't make any commitments about Bethesda games, which is what a many users have been parroting as a "M$ LIES" gotcha in multiple threads.

Come on DE, you know this. 🤔
Click to expand...
Pride and hubris is going to get in the way on both sides.

Come on AA, you know this.
 
Pelta88

Pelta88

Member
Can we get a source to the MLEX assertions?

Someone saying that they emailed and got significant info from an EU commissioner, needs way more verification than some random on resetera aka idos or whatever his name is lol
 
DeepEnigma

DeepEnigma

Gold Member
adamsapple said:
I don't doubt it, but at least with this we can put the matter of the "Aha MS Lied about Bethesda" to bed once and for all.
Click to expand...
No we can't. EU is not going to admit they let things slip (just as the FTC has admitted to past failures) any more than the FTC will either going forward.

That is if this is true at all. Where is the press release?
 
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N

NickFire

Member
adamsapple said:
I'm sorry but nope, lol.

Nick's speculating based on what could happen.

The EU straight up said MS didn't make any commitments about Bethesda games, which is what a many users have been parroting as a "M$ LIES" gotcha in multiple threads.

Come on DE, you know this. 🤔
Click to expand...
I fully admit that I'm speculating when I say political noise will make this get messier (while fully acknowledging MS may prevail still).

But do you really doubt that the political people (on both continents) will be looking to make themselves look good in all this? I'm not asking for you to judge whether or not FTC or EU is correct on what FTC says. I'm literally just speculating that politicians will want to come out looking good now.
 
DeepEnigma

DeepEnigma

Gold Member
NickFire said:
But do you really doubt that the political people (on both continents) will be looking to make themselves look good in all this? I'm not asking for you to judge whether or not FTC or EU is correct on what FTC says. I'm literally just speculating that politicians will want to come out looking good now.
Click to expand...
This.
 
R

R3claimer117

Member
adamsapple said:
Everyone championing the EU Bethesda thing will conveniently ignore this.

Just watch :messenger_grinning_sweat:
Click to expand...
Well if the EU and cma pass with concessions the FTC can go to court and say they lied to EC and EC saying that’s not true case dead. The FTC document reads like complete stupidity they said theirs only 4 major publishers ignoring all the Japanese publishers while acknowledging Sony.
 
oldergamer

oldergamer

Member
xHunter said:
I like how this went from a rumour about sony asking every third party publisher for benefits to "sony tried to moneyhat every third party title"

Like the amount of shit people make up daily is astonishing.
Click to expand...
not sure what you expect, indy titles? They went to third party publishers, pretty all of them. The fucking spin people make on that is what's astonishing. Look how many bethesda titles they tried to lock up.
 
ChuckeRearmed

ChuckeRearmed

Member
R3claimer117 said:
Microsoft didn't mislead EU over ZeniMax deal, watchdog says in response to US concerns

Microsoft didn't make any "commitments" to EU regulators not to release Xbox-exclusive content following its takeover of ZeniMax Media, the European Commission has said.

US enforcers yesterday suggested that the US tech giant had misled the regulator in 2021 and cited that as a reason to challenge its proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

"The commission cleared the Microsoft/ZeniMax transaction unconditionally as it concluded that the transaction would not raise competition concerns," the EU watchdog said in an emailed statement.

The absence of competition concerns "did not rely on any statements made by Microsoft about the future distribution strategy concerning ZeniMax's games," said the commission, which itself has opened an in-depth probe into the Activision Blizzard deal and appears keen to clarify what happened in the previous acquisition.

The EU agency found that even if Microsoft were to restrict access to ZeniMax titles, it wouldn't have a significant impact on competition because rivals wouldn't be denied access to an "essential input," and other consoles would still have a "large array" of attractive content.

Funny sounds like the EC is calling the FTC out for lying and basically killing their argument for court.
Click to expand...
FTC is speedrunning the case against FTC.

And so many folks were saying that MS was misleading EU yesterday :messenger_tears_of_joy:
 
adamsapple

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
NickFire said:
I fully admit that I'm speculating when I say political noise will make this get messier (while fully acknowledging MS may prevail still).

But do you really doubt that the political people (on both continents) will be looking to make themselves look good in all this? I'm not asking for you to judge whether or not FTC or EU is correct on what FTC says. I'm literally just speculating that politicians will want to come out looking good now.
Click to expand...

I don't doubt that everyone is out for their own but I don't see any reason EU commissioners would need to straight up falsify.

Clearly there is some miscommunication between the FTC and EU's correspondence here. Based on the latest thing we know from an EU commissioner, Microsoft was not required to make any commitments regarding Bethesda, a point that FTC is stressing in their assessment.

If something else comes along that refutes this or puts more light on it, then we'll know more.

FTC already doesn't have a good track record of lawsuit and this seems like it'll add to that.
 
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feynoob

feynoob

Gold Member
NickFire said:
I fully admit that I'm speculating when I say political noise will make this get messier (while fully acknowledging MS may prevail still).

But do you really doubt that the political people (on both continents) will be looking to make themselves look good in all this? I'm not asking for you to judge whether or not FTC or EU is correct on what FTC says. I'm literally just speculating that politicians will want to come out looking good now.
Click to expand...
Isn't Lina khan statement proves your point?
 
ReBurn

ReBurn

Gold Member
R3claimer117 said:
Microsoft didn't mislead EU over ZeniMax deal, watchdog says in response to US concerns

Microsoft didn't make any "commitments" to EU regulators not to release Xbox-exclusive content following its takeover of ZeniMax Media, the European Commission has said.

US enforcers yesterday suggested that the US tech giant had misled the regulator in 2021 and cited that as a reason to challenge its proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

"The commission cleared the Microsoft/ZeniMax transaction unconditionally as it concluded that the transaction would not raise competition concerns," the EU watchdog said in an emailed statement.

The absence of competition concerns "did not rely on any statements made by Microsoft about the future distribution strategy concerning ZeniMax's games," said the commission, which itself has opened an in-depth probe into the Activision Blizzard deal and appears keen to clarify what happened in the previous acquisition.

The EU agency found that even if Microsoft were to restrict access to ZeniMax titles, it wouldn't have a significant impact on competition because rivals wouldn't be denied access to an "essential input," and other consoles would still have a "large array" of attractive content.

Funny sounds like the EC is calling the FTC out for lying and basically killing their argument for court.
Click to expand...
It's interesting that the FTC is using what happened with Zenimax as one of the points of their argument. It's weird because to date that content has remained on other platforms and has been receiving updates in line with Xbox. They're bringing the Fallout 4 next gen update to PS5 next year.

The interesting thing about this will be to see whether a judge will interpret the FTC's assertion as meaning Microsoft committed to bring all future titles made by Zenimax studios to other consoles and then lied. I also wonder how Starfield and Redfall will factor in because they haven't been released yet. Technically they have't been withheld from PS5 because they haven't been made commercially available at all yet and there are no firm release dates. Can you be held accountable for excluding a product from a platform if that product isn't commercially available at all and no firm date as when it actually will be? Made me wonder if extra development time is really what delayed those games or if Microsoft delayed them to take them out of contention in anticipation of having to go to ground to fight for this deal.
 
Last edited:
feynoob

feynoob

Gold Member
adamsapple said:
I don't doubt that everyone is out for their own but I don't see any reason EU commissioners would need to straight up falsify.

Clearly there is some miscommunication between the FTC and EU's correspondence here. Based on the latest thing we know from an EU commissioner, Microsoft was not required to make any commitments regarding Bethesda, a point that FTC is stressing in their assessment.

If something else comes along that refutes this or puts more light on it, then we'll know more.

FTC already doesn't have a good track record of lawsuit and this seems like it'll add to that.
Click to expand...
Look at who is the head of the FTC.

It explains everything.
 
DarkMage619

DarkMage619

$MSFT
Thirty7ven said:
Not even going to bother with the rest, Sony got their rewards but they still committed to a risk. Your constant conflation with third party deals and buying publishers wholesale is also just myopic as fuck so I’m done arguing with you.

The only reason you’re a Xbox fan is because of the 360.
Click to expand...
At this point Sony has bought two publishers and MS has bought one. Your lack of understanding of the market position Sony has relative to other platforms and their use of that position shows that discussion with you is indeed pointless. You have no idea why I'm a fan of gaming and coming from someone who clearly games in one place I don't care enough to explain it to you.

R3claimer117 said:
Microsoft didn't mislead EU over ZeniMax deal, watchdog says in response to US concerns

Microsoft didn't make any "commitments" to EU regulators not to release Xbox-exclusive content following its takeover of ZeniMax Media, the European Commission has said.

US enforcers yesterday suggested that the US tech giant had misled the regulator in 2021 and cited that as a reason to challenge its proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

"The commission cleared the Microsoft/ZeniMax transaction unconditionally as it concluded that the transaction would not raise competition concerns," the EU watchdog said in an emailed statement.

The absence of competition concerns "did not rely on any statements made by Microsoft about the future distribution strategy concerning ZeniMax's games," said the commission, which itself has opened an in-depth probe into the Activision Blizzard deal and appears keen to clarify what happened in the previous acquisition.

The EU agency found that even if Microsoft were to restrict access to ZeniMax titles, it wouldn't have a significant impact on competition because rivals wouldn't be denied access to an "essential input," and other consoles would still have a "large array" of attractive content.

Funny sounds like the EC is calling the FTC out for lying and basically killing their argument for court.
Click to expand...
Not really surprising the FTC reasonings were completely flawed. Also to the surprise of absolutely no one the sales thread was full of people proclaiming again MS was in third place... How could that be? People passionately told me Nintendo wasn't a player and I should apologize to them for even considering them so. Looking forward to see what MS does in the future.
 
Last edited:
DenchDeckard

DenchDeckard

Moderated wildly
Rivet said:
You can't seriously think MS is trying to "give you more for your money" on the long run. That's so naive and short-sighted.

Every monopoly, every corporation getting a huge share of the market has always ended with higher prices and / or lower quality for the consumers. We should all fight concentration, not praise it.

They're here to make money like every corp ever. They're not your friend.
Click to expand...

Is this what Sony is currently doing? Raising prices across the board and delivering lower quality to us. I think you are right in many ways. So how do we combat Sony without more competition which is what MS are Tring to do here by offering an option they are going after.

I kinda agree that ABK may actually be too big of a buy so I guess microsofts only really option is to go for the timed exclusive option and start locking Sony players out of content and games for 1 or 2 years.
 
Last edited:
DeepEnigma

DeepEnigma

Gold Member
feynoob said:
It should have been clear from the start.

I have said this before. Lina khan would block this deal, due to political reason.
This piece of evidence proves that.
Click to expand...
What piece?

It's politics all around, always has been always will be. The entire premise of not allowing companies to swallow too much of a certain industry is all about economic and pollical action.
 
xHunter

xHunter

Member
oldergamer said:
not sure what you expect, indy titles? They went to third party publishers, pretty all of them. The fucking spin people make on that is what's astonishing. Look how many bethesda titles they tried to lock up.
Click to expand...
You said they tried to moneyhat every title at the start of this gen. You spun this rumour into more than it is.
 
R

reksveks

Member
Waiting for a more concrete eu source but if true, lol.

If true, I don't know if the EU maybe liked being dragged into this especially if they may up with another conclusion to the FTC which they may have to reveal before the August Court.
 
feynoob

feynoob

Gold Member
DeepEnigma said:
What piece?

It's politics all around, always has been always will be. The entire premise of not allowing companies to swallow too much of a certain industry is all about economic and pollical action.
Click to expand...
Lina khan ways are political.
Not that I disagree with what she is doing. It's important to limit the power of those tech companies.

But here, they handled it badly. Should have done the CMA ways, and used theoretical harm.
 
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DeepEnigma

DeepEnigma

Gold Member
feynoob said:
Lina khan ways are political.
Not that I disagree what she is doing. It's important to limit the power of those tech companies.

But here, they handled it badly. Should have done the CMA ways, and used theoretical harm.
Click to expand...
This isn't over yet because that one non sourced post.

This will go to court and all other things like "theoretical" will come to be as well. You guys are getting way ahead of yourselves with play by play noise in the ether. We've been down this road before, why do we still repeat the hottake absolutes?
 
Last edited:
feynoob

feynoob

Gold Member
DeepEnigma said:
This isn't over yet because that one non sourced post.

This will go to court and all other things like "theoretical" will come to be as well. You guys are getting away ahead of yourselves with play by play noise in the ether.
Click to expand...
If this news is true, the FTC case is in jeopardy here.

Right now, it's just a buzz.

I am waiting for Bloomberg.
 
N

NickFire

Member
adamsapple said:
I don't doubt that everyone is out for their own but I don't see any reason EU commissioners would need to straight up falsify.

Clearly there is some miscommunication between the FTC and EU's correspondence here. Based on the latest thing we know from an EU commissioner, Microsoft was not required to make any commitments regarding Bethesda, a point that FTC is stressing in their assessment.
Click to expand...

Saving face (job) could be a reason. But I am not prepared to really judge who is telling truth, who is not, who misunderstood, etc., with such little official and/or reliable info.

feynoob said:
Isn't Lina khan statement proves your point?
Click to expand...

I'm not sure if just pointing out that politics will be involved is crossing the no-politics line. So I'm gonna leave my observation at that, without going into parties, party affiliation, etc.
 
Andodalf

Andodalf

Banned
reksveks said:
Waiting for a more concrete eu source but if true, lol.

If true, I don't know if the EU maybe liked being dragged into this especially if they may up with another conclusion to the FTC which they may have to reveal before the August Court.
Click to expand...
EU pissed they can’t just have a united front demanding concessions since MS will probably win the case with no concessions since it’s so bad
 
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